February 4, Morning

Thursday, February 04, 2010

This Morning's Meditation

C. H. Spurgeon

"The love of the Lord."—Hosea 3:1.
BELIEVER, look back through all thine experience, and think of the way whereby the Lord thy God has led thee in the wilderness, and how He hath fed and clothed thee every day—how He hath borne with thine ill manners—how He hath put up with all thy murmurings, and all thy longings after the flesh-pots of Egypt—how He has opened the rock to supply thee, and fed thee with manna that came down from heaven. Think of how His grace has been sufficient for thee in all thy troubles—how His blood has been a pardon to thee in all thy sins—how His rod and His staff have comforted thee. When thou hast thus looked back upon the love of the Lord, then let faith survey His love in the future, for remember that Christ's covenant and blood have something more in them than the past. He who has loved thee and pardoned thee, shall never cease to love and pardon. He is Alpha, and He shall be Omega also: He is first, and He shall be last. Therefore, bethink thee, when thou shalt pass through the valley of the shadow of death, thou needest fear no evil, for He is with thee. When thou shalt stand in the cold floods of Jordan, thou needest not fear, for death cannot separate thee from His love; and when thou shalt come into the mysteries of eternity thou needest not tremble, "For I am persuaded, that neither death; nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Now, soul, is not thy love refreshed? Does not this make thee love Jesus? Doth not a flight through illimitable plains of the ether of love inflame thy heart and compel thee to delight thyself in the Lord thy God? Surely as we meditate on "the love of the Lord," our hearts burn within us, and we long to love Him more.

Evening February 3rd

“Tell me ... where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.”
Song of Solomon 1:7

These words express the desire of the believer after Christ, and his longing for present communion with him. Where doest thou feed thy flock? In thy house? I will go, if I may find thee there. In private prayer? Then I will pray without ceasing. In the Word? Then I will read it diligently. In thine ordinances? Then I will walk in them with all my heart. Tell me where thou feedest, for wherever thou standest as the Shepherd, there will I lie down as a sheep; for none but thyself can supply my need. I cannot be satisfied to be apart from thee. My soul hungers and thirsts for the refreshment of thy presence. “Where dost thou make thy flock to rest at noon?” for whether at dawn or at noon, my only rest must be where thou art and thy beloved flock. My soul’s rest must be a grace-given rest, and can only be found in thee. Where is the shadow of that rock? Why should I not repose beneath it? “Why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?” Thou hast companions—why should I not be one? Satan tells me I am unworthy; but I always was unworthy, and yet thou hast long loved me; and therefore my unworthiness cannot be a bar to my having fellowship with thee now. It is true I am weak in faith, and prone to fall, but my very feebleness is the reason why I should always be where thou feedest thy flock, that I may be strengthened, and preserved in safety beside the still waters. Why should I turn aside? There is no reason why I should, but there are a thousand reasons why I should not, for Jesus beckons me to come. If he withdrew himself a little, it is but to make me prize his presence more. Now that I am grieved and distressed at being away from him, he will lead me yet again to that sheltered nook where the lambs of his fold are sheltered from the burning sun.

Sickness banned!

The last couple of days my hubby and (yesterday) son Nolen were home sick and I think I am all done with that! I am ready for SPRING and the sun that comes with it. Hubby is on the mend and Nolen went to school today bounding out the door. When 10 year olds recover they RECOVER!!
On a slightly different note . . .
We watched the sermon that Mark Driscol preached on his fact finding trip to Haiti. It was amazing. If you get a chance to watch it you should. There are video clips and pictures that he and his team took while down there. Their goal was to find out what other churches could do to help the church at large down in Haiti. Almost every church in the epicenter is in ruins as well as numerous hospitals, schools and seminary's. He told of a man that was teaching during the first wave of the quake in a multi story building. He told his class and his wife to wait inside while he went outside to find out what was happening. As soon as he got out of the building it collapsed entirely. He then (knowing that his wife had just been killed) ran home to see if his 4 boys were safe. Arriving home he found them safely standing outside waiting for him. When Mark's team found him he was surrounded by his small boys one in his arms with a big smile on his face. He had just come from burying his wife. When they asked how he could possibly have any joy at all he said, "By God's grace. My joy is in Christ." WOW.

Here is the U Tube site for the sermon 32 hours in Haiti
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQo76Itl6cw

The dawning of a *new* day

Well, a new day has dawned :) We have a beautiful *new* espresso machine and I am loving it. Sunday morning dawned with my hubby waking up to a steaming latte gently drawing him from his slumber and Sunday night the debate began.

Me: Hubby, having the espresso machine is great! It gives you an easy outlet for sacrificing for me. All you have to do is make me a latte occasionally

Hubby: Actually it will be a great way for you to help me since I have lots of work to do tonight and I'm really tired.

So you see it is a great thing for both of us :) This morning I came down stairs to find my hubby not only making me a latte in my "happy home" mug, but then he made a heart on top out of the foam. For some reason this warmed my heart and made all those grumpy just woke up feelings vanish :) The latte machine will be staying . Thank God for those little things that add not only JOY but a good ol' shot of caffeine to your day

Soapmaking Christmas

Above is the results of cutting the stuff below.

This Christmas break has been frought with much soapmaking. We have made mint chocolate swirl, seen here.

We have also made Lilac, coconut lime and tangarine/energy. When Scott asked us what our favorites were we all picked a different one, so hopefully that means that they're all good. Here are some great pic's of the children and how excited they all are about the soap. Trust me I was surprised at how much they all love it. Our break has so far been filled with eating reading, relaxing and we even made a quick trip to Silverdale to visit with my parents and have a second Christmas with them on Sunday and Monday. We planned on coming back on Wednesday, but decided with the pass reports to come back a day early and were so glad we did. The passes were bare and dry for us, and when we came home and checked them they were slushy, slick and snowy! Blech!

An Advent reminder :)

"Each day the number of requests we receive normally outnumber the time allotted for the day. My experience confirms that if I fail to attack my week with theologically informed planning, my week attacks me with an onslaught of the urgent. And I end up devoting more time to the urgent than the important.

And at the end of the week there is a low-grade guilt and dissatisfaction in my soul, because I’ve neglected to do the truly important stuff. I want to have as few weeks like this as possible in whatever time remains for me to serve the Savior. I’m thinking you do as well."
~ CJ Mahaney taken from his blog

This quote struck me particularly because of the directness of it. How much of your day is consumed with the urgent and not with what you sat down and specifically planned out to do and to accomplish for the day, week, year? Why? Why is it so hard to just say, "No, I can't do that I have only a short amount of time in my life and I have to devote it to the work that I have planned and prayed out to do." Why is that guilt even there? Planning is a crucial and vital part to our days. Scott and I have begun to realize how much more we get done, and how much more unified we are but just simply sitting down and planning out our days in the morning before the children get up and we are in the river again. It gives us the lifeline we need to get where we need to go and the map to get there quickly.

For the longest time I mocked and scoffed at the idea of a meal plan, especially those that spanned longer than a week at a time. I felt like they were compartmentalizing their time tooo much and not allowing for any creativity in the realm of cooking (which I love). Consequently my life was consumed in the evenings with what we were going to have for dinner and making sure I had on hand what I would need for any meal I felt the desire to create when the muse descended. This was making me crazy and grumpy and costing us more than the allotted food budget. So one day I decided to try a meal plan, and in my usual fashion I jumped in with both feet and made a 6-week meal plan. I have been so happy with the peace and ease it has given me. This area is now one that I consider a no-brainer, meal plans are definitely much easier. I have figured out meal plans around the rigors of mock trial season, Christmas, our Easter liturgy and our daily evening schedule. It has also saved us vast amounts of money on food and almost eliminated our food waste. I have been able to give my family a more well balanced diet and consequently my hubby who was on the verge of teetering off the high end of the Triglyceride and cholesterol scale is now on the low end of normal and doing great. My point is that even in this small area God is blessing me richly by my planning and prayer and I know that He intends greater blessings to come.

During the Christmas season and specifically this time of Advent leading up to Christmas when we are all doing our shopping for Christmas presents how could this not be more relevant? What are you buying for your children and why? Have you been sucked in to buy that *new* great thing that you saw at Target thinking they would just LOVE it? Or did you sit down with you hubby and DECIDE what to buy before you even set out? Will you tree be chocked full with a bunch of little gifts that you hope they like and will use for longer than a week, or did you consider them and what one thing they will truly use and love and remember? Were you struck with the urgent desire to buy that great thing that you saw that will just end up as next summer's garage sale fodder? I remember a few years back those ugly Furby's, now honestly. What about the Tickle Me Elmo? Who really bought that because they saw the joy and peace it would bring to the aroma of their home? This is a case of being sucked in to the fads of the day and not planning.

The day is only 24 hours long, and the week 7 days, and the month around 30, and the year a mere 365 days. Yet, each one of us has a task to complete within that time span. Not all of the request on our time are for us. Every day I am asked to do numerous things that are all good and wonderful, but that doesn't mean that I should do all of them. There are things that I just do not need to accomplish. There are so many patients and only so many doctors. Should they feel guilty because they can't possibly see them all? No, that would be foolish and a waste of time. They should be thankful for the ones that are brought to them and work hard to help them completely. There are so many great books and yet impossible to read them all. Should we give up? NO! Read away! But that is why we need to prayerfully consider and plan our days out and not get swept away and waste the life that God has given us. We have many opportunities here to do and to learn many things to teach our children and to provided for others to teach them. I have an aunt that had 5 boys. Each of them was athletic. None of them are professional athletes, but all are hard workers and have accomplished a lot (even though the oldest one is a youngish 33). My aunt and uncle saw that sports would help them teach diligence and hard work, their goal was not to raise a football star or another Michael Phelps. The sports were tools and decisions to put them in were made after debating their usefulness to the larger goal at hand.

My hubby and I always shake out heads when we hear someone say that one of their children was an accident. How could that happen? Are they so completely unaware of the cause of pregnancy? No, they are living a live completely unplanned and unthoughtout, and because of their lifestyle they have once again been caught staring into the headlights of their life, coming at them like a semi.

Make prayerful decisions and do not be swept away with wasted days filled with the urgent. Enjoy your life and bless those around you. Make schedules and plans, but use them as your tools, do not be brought under their weight and domination. They are your servants you are not theirs. You are Christ's and His burden is LIGHT. Now go do the important things and go to sleep tonight satisfied in your soul and not feeling guilty in the slightest.

Advent Day 8

Today was Mia's turn to open the Advent box and so tonight we are planning to sit down together and decorate our otherwise bare windows and make snowflakes as a family. It should be interesting, knowing our family. Yesterday we sat down as a family and watched Bless Your Beautiful Hide from the Seven Brides for Seven Brothers movie in Italian. The children got a real kick out of it and Scott and I are linguistic nerds so we loved it. The verse of the day is:

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ WAS as follows: AfterHis mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make he a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he though about these things, behold, and angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will brign forth a son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people form their sins." ~Matther 1:18-21

And I am so thankful that the angel was sent and Joseph did not put her away secretly.