I had an experience with a vacuum cleaner yesterday that started me thinking. My two year old son, Luke, is a fearless, rascally boy who loves dismantling the vacuum, but for some reason it scared him yesterday. As I was vacuuming under his kitchen chair which was littered with dropped veggies and crumbs, he kept yelling and running away. I was watching him in sort of amazement because first of all, Luke is fearless. Second of all, he never does that with the vacuum. However, the thought that really gripped me is that usually when he is scared of something …
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!
Tonight at dinner my little girl, Ava, asked to say the prayer. We all held hands and bowed our heads and this is what she prayed, “Jesus, thank you that you are wonderful and lovely, and thank you are always giving us surprises, like Christmas, and Birthdays, and the Tooth Fairy, and that you bless our presents. Amen” It was so unexpected and sincere that I started laughing and crying at the same time. It was like a beautiful little song from her heart over dinner. I love that my 4 year old daughter knows her God as that good. …
Beautiful Things
I am missing my flowers. This picture was taken in their glory this past summer, and I miss their color, their fragrance, but not their thorns. I still have a thorn lodged in my finger that I can’t seem to get out. Nevertheless, I find myself longing for spring on this cold winter day. I long for the warm summer winds, the ladybugs, even the feel of the cool soil as I plant my annuals. I am looking forward to the squeals of my children as they spend endless hours splashing in our kiddie pool and digging in the dirt …
A Table Before Me
Can I just tell you this morning how Good our God is! He is not fazed by economy, or climate, or circumstances. He is unchanging in His Goodness towards us. This morning I am meditating on Psalm 23, especially verses 5 & 6:“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” I truly believe that even in the most desperate of circumstances (for the Psalmist …
The Seat of Scorn, and The Tree of Abundance
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful…” Psalm 1:1 Now, I have to say, most of my counsel these days is with my children, I don’t often have the opportunity to stand in the path of sinners (in other words, to linger in their ways), but I have to confess, I sometimes sit in the seat of the scornful. I was reading the first chapter of Psalms the other day and just felt the Lord convict my heart. It …
Time to Begin
Wow, there is so much to write on with so much happening in the world! It has really been a financial roller coaster for anyone following the stock market and global markets over the past two weeks. There are dire predictions and forecasts, really a lot of gloom and doom out there right now. I have to be honest however, for me, I have taken more of a “let’s see in a month’s time, or maybe three month’s time.” It is difficult to really give this crisis the weight that all of the financial “prophets of doom” are saying it …
A Different Perspective
And she is down… and out of the game. Unfortunately for my sweet family, and for blog land, the bug that has plagued my boys all weekend has finally caught the girls. Luke started with a croup like cough on Friday night and it has just gotten worse and worse. Noah started running a fever on Saturday night… but Ava and I were still good. Unfortunately, yesterday we both started coughing. I still was hanging in there, but fever has found me tonight and I am out of the game. So… pray for Matt 🙂 because he is still up …
A Family Again
Somewhere in the back of my mind I imagined that my husband going out of town would mean that I would have a vacation. “I’m not going to cook all weekend,” I thought with joy. I also dreamed that I would just write all weekend, joking to Matt that it would be a writer’s weekend for both of us… yeah. Somewhere in my head I was getting the weekend off, overlooking one tiny fact: I still have three kids at home with me. The house doesn’t magically stay clean when Matt is gone because (shocker) Matt isn’t the one making …
So Very Good!
This week Matt and I experienced a miracle. Last Thursday, after a lot of prayer and an unshakable knowing that the Lord was in it, we made the decision to go part-time at Liberated Living Ministries. It was one of those scary decisions where you feel you are stepping off a cliff, but we felt such peace in our hearts that we following God’s heart for us. However, what that meant in practicality was that we needed God to do a miracle. We had $200 in our business account and we needed the Lord to either bring in the work …
In Sickness and In Health
In the last three days, everywhere I have gone I have encountered sick people. Either the whole world is struggling with allergies, sinus infections, and colds, or I have just been a magnet for the people who are. At the register we have united with our jugs of orange juice and cold medicine and horror stories. One cashier even burst out laughing when I suggested she try gummy bears as a remedy for her cold. “I hope it works for you,” she called after me as I stumbled off in my semi-fevered fog. “Me too,” I whispered to myself. After …