Jewels

There are times in a person's Christian journey that God blesses you with friends with whom you can be yourself. These friends allow you to minister as the Holy Spirit moves upon you, & you trust them enough to allow them to move as the Spirit leads. Even when there is disagreements, they can forgive. And when they come together in unity to pray there is power! I have been privileged to have such friends. And I just stand in amazement with what God does with us when we come together to pray. It can be all of us or just a few of us, but the unity of prayer moves the hand of God in such a way that things happen, & we are never the same again. As time is growing short, I believe He will begin to send each of us out, because it must be. As we separate & go where God leads us, I will never forget these few short years that God brought our paths together! No matter where God leads me or what He has me doing, I will always be thinking of these ladies & praying for them. I have been given jewels to treasure for the rest of my life!

Please Pray

Please pray, because one of the teachers at Sarah's school has been missing for 3 days now. There is rumor that he is in jail, but they don't know if he is or why. Thank you!

Lindsay's baby shower

Today was Lindsay's baby shower. Her mother & aunts held it at Christian Ass. of God. She had a beautiful cake that was delicious. But first we played games then we ate a wonderful lunch of soups (I had the wedding soup - Mm mm!), salad, croissant sandwiches, & other goodies. It was scrumptious! I love those kinds of lunches.

After we were done with lunch, we were to fill out a bingo sheet of the things we think that Lindsay would get. Then She began to open her gifts starting with Audrey's. She had written a poem to go with her gifts, so she read it to her. Audrey gave her a stocking full of neat things.

Linds was blessed with many things. We had fun checking off our bingo cards. Many won prizes. It took me awhile but I got one too. Chloe help Lindsay with her gifts. Chloe is Ryan's niece. She was a big help! Many helped including her sister. That's Courtney behind that bag!

Boy things have sure changed since the days that I had babies! But many things haven't! There were plenty of Ooo's & Ahhh's.

I wanted to get a side view of Lindsay so that Sarah could see her. Lindsay looks good, doesn't she?

I hope you had a good time Linds! We all enjoyed being there!

Our Thanksgiving

We had a small Thanksgiving, just us & Aunt Jacque. Dad helped me to get the feast on. We set up the food on the kitchen counter and served ourselves buffet style. Man, was there a lot of food!!! And plenty of leftovers for the week. I think we forgot that it was just us.

Dad read a beautiful prayer for the blessing. Then each of us told what we were thankful for. After everyone took their turn, we served ourselves & ate. We had pumpkin & dutch apple pies to chose from for dessert.

After the feed was over the boys sat down to a game of Monopoly. It was a quiet evening.

Thank you Lord for all Your many blessings!

Right on Schedule

We woke up to a skiff of snow this morning. It's right on schedule! Yesterday started out quite warm. When I dropped the boys off at youth group yesterday morning, it was 65 degrees. They had breakfast of donut & chocolate milk (I think their liver quivered!) there at the church. Then they went to the Canonsburg housing to serve them french toast, fruit, sausage, OJ, & milk. The guys ate the leftovers, & brought home the leftover donuts as well! Oh my! By the time I picked them up, it had dropped 20 degrees! It continued to drop all day. And this morning we woke up to snow along the edges of the yard. It's snowing as we speak. I think the ground is still too warm for any to lay for long. That will come soon enough.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We would like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!
Don't forget to give thanks to the One who gives you breath!
He has blessed us abundantly!

Call to Me

This is what the Lord said to Jeremiah in chapter 33:3, "Call to Me & I will answer you & tell you great & unsearchable things you do not know." I believe this is a call for us all, not just Jeremiah. I believe we are just about to enter a time like never before when we will be desparate to hear from the Lord. And as we come to Him, He indeed will show us "great & unsearchable things". Come away with Him when He calls. Be quick to obey, for time is shorter than you think!

Dave's post "i'm still alive"

This is one of my son's post on his blog. I was so impressed by it that I thought I'd post it here for you all to read.
"Contentment isn't found in life! It is only when you learn to die to self, personal happiness, and earthly ambition that you learn the key to contentment. The key is realizing that this life is only an opportunity. It is an opportunity to stockpile crowns to lay at His Feet. Please don't take this lightly! Every breath that you have is an undeserved gift. Even in physical death God has still provided for us. So complaining is simply a direct insult to Christ and His work on the cross. Complaining simply conveys your dissatisfaction of Christ's work on the cross.
Lately, God has shown me in simple things, that desiring advancement in this life is futile. No matter what I do salvation is never earned or given at a greater measure when I work harder for it. I am indebted at a price I can not pay, and all I can do is thank God.
My conclusion is this. Decide to use this undeserved life to take every opportunity that God gives you to faithfully glorify Him, and contentment, you'll have it!"
David wrote this the March after the tsunami hit that he & Sarah helped in the clean up of.

Even More Undignified

When King David was bringing the Ark back to Jerusalem, he stopped every 6 steps to worship God. Upon entering the city, his wife saw him acting, in her eyes, so unbecoming a king. She chastised him for making such a public display of himself. To which David said that he was dancing before the Lord. It was for Him that he was celebrating. And then he told her, "I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes." How many of us are willing to make a public spectacle of ourselves for the Lord? We are so worried about what we look like. But King David cared only for the audience of One.

Crowd or Cloud?

"Are you going to follow the crowd or follow the cloud?" God speaking to James Robison. He fell to his knees and said, "God, I want to follow You!"

God is so Good

I just want you know, God is so good! (I'm sure you do!) As homeschoolers we aren't privy to news that goes on in the high school. We obviously are left out of the loop and we are learning this. Our policy has always been that since we chose to homeschool that we would do everything ourselves. That's usually the attitude of the district as well. A few years ago this school district decided to let homeschoolers participate in school classes & functions. This year Dan decided that he wanted to play on the high school's basketball team - jr varsity, of course. Well, each of the parties involved are adjusting to this. And I understand its all new to them! The coach has been real nice to Dan, but because it's out of the routine to have a student not in the school to be notified, we've been forgotten a few times. Well... the most recent incident was the physical for this sport. We weren't notified when they were doing this. This teaches me to be on my toes. When Dan went to practice on Monday, the coach said that he had to have one by the next 2 days! What! They forgot to tell us when their doc had come in to do that. All I'm thinking is how much is this going to cost me to get one done now. Our insurance completely pays for a well check-up, but 1 per year. I usually have to call the drs well in advance to get an appointment. So we prayed, "Lord if you want Dan to remain in basketball, You will have to make a way." Well, He did! Our insurance, unbeknownst to me, now allows 1 physical per calendar year, not the original 365 days +. Hurray!!! So the lady at the drs' office squeezed Dan in! God just opened 1 doorafter the other for this, it was definitely His signature!

Holiness

Holiness,
In the beauty of Your holiness
I worship You

Loveliness,
You create loveliness within me
to reflect Your glory

Abandoned,
I worship You in abandonedness
because of who You are

His Majesty,
Let the earth be filled with Your glory
That we may bow before You

Savior of the World,
Whose love sent You to the cross
That all may know You

Sweet Friend,
Came to seek and woo the lost
That they may enter in

Life of a Cat

Now doesn't this look like serenity! To lead the life of a cat. But I am warm & he's out there somewhere. Isn't Itty-bitty sweet! He would make some old lady a good lap cat.

Warm Weather's all but Gone

Well, the sure fire way to tell that the warm weather is gone for the year, is when my husband finally cleans out the garden beds. All of them. The veggies are done for the year and flowers have been trimmed and put to rest until spring. And to top it off, we had our first flurries yesterday. I hear Erie got 8 inches of the white powder! What's ironic is that we had fresh watermelon from our garden for lunch! And we have 3 more in the fridge. Scott found them while he was cleaning out the corn. They were volunteers from watermelon we bought last year. We get a lot of our veggies & flowers that way.

Are We a Drink Offering?

My favorite chapter in the Bible is Isaiah 58. In reading it recently, the verse that has been speaking to my heart is v:10 where it says, "... and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed ...". The words that popped out were "spend yourselves". How many of us spend ourselves on behalf of the hungry, satisfying the needs of the oppressed? The word spend implies emptying. To be spent means to give your all. The Apostle Paul discribes himself this way in 2 Tim 4:6, "For I am already being poured out like a drink offering..." And in Phil 2:17 he says the same thing. Now this is one man who gave his all on behalf of the Gospel, & the people he ministered to. He wrote in 2 Cor. 12:15, "So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well." I ponder this, are we a drink offering unto the Lord? Drink offerings were added to sacrifices & other offerings made unto the Lord in the Old Testiment. Do we sacrifice all that we have that the world may know, that the captives be set free? In Titus 3 it says that God did the ultimate "pouring out" when He showed us His mercy while we were still foolish & disodient. He saved us! We should be willing to be used whenever God desires.