Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Counting my blessings

Today's "little" things....

folded cloth napkins
warm towels in a neat stack
tea served by my sweet daughter
my dad's voice on the other end of the phone
cold water
sunshine
fresh eggs
books, oh so many books
a new journal
a funny card
toy tractors strung across my living room floor
lots of green in my garden
the t.v. hit by lightening not the computer
pine tree essential oil
new "wheat field" candle
fancy pad of paper
bills paid
bowl of beans with ham

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Teaching

What a blessing it is every Wednesday evening to set aside time to pray!  I love partnering with another as we focus in on God and the needs of others. True fellowship can take place, not that it always does but it can.  Last night I was blessed when that happened.  There were tears, burdens were shared and then we lifted those people, burdens, and situations up to the Father.


The short Bible study that followed was uplifting to my heart, also!  Here are a few quotes that I jotted into my journal.  I have lots of notes on the word study that we did, too, but I'll just keep it brief.   I love word studies and look forward to continuing this study on Wednesday evenings in the future.

 Everyone is a teacher. 

A teacher affects eternity. 

He can never tell where his influence stops. 

Teaching is a partnership with God, working with the Creator of the Universe!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Our lives came from our Creator.
Our liberty comes from our Creator.
It has nothing to do with government granting it.
~Ron  Paul

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Spiritual Disciplines ~ Meditation



I'm currently reading about Scriptural meditation.  The author gives an interesting comparison of the life of Jonathan Edwards and the average person today.  He points out that the daily New York Times newspaper would have as much information in it as Mr. Edwards would come into contact with his entire life.  Of course, Mr. Edwards had responsibilities many of us may not have, such as the care of his horse, but he never answered a phone, checked e-mail, etc.  He had more quiet time, with less information crowding his mind, to think deep thoughts.

What to do?.....
"We can restore an order to our thinking and recapture some of the ability to concentrate - especially on Spiritual truth - through Biblical meditation."  (Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life by Donald Whitney)

I finished up the book Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.  I've been slowing reading a few pages at a time of this little book for a couple months.  I thoroughly enjoyed it!  It rates as another great thrift store treasure.  Last night as I was reading a couple passages really resonated with me.
One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach.  One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few.  One moon shell is more impressive than three.  There is only one moon in the sky.  One double-sunrise is an event; six are a succession, like a week of school-days.  Gradually one discards and keeps just the perfect specimen; not necessarily a rare shell, but a perfect one of its kind.  One sets it apart by itself, ringed around by space - like the island.
For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms.  Only in space are events and objects and people unique and significant - and therefore beautiful.

In the last chapter of the book Anne discusses a subject I often mull over in my mind but never seem to be able to come to a satisfying conclusion.  I want simplicity. I want to be true to myself.  And I want deeper relationships with those close to me, versus many surface relationships.  She asks, (of course I've paraphrased above)
Is this not a limited outlook?  Of course it is, in one sense,  Today a kind of planetal point of view has burst upon  mankind.....The tensions, conflicts, and sufferings even in the outermost circle touch us all....We cannot avoid these vibrations.
My question is what do we do with these vibrations?  I cannot meet all these needs that I hear of.  Anne points out that our Grandmothers lived in a world where they could meet the urgent needs of those around them. Anne says,
My life cannot implement in action the demands of all the people to whom my heart responds.  I cannot marry all of them, or bear them all as children, or care for them all as I would my parents in illness or old age.....(about our Grandmothers)  We were brought up in a tradition that has now become impossible, for we have extended our circle throughout space and time.
She explains that we try to adjust and love the masses.  Sometimes we even figure out ways to "escape" from the heavy load this places on our mind.  And in trying to fix the world we may neglect the relationships closest to us, the ones in which we can really make a difference. 

Monday, February 01, 2010

Another Sunrise

II Corinthians 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin;
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

I continue to strive to see myself as God sees me.  I am the righteousness of God in Jesus.
Amazing!
I am:
Redeedmed
Accepted
Empowered
Thank you, Jesus!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Today's Happy Moments

a minute with a friend
an hour with my sister and brother
eating gummy butterflies with my little boy
cup of coffee with cream
spinach and sprout salad with avodaco
a haircut
(and then she wouldn't let me pay!)
a Psalm
kisses
phone call from a friend
sprouted grain toast with butter and three citrus marmalade~yum!
pure cold glass of water

listening to the quacks
the last load of laundry in the washer




Wednesday, January 27, 2010

To be happy, one must be aware.

Happiness is not a thing you can cut off by the yard or measure in chunks.  It is a matter of moments when you suddenly know that this moment is special.  A few such moments are enough for a long time.  The trouble with most of us, it seems to me, is that we chase happiness so hard that when we find it, we have already rushed on looking for more.  The truly happy person is one who realizes the happiness of that moment, or that hour.  ~~ Gladys Taber

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Spiritual Disciplines

"And excercise thyself rather unto godliness." I Timothy 4:7b

I'm reading, once again, Spritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney.  I first read the book two and a half years ago.  I didn't make it all the way through it then, but what I read was so worth it.  Later, I picked it up again, re-read and again benefited but did not complete the book.  Tonight all is quiet in my home and I've yet again read the first chapter.  I've been blessed once again.

God's grace simply amazes me over and over again.  To think that he continues to love me as I continue to falter and fail, never ceases to put me in awe!  All because of Jesus and his blood that covers me.

What do I want out of my life?  Am I daily moving toward that goal.  Am I the person I want to be?  Who am I?  I've been pondering these questions heavily lately.  And God has been so good to give me peace, rest and answers.  At the very top, most of all, I want to be like Jesus.

I want to journal here what I learn as I plow through the Spiritual Disciplines book.  The following quotes come from the first chapter of the book.

Tom Landry, coach of the Dallas Cowboys football team for most of three decades, said, "The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don't want to do in order to achieve what they've always wanted to be."  In much the same way, Christians are called to make themselves do something they would not naturally do--pursue the Spiritual Disciplines--in order to become what they've always wanted to be, that is, like Jesus Christ.

Discipline without direction is drudgery.  
(For me vision is key!  Vision will keep me going when I've run out of energy.  It gives hope!  Sunday's sermon was so good.  I Chronicles 4:10, "And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!  And God granted him that which he requested.")

The Spiritual Disciples are the God-given menas we are to use in the Spirit-filled pusuit of Godliness.
(In this book he covers: Bible intake, prayer, worship, evangelism, service, stewardship, fasting, selence and solitude, journaling, and learning.  But he also mentions that there are many more such as: confession, accountablitiy, simplicity, submission, spiritual direction, celebration, affirmation, sacrifice, and "watching". )

Godly people are disciplined people.

Learning and following involve discipline, for those who only learn accidentally and follow incidentally are not true disciples.

He says of many Christians, "They have dabbled in everything but disciplined themselves in nothing.
(Ouch!!!)

I've never read anything by William Barclay but Donald Whitney quotes him as saying, "Nothing was ever achieved without discipline:.."  Barclay goes on to talk of Coleridge and says of him, "He lost himself in visions of work to be done, that always remained to be done." (This is why it is best that my life remains simple.  My mind can easily become overwhelmed and I can become almost paralyed as to what to do next.  Simplicity brings me clarity of thought and a calm that I cherish.)  Barclay also said, "No one ever reached any eminence, and no one having reached it ever maintained it, without discipline."

"Freedom and discipline have come to be regarded as mutually exclusive, when in fact freedom is not at all the oppostie, but the final reward, of discipline." ~ Elizabeth Elliot

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

The Two Became One





Promises
Vows
A Covenant made to God between man and woman
Hope
Love
Faith
Trust
Loyalty
Happiness
Joy
Peace
Dreams
Bittersweet moments
Tears
 Smiles
Laughter
Energy
Worship
Beauty
Friends
Family
Purity
Pride
Giving
Recieving
Protection
Grace
All wrapped into one evening that promises to last a lifetime.

Monday, January 04, 2010

God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.
Psalm 67:1,2