A Time For Every Season....

“In these pages I tell secrets about…myself because I believe that it is not only more honest but vastly more interesting than to pretend that I have no such secrets to tell. I not only have my secrets, I am my secrets. And you are your secrets.” Frederick Beuchner I read a post today by Ann @ Holy Experience. It tugged at my soul. She wrote a post called, " Of blogging, secrets, porn and truth ." The post started me thinking about why I blog, why don't I just write my thoughts down in a journal unseen by the world? I use to, I wrote a lot about life, thoughts, and the real truth on a blog site unseen by anyone. It held my deepest desires, shame, fears, thoughts. Quiet different that most of the post I put up. My children may read them someday when I am gone, I wonder what they will think of me? Will they see a hypocrite? Will they be astonished at some of the things I wrote? I started blogging the months before my first son was born. The last trimester was hard, isolatin...

In this world, a second is a second. Time paces forward with exquisiteregularity, at precisely the same velocity in every corner of space. Time is an infinite ruler. Time is absolute.-- Einstein's Dreams

Hi everyone! I found little time this week to write, but did find a lot of time to read, so I thought I would share with you a piece written by Lisa Welchel that I've been meditating on all week. This past two weeks my husband and I have been praying and listening to God about some major decisions we need to make, mostly my husband finding a full time teaching job. I admit that I have been quite fearful; worrying about the upcoming baby, the delivery, working from home with two kids, and on the list goes. Then this sweet piece of mail arrived at my in-box! I encourage you to read Lisa's reflections about the role that money and fear play in our decision making. God promises us in 2 Timothy 1:7 that he "did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power love and self discipline." and I needed to be reminded of that! I loved the part she wrote about eliminating money and fear from any major decision. My husband and I did just that this week, we eliminated fear and money fr...

"As Christians, we are called to convert our loneliness into solitude. We are called to experience our aloneness not as a wound but as a gift--as God's gift--so that in our aloneness we might discover how deeply we are loved by God." ~ Henri Nouwen ~ I really like this quote because it reminds me that the times meeting with the Lord that are the sweetest are discovered when I am alone and quiet before Him. After the business and chaos of the day a nice cup of tea and my Bible will rejuvenate my soul like nothing else. To truly know the Lord takes time, effort, and an expectant heart; during quiet times of solitude I've learned more about the very nature of God, his character, his passions for my life, His visions, and taken on His pursuits. It is when I am in solitude that I feel the closest to my Jesus and "His ways become my ways and His thoughts my thoughts."

"What used to make us stumble, God can use to make us stand. What once made us bow our heads in shame, He can use for His glory." ~ Joanna Weaver Having a Mary Spirit

I had the liberty of dissecting a mother's heart. As I approached the heart, I was aware of a thick red substance oozing out of it. I studied this weird substance and found it to be love. The heart appeared to be so full of love that it couldn't hold it all in! In examining the heart, I found nerves that were attached to every part of the body. At first I didn't see a nerve going from the heart to the hands. But in looking closer, I found that this nerve had been used so much, forgiving and helping, that it was worn and thin. After cutting into the heart, I could see that there had been many times when the heart had been broken. But the red substance had filled the cracks and, in time, made them disappear. There are many cavities in the heart. The first one I explored contained patience. On the walls of the cave, I observed markings (like high-water markings) that indicated the levels of patience she had during her life. All through the heart, I noticed huge orange clumps. ...

"Thou that has given so much to me, Give one thing more--a grateful heart; Not thankful when it pleases me, As if Thy blessings had spare days; But such a heart, whose pulse may be Thy praise." George Herbert Lord, make me a woman of thankfulness. I so often dwell on the negative and forget that Your will is being perfected and molded into my heart. Thank you for pushing me out of the safety net and allowing me to experience flight.

" The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings. Henry Ward Beecher

Gratitude is... the leading edge of joy. It happens when the big reality hits you. You have no more right to be loved than anyone else. Your job is a fluke. Your children have no more right to health and security than the children in Bosnia. Your friends are not obligated to put up with you. Your education---well, you were not born into the poverty of Calcutta. It is all gift. Every single molecule, every smile, every taste of sunshine is gift." ~Radical Hospitality, Homan and Pratt

" Gratitude is... the leading edge of joy. It happens when the big reality hits you. You have no more right to be loved than anyone else. Your job is a fluke. Your children have no more right to health and security than the children in Bosnia. Your friends are not obligated to put up with you. Your education---well, you were not born into the poverty of Calcutta. It is all gift. Every single molecule, every smile, every taste of sunshine is gift." ~Radical Hospitality, Homan and Pratt

The Children's Hourby Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Between the dark and the daylight,When the night is beginning to lower,Comes a pause in the day's occupations,That is known as the Children's Hour.I hear in the chamber above meThe patter of little feet,The sound of a door that is opened,And voices soft and sweet.From my study I see in the lamplight,Descending the broad hall stair,Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,And Edith with golden hair.A whisper, and then a silence:Yet I know by their merry eyesThey are plotting and planning togetherTo take me by surprise.A sudden rush from the stairway,A sudden raid from the hall!By three doors left unguardedThey enter my castle wall!They climb up into my turretO'er the arms and back of my chair;If I try to escape, they surround me;They seem to be everywhere.They almost devour me with kisses,Their arms about me entwine,Till I think of the Bishop of BingenIn his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!Do you think, o blue-eyed banditti,Because you ...

I can't believe it is the last day in September! Our October is booked solid with Birthday's, camping, a visit from Bethany and Johnny 4, John's graduation from college, and a trip to the pumpkin patch. Good news on the medical front - John's injections did eliminate the back pain for a whole week! He did, as predicted, pull a muscle in his shoulder thought. His body is going to have to learn how to live without back pain and with relaxed muscles; a challenge that John is more than ready for. Our next step will be for John to have a Rhyzotomy sometime in October; the doctors predict he will only be stuck in bed for a day or two, nothing serious. Then, he will start routine electric muscle stimulation to try and relax the knotted muscles in his back and physical therapy to add strength . Best of all, John will not be on ANY drugs for back pain. This is the first doctor John has been to in four years that was willing to work on eliminating his back pain without daily pai...