Tonight Justin provided me with just what I needed. As I was tucking him in he said, “You’re the best Mommy I’ve ever had”. I laughed and said, “I’m the only Mommy you’ve ever had.” Then, he said, “You’re still the best Mommy I’ve ever had”. I told him that I really needed to hear that tonight!

Today was a really hard day of homeschooling. I dealt with some extreme complaining and was just hopeless in the end. Jeremy and I are in the process of coming up with a plan to help our wayward child with this pattern of sin. Please keep us in prayer and our precious little one. Pray that God would break his heart and open his eyes to his own sin. Without God we are without hope, but we know that He keeps His promises. May He strengthen us to trust in Him and His wisdom during this time. It is so humbling being a parent…realizing that we are totally dependent on the Lord and at His complete mercy for all the outcomes. Lord, please help us to be faithful!!

Challies Dot Com: CD Review - Valley of Vision
If you want to read Challies wonderful review you can follow the above link. Here’s a portion of it:

The CD begins with “In the Valley,” sung by Shannon Harris. Shannon has a stunningly beautiful voice, though having heard it live at the WorshipGod06 conference, I have to admit that I love the purity of her voice in a live performance just a little bit better than the slightly more engineered sound on the CD. She sings a powerful song based on the prayer “The Valley of Vision” and asks God to let her find His grace, life and joy. For sake of comparison, here is the original prayer and the song based on it:

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory. Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision. Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine; let me find Thy light in my darkness, Thy life in my death, Thy joy in my sorrow, Thy grace in my sin, Thy riches in my poverty, Thy glory in my valley.

And here is the song:

When You lead me to the valley of vision I can see You in the heights And though my humbling wouldnt be my decision Its here Your glory shines so bright So let me learn that the cross precedes the crown To be low is to be high That the valleys where You make me more like Christ

Let me find Your grace in the valley
Let me find Your life in my death
Let me find Your joy in my sorrow
Your wealth in my need
That Youre near with every breath
In the valley

In the daytime there are stars in the heavens
But they only shine at night
And the deeper that I go into darkness
The more I see their radiant light
So let me learn that my losses are my gain
To be broken is to heal
That the valleys where Your power is revealed

By the way, TEXAS FRIENDS, if you’d like me to bring you a copy of the Valley of Vision CD on my upcoming trip, please let me know. They are selling for $14 in our church bookstore.

A year or so ago, Mark Mullery came to preach at our church and I haven’t read the Psalms the same since. He shed such light on my confusion. There is much in the Psalms about the righteous and the wicked. But, in light of the Gospel and the knowledge that we now have that surpasses that of the people during the Psalmist’s life, the pronouncements of judgment on the wicked is not how we should think towards our enemies. Yes, God hates sin and He will judge it, but in reality we are all wicked apart from Christ and deserve His furious wrath. So, instead of praying judgment on our enemies we should be following Jesus’ instructions:

“Love your enemies and pray for them.”

There are certain people in my life right now that, in my sin, I would love to pray for their pain and destruction, but I thank God that He’s opened my eyes to His ways and that He’s giving me a heart of compassion instead. My prayer is that the one I’m speaking of would cry out like David in Psalm 51 “Against you and you only have I sinned”. True repentance can only come as we see our sin as against God, the righteous One. God’s grace is sufficient for the vilest of sinners.

This summer we have had some great fun at the pool and the kids have made some wonderful advances in their abilities. Nate is swimming really well and the swim coach gave him a free diving lesson one afternoon while we were at the pool. So, now he’s diving off the diving board and even teaching Lela and Justin how to do it too.

Lela has become very confident in the water too and is jumping and doing cannon balls off the diving board and then swimming to the side all on her own. She loves spending time with her friends Angelina and Hannah at the pool playing all kinds of creative stories.

Justin is definitely our most fearless swimmer. Last year when Aunt Sonya was visiting he decided to jump in with only one arm floaty on. Aunt Sonya had her back turned and when she turned around all she could see was his terrified eyeballs sticking out of the top of the water. Needless to say, he hasn’t done that again. He stays where he can touch most of the time (unless he’s hanging on one of us). This year he is now jumping off the diving board and swimming to me on the side. I won’t let him do it alone in the diving well just yet, but next year I’m sure he’ll be right along with the rest of them.

Caleb Joshua actually prefers to be out of his floaty. It takes some fighting to get him in it and a few minutes of being in to settle down. He loves jumping in off the side and if you’re not watching he’ll just jump in anyway. He doesn’t mind getting his whole head under the water and loves throwing his ball. All in all, it’s been a fun summer at the pool.

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord.

Blessed is the man who’s quiver is full of them.”

Psalm 127

Well, I promised awhile back that I would post some pictures of our garden. I don’t have any recent ones, but here’s what it looked like at the beginning when things first started to grow.

The bunch of green things closest to the bottom are our radishes that we transplanted from the Ag Farm garden that the 4H club planted. We went with our friends to help till the soil and plant the seeds in that garden. Then, once the radishes started growing we thinned them out and brought some home to put in our garden. Here’s a picture of what they looked like when we harvested them.

They sure are pretty, but they were very hot. I think we left them in the ground too long and they got bitter. Oh well, we don’t really like radishes anyway. But, it was fun and we’re learning…that’s all that counts, right?!

Tim Challies and his wife just recently did a marathon of watching the Lord of the Rings movies (Challies). I thought what he shared about his favorite scene was very enlightening and thought-provoking.

My favorite scene in the entire series happens near the end of the final film. As you no doubt remember (it has, after all, been fifty years since the books were first published!), Frodo and Sam have finally carried the ring to Mount Doom. Despite the months they have travelled and the dangers they have faced, Frodo still finds himself unable to part with the ring. The ring has thoroughly gripped his heart and now owns him more than he owns it. Frodo declares that the ring is his and puts it onto his finger for the last time. As he does so, Gollum leaps upon him, also desiring the ring. They struggle for some time and Gollum eventually bites off Frodo’s finger, steals the ring and rejoices in reclaiming it. A fight ensues in which Gollum maintains possession of the ring, but loses his balance and falls from a cliff. And here is the scene that has so often gripped me. Gollum, captured in slow motion, falls into the molten lava of Mount Doom. But as he falls, there is no terror in his eyes. No scream escapes his lips. Instead, he falls into the flame gently petting the ring, cooing to it, and delighting in his “precious.” His last word is “precioussss!” The evil ring that had first caused him to commit an act of murder and that had so long enslaved him is the object of his affection as he falls to his death.

That scene contains such a profound statement about human nature. Every time I see Gollum fall to his death, enraptured by the evil that has enslaved him, I think of the power of sin. I think of the power of sin that exists even in my own life. I know there are areas in my life that are precious to me even while they enslave me. There are areas in my life that I cling to and fight for even though they are wrong, even though they are evil. When I see Gollum fall, I see myself and the sin that enslaves me. I have to ask myself if there is sin in my life that grips me so much that I would cradle it and coo to it, even as it pulled me to my death. Often I have to ask not “if” but “where” such sin exists. It is a sobering time of reflection.

I hope this has encouraged you to take God at His word.  The Proverbs are full of warnings that sin in fact leads to death.  Our hearts are so easily led astray.  May we guard our hearts and seek to evaluate them frequently, so that we might finish strong bringing glory to our GREAT God.  Of course, we all know that if we finish strong it’s only a result of His grace at work in our lives.

This is a quote posted by Carolyn Mahaney at Girl Talk.

Hope it encourages many of my dear friends who are going through difficult times.

Love to God disposes men to see his hand in everything; to own him as the governor of the world, and the director of providence; and to acknowledge his disposal in everything that takes place. And the fact, that the hand of God is a great deal more concerned in all that happens to us than the treatment of men is, should lead us, in a great measure, not to think of things as from men, but to have respect to them chiefly as from God—as ordered by his love and wisdom, even when their immediate source may be the malice or heedlessness of a fellow-man. And if we indeed consider and feel that they are from the hand of God, then we shall be disposed meekly to receive and quietly to submit to them, and to own that the greatest injuries received from men are justly and even kindly ordered of God, and so be far from any ruffle or tumult of mind on account of them. (Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits, pp. 79-80)

In addition to that, I was listening to a message that Bruce Ware gave at a Single’s meeting last year entitled, “Trusting God”. He gives a definition for Faith as:

“Faith is trusting God’s power to accomplish what His wisdom in His love has designed and planned.” This was after he elaborated on three qualities of God, (1) All-powerful, (2) All-wise, and (3) All-loving. In all that He does all three of these are true. Then he asks, “Do you trust the wisdom of God to have designed your life for you right now?” That’s a hard question in the midst of difficult circumstances.

Loving you all

Just wanted to say “Thanks” in public to my dear husband who spent time working on my blog when he didn’t really feel like it. And, I must add that I didn’t even ask him to!! It was all his initiative. So, Jeremy, “thank you” for thinking of me when there was plenty of other things you could’ve been doing…like sleeping!

By the way, this is an old picture…from Jer’s birthday right after I had C.J., but I don’t have any new ones on Flickr yet to upload. But, I will soon!!! I’m so excited…

The blog fairy has been hard at work here tonight! A little pixie dust here, a little bit of cross-platform transparent PNG images there, and presto!

Ain’t it pretty?

Thought so. Love you, hon!

Well, as you can see, Jeremy has finally figured out how to put pictures on my blog! He hasn’t taught me, though. So, this will be it for now. These are some pictures he just put up on Flickr. Jer and Nate went to our church’s Christian Service Brigade camp (a.k.a. Camp Hemlock) this weekend.

Nate had a blast hiking, swimming, rifle shooting, crossbow shooting, working on wood with a hatchet, learning how to start a campfire and much more that I don’t know about yet. They started out each morning with devotions together and the evening involved a 3 hour campfire where they worshiped and had a Bible lesson…ending with a special snack (S’mores and ?????).

If you click on a picture it will take you to Flickr where you can see more pictures. Including the rattlesnake one. (!)

Tamra is my second Lela-friend. When my kids see a picture of me and Lela from my wedding they think it is me and Tamra. I met Tamra on August 8, 1999 and on September 18, 1999 my friend Lela went home to be with the Lord. Tamra and I were close from the start just like Lela and me. We talked about things with each other that we wouldn’t have felt comfortable talking with just anyone about.

She is a gift straight from the Father’s heart in my life.

Over the years she’s expressed to me this desire she has to be able to give to others as they were struggling financially. She’s never enjoyed receiving help from others. Well, I just want the world to know that she’s GIVEN me more important things than money! She’s GIVEN me things that money can’t buy.

I remember early on in our friendship when she made the comment about not being able to wait until she could be home ironing Chris’s shirts…this is when she was still teaching because Chris was still in school. Her heart for her home helped me to get my perspective back on track. She loved serving her husband and when kids came along she was such a faithful and loving mom to her first child and then her second. Though she struggled through some difficult years with her husband she kept her focus on the Lord and desired to please Him through it all. He strengthened her and helped her through her pain and this example is something she’s GIVEN me.

And, now, I just want her to know that she is a vital part of the body of Christ and she is still GIVING in the midst of her trial. The Bible says that when one member of the body is hurting the others hurt with them. Well, there are certain things she’s not able to do right now…she’s injured so to speak. Well, when one leg is broken the other parts of the body have to do more work. So, during this time we are the other parts of the body and our focus will be on her. But, I want her to know that this is a joy for us and not a burden. Tamra is a vital part of the body and she is needed!!

So, friend, focus in on the Lord and let His joy be your strength…we’re here to support you, encourage you and to receive encouragement from your example of faithfulness in the midst of suffering.

Only because of Jesus!!