GROWTH

Remember this picture I posted last May?

Look at what all those tiny plants my sweet, amazing husband planted grew into:
(Aren't they beautiful?)

God does an even more amazing thing with people:

I love that God gives us visible ways to see growth, to see how He is working. I often wonder if I am growing and changing in a way that pleases God.

I recently received a phone call from a very dear friend. He used to be the pastor of our church. I have been struggling through some things and had written he and his wife some emails to ask for prayer. I shared with them some ugly things that God had shown me and how I have been trying to work through them. And the victory I have had. So he called me to tell me he was proud of me and that he sees real growth. That just made me cry with gratefulness to God's graciousness in my life. It meant so much to have my friend tell me those things.

I have heard a song on the radio a lot lately called Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly). It's by Sanctus Real. These words express what I have been feeling. (They are just some of the words.)

Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see

Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life something heavenly

Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but now I can see
This something bigger than me
Larger than life something heavenly
Something heavenly
but I'm giving in to something heavenly

I do feel peace despite the craziness around me. I am all for God doing something heavenly in me. I remind myself that some of the struggles I go through are not necessarily about me -- but may be for the growth of those who are in my life.

But sometimes they are just to get the uglies out of me.

Praise God for His goodness and Praise God for growth!!

(Now I'm off to see if I can find that Sanctous Real CD...) :)

Siblings

My two kids are now at the same Institute of Higher Learning.

Translation: Empty Nest Full of Fantastic Memories

They are good friends, so I am thrilled for them to have this time together.

See how they enjoy each other?

But they do have their moments:

I guess they are smiling:

Most of the time:

I wonder how many more of these types of pictures we'll see.

Should prove to be an interesting year!

What I Learned In Kansas:

When you get in an elevator on the first floor, push the button for the first floor, and then the door close button, the elevator doesn't go any where.

Not even when you try the same thing later in the day.

Oh yes I did.

It will not get you to the third floor where you really want to go.

Oh my. The stress is getting to me, I'm thinking.

Psalm 92:12-15

The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They are planted in the house of the LORD;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,
to declare that the LORD is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

How?
(click on that word)



How?
(click on that word)

We cannot, Lord, Thy purpose see,
But all is well that’s done by Thee.

My Middle-Of-The-Night Prayer

Generous in love—God, give grace! Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I've been;
my sins are staring me down.
You're the One I've violated, and you've seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
I've been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you're after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean,
scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don't look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don't throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I'll let loose with your praise.
Going through the motions doesn't please you,
a flawless performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship
when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don't for a moment escape God's notice.
Make Zion the place you delight in,
repair Jerusalem's broken-down walls.
Then you'll get real worship from us,
acts of worship small and large,
Including all the bulls
they can heave onto your altar!

Psalm 121

http://wordle.net/

Another Weekend - or - The Post Of Links.

The end of July brought a great weekend for Pete and I. It started off with the wedding of a daughter of some very good friends of ours from church. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding followed by an air-conditioned reception. (It was a tad warm outside.)

See how gorgeous the bride is?

The bride's dance with her father was to "Butterfly Kisses". Oh man. What a tear-jerker!

And I just had to include a picture of the flower girl. She was adorable and so loved the dancing! It was so much fun to watch her!

After the wedding we stayed with some dear friends (Dan & Cheryl) that moved away from here a few months ago. We enjoyed spending time with them in their new home and worshiping with them on Sunday morning.

Dan helped Pete find a car part to fix Caleb's run-in with the mountain.

Cheryl and I caught up on our lives. We found the sheets that Megan wanted for college. Those pesky extra-long twin beds that almost every college has...

Then Pete and I took off ALONE to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary. We found a quiet hotel for some alone time.

We went to a play at The Guthrie Theater. It is a beautiful theater. We had an "adventure" finding the theater in downtown Minneapolis. Let's just say there is no way we could repeat the route we took there. :) From the theater we could see the new I-35W bridge almost completed.

We saw the play The Government Inspector. It was pretty funny. A few too many inappropriate innuendos (if you know what I mean...) for me though. It is a re-write of a Russian play called The Inspector-General.

We had a wonderful Sunday night and Monday morning of just relaxing and enjoying some time to just talk.

Monday we ran some errands in the Big City. Pete bought some new running shoes.

We ate lunch at a sweet little Italian restaurant that is right next door to the running shoe store. It was yummy! I had seen the place several times and had bought something to drink there, but had never ate the food. I'm glad we did.

I dropped my camera off for repairs since I managed to drop it and break the tiny switch that holds the battery in. :( So I am without my camera for 4-6 weeks. Sad. I may have to resort to "borrowing" pictures from Megan and/or Caleb. :)

It was a very fun weekend. How could it be anything else? I got to do my favorite thing --- hang out with my husband, my best friend. :)

Growth!

Remember this picture I posted last May?

Look at what all those tiny plants my sweet, amazing husband planted grew into:
(Aren't they beautiful?)

God does an even more amazing thing with people:

I love that God gives us visible ways to see growth, to see how He is working. I often wonder if I am growing and changing in a way that pleases God.

I recently received a phone call from a very dear friend. He used to be the pastor of our church. I have been struggling through some things and had written he and his wife some emails to ask for prayer. I shared with them some ugly things that God had shown me and how I have been trying to work through them. And the victory I have had. So he called me to tell me he was proud of me and that he sees real growth. That just made me cry with gratefulness to God's graciousness in my life. It meant so much to have my friend tell me those things.

I have heard a song on the radio a lot lately called Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly). It's by Sanctus Real. These words express what I have been feeling. (They are just some of the words.)

Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see

Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life something heavenly

Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but now I can see
This something bigger than me
Larger than life something heavenly
Something heavenly
but I'm giving in to something heavenly

I do feel peace despite the craziness around me. I am all for God doing something heavenly in me. I remind myself that some of the struggles I go through are not necessarily about me -- but may be for the growth of those who are in my life.

But sometimes they are just to get the uglies out of me.

Praise God for His goodness and Praise God for growth!!

100-fold Harvest

I have had a couple of great weekends that I need to write about. I'll start with last weekend first. The other weekend will have to wait for another post.

Beth Moore had a huge simulcast of her Living Proof Live conference from Louisville, Kentucky. I was able to attend in a small town just 25 minutes from here. While I do love the atmosphere of a large group of women worshiping God, it was kind of nice to not drive very far and to sleep in my own bed. I have been known to travel quite a ways to Beth's conferences: Des Moines, Kansas City and even Providence, Rhode Island. (Well we flew to that one...)

This conference was broadcast simultaneously to something 715 locations across the country and to four other countries. There were about 70,000 people viewing it. That's quite mind boggling if you ask me. The worship was amazing.

Beth talked about Luke 8:1-15, the Parable of the Sower. The focus was on verse 8: Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown."
When he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

I just love how even a familiar Bible story has so much more packed into than I can ever know! God's Word is so alive!

Beth had seven points:

1. Treasure the wonder - recapture the wonder of the word - it has power to transform.

2. Protect your heart - the enemy can steal the Word we receive - keep the Word hidden in your heart - down deep so that it gets into the blood and the very marrow of our bones.

3. Expect the test - we will be tested when we receive the Word. Tests are either trials sent by God to teach us to stand or temptations sent by the enemy so that we will fall. We have to be strong in both and cling to the Word. The Word is meant to be applied.

4. Dig the roots - if we want to bear fruit we have to have deep roots - our roots are only as deep as our conviction that we are LOVED by God. Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

5. Stop the choke - Anxiety chokes the Word. We have to stop what chokes the word in us - namely, anxiety. We have to turn our worries over to God in prayer- confessing that we trust God's authority in every situation.

6. Retain the Word - to hold in a vice grip; to possess, to own.

7. Press forth to our promised 100-fold - The harvest takes time in coming - don't give up! We need to persevere to the end.


A couple more thoughts:

• I'm glad it's not about me. It's to give strength and be an encourager to others.
• God's Word restores and heals and puts lives back together again.
• Spiritually speaking, I want to be a woman of means and of substance.

I realize this is kind of long. Sometimes I write these posts as a way to remember. So readers, please bear with me.

John 7:38

He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me] as the Scripture has said, From his innermost being shall flow [continuously] springs and rivers of living water.