How Great

What a blessing this has been to me this week:

A Fresh Start

Fidget loves water. He loves the shower, loves water on his face, loves to play in it at every chance. So this morning he got an extended tub time, during which I sneaked in with the camera for a bit of fun.

I’ve been chewing on some Future Grace stuff by John Piper, and it’s really making me think:

“God meant gratitude to be a spontaneous expression of pleasure in the gift and the good will of another. He did not mean it to be an impulse to return favors. If gratitude is twisted into a sense of debt, it gives birth to the debtors ethic - and the effect is to nullify grace.”

“Gratitude exults in the past benefits of God and says to faith, “Embrace more of these benefits for the future, so that my happy work of looking back on God’s deliverance may continue.”

“The Bible rarely, if ever, explicitly makes gratitude the impulse of moral behavior, or ingratitude the explanation of immorality.”

Taking Time

I got smacked hither and yon by the Lord this week about a few things, then this morning in church it all culminated during the sermon. I’m busy, but in all the busy-ness I haven’t been taking time for what is important. It’s always an enduring the here and now until I get to the next project or task on my list, rather than a doing the now with all my might for the glory of God. That last part is the part I’ve been leaving off, yet it’s the most vital.

I’ve also been thinking much on the concept of the book Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, so on the way home from church we stopped at Borders and I picked up a copy with some Christmas money. I think I’m going to make a book of rememberances this year. Not of the ordinary life, but of the extraordinary way God cares for me each and every day -what I’ve been viewing as ordinary. Tomorrow I’m also going to figure out a way to help the kids do the very same thing during our school time each week. It should prompt some very good discussions at the very least. I’m thinking of using a small three-ring binder for each of them to write, decorate, and add pictures to for each letter. But as a start of this journey, I made a page tonight, using it more as a focusing time than anything.

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God’s Hand

Oh my, where do I start? We Reflecting Pool gals have put together our second challenge for the month, this one focusing on how a change in perspective has turned frustration to gratitude in your life. I’ve been thinking on this whole thing for the past two weeks, turning trial to blessing, and it has been an amazing process for me. I put together this page Thursday evening.

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Wednesday afternoon, I was able to talk awhile with a friend, who made me realize a ton, part of which was that I need to let a thing or two go, or at very least make a few changes. So Thursday morning I was praying about what changes I needed to make, and I started to pray about the kid’s homeschooling. It takes a whole lot of time, and even then I don’t feel I give it what it needs to teach them well. And then I got this email from freecycle about a lady who had some homeschooling supplies to pass on. God prompted me to email her back to inquire, and today we are going to pick up 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade Switched on Schoolhouse. THE WHOLE THING! I can’t even begin to tell you what a blessing this will be for our family for literally years. God’s blessings leave me speechless at times.

Thankful

These children God has placed in my life keep me  laughing. (If I remember to laugh and not scream, that is.)

Fidget has been telling sweekits (secrets) lately. And what are his sweekits, you ask? Well, when you bend down close to hear, he whispers softly in your ear, “Sweekit!” And then laughs uproariously. How can you not love that? How can you not love his crazy antics and silly faces. They never end, nor are they ever the same from minute to minute. But I am truly thankful. These children teach me about teachability. I see my own sinful self in them, and as I talk them through correct behaviour, love, patience, and respect for one another after they err, I am reminded of the patience God has with me when I mess up. It is humbling, and helps me deal more patiently with these three little Farkleberries. But most of all it reminds me to love and thank HIM in return for His great love towards me. How can you not be filled with joy and thanks at that thought?

And now some exciting news! Scrapbook Graphics is beginning a new weekly column called The Reflecting Pool, and I have the honor of being able to participate in it with some fabulous gals from the scrapbook community. Each of them is so full of heart and talent that it’s a joy to work with them. Here’s our logo (I think, lol!) that will appear each Saturday, and twice a month we will be issuing challenges to wade out into the water with scrapbook pages one more step than maybe you would have otherwise. I think it’s going to be tons of fun. And I know for me personally, it’s already been a growing, stretching thing.

I’m thankful too for the people who have been placed in my life, who have trusted me enough to share themselves with me. (Or rather trusted that God will protect them as they reveal their vulnerabilities. . . .) I’ve been thinking so much lately about what happens when one person is willing to open up her heart. Pretty soon, everyone is sharing, and laughing, and crying and having a truly blessed time. I’m learning about all that. It’s hard and a little scary, but it’s amazing how it is changing me. I tried to picture all that on a scrapbook page, as a tribute to all those wonderful people around me, both in the online scrap community and in the real life.

Journaling: The older I get, the more I realize that being transparent is of the greatest benefit not only to me, but also to all those around me. Something’s been happening when I peel back the layers of my heart and expose it: those around me want to do the same. Honesty breeds honesty in most cases, and admission of failure increases the opportunity to love. I’m still learning about this whole bringing-my-heart-out-of-hiding thing. Emotional nakedness can be tough. But the more honest I am, the more I’m able to learn and grow, because I’m making admissions about myself I’ve avoided or ignored too long. It’s bringing joy, now that the initial fear is ebbing away. I like that joy and the way it gets passed around amid laughter and tears.

Autumn Splendor

We had the opportunity today to do a little exploring, and found ourselves over by Sunset Falls at about sunset. Wow. What a glorious place. The one lane, lonely road provided us the ability for me to yell, “STOP!” and jump out and take a picture now and again, lol. There was only one pothole that almost ate us, and the only wildlife we saw was rather lifeless and well, dead on the road. BUT it was a wonderful afternoon and evening. The kids were able to run around and enjoy the fresh air at each stop, and I was able to lose myself in the grandeur of creation.

Thoughts on worship

I started a book this morning titled Unceasing Worship, by Harold M. Best, and it’s really gotten me to thinking today. Here are a few quotations from the first chapter alone: 

Worship is the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do and all that I can ever become in light of a chosen or choosing god.

Worship may ebb and flow, may take on various appearances and may be unconscious or conscious, intense and ecstatic or quiet and commonplace, but it is continuous. When we sin, worship does not stop. It changes directions and reverts back to what it once was, even if only for an instant. 

How’s that for a smack ya in the face thought this Thursday evening? Gosh, this book is eating me alive . . .

Here’s another. Would saying that we are created to worship be suggesting that God is an incomplete person whose need for something outside himself (worship) completes his sense of self? I’m chewing over that last one. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been taught that in my life, and the ramifications of it never really clicked. Yet this is just logical thinking, following through with a thought until the end. Or is it the end? I’m contemplating . . .

One of those days . . .

I think other homeschooling moms will understand when I say we hit a wall and needed to re-evaluate on Monday. Sparkle and I were ramming heads, and much of it was my own fault, my emotions stemming from my frustration of being unprepared to teach. So we closed the books and fannie went off to pray and rearrange her priorities. Tuesday we hit things afresh, and wow, how much fun we’re having again. It’s so refreshing to do things with the proper attitude and with proper purpose, because that is the only way God honors.

This page I did last week shows the beginning of the whole thought process. Even after it was completed, the guilt kept piling on, for I, despite knowing the truth, chose not to act upon it. It wasn’t until Monday and a concerted effort to DO something about that rightly-felt guilt that this page became a reality. But how precious it is to me now, for it was the start of a God-thing in my heart.

Journaling: I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John)
There are days I wish these three precious children were not watching me so closely. There are times I wish they weren’t listening so well. It is at those times especially that I am thankful for the power of prayer. It is my deepeset desire to know that these three are getting all they need to make wise decisions when they are older. And the only way I can teach them these needful things is through the power and wisdom that come only through communion with my Father. I want them to see and understand that He is the one who has ordered their lives. I want them to learn to lean on Him, to trust Him, and to go to Him with their little hearts filled with love. I want to remember to pray, for they are watching.

And here is a Sprinkle picture for you. He wanted to share it with the world.

Art Journal Addition

This piece has been sketched in my art journal for about a week. The thought had been impressed on me last Sunday during church, and then reiterated throughout the week. It was so much fun to take a concept from my brain and try first to express it with a pencil and paper, then transition that to digital. The whole process really helped me meditate on the truth, and make sure that truth stays in the forefront of my mind.

Journaling: If I’ve done it all for me, it may as well be down the drain because if I choose to live this day only for myself I am not living to the purpose for which I am called. And today becomes a wasted day.
Journaling on tag: But today is for Him and because of that it will be amazing: fresh, pure and precious.

Beauty

I’m participating in a scrapbook challenge this week at Jen Wilson’s which asks the question, “What could you not live without?” I did some thinking, and realized it was contrast. Without contrast, we wouldn’t appreciate the extraordinary. Order wouldn’t be restful if it weren’t for chaos. Forgiveness wouldn’t be so glorious if it weren’t for wrongdoings. I struggled for a few nights trying to figure out how to picture that, and finally gave up, LOL! So here’s my response, beauty. Without it the hand of God would not be so visible.
Journaling: Beauty. The very thing that breathes freshness into each day. The presence of God in the ordinary. The gentle breeze on an angry face. The sweet scent of a spring blossom. Sometimes elusive, but always present - comforting, promising, and infusing strength and joy and peace. Beauty is the gift of God that keeps me sheltered in His hand.

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