Hiking In Grace & Capturing My View

Gratitude: Gifts From His Hands

04.11.11

This week was hard. God sent help in the form of godly women praying for me and being there for me. I am thankful for Christ-centered friendships, women of deep abiding faith in the Great Physician.

661. She prays for me.

662. Carmel latte w/whip

663. See What You Want To See on (in)courage by Mary of Giving Up On Perfect, a blessing to read

664. homemade whipped cream cloud floating on my morning coffee

665. They love to play together, they are so close.

666. being “guilt-free” in backing-off on how many responsibilities I take on

667. Job 10:12

668. homeschooling my children

669. daffodils, trumpet-faces with petal manes

670. “monster-ella cheese”

671. a bag of champagne mangos from Mom

672. New Life 2 Cor. 5:17

673. having a ‘desire’ met (not a ‘need’ per se, though it was just a ‘desire’ to me, God saw it as a ‘need’ and provided)

674. for her faithful friendship…

675. … and her encouraging words

676. … willing to answer questions hard to ask

677. breakfast of freshness

678. They are so patient

679. the cat was patient too…

680. He brought home a dozen of these, just because…

Linked up at Ann’s today!

A Lesson from Job

04.10.11

Job 27: 3-6

3 All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils

4 My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.

5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

1. Job had the spirit of God (vs.3), and so do I (1 Cor. 6: 19 – 20)

2. Job controlled his tongue (vs.4). How often do I?

3. Not controlling his tongue would give them grounds to prove their accusations (vs.5). Our lack of controlling our tongue often helps those set against us to prove a lack of Christian character, not being Christ-like. Christ answered not a word to his accusers. (Matt. 27: 12 & 14, 1 Peter 2: 22 & 23)

4. Because Job held his tongue he didn’t carry a guilty conscience (vs.6). So often when we don’t “hold our peace” our hearts ‘self-condemn’ us and leave us with a guilty conscience.

What has the Lord showed you in His Word lately? Share a bit of it in the comments.

Mangos and Homemade Whipped Cream… Saturday Morning Confessions: 2

04.09.11

My Saturday Morning Confessions…

1. I like to hold my kids and inhale deeply, with my nose buried in their hair, after washing them with Mango scented shampoo.

2. There is a reason we named our dog Mango.

3. My husband brought home yellow mangos this week… He’s my hero.

4. I used them to make a Mango Coffee Cake.

5. I can’t eat it without freshly made whipped cream.

6. And there must be extra to set afloat on my coffee.

7. There is a diet looming on my horizon.

8. Mango smells like mangos too. Would you expect anything else? I haven’t found any coffee scented dog shampoos. I wonder why?

9. The other dog is named Carmel. We had another dog named Butterscotch.

10. Carmel was not named after food. She was originally named after missionary Amy Carmichael. CARMichaEL. yeah we were lazy, Carmichael was just too long. If she was a boy dog she would be named Paton (pronounced Pay-ton) after Scottish missionary John Paton and that is not food.

My apologies if you were looking for a recipe. You will probably never find one on my site.

Linking up with Melissa at A Familiar Path today for another round of Saturday Morning Confessions.

Won’t you join us?

If You Met Me… Five Minute Friday

04.08.11

GO:

If you met me 20 years ago you would have met a different person.

Twenty years ago, I was what I thought was an “independent spirit” but really was just a girl with a bad attitude.

I was what my husband called “the Art League President from hell.”

I was bossy and had to do it all my way. I had to do it all because no one would do it the way I want it to be done. I was sarcastic and loud and outspoken… okay, so I am still a bit sarcastic. And I can be loud if I am really excited.

I often dressed to shock and usually spoke to shock and get a reaction too.

Thankfully, 19 years ago I met a wonderful Christ who changed that heart that didn’t want to ever get married or ever have kids. Homeshooling? What are you crazy? Now I wouldn’t think of anything but!

I still love being artistic, even though for years I wasn’t at all. Doing anything artsy was pushed away, influenced by slanted preaching that said Art is not useful to God.

So glad I woke up to that one.

I am thankful for my redeeming Jesus who has changed my life and made me new.

STOP.

I am linked up today over at Lisa-Jo’s where she hosts Five Minute Friday’s on her blog The Gypsy Mama. Her prompt for today is “If you met me…”.

I did better this week typing with my eyes closed. I did not have as many nasty red squiggly underlines this time when I opened them.

Gratitude: In Real Life

04.04.11

When I was in the southern Philippines, I discovered the joy of reading blogs and forming “bloggy friendships”. One of the first blogs I ever found was Mylestones. At the time, Jo and her family were living in one of my favorite states, Maine. Her kids were the same ages as my younger two and I fell in love with reading her daughter’s “pronunciations”, her photos of the Maine coast, and the heart that comes through in her writing.

I read about bloggers who met up “in real life” and was rather envious of them. For I was sitting on “the other side”, as my friend Nate called it, knowing it would never be possible to meet up with anyone while dwelling “in the utter most parts of the sea”. (Ps.139: 9&10)

God moved us stateside, and moved Jo’s family to Ohio. When she wrote about entering a 1/2 marathon in DC, I was so excited. We made plans to meet up and last Monday we met In Real Life. The kids hit it off and so did the adults. Even though she wasn’t feeling in tip-top shape she still came to meet us. We all had a great time wandering the Air and Space Museum.

I am thankful for the friendships I have had the blessing of forming through blogging. I am looking forward to meeting many more of you at Relevant 11, this coming October.

“Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done…”

646. beginner violinists who don’t screech

647. that they want to practice together

648. we live so close to the Smithsonian

649. Air & Space, my kids favorite