Hiking In Grace & Capturing My View

A Godly Example

12.06.09

My heart misses the people I came to know in the Philippines, our church family, our friends in the missionary community, and our ‘katabang’. I miss her very much. Not in the sense of her hired job of helping with the housework. I miss her quiet faithful Christian spirit in our midst.

I see her in my youngest child who loves to help out and clean up. Jing Jing always had her by her side to help do the laundry by ‘helping’ to carry the laundry basket to the washer. Jing Jing included her in so many of her chores around the house while I was home-schooling the older kids. This is a blessing because now she wants to help me with every task in my day. (Jesus, please help her to keep that servant heart.)

I think of her when Mom is asking for meal suggestions and all the kids beg for chicken adobo and pancit. (I need to get making some of that soon… but my cookbook with the recipe is still buried in storage.) Maybe that will be the first meal I cook when we finally move into the parsonage.

I miss her when I am sorting and cleaning up the ever-present chaos. This is when we seemed to have our best conversations, when we were working side by side at some mindless task, mom to mom, friend to friend, pastor’s wife to pastor’s wife (Did I mention her husband is a pastor?), Christian sister to Christian sister. Of course, often, it was more venting my complaints and her sharing her years of wisdom of working with other missionary wives and how they handled certain situations but she did it with discretion and never gossiped.

I miss cooking with her.

I miss her godly example of patience, and her tireless work ethic with a constant smile, two godly examples I need on a daily basis.

I miss hearing her singing and humming in the next room while she worked. She is the very epitome of Colossians 3: 15~17 Which says, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. ¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. ¹⁷And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

and

Ephesians 5:18~19 …but be filled with the Spirit; ¹⁹Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; ²⁰Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

My husband misses her chocolate chip oatmeal cookies …and so do the kids.

I miss folding clothes with her. (I miss folding clothes and chatting with her current employer too.)

I am thankful that God provided her a familiar family to work for. God is faithful that way. He is always meeting the needs of his children in every situation, all the way around the world, in every place where his children sojourn, because none of us are really home until we meet him face to face.

… and when we get home we will be reunited with people who have hiked our path with us as we travel along our trails.

Tuesdays Unwrapped: Friends, Coffee, And A Wee Bit Of Thomas the Tank Engine

12.01.09

So many blessings were unwrapped today at 6 A.M. Some of my first thoughts of the day were all blessings to be unwrapped …and it happens to be Tuesday. They were thoughts of things I am so very thankful to God for…

… good friends who stick with you through the good, the bad and the ugly, for a friend loves at ALL times. (Prov. 17:17)

… that I got my “iron sharpened” last night. (Prov. 27:17)

… for a hot cup of coffee at Panera Bread shared by a few of those good friends.

… for the nice staff at Panera Bread who do not throw you out the door at 9PM sharp, because that is when they close, who quietly just start to clean up around you and are not rude but leave you alone until you are ready to leave. That one really hit me this morning. It was closing time and they just started cleaning. We did not realize what time it was, no one came over to tell us they were closing and would we “please leave.” We did not “keep” anyone there because they were still mopping the floor when we left but it was very pleasant to be left alone until we got up to leave, 20 minutes after closing time. (Unlike a certain dinner we had the last time we were together, but that restaurant shall remain nameless.) It makes me want to eat at Panera Bread more often and spend my money there… unlike that nameless restaurant…. but I am going into a “siding” here.

… that I know what a “siding” is and that brings new meaning to the phrase “getting sidetracked,” thank you to Thomas the Tank Engine.

… that God has given me friends that love me beyond a 1/4 of a yard of fabric.

… that God has surrounded me with friends who love me and my family beyond the church doors.

There are so many other blessings that were unwrapped in these early morning hours, but if I don’t stop here… I will be sitting here all. day. long.

… and we do have to eat, paint, do school, paint, do laundry, paint, Christmas shop, paint, clean bathrooms, paint, change diapers, paint, and make beds at some point in time.

… did I mention we have to paint?

It is Tuesday. Click on over to Emily’s Chatting at the Sky blog for a few more blessings that are being Unwrapped today.

Leash or Tail?

11.21.09

So I am hiking along with my youngest and our fur baby and I look down and see this:
It actually took me a minute to realize she thought she was ‘walking the dog’. I had the leash and… well… she had her ‘leash’ too. It was rather comical since the dog was so happy that her tail was wagging non-stop and my little one was hanging on tight!

What Developed in the Darkroom

10.29.09

This is what develops when two photographers meet in a dark room darkroom and fall in love.

… of course they will probably never know the stench of fixer and developer.

They will probably end up with carpel tunnel from playing with a mouse in Photoshop.

*****

Tuesdays Unwrapped: Being Set at Liberty

10.13.09

“In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.” ~Psalm 120:1

How good God is to care about EVERYTHING in our lives. He cares when we hurt or are burdened. He offers to carry it for us and so often we don’t let him.

I had prayed for a relationship to be restored for months. I asked God that if it wasn’t to be restored that he would give clarity and understanding, that he would bring release from it if it was not going to be restored.

God answered. He brought clarity and understanding and most importantly, and by those, He brought liberty.

For a relationship to be restored there must be effort on both sides of the equation. Both parties must come to the table and agree to move past whatever is hindering the relationship. Both parties must come to a point of forgiveness. However when one party chooses to hold on to bitterness and chooses to be unforgiving, then they are making the choice to walk away from the relationship. They decide that their bitterness is more important than friendship and restoration. This grants closure and release for you as long as you have done what is right and have sincerely sought restoration. There does come a point where you can do no more and you must leave it in God’s hands. Continue to pray for them, continue to love them, but it is actually okay to do this from a distance.

The sin is against God, not you personally.

Fully grasping this truth brings so much understanding and clarity which, in turn, brings closure and the liberty to move on.

It sets you free.

This new found freedom is such a blessing, I decided to share it over at Chatting At the Sky’s Tuesday’s Unwrapped.