Happy News!

My dear friend, Molly, gave birth to her beautiful and healthy twins yesterday. Go welcome their sweet faces!

Finding God in Suffering

' If it is I who determine where God is to be found, then I shall always find a God who corresponds to me in some way, who is obliging, who is connected with my own nature. But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not immediately pleasing to my nature and which is not at all congenial to me. This place is the Cross of Christ. '

~~~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in a letter to his brother-in-law, 1931

quoted from Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

MADE MY DAY!!

I don't want to stop the happy tears,

my dear friend Molly has some great news!

Perspective

My Mom's voice echoes through my mind sometimes:

"What you need is a different perspective"!

This weekend, I found a new perspective

through reading a history book about the Dust Bowl

on the Great Plains during the Depression Era

(aka the 'Dirty Thirties').Life was hard enough before, but the drought and dusters

stopped it altogether.

Many children died, getting lost in the Black Blizzards,

or from dust pneumonia, when the lungs become

so clogged with dirt

that you cannot breathe anymore.

My great-grandma, my Grammy, lived in Kansas,

a little girl during the Dust Bowl.

I have been reminded about how *clean* my home is,

how healthy my children are,

and how much food we have in our pantry.

We aren't eating tumbleweeds.

22 Words

Abraham's post today answered
a unspoken question........read it now!!!

From The Purple Cellar...

In one of his parables Jesus described a merchant who went searching for fine pearls. But along the way, the merchant found a pearl that was more valuable than anything he'd found yet, so he went and sold all he had to buy it. We all have a pearl like that, something we'd given anything to possess. But it may not be the pearl that Jesus was talking about. Maybe the one pearl we're searching for is a spouse. Or maybe it's an improvement on the spouse we have. Maybe it’s a new job or a better house.

Inevitably, though, there is no guarantee that pearls of this sort are going to come our way.The pearl of marriage might never come along or, if it does, it might turn out to be a pearl with little luster. The pearl of great talent might never find an outlet--something or someone comes along and takes away the opportunity to use it. Or despite the care and diligence we devote to maintaining the pearl of good health, it remains elusive.There is only one pearl we can be sure of possessing—the kingdom of heaven. And from Jesus' parable we see that getting hold of it is worth everything else we have. We nod our heads in agreement, but do we really believe it? And something else to consider: is this the pearl we really want? If we do, we will invest our lives in it.

Jesus tells us that God's kingdom is greater than any treasure, any blessing, anything else we will ever know. It is worth whatever it may cost us, including the other pearls we want so desperately and think we need. As Christian women, we agree with that in principle, but if we're honest, we have to admit we don't pursue it wholeheartedly. We want the other pearls too much. But that's why many of us live in a state of chronic disappointment. But offering God our disappointments is an act of selling what we have to purchase that one pearl. Each and every time something threatens to steal our peace, we can stop what we are doing and open that raw painful place to God. Sometimes a brief but honest prayer is all we can manage. As often as possible, we sit with his Word open before us, asking him to reveal himself in our struggle. The more we see, the more we will want. Before we know it, we will find ourselves wanting him even more than we want those other pearls. He himself will be the peace we have been wanting all along. He is faithful to us in this way. It has been said, and truthfully so, that sometimes we don't know God is all we have until God is all we've got.

view Lydia's entire blog The Purple Cellar

Surprise!!

I hobbled my way to the computer and sat down to read my top 5 blogs....

and what a wonderful surprise awaited me here!

Molly is having a baby tommorrow!!!

He gives and takes away....

More of Ann's thoughts here .......

The reality is that God does takes away......

do we continue to say.....

blessed be His name?

What if all was taken?

Our families, friends, homes,

refridgerators, clothes, cars,computers.......

starving and alone.

Nothing left besides him?

Would we praise him even then?

Bring the Rain

I am not sure if this is a good thing or not, but I keep "finding" others who are hurting. Angie at Bring the Rain is a comfort and inspiration to me right now. Pray for them, too.

Girls will be Girls, and Boys will be Boys!

This is too cute---

it made me smile,

and then long for

what I do not have.

Next, I praised the Lord

for the three boys

who are all boy,

and who give me kisses!

Windshields

~~Ellie's Flowers~~

This post from Nancy Wilson was just the visual encouragement I needed today.

"......you start to see all the negatives and none of the positives. Until the windshield gets cleared off, no one can hope to see what is really going on. Once the mud and filth is wiped away, you can see the sunshine, the grass, the blue sky again.
Many blessings. Too many to count."


Lord, keep my vision clear

from bitterness, anger and fear.

The Family: Together

How this article from John and Noel Piper encouraged me today!

Jane Austen Regrets

While I have been eagerly anticipating each week of Masterpiece Theatre since the beginning of the Complete Jane Austen---I regretted staying up past my bedtime for this epidsode. While I have always loved the portrayals of love and more importantly, character in the Austen novels and screen adaptations, I was very dissapointed in the lack of character which this episode charges to Jane herself. She is shown as a shameless flirt, giggly gossip, tipsy with wine peeping in windows, and alternately bitter and hard, and while not exactly happy with her life, not making any apologies or efforts to change. There were several implications of married life being drudgery (not being free to write) and motherhood a complete bore.

This has made me wonder----is this the real Jane Austen, or simply 21st century feminism imposing itself on her life in an effort to understand a life and world so completely different than our own?

I will be researching this in my wide amount of free time----can anyone recommend a good biography of Jane?

The Flourishing Mother

* chrysanthemum at sunset*

Andrea at The Flourishing Mother inspired me with her post today.

Small is the New Big!

Visit this

Tiny Space

for simple living

inspiration!

Home

Between the tucking into bed and the starting of laundry,

between Mr. Wonderful up on the roof in the wind to repair before the rain comes,

and between loads in from the car, I check my favorite feeds.

And here it is, the post that makes me ask:

"Why haven't I told them about her?

She makes me cry *in such a good way*

every time.

Ann at Holy Experience

(as you have time and emotional energy---be sure to read her archives!

Great Reads

Flourishing Mother on how to bless your husband!

Carmon gives a list of reasons why to stay home.

Kimbery recounts God's faithfulness through hard times.

Jana writes a series on Joy in Motherhood