Good Stuff This Week

I got the texture on my kitchen ceiling, and after it dried, I painted it. Wednesday night after work I installed my new ceiling light, and I must say, it looks wonderful! I still need to do something with the walls, but I'm going to put that off until I can see what's available that I can afford. Now I am moving on to painting in my other rooms. A big messy job that involves a lot of furniture moving! What fun!

And yes, we have more snow! I just keep telling myself that the forecast is for upper 60's by the end of the week.

I'm planning a trip to Texas the end of this month. I hope to take two of my sisters along, and we will go to visit my Texas sister and my oldest son, who is also down there. I am also looking forward to seeing my friends and attending the church I belonged to when I lived there!

Read some good stuff this week:
In her April 9th post, Amy wrote about humility. A rare quality in today's world.
Ann over at Holy Experience shared some thoughts on the oil of gratitude that were a blessing to me!

I have some of my best times of prayer while I am driving. I don't close my eyes, though! Coming home from work late one night this week, I heard this song on the radio. It transformed my commute into a time of worship. Talk to you soon!

It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night. Psalm 92:1-2

How Can I Keep From Singing?

Today the sun is shining on yet another layer of fresh snow! Winter doesn't want to give up yet! At least we know it is almost over now!

I finished my re-wiring project, and have moved on now to texturing the kitchen ceiling. Then I will paint it and install my new kitchen light. I have someone coming to look at my chimney, because it needs work. Hope it isn't too expensive!

Sunday evening a chamber choir from a nearby private school held a concert in our church. I love to hear a choir sing because it takes me back to my days in the choir. I enjoyed the entire concert, but one song keeps floating through my mind. I am told it is an old Quaker hymn, a fact I was not aware of. I have loved it for years. Here are the lyrics:

My life goes on in endless song
Above earth's lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear it's music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?

While though the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
And though the darkness round me close,
Songs in the night it giveth.

No storm can shake my inmost calm,
While to that rock I'm clinging.
Since Love is Lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?

Someone New!

A new little person has joined our family! His name is Tate. He was born Monday afternoon, and we are sure glad to have him! I hear his big brother is glad too!

I feel so blessed today to know Ed, a friend from church, who has retired from his job of many years, but is evidently just getting warmed up! All of us who depend on him to do the things we can't do, wonder how we got along without him! He has done several things for me lately, and you have to beg him for a bill! I've been thinking it would be kind of expensive, but worth every penny! Well, he brought it by this morning, and it was very reasonable. Perfection on a budget! Now they are off to Arizona to do some golfing? I love it!

Several Inches of Snow!

As I write this, I am looking out at a fresh blanket of snow that fell during the night. It was a Christmas card sort of night, and I enjoyed seeing it. But oh, am I ready for spring!

I just finished transplanting my cabbage seedlings, so they can grow healthy roots and get ready to put out into the garden. I still have seeds I bought here that traveled with me from Texas! As I worked with the little plants, I remembered how lovely it was just to be at that nursery. Far out in the country where it is peaceful, and with the "lost pines " overhead, the kind of place you want to linger. The nursery is entirely outdoors, and their seed department is a group of old shelves that hold huge cans of seeds! You grab an envelope and scoop out what you want. When you could finally tear yourself away, it was "Y'all come back!"

If I were in Texas now, I would be preparing my garden soil, and that trip to Bastrop would be a priority. My garden was usually in by the middle of March.

Now that I am back home, I will have to wait a while longer. The seed catalogues have been coming in the mail, and I pass the time looking through them. Spring will come again! It always does!

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat
summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease." Genesis 8:22

The Little Things

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Psalm 131:1, 2

I am reminded today that God is not too busy ruling his universe to be concerned with how I live my everyday life. In my daily Bible reading recently I have been reading the prophetic books, and I have to say it can be very depressing! All the death and destruction, gloom and doom. I have thought to myself, "Why don't these people learn? They have seen the result of their idol worship and immorality." Then I came to the book of Amos, chapter 8 where it reads:

Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end, saying, “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

No mention here of any "great" sin; just every day
things where people were falling short of
what God intended for them. If you read on further, it describes all the consequences in store for them.

It is clear to me that the Lord cares about "the little things."

I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that
no one may seize your crown. Rev 3:11

Photo: Bunny tracks in the fresh snow

After some unseasonably warm and muggy days, a cold front has cleared the air, and we are once again enjoying crisp fall weather. On my morning walk today I was reminded again that eternal life begins at the moment of new birth. We have not been saved to some "pie in the sky by and by" thing, but we are daily walking in newness of life!
The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
Psalm 126:3

Alone

Frequently, people will say to me, "I don't know how you manage being alone." I usually say something like: "I'm used to it now" or "I've been alone for a long time." That really doesn't answer the question they imply, and I want to take a minute to answer it here.

Simply put, I am never alone. I am almost constantly aware of the presence of the Lord in my life. I see His beauty all around: the flowers, the changing seasons, beautiful little children, friends and family to enjoy, and lovely memories of those gone on. I am reminded of His goodness. How blessed I am - I have need of nothing! My home, my church, my job - it's all good! I try not to focus on the negatives, but I take time to appreciate the "little things." I find this very moving.

Last evening in church, Pastor Jake spoke of Abraham and his obedience when God asked him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. He could have ignored God, or decided that he misunderstood. I'm sure in his mind he was questioning why God would take away his only son, the fulfillment of His promise. But Abraham remembered God's faithfulness to him, and decided to trust Him. When God saw Abraham's willingness to obey and his trust, he provided the ram to use as the sacrifice instead.

If we take a minute to review how blessed we are, it is easier to trust God for our future. If we notice how God has turned things around for our good, it will replace our fear with joy and peace.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:14 - 21

The annual wagon train to town has begun. Now soy beans, and later on corn. The cool evenings have arrived, and we watch as summer slips into fall. I am reminded of God's faithfulness as time passes.

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,

and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

blessed are all those who wait for him.

And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity

and the water of affliction,

yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore,

but your eyes shall see your Teacher.

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,

"This is the way, walk in it."

Isaiah 30:18, 20, 21

The Past.. and the Future

The Past...
Yesterday my sister Myrna and I took a day trip to Howard, South Dakota. We were pleased to find a pretty little place there in the middle of the prairie. My sister's passion is geneology, and her
research has uncovered the location of a good number of our ancestors. They have gone on now, but it was still nice to visit the little town where they once lived and to see their final resting places. Maybe someday we will meet them face to face!


We have had a lot of rain in the
region, and the ditches were
full of sunflowers - one of my
favorites!


We drove back to Sioux Falls then, and met my youngest sister, Linda and Aubree, her sweet little granddaughter, for a little shopping, and catching up over a snack at Perkins.




It was kind of a long, busy day, but we surely enjoyed it!


The Future...
Friday was my last day at the dairy, and tomorrow I start a new job in the graphics department of a newpaper in a nearby city. I am so excited, and thankful for this new opportunity! I will miss the good people I worked with, and the beauty of the countryside, but it is time to move on. There will be much to learn, and a totally new schedule to get used to, but I know that God, who gives blessings, also extends His grace.

BLOOMS IN THE DESERT

For God's eyes...
Years ago, I lived in an isolated, country place. I loved how peaceful and secluded it was! On weekends I would get up early and put on some sturdy boots and go out exploring. I never knew what I would find, but there was sure to be wildflowers everywhere. I remember feeling as if I were the only person in the world! Certainly few people had seen these secret places. Yet God had taken the time to put flowers and trees and butterflies there, even if no one ever saw them!
I read that Hudson Taylor once said that God made flowers to bloom unseen in the desert. His point was that God always does His best. If He always does, shouldn't we? Yes, life is humdrum, and one tires of the same old thing. It would be easier to take a few "shortcuts." Life is hectic, and it would be easier to leave some things undone. Who will ever notice? God sees even when no one else does. Shouldn't that make a difference?
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men...it is the Lord Christ you are serving." Colossians 3:23,24
photo: a sunflower in a friend's garden