All Because of a Kiss

I leaned over and kissed him on the temple.  The kiss went from something to do to a place to be.  So I stayed there a minute - my lips on his temple.

  I closed my eyes.  

This is one of my favorite places.

He opened his sleepy eyes and smiled a sleepy smile.  It is also one of his favorites.  I left to go study and thanked God for this man in my life.  For his love for the Word, his love for all of our kids, and for thinking I'm cute after all these years.

It all started with a lingering, taking-it-all-in kiss.  It quickly became a worship time for me.  The overwhelmingness of the morning slowly went away as my thoughts went from reasons upon reasons to give thanks. 

It continued up I-45 and I felt so full as I thanked Him over and over for all that He has done for me.  For His faithfulness.

He overwhelms me.  

Before David became King he found himself in a pickle more than once. 

 One of those times found in I Samuel 30 he was about to be killed by his own men. 

 He was distressed (sound familiar?) and then in verse 6 it says that he 

encouraged himself in the Lord his God. 

One of the definitions for encouraged is to strengthen.

When we are full of distress, or stress, whatever you want to call it, we are to encourage or strengthen ourselves in the Lord our God.

One way to strengthen or encourage is to meditate on all that He has done.  

I have found that when I begin to contemplate His goodness, I can't help but 

PRAISE HIM.    THANK HIM.

If you are tired of seeing photos of my family, you may stop here.  I'm visual, so seeing their faces when I'm thanking God for them is just better for me.

Thank you, Jesus, for 

braids in brother's beard,

  hayrides,

sweet little girl clapping, yelling "hayride!,  hayride!"

(makes me smile to remember)

son-in-law who loves my precious daughter,

my boy with his boy,

wrestling in the floor,

girls excited about twizzlers in the stockings,

morning grocery store runs with sweet baby girl,

family pictures,

family pictures,

and more family pictures,

four girls with my genes,

six kids that I've known longer than anybody in this whole world (tear),

nine kids that I pray for fervently,


extra kids I pray for fervently,

little boy who loves that I love him,

spider man kisses,

aunt love,

and spending time with her.

Linking up with Multitudes on Monday

Oh Land of Rest

We sang about heaven today.  All the old classic hymns about heaven:  On Jordan's Stormy Banks, Oh They Tell Me of a Home, This World is not My Home, and In the Sweet By and By.  Such sweet songs of longing for our home that is not here.

Singing about that yearning for Peace.  For Rest.  For Better.

Then his guitar took us to the next song:  We'll Work Till Jesus Comes.  It came waking us from that dream of our coming reality.  There is work to do.

Oh land of rest, for thee I sigh!  When will the moment come When I shall lay my armor by and dwell in peace at home?

I can't lay armor down yet.  I can't rest from fighting the battle because the
battle goes on until I take my last breath.  The battle continues whether I choose to get on my knees and fight ~ or not.  There are days that I am tired, or busy, or just flat lazy.  I can tell when there have been several of those days.

It's not time to lay our armor by.  It's necessary more now than ever before to take up our armor and fight for ourselves, our husbands, our children and all those other ones He has given us to love.

One day soon, though; one day very, very soon we will dwell in peace at Home.

Sigh.

That Your Faith should not be in the Wisdom of Men

My head was killing me.  I honestly couldn't remember the last time it hurt so bad.  We were sitting in the doctor's office where we were told there was a fairly new chemo that he could use for up to five years.


I knew the critical stuff had been discussed so asked to be excused to go find some kind of medicine.  Anything to make this pain go away.


I made it to the first chair in the empty waiting room and sat hard.  Just four days earlier on Thursday, I was told to take him home and prepare the kids to say goodbye.  From the way they talked he wouldn't be around to hear church bells calling to worship.  Just a few days they said.


Now five years?  Wonderful news but I had kids who needed ready hearts to deal with one of the most difficult things they would probably ever walk through.  What was right?  Days or years?  I needed to know so they could be ready.  So I could be ready.


God.  My head.  It hurts.


Finding over the counter remedies took back seat to being near to Him.  I opened my Bible, my security blanket for many months, and began to read.  I wasn't looking for anything specific, I just needed to breathe it in.  Like smelling salts.


Then I saw it.

. . . that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but 
in the power of God.

They didn't know.  God and God alone knew when it was time for him to go home and God and God alone would be faithful enough to have me ready and have my kids ready.

It was one of those cries where you don't plan it, you don't shoulder shake or face grimace.  One tear rolls over and slides down and then all of it's friends roll down right behind.  Emptying the hurt with each drop.  A peaceful cry.  A pain lessening cry.

The head pounding quieted as the cheeks were bathed.

I look back and thank Him that the waiting room was reserved for only me.   Thank Him for a doctor who gave hope when he knew there was little hope to give.  Thank Him that we had just exactly the amount of days we needed to be able to say good bye with relief that he no longer hurt.  Rejoicing for him.

Even now, so overwhelmed with His love.  So overwhelmed.

Linking up with Sweet Blessings.

It Matters

When is it too late?  Do you daily show your husband you want to be the wife God has laid out for you to be?  Or is it too late and he's tired of the waiting, tired of the disrespect?  

Do your kids know without a doubt that they are more important than your to-do list and your own agenda?  Or is it too late and they are no longer connected physically ~ or maybe emotionally? Or both?

When is it too late?  Too late to love deeply, to serve willingly, and to sacrifice daily.

Connie, a friend living in New York sent me a link written about a house fire on Christmas morning that took the lives of a woman's three little girls and also her parents.  I wept as I read and felt a fraction of the pain she must feel.  

There was a part of that post that jumped off of the page to me:

Because when the last of these is suddenly taken from us, what will be left is what we did. 

Not what we meant to do. 

Not what we intended to do. 

Not what we thought about doing.

But what we did.

It's time to start doing and being what you were intended to do and be.  We are not guaranteed tomorrow.

It matters.  It matters to the ones you love and it matters to Him.

Word for the Year

I was reading a post by Jenifer over at Sweet Blessings and she told of a practice she started a couple of years back where you have a word to focus on for the new year.  It sounded interesting so I began to pray about what word might be good for me this year.  It didn't take long for the word to come to me.  As a matter of fact, I honestly believe He was already having me focus on this word since way before Christmas.


The word straight to my heart was  SACRIFICE.


sacrifice |ˈsakrəˌfīs|


noun
• an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy : we must all be prepared to make sacrifices.
• (also sacrifice bunt or sacrifice hit) Baseball a bunted ball that puts the batter out but allows a base runner or runners to advance.


What does it really mean?  There are some who think this could be our last year on this earth.  Probably not, but what if?  What if at the end of this year we stand before our Judge and He says that every thing we thought was sacrifice was only our duty?


Oh me.


Sacrifice what?  Give up what?


Give up eating too much of the wrong thing for a closer walk with the One Who is Good?
Give up time to listen to a hurting sister?
Give up television or internet to hold sweet daughter?
Give up grudge over someone who mistreated those I love?
Give up feelings of jealousy so I can encourage instead of belittle?


This is not sacrifice ~ it is what I am supposed to do.


Oh me. 


He gave me sacrifice so I would learn sacrifice.  


Really learn sacrifice.  


It's something I must do.  Something I give up.  Something I offer.


There is one sacrifice though, that seems easy enough. 


To offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving is to give honor to the Lord.  


A good one to start off with until I get the hang of what all sacrifice really entails.


 ~ I'm so thankful today for six days of noise because of six days of family,


 ~ for shopping day with all the girls, and


 ~ a clean bedroom after months of being store room for   retreat stuff and Christmas      
     stuff.


~  For new sheets and a


 ~ new word.


 ~ For a hubby who helps me see the doughnut and not the hole.


 ~ For button for the radio on the steering wheel helping to avoid Christmas Shoes.


 ~ For a friend who encourages and helps pray for my kids, and


 ~ new hope for aching arms.


 ~ For the definition of sacrifice that has to do with baseball.