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This Summer we beat boredom by doing some crafts and projects. We got this book at the Library, and it has lots of cool recipes for making things. The girls made "guk", which is really cool stuff. They also made designs with beads that you iron together. We painted rocks, and Levi and Abby made a cool Lego faris wheel. The best part of Summer was having the St. John's come visit and having Levi and Lydia go back to Washington with them. There are pictures in the slide show of them. It's been a nice, calm Summer. We've swam, read, took naps, made things, and have done a few projects around the house. I love Summer. Oh yes, and we watched a lot baseball!!!!!!
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There is a passage that really jumped out at me the other day. It said, "God doesn't count us; He calls us by name." He is a personal, Heavenly Father that speaks to me. He calls my name and leads me to Him. I'm safe with my Father. I belong to Him. He hasn't left me to figure things out for myself. He is calling me and leading me. Am I listening? Am I believing? Am I obeying? Do I trust His voice? The shepherd walks right up to the gate. The gatekeeper opens the gate to him and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he gets them all out, he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice. They won't follow a stranger's voice but will scatter because they aren't used to the sound of it." Also, Hosea put it well: I'll call nobodies and make them somebodies; I'll call the unloved and make them beloved. In the place where they yelled out, "You're nobody!" they're calling you "God's living children." I am His child. This is home! Please listen to the Switchfoot song on the side. This song is so special to me. I love it.
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I can't stop asking God, "What do you want me to do?" Why can't I just be? I grab and hang on to control to only find myself out of control. Why do I need control? Why does control make me feel so good and secure? Is that bad or good? Order is so important to me. It's like I can't function unless everything is in order. Since it's almost impossible to keep 4 big kids, 1 dog, 2 cats, 2 guinea pigs, and 1 husband in order, I spend lots of time feeling out of control. Again, I'm trying to do instead of just be. Be in His presence. Be in His love. Be in His grace. Be in His joy. Be in His peace. I need to let what God has already deposited inside of me, radiate out. I need to stop trying to control everything around me and drink in who these wonderful people are. Love them right here, right now, exactly where they are. My flesh says~Anna is messy, Lydia is bossy, Levi is lazy, Abby is withdrawn. But my spirit says~Anna is creative, Lydia is a leader, Levi is easy-going, Abby is peaceful. I don't need to make them do, but let them be who God is making them into. I'm not in control, but God is. He does a way better job than me. Can I trust Him? Will I trust Him? I don't want to miss who they are. I don't want to miss out on who I am and who Lewis and I are together. I want to abide in Him. When I abide in Him the fruit is plentiful. I can't work my way to it, but just abide and be in His love and fruit will come. |
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We love our animals and they are a big part of our life. Here are some picturs of them. My kids love them all very much and spends lots and lots of time spoiling all of them. |
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Levi loves to hold Hobbes like this.
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This is Dwight and Angela. Dwight gets out of his cage to visit Angela, but he can't be with her until she is 12 weeks old.
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Lydia drew this picture. I love it. My life has been a roller coaster lately~ more so than normal. I've laughed probably more than I have in a long time, which is good. Laughter is good. And yet I've also had times of feeling very uncertain. It's in those times, my Papa keeps telling me to be still. Just be still and let Him meet me right in my times of uncertainity and longing. I was looking outside the other day at a bush I planted last Spring. I am not good at gardening, although I would love to be. It seems everything I plant dies. Well it doesn't seem~ it does! So sad. |
Anyways, this plant did horrible all Spring and Summer. In fact, I was getting ready to just pull it up, but decided to just leave it. I looked out the window the other day at it, and lo and behold, it's thriving! I was so excited. I think change is hard. This plant went through a time of transition and change and was struggling, but it has made it through and is now beautiful. I was so inspired. I thought, "Yes, I'm going through a time of change and transition, but I'm going to be okay." I might not look so pretty for awhile, but that's okay. Am I willing to be seen as the ugly, struggling plant right now? I hope so. I hope I can do what Papa is asking me to do: Be still and know that He is God. I hope that in this time I can still look around and see all God's wonder and joy around me and drink it in. I hope that I will be willing to sit and learn all Papa wants to teach me instead of worrying about what I look like. I pray that I will open my heart, soul, and mind wide open to Papa and let Him fill me up. |
We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment He has thrown open His door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand ~out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting out praise. Romans 5:1-2. This is my view from my backyard. Isn't God an amazing artist? He takes my breathe away. Wide Open Spaces is the name of a book I haven't read yet. I plan on reading it after I finish The Ragamuffin Gospel. God has put me on a journey. He has told me to get out of my boat and start walking on the water. I read a quote the other day on a blog that made me nod my head and smile. It said, "I'd rather leave a few footprints in the water than my butt prints in the boat." Yep, me too. I am throwing my doors wide open and God is right there ready to meet me. And, you know what? He's always been there. Am I ready to receive all He has for me? No, I doubt it. But, I am in the process of truly understanding His amazing love and grace for not only me, but to everyone. Everyone! Every ragamuffin He created. What freedom to just love people for who they are, right where they are. How simple is that. Didn't Jesus tell us that we fullfill all the law when we love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselve? |
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This is my new school area. I love it! I've been wanting to redo it for awhile, and I finally did!
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This picture jumped out at me the other day. When our computer isn't in use, it starts to scroll through pictures we have taken. I happened to be walking by when this picture scrolled by. It made me stop and smile. I rejoiced and smiled over my sleeping daughter. I love her and delight in her. As I was thinking those thoughts, the Lord dropped in my heart, 'That's how I feel about you. I rejoice over you, and you make me smile." I'm reading a book right now called Do You Think I'm Beautiful by Angela Thomas. This is a passage from the book: He sees you over there and longs to hold the gaze of your heart. He thinks that you are breathtaking. Have you ever watched a mother hold her newborn baby and lose herself in the waves of immense joy and love? His emotions over you is even more consuming than that. He calls you by name and invites you into the center of His grand plans for your life. He is swept away by your beauty. He has given you other lovers as gifts, but He is the only Lover who can fill your soul. He is the only One who will ever be enough. His love promises to make you whole. Who would want to miss a love like that? Not me. |
What a sweet and precious Lord I have. He sees me and He love me just the way I am. He delights in me. He created me for His good pleasure. |
I just finished The Shack by William Young. It's one of those books that after you read it, you want everyone you know to read it. If you ever questioned why a good God would allows bad to happen, this book might open your mind and heart to the answer. For me, it opened up my heart and mind a bit more to understand the love my Heavenly Father has for me. I was once again reminded that His ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts higher than my thoughts. God cannot be contained in our understanding. He reveals Himself to us, however, bit by bit, percept upon percept, if we allow it. This book revealed a bit more to me the heart of God. There are so many little passages that touched me. Here's one at the end of the book that touched me: Mack, if anything matters then every thing matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my (God's) purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again." Our life has purpose. God created us for a purpose. |
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BEFORE:
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Levi got his haircut yesterday. He actually wanted it a bit shorter. |
Although I gave him a bit of a bad time about how long his hair got, I do like it long. I was just getting a bit nervous about how long he was going to let it grow. I need to stop worrying about silly stuff like that. 
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Although we live in the city, I love that our house backs up against a farm. There are plans to run a highway right through it. |
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Sabrina (left) does not like Hobbs (right). However, there seems to be a change lately. Not sure what has happen, but Sabrina is now tolerating Hobbs. Sabrina has been with us about 8 years and Hobbs 1. I love our kitties.
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The Lord has told me to do something: Stand. It's been an emotional and difficult last few weeks, and in the midst of it the Lord has told me to stand. Just stand. I wavered a bit, and my knees almost buckled under me a few times, but I did not fall over. I stood. In the midst of my anxious thoughts and fears, the Lord's steady voice told me to stand. Then today He gave me this: 2 Chronicles 20:12: O our God, will you not exercise judgement upon them? For we have no might to stand against the great company that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You. 15-17: ...Be not afraid or dismayed at this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's..... You shall not need to fight in this battle; take your position, stand still, and see the deliverance of the Lord.... The Lord focused my eyes on Him and told me to take my position in Him and stand. He would fight my battles. He would deliver me from the hands of the enemy. I didn't need to do anything, but look to Him and stand steady. How many times do I try and fight my battles? Or run ahead of God? Or turn back from the enemy? Do I really think that I am more capable of defeating the enemy or taking care of my problems than God? Lord help me when I do think this way. My God is more than able and capable of taking care of me. When the enemy comes in and causes fear and doubt ,the Lord tell us,"I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind." A sound mind tells us to stand, a fearful mind tells us to run. The Bible also tells us in Ephesians "Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."
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Psalm 145: 16 "You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing." How sweet to know that the Lord's hand is open to me. Me, Marcia. He knows and sees the longings of my heart. He even put those desires into my heart, and then He satisfies them. He knows that He alone can quench my desires, so that I can only be fullfilled in Him. He draws me into fellowship with Him, because He loves me. Some desire are not for this time, but in the waiting, He teaches me to trust in Him and believe that He knows what is best. He takes those times to purge me of my lack of patience, unbelief, fear, pride, and all those things that hinder me from growing in Him. I can exchange my life for His. I want to trust this year that the Lord has good thing in store~that His hand is open to me. What stops me from receiving all the Lord has for me? Why do I hide from the One who only has good for me? Why do I fear that He won't take care of me? Why do I live in fear at all? My desire this year is to be free in ways I never thought I could be. I believe the Lord has good for me and I will find it in fellowship with Him. |