In All Things

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
I Thessalonians 5:18

When you say your wedding vows, you have a misguided youthful optimism that the "for poorer," "for worse," and "in sickness" will all be minimal, short-lived, and bearable. But when you feel as bashed upon the rocks as this water from a mountain stream, you must still give thanks in all circumstances.

(photo taken by my son on a weekend camping trip with our church)

Submission

The Imitation of Christ
Thomas a Kempis
Book 1, Chapter 9
Of Obedience and Submission

"Fancies about places and change of them have deceived many."

This is not something a city girl who longs for the country wants to read. I'd even rather live in a small town than in the suburbs. Maybe it's all the concrete I see every day. Maybe it's that I can go months without seeing our next door neighbors. Maybe it's all the cars I see. Driven by people I don't know.

Kempis speaks in this chapter about obedience. He admonishes us to obey God out of love, and not mere necessity. And yet, it's sometimes difficult to obey and submit without grumbling under our breath, isn't it?

I was just speaking with a fellow ballet mom this evening about her desire to move to the country. I never knew this about her, and here we both were talking excitedly about our mutual dreams of country life. She wants a little house on the property for her daughter to live in, I want one for my mom to live in. She wants to raise sheep, I want to raise alpacas and lavender.

Traversing the concrete to return home, I recounted my many blessings. I will go outside tomorrow and look for swelling buds on the trees, reminding myself that the color green will come to our yard in a few months. I'll look under the dormant lavender plants for volunteer babies that sprouted undetected last summer, and dream of where I can transplant them come spring.

And then maybe I should make some banana bread and take it over to our neighbors.

Giving Thanks

God's grace.

Last Saturday, we had driven out into the country to glean the fields at Miller Farms and pick some free food. Unfortunately, so had 40,000 other people. The generous Miller family certainly didn't have that much parking space. They didn't have that much food either. So they had to call in a sheriff to direct traffic and turn people away.

Two nights ago, a friend from church called. Another friend of hers had been one of the fortunate few to pick some food last Saturday, and she had more than she could use. My friend brought us some of the excess food. Thanks to the generosity of others, we ended up getting food from Miller Farms after all! He provides!

I put the traditional five kernels of corn on everyone's plate yesterday as I finished up the last of the table setting. Thirty minutes later, I sat there, eating my fill of food, gazing at those kernels. Thankful for the perseverance of the Pilgrims. Thankful that I've never, ever had only five kernels of corn to serve my children. And knowing full well that it's nothing I have done to deserve this bounty.

It's just God's grace.

God's Divine Design

We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the culture of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never allow that the haphazard is anything less than God's appointed order, and be ready to discover the Divine designs anywhere.

Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest - November 14

Our son likes to take pictures of clouds and the sky, and every so often he'll send one to my phone from his. He took this one when he was in the mountains about two months ago. As one who appreciates the never-ending variety of skyscapes offered in Colorado, I am so pleased that he sees beauty in it, too.

He and I were in the car this afternoon, talking about the Stealth bomber, the cruising altitude of commercial jets, the elevation of Mt. McKinley vs. Mt. Elbert, and the unusual cloud shapes to the southwest, over the foothills. Typical 14-year-old boy talk, I suppose. But then, he said something that made me pause.

"I'd like to fly through a sunset."

It was something I'd never thought about. Imagine that. Flying through a sunset. It sounded so poetic. We wondered if the clouds were as colorful while you were in them, or if the colors were enhanced by gazing upon them from the ground.



This is a sunset photo he sent me last week. Not bad for something taken from a moving car! When he got home, he said,

"It looked better in real life."

Things often do look better in real life. And just as that sunset was God's Divine design, so is the fact that our son is our son, and so are his poetic statements about life. The sweet little details of life. Real life.

Chocolate and Books

It just doesn't get much better than this!

This is our daughter, enjoying some hot chocolate at a coffee shop this evening. She and I were reading and chatting while we waited for her big brother at Scouts. She didn't know I took this picture and I love her look of concentration.

It was just a very nice and simple evening that I wanted to remember.

Spring Break

Overheard in our house this week...while one parent was lying on the couch reading and sipping wine, and the other one was 'slaving' in the kitchen..."When do home school moms get spring break?"

Then, I ran across this from Peter Kreeft's The God Who Loves You:
We moderns often tend to forget eternal necessities since our lives are surrounded by human artifices, changing and changeable things.

I thought, Aha! This is why I desire to live a simpler life in the country. I want to get away from a life full of human artifices. I want to flee these 'changing and changeable things' and be closer to that which does not change. That which is of God and IS God.

Spring Break is a human artifice. Now, I'd like a Year of Jubilee as much as the next guy. But, Spring Break is not guaranteed in Scripture. Instead of grumbling that I don't get a vacation I need to be thankful for my many God-given blessings.

(By the way, I look NOTHING like this when I am in the kitchen!)

"What Is That To You?"

Sunday's Gospel reading was from John 21; where Jesus appears to His disciples while they are fishing and later reinstates Simon Peter. Simon Peter, seeing John, asks, "Lord, what about him?"

Jesus answers, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow Me."

These words of Jesus became very real to me many years ago when we struggled with infertility. I saw friends and family all around us getting pregnant, while we weren't. I often asked God why we couldn't we get pregnant, too. When I read these words in John 21, I could picture Him saying, "If I want her to have 10 children, what is that to you? You must follow Me."

I often forget that the same sentiment applies to me today. Sometimes I wish I had more stylish clothes, a newer car, a nicer house, vacations, fewer bills, family members who were believers, etc.

It doesn't matter what things I wish I had or what trials I am experiencing.

It all boils down to this: I am to follow my Lord, Jesus Christ.

Contentedness

"Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'"
Hebrews 13:5 (NKJV)

Two syllables. Starts with "c" and ends with "t." Similar in form, but a world apart in action. Covet or be content. Which are we going to allow to rule our lives?

If our conduct is to be without covetousness, that includes not only our actions, but our facial expressions, our words, and our tone of voice. In addition, we are to be CONTENT with what we have. We can't erect a phony facade. We must be content. Content like a kitten curled up on a quilt in the sun. Content like a baby settling in for a nap in mama's arms.

How can we do these seemingly impossible things? He promises that He will always be with us. God will never leave us, give up on us, renounce us, or abandon us. NEVER.

(Congratulations and blessings to my cousin, pictured above, who is in Guatemala, adopting her new baby daughter. This post is NOT an editorial on what's wrong in her life! I just liked the picture of contentedness; both on the part of the daughter and the mother!)