memories to share

"'For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord,  'plans to prosper you and not to harm you,  plans to give you hope and a future.'" Jeremiah 29:11

thankful for...

verses that stick in your head to encourage you through your walk...

time alone to just sit and ponder on God's plans...

friends you can help move from one place into another...

husbands that are hearing from God and you see transforming in front of your eyes...

softening of the heart so we can receive...

sitting on the bed while Kylie plays guitar and we all sing praise songs...

jobs that keep us thankful for mercy, grace, and forgiveness...

weekends away with the mother-in-law for some relaxation...

final exams almost done...

worship practice at church...

opportunities to share your testimony...

kids making cinnamon rolls in the kitchen...

freshly mopped floors...

technology that keeps you in touch with the ones you love in another country...

the love of the Father...

the forgiveness of the Father...

the peace that I feel at this moment in my walk...

the idea of a new bible study with my BFF's...

just enough grace to start the next morning afresh and new and know that because of it you will make it through...

Let us look to the future with the knowing that God will guide us through it...

Let the river open up and flow down on our lives with fresh water...

Jennifer

Sisters

Sisters making memories that entail laughter.........and telling each other their secrets....a sister is a born friend with a bond that can never be broken.

  I always wanted a sister.  I never dreamed that it would be me with 3 girls.

It was the middle daughter's (gracie's) 8th grade social. A dance where the dress needed to be hemed.

It was the oldest the 16 year who rushed in hard after school one afternoon to take an old dress and make it new for her younger sister.

I ran fast to get my camera wanting to capture this moment of wild grace.

They sewed together with giddy grace until that dress was the perfect!
In my heart I couldn't help but wonder would they have the friendship that grows from love?.....Will they hold each other up when their hurt is more than they can bare?

The two that stand together....a bond.........with their double grins. And me too. Thoughts dance through my head how me with my messy life was given the priviledge of birthing not one but three who will one-day be women......women whom I pray will serve the most high God!

They took an old dress and made it new again.......just like God does for us....he takes the old and makes us the new in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17;
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

all of grace,

Robbie

thankful for:

coffee grains in my coffee

teens fighting over who sits where in the car

husband who plays the radio loud

clogged toilets at the beach

card games

family time

sharing

teens laying across you bed wanting you to scratch their back

sunscreen

homemade clam chowder

rain

breeze from the ocean

anniversaries

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Living Waters

John 4:13-14 (NIV)

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

     For the whole world cannot meet our needs....it can't solve our problems.....it cannot give us our dreams.......but the Lord says HE can if only we will drink from the living waters.

May all your weekend wanderings be one of being open to tasting..................the waters that spring up into everlasting life.

all of grace,
Yahweh Sisters

    

"Guilty"

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"- even the 8 month 75lb golden retriever-"Dodger Grand-Slam". In the picture above, you see him in the background-looking away. Knowing that taking a "nibble" out of my shoe was wrong! Sin feels good for a minute- then you pay the consequences- sometimes they are very costly! Well- I provided "mercy" and did not beat him with the chewed up shoe- (just kidding.) Actually- I'll probably just give him the shoes- to finish off what he started.

I was talking with a "mom" yesterday at the football field. Our boys played together when they were 2 years old. Thinking back to that time- I remember- asking Noah what he did in preschool that day. " I pusha Kelley" Well Kelley is the teacher, and I wondered was my two year old "pushing" the teacher? But actually  "pusha Kelley" was her pushing him on the swing.

Our conversation yesterday was brief, we made small talk:   " How's your summer" Boys this and boys that........ We said our goodbyes and walked away.

 Later talking with another mom I was told something that troubled me...."hurt me."

     How easily we are ensnared by the enemy..........we fall hard.......right into the trap of the hissing one.....and then there is pain.

 . Sometimes I wish I didn't "listen," or had the boldness to walk away.  I hate gossip-  How can I "truly walk" with God - if I am constantly being ensnared by Satan's traps- whether I'm doing the sin- or getting caught up in other people's sin. Sin will keep popping up....... like weeds that you can't kill...it is up to us to resolve. We can't keep eating from the world's intoxicating table. It draws us in........then we are the full..........full to the brim with the things of this world....and there is the no room for the real food.

 Now knowing this.....how am I supposed to act?  Do I ignore that person?  Do I feed my flesh?

They need God too. We all sin- but do we recognize it- do we truly repent for it?  Prayer is the way....."relationship."  Casting all our cares on him. It makes the weak "STRONG." We must pray everyday because even something as simple as football season starting again can make us fall!

Prayer is the only thing that can send the enemy running. And asking for forgiveness for our sins is a MUST! ?

"Jesus Son of David, Have Mercy upon me!"

Amy

Matthew 7:3-5

New International Version (NIV)

³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

 

What is it that you are living for?

This was the question that was posed to us in church on Sunday..."What are we living for?  What is it that we are working towards?" (Dr. Michael Brown).

For some, it may be a bigger house, an increase in pay, a promotion at work, a healthy family, a loving spouse,....the list could go on...But that is not what I want us to look at today.  If you were standing before God at this very moment and He asked you, "what are you here for?"....what would your answer be?

What are we bringing to this earth that we have been placed on to live?  Are we just floating through each day from week to week, living for the moment and not knowing what is around the corner?

Are we striving for satisfaction in our relationships or in our jobs?  Are we doing things that will change the world and leave it a better place than before?

What is it that we are set out to do?  And, are we working towards that goal?  What are we doing to achieve the fullness of what it is that we are striving for?

In I Corinthians 9:24-27, it says "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.  No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." (TNIV)

Are we running the race with everything we have been trained with?  Are we training for the race of  a lifetime?  And in the race, guess what...you don't have to compete with your neighbor.   It is just you running the race for the ultimate crown of a lifetime.  You will win if you just run!!!!

Think on what it is you are running for.  The things I mentioned at the top are not necessarily bad things to hope for...we all want a healthy marriage and healthy children and a good job to support our family...but is it all that we are working towards?  Are these things at the top of your list?  If it is, then something in our life needs to change.  Where is God in the running of the race?  Where does He fit in the picture?  Are we moving in life in the direction of heaven? 

If we are placed in a company that we started and we feel that God put us there, then make a difference there...running the race.  If we in a job that we feel that God put us in....then find out what we are there for and...run the race.  If we are stay-at-home moms raising our children through homeschooling, then do it with all that you have and...run the race.  BUT KEEP GOD IN THE CENTER OF THE RACE....Keep Him as your focus for running.  He is the best trainer in the world and the best reward we could achieve.

Run with all that you have within you.  You are not competing with the guy running beside you...it is a solo race...Run it!

Jennifer

The Prodigal God

I am reading a book called The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller. It goes into the story of the Prodigal Son but hits on both brothers instead of just one and explains things about both brothers and what God is trying to show us with this story.
I read a sentence that really stood out to me. He is talking about the elder brother and relating it to the "elder brothers" of the world. He says that the younger brother in the story knew that he was alienated from the father, but the elder brother did not. The younger brother came home expecting to beg for forgiveness and admit he had done wrong. The elder brother thought he had done nothing wrong and did not feel that he needed to ask for forgiveness for anything. Elder brothers in the world do not go to God and ask for forgiveness or healing for their condition. They do not see anything that they are doing wrong and find nothing wrong with their "condition".
The sentence that stood out to me was this, "If you know you are sick you may go to a doctor; if you don't know you're sick you won't - you'll just die." (page 66).
Think about that...not just as a physical sickness or not just as needing a physical healing, but spiritually speaking. If we know that we need to be cured from sickness, disgust, sin, hurt, pain....we go to the doctor, to God...to heal us from all of that. BUT, if we don't know that we even have a problem, if we think we are going along in life with no problems...being "good people", doing "good deeds" and living a "good life", then we see no need to go to the doctor, when, from what I've read and know, there is only one person who has walked this earth with complete wholeness and without sickness and sin and that is Jesus Christ.
We all have "sickness". We all have sin from murder or the mere simplicity of not asking God into our lives and living our lives without the Holy Spirit guiding us. We all slip from "perfectness" sometimes even as strong Christians. We have sin. We all sin. YES...EVERYDAY.
If we DO NOT know we are sick, if we are going about thinking we have done no wrong, then we are living with a sickness that is going to kill us.
Think deep with me for a minute....think spiritually and not physically...we are sick and going to die if we do not realize that we are sick.
Let's avoid being "elder brothers", and if we are elder brothers (and I think we may all carry some characteristics of an elder brother and a younger brother sometimes), let's realize that we are NOT PERFECT PEOPLE, and let's go to the doctor and get help before we die.
Good and easy book to read.

Trying to not be an elder brother in life,

Jennifer

times to be thankful for

As July creeps on by reflection is the way to ease the rush of August....seeing God's Glory in so many moments.

     Watching and listening........summertime is family gatherings with messy grace unraveling with joy.
How beautiful moments are turning into everlasting memories.  The teens who have turned into "dream catchers."

Seeing His grace,
Friendships that make you belly laugh
Girls piercing each others' ears
5 year old playing baseball in the yard
Teenagers going after God with all they have
Overflowing with love
Trying to not be so judgmental
Weekends at the cabin with in-laws
Waterfalls
Frizzy hair days
Clothes all over the bedroom floor
Swim meets ending
Blankets to snuggle up with
A bible that falls open to just the right chapter
Journal readings of past times
A cool day after all of the summer heats
Clouds that bring rain
Toe nail polish
Showers to refresh and cleanse us
Husbands that work hard all day
And dinners around a dining room table sharing

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