Grace in the Midst

1 Hear my prayer , O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee. 2 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily. 3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. 4 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. 5 By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. 6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. 7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. 8 Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me. 9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping. 10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up , and cast me down. 11 My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass. 12 But thou, O LORD, shall endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations. 13 Thou shalt arise , and ha...

914. 8 years with the love of my life (no, honey - I am not being sarcastic - promise.) 915. Making the boys laugh while pumping gas 916. Blake having a blast on a new friends trampoline 917. The boys "washing" the kitchen window 918. A friend who inspires me spiritually, physically, and entrepreneurially (not sure if that is really a word?) 919. Blake singing Hallelujah  while  playing with a box car around matt's sleeping head 920. Resting on our hammock while the kids slept 921. A family walk across the Belfast bridge 922. An absolutely GORGEOUS weekend 923. Enjoying our backyard 924. Long conversations about faith and life with my sister 925. My grandmother thinking about our family on her shopping trip 926. 2 friends getting settled in their new houses (on the same weekend) 927. 3 day weekends 928. Matt letting me move the living room furniture - AGAIN 929. A man capturing the moment (examining a caterpillar crawling across his finger) on the Belfast B...

      Don't worry - I'm not going to publish a running sins list :)...however, I have been thinking about my sin a lot more than usual lately.  And I don't mean that in a bad way.  I'm feeling convicted - not condemned.       I want to lead a blameless life.  There was a time where I found the word blameless frustrating because I had it associated with perfection, which - though God's word tells us to strive for perfection, we all know is actually impossible on this side of heaven.  I do believe, however, that God's word indicates that we can lead blameless lives.  Though I am still in the process of figuring out exactly what that means, I have a feeling it has a lot to do with bringing our sin before the Lord on a regular basis.  I just started reading a book called "Respectable Sins" by Jerry Bridges - I am only half way through the first chapter and I'm already feeling excited.  Yes, a book about sins is exciting me....

1  I will sing of your love and justice ;    to you, LORD, I will sing praise . 2  I will be careful to lead a blameless life— (I am thankful that we can be blameless by bringing our sin before the Lord on a regular basis...)   when will you come to me?    I will conduct the affairs of my house    with a blameless heart . 3  I will not look with approval    on anything that is vile.    I hate what faithless people do;  ( I  hate, or strive to hate what they DO, and I DO - not hate myself or the people who commit faithless acts)   I will have no part in it. 4  The perverse of heart shall be far from me;    I will have nothing to do with what is evil.   5  Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret,    I will put to silence; ( I'm afraid at times it is my very own lips that I am having to put to silence...and thus far I haven't...

891. Ugly/Beautiful - Boys are up earlier than usual this morning/they are healthy and happy 892. Ugly/Beautiful - It is Monday morning and I'm feeling behind already/everything I am behind on is in actuality a blessing (we have clothes, we have dishes, etc...) 893. Starting to understand the words - A sacrifice of praise 894. Long overdue catch up conversations with dear friends 895. Cole playing contentedly with a toy train for 45 minutes 895. Worshipping with the praise team 896. Chrissy Martin helping with the boys (which made worshipping with the praise team possible) 897. Denise Martin helping me stay on track with the music (I regularly lose my place) 898. Enjoying my morning routine with the boys (even on a Saturday morning) 899. Decluttering our electronics @ during the free Ecylcle day 900. Conviction 901. Tanjas post responding to my post on pride 902. Learning about the Incourage blog, specifically the bloom book study on Sabbath 903. Remembering that rest ...

Wow. This is good stuff. This is what God uses. Yes, I will be the first to admit that I have a major pride problem as well. I started calling it my "she Tiger" when I first started noticing it growling in the corner at me and rising up when things did not go my way.  Scared the living daylights out of me when I realized how bad a problem I actually had. But this is where Jesus steps in and says "Ah, perfect! Now I can use YOU! You are awake and ready.  Jesus is an awesome Tiger trainer! He is the only one that can put that Tiger to sleep. One thing I have noticed was for a season ...it was a long season like two years or so that I thought the Tiger was dead and stuff was happening in the work God had me in. He moved me on and I started realizing I was getting too used to the freedom and the blessings and victory in prayer! Uh-Oh ....as I wandered out to the edge a bit I started hearing something I forgot about and soon enough ...

     I am an open book.  I wear my heart on my sleeve.  You can see right through me.  Three phrases that many of you might think describe me.  Well, yes and no.  It is true that I am more open than many and that I often talk about the elephant in the room, but there is an elephant in my heart that I casually mention here and there, but not even I knew how big he was until recently.  His name is Pride.  I have been praying that God would take him out of my heart because there is not room for him, but let me just tell you - if you have been warned not to pray for patience, then I beg you - don't offer up your pride to God.  He will take it.  I am joking, of course, about not bringing your pride before God - but not about the cost of doing so.      About two weeks ago I noticed that Pride had moved into my heart, and I'm not talking about the good kind.  Now, he (Pride) had lived there for a VERY VERY long ti...

873. The word of God encouraging me to come before Him with PRAISE and THANKSGIVING 874. The ability (though I don't always use it) to do so - no matter what is thrown my way. 875. Asking God for help in front of and with my boys 876. The process of learning how to put off the "old man" and put on the "new man" 877. The growth that comes with teaching your children concepts that you are still learning yourself 878. Blake greeting me every morning with arms spread wide 879. Simplifying 880. Flower toast (butter two sides of a slice of bread, use a cookie cutter to cut a flower, put both parts in pan, add an egg where the flower used to be, flip it...wahlah!) Protein + Fiber + Big Smiles :) 881. Confession and forgiveness 882. Blake and Cole wanting me to cook everything on the table so they can "help" 883. The pan my Aunt Marie bought me that makes that possible 884. Simple recipes 885. Swinging in our hammock with Blake crawling all over me 886. The...

852. A new friend reaching out 853. The common ground fair with 3 adults and 3 kids (wow, 1 on 1!) 854. Babysitting for the weekend barely working out, but God providing the perfect solution(s) - thanks Laura & Jen!! 855. A friend who cares enough to say whats on her mind 856. Blake sliding (or trying to slide) down a hill on a piece of cardboard 857. Cole imitating his big brother 858. Getting the the Parenting Matters conference on time (barely) 859. Being surrounded by humility 860. Old friends who encourage as they grow 861. Inspiration 862. Hope 863. Being on "the same page" with folks I just met 864. God's grace 865. Knowing I have a lot of growing to do, but not being in a hurry...a day (or a step) at a time 866. Feeling (and understanding the difference between)conviction vs condemnation 866. A new day 867. Matt and blake sitting together on a boulder in a large pond 868. Rest 869. Blake, Cole & Daddy building a river 870. Toy dump trucks 871. "ch...

 1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.  2  Worship the LORD with gladness ;   come before him with joyful songs .  3 Know that the LORD is God .  It is he who made us , and we are his [a]; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving  and his courts with praise ;   give thanks to him and praise his name .  5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever ;  his faithfulness continues through all generations.

1  The LORD reigns ,    let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim,    let the earth shake. 2   Great is the LORD in Zion;    he is exalted over all the nations. 3  Let them praise your great and awesome name—    he is holy .   4  The King is mighty , he loves justice —    you have established equity; in Jacob you have done    what is just and right . 5   Exalt the LORD our God    and worship at his footstool;    he is holy .   6  Moses and Aaron were among his priests,    Samuel was among those who call ed on his name ; they call ed on the LORD    and he answered them. 7   He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;    they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.   8  LORD our God,     you answer ed the...

829. Snuggling & reading to the boys first thing in the morning (while feeding Avonlea) 830. Actually doing my morning stretches 841. How much God loves me even on the mornings that I don't have it in me to do either 842. Avonlea eating rice cereal - she is growing so fast (perhaps thats ugly/beautiful) 843. Blake singing about the 10 commandments 844. Playing the game - Mommy says (like Simon says) 845. Blake and Cole entertaining themselves for hours with a squirt bottle 846. Two friends "just happening" to stop by at the same time (neither knew the other was coming) and pouring out some much needed encouragement 847. Looking forward to getting away with Matt and learning more about this crazy adventure of mommyhood at the Parenting Matters conference 848. A chat with a friend about "piecemeal-ing" our lives - figuring out that we will NEVER be just like anyone else - no matter how much we respect them - and that in actuality we take little bits ...

Sometimes I let things build up and say things that are discouraging to my husband, I'm afraid this morning was one of those mornings. This morning I'd like to focus my gifts list on him because I want him (and all of you) to know how blessed I am with who God has given me as my spouse... My husband is an incredible blessing to me in so many ways... 806. He is creative, talented and a hard worker 807. He shows me his love in wonderful ways around our house....he's made me a:           - pantry above my stairs           - a rack to hang my dishes           - book shelves           - a laundry room that is set up in a "weird" way, because he knew it would be easier on me           - an incredible wood floor & carpeted stairs (he learned how to lay a wood floor and carpet just by talking to an employee at Lowes           - a ce...

Just how we all long to start our mornings... an entire $9.00 bag of frozen blueberries spilled ALL over the kitchen floor.  But, this time the morning went quite differently than it would have a few months ago.  I can't remember the exact conversation, so I'm going to tweak it a bit, but it was something like this... BLAKE - "Mommy, why you not mad?" (I had dropped the blueberries, not him). ME - "Well, mommy is trying to learn how to think happy thoughts even when bad things happen." BLAKE - "Why?" ME - "Because God gives us SO many great things to be happy about...sometimes even things that seem bad are really good - like spilling blueberries." BLAKE - "Did God make you pill the bwueberwies?" ME - "I don't know, but I know that He gave us the blueberries." BLAKE - "Why?" ME - "He gives us LOTS of things - like food to eat, and toys to play with, friends to hug" B...

806. Waving at our wonderful Morrill friends from the back of our bean bag truck 807. Visiting and sharing things I love @ the Morrill Harvest Festival 808. The boys kissing Avonlea (one boy on each of her cheeks) over and over again as she giggled contentedly 809. Avonlea being an angel as she hung out with me in our bean bag/jockey tent 810. Friends who helped 811. The way Cole says thank you when he means to say ok 812. Ugly/beautiful - our oven breaking/we can buy a new one because of our tax return 813. Ugly/beautiful - the fly that is flying around my head DRIVING ME CRAZY - i'm sure there must be something beautiful about it...but I can't think of one right now - any suggestions?

1 Sing to the LORD a new song,  for he has done marvelous things ; his right hand and his holy arm  have worked salvation for him. 2 The LORD has made his salvation known  and revealed his righteousness to the nations. 3 He has remembered his love  and his faithfulness to Israel;  all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.  4 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;  5 make music to the LORD with the harp,  with the harp and the sound of singing, 6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—   shout for joy before the LORD, the King.  7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it,  the world, and all who live in it.  8 Let the rivers clap their hands,  let the mountains sing together for joy; 9 let them sing before the LORD,  for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in  righteousness  and the peoples with equity .