As we come to the end of 2007, I pray that you can look at the year and see the ways God has worked in the lives of you and your family. 

No matter what you experienced in 2007, God took care of you. He provided for you. He held you. He shaped you. He stretched you. He loved you.

Psalm 63

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thrusts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.

I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods: with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.

Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

They who seek my life will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth.

They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals.

But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God’s name will praise him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

And so, as we prepare to enter into 2008, know that whatever you experience, God will take care of you. He will provide for you. He will hold you. He will shape you. He will stretch you. He loves you.

And this is my prayer:  that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God. Phil. 1:9-11

May these words of Paul in his letter to the saints in Philippi encourage you wherever you might  be today. I encourage you to let this be your prayer as you meditate on these words.

Oh Lord,

Let my love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight….

Help me to be able to discern what is best….

Let me be pure and blameless until the day of Christ….

Fill me  with the fruit of righteousness….

I give you glory and praise, oh God….

Give thanks in ALL circumstances, for this is God’s will
for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thess. 5:18

There are lots of things that are easy to always be thankful for:  your family (except when they’re fighting, demanding, sick, loud or stubborn), your warm home (except when the hot water heater goes out and the bedrooms look like a bomb has gone off, and the heating bill comes in), food (except when it’s expensive, creates dirty dishes and gets burned), clothes (except when they’re too small, too big, too out-dated, too worn out and too ugly).

Oh  wait, did that verse say to be thankful in ALL circumstances?

Well, it sounds like I have some work to do on this. I suppose today is a good day to start. 

God bless you and your family this Thanksgiving as you give thanks to Him for the blessings of this life.

Well, today a perfect holiday treat happened at our house. I had just put two pumpkin pies in the oven to bake, and just about the time they started to smell really good, it started to snow! Now, I can normally do without snow, especially as early as November, but I thought it was perfect for today. Yummy smelling pies, snowy day. Very nice.

Later I received another treat. I got to talk to my sister-in-law, who lives in Fresno, CA. I told her about our snow (as she was getting out of her car in her 60 degree weather). I think she might have felt a little sorry for me, having to deal with snow today. And, normally I might have stuck out my tongue at her when she told me the temperature at her house (which she wouldn’t have been able to see through the phone anyway). But today, I’m okay with it.
 
I’ll take my snow and pumpkin pies. The only thing that would be better is if my sister-in-law was here to share them with me.

I’ve always been pretty wimpy. On my high school volleyball team, when we lifted weights, I was consistently the one who bench pressed and etc. the smallest amount of weight. It was kinda embarrassing, although my coaches knew I was trying hard. Whenever we go bowling (like once every three years), I share a ball with my preschooler, otherwise I can’t get the thing down the lane. 

I think I got a little stronger when each of my boys were babies and I had to lug them around in their car seats. The car seat alone isn’t light and my babies were all chunky monkeys within a couple of months. Add a diaper bag, groceries, toddlers and dirty kleenexes and that’s a lot of weight. 

My ten year old is already as strong as me. I found that out when we were wrestling a bit (for the last time).

So, physically, I don’t have much to brag about. I’m okay with it. My husband (and kids) know they have to open jars for me.

When it comes to everything else, I also know my limited strength supply. I know undoubtedly that I would crumble without God to be my muscle. 

The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. 
Ps. 118:14 

Nehemiah 8:10 says in part: “the joy of the Lord is your strength“. Just thinking about the Lord brings enough joy to fill me with strength for the day.

Ever have trouble trusting God? Isn’t life a daily struggle against trusting in yourself vs. trusting in God? WE KNOW GOD’S GONNA TAKE CARE OF US!!! Right? Don’t we know that? He has proved himself over and over that he will take care of us. Trust should not be an issue. And yet it is. 

There are times when I have to say (out loud) over and over “God, I trust you. God I trust you.” Cause I do. I really do. 

One day as I struggled against myself once again, I came upon this scripture:

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore. Psalm 125:1-2

Picture it. Picture the mountain surrounding you. Even if what you are facing feels like a mountain in and of itself. God the Mountain surrounds you and your mountain of dispair. He surrounds you. Nothing can get through his protective mountain.
You are surrounded!

Cheesy Potato Soup, Tossed Salad and Fresh Homemade Whole Wheat Bread. That’s what the boys and I (mostly the I part of the boys and I) made for lunch today.

Our lunches aren’t usually quite this special, but we were very excited about the guests joining us today we wanted to treat them right. A turkey sandwich just didn’t feel right.

Today’s guests were Joel Osborne and Ben Berry. Our family has been praying for them every night for the past five years while they’ve been in Sendai, Japan doing mission work.

What Matt and I loved most about the privilege of sharing a meal today with Joel and Ben (besides the encouragement that being with fellow believers brings) was the lesson it brought to our boys. They’ve prayed for the “Sendai Team” daily since they were babies (or so). We talk about the mission work to them. They’ve put some of their very own money in the special collection plates taken up to support them. We’ve sent treats at Christmastime. How great to have them in our home today so that our boys can see with their own eyes part of the real live Sendai Team!

How great for our boys to hear some of the stories. How great for them to have Joel and Ben ask them questions about their lives. How great for them to watch and listen as we shared and prayed together for God’s direction.

So, what a great lunch!

Hmm. What was for lunch anyway?

Make God a part of everything you do. 

How do we do that?  I’m learning as I go.  I have friends who are great examples of this.  I’ll share some things that I’ve seen them do.

 At Christmas time last year, I made homemade hot fudge and put it in lovely jars and drove around town with my kids delivering them to our friends.  When we got to Don and Susan’s, here’s what happened: Don was at work so he wasn’t there (I realize that seems trivial, but keep reading).  Benjamin, age 7 (who is great friends with my two older boys) came running out of the house to talk; Julia, age 4 (who had been playing dress up and was wearing a very thin princess dress) came running out to talk to my third son.  Susan (the mom) came out to say thank you for the lovely hot fudge sauce, wearing a short-sleeved shirt.   And Audrey, age 2, stayed behind in the house to stay warm (did I mention it was very cold outside than evening?).  So, I’m sitting in my nice warm van while Susan in her short sleeves and Julia in her princess dress and Benjamin (who was too excited to be cold) stood outside and we chatted for a while.  After a few minutes, they were getting chilly and we said our goodbyes.  They got up to their front door and guess what?  Locked.  Benjamin ran over to the side door.  Locked.  Benjamin climbed the fence and ran to the back door.  You guessed it, locked.  Yeah, with a two year old alone in the house and three cold people outside.  (This is the part where I felt like such a nice person and such a good friend.)  So, Benjamin hops into the van with me and we go try to find Don at work (I told you that was important information).  It took some doing to track him down and I won’t go in to all of that, but we finally did and he went and unlocked the door and everyone went in. 

I arrive back on the scene with my kids and Benjamin.  We all run into the house so that I can apologize for the 53^rd time because I feel so bad for causing all of this (it really was that they had just bought a new door and it had a weird lock or something that they weren’t used to, but I still felt really bad).  Susan already had Audrey calmed down, mostly because they had been talking through the window very loudly while I was gone tracking down Don. 

I’m all ready to start discussing what had happened and again how bad I felt about it, when I see Susan has the kids gathered around her (she didn’t even have all the goose bumps under control yet for being outside in December for 15 minutes in short sleeves).  She then launches into a spiritual application of what just happened- being locked out.  She talks to the kids about having hearts that are locked and won’t let Jesus in and how we have to open up our hearts with the right key so that He can be a part of our lives.  Wow.  She’s good. 

A few months later, I saw her do it again (not the getting locked out of her house part, the making a spiritual application part).   An old house on the church property was going to be demolished this particular morning.  I have four boys- we had to go watch.  The whole way over, my boys are talking about really deep subjects like destroying things and what kind of machine it must take to knock over a whole house and other things of violent nature.  I’m used to it by now- it doesn’t phase me.  Anyway, when we got there, several other families were there with the same idea of entertainment for the morning (small town- doesn’t take much to excite us here).  Susan was there with her kids.  She’s just finishing a discussion with her kids about how this will happen to their house someday when it gets too old to be lived in, and how this world is not our home and houses are just houses.  Moth and rust corrupts, thieves break in and steal.  Don’t make for yourselves treasures on this earth, etc.  I hadn’t even thought of that.  We were just going to have some fun.  I’ve learned so much from my friends like Susan.  It’s really not hard to talk about God and his will for our lives all throughout the day in many circumstances.  Everything can have a spiritual application.  It doesn’t have to be a planned time when your munchkins are sitting angelically around the table and you announce that  “it is now time to learn about God.”  Grab opportunities when you see them, say your 30 seconds of encouragement and teaching, then let them get back to making mud pies.  The more you do it, the easier it gets.  Watch out, your kids will start coming up with their own spiritual applications before you know it!