How does the Lord love me?

8/4/11 Let me count the ways. Enumerating God’s blessings in my life keeps me focused on His goodness. That focus feels my heart with thanksgiving. A thankful heart brings peace.

Recent months have been a bit frayed if not totally unraveled. The above path was what brought me peace. This week I have begun to see that even past events that seemed too ugly to be a blessing are indeed just that. I just need to have my heart open wide in gratitude to allow God to bring the “beauty” in. Therein lies the “peace that passes understanding.” (Philippians 4: 7)

Life Interrupted

8/3/11 Isn't that what life is----just one interruption after another. At least of OUR plans and expectations. Thus, when Wynellen gave me this Priscilla Shirer's book Sunday night, it had me at the title. Life Interrupted--Navigating the Unexpected. You see, lately I seem to live in the realm of the unexpected. Just now internet went out and I lost draft of most of this blog. FRUSTRATION!! (Obviously I need this book!)
Just a peek inside to whet your appetite-----I'll blog more when I finish reading it. (if internet connection cooperates)

Page one hooked me as well. ...."would've recognized God's unseen hand in all of it....would've met the frustration or disappointment.....knowing He was behind it all, that this interruption was merely His way of laying a foundation for better things."

...I know I don't want to let one more interruption send me off frantically dodging God's will and missing out on what He's wanting to accomplish in me and through me. I want my life to radiate what happens when God has a person's heart at His full control, when every event or circumstance is simply another way to know Him better and show forth His glory. (Shirer p.13)

Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.(Isaiah 64:4)

What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him (I Corinthians 2:9)

I (you) can't begin to fathom God's goodness as He allows interruptions in life (both mine & yours) but we can be joyfully expectant in our waiting.

Pithy Prayer Points to Ponder

8/2/11 Points have to be pithy because computer, along with our phone, has been off "all most" all day. If the "bundle" does get reactivated, it's brief. Ongoing problem. Isolates me when I think I really need to be connected. I did spend part of my disconnected day reading the last few chapters of Paul Miller's, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracted World.

Hm-m-m-m there's a point to ponder. Is my computer and the internet too often a distraction?

• There is nothing secret about communion with God---IF we live broken of our pride and self will and cry out for grace there will be communion with Him. (p. 147)
  
• It's okay to have a busy life. It's crazy to have a busy soul. (p. 251)
  
• Self-fulfillment apart from God can become an obsession of self as we become touch and supersensitive to self, but insensitive to others. (p. 252)
  
• I don't have control over my heart and life or the hearts and lives of those around me. But God......does! (emphasis mine) (p.257)
  
• Remember Life is both holding hands and scrubbing floors. It is both being and doing. Prayer journals are on the "scrubbing floors" side of life. Praying like a child is on the "holding hands" side of life. We need both. (p. 224)

I have been praying that I would be connected long enough to finish this entry. Pithy punch---in prayer, set the Lord always before you. (Psalm 16:8)----not the computer.

PAINTING BY THE SEA.....

8/1/11.........HIS sea! What a backdrop for the grandboys "painting by the sea night" which YaYa has for them every year.

The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land. (Psalm 95:5)

What a variety of unique creatures God gave for our enjoyment during our week at "big water." The boys painted them all. It was good, indeed!

So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:1)

BEACH WALK (aka---Q T on the move)

7/30/11 Notes to follow when I have "easy" access.

Sandcastles

7/28/11 Notes later...........lots of lessons in building your house upon the sand. Lessons that need to be passed on to the next generation!

Majestic Musings

7/26/11 "Oh Lord, Our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth Oh Lord, OurLord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth"----those lyrics keep tumbling through my mind.

From the sunshine of the day bearing down on my shoulders to the dark expanse of night hovering over us as we sought out the sand crabs----I'm seeing His name written in the sands and the heavens. Evidence of His creation. Pin pricks of starlight----named and known by their creator. (Psalm 147:4) Big dipper to the 9 year old who studied constellations at Pine Cove.

The sun the earth the moon the stars you hold in place
The mighty works of your hand and for your grace, we sing
Oh Lord, how majestic is your name

Just glimpses of His majestic grandeur!

"Big Water" Reflections.......

7/25/11 .......our Monday verse for ruminating

Today's verse is the verse I am praying for friends Beth & Bill, who are on a short term mission trip in Panama.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. (2 Corinthians 2:14)

That verse has me considering the "aroma" that I leave with others. Is it filled with His goodness?Does it reflect HIs sweetness?

GONE FISHING!!

7/22/11 ......well not exactly fishing. Crabbing, maybe. More like corralling---with 6 little grandsons plus 1 nine-year-old friend. Factor in a big white sandy beach, "big water" (the Liles definition of ocean) a swimming pool, scooters, bikes, kites, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, Scrabble, Boggle, Bananagrams, stories (You should see our car!) and many mealtimes & snacks and it's obvious there will be lots of time with family and very little time for blogging.
After months of mourning and weeping, this will be a time to laugh, to embrace and maybe even to "dance" a little. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

Hooray! Hooray!! We're on our way.
Our summer vacation begins today.

Relief to Joyful Expectation

7/21/11 Relief----my favorite emotion.

Lament with me awhile but await the hope of relief through God's mercy.

Selected verses from Lamentations 33:

19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”

32 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
33 For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to anyone.

39 Why should the living complain......

40 Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to the LORD.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven,

56 You heard my plea: “Do not close your ears
to my cry for relief.”
57 You came near when I called you,
and you said, “Do not fear.”

58 You, Lord, took up my case;
you redeemed my life.

I love what Steven Curtis Chapman said, "when our loved ones die they are a greater part of our future than they are of our past!" What a blessing and a relief to know that the grave is not the end of the story.
Trusting the Lord with not only relief but a renewed and joyful expectation knowing that He labors on my behalf to birth a new and greater grace from my grief.