"your patience possess your souls" Luke 21:19

I love My Utmost for His Highest and today's really struck me, so I am cut-n-pasting it here:


"your patience possess your souls" Luke 21:19

When a person is born again, there is a period of time when he does not have the same vitality in his thinking or reasoning that he previously had. We must learn to express this new life within us, which comes by forming the mind of Christ (see Philippians 2:5 ). Luke 21:19 means that we take possession of our souls through patience. But many of us prefer to stay at the entrance to the Christian life, instead of going on to create and build our soul in accordance with the new life God has placed within us. We fail because we are ignorant of the way God has made us, and we blame things on the devil that are actually the result of our own undisciplined natures. Just think what we could be when we are awakened to the truth!

There are certain things in life that we need not pray about— moods, for instance. We will never get rid of moodiness by praying, but we will by kicking it out of our lives. Moods nearly always are rooted in some physical circumstance, not in our true inner self. It is a continual struggle not to listen to the moods which arise as a result of our physical condition, but we must never submit to them for a second. We have to pick ourselves up by the back of the neck and shake ourselves; then we will find that we can do what we believed we were unable to do. The problem that most of us are cursed with is simply that we won’t. The Christian life is one of spiritual courage and determination lived out in our flesh.

Rescued into Jesus' arms...

...deep sigh...
One of the sweetest, most lovely of Jesus' servants has died. And though I cannot speak of her without tears, my heart is both sad and relieved. Her rescue from this world, while a relief from the pain of cancer attacking her body, is a great loss to the people living on the Earth still.
This post is like a journal entry for me, I guess, I just need to let all the thoughts out of my heart on this one.
Sandy. She owned the Bible book store in town, The Lighthouse. And at the back of the store she had another business, Hair Success. She was a beautician. So when we needed a book or cd, we went there and when we needed a haircut, we went to Sandy.
It was one of the charms of this small town. She was one of the charms of this small town. A sweet, christian woman giving encouragement, haircuts, and love. Not just sweet people that you know love, but the love of Jesus radiated out of this woman. We fell in love with her the first time we got our haircut there. She is true one. Know what I mean? T.r.u.e. Real. Authentic. Beautiful. An amazing reflection of Jesus. Have you met people like that? They are amazing. Please, Lord, make me like you. When I grow up, I want to be like Jesus.
Not long ago she found out she had cancer. She went through treatments, still working. She stopped treatments, still working. She was in pain, still working. One of the last couple of times we went in, when we were getting ready to leave she spoke some precious, heart-rending words of encouragement over me. She spoke sweet words over me?! Shouldn't I be speaking encouragement to her? She had to sit down in the middle of the haircuts to rest! A.mazing. Strength. Strength of Christ. She never complained. Always smiled.
I WANT TO BE LIKE THAT!
Sorry, I want this to be about her. But, Lord, make me like You! When you meet someone who loves and adores their Savior and His love emanates from them, your inadequacies are glaringly evident. I heard a teaching on the scripture of Jacob wrestling with the Lord, and how he had finally learned not to run away or lie his way out of difficult situations, but he held onto the Lord until he received the blessing. This is where we need to strive to be, go to the Lord and hold on until you get the thing right! Wrestle with the Lord until you get it! Hang on until He changes you and you grow closer to Him and better for it! Lord! Lord...I pray.

Thank You for blessing me with meeting your beautiful servant Sandy.

 I know that You love her abundantly and when she came into your presence You spoke those beautiful words that we long to hear, 

'Well done, good and faithful servant.' 

Oh Lord, those words... 

I thank You again for the lessons of the bible study on Daniel and the understanding of Your delivering us from the 'fires', either by keeping us from it, or bringing us through it or blessedly taking us by it. Your sweet daughter Sandy... You longed to bring her home and finally you were able to wait no longer. 

You rescued her. I love You for it. 

And meanwhile,we are the worse for the wear, we will have her no longer, and oh, my, what a great loss. But we had her and were loved by You through her. May we be better for knowing her, in remembering, she will continue to inspire us to shine our light in the darkness as she did while she was here. And one glorious day we hug on her again, when we finally, blessedly get our call into Your arms, out of this world.
Thank You, Jesus.

New pics

Here is a beautiful close-up of Phoebe's nother lost tooth! 

Scrumptious!

~Goodness, my heart is all tangled up in these four! ~

Such a young man. 

So proud of him! XO Nate!

And this one... about to really grow up on me. Holy cuteness, Batman! And really a wonder to know!

I got one!

(In above pic, Phoebe is holding her egg-drop project. AS YOU CAN SEE SHE ALSO JUST LOST ANOTHER TOOTH! ISN'T SHE SO DANG CUTE!?! yes, her boiled egg survived the toss off of the roof... in case you were wondering!)

I have been seriously considering closing up my blog. I actually have pretty much already decided to, but first I have to save my pennies b/c I found a site that prints the blog out for you in a book! Which I am really excited about, but it will need to broken up into 2-3 books since I have had it for a couple of years now! :)

Anyway, I just don't usually think of things to blog about and if I do, I don't have time. Or I put it in abbreviated form on FB and that takes care of it. But today I was looking through the piles of papers brought home from school by my sweets, and came across a Synonym paper of Phoebe's. I thought you would enjoy it (though you'll have to understand some spelling, though that is what makes the last one so funny!)

My Synonym Book, by P.M.
DaD-DaDDy
freezing-cold
lite-brite
mom-mommy
yell-screm
alike-same
beautiful-prity
sad-unhappy
angry-maid
I love the last one because I think, at least I have, at times felt angry about being the maid, even though she meant 'mad'. Its one of those funny mis-spellings. Thankfully, I am rarely a 'mad maid' anymore, God has sweetly taught me to be so thankful for the people making the mess that I don't mind cleaning up the mess hardly at all! And I have heard that one day my house will be empty of people and then I will long for these messy days again. So there. In Jesus' name, Amen.*
My friend, Michelle, said that her daughter always ends her prayers with 'In Jesus' name, Amen.' and she accidentally ended a message she left on someone's phone that way. I love it!

Love you! In Jesus' name, Amen!

The girls have cut another apron string (feels like a heart string to me, sniff, sniff, why is it you want them to grow up but you cry when they do? mothering is such sweet sorrow... anyway) and they are walking to and from school. Jacob walks with them a few blocks until their directions change and here is another wonder to me, Jacob came home the other day and said, "Mom, you need to tell me when the girls aren't walking home after school because I wait for them." Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle! I had picked up the girls that day and run to the grocery store and he had stood at the corner they meet at waiting for them! (*insert more motherly sniffling here*) They are all growing more responsible for each other and it is a sweet thing to watch. Ellie came home the first day that she and Phoebe walked home together and said it had felt good to her to make sure Phoebe got home all right. It made her feel more responsible. 

Well, Hallelujah!

Lord, I love these sweeties.

In Jesus' name, Amen!

(tugs at your heart, don't it)

T.M.I.

Just warning ya!
The other night, Nate and John were in the living room and I called John into the kitchen, requesting help opening cans. He came in, I was cooking at the stove, and he cozied up to me. Before he moved on to the task at hand, Nate came into the kitchen and said, "That doesn't look like opening cans, unless its a metaphor for something that I don't want to know about."
Yep, he went there. And as hard as I was laughing, at the same time astonished that he made a joke of that nature! To us, about us. Hm. And ha!
Oh, my. OH, MY!
Take care! (and... hope you get to ....open some cans. ;-)

Happy Birthday DadDad

Happy Birthday to our family patriarch! (ooooo!)

He is quite the man. 

Strong, gentle,

 wise,

 quick to smile,

 great laugh,

 always ready with a lap for a grandchild,

 adored by those that know him!

A man of character.

Such a great example. 

Always has a fun idea and smile and laugh for Jacob.

"He's a funny Grandpa" ~Phoebe

Sweet, and he always makes me laugh, and he loves us, and he's a fun grandpa. ~L.E.

Nice, fun, supportive, loving. ~Nathan

We love you, DadDad. 

Have a super birthday. 

We miss you so much!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Life Lessons and Love

http://www.incourage.me/2010/02/a-few-words-about-motherhood.html

Above post brought tears to my eyes, because of the truth I read there about me.
Motherhood has been so good for me. (Good for changing me!)
God is so good and has been so gracious to me.
I love my God and my children... and my journey. (and my mother in law, who said to me at one of the many times in my mothering when I cried over another failure, she said something to this effect, hm... so you're not perfect. In her ever-loving, gentle way, which cannot be expressed here, on-screen, in type, she was saying saying to me,

 "yes- you will make mistakes. It is ok. God's grace is enough for you as well. You have not ruined your children. Forgiven and covered in grace." 

Whoa. Wow.)

Prayers and blessings to you today!

i love these gorgeous children

and this man who made them with me!