I love my trees. For way too many years we lived without one tree in the backyard. The yard faces south so you can imagine how we fried out there by the time the hot afternoons rolled around with the sun beating down on us. It was almost unbearable in the hot summer months.

But one year, as a Mother's Day gift, because that is what I wanted, hubby put in a dozen or so lovely Colorado Aspen trees. They grow tall and straight up, 3 feet a year, so now I have a tall wall of trees. And no this is not pictures left over from the fall. These are the fresh new leaves that they are sprouting right now. They come out bronze, and over a couple of weeks they will turn green. And in the fall they become a gorgeous shade of yellow with some burgundy and red thrown in as well.

All summer long we have protection from the heat as we sit in it's shade and shadows and a shelter against the strong westerly winds around here. There is nothing I love more than to take my book and my coffee out to the chairs we keep close to them and just rest, even if there is at times a half dozen kids playing around me.

Everytime I'm out there I'm reminded of God's promise to us if we would come and draw close to Him:

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will
rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my
fortress,

my God in whom I trust"

Psalm 91:1-2 NIV

In Which a Catchy Title Eludes Me

Wow, I can't believe it's Thursday already. Where on earth has this week gone. It's not like I even have an excuse of being so terribly busy, because it hasn't been. It's been the same routine as always but my days have sort of just disappeared on me and today my mind is a big ole blank. So I going to do what every good little blogger does when they're mind is mush and I'm just gonna go ahead and do a laundry list of happenings .

-As much as I love cooking this week has been tough slugging in this department. Oh I have lots of ideas I can cook, I just haven't felt like it. I'm just gonna go right ahead and blame it on the crazy weather. It's getting the blame for everything else, so why not? After firing up the grill a couple weeks ago and getting my tastebuds going for a more springy summery menu that involves barbque sauce, it was discouraging to have to resort back to a more winter menu due to the barbque being under a foot of snow! Hubby was a sweetheart and picked up pizza last night. Thank you Hubby! Pizza, of course, is a year round meal!

-this Saturday the youth group is doing their highway clean up fund raiser. My flesh crieth out! I am NOT looking forward to it. Being there at 6:30 in the morning on a Saturday, trekking through ditches for 6 - 8 hours picking up garbage. It is hard work! But on the positive end, it raises enough money for our small youth group for the entire year. We don't have to do any other fund raisers and it helps them to attend youth conferences, have their annual camping trip and do various other activities for basically minimal cost to us parents and in some cases, no cost at all. That is good news for my budget. So I will be out there with the youth and other parents at 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday, shivering and drinking the biggest travel mug of coffee that I own. And I must remember the ibuprofen for my poor hips! Am I sounding like the matyr yet or what?!

-after much evaluation, thought, prayer and study, hubby has decided he'd like to start a home business. I cannot say how much this makes my heart tremble. Not because I don't think he can do it. I have full confidence that with the Lord leading him, he can. But what I'm struggling with is myself. More to the point: getting my "self" out of the way. To say I've become a little set in my ways and in my routine with me working at home for the last 19 years is an understatement. I have my little pattern for the day all mapped out. I do things a certain way and certain things at specific times. And now the thought of him also working at home and an upheaval in my routine coming about is really upsetting me. Yes, he has been unemployed for 3 months and has been around the home, so you'd think I would be used to it by now. But in my mind it was a temporary situation and I was just "putting up" with it until he got a job. But now with a home business, the situation is a little bit permanent. Which has me really frazzled, and it's coming out in all sorts of ways that I don't like seeing in myself. At all. I never really thought of myself as an inflexible or selfish person, but to my shame, that is exactly what I'm seeing manifesting. Sigh. I'm wondering if just maybe, this has been buried in my heart and God finally wants to root it out, so is allowing all this so that the work might be done. At my ladies group the other night, I realized that it's really easy for me to tell people to trust God and what He would be working out in their lives but now I'm faced with it, and it was like God was asking me am I going to trust Him to work out the best? Am I going to lay down things at His feet the way I so easily advised others to do? Was I going trust Him with my heart and allow His cleaning to occur without fighting Him every step of the way? Romans 8:28 has been churning in my heart:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him,

who have been called according to His purpose."

In the side of my Women of Faith Study Bible, it says about this scripture:

"Let's be crystal clear here. God works everything in believers' lives for their "good". This doesn't mean that everything works for pleasant lifestyles, enjoyable futures and happiness. The "good" here, though it isn't defined or specified, is to be understood as a spiritual and eternal "good". God uses everything in believers' lives --and often the difficult things in their lives--to remake them, to transform them into the likeness of his Son. Everything that happens to us, the easy, the difficult, the grief, the pain, the joy-- has one purpose: to make us like Jesus."

And isn't that interesting when the book am I reading right now is all about spriritual transformation. Couple that with the the fact that the chapter I am on is obediance to God. That book, if you're interested, is this book. And I would reckon that God is trying to tell me something. All I can say right now is "But for the grace of God I go". May I be willing to let Him do the work!

-Whoo boy, I didn't think I'd be writing all that in the last point. LOL. Sheesh. I was going to do a couple other points about exciting things like laundry and surviving the dreaded parent teacher interview last week but I all of a sudden feel exhausted! LOL.

So, let's just get the focus off me now. That's a little more soul-baring than what I'm used to. So. What's new with you guys? LOL.

Weather Phenomena and a Winner!

Today dawned still with a ton of snow, still -7*C (17*F) but bright and sunny. I'll take the bright and sunny. By Saturday it should be 13 C (62*F) above. I'll take that too.

Crazy weather. It has been quite the multiple personality this year. I know it's Southern Alberta but this is extreme even for us. It's been setting all sorts of records around here.

I sure am glad the Lord isn't like that. There is no blowing back and forth, no wondering if He will be changing with the weather, so to speak.

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever."
-Hebrews 13 : 8 NIV

and again:

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the
heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
-James 1 : 17 NIV

There is great comfort in that. A security. That no matter what is happening in my world. No matter what storm is swirling around me, I can count on God to be the same. I can count on Him being trustworthy, keeping His Word, a Rock, a strength, because he is not shifting around. He is Who He says He is. If you feel life storming around you, grab ahold of the One who will not change with the storm. He can be counted upon. That makes me happy.

And this also makes me happy. Today's the day. I get to give away the wonderful Steven Curtis Chapman CD "This Moment". Drumroll please. And the handy dandy random number generator has chosen:

That would be Donnetta! Congratulations. I'll be contacting you. I'm just sorry that I couldn't give a copy of this great CD to each and everyone of you who commented. (Sandra, keep trying girl!)

Now I'm off to clean up the mess from the other weather phenomenan that struck my kitchen this morning. A tornado roared through and I'm pretty sure it was Tornado Tia, although with the mustard it might have been Hurricane Jay. But I'm sure when asked later today it will be identified as those unwanted guests who tend to show up around here: Notme and his sister Ida Know.

It's All About the Choice

I just opened up my utility bill. I just fainted. Excuse me while I come to.

Usually I never open the bills. I let Dave do that. He's the one who does the actual physical running around and paying of it, so I just basically let him do it from start to finish. But our utility bill, which includes electricity, water, sewar, and gas, was late this month. And when Dave phoned about it last week, they said it was late because it had been flagged and there was some changes that had to be made to it. We are on a budget amount. I don't know if you have that where you live, but if you don't it's basically where they look at your usage history and you pay a set amount each month rather than a whole bunch in some months and not so much in others. It evens out your payments throughtout the year.

So I opened it. Because I was curious what and how much. You know what I mean? Shouldn't have done that. Because this is what I saw: SPECIAL MESSAGES: Budget settle-up. Please pay the total amount due. $1,148.41.

Yes, that was One Thousand, one hundred and forty eight dollars and forty one cents. Our budget amount monthly for the year was $133.00. So we've already paid them over 1500 dollars.

So now they want $1,148.41 more. Because they did not estimate it high enough. Now Due.

Now I have a few little emotions and stuff running through me at the moment.

Shock being one. What?! They think my Ohio Buckeye tree out in the backyard is growing hundred dollar bills this year as it's fruit? Or maybe that I have a printing press in a back corner of my basement?

Fear & panic being the major one. Where?! Where on earth is the average person supposed to just come up with that kind of money? If you know, please inform me because I really need to make a stop there. And fast. Because you know, it's "now due".

Anger. Oh yeah. Do I feel mad. How could they have miscalculated by about $100 per month. Shouldn't they suck up their own mistake? How is it fair and right that they should think it's okay to hand someone a bill like that? And then give you about 3 weeks to pay for it.

So when I phoned the company, which is really phoning a call center, and very sweetly tried to get info out of the nice young lady, I was given the "miscalculation of the estimate answer". So while biting the inside of my cheek off so that I could remain nice with her, because it is not her fault and my hubby who works for a call center has taught me to do, I tried to wrap my brain around this. All the while hearing her tell me that what the lovely billing department will do is up my bill by more than $100 per month to pay this little "Now due" off over the next year and oh yeah, they'll also up my monthly rate even more so this won't happen next year again. "Is there anything else I can do for you? Thank you, have a nice day" she says.

Okay, fear. Panic. Mix in a little mad. Add more fear. More panic. Agitate slowly until well blended.

What? What is that I hear. Just barely whispering in my heart. Barely making it past the anger, shock and fear? * "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" . And right on it's heels came + "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenver you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."

But God! My head and flesh are screaming. I want to get mad. I want to bawl somebody out. I want to negotiate and force them to take their bill back. I want to report them somewhere, anywhere. My flesh wants to worry and fret and wring it's hands. So God, can I? Indulge the flesh and emotions just for a few days and do all this and get it off my chest? Again, very gently and quietly: ** "Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything by prayer and petition [definite requests] with thanksgiving continue to make your wants known to God". ++"Consider it wholly joyful...."

Oh. So I guess now I have a choice to make. Do I indulge the flesh and emotions and wallow in it or do lift it up before the Lord, and leave it there may I add, and trust Him and His word? It's all about the choice.

Dear Lord, please give me the grace to step by step trust you with this little "SPECIAL MESSAGE". With your grace ('cause I'm going to need it) help me to give it to you and to leave it with you and trust that you will take care of it, however you will. Lord I realize that this is simply a difficulty everyone faces in life. Unexpected bills. Help me to find joy in it by accepting it for what it is -- a place of learning for my soul and an opportunity to watch you work in my life. And Lord I just want to lift up others who are going through so much more. Kelli and Heather come to mind, as well as others we come across in our blog travels. May your Spirit of grace and mercy and peace be upon them and may your joy be theirs as you lead them through their trials. Thank you for you Word. Thank you that it is a comfort. In Jesus Name, I pray. Amen.

*Philippian 4:6 NIV

**Philippian 4:6 Amplified Bible

+James 1:2-3 NIV

++James 1:2 Amplified Bible

The way to the girl's heart

P.S. A post script at the very top of my post. Now how weird is that. But I'm getting it out of the way right away. For whatever reason, blogger has decided it won't let me into "Edit Html" and it's doing weird things like adding a ton of blockquote thingys at the end of my post. So my pretty post is now not so pretty and I can't fix it. Does anyone know how to break into the html? So please bear with me the crazy looks of my posts until they or I figure it out. Now onto my real post!

The clock is ticking and it is 4 days counting down. On Monday we will be driving Kay, my 17 year old daughter, to a bus depot and putting her by herself, on a 6 1/2 hour bus ride that will take her away from us for 3 weeks. Emotionally, I feel like I'm on one of those big swinging boat rides at the fair, the one's that swing back and forth, back and forth. And with each swing there is that pause, that hover, at the top of the back swing, where I hang with that specific emotion before I go plunging , with hair whipping speed back the other way and my emotions are hovering on the opposite end. Back and forth, great happiness and anticipation of what God will do in her life to dread of what I will ever do without her here to thoughts and prayers for her safety to letting go. Back and forth, back and forth. I'm getting whiplash of the emotions from all this.



This last week I've been busy making some of her favorite meals, at her request. So we've had taco salad one night, soft tacos another. We're yet to have perogies, and then nachos the next night. Hmmmm, I see a definite pattern of cheese and sour cream here. A girl after my own heart.



I've said before how I love to cook, but dislike baking. Well, Monday saw me whipping up a batch of her favorite brownies. A lucscious two layer blend of chocolate on the bottom, and butterscotch on top and this time I iced it for her, which I usually skip, with penuchie icing. That was one of my "I need to show her her how much I love her before she goes" moments. It was worth the effort. I got a hug. A hug. From a 17 year old.



As I was putting the ingrediants in the bowl for the brownies, I was struck with how amazing baking actually is. Here was a bunch of different ingrediants being dumped together into a bowl. Unrelated ingrediants, some of which that on their own, are totally unpalatable, bitter and unenjoyable. Some are sweet or pleasant tasting and linger on the tastebuds. They are all being blended together. And put together they still aren't a great thing. Wet and fairly unpleasant tasting. But when they are put in the oven, when heat is applied for a designated amount of time, ahhhh. Out comes a totally delectable, mouth watering creation.



Life is like that, our Christian walk is like that. Our circumstances, be they sweet, bitter, salty, spicey or basically unnoticeable, they are blended together in our lives. The ingrediants of our experiences. It's a bit of a mish mash. They might seem totally unrelated. But then the Lord puts a little heat to them. Let's us go through a few things. Let's us be uncomfortable for a bit. And if we trust Him, trust that He knows what He is making, and trust that He knows the exact amount of heat, and the exact length of time to let us experience that heat, then our lives to can come out of that heat as something wonderful. Something appealing and to be desired.

"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 NIV

Blonde and Brunette Brownies

Brunette Layer:

2 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1 pinch of salt, 1/4 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup butter or margarine

Melt the butter and cocoa together over low heat either in the microwave or in saucepan on the stove. Beat eggs until foamy. Add all other ingrediants and blend well. In a greased 9x13 pan, spread the batter. Set aside

Blonde Layer:

1/2 cup butter or margarine, 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

In a clean bowl cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Stir in flour, salt and nuts. Batter will be thick. Drop by large spoonfuls on top of the chocolate layer in baking pan. Spread as best as you can without pushing two hard as you don't want the two flavors to mix. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Brownies will start to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool in pan.

Ice if desired.

Now I need to go help my baby, I mean, young lady pack.

Different view

It's a busy day today. The kids are all going camping with their youth group this weekend, so trying to get them organized and packed is an adventure in negotiation, debate and darn right just pulling out the mommy card and putting it into play.



This is my kid's ideal list of things to take:

sleeping bag, pillow, themselves.

Here is my list:

sleeping bag, pillow, extra micro fleece blanket, warm pajamas or clothes to sleep in, 2 pairs shorts, 2 pairs pants, 3 tshirts, underwear, extra socks, bathing suit, little mittens, hats, sunscreen, bug spray, meds with a complete list of instructions for each med, sunglasses, hand towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, anitbacterial wipes. x3.

UPDATE: See I knew I'd think of even more. How could I have forgotton hoodies, warm coat or rain coat and runners and sandals or a spare pair of shoes, you just in case they "fall" in the lake and need dry shoes.



See the difference? When I pack, I use the boy scout motto: Be prepared. Which for some reason makes the rest of my family, inculding hubby at times, roll their eyeballs with a heavy sigh or "Oh mom" thrown in for good measure.


I think it's all to make myself feel better and not worry about them. Like if they have everything but the kitchen sink, that will ensure that nothing will happen where they will need the item that they did not bring. But when the rubber meets the road I cannot control events by my worry. In fact, God calls that a sin. My worrying is not going change any little thing about them being away from me or their weekend. So what is a mom to do? The answer as always is in God's word. In 1 Peter 5:7 in the Amplified Bible it says:

"Casting the whole of your care--
all your anxieties, all your worries, all your
concerns, once and for all--
on Him;
for He cares for you affectionately, and cares for
you watchfully."

He cares for me watchfully and affectionately. He cares about my concerns. But I need to give Him those concerns once and for all. That means no running up to Him and grabbing it back, people. You leave it there with God. When you cast something, the dictionary says you throw or fling it or shed it off. God asks me to throw all my cares onto Him. That means they are away, far away from me. He will handle them. He is the same God who tell us that we are written in the palm of His hand. *Isaiah 49:16* And if my children are written in God's hand then there is no better place than they can be.

Burning Bright

I had an angel appear at my door yesterday and his name was "Mr. Gas Man". How do I know he was an angel? Because he showed up within the hour of me calling the gas company when the girl on the line told me it could be up to 24 hours. I was never so happy to see a person in uniform, I tell ya. The thought of no heat for 24 hours made me just a touch panicky. If it was just me and my family where my kids are all teens didn't bother me so much. After all we could foist ourselves upon good hearted relatives who showed any inkling of feeling sorry for us. But it was the thought of the kids in the dayhome being in a progressively colder and colder house that was worrying me. But all is well now. Mr. Gas Man had it fixed in 10 minutes.



The cause of all the frigid cold shoulder from the furnace? The filter was so full it shut down the furnace. Now how embarassing was that. And to make it worse, ours is a newer type furnace that does not have a pilot light you light. (No wonder I couldn't find it!) It has an electronic starter. And because the filter was so plugged, the limiter just heaved a sigh and said "I refuse to overwork and I might be broken now". But it wasn't. Mr. Gas Man gave him a good rap on his top and it started to work again. He cleaned a few parts so he wouldn't have to come back for a couple years, and with a cheery "So Long" he was gone. Just like that.



And as I thought about the whole incident, I thought, my heart is sorta like that old filter. If I don't check on it on a regular basis and make sure it is clean, it can get all clogged up just like the furnace filter. Not with house dust, but with stuff that makes my relationship with the Lord and others chug and shut down. Things like bitterness, anger, jealousy, covetousness, resentment, idolatry, apathy. Just to name a few.



I need to get in there with the Holy Spirit and just clean that heart out so that the fire of the Lord can burn in my heart, bright and clear, and the warmth of that will generate out of my life to touch others for the Lord.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will be converted to You."
Psalm 51:10 - 13

"""


Photo Credit: hagit M., Israel

Milk or Steak, what'll it be?

My son recieved his learner's liscence about 3 weeks ago. He's been itching to get behind the wheel of the car ever since. Unfortunately, for him (lucky for me?) it snowed quite a bit right after that and then we were just busy and couldn't take him out driving. And the first time out is with his Dad in a large empty lot. That's the rule according to his sister who has had her learner's for almost a year now. Because that is the way it was done with her. So now it's a rule. There is no way her brother can drive down a street without first enduring the parking lot training, because that just would not be fair now would it. So finally, on Sunday, the young man's Dad took him to the infamous parking lot. And then again yesterday.

As I got in the car last night to go to bible study, things just did not feel right. I could barely touch the pedal with my toes and the seat was ramrod straight. Adjustments had to be made. The other day when I got in the car not bothering to pause to think how the seats may be, I almost broke my knee caps off on the steering wheel and felt like the breath was being squeezed out of me as if a boa constrictor was squishing me. I then realized Basketball girl must have driven the car last. Her legs are shorter. So as I tried to get my hand past my winter coat, which was adding to the effect of being squished as it was taking up precious centimeters of space between the seat and steering wheel, I fought the feeling of panic. Panic at not being able to breathe and panic at the thought that someone would have to call the 911 crew and they would have to use the jaws of life to extract me from this embarrassing situation. I could see the headlines now: "Jaws of life used to extract Mother from vehicle. No accident to report. Daughter admits to leaving the car seat adjusted forward. No charges to be laid."

But as I finally was able to get the bar pulled up and the seat slid back, and as air filled my lungs again and oxygen got to my brain, I thought "Man, these kids have grown up." And while the thought is scarey, children do grow. No matter what we try to do to keep them little. If we feed them good food, they will grow. They start with the basic milk because that is what they're tummies can handle, and then slowly new, more solid food is introduced into their diet, till eventually they can pack away a bigger steak than their Dad. It's the way God created them. To grow.

It's like that with us as God's children also. When we are babes in Christ, newly come to Him, we are to desire the milk of God's Word.

"like newborn babies, long for the
pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to
salvation"

I Peter 2:2 NASB

But God desires us to to grow from that. Just as in our earthly lives we cannot forever just drink milk and remain babies, so it is with the spiritual. We must move past that point of only wanting the "milk" of the Word. Paul admonishes the Hebrews because they were not growing.

"We have much to say about this, but
it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by
this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary
truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the
teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by
constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from
evil."

Hebrews 5:11 - 14 NIV

As in the natural, in the things of God we need to grow. God does not expect us to remain babies forever, as I would not expect my children to remain babes. And as they grow in height, I also expect them to grow in maturity and in knowledge and wisdom. I don't want them in great big adult bodies and acting naive and immature like a 2 year old. How awful that would be! No with years being added onto their lives, a maturity and growth are expected.

And as we feed our babies in steps with food, so God feeds us with His Word. We are to know His word and desire to grow in it. 2 Timothy 2:15 in the Amplified Bible tells us:

"Study and be eager and do your utmost
to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no
cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing - rightly
handling and skilfully teaching - the Word of Truth"

Then when we are feeding on God's Word we will know how to discern when those things come along that are contrary to it and be mature. In this day and age with so many teachings and totally false doctrines, it is especially important to know God's Word for ourselves. We cannot go by "I feel". That is how young children are. What they feel is what dictates to them on how to react. But we as parents teach them to use wisdom as they grow not necessarily feelings. Feelings shift and change and are unreliable. Ask me when I'm in the middle of PMS if my emotions and feelings are reliable. But God's Word does not change. It is the same yesterday, today and forever.

To seek Him and know what He has said within His Word. That is our food. That is what will grow us into mature workman in God's kingdom. This is what I desire. This is my prayer. For me. For my children. For you.

Menu Plan Monday, Reminder and Mullings

To see more menus and recipes or to link your own, head on over to I'm an Organizing Junkie. Laura is always so inspiring as she teaches us how to have a little more organization in your life. One of my goals for this year was to participate in this on a consistent basis because when I was doing it I found it to be way easier than flying by the seat of my pants trying to think of what to have for supper. And the thing I like about it, it's a general outline, not set in stone, so that if something comes up, like it did for me last week, I can just bump that meal to the next week. But I know I'll have the ingrediants, and it will take care of one day into the next week. So without futher ado:

Monday: Shalee and Laura's Beloved Hubby's favorite dish: Pork & Brussel Sprouts over linguine (carried over from last week)

Tuesday: Crockpot Bean Soup with Ham (will post recipe of Slow Cooker Thursday), Cheese Toast

Wednesday: Chicken Enchiladas, carrot sticks

Thursday: Perogies, tossed salad

Friday: smokies, buns, home fries (from Christine at Fruit in Season)

Saturday: raid the fridge Saturday

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A reminder that this is happening tomorrow. For more information click on the button in the sidebar to head to Boomama's who is oranizing this wonderful ministry.

Or you if you'd rather, you can check out Susie at Bluebird Blogs for her special deal that runs from January 11 - January 21 when you order a design from her.

With either one of these options you will be helping out a fellow blogger, Kelli, who is very much in need of helping hand right now. By participating we can be a part of Kelli recieving the gift of life by way of a kidney transplant.

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The last Word for the Weekend has been really been mulling around in my heart since I posted it. The scripture actually came to me when I left it in response to a friends post on Friday. I have not got it out of my mind since.

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no
compassion the the child she has borne?Though she may forget, I WILL NEVER
FORGET YOU! See I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; you walls are
ever before me." Isaiah 49:15-16 NIV

My mind has a hard time understanding the awesomeness of God. He draws a parallel here of a mother and nursing child and the incredible force of parental love a mother feels towards that child. It is very rare that a mother can forget about a child she has brought into the world. But in our humanness and fallen state in today's world on the rare occasion it does happen. Yet God says that will never happen with Him. If we are His children, we can depend upon Him.

We are written or engraved upon His palm. This is incredible to me for a couple of reasons. First of all if something is engraved, it is etched right into the material. It does not just sit on top and therefore can be rubbed off, it is right inside and permanent. The amplified bible says it like this:

"Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tatooed) a picture of
you on the palm of each of My hands."

Indelibly imprinted or tatooed. If any of us has a child who has gotten ahold of an indelible marker and colored on something they shouldn't have you know, no matter what solution you try to use to get rid of it, it never totally goes away. It is absorbed into the material it is put upon. And if you have gotten a tatoo it will be there forever. Even if you try to have it removed with today's laser technology there will still be signs that you had a tatoo in that spot. It is there forever. How incredible that we are in God's hands forever. To me that is pretty profound.

The second thing that has really been going over in my heart is the fact that God said we were engraved in His Hands. Of any part of my body, my hands is probably the part that my eyes land upon the most. Think of it. No matter what you do you most likely look down at your hands to do it. We are continually before God's eyes by being engraved upon His hands. That is so awesome to me I find it hard to even put into words how that makes me feel. Loved, protected, affection is usually shown with the hands, secure are just a few of the words & feelings my mind can't even sort out.

Do you know you are in His Hands if you are His child? No matter what you are going through on this earth you can rest in the fact that God has that fierce parental love for you and that you are indelibly in His hands and continuously before His eyes. Do you desire to know this love, this comfort of being forever in God's hands. It doesn't take works on your part. You do not have to become better, different, or work to obtain being His child. For you see, it is a free gift from God. Given to us through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus.

"But when the right time came God sent His Son who was born
of a woman and lived under the law. God did this so he could buy freedom
for those who were under the law and so we could become His
children."
Galations 4 : 4 - 5

I encourage you today to know God as your Father and have that assurance that you are written forever into His hands.

Resolution Time Already?

It's that time of year again. The time of year where I feel I have to get all introspective and decide what New Year's resolutions I am going to setting for myself. Because, invariably, someone will ask what is your New Year's resolutions, and I always feel like I'm so not with the in crowd if I don't have some lofty goal upon my list.

I am naturally not too much of an introspective person. I do not sit down and go over my whole year to see what was good and what was bad. And then try to write a bunch of goals to fix what didn't go right. Not that I think goals are bad. Don't get me wrong. I probably need to learn how to do that so that I'm not floundering in the sea of wasted time. But goal setting has never been my strong point. I'm more of a last minute procrastinator type. My best work is done under time pressure. If I try to do things too far in advance, I tend to end up picking my work apart anyway, because I've got the time to get disgruntled with it.

But back to New Year's resolutions. Okay, sure, I've got the same old, same old that seems to get passed down every year like a well worn pair of hand me down overalls. Lose some weight, be more patient, be more organized, dust once in awhile. They seem to get recycled over and over. But these all seem so, oh, dull compared with some your wonderful, introspective, well thought out goals that I've been reading. How do you do that?

Okay, I may not be a great long term plan person but I am a list person. I loooove lists. They do help me to see what I do need to get done. They help me to remember; which seems to be an elusive concept sometimes to me. I think it has something to do with 6 pre-schoolers, each needing my undivided attention. right. this. minute. But lists are short term goals. Goals for the day. Which sorta makes me feel like I fail in the plan department. Hence, the trouble with New Year's Resolutions.

Which makes me really glad that God is the King of Planning. He tells me in Jeremiah of plans.

Jeremiah 29:11 -14a

"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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to
you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will
be found by you," declares the Lord,...

I'm thinking I like God's plans. So how does that fit into my list oriented personality? Well, here is how my list will look:

1. Seek God with all my heart


2. Trust God with all my heart


3. Give God daily control of myself so that His plans may be accomplished

This my mind and personality gets. I can break it down. I can do it day by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute. I pray for God's grace to do that in 2007.

The Cold, The Lives, and the Prayers.

Well, I think I need to break out my t-shirts and shorts. There's a break coming in the weather. While it's still a deep freeze right now, -26 Celcius with windchill taking it to about -34 (that's about -29 Farenheit) we have the balmy tropical prediction of a temperature of -12 afternoon (about 10.4 degrees Farenheit). Unfortunately, we still have a wind chill warning out so it will seem a lot colder. I guess I'll keep the shorts packed away for a bit longer.

With this incredible cold comes the devasting hardship for the homeless. In a city not far from us, they have had such incredible growth that their homeless population has also skyrocketed. And this is not just men who had come to try and find a job in the booming economy. Not just the alcoholic or drug abuser homeless. It is whole families. With no home. The rental prices have so rocketed because of the boom that some families cannot afford the down payments, rents and the other costs of finding a place to live. Some of these families are living in campers and trailer's . It's heartbreaking. Their homeless shelter is filled beyond capacity and the city was providing city buses for people to sleep in, and they opened the exhibition building in an emergency decision to keep people from being out on the street all night. Even with all these measures, two people have died over the last couple of nights. Frozen out in the elements. It breaks your heart.

While I cannot pretend to even understand one iota of the plight of the homeless, I do know I can give to help them. This is a perfect time to give toward homeless shelters, food banks and soup kitchens. They are in dire need when the weather is this cold. And no gift is too small. Every little thing helps. And never mind all the different thoughts on why they have come to be in the situation they are in. The fact is they are. And if it's harsh winter, they are at risk of losing their lives. A life that Jesus died for. I'm just going to ask that you say a prayer for the homeless in your own city and ask what the Lord would have you to do at this time .

Father, I just say a prayer for all those who are without a home in any city that is experiencing harsh winter conditions. I pray you're protective hand would be over them, and there would come real solutions for them. I pray you would get them to the shelters so that they can stay warm and be fed. Thank you for those who have risen up and given out of their hearts during this time so the shelters would have extra food and necessities such as gloves, scarves, hats, socks, boots and coats to give to those who need them. Protect them Lord. In Jesus Name I pray.