Happy 80th Birthday, Nana!

As I get back into posting more frequently on this blog, in hopes of keeping everyone up to date with pics and info from our lives, I thought it would be appropriate to start back up with a bang…  So, here you go, Nana!  We love you!

House Update

Things are coming along nicely at the house…  This past week, we took out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room to open that area up.  This week we are working on finishing that area to be ready for painting.  It looks so much nicer with the more open feeling of having that wall gone!  We’re both excited with the results.

In a couple of weeks our new windows will be installed which will be a huge improvement to the house.  Within the next month or so, we hope to have the basement waterproofed with a new sump pump to prevent the water from coming in like it has been.  This area has gotten so much rain and flooding lately that we have quite the puddle in the basement right now.  Watching the news, however, we have cause to be thankful that our puddle is not the three feet of standing water that some people are experiencing.

Our lawn is greening up nicely these days.  So are the rose bushes that I pruned.  For the longest time, they looked to be dead but now all of them have leaves budding.  I’m excited to see what color the flowers will be.  I planted tomato plants in our back yard and found that the soil seems to be very rich.  Lord willing, that will make for an abundant crop of tomatos later this year!

By the end of this week, I hope to have the living room painting finished and have the dining room painted.  That, and all the drywall dust from the wall removal cleaned from throughout the house – that stuff spreads everywhere!  It’s so much fun to think about how all these improvements will make this house a charming home!

Hey, it’s Me!

This past Sunday evening’s sermon was about Christ and Peter walking on the water in Matthew 17. The funny “coincidence” was that I had taught on the same passage to the little ones in my Sunday School class that same morning. While I was reading through the passage to prepare for teaching, Jesus’ response to his disciples as they were cowering at the sight of a “ghost” stood out to me.

But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” – John 6:20

Immediately, I thought of the circumstances in my own life that make me afraid or worry or be anxious. And I thought of how nothing comes to me that is not from my Father’s hand. He works all things together for good in my life (Rom. 8:28). So as I look at the circumstances that seem daunting or the trials that would cause me to be afraid, I need to see them for what they are. They are God’s working in my life to make me more conformed to the image of His Son. And for that reason, I should not be cowering in fear or worry, but should be praising His name for His marvelous work! Instead of being so overwhelmed and having my eyes only on what I can SEE going on and happening in my life, I should be able to see that God is in those circumstances and, for that reason, I need not fear.

How could they miss Him?

I heard a sermon this past Sunday that sparked the following thoughts…

The Jewish people knew that Christ was coming. They knew that they would have a Messiah – it was foretold to them so many times! And yet, when He came, so many of them missed Him. They didn’t think He was their Messiah. They were looking for some idea of who He would be that didn’t fit. They were looking so much for their idea of what their Messiah would look like and act like and be like, that they didn’t recognize the real Him.

And I thought of my own life… How often, in a particular situation, do I expect God to act a certain way – to answer my prayer a certain way, to change a certain thing? Then, as I am expecting Him to do a certain thing, I completely miss His real work!

I had an example of this in my own life last week. Over my lunch break, I discovered that my wallet was missing. I retraced my steps from earlier that morning and didn’t find it. I called the store I had been in to see if they had it and they did not. I looked frantically through the car two times and didn’t find it. I searched the parking lot where I had parked and didn’t find it. I was praying that the Lord would let me find it.

Then I called my bank to see if anyone had been using my card… and someone had. Oh no! Someone had stolen my wallet and was using it at gas stations and fast food places in the area. They had already used it five times when I called the bank! I proceeded to call my banks to cancel the credit cards, etc. I thought through everything that was in my wallet and called the various places that I needed to.

Later, I was thinking through the search for my wallet and saw how God had been at work in the situation. He had let me find my wallet! Granted, it was easy to miss that because He didn’t let me find it the way I had wanted to find it (stashed under a seat in the car or something). Had the people not been making those charges to my card, I would have assumed that it was still lost in my car somewhere and I needed to look harder. I would not know “for sure” that my wallet had actually be lost. But, because of those charges I found my wallet to be lost.

How great God is! I need to stop putting Him in a box and looking for Him in the ways that I think He will be found… I need to look for Him in the ways that He is to be found working in my life.

“But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.” – Luke 24:16

How to do something badly.

Someone said something last night at Bible Study that really stood out to me. We were talking about love and how we are to be characterized by it as followers of God, who IS love. This is my slight paraphrase of what she said:

“Anything that I do with ill-will is done badly.”

It’s not done “poorly”, or just “okay” – it’s done badly.

This really hit me. I can do a “good” deed, something that might appear to be beneficial and done well. I can plan it all out and accomplish something nice. But if my motive is wrong, if I am not acting out of love, out of wanting the best for that other person, then what I did was done badly. God deals with the heart of the matter. While He is concerned with what I DO, He cares more about HOW I do it and WHO I am.

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Cor. 13:1)

The First Year…

This past weekend, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary.  It’s so amazing to think that it’s been a whole year already!

It seemed appropriate that this past week’s chapter in the Bible Study I just finished should be on love being an attribute of the transformed heart.  In the chapter, all the qualities of love in 1 Cor. 13:4-7 were listed and, next to each, I was asked to list a circumstance in my life where I had not been loving in that particular way.  For example, I was to think of a time when I should have been patient, kind, forbearing, etc. and wasn’t.  Then I was to list what I should have done or will plan to do in the future.  Wow – what a list to go through to find out the areas that I need to work on in my life!

It was interesting as I went through that list how many of the times that I failed to love were related to my husband.  I could see pretty clearly how I need to grow in being kind to him, in not thinking evil of him, in not seeking my own way but his… my list could go on and on.  And I thought about the past year of marriage and how God has used it so much in my life to show me the areas I need to grow in. 

I knew, before I was married, that I had sin problems, yes. But I have seen so much more how unloving I am – how I need to grow in kindness, in patience, in putting another above myself – now that there is someone who is always in my life who I am to love. And to love at all times, no excuses.

So, among many other reasons, I am thankful to the Lord for bringing Tim into my life. Through my husband, God gives me opportunities to “pursue love” and die to myself each day! I don’t need to search for opportunities for He who is completing His work in me is faithful.

“Pursue love…” (1 Cor. 14:1)

“He who called you is faithful, who will also do it.” (1 Thess. 5:24)

Sanded

This weekend, my husband and I spent a lot of time on our hands and knees, cleaning and sanding… and cleaning and sanding… our wood floors. We had put down the first coat of varnish last week. Then that needed to be sanded and the bubbles and rough spots that occur in the application process smoothed out to prepare for the second coat. This is not an easy task. To look at the floor from a standing position, it looked pretty good. I could see some of the blemishes that needed to be fixed, but when I stooped down closer, I could see even more. But, what I could not believe, was the number of blemishes that I had missed even in stooping down to look at the floor! In my sanding, so many more areas of the floor that needed to be taken care of could be seen as soon as I hit them one time with the sander.

And, as I was down on my hands and knees with the loud electric sander, watching these new and more blemishes appear, I got to thinking…

If we had decided to just sand the spots that we could see that were rough, we would have missed so many blemishes that we were catching now with the sanding. I was more and more grateful that we had decided to take the time to sand the whole surface, the longer that I sanded. I’m sure all those other blemishes would have shown up down the road, but how much better that we were finding them now.

And I thought of my own life. And the faithfulness of my Father to bring trials into my life to show me my blemishes and to work out His perfect will in my life. Sanding is rough on the floor. It’s taking off that surface layer that hides the imperfections. God is not satisfied with having the imperfections in me glossed over. He is faithful to bring into my life little annoyances, little inconveniences, little trials… and the big ones, too… so that I can see past that glossy surface to the real condition of my heart. He knows that condition already and the sanding of those trials in my life is Him working to perfect that work He has started in me (Phil. 1:6). He’s not okay with leaving those blemishes in me – He is faithful to take the time to sand them out.

For that, I am grateful. I might be okay with taking the easy street of having those blemishes glossed over. But He is not. And so He continues to show things to me in my life that I need to confess and turn from.

“that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,” -1 Pet. 1:7

House update

The wood floors are in their last few hours of being sanded this morning… I was over there last night at the house and they look great! Tim has been working so hard for hours on using that big, loud sander and has made great progress. I’m excited for the finished product now…

This has been a little lesson in submission for me. I started researching on the internet how to refinish our own wood floors and I was finding a lot of people describing what a horrible experience it is with horrible results. Most of the comments that I read said that they would highly recommend just paying the money to have the floors refinished professionally. I was very uneasy about doing the floors ourselves, envisioning all the things that could possibly go wrong – and I expressed my uneasiness to my husband. He, however, was still wanting to do it ourselves, even in spite of all the possible hangups that I described to him. Ultimately, the decision was, of course, his. And, by God’s grace, I, with a quiet heart, was able to submit to his wishes.

Now, of course, even if the floor was going terribly, I would still need to be quietly submissive. But, I am seeing that my handy husband has a better handle on what he is and is not able to do than I do! And because of his dedication to getting the hard work done himself, he’s saving us a lot of money! And I pray that the work continue to go smoothly, as the Lord wills, as an encouragement to my main man in his hard work.

The house is shaping up so nicely! It’s going to be a cozy little place to live – I’m excited to move in next Saturday (which is coming up so quickly)!

“And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands.” -Ps. 90:17

Humility – in being ministered to?

I am one of those people who has a hard time asking for help. I don’t want to inconvenience other people or be any kind of a burden to them. So, I try to do a lot of things on my own… Yesterday, I was studying humility and thinking of the passage in Philippians that talks about putting the interests of others above my own (“Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” – Ph. 2:4).

Last week, in the craziness of trying to get the house ready to be moved into, a dear sister in Christ asked if there was anything she could do to help out. I told her that I would be painting in the evening and she said that she would be there to help (this is a friend who is well aware of my hesitance in “inconveniencing” people). Earlier in the day, before she was to come over to help, she emailed me and said that she would bring dinner with her when she came. I told her that I had already planned to make something and that she didn’t have to bring dinner – after all, she was the one coming to help me. Shouldn’t I be the one feeding her? She insisted, however, and said that I could save my planned meal for another night. This was something that she really wanted to do for us. Based on her persistance, I thanked her for her offer and she brought the dinner. When she arrived at the house, I told her how big of a help it was that she had brought the meal. Her response to me was, “Thanks for letting me do it!”.

And that got me to thinking… If I am not willing to accept the offers of help that are given to me, I am actually taking away the opportunity for my brothers and sisters in Christ to do the one anothers as they are commanded to (“And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,” -Heb 10:24). In my selfishishness of not wanting to seem a burden, I am actually taking away an opportunity for them to do good to others as God tells us to (“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” – Gal. 6:10). I am also showing my pridefulness in saying that I think I can do it all. So, if someone has the desire and opportunity to do good for me, I should be humble enough…and putting their interests above my own pride enough… to accept with thankfulness their offer. And in doing so, I can give them the joy of being obedient to the Lord’s command as He uses them for good in my life.

Of course, I need to not go to the opposite extreme of EXPECTING others to serve me – which would be another form of pride and selfishness. But I thought it really interesting to see how not allowing anyone to help is actually selfish and prideful on my part.

Thank God for His promise to give wisdom in all things!

Filthy, foolish, coarse…complaining?

“neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.” -Eph. 5:4

I was thinking through the above verse in the context of putting off the old man and putting on the new man (Eph. 4:22)… And I thought about what I think these three types of speech to be. The first thing that comes to mind with filthy speech is cussing… Foolish talking can be a number of things – gossip or just plain talking whatever I think without thinking about what I might be saying first. I would think of coarse jesting as telling gross jokes about inappropriate things. These are just the things that come immediately to mind as I read those words… And I’m to put off all those things as I put off the deeds of the flesh. Okay, it all makes sense.

Then I got to thinking about what I am to put on instead… giving of thanks. And I thought of something. What is the opposite of giving thanks – my thought would be complaining. I’m obviously not being thankful if I’m complaining or grumbling about something or someone.

So tying all that together – I would have to define complaining as being pretty much the same thinig as the filthy, foolish, coarse speech I’m to put of in Eph. 5:4.

And I was convicted.

Complaining and mumbling are filthy, foolish, coarse talk.

So, complaining and mumbling are just as bad as cussing.

This led me to think of my reactions to different types of speech. If one of my Christian friends were to cuss, it would give me a moment of pause. It might even take me aback. What would my reaction be if one of my Christian friends started complaining about this or that? Would it be the same? I think, sadly, not. I might not even think twice about it. And I thought – this means that I am as bad as the Pharisees! I have decided that certain speech is bad and should not be said, but I will allow for other speech – complaining and grumbling – which are just as bad as dropping a cuss word. And, actually, complaining could be worse than cussing as the Bible specifically says we aren’t to do it (Phil. 2:14 says “Do all things without complaining and disputing.”). Other than not taking the Lord’s name in vain, what specific words are mentioned in the Bible as wrong to say?

Hmmm… lots to think about. I pray that this is on the front of my mind the next time that I want to complain about a situation or am tempted to grumble.