Summer

What a joy summer is! God has blessed us so much this year! We have enjoyed a enormous harvest of apricots, peaches, and plums.

 

The children have loved every minute of this summer season. With exuberant enthusiasm they have entered into all of the work (and eating)!

It is so wonderful to have land for our little guys to run around on. They always find so many interesting plants, rocks, sticks, and bugs. Truly, this is a lovely childhood!

In the evening and on the weekends, we have spent our time going from tree to tree picking all of the lovely goodness off and placing into boxes. Then, we take it home. What does one do with 1500 pounds of fruit?

My soul overflows with thankfulness to the Lord for His many blessings. Why am I tempted to complain? Oh, that I may grow sweeter and sweeter with an attitude of joyful contentment and thankfulness for Him many blessings.

    Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
        and let us exalt his name together!
    I sought the LORD, and he answered me
        and delivered me from all my fears.
    Those who look to him are radiant,
        and their faces shall never be ashamed.
    This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him
        and saved him out of all his troubles.
    The angel of the LORD encamps
        around those who fear him, and delivers them.
    Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
        Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
    Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
        for those who fear him have no lack!
    The young lions suffer want and hunger;
        but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
(Psalm 34:3-10 ESV)

No Other Refuge

The following quote has been so encouraging to me as I struggle with chronic illness and the daily life of a wife, mother, and homemaker. There is no other refuge but Christ!

Blessed Lord, bend Your pitying eye of love and mercy upon me today. Draw near to me, as I venture once more on praying and on pleading ground.

Alas! O God, how little have I improved the time that is past! I am a wonder to myself, that with all my deep ingratitude and utter vileness--I am yet permitted to approach Your footstool! I have sinned against light and love--warning and mercy--grace and privilege. The retrospect of life--is a retrospect of guilt. I mourn over my manifold shortcomings--the alienation of my heart from You--the fitfulness of my spiritual frames--the ebbings and flowings in the tide of my love. When tried by the lofty and unerring standard of Your Word--how are my best actions and duties marred with defilement! How much self-seeking and self-glorying--and how little animated by the predominating motive of love to You, and singleness of eye to Your service!

Blessed Jesus! I flee anew to the pavilion of Your love! I have no other hope, no other refuge--but in Your finished work--Your matchless atonement--Your spotless righteousness! There is in You, an all-sufficiency for every need. Finite necessities cannot exhaust Infinite fullness. Let me hear Your voice saying, "Your sins, which are many--are all forgiven!"

Transform me more and more into Your own image. May I know more and more, the happiness of true holiness--that I am really blessed in seeking to walk so as to please You. May the power of grace wax stronger and stronger--and the power of sin wax weaker and weaker. May trials and crosses become light and easy to me--when borne in a spirit of meek, unrepining submission to Your Divine will. May this quiet every doubt and misgiving: "Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things!"

~ John Duff, from the book "Evening Incense"

I hope that this encourages you today as well! I pray that the power of His grace may grow stronger and stronger in my heart and in the outworkings of my salvation.

Marriage

Recently, we went through what I have affectionately called "wedding season". We attended two weddings, three bridal showers, and one bachelor party in the space of about a month. In the two weddings we helped decorate, serve, clean, and other miscellany. With all of the new love and marriage in the air, it has really made me remember our own lovely wedding and all of the beautiful memories surrounding it. Even more, when trying to write and think of advice for the new couples, I remembered some of the best advice given to me. My husband and I have been married for almost eight years now and this advice from others has been the most helpful:

~ Christ should be the foundation of your marriage. You should seek His love and a relationship with Him before all others.

~ Marriage is a calling to die to yourself and learn to serve your family.

~ As a wife, it should be a delight for me to always speak well of my husband and to NEVER criticize him or complain about him to others. I should always praise him in front of others. The wife of the pastor who married us gave me this advice.

What advice were you given that has been most helpful?

Joyful Diligence

Dear Friends,

 It has been a long time since I posted! This summer has been so busy with all of the lovely produce we have been getting. I have been so busy canning, freezing, dehydrating, etc! It always seems in the midst of summer with all of the heat and work of the harvest that a lot of our Lord's words seem clearer than ever. I have been thinking mostly on the verses that discuss diligence vs. laziness. So many times this summer I have thought of how tired I am and have been lazy!  It seems as if there is a never ending list of things to do.  So, I have been comtemplating this lovely work the Lord has given me to do and have found myself lacking in diligence. Ouch! I have been quite convicted of this. It seems too that along with my laziness has come complaining as well. Why do those two always seem to be best friends? Laziness and discontent.

 Well, no more! I have been praying earnestly and asking that Lord if He might, through His grace, transform my heart more and more each day to be a diligent and grateful worker. I long for my home to be a place of beauty, joy, and rest for my husband and boys. With diligent and joyful work in my home, I can accomplish this desire. Would you pray for me as well- that I might glorify the Lord more with my happy heart of diligent service?

Abundant Blessings

Summer is such a special time of year isn't it?

The good Lord has seen fit to bless us with boxes of apricots- about 10 boxes like the one above. And there are still more to pick on the trees! Aren't they beautiful?

 Now my days are quite busy with cooking, canning, freezing, drying, and generally cutting up fruit! Oh, and eating too!

Have you ever had dried apricots? They are so good!

 Everybody likes to get in on the action of helping- especially in the eating department! Tonight my husband and I cut up half of a box to dry while our two oldest boys spaced them on the trays. Our littlest guy wanted to help too! Isn't he cute?

 He was so proud that he got one all by himself! (And I am such a proud mommy of such a cute little boy! So I have to post lots of pictures of him!)

 Our shelling peas and sugar snap peas are also producing wonderful fresh produce for us as well. After all of the apricot cutting, we went down to the garden. While the boys caught lizards and frogs, I picked these lovely peas to have for dinner tomorrow night! The shelling peas (the ones that actually made it into this picture and escaped hungry little mouths) taste so sweet and wonderful.

All of these lovely abundance has me pondering the rich blessings of God that are just overflowing in our lives. I am just so grateful for His goodness to me and to our family.

How has the Lord blessed you in this summer season?

    "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
        the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
    what is man that you are mindful of him,
        and the son of man that you care for him?
    Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
        and crowned him with glory and honor.
    You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
        you have put all things under his feet,
    all sheep and oxen,
        and also the beasts of the field,
    the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
        whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
    O LORD, our Lord,
        how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
(Psalm 8:3-9 ESV)

Sufficient

"But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me!" 2 Corinthians 12:9

God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. This means that the Divine power is most conspicuous--when our weakness is the most thoroughly felt. We have got first to be emptied of all self-conceit and self-confidence. A bucket cannot hold air and water at the same time. As the water comes in--the air must go out. The reason of some hard trials--is to get the accursed spirit of SELF out of our hearts! When we have been emptied of self-trust--we are in the condition to be filled with might in the inner man, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

A Christian must not only realize his own utter feebleness--but he must give up what worldlings rely on, and admit that "vain is the help of man." That poor woman who had tried all the doctors in her neighborhood, and had only grown worse in body, and poorer in purse--is a touching illustration of our invalid souls. She, having despaired of human help--came crouching to the feet of the Son of God. One touch of His garments sent a new tide of health through her veins. Just so, contact with Christ brings currents of the Divine power into our souls--so that we can do all things through Christ who strengths us!

This is the real office of faith. It is simply the linking of our utter weakness--to the omnipotence of Christ! We furnish the weakness--and He furnishes the strength--and that makes the partnership! The baby furnishes a hungry little mouth--and the mother furnishes the nourishing milk. The mother is happy that she can give the full supply--and the rosy darling is happy as it draws in the sweet contentment. What a beautiful picture of my poor, weak, hungry soul--resting on the bosom of the Infinite Love! There is no danger that the supply will ever give out, for my Lord, my Feeder, my Supporter--is constantly saying unto me, "My grace is sufficient for you." In this way we are strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power.

- Theodore Kuyler, "God's Light in Dark Clouds" (You can read the book for free here).

This is such a perfect picture isn't it? Babies have such perfect peace and rest when they are with their mommy. I long to be like that with the Lord- perfectly trusting, perfectly at peace because I know that He is in control. I love this quote so much because lately I have been constantly reminded of my own weakness. Like the sick woman, I have crouched before the Lord asking for strength and He has so amply supplied it to me this week. What a gracious Lord we serve! He alone is worthy to be praised! He is altogether good and altogether lovely!

This Momentary Marriage

"The most foundational things to see from the Bible about marriage is that is is God's doing. And the ultimate thing to see from the Bible about marriage is that it is for God's glory. Those are the two points I have to make. Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. And, ultimately, marriage is the display of God..."

-John Piper, This Momentary Marriage, pg. 21

Have you seen this wonderful video from Desiring God? If you haven't yet, you should hurry over there and watch it right now. You are in for a special treat! Right now I said!