Missionary Friends

I love missionaries.

Especially these ones. They were my jr. high Awana leaders. I was in their wedding. I babysat their kids. I personally support their ministry in the interior of Brazil.

What fun to spend a whole evening with them, laughing and sharing. Seeing pictures of the people and ministries we've prayed for. Hearing details about people and ministries that are hard to write out.

And I had to laugh when I found out we were the "bear-house people." The 9-year-old who was a 6-year-old the last time she was at our house remembered that part of our children-entertainment is my old dollhouse with MapleTown figures (if anyone remembers those), which are bears and foxes. And how fun that Michaela and I have the same favorites--the little brown bear and the little fox. :)

Their furlough is short and it's almost over--but I'm glad it included a stop into our little world!

Contentment

Contentment is never

connected to my

circumstances...

Contentment is

connected

to Christ.

~Pastor Mike Summers

Fair-Weather Friend :)

This will be the last snowy-weather post. Probably. Hopefully. But I couldn't resist at least one more. And I think it's "fun stuff"...even if most people I know don't. :)

But I give you ~ ~ the creation of a snowman:

Think of the Cost

How deep the Father's love for us,

how vast beyond all measure

That He should give His only Son

to make a wretch His treasure.

How great the pain of searing loss.

The Father turns His face away

as wounds which mar the Chosen One

bring many sons to glory.

"How Deep the Father's Love for Us"

~by Stuart Townend

recorded on A Strong Tower

Food for Thought

"About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil" Hebrews 5:11-14.

"The writer [of Hebrews 5] says you are mature if you've trained yourself through constant use of Scripture to distinguish good from evil. The mark of spiritual maturity is not how much you understand, but how much you use. In the spiritual realm, the opposite of ignorance is not knowledge but obedience."

~Hendricks and Hendricks in Living by the Book

Questions

I don't understand. There are a lot of things that happen that I don't understand.

Why did ThingA happen? It just seems like a waste of time. It doesn't seem like something that God used to make me trust Him more--all that it apparently did was raise my hopes only to crush them.


So it is the end, rather than the process, that I have to trust and love through.


I've also thought, What if ThingA put into motion ThingB, and without ThingA, ThingB could not have happened?


I don't know. Yet. Or maybe I never will know. But I know I can trust God, whose Word is true, and He has said that "we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). Somehow, ThingA fits into that. Whether as ThingB's catalyst or as an altar I have to die on that will make me more like Jesus (see Romans 12:1-2, Galatians 2:20, Galatians 5:22-25), God uses it. He has used it; He will use it. It is necessary for my good...and for His glory.

"Have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus, who,
though He was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God a thing
to be grasped, but made Himself nothing,
taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form,
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death, even death on a cross"

(Philippians 2:5-8).

Yesterday...

...we had a Great Plains Blizzard. High winds, low visibility, cold temperatures...

From inside a cozy little house, saying I was in one and taking pictures of it was rather fun. ;)

Snowflakes pelted against the window...the houses across the street a foggy distance away, the snow piled high on our neighbor's backyard table--and this was mid-day in a literal all-day snowfall. Er, blizzard. Just because it's fun to say we had a blizzard yesterday. :)

Dad taking a break from shoveling/plowing :)

Happy Snow Day!!

(Correction: the dates on the photos really should be 2-1 and 2-2, not 1-31 and 2-1. Oops. :)