Oh Glorious Day- Praise Jesus!

Emmie has just excepted Christ! What a wonderful and glorious day- to Him be the glory!!

Little bird...

You're a Mom...

Your Hands

Walking through a painful season. It's lasted a while now. I find myself searching scripture and finding peace, but my feeble heart takes it on temporarily. I leave the pain at the altar only to pick it back up. Oh, to leave it there and walk away and never look back. Make it so Lord Jesus! Psalm 37 has been comforting to me this week:

3Trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.
⁶ He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.

⁷ Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!

And especially:

23The steps of a man are established by the LORD,
when he delights in his way;
²⁴ though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the LORD upholds his hand.

This song really touches me too:

Your Hands- JJ Heller

I have unanswered prayers
I have trouble I wish wasn’t there
And I have asked a thousand ways
That you would take my pain away
You would take my pain away

I am trying to understand
How to walk this weary land
Make straight the paths that crooked lie
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine

When my world is shaking, heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave your hands

When you walked upon the earth
You healed the broken, lost and hurt
I know you hate to see me cry
One day you will set all things right
Yeah, one day you will set all things right

When my world is shaking, heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave your hands

Your hands that shaped the world
Are holding me
They hold me still

The Parable of the Sower

The sermon yesterday was out of Matthew 13- the parable of the sower. It's one that I have heard and read many times before, but yesterday I came to a new understanding about it. I just love when He does that!

As we studied the passage, the different soils stood out to me.
Of course the seeds are God's word. They fell on:

• the path- a heart that is willingly hardhearted
• the rocky ground- a heart with surface change
• the thorns- a heart that looks to everything else but what matters
• the good soil- a heart that hears, understands, does and yields

After diagnosing which soil my heart is made out of right now, I had the thought that not only am I to prepare my heart to receive the Word, but also prepare the hearts of my children! Earth shattering (not), I know, but rocking my world nonetheless. I have always felt the importance of giving the Word of God to my children, but have been discouraged at times, that the Word didn't seem to be penetrating into their hearts.

It was really neat to come at this passage with my new found knowledge of agriculture that comes just from living in a very rural area. The people around me all "got it"- this is their lives. One neat thing that was brought out was that Jesus told the disciples that the good soil produced grain- some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. This was big! Back them, they were glad just to produce an 8/1 yield. That was considered a bumper crop! So to say that they could have a 100, 60, or 30 yield was amazing to them! (Just so you know, today one corn plant will produce 200 kernels of corn! I know because the owner of a seed corn company was sitting in front of me and the Pastor asked him how much! How's that for expert testimony!)

Okay, so time for evaluation. This is always good at the end of a school year! How is our yield? Is is 8? 30? 60? 100? Is the Word of God penetrating the hearts of our children and even more important, is it bearing fruit?? Are their lives changed?

How can we prepare the soil of their hearts? Even if we have some yield we can always do better. I have been observing the fields around our house for several weeks now. It is spring, so the farmers have been at work preparing their fields for planting.

Drawing some comparisons:

The farmer can not plant until the soil is at the perfect wetness(don't know if that is the correct word, but oh well). If the soil is too wet, the seed will rot. If it is too dry, it will not sprout. (botany 101) They watch and wait. They pray for good weather. They pay attention to the soil and they check on it daily and sometimes hourly. So, if we are to take a lesson from that, we need to be ever watchful for times to plant the Word of God in their heart where it will be received and take root! There are times in our kids lives, when their hearts are more open and ready to receive. We must be watchful for those times and take the opportunities to give them the Word then. To help them apply the Word when their hearts are most ready.

When the soil is ready, the farmers take out their tractors and they plow, plow, plow! They dig into the dirt and turn it over. Then they set the seed in the ground. So, when we recognize that a child has a receptive heart, we can help by digging down into the issue they are facing. Asking questions, leading them to the throne and planting the seed in freshly turned soil of their hearts.

After that, the farmer sits back and waits. Waits for it to grow. Watches for the little sprouts to show themselves. Prays for rain. Sometimes, we have to sit back and watch as well. After all, we can lead them to the throne of grace, but it is the work of the Holy Spirit to draw them to Jesus. So, we sit back and watch, and pray!

Later this summer, I am looking forward to seeing the tall plants blowing in the wind. They will hopefully be strong and produce much corn (that's what they grow around here) At just the right time, they will produce fruit and the farmer will rejoice! Same for us, the Bible tells us to train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. We can look forward to a time when our children will be strong and tall, bearing fruit!

I am so thankful and grateful that Jesus gave us word pictures. I am also thankful to have the Holy Spirit to make those pictures known to me. Praise Him!

Strawberries!!!

We went strawberry picking with some friends today. It was a lot of fun! It was great to take Isaiah for the first time- we have been picking strawberries every year since Bennett was 1 ! Making jam tomorrow!

Happy Mother's Day!

We dedicated Isaiah today at church! My favorite thing was that our entire family particpated in the ceremony, not just us parents!