love to paint

My life seems to be a series of ups and downs.  Sometimes it's day to day and sometimes moment to moment depending on what's going on with my husband and kids.  Sometimes it's very easy to fall into those downs of the ones around you who you love.  It's hard to resist and you get worn down.  Over the past few years, I've become very jaded about pithy self-help books that talk about encouragement as if you can take a pill and feel better.  The weariness in my heart is deep.  Post partum depression doesn't simply end.  When you've had children back to back and not a night's sleep that wasn't interrupted in seven years, there is a point that one comes to where we are at the end of ourselves.  Somehow, we keep going.  God keeps us going even when we don't want to. I wish I knew how to dispel the weariness in my soul.  I read a Christmas fiction book this afternoon and for a brief hour, heart breathed easily and freely forgetting all the ca...

One of the challenges for both parents and Sunday schools is making sure that what they teach children is biblical.  My mother in law has been teaching Sunday school for several years and has made her own lessons and curriculum, because she really wanted to point the kids to God and she didn't find a curriculum that was what she was looking for.  But, when you decide to do all the lesson planning on your own, it is a lot of work. If you've decided to teach your kids straight from the Bible or make your own lessons, I've found a book that would be very helpful.  Kim and John Walton have written The Bible Story Handbook .  In their book, the Waltons have written a long introduction about why we need to be careful to focus on God in the Bible and not the details that aren't there.  For a long time, I've believed that God put the details that He wanted in the Bible and that the point of the Bible is God, not the people in it.  So often we want more details ab...

On the first page of Almost Heaven , by Chris Fabry, I read this paragraph... "I believe every life has hidden songs that hang by twin threads of music and memory.  I believe in the songs that have never been played for another soul.  I believe they run between the rocks and along the creekbeds of our lives.  These are songs that cannot be heard by anything but the soul.  They sometimes run dry or spill over the banks until we find ourselves wading through them. " p.3 It was a beautiful expression about music and life.  Music makes my husband's heart tick and so this quote resonated with me.  I've come to appreciate how much music is a part of people's souls.  It tells our stories and in it we are able to say things that we might otherwise not be able to say.  With music we cry out in grief and with music we cry out in joy. Almost Heaven is Chris Fabry's third novel set in the town of Dogwood, West Virginia.  It is the story of Billy A...

Last week at the small group we attend, someone asked about the line in the Apostle's Creed that says "He descended into hell.  The third day He arose again from the dead" In one of the books I reviewed last year, called Christianity in Crisis , Hank Hanegraff wrote his concern about Joyce Meyer's preaching about what happened during those three days.  I remember reading what he wrote and that he stated her preaching on this topic is unbiblical.  But, I didn't fully understand at the time why.  Now I do and I'd like to explain why it is unbiblical to make this claim.  Let me say first though that Joyce Meyers is not the only preacher to state such things.   One of the trends I've seen in many books I've read over the past 10 years is to read into what the Bible says--to attempt to fill in the blanks so as to more fully understand the Word of God.  John and Kim Walton explain in detail in The Bible Story Handbook that the Bible is God's self-...

This morning I ordered two books that I am very excited about.  I discovered that NavPress is now publishing four of Jerry Bridges books in a combined format--the study guide and book together (rather than separately).  The titles now available are:  Respectable Sins, The Practice of Godliness, Transforming Grace, and The Pursuit of Holiness.  I have read Respectable Sins and am now reading the Pursuit of Holiness, both of which I think are wonderful, encouraging, and challenging books.  These books are only available at the NavPress website.   www.navpress.com   You do have to pay shipping, but I believe it will still work out to be less than buying the book and study guide separately (which are $11 and $8 respectively on Amazon).  In comparison, the Small Group Curriculum book for Pursuit of Holiness on the NavPress website is only $7.45 plus tax and $3.99 UPS ground shipping.

I started Becoming a Woman of Purpose this week (my own purchase) and I came across this quote this morning that I just wanted to share in hopes that it might encourage others the way it did me... from p. 24 "...I'm not a real baby person!  I think that God looked at me and said, "If I am ever going to begin to get any fruit of the Spirit into this woman, she needs to have all these children at once!" What better way for me to learn patience, self-control, gentleness, kindness, love, joy, faithfulness, and goodness.  (Notice I didn't mention peace.)  It was in the midst of these child-raising years that I realized my great need to fully surrender my life to God and allow Him to begin to transform my life according to His plan.      This is what God is after--as our Father, He wants us to have a strong family resemblance to Him.  He uses all sorts of ways to mold us and to bring us to dependence upon Him.  For some, this sanctifying process ma...

Funny story Autumn has decided to read History for Little Pilgrims on her own.  So, during her silent reading time yesterday afternoon she laid down on her bed and began reading.  She came out afterwards and began telling me about The Great Awakening and Jonathon Edwards. I responded that he was an important man and that he preached and wrote many books that people still read today. Autumn, in all seriousness, told me that those books must be very dusty books ! Yes, sweetheart, they would be!  chuckle, chuckle

"The Puritan writer John Owen vigorously insisted that the fruit of the Spirit is the work of the Spirit and not of human origin.  These godly qualities are not something we can manufacture, take pride in, or lay claim to as self-generated.  Rather, they are the work of God, and their source is God alone.  However, we have a crucial role to play.  I call these character traits "garments of grace" because we must actively put them on.  As Owen eplained, we are responsible for acts of obedience by which this fruit is "preserved, increased, strengthened, and improved." from p. 9 of the preface of The Fruitful Life by Jerry Bridges I wrote last week that I have been hesitant in the past to read a book about the fruits of the spirit.  My hesitancy laid in some of what I see in the culture we live in.  In our culture, the church often gets caught up doing what Sarah did when God didn't work as she wished.  We don't wait on Him and seek to do things H...

This is the second of two fun fiction books I've read recently.   It sounded interesting.   So many fiction books are about war or Victorian England.   This book is different.   It is about a young mom who has lost her husband and baby boy.   She and her little daughter are traveling to go stay with one of her husband's aunt.   The title is The House on Malcolm Street.   It was written by Leisha Kelly. Storyline:   Leah and Eliza go to live with her husband's Aunt Marigold.   They arrive to find that another of her nephews is also living with her.   Both have deep pain in their hearts that they are struggling to live with. Writing:   The writing is really very good and easy to read.   The characters were vivid to me as was their pain and feelings.   I loved the character of Aunt Marigold and her love for Leah and Josiah.   Plot:   The plot is more the interweaving of Leah, Eliza, Aunt Marigold, and Mr. Ab...

For many years, I have been reticent to read or study about the fruits of the spirit.  I haven't wanted to read about them because something made me feel like it was a formula for trying to fix myself.  A different way of looking at self-help, but self-help none the less.  I am reading The Fruitful Life by Jerry Bridges and like his other books, he has this amazing way of communicating that our choices are intertwined with God's will.  We are neither to take no action or to take all actions without regard for God. Here are a few good quotes from the past two days... From the chapter on Peace... "But the more ordinary adversities of life rob us of peace because we have a tendency to try and deal with these events ourselves. We worry, fret, and scheme over distressing circumstances, and we envy or resent other people who appear to get a better deal in life or who mistreat us in some way." p. 91 "We cannot have peace within or with other people until we first ...

Yesterday our pastor spoke from Philippians on this passage:   2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to   agree in the Lord.   3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion,   help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers,   whose names are in the book of life. He preached about seeking peace among our brothers and sisters in Christ--and about helping others do this.   The applications I can remember were.. 1) To seek peace with our brothers and sisters when we have a conflict and to know the scriptures so that we turn to God and that we can point others back to the Lord in the midst of conflict 2) Don't gossip.  It's easy to share something as Christians "out of concern" for others.  But, there is often a desire in our hearts to be "in the know".  I haven't fully pondered this point, but I think it is one that I will be praying about as I go through this week ...