Multi-tasking

In my late 40s I have learned to slow down a bit. Maybe it's the waning energy level, emptying nest, or maybe I truly have learned to be still more often. It is a discipline, a learned thing for sure.
I learned early in my marriage ... a little less than two years in, actually to have all appearances of the perfect wife and mom. I was pretty good at it, too. I had a spotless home, a loving husband, and an energetic little tot to keep me on my toes. It was all a matter of priorities and balance. Before long, I became the mother of two more precious little ones that added to my balancing act. Multi-tasking was my life.I made an attempt to be the wife, mom, teacher that I thought I was supposed to be. It was then that I began dropping the balls in my juggling act, so to speak. I could not keep up with the demands that I placed on myself. I tumbled. I fell. I crashed.
So I have been re-learning, disciplining daily. And I have not graduated from this class, but I have learned that it is not based on what I do or don't do. It's simple, beautiful grace. I feel as if I have finally scratched the surface of this gift. This grace. I don't have to try to do it all. I have discovered that when I choose to seek Him first, everything else that really matters gets taken care of anyway.

Lucky

If you're lucky enough

to be at the beach,

then you're lucky enough!

One year

hard to believe

Malli

is

one year old

today!

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD,

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

Still thankful...

496. a day with with my daughter

497. Malli's laughter

498. a BLT for supper

499. a good harvest of blueberries

500. my neice, Kameryn's sense of humor

Relying on your own righteousness?

Are you relying on your own righteousness? Or on ‘the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ’? Do you know the grounds of your standing at this moment? Have you got this solid rock beneath you? Are you relying utterly upon the Son of God and His perfect work on your behalf? If not, you have not got the breastplate of righteousness, and that means that you are already defeated by the devil. This is the only righteousness that avails, not only when we go to God in prayer, but when we are confronted by the wiles of the devil, and as we wrestle against the principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, the spiritual wickedness in high places.
- Martin Lloyd-Jones

On our behalf

“We are always looking inwards and pitying ourselves and being sorry for ourselves, and looking for something to help us. Get rid of that outlook, forget yourself for a moment; the battle is the Lord’s! Salvation is His. It is for the honor of His great and holy Name. But go further and realize that because it is God’s battle this almighty power is being exercised on our behalf even when we do not realize it. Things are being done in this great campaign of which we are not aware. We may perhaps be half-asleep at our post, and we do not realize that the great Captain is planning something with repsect to us. We are unconscious of it. We would all be lost were it not for that. He, I say, is exercising this power on our behalf.”
- Martin Lloyd-Jones

God Will Lift Up Your Head...

Give to the wind your fear

Hope and be undismayed

God hears your sighs and counts your tears

God will lift up,

God will lift up,

lift up your head
God will lift up your head

God will lift up your head

God will lift up your head

Lift up your head
Leave to His sovereign sway

To choose and to command

Then shall we wandering on His way

Know how wise and how strong

How wise and how strong
Through waves and clouds and storms,

He gently clears the way

Wait because in His time,

so shall this night

Soon end in joy, soon end in joy
- Paul Gerhardt, God will lift up your head (original hymn)

Jesus brings the fulness of His life into the emptiness of ours.

For every lack in us there is a corresponding grace in Him.

He is light for our darkness,

life for our death,

bread for our hunger,

living water for our thirst,

rest for our striving,

wisdom of God for our foolishness

and fellowship for our loneliness.

(Stanley Voke)