June 14th, 2011
I am Blessed. I am blessed with a husband who prays for me. I am blessed like my namesake with a husband that entreats the Lord for me. My namesake’s husband prayed for his wife. He prayed for 20 years before God answered his prayer. I can imagine how blessed she felt that her husband prayed for her and had such faith in God.
Genesis 25:21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
I can imagine how she felt because I too am married to a man of faith that prays. I know how it feels to know my husband lifts my various needs to the Lord on a daily basis. To know that he entreats the Lord on my behalf is an encouragement to me and gives me strength.
1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
I am Blessed. That my husband prays with me, and for me, and when I can’t pray because I have no words he prays for both of us.
Psalms 112:1 Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
Praise God! I am Blessed with a husband that fears the Lord and reads his Bible.
Proverbs 20:6 Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?
I am blessed. My husband is humble and faithful. Despite all the things he does and has done he is not boastful or self-promoting. I am blessed that he is all of these things and more. I am blessed that I call him Husband. I am blessed that our son has such a man to be his example and to call him Dad.
How has your husband blessed you? How have these things been overlooked in the day to day moments? Think about the things he does for you. How can you bless him in return? There are many things you can do that would bless him, but above all he needs your prayers. Make a list of the things you could pray for him. Ask him what he would like you to pray for him. Google a list of prayers for husbands if you need ideas, but pray for your husband.
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June 6th, 2011
Or, I could call this post what we had for dinner. My husband’s new job has Friday Morning Meetings. The guys take turns bringing in a breakfast to share. So, we’re trying out a few recipes of things he could bring when his turn rolls around.
We found this one: Sunday Sausage Breakfast in my Taste of Home: Church Suppers cookbook.
It’s very simple. Not a lot of ingredients. Turned out perfectly the first time. Served up well. Reheated well. Only thing I would do differently next time is layer the croutons flat on the bottom and make sure they didn’t float around as much when I added the eggs and milk. It ‘s really just a matter of preference, but I like the texture better when the “bready” part is just in a layer on the bottom and not throughout the whole piece.
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June 5th, 2011
I realized yesterday that I still have a ways to go. I am trying to avoid making choices based on what other people think. To realize that real women have curves. To accept aging with grace. To dress in clothing I like and that is comfortable. In other words to be ME and not what others and the world say I should be. Some days and some choices are easier than others.
Yesterday, I was shopping for a light and airy pair of summer sneakers. I saw these really comfy looking sandals. I say comfy instead of cute because they really weren’t what I would call cute, but they looked like they would be as comfy as a pair of sneakers.
And, they were! They felt amazingly comfortable, light, cool, and perfectly fitted to my feet. I was amazed!
One problem. They were chunky and I didn’t like the way they looked on my feet. I wouldn’t say ugly, but in form vs function; function was winning by a long shot. They were everything I was looking for in comfort, but lacking the cute and fashionable I was hoping for. I just got rid of a bunch of “cute shoes” that I never wore because they itched, rubbed, or otherwise made me uncomfortable. But, they were cute so I wore them even though they hurt my feet…
Why do we do this to ourselves? Put our bodies into discomfort and pain just to look good? I already have joint issues why would I want to add to it by wearing shoes that add to that? These sandals solved the issue of serviceable foot wear for the hot Midwest summer. All they lacked were the cuteness factor.
Did I mention I’ve been looking for shoes ever since early spring? Did I mention how difficult it is to find shoes for my tiny feet? Did I mention they were marked down to 15? All that and I still left the store, and I went home without them, because they weren’t cute enough…
Today, with my feet burning up in my shoes I decided to give “The Sandals” a second chance. I went back to the store and tried them on again. They still fit just as well as the day before, but today they looked cuter. After wearing them all day I have decided they are comfy, cool, and cute.
What do you think?
Posted in Ramblings | Comments Off on The Sandals
May 23rd, 2011
Last month, right around my birthday, I started having difficulty reading. I thought maybe it was due to various medications I was taking at the time because I am still too young to need reading glasses! I should have another 5 years before that! After I stopped taking the medications my eyesight improved slightly. However, words were still swimming and I couldn’t read for very long without really working at it and getting a headache.
So, being the good husband he is my hubby took me off to the eye doctor. That was new. They run various tests on your eyes, take you to a dimly light room, and then put drops into your eyes to dilate them. When the burning sensation stopped the dimly lit room was very bright and anything closer than my fingertips was blurry. Then you read some letters and numbers off a chart on the far wall. After that they stick another chart right in front of your face. I was fine until the last two letters of the close chart that I couldn’t tell what they were. And, my right eye was worse than my left!
“Yes, you need reading glasses.” the Doctor proclaimed, “Just barely, but you need them.” He hands me a plastic and paper set of shades and sends me off into the front show room to pick out a pair of frames. Did I mention that my eyes are dilated and anything closer than my fingertips started to blur? Or, that the dimly lit back room was very bright on my poor eyeballs? I’m blinded by the sunlight coming in from the floor to ceiling windows and skylights and have to look at frames from far away and pick the shapes I like. We managed to pick out a pair that I liked. They were not in the selection of frames that were included with the first time customer deal, but were only one area up and not that much more.
Once they got my prescriptions (one for the left and one for the right) into my new frames I was sent home to adjust to wearing glasses for reading. My first day of wearing them was the next day at church. All of the ladies reassured me they looked just fine and we talked about when they had to start wearing glasses. I discovered I had to put my glasses on to read my Bible and the Hymns clearly and easily, but take them off to see the Pastor up at the pulpit. I realized this on again off again with the glasses is going to be part of my life from now on. I was not very happy about it.
At one point during the service I was sitting there wearing my new glasses reading my Bible and I glance over at my husband who was looking at me. Still being somewhat self-conscious wearing them I later asked him about that moment and he said the sweetest thing about our 17 years of marriage and growing older together. (Is it any wonder why I love that man like crazy?)
It made me realize my glasses are just one more thing about getting older. Another step that people take. Perhaps it’s a bit sooner than I would have liked it, but is one ever really ready to grow older? I’ve said I want to age gracefully and accept what comes: No hair dyeing. No botox. No overly excessive applications with creams and lotions. No lieing about my age. No obsessing that I maintain the weight I was when I was in my teens and twenties. No clinging to a youthful appearance that is fading, but instead accepting with grace that we all grow older and that these things just are what they are.
Choosing to look at the Pros of my new Fashion Statement: My glasses allow me to once more read my Bible and Devotionals as well as reading for entertainment. I look good in my glasses. I can make and wear pretty jewelry to hang my glasses from when I have to switch back and forth between needing them and not needing them. My glasses have reminded me that every day I grow older and HOPEFULLY wiser. If not actually wiser, than at least maybe I’ll LOOK wiser for wearing them. 😉
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April 20th, 2011
I was doing my devotional today and this really jumped out at me:
Proverbs 4:23-27 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” The heart is the source from which our thoughts, choices, actions spring forth from. All issues of life begin in the heart. They continue through thought and what we choose to say and see. Thoughts direct our footsteps and become actions. Our actions in life have consequences both good and bad. We are known by our fruits. (Matt 7:17-20) All consequences from actions taken begin in the heart.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
So often I’ve heard it said of men and women in a bad situation, “S/He has a good heart.” or “His/her heart is in the right place.” Wrong! That is just a poor excuse trying to excuse poor behavior. We are born with an evil sin nature. We are responsible to try to subdue it. Being in a sinful situation is the result of failure to subdue the heart and our sin nature.
Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
How can one who is surrounded by the continual consequences of choices and actions that are sinful have a good heart?
Ezekiel 33:31-32 And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.
They hear, but they do not do. With their mouth they show love, but their heart goes after covetousness. They say all the right things, but do them not. While it might look and sound on the outside that their “heart is in the right place” the fruit and consequences for actions prove it to be superficial and to go no more than skin deep.
“The heart is the warehouse, the hand and tongue but the shops; what is in these comes from thence—the heart contrives and the members execute.” – Arthur W. Pink
Keep thy heart with all diligence.
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