The Investment

A cup of tea.  Serene and quiet morning.  

Children purposefully occupied, without objection. Laundry room quietly humming in the background.  Personally, I could linger here, with upmost contentment, quite easily. 

"... I have still and quieted my soul..."

Psalm 130:2

This type of morning is not a random happening.  It did not occur in our home by chance.  There have been hours, days and years invested in creating a peaceful, love-filled and productive home environment.  I desire for our home to be filled with laughter, activity, music, conversation .... and quiet.  My children are encouraged to engage in purposeful and creative activities.  They are instructed to encourage one another and speak kindly to one another.

"Be kind and compassionate to one another, 

forgiving each other, 

just as in Christ God forgave you."

Ephesians 4:32

And while this is not a random happening, it is also not a guarantee in our home.  The children pester one another and argue.  I find myself frustrated and often struggling to accomplish any one of the multitude things that remain undone on my "to do" list.  Time often seems wasted and noise reaches unbearable levels.  Social media and computer games become the activity of choice rather than school work or home responsibilities.  Seemingly endless barking of dogs wanting to go outside, again.

"the earth is full of His unfailing love."

Psalm 33:5

Still, I will continue to place as a priority the creation of a home environment that I desire for my family and myself.  I believe it is good for the children to learn to be purposefully occupied.  Equally, I want them to learn to enjoy the beauty of silence.  We will laugh, and talk and argue and sometimes (quite often, actually) we will not accomplish everything on our list for that day.  Prayers for our home to be filled with the peace and love of God will always be prayed.  Grace for the difficulties and frustrations will always be embraced.

"I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."

Psalm 27:13

I am delighting in the beautiful buzz of sweet conversation between my children as I sit here typing.  Precious to my heart and meaningful beyond expression.  The blessing of home and family is a gift.  My desire to honor God as I serve Him and my family will hold fast, though our lives experience the ebb and flow of activity, change and drama (welcome and unwelcome).  Hopefully, the investment I'm making is filled with grace and guided by wisdom, allowing us to live in freedom and joy.

"I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free."

Psalm 119:32

Rest in the Lord

In His Hands

The Obviously Ordinary Offering

A blog.
A tweet.
A keek.
A post.
This sounds somewhat like a foreign language, and in some respects it is.  Technology has placed into our hands a plethera of social media outlets. Each one allows us to connect with people we know and those we have never met. We can have access with one or a million in almost an instant. A video on YouTube. A text message. An email.

As social media has permeated our lives I've asked God to help me know what role it should have in my life.  At my age it would be reasonable for me to shy away from such a huge learning curve. 'Leave the new technology to the younger generation' is an easy rationalization.

Internet. Email. Facebook. The progression for me has been swift. From a cell phone to a smart phone; a Kindle eReader to a Kindle Fire. Desk top to a laptop; notebook to a playbook. Technology does not slow down and new devices, apps and social media advancements seem to appear almost daily.

In the wake of all the new cyperspace communication opportunities, my heart has been drawn to make use of the tools available to share my faith, my journey and my life with others. Recently, I have been propelled by an inner forward motion to do more to share my journey and encourage others in their journey. I have talked with God about this with severe honesty. Putting myself out there in cyberspace is a huge step of faith well out of reach of my self-prescribed comfort zone.

A few years ago I took a huge plunge into the world of cybespace by setting up a blog, My Grateful Heart.  It has encouraged me to step out more along the way. The three most recent (ad)ventures have been this new blog, Grateful by Design, some inspirational photos with messages, and a keek, Grateful by Design.

So part of my severe honesty with God goes something like this,

"But there are thousands of people who blog and have huge followings already,

what would I have to say that anyone would want to hear?

Photos with messages?  But all I have is a smart phone camera and

access to a free on-line photo shop program.

There are already hundreds of thousands of really gorgeous 

photos with inspirational messages being shared through 

Pinterest and Facebook... by people with real cameras,

real skill and talent for photography and real photo shop software.

Keek?  Video?  But won't people think that's absurd?  and tire of seeing

my face?  What about the people who think I'm doing this to draw attention to myself?  

There isn't anything special about what I have to offer."

Do you remember hearing about the widow's mite? It's a story found in Mark 12 and Luke 21 of the New testament. In this story Jesus contrasts the gifts of the rich and the very small gift of a widow. He sees the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury and we can imagine how impressive that would have been. But He also notices the poor widow giving a much less significant offering. She would not have been impressive in the temple because she was poor and she was a widow. Her clothing, her posture and her countenance would have caused the rich to look upon her with disdain. This, assuming they would have looked at her at all. However, Jesus saw her. He looked past her poverty, her social status and her physical appearance.  He saw her heart. His observation caused him to announce that the widow had given more than all the others. I'm sure this was astonishing to those gathered around. Everyone had seen the grandiose display of the rich. Yet, Jesus points out that the poor widow had not done as the rich and given out of her wealth, but she had given out of her poverty. In other words, she had given all that she had.  

Facepalm! God is looking at my heart. He knows my strengths and weaknesses. God is not looking for perfection but surrender. The things that delight His heart are not the pomp and circumstance of seeking to impress Him or others with my excess. He swoons over the sacrifice of giving Him everything I have. Of honoring Him with all I have to offer...even the obviously ordinary offering of blogs, inspirational photos and keeks.

He is my Peace

Rock of Ages

Loving Well

If I had to choose one, I would rather be remembered as a person who loved well than  someone who always had a clean house. Of course, I know there is no chance of being remembered for my clean house. But I wonder if I am as concerned about the one as the other.   

How will we be remembered? It seems I've put a lot of hours  into the external appearance of myself, my family and my home over the course of my life. But this is not what should matter most to those of us who have answered the call to be followers of Christ.  

My sphere of influence, first and foremost, is my family. It is here, in my home, where I have the opportunity to do what matters most..  

...to love.

I want my husband and my children to be loved well. How is this to be accomplished since I am a selfish person by nature? God has graciously accepted me, in spite of my condition, and over the years has been sculpting my heart into His image. He knows all about love. He IS love! And He has not held back in lavishing His love on me. I think about that and realize this is my calling and my desire. My husband and my children should be the recipients of unconditional and beautiful love.  

It is His love for and in me that enables me to love well. My prayer is simply that my life be a living expression of the love of God and that I be remembered as one who loved well.   

Mercy, strength and hope

Psalm 25:4

Psalm 62:5

Psalm 100:1,2

Old dog/new blog

Teaching an old dog a new trick today.  Trying to launch a new blog and every thing seems more difficult this time.  Hoping that since I figured it out once before I should eventually be able to get this one set up the way I want it.  If that doesn't work, I may need to enlist the help of my kiddos.  

As I was sitting here sipping on a delicious cup of chai tea, which by the way seems to be helping to make this blog task more doable, I actually wondered if there would be chai tea in heaven.  Not sure why that passed through my head.  Something about the aroma of the tea and its foreign and pleasant taste.  

Chai tea, honey and frothed almond milk.  

The sights, the smells, the sounds of heaven... I wonder what it will be like.  To be honest, even the attempt to think about it overwhelms me.  Some of our earth's most beautiful, remote, pristine places will not even compare to the beauty we will enjoy.  And what will it be like to live in an environment where evil does not exist -- at all!    

My chai tea is gone now, and it seems I've made no progress with my blog.  But my spirit seems refreshed by the afternoon daydream of my eternal home.  Be certain of this, there aren't any boards on Pinterest that can compare.