Little Beauty

Alyssa

Sabbath Quote and Thought

"Ever lift Thy face upon me
As I work and wait for Thee;
Resting ’neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus,
Earth’s dark shadows flee.
Brightness of my Father’s glory,
Sunshine of my Father’s face,
Keep me ever trusting, resting,
Fill me with Thy grace.

Jesus, I am resting, resting,
In the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart."

Hymn by Jean Pi­gott

As we sang this hymn in church today I was moved to tears by this line:

"Resting ’neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus,
Earth’s dark shadows flee."

Sometimes this world's shadows are so thick that I can barely see my way. But if I rest in Jesus then the shadows really do flee and I find hope again. What does it mean to rest in Jesus? To trust Him when He says," I love you, child, you are MINE. I am in control now and I always have been. I gave up my own life for you. Surely I will bring you through this, too."

Jesus has said that to me many times and yet I still doubt Him. Oh, foolish heart! How can I doubt the only One who has ever kept every promise that He has made to me? When will I be freed from my sin? Oh, Lord, keep me ever trusting, resting and fill me full with Thy grace.

Just Because It's Spiffy

Pretty neat, eh? The blur in the background is Malachi.

More Slugs & Bugs

As promised, more songs from Andrew Peterson and Randall Goodgame's children's CD, Slugs & Bugs & Lullabies:

God Made Me

God made slugs and bugs and rats and bats
And nasty bees that don't say please
They'll sting your elbows and your knees if you chase them

God made snakes and snails and killer whales
And if you were a baby seal
Then you would make a tasty meal for orcas.

But God made me like He made the sea
He filed it up with green and blue
He sent His Son, his only One
To fill me up and make me new.

God made everything that was or is
Or will be (what a crazy biz)
I can't believe that I am His forever

Now I listen very carefully
Because He lives inside of me
That could be gross, but it's not 'cause it's
Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior!

God made me like He made the sea
He filed it up with green and blue
He sent His Son, his only One
To fill me up and make me new.


Now on a more serious note (this is my favorite song on the album):

You Can Always Come Home

I love you today and I love you tomorrow
I love you as deep as the sea
I love you in joy, and I love you in sorrow
You can always come home to me

There once was a man who found him a treasure
Buried out under a tree
He sold all he had just to own it forever
The treasure is you, you see

I love you today and I love you tomorrow
I love you as deep as the sea
I love you in joy, and I love you in sorrow
You can always come home to me

There once were some sheep safe on the farm
And one little lamb got loose
The shepherd went out and carried it home
That little lamb is you

I love you today and I love you tomorrow
I love you as deep as the sea
I love you in joy, and I love you in sorrow
You can always come home to me

Pretty Much the Cutest Smile Ever

And I'm talking about Evangeline's smile, though Joshua's is pretty cute, too.

My Cute Little Man

This is Malachi wearing his "Dapper Dude Jacket" as he calls it.

Sabbath Quote

The Means by Which We Know God

• We know him by two means:

  First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: his eternal power and his divinity, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20.

  All these things are enough to convict men and to leave them without excuse.

  Second, he makes himself known to us more openly by his holy and divine Word, as much as we need in this life, for his glory and for the salvation of his own.

---From the Belgic Confession

A New Blog!

My niece Arianna and her friend Elsie have started a blog entitled "The Land of Fairytales." Arianna and I share a love of Fairies and we both seem to have excellent taste in blog templates.
Go check it out!

Four Cousins

Malachi, Alyssa, Lily & Evangeline

A Poem

Please take a moment to read this poem by John Piper. It is beautiful.

Happy Mother's Day

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining with all its brilliance, the sky was that shade of blue that makes you want to dance and the clouds were like puffs of pure white cotton hanging in the never ending blueness. I could feel the warm breeze on my face as I sped along on my trusty rollerblades.

I lifted my face to bask in the ethereal warmth when suddenly, from out of nowhere, a brick wall loomed up in front of me. I didn’t even have time to react. I couldn’t stop. I crashed into that solid wall going full speed, totally unprepared. The pain was blinding. I felt something shatter in my chest. It felt like shards of glass were exploding inside me, tearing holes in my veins and shredding my lungs to pieces. Breathing was impossible. Blackness. I had never known such pain.

That’s how I felt when my mom died.


Why do I write this?, you ask. First, believe it or not, it’s actually helpful for me. If I were to try to deny the existence of that pain then I would be a liar. If I forgot that pain then I would forget what I was rescued from.
Secondly, I hope to show you folks out there who still have your mom living on this earth what it was like to lose my mom so you can more fully appreciate your own mom.

When I change a yucky diaper I think about all my diapers that my mom changed. When I wake up in the middle of the night to care for a fussy baby I think about all the sleep my mom went without to care for me. When I’m exasperated at my children I think about what I must have put my mom through. And when I’m lonely during the day and ache for someone to talk to I remember how I could call my mom anytime to talk to her about anything and she would listen and understand.
Sure, my mom drove me crazy at times. It’s in the mother-daughter contract to get on each others nerves now and then. But she was my best friend and I loved her. And she loved me.

Imagine if your mom died today. Imagine never hearing her voice on the other end of the phone again. Imagine never again feeling her love for you. Is there something you would wish you had told her? Did you give her a hug the last time you saw her? Does she know that you truly appreciate everything she sacrificed for you? Does she know you love her?

Tell her. You never know if that brick wall will appear suddenly in front of you.

Bright Eyes

Kids Say the Cutest, (Darndest, Wisest, Adorable,) Things

I thought I had Lily trained pretty well: I’d ask her where she got her cuteness from and she’d smile and say: “From you!”
Smart kid, right? Well, it turns out that Malachi is trained even better. When asked where he got his cuteness from, without hesitating, he said, “God!”
Sigh. I guess I can’t argue with that one.
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One Sunday afternoon I was doing some Catechism questions with Lily and Malachi.
“Who made you?” I asked.
“God!” they replied.
So far so good.
“What else did God make?”
“God made all things.”
I’m so proud of them.
“Where is God?”
“In Heaven,” Lily answers.
Close. Not too bad.
“Well, yes, but He’s also everywhere.”
Malachi didn’t seem to be paying attention to that one so I ask him again: “Where is God?”
“In there,” he says matter-of-factly, pointing to the Catechism. And to make sure I understand him fully, he clarifies: “In the book.”
Okay we’ll work on it.
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Yesterday at breakfast I was telling the kids how I had had a dream with snakes in it and that I was scared of the snakes. Lily said, “You don’t have to be scared.”
When I asked her why she replied, “Because Jesus will take care of you!”
How true. It’s good to be reminded of the great truths by a four-year-old.