Pursue Love

1 Corinthians 14:1 says, "Pursue love......"

Merriam-Webster's online thesaurus defines pursue as........Function: verb; to go in search of.

"The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (1John 4:8)

1Corinthians16: 13 "Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you've got, be resolute, 14 and love without stopping." (The Message)

1 Corinthians13:2 "If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing." (The Message)

I can't truly love if I don't know God, because God is love. God speaks much about love. Mark 12:28 "One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: "Which is most important of all the commandments?" 29 Jesus said, "The first in importance is, 'Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; 30 so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' 31 And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these." 32 The religion scholar said, "A wonderful answer, Teacher! So lucid and accurate - that God is one and there is no other. 33 And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that's better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!" 34 When Jesus realized how insightful he was, he said, "You're almost there, right on the border of God's kingdom." After that, no one else dared ask a question."

I think he was right on the mark when he realized that kind of love is better than all offerings and sacrifices put together. I'm going to pursue love.

Green Hope

I have been trying to make my requests known to God and trust Him with the outcome. I had an opportunity with the window in my van not working; it was on the driver's side no less. Several times I would start to drive through someplace and remember it wouldn't come down. It's rather awkward to drive through McDonald's and have to open your door to pay and then again to get your food. Or to drive through the ATM to buy stamps and actually get out of your car only for it not to be dispensing stamps at that particular time. Now I realize this doesn't constitute an emergency or world crisis, but it is my world and did put me in a pinch at times.

I decided it would be nice to have it fixed. Usually when we've had a problem with automatic windows it ended up being rather costly. I needed it fixed, but didn't need it to cost an arm and a leg. After analyzing my situation I decided I would take it to our auto collision repair shop and get an estimate. That estimate would determine my future so to speak, at least where my window was concerned. On the way I decided to let my request be made known to God, but to be okay with whatever the outcome. So I told Him that I really would like to have the window fixed, but to do that I needed it to be something small and not too expensive. I also told Him that I knew I could trust Him regardless of the verdict.

Now to make a long story a bit longer, it was just the switch and not the motor or other more expensive part. So I was able to get my window fixed for $106 and I already know what I can't do. I can't make this a "formula" for my next request. For example, I prayed and let God know what I wanted and He let me have it. So next time I want/need something I'll do the same thing and maybe it'll work again. WRONG~! So not true.

I do have another request I am talking to God about, but I also know that what I want may not be what He wants or what He thinks is best for someone I love. I do know, however, that I can trust Him and the outcome.

Romans 15:13 in The Message says: "Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!" I'm not sure what green hope is, but I sure like the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit part. That is an apt description of the Holy Spirit as far as I am concerned.

Family Night

Today has been a great day so far. This morning I had a tire fixed that kept getting low. The car dealership had already checked it and couldn't find anything wrong. However it was ten pounds too low the next day. So back I go. They send me next door and these fine people find a nail in it. I'm wondering how hard it is to find a nail in a tire. I really wouldn't know as I've never fixed a tire. Then I ran several errands and surprised Rebekah and Bethany with a drink from our favorite place. That always earns me some brownie points~!

I had a good conversation with my husband at lunch, did some ironing and laundry (the number of loads of laundry I do each week could be a noteworthy subject sometime), had another good conversation with one of our children, made a phone call and spoke with a dear sweet friend, and now am tackling some pre-algebra problems with Hannah. This last endeavor is the low point of my day. Will we ever be finished with school this year???? Yes, Hannah, even moms don't want to do school sometimes.

Several months ago we started family night. It seemed that we hardly ever sat down and ate together as a family. With seven people in the house and each having different jobs, schedules, activities, school, etc., it became a lost art to sit at the same table at the same time and share the same meal. I only cook once a day so breakfast isn't an option here unless we have it for dinner. Bethany decided we needed to do something about it and the rest of us agreed. So tonight is family night. Sometimes we order pizza, sometimes I cook a special meal, and sometimes we eat out. I am cooking Elegant Chicken for tonight and our house smells oh so yummy. I have a Broccoli, Bacon and Cheddar Cheese Salad in the refrigerator. I haven't decided what else to have with it but it could be steamed carrots.

It won't be long before people start arriving home so I need to clear off the dining table. It is covered with the usual schoolbooks and papers as it is also my teacher's desk. Nothing like a dual purpose piece of furniture~!

And one day in the near future we will be finished with school and I can put all the books away for a few weeks. Then I'll probably pile something else on it and have to clear it off next Thursday~!

Lamentations, not what you may think~!

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

It's fantastic the way some days are just different. I had been up but a few minutes this morning when the words to a song started going through my thoughts. "Oh Lord, great is thy faithfulness." You know how usually when you ask someone how they are doing you do it just to have something to say? Or maybe to be kind and let them know you care about them? Have you ever had someone really tell you how they are doing in reply to your question? Did it catch you off guard? Did you really want to know?

I find it very hard to hide my feelings. When I'm happy........I'm happy. When I'm down, I'm down. Maybe I'm one of those people who make you feel uncomfortable when you ask me that simple question. Perhaps I need to find some even ground with my emotions. "Tears of a clown" just doesn't describe me.

His mercies are new every morning
New every day
Oh, Lord, great is your faithfulness.

hallelujah~!

Longings from my heart

Our pastor has been teaching us oh so many things. It has been an incredible journey for me. I get waylaid at times, but God says in James 1:2-4 .......

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides.
You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.
So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. (The Message)

I'm afraid my true colors aren't very pleasant to look upon at times. This verse is certainly true in my life. Life has been a challenge lately to say the least. However I'm not discouraged; at least not today. Nothing is really wrong except me and the way I look at and react to circumstances.

Our pastor has talked about making our requests known to God. Phil. 4:6-7 says...

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. 7 Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. (The Message)

How I long for God to settle me. I have walked in this at times; I want to walk in it consistently. I think that's why I've been struggling lately. I'm really not sure that "worry" is the correct word to describe my battle though. I am trying to make my requests known to God and trust Him for the outcome. There are no better hands than His to leave myself in.

Good night and may God bless

I was thinking about my childhood and remembering some of the TV shows I grew up watching. Weeknights I could choose what to watch, but Saturday nights belonged to my mother. We watched Ernest Tubb, Whispering Bill Anderson, Buck Ownes, Lawrence Welk, and others. I was enthralled with the Lennon Sisters; Janet, the youngest, was my favorite. I even had Lennon Sister paper dolls which I painstakingly cut out and kept in suburb condition. On weeknights I watched shows such The Mod Squad, Daktari, Mission Impossible, Carol Burnett (with Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, and Vicki Lawrence), The Wonderful World of Disney, and remember seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan for the first time.

For some reason I loved Red Skelton. Mostly I remember him as "Clem Kadiddlehopper," but he also did "Gertrude and Heathcliff, the Two Seagulls" and "George Appleby." He was a true clown and his gentleness always showed through, as least to my child eyes. He would end his show each week by saying, "Good night, and may God bless."

As I grew older I watched my teen idols, Bobby Sherman in "Here Come the Brides," David Cassidy in "The Partridge Family" and swooned over The Everly Brothers and later Davy Jones of the Monkees. I watched Tom Jones sing "Deliah" and "It's Not Unusual" (or at least I think that's the names).

There wasn't much going on in the small town I grew up in, but thanks to our black and white television I was transported to another place most nights. And now I think I need to transport myself off to bed. I'll leave you with Red's gentle words, "Good night, and may God bless."

Disagreeable Shopping

I said in my first post I had nothing to say. Nevertheless, I seem to have said plenty. Maybe it's because I'm rather talkative and I tend to be fairly open and honest about my life. Anyway it's been fun so far. I have found though that blogging has shown me that I am in dire need of some technology in my life.

I find myself wishing for a digital camera. I see so many things I need a picture of so I can blog about it. Rebekah and I were sitting outdoors the other day and three squirrels across the street in our neighbor's yard caught my attention. They were all sitting there in a row in exactly the same positions, each behind the other, just begging for me to take a picture and write a story about them. Rebekah ran in and got her camera, but of course the moment was lost forever by the time she returned.

Then there's the bird nest on our roof that the wind and rain blew out of the tree the other day. I find myself wondering if it belonged to the birds that kept pestering our cat. They seem to be leaving him alone so I guess their young are grown or deceased. That's a sad thought, but I did find one baby bird in our back yard and a wing beside the house so I'm not being entirely morbid. I don't blame them in the least for trying to attack Jupiter. In the end I think he was beginning to tire of their harassment. We certainly were getting tired of all the noise they made.

It's been a fairly uneventful day except for grocery shopping at Walmart. The kids are thrilled to have a full pantry and refrigerator so I guess it was worth it. I'm just glad no one asked me at the time, for I'm sure I would have disagreed~!