The Summer of '11 - Half Gone

What a crazy summer! Didn't it just start?! I guess it's a little more than half over. I don't know where it has gone!



We started our summer vacation with a trip to South Dakota. What fun we had with my sister and her family out there! It is a whole different world. Not just because it makes me realize what a city girl I really am! I joke that when I'm out there I can "literally see the curvature of the world!" Out there in the flat lands you can see for miles. It almost seems like the horizon line is way below me. I don't really know how to put it. I miss the mountains as soon as they are out of sight, but there is no doubt about it, the sky out there is overwhelmingly huge. It is beautiful! At times I feel like the sky can just swallow me up. It makes me marvel - whatever state I'm in God's artwork is amazing!

Included in our trip to SD was a visit to Mount Rushmore.  So awesome! If you haven't been you should go. While you are there don't miss the museum and the video - very interesting! One great point - the cost to see the faces is just $10 per vehicle and no per person charge! I love that! I was there years ago when it was just a nature walk, a viewing area and a gift shop. Everything has changed! You just have to see it for yourself! I love the stark contrast between the rustic mountain scenery and all the new modern architecture. Beautiful! 

A few weeks later we started swimming lessons and then VBS at two churches in the same week! The kids enjoyed a great week of Bible camp which for us meant another trip to SD. Every year we go up there and have a great time, but after the long trip home we think "this might be the last summer at that camp. "There are just too many great things about going to camp at Richmond Lake Bible Camp in Aberdeen, SD. Tops on the list is the chance to see my sister. Whether it's me or my parents or all of us making the trip that IS the one reason we can't pass it up. Add to that the sweet friends my kids have made at camp over the last three summers, the camp directors and speakers are all uncles and cousins (more family to see that we don't get to see very often), Uncle Keith is a counsellor, and the cost of camp is great (Although after gas etc. we don't save any money.). All those pros add up to another trip to SD for Bible camp each summer. Please be in prayer for us as we make decisions about Bible camp next summer.


While the kids were gone at camp and in-between the two trips to take them up there and then to bring them back, my uncle Ned and aunt Marilou were here with aunt Marilou's dad. Uncle Ned is my dad's twin brother. It was so fun to see them! Aunt Marilou's dad, Jim Wright, has written a book about his life. It's not completely finished, but the part he has completed he has put in mp3 form. Dad and I listened to the book all the way up to Aberdeen and then most of the way home. We did finish it right as we got off I-76 and we were almost home. We quite enjoyed it! Although, the conversation was lacking as we were so engrossed in this book. Sorry, dad (coffee dates to resume in a few weeks!). 


Summer soccer at Tri-City Baptist Church started the week we were up at camp, so as soon as we were back we jumped right into practice and game schedules. Jordan is the only one playing this year. We will see if the girls have any interest as they watch him play and maybe sign them up next year.


The 4th of July was a blast as always! We spent it with a few friends in their back yard WITH a perfect view of the city fireworks and WITHOUT all the crowds and traffic. We have the best seats in the city... no, the nation! Hahaha. 


Calvary Baptist Church in Golden celebrated it's 60th anniversary this last Sunday. We attended The services over there. It was a packed out house! The testimonies of what God has done through that ministry over the years were a great blessing! Jordan played a solo trumpet piece for the first time in the afternoon service. He is a beginner, but I think he did a great job! All glory is given to God for every talent and gift we posses. May He be glorified, and may we each use our talents for His will and purpose! And, may we be good stewards of the lessons He allows us to have by practicing diligently!

The two older kids are going to attend basketball camp next week. That will add a bit of busy-ness with the drive back and forth, but they definitely need the activity! - or maybe I need them to have the activity?!?!

Swimming lessons start again after that and a few weeks later - SCHOOL! I know that is a bad word in the middle of July! It IS time to start thinking about the shopping list before all the supplies are picked over however.


I've been hoping and praying for a trip up to Casper before school starts. Don't know how that is going to work out, but God can fit all those pieces together if He wants us to go.


A few unspoken request from here if you don't mind adding me to your prayer list. Thanks so much!

Blessings

This song has been going through my head for the past few days. Just thought I'd share.

I feel like this is a very appropriate song to pair with my current study of Job which has already been a huge blessing to me. Funny that the preface of the book spoke of my initial feelings on studying Job as a common yet wrong school of thought.

Not the first time this has happened, but as I read through this book, Grace For Every Trial, it seems like the author, Betty Henderson, is speaking directly to me addressing my own thoughts, fears, concerns and confirming and strengthening my belief, faith and trust in God.

I've not gotten very far in my study. I'm taking it slow and really trying to soak it all in.

I, like many others, do enjoy listening to music throughout the day that goes along with my current devotion. Doing so keeps me focused and enhances my learning. Do you have a piece to suggest? Please share.

Duped or Directed

I have never had a desire to be like Job. From a completely human perspective, if I were to prove myself like Job I would have to endure some pretty devastating and tragic events. I ask God's protection almost daily from these sort of things in my life. If I were to experience a life like Job's I am not even slightly confident that I would do so with the same grace and faith that Job exhibited. It may be because of my lack of desire to ever have the "opportunity" to prove myself a Job that I have never studied Job on my own. Sure, I've been a part of Job studies in church and such, but never of my own choosing.

Just recently I was drawn to a book because I liked the cover. Strange reason to purchase a Bible study, I know, but I liked the picture none-the-less. The image on the front of this book that I found so enticing as to make an impulse purchase was a butterfly. The significance of the butterfly to me is another story for another day.

For those of you who may be questioning my judgement in choosing a Bible study book based upon the front cover alone, let me assure you I got it from a very trusted source. I didn't need to read a portion of the book or the back cover or find out about the author. I knew that had already been done for me.

It was only after getting the book home that I even read the title, "Grace." "That sounds nice," I thought. "I would like to be more graceful (haha)." I am kind of a klutz. Oh, no, that's not what that means?  Just kidding. :)

Then I opened the book to the beginning and found "Lesson One My Searvant Job." I immediately closed the book, took a second look at the front. The whole title was "Grace for Every Trial." "Tricky," I thought. "It doesn't say Job anywhere on the front."

Why not study Job? Do any of you have this conflict? Have you ever said or heard it said, "Don't ever pray for patience."? Generally the thought is that God doesn't just hand out patience. Patience has to be learned, and how do we thick-headed human beings learn? Usually the hard way, right!? So therefore praying for patience is the same as asking for a trial.

Well, for me the idea of studying Job always intimidated me as if the process would bring on tragedy quite the same way that praying for patience would bring on a trial. Am I the only one who thinks this way? I don't think I am.

It has been a month or two since I bought this book. The cover is not quite as enticing to me anymore, but I have a weird thing about books. After I buy them they "haunt" me till I read them. They talk to me (no, not really), saying things like, "Remember how much you spent on me, and yet here I sit collecting dust." Even the books I get for quarters at yard sales bug me, "I'm taking up all this space, still nobody ever picks me up."

Long story short-ish, I am starting this study inside this beautiful cover, and hopefully by the end I will be transformed into something more beautiful -- without too much pain.

talking about teachable moments

A few months ago my kids and I were in the car on the way home from school enjoying some very yummy Dove chocolates. If you've had some lately you may have noticed there are quotes on the inside of the wrappers. We were reading our wrappers to each other. I remember my foil read, "Always follow your heart." I was bothered by this and the realization that we hear this a lot in our society. In fact I just heard it on a TV show the other night. A young girl was telling about the night her dad passed away. She said she was with him in his last moments. His last words to her were, "Always follow your heart."

While reading my wrapper I was reminded of a few Bible verses, and I asked my kiddos what they thought the Bible had to say about this "advice." We then discussed these verses. 

Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"

Matthew 15:18,19 "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:"

And Proverbs 4:23 "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."


Matthew 4:19 "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."


Matthew 16:24 "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

After a very neat chat I asked them what they thought the correct advice would be. It was unanimous  "Always follow Jesus." 

I hope I never forget those sweet moments in the car.