Commitment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsV2NJ-Hkqw

I love lazy Saturdays :)  I began and ended this day on my porch swing...that doesn't happen nearly enough....sometimes I glance at my porch swing as I am running around like a crazy chicken and wonder why I even have one :P  I love taking a deep breath of God's goodness in the place where He has planted me and thinking about my blessings for a little longer than normal.....not all time has to be CRUNCH time.  I love the peaceful setting where I live a little outside of town...pine trees all around :)

Three of my girls are packing today for a missions trip this week so we finished a lot of laundry and I slow cooked some lazy golumpki stew....it is smelling amazing...and I am thankful for my mother-in-law who shared the fruits of her garden with me.

I'll admit, life is hard right now....it's busy....it's complicated....it's confusing....it's challenging, but I am confident God has me right where I am supposed to be in order to glorify Him with my life.  

He always does....

I know that much is true.  

Gratefulness makes life beautiful and is key to making it through the sadder days....

"Looking back and thanking GOD....looking forward and trusting GOD"

Praying right now that I have the wisdom as well as the patience to wait on GOD 

for answers I am seeking.

The Garden

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y43Z0WJLDS4

You're Gonna Be Okay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjF9IqvXDjY

Love Has A Name

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj9hLsSa4zM

Such good stuff!!!!

How God’s Goodness and Mercy Follow You

I Didn’t Get It

In the last verse of Psalm 23 David says “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

For years I didn’t get it.  I pictured me walking through my day — and maybe 50 yards behind me God’s goodness and mercy were following.

How is that good news?

A Crucial Hebrew Word

But then I learned something crucial about that word “follow.”

It’s the Hebrew word radaph — which means “to pursue, to set off after someone in order to catch him.”

So God’s goodness and mercy do not follow 50 yards behind me every day — they are pursuing me in order to catch me every day.

It’s like you were speeding and now a police car is following you with its red light on — it’s following you in order to catch you and give you a ticket.

That’s what God does — except when He catches you He does not give you a ticket — He gives you even more of His goodness and mercy.

A Powerful Promise

Faith means trusting all that God promises to be to us in Christ Jesus.

Here God promises that He will pursue you in order to catch you with His goodness and mercy — and He will do this every single day of your life.

So what does this mean?

• No matter how far from God you feel — He is always pursuing you with goodness and mercy to change your heart and strengthen your faith.  Fight the fight of faith.  He will meet you.
• Every interruption is God bringing you His goodness and mercy.  Submit your plans to Him, and ask Him what He wants to do for you.
• Every trial is a gift of God’s goodness and mercy.  You will either see His mercy delivering you from the trial, or satisfying and comforting you in the trial.
• In every hard task God is pursuing you with His goodness and mercy — He will help you, guide you, surprise you, and satisfy you.
• Whenever you sin, God is pursuing you with goodness and mercy to forgive you, cleanse you, and restore you.  Confess your sin.  Repent before Him.  Receive all He has for you.
• Whenever you feel inadequate, God is pursuing you with goodness and mercy to give you everything you need to do all He calls you to do.  Turn to Him.  Ask Him for help.  Watch what He does.

Happy 12th Birthday, Kassi!!!

It was this beauty's birthday yesterday :)  We celebrated with dinner at Applebees and plan for more of a celebration over the weekend.  It is hard to believe she is 12 years old now!  I am so thankful for her.  We had a meeting with a specialist in Ann Arbor last Friday regarding her size and that she is a little delayed in her growth.  Most people see her and think she is 8 or 9 like Karly or maybe even Karly's twin--not 12, so I worry about how she will handle those comments, but she seems to have come to terms with the fact that she is smaller than almost all her peers.  I do pray that she will hit a GOOD growth spurt this year, but that is totally up to GOD and I am glad that Kassi has learned to be very content with who she is because that took a few years to get to.  God blesses us with our challenges and gives us such perspective on the way that He loves us and the unique gifting He has given us.