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.

Wow, so much has happened the last couple weeks that I cannot keep up with it all on my blog :P  The girls and I went to a family reunion for a few days to celebrate the 4th of July in Illinois.  We camped....which we really never do....so that was an adventure and a lot of fun.

We had a popup camper and a tent to get set up....Karly is modeling the tent :)

There were NO good mirrors anywhere....so glamping had to happen in the van mirror.  

An awesome straw Statue of Liberty in Mt Morris, IL

My birthday.....still blows my mind that I am in my 40's.....41 this year.  I do not feel old at all except to look around at the results of my life and to see all these girls growing up....WHAT?

My parents came and camped with us....they really hosted us because it was their tent and they rented out the camper for the weekend.  I am so blessed to have these sweet parents!

A gorgeous view from the campground looking out on Rock River Valley.

Danielle really WAKES up when she camps.  At home she can sleep in a really long time, but I learned she is the first one up while camping.  I got up around 5:30am to use the restroom and she looked like this at me and said, "RACKO?"....she was already to start the games!

My cousin, Andy, taking requests with his new ukulele.  We are a very musical family so we had lots of singing, some instruments, and a bell choir over the weekend as well as some skits and poetry :P

Ready for lots of candy at the parade...

The grandkids lined up in age order...we were missing a few, but still had a great group...

The kids....minus Josh, Amy, and Cori

When we arrived home, Brad had surprised me with this new kayak in our garage.....very cool!  I am excited to try it out!  I just have to figure out the best way to move/haul it because it is very heavy and I cannot move it alone.

There was one day when everyone was busy with stuff and Karly and I had a day completely to ourselves.  We went kayaking at Vandercook Lake and had a Culvers date :)

Vannah had a three day camp at MSU for Color Guard since she is a captain this year....she absolutely loves it and wants to try to advance to a competitive program.   Her high school doesn't offer that, so we are looking for other options of high schools which may allow for her to try out and join them or DCI (Drum Corps International) which allows students to audition and train to travel in the summers....anyway so much to think about leading into her final year of high school and dreams for beyond.

I asked her to toss the salad the other night and she said, "MOM, do you REALLY want ME to toss the salad?"....haha....she's a goof!

Trying to get MSU germs on her U of M sister :P

Then, Monday was her final driving test day....it poured down rain and she was nervous so we talked on the way about the windshield wiper speeds and how to handle hydroplaning if that happened....and how to avoid it :P  

I got to stand in the rain and watch her park...

SHE PASSED THE TEST!!!!  YAY!

We celebrated with Biggby and looked at a couple used cars :)

I serve a God who restores :)  He is not only one who brings us through, but He also loves to redeem the BAD or seemingly wasted and make it GOOD and beneficial....he re-purposes the time the faithful spend in their trials so that outcomes are somehow not counted as loss.

Joel 2:25 says, "I will restore to you the years the swarming locust has eaten."

I read a devotional today which included this excerpt from Jerry Bridges book, 31 Days Toward Trusting God...

God’s moral will as seen in the Bible is rational and reasonable, but the circumstances in which we must trust God often appear irrational and inexplicable. God’s law is readily recognized as being good for us, but the circumstances of our lives frequently appear harmful and grim, perhaps even calamitous and tragic. Obeying God is worked out within well-defined boundaries of God’s revealed will, while trusting God must be worked out in an arena with no boundaries, where we’re always coping with the unknown. Yet it’s just as important to trust God as to obey Him. When we disobey God, we defy His authority and despise His holiness. And when we fail to trust Him, we doubt His sovereignty and question His goodness.  In both cases, we cast aspersions upon His majesty and His Character…In order to trust God, we must always view our adverse circumstances through the eyes of faith, not of sense.

Earlier tonight Karly was complaining due to some mosquito bites and a little sunburn on her shoulders from our kayaking adventure today and I saw that yellow mustard can ease the sting, itch, and burn....so we laughed as we applied mustard on all her remaining camping skin irritations :)  I was thinking....who knew mustard had so many great qualities?  She was amazed and thought it was miraculous until Kooper wouldn't stop licking her :P

I learned something new about the mustard seed....we often hear that it is tiny, but can grow to great heights....true....but, I also heard that it can be planted anywhere and it is not affected by other plants.  The seed IS small, simple, but incredibly strong to withstand the environmental influences surrounding it.  If I think about that in terms of my own faith it encourages me to go back to the foundation....go back to the simplest truth....the seed of my faith....when times are tough.  I go back to Jesus Christ died for me because HE LOVES ME...because....GOD IS LOVE....He just IS.....and Jesus loves us because the Father loved us first and I am invited to abide in that love that has always been loving us and offering us growth ...I can be planted in it.  As I am planted in it I  hope for so many beautiful things and I can have faith that the things I hope are possible because God loves me....isn't that a wonder cycle of blessings!

I like the imagery in this quote:

Faith Steps, Love Builds, Hope Opens....repeat.

I do believe that.

I heard another really great devotional thought this morning....already had the opportunity to share it with two people today and I pray it touched them.  It's awesome when we are given bread in the morning and realize throughout the day that others need just what we received....break that bread, right? :)  So, it was about Joshua and Jericho and how the army had to march around the city 6 times with no sign of success before GOD BROKE THE WALL DOWN after the 7th time around.  I have been laughing about that today, I mean it really would have been nice to see a little crumbling or cracking each time around, right?  HAHA....GOD is so serious about finding the faithfulness in us and I love that!  We have to be cool with looking like fools the 7 times around too, you know? :)  The world (the Jericho) will think we are absolutely insane as we follow GOD's instructions.  I'm there now in a situation....so easy for others and the voices in my head to say, "Why don't you give up on this?"....."What are you doing?"  "Why don't you just do it this way?", "This makes no sense!", "This is the hardest way possible!".....but, what if this is just my 5th time around, you know?!

When I played tennis in high school my coach would always tell me I didn't have to do anything spectacular (because I always wanted to slam the ball back at my opponent or put some kind of weird spin on it)....I just needed to outlast them....I needed to be steady and as consistent as possible.  I didn't like that because I wanted to be amazing in other ways than just steady, but in my spiritual walk I have determined this is SOOOO TRUE!  We aren't the ones with all the glorious moves, GOD IS!  However, we have to endure our enemy's attacks with our steadfast faith :)

Not Just Another Spiritual Retreat...

I was out of town with a few friends over the weekend and really had a great time.....so much laughter.  I am really not sure if I've ever laughed that much because I literally was hurting during a charade type of game and did not think I could take another breath.  It's good to get away sometimes :P  

We decided to visit a church on Sunday morning and I have been delighted to meditate over the message from that morning.  The pastor spoke on Ephesians 6....the struggle is real....but it is not against flesh and blood :)  God has been reminding me of that verse many times over the last few months and I think I will include that in my story when I write it :)  No, (well maybe) but I am thankful for God's abundant reminders to keep our thoughts focused even during our struggles on TRUTH.  The pastor also talked through our armor of God...He fits us with it....and as the pastor spoke about each item, I was reminded of the song I used to sing about all the pieces of armor.  

Something I had never thought too much about, but I have been excited about the last couple of days, is that our Armor of God is not only defensive in nature, but also offensive by God's power.  That thought is amazing to me.  Have you ever been in the middle of something really difficult and thought, "if I can just stand my ground I'll be doing alright"....I have been there.....do all that you can do to stand and then stand, right?  But in God's power, we can do more than just stand....we can actually advance.  

We can advance into a new understanding of Christ and a deeper dependence on Him, we can advance as we step into unknown places and really live in faith, we can advance as we surrender the things we always held onto or the agenda we created for our life and ask Him to take complete control, we can advance when we share our brokenness with the people God orchestrates us to meet for the purposes of encouraging them with our story and His Gospel, we can advance as we learn to share our burdens and allow other the blessings that come from intercessory prayer, we can advance as God exalts us from a place of true humility, we can advance as our trial becomes our testimony and the weaknesses and struggles which lead us to prayer become weapons against evil, we can advance as GOD's power is continually made more perfect in us as He is glorified through our struggles and our successes.

....Yep.....a Spiritual Advance :)

Wow, I had a fun weekend away with some of my girlfriends from church!  We headed to Grand Rapids for two nights :)  When we checked into our hotel, the lady at the front desk had to make sure we knew that quiet hours began at 11pm.....haha!

We tested our friendship in an escape room which only has a 16% success rate.....we had located all the clues and only had to organize them in the right order to find the last code number for the door code.....so close :)

Still smiling after the weekend away, but pretty tired.

How to choose roommates when you love all your friends equally?  There's an app for that...haha!

I don't have to cook or worry about making something everyone likes :)  

FLATBREAD SUPREME PIZZA

Totally enjoyed Mojo's Dueling Piano Bar and Restaurant...the musicians are all very talented switching from vocals/pianos to drums to guitars and even harmonicas and we even tried to throw them off with weird requests from....as they called it "the 1900's and 80's" KIDS THESE DAYS!!...Walk Like An Egyptian and The Beverly Hill Cops Theme song were two we tried to give them.....he had to find a synthesizer sound on his piano for that one....haha, but it was great! After he played it, he returned to the theme a couple times....I am sure he will add it to his repertoire now :) Someone in the establishment really liked Metallica :P  It was really fun!

Arnie's Baja Salad and yummy French Onion Soup :P

And....we had too much fun with Snap Chat filters....this one makes me laugh because the guy at the table behind me also is filtered....haha...oooops!

Shopping at a thrift store....I was a little shopped out by that time :P

Funny thing we learned about Snap Chat filters.....they will only work on two people at a time....poor Lindsay!  This one made us laugh for a really long time....we just kept leaning together and waiting for the filter to appear on her face, but NO...LOL :)

I love my job.....I like my tasks and responsibilities, but mostly I really enjoy the laughter with my co-workers.  There are definitely times where I KNOW we are in a situation which could be on an episode of THE OFFICE and many times I feel like Pam.  Yesterday, my boss rolled out this new idea that we could track our progress of recruitment on this "board game" looking map of SAU.  We all have our own train engine.  I am only responsible for international student recruitment and assisting readmitting students to return to SAU because so much of my job is dedicated to high school students who want to take a college course while in high school.....so, I was thinking "OH great....I will always be the caboose".....I get maybe 20 regular students and the rest are all dual enrollees (who don't count on this map).

BUT, my boss thought of that already....He said we will always move ahead as a team so when a person gets one deposit for a student they are recruiting, they will move to the front of the train....funny!  So, maybe I won't be the caboose all the time :P

Real freedom and protection is found right here :)  It is so hard to explain to others how God's Word and walking in obedience give you freedom and protect you as storms can rage all around, but somehow you can be seeing all this darkness and still be in the light.  You can be hurting, but still at peace and joy can still bubble up to the surface in the middle of it all.  We have freedom to choose sooooo much in life about our decisions and how we will navigate ourselves through it all, but this is the only perfect way through to experience God's favor and to walk with Him each step!