It's Saturday......why not be dazzling?!

Isaiah 29:13 describes a people.....and maybe you have heard this verse many times before....

These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

So, do you think God responds by saying the people need more faith?  He definitely could, right?!  ....seems appropriate for this verse.  But instead He says:

Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder;

....and expounds upon how he will dazzle them :)

I am extremely grateful for a God who wants to dazzle me....to show Himself to me in glory so I am not merely relying on man's wisdom to believe, but I am experiencing God and ever learning to know Him in my life!  

Vannah got to spend some time with her grandma tonight over dinner :)  She has a class assignment to get to know someone's story, so she asked us if it would be alright for her to pick to go to dinner and interview her grandma.  Grandma Helga is originally from Germany and still has a wonderful German accent.  We call her Oma because that is grandma in German.....sometimes we forget and call her Grandma Oma.....but that is just like saying Grandma Grandma :P  I am glad they had a great evening together!

I have been enjoying Carrollton's song, Let Love Win, for a while now so I watched the video.  I wanted to share it because I love the way it visually reminds me of how Jesus submitted to and accepted his death on the cross for me....and how His shed blood has become the essence of my beauty.  Love isn't a feeling....I don't know why I am so often deceived by that notion.....it's an absolute decision to stop at nothing to do what is right and to always put others before one's self.

Let Love Win

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKWm0bGZlDU

We Took A Detour

....and we're shoe shopping :)

I stayed home with the girls because their backwards jammies, spoon under pillow, ice cube flushing ritual actually worked and they had a snow day.  I got a ton of work done from home and when the snow melted off the roads we shopped!  I felt so accomplished....I got them all Easter dresses and Vannah a dress for her New York trip with the band.....she gets to go to a Broadway Show, Aladdin, and she is super excited :)

And, Karly got her brand new glasses today!

All the way home she was reading all the road signs to me and telling me how much better she could see.....a whole new world, right!?

So, my girls think if they sleep with their jammies on inside out and backwards with a spoon under their pillows.....and if they each flush an ice cube down the toilet....they will find they have a snow day tomorrow.  I looked at the snow day calculator for our area and gave them the somewhat disappointing prediction and yet I hear the ice cube dispenser and a lot of giggling :)

I have no recollection of this....but, I remember burying M&Ms in the dirt with some friends to see if they would grow anything.  What if they did?!!!  Maybe the owners of that property found something pretty incredible!

Serving Up A Super Tuesday

We always draw birthdays out for a while, so today I took some treats to school for Karly to celebrate with her classmates.  She had a blast handing out pieces of her cookie cake and taking extra pieces down the hallway to other teachers.  We were done celebrating and the class was planning to have some quiet reading time so I was packing up extra napkins and cleaning up crumbs and trash and a little boy from Karly's class came over and asked me if I could stay a little while and let him read to me.....if that is not the SWEETEST request!  So I got to hear all about Lunch Lady for a half hour and Karly kept looking over at me and rolling her eyes.  Some of the boys in her class are really sweet on her and it annoys her right now.....she got paired with a boy from class today and they were supposed to tell each other one thing that was good about the other....she said, "Mom, when it was his turn he said EVERYTHING is good about me....not you're good at gymnastics or basketball or you run fast, but EVERYTHING!" YUCK!

It's so funny that she gets irritated about that!

By the way, did you know March is reading month?  The little boy who asked to read to me reminded me of that and inspired me to think about making that a priority.

Go Marching In

A man came to chapel yesterday and he was talking about the deserts in our lives and their importance....I totally agree.  Then, he mentioned several in his own life and said he wasn't sure how he came out of them.....do you ever think you might know the answer and want to shout it out?  :P  Probably wouldn't be the best thing for me to do in the middle of a chapel service.  I think the way out of the "desert" is through praise, surrender, and gratefulness.  If we have these we can march through our deserts...our situation may not change, but we will start seeing things blooming where nothing existed before.  I know for myself, when I encounter difficulties and struggles that make me wonder about God's plan for me or make me feel totally overwhelmed, I try to find something in them to be grateful for....even when that is difficult, praise God (Hallelujah) and surrender (Amen)....it could be that you are bowing before an idol....some "god" that cannot satisfy you....the power it has over you needs destroyed.  When you exalt the TRUE GOD...He will bring the water to your desert.

Sound Of The Saints

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FyMECJbr40