Today me and Isaac were reflecting on how beautiful the story was that we heard at large group last night. This boy was blind and throughout his childhood his parents tried to abandon him because they did not want to deal with having a son who was 'handicapped' in this way and having to cater to his needs in this way. This boy had grown up knowing this, and when he had accepted Jesus into His heart had to work through a lot of those emotions dealing with that. But he did come to a point in his life when he realized that he did forgive his parents. This got me thinking.. if I was ever given the opportunity to meet my father, what would I do? What would I say? And then as we were talking, I said.. "I think if I ever meet my dad, I'm going to tell him that I forgive him and I love him." Now, it would not be because of anything that I thought up or came up with on my own. This reaction would simply be a response to the best example of love and grace I could look to, and that is Jesus Himself. I don't think that it would be the easiest thing I've ever done. But when if my life has been given so much grace and forgiveness, how could I not extend that to others? Even to someone who has created as much hurt as he has. By the grace of God.. I choose to forgive because I am forgiven. He loves therefore I choose to love. It's that simple. Hmm.. easy enough, right?
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.. putting away the boots for the day and pulling out the real shoes was the best decision I've made in awhile. it felt like i was walking on clouds and they were so light.
.. I was really grateful for the time that I was able to spend talking with isaac, three words are good. .. every tuesday and thursday i love the time that i am given to talk and spend time with heather.. she's just really great. .. watching Arthur is always a good life choice. .. madison marlene went out of her way to get me dinner for our night class, and i just feel grateful for that. .. being able to watch those olympic skiers was incredible. 'imagine what they are thinking about as they fly through the air like that.' .. Aiden's precious little smiling face brightens my day, all of those sweet little grins. .. three out of the four members in my sped group tonight were all using the same mechanical pencil. so for the remainder of the night dr stephens referred to us as the pen group. what a guy. If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in Nature. In every wind that blows, in every night and day of the year, in every sign of the sky, in every blossoming and in every withering of the earth, there is a real coming of God to us if we will simply use our starved imagination to realize it.
sitting and reflecting on a weekend spent at BeaverCreek studying scripture.. OT style. we looked into the Old Testament to see how things found there can still teach us things about our Jesus..
"Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am Holy." Leviticus 19:2 ...having a sore throat was not fun, but being given a ready-to-drink cup of good earth tea was
...alexi hands me a small heart she watercolored with the words "i love you" written on it ...the hug that i am so grateful for with syd, how special. i miss that girl ...gosh darn, those babies at work are cute even when they are crabby ...ooohhh, i'm a grown up because i have officially made plans with my work friends [of which are planned for a saturday before 7 pm, because they are both moms with babies who have bedtimes.. goodness i love them] ...those oranges at the caf were perfecto! ...seemed like a good day to watch les mis, i mean i guess there isn't really a bad day to watch it ...i hold dear to me our talk, as kindreds ...goodness i am looking forward to a restful weekend away at winterbreakaway i look forward to one day when we are all praising our Jesus in every language. mmmm.. how beautiful. After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
"salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." Revelation 7:9
a simple but powerful message from Pastor Mark Driscoll about the identity that the Lord longs for His children to know and believe about themselves. "Father- what did they say? daughter- they said I'm ugly. Father- you're not. they're lying. you're beautiful. daughter- they said i'm stupid. Father- they're wrong. you're not. you're great. daughter- they said i'm not valuable. Father- they're wrong. you're priceless. daughter- they don't wanna be with me. Father- well that's ok.. I can't live without you. I need you to see yourself as I see you. I need you to see, not just who you are, but who you're becoming." "the job of the Father is to take the spectacles that others have put in front of the eyes of the child.. take 'em off. take His spectacles.. put 'em on. this is where our identity is received from our father, it is not achieved by us. our identity is received from our father, it is not achieved by others' perceptions of us. "
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This life is not my own and so I choose to take the hand of the One who knows what lies ahead. Along the way we sing, we dance, we are learning portuguese and living in Brazil, and always gazing on beauty.^^^^
bind my wandering heart to Thee Archives
March 2016
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