Tuesday 4 ~ Dream...Dream...Dream

 Dream.. Dream.. Dream

Welcome to Toni's Tuesday 4 friends!
It's up early due to a busy weekend.

Dream, when you're feeling blue
Dream, that's the thing to do
Just watch the smoke rings rise in the air
You'll find your share of memories there

So dream, when the day is through
Dream, and they might come true
Things never are as bad as they seem
So dream, dream, dream

Dream, when the day is through
Dream, and they might come true
Things never are as bad as they seem
So dream, dream, dream........by Johnny Mercer

1. As evenings are long, temperatures drop and we have more time to dream and ponder, are you pondering or dreaming of anything right now?

Nothing special that I can think of.  Just living one day at a time, thanking the Lord for each day that He gives us, and trying to live in the way He would want me to live.

Now don't get excited...but you asked what are you pondering, etc....well, I'm not really dreaming of this but I do love to look at new houses being built, and there's a new neighborhood being developed not far from us, and we love to take a ride over there and keep up with the progress.  It was fun to actually get out of the car this time and go through this house to see the floor plan and also to look out the windows to see what the "view" would be. 

I am actually a frustrated home designer...ever since I was a little girl I've loved to draw floor plans of houses, and I've actually designed a couple of the houses we had built for us...of course, by designed, I mean I made rough draft drawings of how I wanted the floor plan to be and gave it to the builder and they drew the real plans to the proper scales, etc. and made it work.  Those were probably the two best houses we ever had! 

This is the floor plan for this model, except in reverse. (Mirror image) And this one actually has a little front porch all the way across the front .

The things I like about this house: 1.  The living/kitchen/primary suite are all across the back of the house so you can enjoy living where the "view" is.  2.  The two car garage. 3.  The little porch across the front. (see below photograph)

Things I don't like: 1.  When you come to the front door that little bit of space they call "Porch" on the floor plan above is really wasted space since there is a front porch in front of that. I would prefer to incorporate that space into the house and have a better foyer, because the current foyer is too long and narrow and there isn't even room for a foyer table or place to hang your jacket, etc.

2. I don't like that you have to walk past the family bedrooms and bath to get to the living area of the house.  If someone comes to the front door, and you also have someone taking a shower in the guest bath, you would have to make sure they know not to come popping out of the bathroom when there is someone at the front door.  I would have to put a pocket door or sliding barn door or something over that little hallway entry to the guest bathroom and bedrooms so they have privacy going to and from the bathroom. 3.  Neither bathroom has a window.  4.  I don't like that the walk in closet in the primary suite opens directly into the bathroom instead of the bedroom. It gets two crowded when you have two people trying to get dressed, take a shower, etc.  5.  The furnace closet should be in the garage, and not taking up valuable space inside the house.

This is how it will look, again, in reverse.

Here's some of the land behind it. It's very wooded, and I hope it will stay that way.

Anyway, I like to do mental exercises of what it would be like to live in such a house. Actually this one is a bit on the small side for us, except for the fact that it has a nice two car garage, so that helps to have the storage space for all the stuff you can't fit in the house! LOL ! Stuff that you don't want to get rid of, that is. However, even if we wanted to do this, which we don't, this house it too expensive for what it is, and unfortunately that is how it is these days. You don't get nearly as much for your money as you could have even a couple of years ago. So we just like to look and "ponder" the what ifs...we've talked about wanting to get into a house on the ground level rather than a manufactured home where you have to climb 6 steps to get inside. The older we get, the more we think about that. But still...it's got to be affordable, and this one isn't.  And I love our current home with its view of Still Waters Pond! LOL.

2. Day dreaming , singing, humming even, can lift your mood and change the entire state of your health. Do you daydream or sing during the day ? Now that you know it can improve health will you try it?  Yes, I sing songs in my head and sometimes out loud quite a bit. Since I sing in our church choir and go to choir practice each week, I often have several songs in my head that we are working on.  If you listen to this video, in the beginning you will see and hear our choir singing the song that we did on Sunday morning.  This was recorded on Tuesday night, and it stuck in my head all week. "I Will Sing of My Redeemer"...  We were missing a lot of our choir members at this practice, but we still managed to get it recorded...not perfect, but hopefully you will appreciate the message of the song.

3. Fess up friends! When you window gaze is it because you are nosy or because it's just so lovely outside? We will still love you no matter what the answer.

Well, when I window gaze here, it is because it is so lovely outside on the west side looking at Still Waters Pond, and also in the morning when we have beautiful sunrises out on the east side of the house.

Here's todays offerings:

Sunrise this morning!

Sunset this evening (Writing this on Monday night)

And just as the sun was setting, Mr. and Mrs. Sand Hill Crane flew in to the yard to say hello, and so we rewarded them with a little bit of bird seed:

Then they flew back behind the island in the pond to roost on their nest for the night. I wish I could see it from here, but not this year!  I will have to walk all the way around to the side of the pond beside the new house next door if I want to watch them.  As long as no one lives there I will be able to keep tabs on their progress, but once the house is sold I will have to stay put in my own yard, unless the neighbors are really friendly.

(This was my view of their new nest area from yesterday afternoon, before they flew in for the night:)

4.Daydreams can become reality if they stir us to action. Were there any times in your life when dreams came true?

Gosh, where do I begin?  Probably many times over the years as we said "Yes!" to follow Jesus into the ministry, and hubby went to seminary in order to be qualified for the ministry...That actually could be a whole book...the one I keep saying I want to write someday...the one I said I would entitle: "Giant Leaps of Faith and Other Crazy Moves".  I've written a few chapters here and there throughout this blog, mostly back in the earlier days of blogdom.   If you click on "Giant Leaps of Faith" in the list on the right side of the blog page, you will be taken to many of those stories. Here is one post in particular that kind of  sums up our life...it is one of our previous Tuesday 4 memes from a few years ago.  

"Wisdom" is my One Word for this year, and I think wisdom has taught me to keep my eyes on Jesus and put my trust in Him, and He will direct my path. Sometimes "daydreams" can be good, but they can also lead us astray if we aren't careful.  It is very important to stay focused on God and His direction for our lives...

Proverbs 3:5-8

"5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.

7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;

Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

8 It will be health to your flesh,

And strength to your bones."

And that's the Tuesday 4 for this week. Oh, I just remembered! Someone asked me about the recipe for the Custard Pie that I showed on my last post.  Here it is:

It came from this cookbook, which was a wedding gift almost 56 years ago!  My mother had one very similar (just an older version), and that is where she got so many of her good recipes for baking, and so I was happy to have this to help me figure things out when she wasn't always there to guide me anymore!

The pie was very good. I did not put coconut in this one, but did sprinkle it with nutmeg.  I used a Pillsbury roll out crust that you can buy in a box that has two rolls of crust in it.  I had already used one of them earlier for a pie at Christmas, and still had one left to use! They can be frozen and kept for a long time!

This week hubby is going to have cataract surgery on Thursday, so things might get interesting before this week is over...however, I may not be available to do as much reading and writing here for a few days.  Hopefully everything will be just fine.  

God bless you all, and God bless America!!

Tuesday 4 - All About Moving

 

Tuesday 4: All About Moving (No, I am NOT moving again).



Welcome to Tuesday 4 kept up in memory of our friend Toni Taddeo who began it several years ago. She would be so pleased to see people keeping up with it!

Let's talk about moving today.

1. How far away are you from where you grew up?

This is the front door to my parents' home, where I grew up. 

Right now we are about 69.8 miles, according to Google Maps, or about 1 hour, 22 minutes. We moved from a farm in Pennsylvania when I was almost six years old, to a small town in Florida.  I grew up in a little town called Tavares, Florida.  I loved growing up there. I lived there from the time I was in first grade and all the way through high school and until I got married and moved away. My dad built the house we lived in, and he and my mother lived there until they died, which was about 54 years from the time daddy built the house. Then, sadly, we had to sell the house, but a sweet neighbor lady bought it to have for her family to come and stay in when they came down for the winters, etc.   I miss our family home, but because my parents are no longer living there, to me there is no reason to ever go back. I would be expecting to see them waving at me from the front door, and it would just be too sad. I prefer to remember it the way it was...and I know my parents are in a much better home in heaven, waiting for me to come "home" someday.

2. Families sometimes move all over the country. Do you feel that a family should try to stay close together? 

Well, it depends on the family and the circumstances. Every family is different. In our case, my husband was called into the ministry, and that caused us to make many moves, to graduate school, seminary, and then to many different places to minister. It was hard to be away from our families back home, but we knew that we were doing what God had called us to do. It had many, many challenges and there were many bumps in the road, but again, God was with us and took  care of us in ways beyond our expectation and imagination.  And when the time came for us to change from the pastoral ministry to a different kind of occupation, we did come back closer to home so that we could be near our parents in their latter years and help take care of them.  That was a blessing that we were very thankful to be able to do, but we would never change all of the years that we were also blessed to travel and move to new places, and meet so many wonderful people and do what we knew God was calling us to do.

3. How many times have you moved in your life and would you like to share when and where you moved?

When we got married, our soloist sang the song "Whither Thou Goest, I Will Go" at our wedding. Although the song is actually quoting what Ruth said to her mother in law Naomi in the book of Ruth 1:16, the wedding song was intended to be the bride speaking to her husband:

"And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: 

for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: 

thy people shall be my people, 

and thy God my God"

Little did I know when I chose that song to be sung at our wedding just how often I would be saying, "Whither thou goest, I will go..."  It would take a whole book to tell the whole story of all of our many moves over the past almost 52 years of marriage.  As a matter of fact, that is the book that I have always wanted to write, but probably never will.  The title of my book would be "Giant Leaps of Faith and Other Crazy Moves" if it is ever written.  I've shared some of those stories in previous blog posts over the years.  I don't want to give you a number of the times we have moved, because most people would gasp and faint if they knew.  But there was a good reason for every single move, and God was with us in every situation. Some were for better, and some seemed to be for worse, but we were together and we were answering the call of God to serve Him in the ministry, and He was always always there for us and met our needs, oftentimes in mysterious ways.   Let's just sum it up this way:  

• We started out in Florida, our home state.  Hubby was finishing his senior year in college when we got married.
• From there we went to Georgia to work at a Christian college and boarding academy
• We came back to Florida and hubby taught school and also became a Florida State Trooper, something he'd always wanted to do,  and we started our family.
• We felt the call of God to prepare for the ministry and so we moved to a graduate school to study the Bible in S.C. and also in N.C. for further study.
• We came back to Florida and began our pastoral ministry
• We moved to Ohio for further Seminary and so he could eventually complete his M.Div. all the while pastoring in churches and/or working bi-vocationally by teaching. I worked in schools or did whatever I could to help out financially, while raising our three children.
• We went back home to Florida and then to Georgia and then back to Ohio, where he completed his Doctor of Ministry degree, also while pastoring churches...
• We pastored a church in Michigan
• We pastored a church in New Hampshire
• We moved to Kansas for hubby to teach in a Christian College and I managed a bookstore, but that did not turn out to be what we thought it was going to be and we moved back to New England where our kids were.
• We lived and worked in Maine for a little while and then eventually moved back to Florida to care for our elderly parents.  Two of our adult kids moved back with us. Our middle son was married and stayed in Maine with his wife and eventually his son was born there.  Sadly, our middle son died after a four year battle with cancer.  We tried to move back to Maine to be near him during that time, but could not find work or any way to make that move. It was a very difficult time for all of us.  But at the same time, we were needed here in Florida to take care of our parents, and there really wasn't anything else we could do.  And God took care of our son in ways that we could not.  He knew what was best for all of us, and we did visit him as often as possible.  I wish we could now be closer to our grandson, who is now 21, but again, God knows what is best and we trust Him to take care of our grandson as well.
• We are retired now and still live in Florida.  Our elderly parents are all in heaven, waiting for us someday, as that will be our final move to our eternal home.

4. What brought you to where you are living now and are you happy there?

We now live in a small town in Florida, and our two remaining adult sons also live in this town. We moved here because our oldest son met a very sweet young woman who lived here, and married her and moved here. We fell in love with the little church where they were married, and longed to be settled somewhere where we could be a part of a small town church and community. And so we sold the house we were living in, which was about 30 miles from here in the middle of a national forest, and out in the boonies away from everything.  We moved here to this house on Still Waters Pond, which is lovely, and we are much closer to church, stores, doctors, hospitals, etc., and is exactly what we need for our "golden years".  Life on Still Waters Pond is very pleasant to us, and we have our two sons and daughter in law near, and we are very content and happy. 

 Even with all the moves and changes in life, I do not regret one minute of it. We have lived quite an exciting adventure, and have met so many wonderful people along the way that we could never have met if we had stayed "home".  We answered the call of God to serve Him, and He took care of the rest.  

"Then He (Jesus) said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Matthew 4:19

"Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” 

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

Isaiah 6:8

Thanks for joining in!!

Now MOVE over to the Tuesday 4 page and see what others are sharing today about their moves in life!

Alarms, Sirens, Whistles, Bells, and “Things That Go Bump in the Night” Revisited 10/28/2020 for Wednesday Treasures

I thought I would share this with you this week for my usual "Wednesday Treasures".  I am not showing any particular "treasures" per se', but am sharing something from the "treasure trove" of special memories. I hope you will enjoy reading along...

This is a previous post from my early blogging days, but it comes directly from my journals of the "Saga of the Steiner Family"... and part of what I had hoped someday would be a real "book"...

But alas, I believe I have come to the realization that the only book I am ever going to write is right here on this blog...you are my readers...and you don't even have to purchase anything to read it!  I guess you could say it is a kind of an "E" book...easily accessible on your computer! So I am definitely up with the times...

To give you a brief history...My husband had felt the call to go to Seminary to work on his Master's. We had three very young sons...and very little money!  Making this move took what I have termed "A Giant Leap of Faith". The links below will give you the two previous chapters of this part of our history.  If you wish to go back and read them now, click on the links below, and then come back here for what is essentially "Chapter Three".  Now, make yourself a cup of tea, and sit back and enjoy the adventure!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Original Post June, 2010:

Psalm 91:9-11 “Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place, No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.”

Our lovely, large, old, interesting house!

The Steiner Family Saga...The Story Continues (Click on these links to get the previous chapters:  Part One: "Trust and Obey",  Part 2: "An Open Door" )

Since my husband was called to serve as the Assistant Pastor of a church out in the country, which was a bit farther out from the Seminary, we felt like it would be wise to live a little closer to the church, or at least halfway between the Seminary and the Church to simplify things. Besides, the two-bedroom apartment we were renting on the Seminary Campus was extremely small, and with three growing boys we were feeling quite cramped. So we found a very interesting large older home to rent in the little community of Nova, Ohio. It was very convenient for us as the school where the boys would attend was literally right in our back yard, so I wouldn’t need a car to get them back and forth while John was at school. It was a crossroads community out in the  middle of farm country, but it had everything we needed within walking distance, including the only phone booth I’ve ever seen where you could make phone calls for 5 cents! Of course, you could only call people right in town for that price, but it was rather quaint and fun.

The Fire Station across the street...and the Halloween Day
parade passing by...I believe one of my boys is waving
at us...that looks like Matthew!

There was also the fire department right across the street from our house. We found out about that the very first night we had moved into our house when the fire alarm started blowing around 2 a.m., and kept blowing until all the volunteers arrived to go to the fire! Talk about a “rude awakening”! You should have seen all five of us jump out of our beds and run to the front windows to see the action going on across the street! Our little boys loved it! We just prayed there wouldn’t be too many fires in that region too often in the middle of the night!

The Fire Station also contained the local tornado siren…I found out about that one evening just as a group of ladies had assembled in my living room for a Women’s Missionary Prayer Meeting, and the tornado siren started blaring! With it right across the street you can imagine how loud that had to have been! But worse yet, what was I going to do with eight or nine women in my house if there was a tornado coming? Our only “basement” was a very small dirt dugout cellar under the house, and it was definitely not a place I wanted to take these women! Not only was it dirty and smelly, but it also appeared to have a small creek running through the middle of it every time it rained! No, we would have to just get blown away in the tornado before I would take them down there! So, we did like any good prayer group should do. We stayed right there in the living room and prayed! There was a great sigh of relief when the siren finally stopped blaring about thirty minutes later. I hollered out the front door to the firemen who had gathered across the street, “Is it safe to come out?” They said that they thought the tornado was a false alarm and we should be ok. Whew! That was a relief! And also an answer to prayer, I might add!

There was also a railroad crossing right in the middle of our little village, and the train whistle could be heard for many a mile as it roared through the countryside. We loved to run out and watch the train fly past as we waved at the conductor and the men in the red caboose! What fun for our boys! (I kind of liked it too).

I guess I never realized how noisy this little town was until I started writing all of this down! There was one more sound that I actually enjoyed, and it gave me a sense of peace and calm each day. It was the sound of church bells ringing everyday at noon, and then hymns would play for half an hour from the little church’s bell tower. I looked forward to that each day! We had truly found a perfect home. Or so we thought…



Psalm 91:5-6 “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.”


One night John woke me up out of a sound sleep to tell me that he could hear something scratching in our walls! I listened carefully but didn’t hear anything right away. Just as I was about to drift back off to sleep, he nudged me again and said, “There it is again! Did you hear it that time?” I very groggily but emphatically said “No!” But I knew there would be no more sleeping for me that night. So I lay awake and waited for the “scratching sound” to come back. I guess I drifted back off to sleep because the next time John was almost pushing me out the bed saying, “Get up! There’s something really big in there! It must be a huge rat! Listen, can’t you hear it?” I jumped up and said, “Well, what do you want me to do about it?” He said, “Here, take this flashlight and go see if you can see anything!” “ME?” I cried, “Why me?? What about YOU?” He said, “Well, your eyes are better than mine!”

Now, remember, this was a very big old house, and it had been empty for a while before we moved in, so there’s no telling what could have been “living” in the walls of this old house. I certainly was not too anxious to go exploring in the dark recesses of the attic storage room that was just on the other side of our closet and over the kitchen below. And why was my 6’3” former State Trooper husband asking ME to go look for this monster in the night? Oh well, I figured I might as well go have a look because it was obvious I wasn’t going to get any more sleep until I did! So, armed with the brightest flashlight we could find, and John tip-toeing behind me carrying his police night stick, we crept through the closet, opened the creaky old door to the attic, stepped down into the very spooky, cold, creepy room and started looking about for our huge monster! I did notice an opening in the wall that separated our room from the attic, so we shone the light in there. We couldn’t see anything but some old newspapers stuffed in the wall for insulation, (circa 1920’s we found out later). I told John I wasn’t putting my hand in there and whatever was in there would have to wait until morning when we could see. However, we did get a mousetrap and set it with some cheese on it and slid it in the little opening in the wall. Then we went back to bed and tried to get some sleep.

Sometime around daylight I heard a loud “SNAP!” and ran to see what “huge monster” we had caught in our trap. There lay the tiniest, most pitiful looking little mouse I’d ever seen in my life! I called to John, “Oh John! Come see your monster!” Rather sheepishly he said, “Well, it sure sounded big in the night!”

However, we knew that where there was one baby mouse there had to be more, so that day we set a couple more traps in that same area and one by one we must’ve gotten five or more mice out of that wall! But finally the scratching in the night stopped and we were able to relax and enjoy sleeping again!

Thank you Lord, for taking care of the “monsters” that terrorize us by night. If only all of our “monsters” could be just tiny mice! But Lord, You are always right there, calming our fears, comforting us, and rocking us back to sleep. Thank you, most loving God.

Happy days baking cookies together in the large country kitchen of this old house
Of course, everyone had to lick the batter!

I hope you have enjoyed this chapter in the lives of the Steiner Family.  It was truly a time of testing and faith, with never a dull moment.  Somehow we survived, and my husband eventually received his Master of Divinity degree and eventually his Doctor of Ministry degree and we moved on to minister for many years in various places....  I can honestly say that the time spent in this big old house gave us many pleasant memories of how God met our needs and set the course of our lives for future "giant leaps of faith" and other interesting moves.  Click HERE for Part Four: First Snow  

First Snow...A Story From the Past Updated

My friend Annie at Cottage By The Sea is doing a "Tuesday Four" questions blog today, entitled "Do You Want To Build A Snowman"  (click on the link to see the questions and her answers...

Well, I didn't exactly do the four questions because we don't live where there is any possibility of snow anymore. However, that hasn't always been the case. For many of our adult years we lived in various parts of the frigid north in the winter, and I have had many wonderful experiences with snow...(and some NOT so wonderful!)  We are thankful to live in Florida now, our home state, and not have to deal with snow and ice and all that goes along with that.  But Annie's questions reminded me of a time when we had first moved up north to Ohio, and our three sons were little, and this was their very first experience with snow.  I originally posted this story here many years ago on one of our "Random Journal Days", as it comes from my own personal journal.  I thought perhaps you might appreciate this little story from our past today.

So here is the original post from 2012:

Little Scotty at Our Big Old Interesting House in Winter

HERE IS MY RANDOM JOURNAL DAY OFFERING FOR THIS WEEK.  The following story is a continuation from last week's post  "Alarms, Sirens, Whistles, Bells and Things that Go Bump in the Night" These stories all come from my personal journals written when my husband was attending seminary in Ohio many long years ago. I hope you will enjoy the:  

"Part IV of the continuing saga of the Steiner Family Giant Leaps of Faith and other crazy moves..."

Proverbs 31:21 "She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household is clothed with scarlet."

I'm not sure what "scarlet" has to do with clothing for the family for winter. Scarlet usually means red or bright red colors. Red denotes warmth, so perhaps that is what is meant. Anyway, I think the idea is to be prepared for winter! Make sure your kids have their mittens, scarves, hats, boots, jackets, snowsuits, etc. all ready before the first snowfall!

From the beginning of autumn in our new Ohio home we watched for snow everyday! All summer long we had scoured the garage sales for winter clothing for all of us. Little by little we found all of the articles we needed. I found for myself a full-length wool coat with a hood...it was two sizes larger than I normally wore, but for $2.00, it was a great deal! I figured I'd fill up the gaps with lots of sweaters underneath. We had visited some friends from New York State who spent their winters in Florida, and they provided my husband with a wonderful men's black wool overcoat, and gave me a nylon ski parka and some ski boots! The boys were outfitted with ski masks, boots, mittens, and garage sale jackets. We were able to purchase some snowsuits reasonably as well at a great sale. My husband even bought a couple of used snow shovels from a family moving to the south! So we were well prepared when the first snow fell.


Scotty and big brother Benton-first snow!!



Matthew and Benton enjoying their first icicles!

I'll never forget that day! It was November 1st. We woke up to a winter wonderland! Fortunately, it was a Saturday, so we could go out and play all day! The boys made their first snowman, and Scott, our two year old, ate as many hands full of snow as he could get in his mouth! We were all so excited, we hated to go back inside, even though our hands and toes and noses were practically numb.

We were soon faced with the grim reality of winter weather. Upon entering the house, the phone rang. It was one of our church members informing us of the tragic automobile accident of one of our elderly couples early that morning. The man was killed instantly, and his wife suffered from multiple injuries. Someone had skidded on the ice and hit them head-on on a bridge. Suddenly our beautiful winter wonderland looked formidable to us. We hadn't yet tried to drive on it. It's one thing to be physically prepared for winter with all the right clothes, and have the pantry stocked with extra supplies in case you get snowed in, and have plenty of wood for the fire stacked and easily obtainable, but it's quite another thing to be mentally prepared for the realities of what winter can really do to you if you aren't experienced in the art of survival on the roads.

But more than that, the importance of being spiritually prepared to meet our Savior at any time comes more into focus in the wintertime. I have probably prayed more fervently on the roads in the wintertime than at any other time of the year. I've prayed more diligently for my husband and loved ones as they'd travel to and from work or school during a snowstorm or worse yet, freezing rain and sleet. I've had my own close calls several times, and discovered the protective power of God and His angels over me as I narrowly escaped serious accidents.

The way our big old interesting house looked after the first snowfall

The thought occurs to me now as I write this (many years later) that the "scarlet" mentioned in this proverb may not be clothing after all. It may be the covering of the Blood of Jesus Christ over my family. As I pray for them daily, I pray that His shed blood will cover their sins and keep them in His divine care eternally. Therefore, I need not be afraid of snow for my family (or any other problem)…they are covered and clothed with the scarlet blood of Jesus Christ…wherever they go, or whatever they do.

*Thank you, Jesus, for reminding me of this to me today. It is a tremendous comfort to my heart as we are currently in the midst of a kind of storm in our lives. I am so thankful to know that my children, even though now grown and on their own, are still covered by Your precious blood, wherever they go, and whatever they do...no matter what. Amen

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Note 1/28/2020: *We were in the midst of a storm when I wrote this...one of our precious sons was battling cancer, and he eventually succumbed to it, but he was covered with the Blood of Christ, and I know where he is today...and I will see him again in heaven one day. Praise God for that hope and promise.

Back to the present:  Since we don't still have the "Random Journal Day" group active anymore, that link above may or may not lead to any other entries. If it does, then enjoy what my friends in that group wrote at that time.  If not, well, then just enjoy this one! Have a blessed day wherever you are and whatever you may be experiencing at this time in your life.

Next in the Series: A Chilly Baptism 



Friday Foto Friends: Heeding the Call

Here it is again friends! It is Friday Foto Friends day, and I can tell you that I woke up this morning feeling very frustrated that I didn't have any particular new, good photos to share with you.  I was so restless that I told my hubby I couldn't sit and wait until after our morning devotions and breakfast to take our walk...there was an urgency in me that said, "Go Now!"  Have you ever had that feeling? Not just about taking pictures or taking a walk...but maybe on a deeper, more spiritual level...a restlessness in your spirit that seems to be pushing you forward, drawing you out and away from the mundane, safe, ordinary places and encouraging you to "step out of the boat" and take a step of faith in a new direction?  I'm sure we've all been there at different times in our lives, and lately it seems like I've been feeling it more and more often...maybe because I'm finally feeling stronger since my recent surgery, and I'm getting anxious to go do things again...or perhaps it is a deeper thing...maybe it is something the Lord is saying to me...get ready...be prepared to take a leap of faith..."follow Me..."
Who knows? God knows...and in our devotions this morning (which I read AFTER my walk...) God is calling to Jacob in Genesis 46:1, and Jacob responds in verses 2-3, 

2.  "Here I am".  

3.  So He (God) said, "I am God, the God of your father;

Do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there."

Well, that's a long, winding introduction to what I wanted to show you today, but it was significant, because I kept feeling this urgency to go take that walk much earlier than usual...and so I grabbed my camera and went...

And I came to my favorite little spot on the pond in our neighborhood, and the first thing I saw was that hawk that I showed you last week...and he took off from this tree

and flew to the other side of the pond as soon as I arrived. No time for a picture, so I thought, "well, there went that opportunity!"

So I stepped down to the little dock (that my friends so graciously have given me permission to use) and looked around to see if there was anything worth taking pictures of...

I thought the clouds above the sun rising over the marshy area looked kind of interesting...kind of like a deer kicking up his heels...

And then I took this picture of the reflection of the clouds in the water...

But I still felt dissatisfied, like I was missing something...and I hated to head back home without any good pictures....

And then something caught my eye back out on the marsh:

First there was one...

Then there were two:

Then there were four...

And one by one they started moving out of the marsh, following their mother...

And even though they are hard to see and they are quite spread out, there are actually five of them..

These two paused for another look at the strange creature staring back at them...

And eventually they all followed the mother into the thicket at the far right...

They seem to be varying sizes and ages...

Soon the mother is seen leading the youngest fawn up onto the bank on the other side of the pond, with big sister not far behind...

And here come the rest of them, frolicking up the bank to catch up with the rest

This one kicks up his heels to run and catch up...kind of like that cloud at the beginning of the pictures, don't you think?!!

There they run, around the other side of the pond...

Hurry up and catch up with the rest of the family...and this was the last picture I was able to capture as they disappeared into the woods on the other side of the pond...

Well! I can tell you that I felt so exhilarated, so thrilled, so happy after this encounter that I just couldn't stop thanking and praising the Lord for spurring me onward to see this great sight this morning!  I practically ran all the way back home and couldn't wait to tell my hubby what he missed by not going with me...but he was comfortably sitting in his chair, working on his devotional post that he puts together every day on what he calls Simposious.com, which is a daily compilation of several different devotional readings from various organizations...and although he was happy for me to be so happy...he wasn't the one who had felt such an urgent "call" to go out...it was something especially between the Lord and me....

Then I sat down and read our morning devotions that we do together each day, and another of the scripture passages that we read were from Psalm 37:

3.  "Trust in the Lord, and do good;

Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

4.  Delight yourself also in the Lord,

and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

5.  Commit your way to the Lord,

Trust also in Him,

and He shall bring it to pass.

6.  He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,

and your justice as the noonday.

7.  REST in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him..." 

Wow!  

Don't you just love how God works?  

As for me, I am delighted in the Lord, and He has truly given me the desires of my heart today...not just in these pictures,

but in just knowing that He hears our cries,

He answers our calls...

and He also expects US to answer HIS call when He calls...

Lord, may I always be ready to heed and answer Your call. 

Help me to have faith to step out and follow you, knowing that You will always do what is right and good for Your children.

Amen

Now please leap over to visit our other Friday Foto Friends here

Testing, Trials, and Miracles

Another episode in the life of our family, and especially in the life of our precious son Matthew.

This story takes place way back in time...when my husband had decided to begin his preparation for the ministry and attend a graduate program in Bible and Missions.  We had moved out of state far away from family and familiar surroundings, and we were hoping that John would not have to work full time so that he could devote as much time as possible to his studies.  We were also hoping that I would not have to leave the children (two little boys at the time ages 3 and 18 months) to go to work.  A seemingly tall order, “but with God, all things are possible!” (Matthew 19:26)

Somewhere along the line I responded to an ad seeking a couple to be house-parents at a home for boys.  The ad said that this home was located on a farm about fifty miles from the city in which we were living.  Although the distance from the college might present a problem for John, the other details appeared to be a workable solution to our dilemma.  The directors of the home contacted us and came to our home for an interview.  The job itself looked simple enough; we would be house-parents to approximately ten boys, each about ten years old. We would live in a “cottage” with them, and would have our own personal bedrooms and bath.  I would be responsible for the laundry of our group and the general upkeep of the cottage.  This was a “Christian” home for boys, and we were to have devotions with them at bedtime and attend church together on Sundays.  It certainly looked like an answer to our prayers.  I would not have to leave our own children while working, and our room and board would be provided along with a small salary.  John learned that there was a family in that town whose son was also attending the same college, and they would be able to car-pool!  The main concern was the fact that we would be giving up a certain amount of family privacy and freedom, but it was a ministry to young boys who needed a strong father and loving mother image.  We felt God was giving us the “go-ahead” to embark on this new adventure, and we moved to the “farm” the first of September.

The Testing Begins

James 1:2  “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, know that the testing of your faith produces patience…”

The experiences we had over the following several months are too numerous, and some too depressing to describe.  The ministry with the boys was very special to us; we learned a lot about giving and receiving love with those who were craving such attention and demonstrations of affection.  However, our relationship with the Director of the “home” was less than idyllic.  Although he claimed to be a Christian, the examples of Christ-likeness were, in our opinion, few and far between.  There was such a spirit of fear, dogmatism, and overpowering authority that we sometimes cringed beneath the load.  Our spirits were quenched in the fire of this man’s wrath that was often displayed.  Our hearts would break as discipline was often unmercifully doled out and we would fight back tears of anger and frustration at being totally unable to do anything about the situation.  My days left alone there at the farm were often filled with fear, anguish, and bitter remorse.  John would come home after school to find me thoroughly defeated, and yet quite often fighting mad.

One day, however, something happened that changed our lives completely.  It was my responsibility each afternoon to greet our “boys” at the school bus, and supervise them in getting out of their school clothes and into “work clothes”.  “Play clothes” were unheard of as playing was considered a waste of time.  I would then escort them to the dining hall where they were to do homework until supper.  While the boys from our cottage were changing their clothes on this particular day, my own two little sons were out in the yard riding their “big-wheels” around on the sidewalks. 

Matthew on his big wheel

I kept looking out the door to check on them, and they were fine. Besides, one of the other house-parents was standing nearby in the yard talking to the Director.  I had no sooner gone back inside the cottage to hurry the boys along when one of the older boys from the farm came running into the cottage yelling, “Come quick! Your son has just been hit by a car!”  There was no time for questions, and in a panic I ran to the dining hall where I was told he had been taken.  To my horror and shock, there sat my ashen-hued eighteen-month-old baby, bleeding profusely from the scalp, barely crying, with a towel wrapped around his head.   “Let’s get him to the hospital!” I screamed in anguish.  The Director hesitated, and then responded, “Well, I suppose he should go…”

I grabbed baby Matthew in my arms and immediately ran to the car of the other house-parent.  This woman was the lady who had actually run over Matthew as she had started to back out of the driveway, but her car was the only one available and we had to move quickly!  She jumped in the car and away we drove.  Sorrowfully, I had to leave my three-year-old son, Benton, standing there with an elderly lady who had “just happened” to come spend some time at the farm that week. She assured me that she would take care of him.  I wanted to reach out and comfort him, as he was so obviously distressed.  After all, it was his screams that had alerted the driver of the car that something was wrong in the first place! But we had no time to lose, and we rushed away to the local hospital.  All I could do was pray that God would give him the comfort that only He could give at such a time. 

We literally flew through town to the small hospital, honking the horn and driving down the middle of the road as fast as we could go.  As I held Matthew tightly in my arms I cried, “Please don’t let my baby die!” and “Please, Lord, let there be a good doctor at the hospital when we get there!”  This was a small rural hospital, and good doctors were scarce in that community.

We safely arrived at the hospital, and as the Lord would have it, the BEST surgeon in town “just happened” to be in the hospital!  Matthew was taken to an examining room, and I was allowed to stay with him and hold him while they took the x-rays and examined his head.  He was then whisked away into surgery, where they cleaned all the dirt and gravel from out of his terribly torn scalp, and pieced the skin back together.  Meanwhile John arrived at the hospital.  When he got home from the college he was given the startling news and rushed right over immediately.  Soon the doctor came out of surgery and assured us that Matthew was stable, but he wanted to send him to the large county hospital fifty miles away by ambulance so that he could be observed by a neurosurgeon.  He told us that Matthew had a large fracture on one side of the skull, extending from the crown of his head down to his ear.  On the other side of the skull was another hairline fracture, but there was no indication at that time that either of the fractures was depressed.  That was encouraging news to hear, for a depressed fracture would have heightened the risk of brain damage.

Later that night I had a terrible time trying to sleep in my little cot next to Matthew’s crib in the hospital room.  Every time I’d close my eyes, I’d see the whole incident over and over again, and I’d wake up trembling and crying.  Finally the emergency room doctor gave me a sedative, and I was able to rest.  The next morning I was awakened early by a phone call from a young lady at the college where John was attending.  She told me that the whole college had been praying all night long in shifts for Matthew, and they just wanted us to know that they cared.  I rejoiced to tell her that Matthew had slept peacefully through the night, and his vital signs were excellent, and that it appeared their prayers had certainly been answered! As a matter of fact, he was standing up in his crib at that moment talking to me! We spent a week in the hospital, and Matthew was released with no sign of brain damage or other complication!  What a miracle!

At the end of the week we returned to “the farm”.  Benton had been wonderfully cared for by that same dear lady who had arrived at the time of the accident.  However, she had departed for her home that morning before I arrived.  I did not even have a chance to thank her.  It was as if God had placed her there just for that purpose for that period of time, and when her task was over, she was sent back home.  I have thanked the Lord many times since for sending “Big Mama” to care for our son that week.

As you can see God carried us through some difficult tests and trials on our road to learning to trust in Him.  I wish I could say that from then on everything was rosy cozy...but real life isn't like that,  especially when one steps into the arena of standing up for the truth. But I can honestly say that even though times were rough, God was always there with us, and He has never let us down. No matter what the outcome of the tests and trials.

Baby Matthew, after his accident. Back to his happy normal self, praise God!

I'll have to finish this story later.  It gets better...but just so you aren't left wondering, no, we did not stay at that place very long after this accident...and yes, God did provide another place for us to live and the means to survive until John finished his course of study that year...but that's another story for another day.

As of this writing, March 20, 2014, our son Matthew, now age 41 years, is battling for his life again, this time from a much deadlier foe, cancer. For more on Matthew's life story, see this: "God's Perfect Timing", and this: "Trust His Heart".

Post Script: On May 25, 2014, God called Matthew home to heaven. His battle  with cancer was over, and he was perfectly healed at the moment he stepped foot into heaven's gates.  For more on this please read: "How Could I Not Want This Day to Come?".  Thank you for your continued prayers for Matthew's wife and son Noah.