God loves

I just got done reading my daughter Hannah's report on her recent mission trip to Alabama and I had to share it with you. Our God is amazing and is still at work on a very personal basis in our world today....even with the 'least of these', the ones we have cast off in society and don't have much hope for. Please read it, pray for the boys they ministered to and for the young people in your  lives and see what God sees....let Him work.

Look at these!

I have not seen these before today.

I like these a lot!

Blessed like spring muffins

It's spring break this week for all of our various schools represented in my house. The preschool I work for, the junior high Maggie goes to, the high school Emma goes to and the college Bethany goes to. Nice. Now if they just had spring break for pastors, it would be perfect.

Our week so far:

-Bethany has been working at the zoo every day, all day. They are crazy busy there because of springs breaking and such.

-Emma has been busy with her friends, babysitting her little cousin who is 4, and at our youth department, which is having 'reality week'.  I think it includes a lot of messy, painful, wet games from the looks of my kids when they come home. They also do a lot of culturally relevant talks and videos and  Bible studyish things.

-Oh, and our youth pastor finally joined facebook. He has been a long time hold out on all the technology the past few years.  For instance, if you sent him an email, really, it was like sending you message to the cosmic void. gone gone.  One of our church members even started a fan page called " Josh K should be on facebook", to which he put conditions on the number of people who had to join before he would join and that one specific other person had to join. And now, wallah! He's all into facebook, making comments, building photo albums of his mini me children and generally being a normal person of our era!  Yay to Josh.

-Maggie has been doing the reality week plus various days of fun with me and her cousin and auntie(s). We went to the zoo on Tuesday....all day....I think I am still recovering from that.  Then today we went over to the east side of town and hung out at Arizona Mills Mall and went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D.  She and her sisters have named all of us in the family as resembling the characters of that movie. I am by unanimous vote, the Mad Hatter. (even though he's a boy and I'm a girl) After seeing it, I am not arguing except on that one point.  Some things you just can't deny.

-I got to meet up with another pastor's wife I've known for a few years but had never actually met....yes, that does make sense, but I really don't want to make sense of it for you. Mysterious, yes? We met at Paradise Bakery and ordered muffins and coffee. The woman running that counter, then waited on another woman (I guess she was thinking it would be a quick order, but no, the lady had questions and ordered many many muffins which were carefully placed into boxes, etc).  My friend and I stand there.....and stand there.....no sign that she had even begun making our fluffy coffees. Then I asked her, as a way to remind her of our coffee-less existence, if there was a problem (and I was very nice, unlike today when I had to get real with a telemarketer). She apologized and said she would throw in some free cookies because the wait was so long.

She finally made the coffees and while explaining the buy one get one free cookie special to the woman who was ordering many muffins, she had a surprised look on her face when the woman pointed to the sign that said buy one, get one free MUFFINS. No one had informed her that it was  BOGO muffin day instead of  BOGO cookie day. So instead of doing a refund for us and our full priced muffins, she gave us two more muffins, plus the apology cookies for having to wait. So we ate our original muffins and took home BOGO muffins and cookies and by the way, they have really good fluffy coffees there.

I did not mean to go on and on about that, but you had to get the feel for how long it took. ;)

I hope you are having a happy springy week wherever you are and that God blesses you with many new ideas, blessings and His plans along the way. (like muffins)

Blossoming

I opened the back door this afternoon to let the dog out and a faint scent of orange blossom wafted it's way into my head.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm, it's Spring in Phoenix!

For these days...

Just kidding, this is what I really wanted to say,

  “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?  Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?  Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? 

  “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing,  yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.  

Why do you have so little faith?

  “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’  These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.  Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. 

  “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Matthew 6:24-34 (NLT)

Wow, look at that ring, ummmm

This morning the preschool classroom was running smoothly, children were all enjoying quiet activities at the tables while everyone arrived and got settled. The next child entered with her mother and M, seated at the play dough table, looked up at her friend's mom and shouted, "Hey Mrs. A, look at my new RING!"  All eyes turned to her, at which time she enthusiastically held up the finger the ring was on....her middle finger....only.



Oh bother.

Construction zone

Pardon the construction. If you have me on any kind of subscription like Bloglines, you'll notice the boatload of posts coming from me today.  I have been moving my old blog posts here to this blog.

I have just finished moving 2005 over here!

In other news.....

Did you know that today's date goes backwards?

3/2/10

Great mysteries: 1,000 years of peace

We had dinner with friends from church last Friday and some other friends of theirs were also eating with us. The woman there, who we had only met on a few occasions, is 17 weeks pregnant. It turns out that this is her seventh pregnancy and she keeps having miscarriages. The last one was around 17 weeks, so her doctor is keeping a close eye on her and the baby. (keep them and their baby in prayer please!) It reminded me of the time in my life when I miscarried 2 babies in a row, 2 years apart, that were 20 and 21 weeks in gestation. The sorrow, sense of crazy loss, and life questions at a time like that cannot even be put into words. And I have tried.

That time in my life seems very long ago and even though talking about it can bring tears to my eyes because I remember how hard it was, I am no longer grieving or thinking about it often. But something that my friend said really made me wonder...in a good way....in a hopeful way.

She asked me how I pictured those children in Heaven. Were they grown up or children or babies? I have to say that I really don't know and I don't think about it. Not because it's too hard emotionally, but it is hard to imagine children you never knew. Each of our kids is SO different in personality, looks and gifts that it is hard to even imagine what these other children would be like. Then we started talking about the 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth when we will serve with Him and live on earth again. I wonder if those children will be able to grow up there at that time?

It is very hard to imagine, but it is a hopeful type of imagination. I had not given much thought to this 1,000 year reign before this year. And after a couple of interesting Bible studies about end times and prophesies lately, I am thinking about it kind of often. I am looking forward to it in fact, not just because of the children we have never met, but I think mainly it is because I feel like it is closer than ever. Of course it IS closer than ever time-wise, but I mean as a reality for me, it is more real in my mind and heart than ever.

I just thought I would put these thoughts out there. Leave me some comments on what you think about this. I would love to know! What are your thoughts on what will happen during that time? Do you ever think about it? It is something that is mentioned in Scripture, Revelation chapter 20, but is very mysterious still.

These thoughts about unborn children are just my opinion, not Biblically based. I am not trying to propagate anything false, just wondering aloud.