Ain't They Purty?

Twenty-eight quarts worth! The boys helped me pick and the girls helped snap. Now if I ever get finished canning them today, I will feel quite accomplished!

What My Odedience to God Costs Other People

Here's a few lines from the January 11th entry in My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers:

-

"If we obey God it will mean other people's plans are upset, and they will gibe us with it - "You call this Christianity?" We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid."

-

"We are so involved in the universal purposes of God that immediately we obey God, others are affected."

-

"We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation, but we shall be a grief to our Lord. Whereas if we obey God, He will look after those who have been pressed into the consequences of our obedience. We have simply to obey and to leave all consequences with Him."

-

This has always been a difficult concept in my life. There are times when it is hard to obey God when it affects others. It is often miserable being viewed as responsible for other people's misery or offending others with that obedience.

-

Yesterday's entry in My Utmost pertained to the Beatitudes in Mark chapter 5 and this verse in particular connected in my mind to the above quotes:

-

"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

-

When I find myself in a situation where people are lying about me or believing lies, especially if it is regarding some aspect of obedience to God, I eventually become so overwhelmed with the idea of putting out every little fire that I give up. Usually, the truth wins out and the fruit of a decision to obey God becomes evident. It just takes patience and a willingness to let God be the defender. Sometimes I waver in that patience and really want to go and try to fix things, but I know better.

-

In the meantime I try to remember this:

-

"Let us not loose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary."

Friends

There was a time in our lives when we prayed for friends. We were so lonely and felt all alone in the world. Little did we know what would come next. Not only did God supernaturally bring us new friends but we also had people in our lives that we didn't know would come to be so dear to us.
-

One such friend was a young man who was working for Mr. Potts. He started working for him almost sixteen years ago and even helped us move out-of-state, living here for almost a year helping to get the business back on it's feet after the move. Over the years, he has come to visit many times and his love of the Lord and committment to follow Him at all cost has been an inspiration to us and our children. He is only a few years younger than me, and after waiting on God for many years, he finally has a bride (as of 2 months ago). Can you imagine how valuable it is to have this man look across the table at your eighteen year old daughter and say, "God is so faithful. I wish I would have trusted him even more! He is worthy to be trusted and waited on!" They are visiting us now and what a blessing.

-

Also about the time this man came into our lives, my sister, who was still single, had a few friends she ran around with. One of these friends was a single girl my age. After my sister got married (newlyweds sometimes forget others exsist) this girl became my very dear friend. She spent years coming over to my house on a weekly basis, and sometimes more often than that. Mr. Potts and I would sit up with her after the children were put to bed laughing and having deep conversations about God and life. My girls adored her. She loved them and knew them like they were her own children. She remembers the one who was a drama queen, the fiesty tom-boy, the emotional one and the one who didn't throw a fit or hardly made a noise when told she must eat her broccoli but instead used her fork to gouge the new dining room table. (It's amazing that they really don't change!) She made special decorated birthday cakes that will never be forgotten by the girls. After all of these years, even if we haven't talked for a while, we can see her or talk on the phone and it is exactly like old times. It's one of those friendships that once revisited, makes you feel as if you have never been away.

-

Another old friend called me recently to get our current address in order to send a wedding invitation for their oldest daughter's wedding. These friends have an interesting story behind them. Right after we prayed for friends with the children (about thirteen years ago), we happened to stop at a garage sale. I pulled up and left the children in the van where I could see them and rummaged around. Seeing the children with me during school hours, the woman who was having the sale struck up a conversation with me about homeschooling. Turned out she also homeschooled and we ended up getting together many, many more times. After moving away we came back to visit and went to their house and after a short time of the kids getting reaquainted, they were having a grand time again.

-

This "garage sale friend" was always trying to help us find a church, something we desperately wanted but couldn't find a place where we could settle in. She called me one day and told me about a woman she met in a Cracker Barrel restaurant that she swore was my soul-mate. She got her contact information and thought I might be interested in contacting her because we might be interested in their church. Well, the more she told me about this woman, she started sounding too familiar and I realized it was someone I already knew from another church that we had visited for a quite a while. We had often passed each other in the halls, remarking that we were always pregnant at the same time. I couldn't believe I knew the person this friend was telling me about. I did make the phone call and to make a long story short, we found the best friends we have ever had. Every person in our family matched with someone in their family and everyone became best friends. How many times does that happen? How many times do the women get along famously but the men don't really care for each other? This family was a perfect fit. After moving away eleven years ago, we have kept up on the phone and with visits. We are still very close (these are the movie-making friends!). After thirteen years, they are still the ones we turn to during a hard time. They are the ones we would trust our lives with and the lives of our children.

-

We have other friends who are also dear to us that live about three hours away. This man was another one of Mr.Pott's employees from way back. Out of the blue he contacted us and then brought his wife and children to visit us and it was a close friendship from the beginning. We have rented beach houses together and gone back and forth visiting each other many times. I felt so honored when they were going through a difficult time with their church recently and wanted us to come visit them and be with them through it. They are planning on coming up in a couple of weeks and I so look forward to it. And we know they will be a comfort to us too!

-

We have had friends who have turned against us, spread lies about us and hurt us in many ways. Those are real wounds. These old friends have been the balm that helps wounds heal. There is just such a comfort in knowing that we have such wonderful long-time friendships that have stood the test of time. These old friends give us the courage to trust again because you never know when you are forming another life-long friend and you can't form new friendships if you are nursing old wounds and are not willing to make yourself vulnerable.

-

God has blessed us with old friends, new friends and a wonderful family. Truly our cup runneth over!

A Day On The Lake

A few days ago, our family plus Grandpa and Grandma rented a pontoon boat for the afternoon on a nearby lake. As soon as we were packed and ready we stopped by Grandpa and Grandma's house and went on from there. That day seemed like the hottest day of the year and was perfect for our plans ahead. The heat wasn't in our favor the whole time though, because when we got to the Marina, we had to wait around before we could get our boat. But, when we did it was wonderful and I couldn't wait to get wet. When we got to a place were we could stop the boat, we all got out to swim around. Except Grandpa and SmokyBear who, every moment they got a chance, would get out their fishing poles and fish. They'd always have one side of the boat for them to fish and one side for us to swim. I don't think all our splashing and racket helped them at all, because no fish would even bite. We must have scared them all away.
-
After we swam for a little bit, we got in the boat to go find a really neat rope swing Tom said she had been to. We found four different rope swings and not one of them was it, but everyone had a great time at one of them and took turns swinging off of it for a while. Soon it was time for dinner and everyone got back in to eat. The rest of the evening was peaceful and Mom and Dad said we will probably do that a lot more often and maybe next time we could invite a few friends. It was definitely a fun memory and I'll look forward to doing it again.

Summer Travels

We've been traveling quite a bit the past couple of weeks. First we traveled 5 hours east of here to visit Grandmom after her surgery. She's so busy with sports and activities, even though she is in her late 70's, that it is the only time we can catch her down. Most recently we went to Missouri, about 12 hours west of us, to visit our long time friends.

-

The kids had so much fun visiting our friends in Missouri. They got a chance to see the finished version of a film they made while they were visiting our house last time. It's a spoof on The Incredibles called The Miserables. Too funny. This time they filmed a spoof on Pirates of the Carribean called The Pink Pearl. All of the girls played pirates with a neighbor boy playing the thief who stole their pearl. They filmed in the woods and down at the creek with a great scene of the escaping thief swinging out over the river, dropping in, and getting out at the other side. I can't wait to see the finished product! The young boys had a brief part as the policeman and when one young friend's mother asked how he liked playing all day with all of those girls he replied, "It was great! They were all pirates. That's the kind of girl I want to marry!" His mother found this very funny since his previous plans included positively no marriage of any kind.

-

Every 6 or 8 weeks these friends have a get together at their house with a bunch of their friends. We like to time our visits to coordinate with these parties. This time there were about 55 people. They play games such as volleyball, badmitten, ulitmate frisbee and then after dinner they sit around the camp fire and have a time of prayer and singing. What a super bunch of kids! It encourages my heart to see such fine young people.

-

We are expecting to be home for a while now until our end-of-the-summer vacation at the beach. In the meantime, I need to get canning green beans!