The Most Excellent Way

~ Donna Smallenberg~

Ahhh......

I woke up this morning with no voice!! Perhaps I over-sang (is that a word?) last night at street church, or maybe it's a result of using a microphone that has been coughed on by.........well, another singer!! Hmm...but hey, it's definitely my favorite thing to do on a sunday night. Next time I'm bringing my own microphone.

So, here I am stuck at home all day with four kids and no voice. Somehow whispering is not proving to be very effective, which leaves me flailing my arms around in an attempt to gain their attention. There's gotta be a better way. Any advice Lori??

Safety

I've been thinking about this word quite a bit lately. I've heard many people talking about this subject in light of all that has been going on within our community. The heart is fragile. Many have been hurt. There are walls we have all put up to protect ourselves. Everytime I hear someone speak of safety I am reminded of this...........

Just over a year ago when reality hit me and I hit rock bottom, when I realized all the devastation that had been caused in my disobedience, I made a phone call to my husband......It was late, I was destroyed and I knew that the possibility of him not ever wanting to speak to me again was very real. Reality - I may never go home. All I could do was say I'm sorry. How could those two words possibly be enough? Gary's response floored me, He asked me to come home, his exact words were......"This is your safe place, you are safe with me."

I couldn't pack my bag fast enough.......

That simple sentence has stayed with me, it was truth. I had been so blind.

I have been realizing more and more how Gary has modeled Christ in so many ways.......by showing me mercy in not giving me what I deserved, granting me grace in giving me what I did not deserve. He forgave me and created a safe place for me. I am so thankful in knowing that I will never take this for granted again. It got me thinking that if a human (a pretty incredible human) is capable of such love just imagine the perfection in which Christ freely gives us mercy, grace, forgiveness and love. An absolutely perfect safe place.

Many of us are on a journey of tearing down walls in our lives, these are walls we have put up to create the illusion of safety. Those walls may not be what we think they are. If Gary had chosen to harden his heart toward me and put up a wall, a root of bitterness would have been planted, and that would have only brought grief and more devastation. I'm not saying that we should be freely opening our hearts to just anyone, we must act in wisdom, knowing where there is safety. I think I'm trying to say that our safest place is with God. From there He will show us where to go and whom to trust. If we let God tear down our walls it will be done safely.

where fools turn to gold

I'm not looking over and
I'm not looking under
I'm looking upward
and I'm moving onward
To a place where they cry holy
And the greatest man bows lowly
From the wonder of a father crying out

Come now let's reason together
Come now where blood turns to wool
Come now where fire is the measure
Come now where fools turn to gold.

Now I'm moving slower
and it takes a little longer
But I'm healing deeper
and I'm feeling stronger
It's tearing down defences
and opening my senses
to the wonder of a lover
crying out.

~Jason Upton (Trusting the Angels)

I love mondays.

Yay! It worked. I finally figured out how to post pictures. This is Casey, our first baby.....

This evening while I was sitting down holding my baby girl, my seven year old son came up to me. He reached down and grabbed Gracie's little hand and said "God gave us a present, right mom? He gave us the most beautiful baby girl in the whole world." He gave her a kiss and ran off to play on the playstation. My heart melted.

God gave me three wonderful gifts...........Mikail, Caleb and Grace. I am thankful for my happy, healthy and very beautiful children. I love being a mom.

a blonde moment

Well, I guess everyone has at least one story. Mine involves Carolyn (sorry Carolyn, I have to tell...... it is just too good of a story). In our defense....we were young.

When I was about 17, Carolyn and I were driving home from Langley. As we were traveling east on the freeway we drove into a very dark storm cloud. It quickly became very dark and the rain was so intense that the traffic had slowed down to about 30 km/hr. Thunder, lightening the whole deal. As we were slowly moving along, Carolyn and I looked at the dash, but because it had gotten so dark so quickly the dash was not lit up and it was hard to see. We both looked at each other and I yelled out "The power has gone out!". For a moment (a brief moment) we panicked, then we remembered that a car is not powered by hydro........duh!

I remembered this as we were driving back from Ikea yesterday.

I haven't felt much like blogging lately, seems that when it rains it pours. I've found the debate going on under the lyrics to the song I wrote to be quite interesting. I can hardly believe it is still continuing. The only comment I wish to make is that if any of the comments made against individuals become nasty (and there have been a few) I will shut the commenting down. I have no problem if you feel strongly about an issue however I will not tolerate any attacks against anyone. I will be posting other songs in the future and I really do not want to rehash the same issue every time.

Thank you to all who are praying for Gary. We are waiting for the results from the tests. He seems to be feeling a bit better today.

I have had a bit of a difficult week. I will not write about it at this time but I do want to share how God continues to speak to me. The verse I wrote below speaks life and promise to me right now. His mercies are new every morning and through His mercy and compassion for me, I am not consumed. Life not death, forgiveness not condemnation. I am so thankful for grace. God's grace, the graciousness of those around me and of course for my daughter, Grace. I sense a theme in my life.

Through it all God is good.