Encourage and Build One Another Up

Your faith will not fail.
While God sustains it, you are not strong enough to fall away
while God is resolved to hold you.
J. I. Packer

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy." 
Jude 24

Thank you, Dear Susan, for sharing your soul sustaining Scripture and quotes with me that I may also be encouraged and sustained!  I am so very blessed by the measure of faith God has given you to endure the changes you've experienced in the almost 1 year you've been away.  

“I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

Happy 11 months of being married, Susan and Nick!! 
Your togetherness is a blessing to me, even from soo far away! 

His Unfailing Mercy

Give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good, 
for His steadfast love endures forever. 
Psalm 136

It is unfailing mercy.

It will never leave thee.

If mercy be thy friend, mercy will be with thee in temptation to keep thee from yielding;

with thee in trouble to prevent thee from sinking;

with thee living to be the light and life of thy countenance;

and with thee dying to be the joy of thy soul when earthly comfort is ebbing fast.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Family Night with Meme and Poppy

"We are to live together in families, in communities, in friendship's circle...It is certainly hard to live with other people...

The price of living with others sweetly and harmoniously — 
is self-forgetfulness, and self-effacement. 
But this cost is the very gold of life. 
It is the only antidote for selfishness. 
It is the way of Christ-likeness.

It is the self-discipline of friendship and home and human 

fellowship which makes men and women of us, which makes us like Christ." 
~J.R. Miller

How Firm God's Love

Poppy Update:

Occupational therapy has ended, but physical therapy continues twice a week. His current strides are to walk with a cane, but his therapist hasn't given him permission to go it alone.

We're immensely thankful for this progress. 

Meanwhile, he prides himself on giving bushels of pecks and hugs around the neck! 😉

Even down to old age, all my people shall prove 
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love, 
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn, 
As lambs shall they still in my bosom be borne.  

How Firm a Foundation 
"K" in Rippon's Selection of Hymns, 1787 
Author Unknown

The Author of JOY

There is enough in God to furnish us with matter of joy in the 

worst circumstances on earth.

Whatever is the matter of our joy, God must be acknowledged as the author of it.  

Matthew Henry


Though the fig tree should not blossom,,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail 
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
Habakkuk 3:17-19, ESV


You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:11, ESV

Photo: A Samaritans Ministries member sent me/us this note of encouragement w/their monthly share earlier in the year.
This is just one of many uplifting notes of encouragement I received last spring to help us pay back MD Anderson for the cancer treatments I received in February and March.
From all the cards w/checks we received, I found the most meaningful  were shared by those who have walked through similarly hard trials, especially affirming their encouragement in the LORD with Scripture.
I know how easy it is to question and doubt His good for me when my heart is more focused on my circumstances than I am on Him.
“...I will rejoice in the LORD.
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the LORD, is my strength.”

Self-forgetting Adoration of God

Praise lies upon a higher plane than thanksgiving. 
When I give thanks, my thoughts still circle around myself to some extent. 
But in praise my soul ascends to self-forgetting adoration, 
seeing and praising only the majesty and power of God, 
His grace and redemption. 
Ole Hallesby

Our 1998 Suburban Chariot

Our '98 Suburban turned a corner today!  

This may seem a little ridiculous, but I wondered, "Is there a way to calculate car years to people years?", and guess what?  There is!  
I found a website that stated, …

"Take the mileage on the car's odometer and divide by the model year.  The result is your car's age if it were a person."

Sooo, 200,000 miles divided by 1998= 100.1001!  And our Chariot Suburban is comparable to a 100 year old legend of an individual! 

 













When you've been driving a truck as long as we've been driving our Suburban, for 18 1/2 years, you can either hate it or respect it!  We purchased it in 2000, after (I think) 35,000 miles were put on it first.  

Yes, of course I feel some honor is due! 
I think I'll have a little more respect for every wrinkle, crack, creak, and groan! 

Thank you, LORD, for your perfect provision!  
I am thankful for a truck that has served us well!! 

Love Reigns

"...For though God has seen fit to call my beloved up to higher service, He has left me the consolation of still loving him with all my heart, and believing that our love shall be perfected when we meet in that blessed land where Love reigns supreme and eternal."
Susannah Spurgeon

Photo: Yesterday was the 56th wedding anniversary of my dear Aunt Wanda and Uncle Donald.  I wish he were still here to celebrate their enduring love.  
Uncle Donald passed away March 4th, 2014, soon after they celebrated their 51st anniversary.  "It is well with my soul" has become more meaningful to me since Uncle Donald came to faith in the LORD before he passed away of a brain tumor.  Though his diagnosis and suffering were hard to bear, his last days were reconciled with the One who ordained them, and he encouraged us/others to trust Him!  I treasure Uncle Donald’s memory. 

The Crime of Discouragement

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  

Colossians 1:13-14

I am thankful for the daily ministry of the Revive Our Hearts Radio Broadcast with Nancy Leigh DeMoss Wolgemuth.  When Elisabeth Elliot's "Gateway to Joy" Broadcast came to a close in August of 2001, Nancy filled her spot, and has been another very encouraging mentor in my life.   

In a recent ROH radio program, Nancy shared a story, which I will title, "The Crime of Discouragement".  I copied it from the transcript of the program titled, "What to Do When You Feel Discouraged".  It is from the series, Dealing with Discouragement, which was broadcast in October, 2018.  Nancy told this story...

"The occasion was the Boer War that took place in South Africa, and the specific battle was the Siege of Ladysmith. It was about 1900. It was at a critical point in the war. Tensions were running high and the survival of the whole town was at stake.

During this time there was a civilian who would go in and out among the troops, and he would make discouraging comments. He never fired a shot for the enemy; he just sowed seeds of discouragement.

...

That was the last thing these courageous fighting men needed!  They were discouraged by the words that this man would speak as he walked in and out among the troops. This man was finally brought to court, he was tried, and the judge said it was a crime to speak discouraging words at a time like this.

So this man was court-martialed. He was sentenced to a year in prison just for being a discourager. Now, let me ask you this question: 

If speaking discouraging words were illegal today, would you be breaking the law?

Now, it may not be against the law to be a discourager, but I want to tell you today, it is a sin and it can do a lot of damage! I think many of us have experienced—probably all of us at times—what happens to us when people speak words of discouragement into our lives. They strip courage from us. But we’ve also seen how God and others can speak words into our lives that encourage!

Discouragement is one of the most effective tools of the enemy in the lives of believers. Sadly, sometimes we become the instrument of the enemy when we sow those words of discouragement." 

The remaining part of that broadcast can be found at this link...

https://www.reviveourhearts.com/radio/revive-our-hearts/what-do-when-you-feel-discouraged/

I have a tendency to think negatively, which oft results in what I think to be spoken. Not meaning to have a negative influence on others, I have been told by my husband, that sometimes my perspective needs to be lifted up and out of the circumstances of the "gloom and doom" of my mind (even if it seems and feels a reality), to the truth by which the LORD has called me to live.  I have come to realize from experiencing the sadness/sorrow/gloom of others how detrimental a negative perspective can be.  So I am learning to question, "Who's reality do I want to live?  Theirs, mine, or His?"  

I want to be transferred to the kingdom of God's Beloved Son, Jesus, because it's in Him I am redeemed and forgiven of my human weakness of negativity and lack of faith. I want to live according to the LORD's sovereign rule and reign, not mine, or someone else's, especially!  I pray my family will also learn to live in the light of Truth, instead of steeped in a hope deferred state.  I want them to be surrounded by others who will lift and build them up, not beat them down.  I soo long that we all gain the strength of lifting others up, especially those who are going through a season of trial as I've experienced this past year, that we'd take more time to read and meditate on a passage as this...

Colossians 3-

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  

5 Put to death therefore what is early in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion , evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.

8 But now you must put them all away:  anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth.  

9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with is practices

10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave free; but Christ is all, and in all.  

12 Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 

13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.  And be thankful.  

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 

17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

This is my prayer, that this truth would become a reality in my heart and life, and also in the hearts and lives of my family.  

Photo:  Matt and Grace brought home a pumpkin the other day from our nearby pumpkin patch.  They'd gone because Grace's family had also frequented that patch when she was a child, just as we'd taken our children there.  It meant a lot to her for Matt to take her, so that they'd enjoy time there together... OHH my heart was lifted to share joys of past memories together!   I have fun memories of years past that we enjoyed there when our children were little.  My parents always came to take us.   My parents always wanted our children to pick out the biggest and best pumpkin to take home to carve.  As the children have grown, our pumpkin carving times together have diminished, but the fun times we remember with Meme and Poppy will always have a special place in my heart.  

John carved the pumpkin above.  He seemed to enjoy the pleasure alone, but Matt and Kat still leaned in and contributed their interest and encouragement during the process.  

The end result reminded me of these verses in Colossians, which we have been studying on Sunday mornings at church.  This passage may not be seasonally "Happy Fall Y'all" appropriate, but my heart is lifted to remember a kingdom that is not my own, but one of our Father God's Beloved Son, who has transferred and redeemed me from the darkness, from negativity, and He forgives me when I fail. 

This is the JOY of living in the Light!  

A Day on the Farm

We pulled into Aunt Faye's driveway on Friday, and there to welcome us were a half a dozen turkeys.
As we exited our truck, they started running away, but I tried my best to get a picture of them.  This is not the best picture, but if you look a little harder,  you'll see at least one turkey just slightly to the right of the tree (in the foreground), at the fence line of the yard.

Every time we visit Aunt Faye's farm, my heart is stirred for all the happy memories that have been experienced there.  Our family will always treasure the memories we've made there.
However, it's taken time for us to go and not feel the strange absence of Uncle Jim.

Twelve years ago, on a Friday morning, Uncle Jim left home to take their bagged trash to a nearby dumpster.  As he was on the main road, about to turn left to return home, an oncoming truck came down the road behind him.  Without realizing Uncle Jim's truck was stopped and waiting for oncoming traffic to pass, the fast approaching truck rammed into the back of Uncle Jim's truck, and pushed him into an oncoming car.  Both impacts nearly ended his life...
Uncle Jim was taken to the Shands Trauma Center where he received immediate trauma care.

Our family was out of town for a wedding in Atlanta that weekend, and we did not learn of the accident until we returned home on Sunday afternoon.  Soon after getting the phone call, Mark and I immediately left to head up to the hospital. Uncle Jim was in ICU, and in a sedated state.  We were able to join Aunt Faye to visit him and tell him we loved him.  Five days later, in the early hours of the morning, Uncle Jim passed away.
The details of that week are sad, and painful to remember.
The most comforting times of that week were when we were with Aunt Faye, surrounded by our family and close friends.  My heart was soo broken for Aunt Faye and Kenneth.  There are soo few words to express to grieving loved ones when their hearts are wrenched and torn apart.  The unexpected circumstances of anyone's departure is terribly difficult, but to lose someone so tragically, was all the more heart breaking!
MS, 15 at the time, played a hymn at Uncle Jim's funeral, which I will never forget...Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us.  He played it sooo beautifully.  We all agreed it was probably the only time he's ever played it perfectly.  I lost my composure, when I saw how hearing the song effected Aunt Faye.  She sobbed.  I sobbed also.  The song was perfectly suited for the service to encourage and lift Aunt Faye in her grief to the One and Only Savior who would carry her through this most grievous season of her life.

When we return to the farm, there's never a time we visit that we do not think of Uncle Jim and his love for the place they've called home since 1977.  Uncle Jim worked as an independent insurance sales agent, but he also raised cattle.  Eventually, he retired from insurance sales, and returned home to raise cattle. After Uncle Jim passed away, the work on the farm became more challenging for my aunt and cousin because both have had their own health challenges, and his employment takes him away from home.  I admire their endurance to maintain so much work, and acreage!

This day, I was thrilled to return for knowing Aunt Faye's north pasture had 20 head of cattle.  She is leasing out her pasture to the man who purchased another farm from her, not far away, and he asked if he could pay her to use  her home pastureland.  She is thrilled to have the cows out in the pasture again, grazing it down for her.  Her tenant will also maintain the pasture for her.  That's a win, win plan for Aunt Faye and Kenneth.

We entered the house, and there on the wall are pictures... of our loved ones and Uncle Jim's loved ones.  That wall represents the blending and meshing of lives and stories the LORD united as one to make a family.  I love all this wall represents...

During our preparations for lunch, I failed to take a picture of the pretty table Aunt Faye set before we arrived... She has always hosted our family Thanksgiving gatherings, and this year we're not able to join her and our family.  This is our year to spend Thanksgiving with the Grays, so we'll miss being with everyone, but wouldn't you know she'd make our time together this day just as special.  

After lunch, we rinsed and stacked the dishes neatly in the sink, because Aunt Faye said, "Let's enjoy the time we have left to be together."  It wasn't her desire to wash dishes, so we went outside and walked around the yard and talked.  Ohh, now I wish I'd taken more pictures!!  

This is a Cry Baby Tree that Aunt Faye's neighbor gave her when they first moved into their house.  It has survived all these years.  Look at the beautiful blooms it produces...  

The next couple of pictures are more meaningful to me, because...

this bush originated from my Grannie Thelma's yard in Hickox, GA.  She called it a Cotton Rose, but I've heard others refer to it as a Confederate Rose bush.  

And now, my really favorite photos are of Aunt Faye's pets... 

her Jesus donkeys...

This is Marshmallow, and she is 12 years old.

And if that's not enough of her beautiful face, here's another... 

Her brother's name is Graham, and he's on the left.  Graham is 11 years old. 

Their mom, Cocoa, passed away earlier in the year, shortly after Easter.  

Cocoa was between 30-35 years old.  Aunt Faye calls them her S'mores Family.

They have always been the special attraction at the farm.  

Meanwhile, hanging from their hammocks tied between the trees, Katherine and John were taking in the fresh smells of country air because they'd already enjoyed some one on one time with the donkeys... What they didn't get to experience with us, was feeding them bread.

Graham is a handsome fella...

There's a sweet satisfaction to the donkeys enjoying your presence and offering of the smallest treat.

And before we left, we added the Slinky to the shepherd's hook, and moved Aunt's Faye's bird feeder away from the tree in the backyard, so the squirrels couldn't jump from the trunk to the feeder.  She's not seen very many squirrels lately, but maybe they'll giver her a show out front when she sits on her porch.  

Thank you, Aunt Faye, for allowing us to drive over the river and through the woods to visit you this day.  We had sooo much fun, and enjoyed being with you soo very much!  We do not visit enough, but look forward to returning again soon!