God’s Faithful, Enduring Love

“God uses the tightest human bonding possible, the nursing baby at his mother’s breast, to illustrate His love for us (Isaiah 49:25- ‘Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!’)
But even the highest illustration of human love is not sufficient to demonstrate God’s love for His children.  For it is tragically possible for a mother to neglect her nursing child.  Mothers are sinful and sometimes their natural love can be overcome by their own selfish interests.  The greatest human love may sometimes fail. 
But God’s love cannot fail.  

Edward J. Young says about this passage, “Not merely will God not forget, He cannot forget. This is one of the strongest, if not the strongest expressions of God’s love in the Old Testament.  ...” (Jerry Bridges, Trusting God).

I pray I never give my children reason to question my love for them, but of far more value, I pray they will never question God’s far surpassing, faithful, more satisfying love for them.

Kneeling Anniversary Memory

We were pronounced husband and wife on our knees... by accident, of course, but it makes for a perfect providence!! 
We hesitated, but Dr. Homer G. Lindsay, Jr. did not.  

32 years later, we'd go back and do it again!  

Happy Anniversary memories and joys...

JESUS: Keep me Ever Trusting, Resting

Jesus, I am resting, resting
In the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart.
Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee, 
And Thy beauty fills my soul,
For by Thy transforming power, 
Thou has made me whole.

O how great Thy loving-kindness, 
Vaster, broader than the sea!
O how marvelous thy goodness, 
Lavished all on me! 
Yes, I rest in Thee, Beloved,
Know what wealth of grace is Thine,
Know Thy certainty of promise,

And have made it mine.

Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, 

I behold Thee as Thou art,
And Thy love, so pure, so changeless,
Satisfies my heart;
Satisfies its deepest longing,
Meets, supplies its ev'ry need,
And surrounds me with its blessings;
Thine is love indeed!

Ever lift Thy face upon me
As I work and wait for Thee;
Resting 'neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus,
Earth's dark shadows flee.
Brightness of my Father's glory,
Sunshine of my Father's face,
Keep me ever trusting, resting;
Fill me with Thy grace.

Refrain:
Jesus, I am resting, resting,
In the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart.
Words: Jean S. Pigott 

This has been sweet mediation for me this week as I've wrestled with some emotional struggles that linger and weigh me down.  What a comfort it is to desire rest and find it in meditating on the LORD and all He's accomplished for me, for my salvation.   Even if I have to pray and sing this song all over again in another hour, it's encouraging to have a song on my heart that carries me through the day.  

Endless Delight

Our JOY Bubble!

Happy 32nd Anniversary!

Happy 32 years together, My Beloved!  

September 25, 1987-2019

We can only rightly love one another if we love Him first.

"We love because He first loved us."  When we are told in the Ten Commandments that the "Lord our God is a jealous God" we naturally think that God being "jealous" must somehow be small minded or fearful of the competition of other gods.  

Foolish thought!  

No, He is jealous because He is the Lover who cannot for love's sake look upon anyone or anything which will despoil His beloved, His loved ones.  Therefore, our fullest felicity and the possibility of every pattern...anything less will lead to confusion and futility.  Addison H. Leitch, This Cup, Communion Meditations.  

The Seven Last Words

TARGET JOY!!

HAPPINESS IS...

being surprised by the squeals and hugs of special friends when you make an ordinary trip to the store!  I soo enjoyed shopping with these special companions!

He is your friend who pushes you nearer to God.
Abraham Kuyper

Sacred and Holy, Trusted Gifts

“Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no others hands the sacred and holy trust given to her.”

― J.R. Miller

Unless the LORD Builds

The key is to understand that our children don't belong to us-
they belong to God.  
Our goal as parents must not be limited by our own vision.  
I am a finite, sinful, selfish man.  Why would I want to plan out my children's future when I can entrust them to the infinite, omnipotent, immutable, sovereign Lord of the universe?  
I don't want to tell God what to do with my children-
I want Him to tell me!  
Voddie T. Baucham, Jr.
Family Driven Faith: Doing What it Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God.  

Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.  
It Is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
the fruit of the womb a reward. 
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children 
of one's youth.
Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.  
Psalm 127, ESV

Photo: And they're off together, again, to spend a few days w/friends at Disney World.  This is their third year in a row, plus some trips in between.  

The Dawn of Love

On June 10, 1854, Charles Hadden Spurgeon and Susannah sat together at the opening of the Crystal Palace.  While waiting for a large crowd of people to pass by and leave the rows of seating they were surrounded by, Charles handed Susannah a book and pointed to these lines, and asked her, "What do you think of the poet's suggestion in those verses?"


"Seek a good wife of thy God, for she is the best gift of His providence;
Yet ask not in bold confidence that which He hath not promised:
Thou knowest not His good will; be thy prayer then submissive thereunto;
And leave thy petition to His mercy assured that He will deal well with thee.
If thou art to have a wife of thy youth, she is now living on the earth;
Therefore think of her and pray for her weal!
Proverbial Philosophy by Martin Tupper
A quote from the chapter "On Marriage"


Then he asked, "Do you pray for him who is to be your husband?"
The Life of Susannah Spurgeon by Charles Ray,
Chapter 3, The Dawning of Love



I love CHS's question that follows the above quote...
"Do you pray for him who is to be your husband?", because I long prayed for my future husband, many years prior to ever meeting him.
As a young mom, I long prayed for the spouses my babies would marry.  I prayed for their mom and dad who would love and nurture their child through faith.  It was a joy to think that my prayers would one day be answered.

We have entered a season of waiting and watching to see who those individuals will be.  My heart swells to consider God's gracious gifts to my children, and our family.  I imagine each spouse, and added blessing of future children to be God's perfect gifts to each of us.  
We welcomed our firstborn son's wife in August, 2017, and they now await (8 weeks and counting down... SOO HAPPY!!) the birth of our first granddaughter.

We now await and pray for three additional spouses for our remaining children at home.  I can hardly wait to see who God will bring us, and bless our family with.
Yes, I pray for each additional member our family awaits, and with much anticipation look forward to seeing how God will perfect and strengthen our family, but I especially look forward to watching our children bond with "the one" they have long prayed for and waited all their lives to marry.
LORD, please bless and be glorified in their unions!



Photo: Matthew and Grace on their first official date, 070717.

His Providence: His Choice and Lovely Gifts

"It is a mercy that our lives are not left for us to plan, but that our Father chooses for us; else might we sometimes turn away from our best blessings, and put from us the choicest and loveliest gifts of his providence."  
Susannah Spurgeon
The Life of Susannah Spurgeon, by Charles Ray  

On this particular day, My Preciousness woke up and hit what felt like to her was a brick wall, a difficult reality, a hurt that may well turn the tide of her life. She said, "We've known all this time we were running toward this end, but today we hit a brick wall."  And yeah, it hurt!!  We both hit hard.  That brick wall made for a lot of uncertainty and concern, which also made for a long, wet day.  

Later in the day, she received more information that brought some ease to her heart, and which didn't seem as terribly negative as she first imagined.  However, she's still well aware that over the course of the next few months, she desperately needs to seek the LORD's face for grace to know His will, peace, and wisdom for her life.  

I read this quote today, and was comforted by it.  It was a timely and much needed reminder that the LORD has not left Katherine to orchestrate and scheme her own way.  Nor are we expected as her parents to orchestrate her life.  He has ordained each and every step she takes. 

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.  Proverbs 19:21  


A man's steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?  Proverbs 20:24


I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.  Jeremiah 10:23


I pray her heart will rest at ease to trust He is leading her in paths of righteousness for His name's sake, whatever He calls her to.  I am comforted to rehearse this truth, though daily, my will is challenged, and my heart questions what is best.  Oh, LORD, not my will but Yours be done. 

I am praying and learning daily to be reconciled with God's ways for our daughter, even if His will is a painful reality as I imagine sacrificing our desires could require.  I trust He will help us as we learn to accept His will and way is best for her/us, now and for the future.  He has ordained and desires to give her/us good gifts.   

Oh, LORD, may our hearts be conformed to Your will.  Please help us to not be stiff and stubborn to reject your will, to deny Your choicest and loveliest  gifts.  Please help Katherine, and us as her parents especially, to have open hearts to readily receive what You are leading her/us to.  May we trust Your loveliest gifts are from Your most loving heart and gracious, merciful hands.  

Photo:  A precious, priceless, positive moment that day: capturing Katherine's smile.  It was a "Living on a Prayer" kind of day, all day long.    

Pre-Hurricane Beauty

All fairest beauty, heavenly and earthly,
Wondrously, Jesus, is found in Thee'
None can be nearer, fairer, or dearer,
Than Thou, my Savior, art to me. 
Words: Fairest Lord Jesus, written by German Jesuits...in he 17th century,... translated from German to English by Joseph A. Seiss, 1873 

We are anticipating another hurricane that is heading towards our state.  I am mindful of how much we depend on the LORD to protect us by His hand, just as He rules the winds and the waves.  
His mercies are great, and sometimes severe.  

Praying for everyone that is in the path of this major hurricane, that our hearts will turn to Him, and that we'll know Him more intimately while we watch and wait for his provision and protection.   The hurricane updates are looking better and better. Soo thankful.  Hurricane Dorian is shifting more easterly, and we pray, it will continue in that direction, off the coast. 

  












Update:  Dorian passed by us, far enough off the coast, that we felt very minimal effects.  It was a strange reality, after soo much waiting and watching happened over the course of several days.  Our city was well prepared, and many evacuated, including some of our family.  We're soo very thankful our city was spared again, from suffering what could have been a very devastating storm.  Many lives were lost in the Bahamas, as Dorian passed over and hovered as a category 5-4 storm, destroying the infrastructure of their island. LORD bless those who are responding and taking help and resources to many misplaced/homeless families there.  
Today, 090619, Dorian made landfall in the Outer Banks of NC, in Cape Hatteras, and then turned back out to the ocean to continue heading east as a category 1 hurricane.  

The Tender Will of God

Because Martin Luther was acquainted with grief, a friend asked him to write a letter to a man named Bartholomew whose wife had passed away.  This is what he wrote in the letter... 

"Let me remind you of what Job says:  'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so hath he done.'*  You should sing the same song to a dear and faithful God who gave you a dear and faithful wife and has now taken her away.  She was his before he gave her; she was his after he had given her; and she is still his (as we all are) now that he has taken her away.  Although it hurts us when he takes his own from us, his good will should be a greater comfort to us than all his gifts, for God is immeasurably better than all his gifts.  In this case his will should be esteemed more than the best wife.  Although we cannot perceive God's will as well as we can perceive a wife, we can apprehend his will by faith.  Accordingly you should cheerfully give God what is his and accept this just exchange and strange barter whereby instead of a dear, tender wife you have a dear, tender will of God- and, what is more, God himself.  How blessed and rich we would be if we could engage in such an exchange with God!  We could do so, in fact, if we knew how to, for God confronts us with the opportunity daily, but we cannot ask him."
Martin Luther
*Douay-Rheims Bible (Note: this is not a translation of the Bible that I read, but it is the translation from which Martin Luther quoted Job, so I reference it here.)  

I like to use the English Standard Version which states Job as saying, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD" Job 1:21b

I am thankful I have not suffered the deeply grievous loss of a child or spouse, as Martin or his friend had.  However, I find myself oft feeling grief for the loss of fellowship with family members we miss...whether by death, a move, or a lack of relationship.  
The words in this letter are very convicting, and I want to be comforted in them, because they are soo very true of my need for a better understanding of God's love for me, and His desire that I know He has sought me to be His own.  If only I could be more confident that He sustains me daily by His love.  I should desire to treasure Him most, instead of sensing a need for more relational satisfaction with those I treasure here on this earth.  The LORD is no less close.  He is Spirit. Acts 17:27-29 says, "God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each of us.  For in Him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are His offspring.'  Therefore, being offspring of God we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man's skill and imagination..." Acts 17:27-29.   
Job suffered and wrestled with his grief and suffering, but he also worshiped and came to know the LORD better because of his grief and sorrow.   

Job later confessed... 
"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  
'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?'
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

...
And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning."
Job 42:2-3, 12

Photo: Last Thursday was an unusual day, in that K was home, and the boys arrived home from work early.  So we piled up in the truck and went to Fuji Sushi for a late lunch together.  I cherish time together.  I'm more and more aware during this season how fleeting our days are together.  Thank you, Father!  

Season of Waiting and Watching

Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands. 
Elisabeth Elliot 

Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you."   
And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "If you detain me, I will not eat of your food.  But if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD."(For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.)  
And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that, when your words come true, we may honor you?" 
And the angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?"
So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to the one who works wonders, and Manoah and his wife were watching.
And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar.  Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground.  Judges 13:15-20  

Commentary by Matthew Henry: 
Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet, as Manoah, have believed.  Good men are more careful and desirous to know the duty to be done by them, than to know the event concerning them:  duty is ours, events are God's.  God will guide those by his counsel, who desire to know their duty, and apply to him to teach them.  Pious parents, especially, will beg Divine assistance.  The angel repeats the directions he had before given.  There is need of much care for the right ordering both of ourselves and our children, that we may be duly separate from the world, and living sacrifices to the LORD (Judges 13:8-14).  

What Manoah asked for instruction in his duty, he was readily told;  but what he asked to gratify his curiosity, was denied.  God has in his word given full directions concerning our duty, but never designed to answer other questionings.  There are secret things which belong not to us, of which we must be quite contented to be ignorant, while in the world.  The name of our Lord is wonderful and secret; but by his wonderful works he makes himself known as far as is needful for us.  Prayer is the ascent of the soul to God.  But without Christ in the heart by faith, our services are offensive smoke; in him, acceptable flame.  We may apply this to Christ's sacrifice of himself for us; he ascended in the flame of his own offering, for by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, Hebrews 9:12.  In Manoah's reflections there is great fear; We shall surely die.  In his wife's reflection there is great faith. As a help meet for him, she encouraged him.  Let believers who have had communion with God in the word and prayer, to whom he has graciously manifested himself and who have had reason to think God has accepted their works, take encouragement from thence in a cloudy and dark day.  God would not have done what he has done for my soul, if he had designed to forsake me, and leave me to perish at last; for his work is perfect.  Learn to reason as Manoah's wife;  If God designed me to perish under his wrath, he would not give me tokens of his favor (Judges 13:15-23).   

Every Moment Holy

Here is where I am O Lord, 

I find myself drawn to one in whom I see a striking beauty of personhood,

a depth of soul,

a sensitivity to goodness and truth,

a vibrant intentionality of life and choice.  

I praise you, God, for creating such a person

and displaying in them unique expression 

of your glory.  

I thank you that my path has crossed theirs

in this time and place in history.

I am increasingly drawn to this one you have 

created, and I desire to know them more.

But I am finite and limited,

and I cannot see the path that lies ahead

on this journey toward eternity.

So give me wisdom, Lord.

Do not let my emotions get ahead of me.  

In the time that I spend with this your beloved child, 
let me not act selfishly.  Let me not take

lightly my constant responsibility for the heart

and well-being of another, regardless of the

tenor of my own feelings and desires.  

Let me remember that this relationship
does not affect only the two of us.  
It exists in that greater web of loving and sacrificial bonds of parents and grandparents, 
family and friends, who had already invested 
years of nurture and care and love and prayer
and tears and delight in the person, 
long before I ever met them.

So let me act now, 

and always in this relationship,

in ways that would honor and affirm

the tender investment of all

who love this person.  Let me build

on that good foundation,

that whatever the two of us create together

would be a blessing to all who know us.

Indeed, O Lord, give us in our shared hours

wisdom to build well,

that even if all we cultivate in partnership

is a small garden where friendship can grow,

it will still in its own humble way

be a place of encouragement and beauty

that would bring a smile and a joy to passers-by.  

Or if we awaken one day to the understanding

that what we were creating all along 

was not just a garden of friendship,

but an enduring love, 

and the foundations of a castle, 
and a tended ground where the 
remainder of our lives

and the lives of our children and grandchildren

and all of our friendships and all

of our service to you, O God,

would be lived out together in a bond

of wedded love and intimacy,

than all the more reason we should build well

and with intentionality and unselfish love

here at the beginning.  

Give me this wisdom, therefore. 

Give me this grace.

Give me patience and an eternal perspective 

that would govern well my choices today,

and in all the days to follow.  

Do not let my emotions

get ahead of me, O Lord.

Let me love you by loving this person well,

and in kindness and self-restraint

let me always choose their greatest good

as if it were my own.  
Amen.  

From:  Every Moment Holy, A Liturgy for Dating or Courtship

By: Douglas Kaine McKelvey

This season has been very emotional, but sweet! 
I am thankful for the LORD drawing me to Himself, that I might know Him in the waiting  and praying for His will to be accomplished in our lives and hearts.  

Their lives, their hearts. 

Ohhh, LORD, may we be comforted and delighted to know...
The heart of man plans his way,
but the LORD establishes his steps. 
Proverbs 16:9

Photo: K❤️L