Oh, What Cause— We Have for Thankfulness

 

“If dear —— is, through God’s blessing with you, my dearest mama, you will find enough in the journal addressed to him to interest you as far as details go.  I do feel very anxious about you all at this unhealthy season of the year.  

May God preserve you all!  How very necessary to have our witness within quite clear, that when he says, ‘Come up hither,’ we might be able to reply, ‘Lo, Lord, with joy I come!’  

Oh, to look upon this world continually as one we have nothing to do with but to pass through it to the glory of Him who has prepared a better for us!  The road through it was designed to be a thorny one, that we should not set our affections here; as it is our dear Lord’s will that we should have tribulation, what a mercy for us that He chooses all our trials , and arranges them in proper order in His infinite love and wisdom to suit our soul’s best interests.  Let us look oftener to our mercies, and less to our trials, and then see what cause- oh, what cause—we have for thankfulness.  

I feel at present very low, but am trying to look to Jesus.  

The cares of my children, though not beneath my roof, and under my eye, are ever mine in measure.  

Who can tell what a mother’s heart feels, but a mother?  You and I know; but what is best of all, our God knows.  Let us think a little of our home—our pleasant home.  A precious Jesus waiting to welcome his weary pilgrims there.  A sweet home indeed—a Father’s home—and a happy meeting with all who are dear to us and to Christ.”

Mary Winslow, Life in Jesus

A Memoir of Mrs. Mary Winslow, Arranged From Her Correspondence, Diary, and Thoughts

Compiled by her son, Octavius Winslow

page 108  

Photo: Gray Clan Gathering at the Howell’s home, 05/29/2, the Saturday before Memorial Day. ❤️

Praise and Thanksgiving

 

O MY GOD,

Thou fairest, greatest, first of all objects, my heart admires, adores, loves thee, for my little vessel is as full as it can be, and I would pour out all that fullness before thee in ceaseless flow. 

When I think upon and converse with thee ten thousand delightful thoughts spring up, ten thousand sources of pleasure are unsealed, ten thousand refreshing joys spread over my heart, crowding into every moment of happiness. 

I bless thee for the soul thou hast created, for adorning it, sanctifying it, though it is fixed in barren soil; for the body thou hast given me, for preserving its strength and vigour, for providing senses to enjoy delights, for the ease and freedom of my limbs, for hands, for ears that do thy bidding; for thy royal bounty providing my daily support, for a full table and overflowing cup, for appetite, taste, sweetness, for social joys of relatives and friends, for ability to serve others, for a heart that feels sorrows and necessities, for a mind to care for my fellow-men, for opportunities of spreading happiness around, for loved ones in the joys of heaven, for my own expectation of seeing thee clearly. 

I love thee above the powers of language to express, for what thou art to thy creatures. 

Increase my love, O my God, through time and eternity. 

Praise and Thanksgiving

The Valley of Vision: Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Page 26-27

Tonight’s (Tuesday Family Night) turned out to be a special birthday evening with family, for  which I am VERY grateful. I especially LOVED that John made special provisions for my Mother Dear to join us!!  She came early so we could sit and linger together in our memories of Dad, which comforted the absence of his presence!   

John brought home a large salmon filet on Monday for our family dinner tonight.  Matt  cooked it. I helped with the easy sides of baked potatoes and fresh garden salad while Dad ran the grocery errands.  He knew I’d enjoy the leisurely time at home making ready my home to welcome our loved ones!  It was a very simple meal, and I enjoyed the pleasure of it and our togetherness SOOO very much. Dad and John also picked up a 😳 large marbled, beautifully decorated cake from Publix, leaving plenty to share with Bible study friends for our Life Group gathering tonight! 🥰😂

There are few words to describe the love and comfort I gained from being surrounded by those God has providentially knit me together with, my family!  Each member’s presence was a special blessing and blend of harmonizing personalities and laughter.  There’s no place like home, especially with the people I cherish and enjoy soo very much! 

I am immensely thankful and blessed!  The LORD has gifted me with my heart’s desire and more joy for a simple evening of time together. 

I am thankful to have this passage on my heart...

There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?

    Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”

You have put more joy in my heart

    than they have when their grain and wine abound.

In peace I will both lie down and sleep;

    for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 4:6-8, ESV

The Blessed Gift of my Earthly Father’s Love

On this first birthday eve without my Dad, I am mixed with “holy” moments of gratitude for Dad and swells of “holy” moments of sorrow for missing him.  Douglas Kaine McKelvey states, “Every Moment [is] HOLY”, even when sorrows like sea billows roll.  I am comforted in this, so I tell my soul, “It is well.” 

I am going with the flow.  Mom and I have been sharing some emotional sentimental swells this week.   I’m so very thankful we have one another to embrace in these moments. 

This morning I woke up to a text from a sweet friend who has taken special interest and care to lift me during these days of grief.  I am so very thankful for her reminder of this liturgy book that has helped to discipline my heart and mind through other sentimental moments of my life. 

The LORD is soo very gracious and compassionate to comfort me in this place... because even here, through my grief and sorrow, He is ever present, steadfast and faithful to hold me secure by His marvelous grace! 

 “King of creation, ...we were filled with a right and fond affection for another living thing your hands had made, delighting daily in his presence. 

Now this season of our shared lives is ended by death. Our hearts are unprepared for such a loss, and we are deeply grieved. 

Even so, Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the life that was, for the gift of a [father] so easily loved. We are thankful for the many blessings of knowing [this man], and for the lingering imprint of such a cherished presence in our lives. We are grateful for the good memories of sweeter times:

We are grateful, O God, for the happiness that was, even as we mourn the sorrow that is, even as we sit in the sadness of now empty spaces in heart and home, empty spaces that echo our loss. 

...

O Lord, how long till all is made right? How long till your wild grace restores all loss and upends every leaving? 

How long till these hurts are healed and these griefs eternally sealed and set aside by the finally completed work of your redeeming love?

We know if no sparrow falls beyond the ken of your compassion, that you also, in this moment, inhabit our sadness at this wounding, your weeping at the worlds brokenness, somehow deeper than our own. 

Be near us, O God. Be near each of us who must reckon with the sorrow of death and the sting of separation, for what we feel in this loss is nothing less than the groan of all creation. 

Our finite minds cannot trace the deeper mysteries of your eternal mending, but this we know with certainty: You are merciful and loving, gentle and compassionate, caring tenderly for all that you have made. 

We know that the final working of your redemption will be far-reaching, encompassing all things in heaven and on earth, so that no good thing will be lost forever,

So that even our sorrow at our loss will somehow, someday, be met and filled, and, in joy, made forever complete. 

Comfort us in the meantime, O Lord, for the ache of these days is real. 

Amen.”

Every Moment Holy*

Praying for you and your mama in this time. 

💞💞💞

KSR

*Douglas Kaine McKelvey

For you, O LORD, are my hope, my trust, O LORD from my youth.  Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.  My praise is continually of you. 

Psalm 71:5-6

Always Mom!

We should never cease to be children to our mother. Nothing is more beautiful than such intimacy of children with a mother, even though the children are men and women in mid-life. To the mother they are always children, and their confidence is always sweet and sacred.

JR Miller, 1898

(from his book, "Young People's Problems")

Photo: My Mother Dear, pregnant with me, standing with my brother, Tommy, in our home in Newfoundland.  Tommy was holding his Bible, dressed and ready to go to church. 

Be on Guard, Oh my Soul

 

Be on guard, Oh my soul 

Of complicating your environment 

So that you have neither time or room 

For growth. 

Jim Elliot

Loved and Shepherded

 

This is a priceless, treasured screenshot photo I took of my Dear Daddy and me last June, 2020, when all he and I had for one on one contact with one another (during the Covid quarantine season) were FaceTime calls.  I’m thankful I captured this photo! 

In my Daddy’s later years, he was hard of hearing, so he was not always comfortable with phone conversations.  He was easily frustrated by asking me over and again to repeat myself.  It was easier for him to give the phone back to my mom, because she could hear me much better, and then she would tell him about our phone conversations. 

In the months prior to the onset of Covid, Dad began expressing more love for us.  He’d always been loving, just not as sentimentally expressive.  He’s always had a tender heart, but as a man, he didn’t like to feel vulnerable to tears or emotion. 

When Dad’s health and strength began to decline (though he never wanted any of us to think he lacked strength or fortitude as he was nearing his 90th birthday),  it seemed he was more intentional to tell me how much he loved me/us, and that he was proud of how we’d raised and home educated our children, how we helped them to learn the value and enjoyment of sharing close relationships with one another and our extended family.  Dad was proud of everyone in his family!  He cherished every child’s spouse, every grandchild, every grandchild’s spouse, and needless to say, every great-grand child! It seemed obvious to me he began to realize his life was nearing an end, and he always found ways to recall God’s character, His goodness and faithfulness throughout his life.  That was always a blessing for me to hear!  I treasure my Daddy’s testimonies of God!  Dad had much to profess about God’s direction in his life, how He sustained and blessed our family. 

This is not the last photo I have of Dad, but I believe it’s the last photo I have of him and I together 😭.

In recent weeks, I have been experiencing an overwhelming amount of grief and heartache for my Dad’s absence in my life.  I think of him daily, and it’s finally caught up with me that he won’t be back.  😭

I miss his tight hugs and silly slobbery kisses.  

I miss hearing him sing, 🎶“I love you, a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck....”🎵!  

I miss hearing Dad brag about his wife, of how well she took care of him.  That used to aggravate Mom, but now she wishes she could hear him brag a little more!  

I miss Dad’s curious questions concerning his grandchildren.  

I miss more than I can express...

It makes me sad to recall being told the week before he fell and passed away, that he kept saying, “I just want to be with my family!”  We were all finally able to gather at his funeral. 😭

I have reflected today of the many benefits/rewards I gained as a child because God so mercifully gave me parents who read God’s word to me!  They prayed for me, and they encouraged and counseled me according to what Scripture said.  I am so very grateful they sought to raise us in the fear and admonition of the LORD! 

This morning I read this verse from Proverbs, 

The lips of a righteous person “shepherd” (feed) many, but fools die through lack of sense. Proverbs 10:21

I thought of my Dear Dad.  He shepherded us well,,, and he was faithful to open God’s word as we sat around the kitchen table to eat.  He always leaned in and pointed us to Christ. 

He taught us that Jesus is our Good Shepherd:  

“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” John 10:11

“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”  John 10:14

I pray our family will know The Good Shepherd’s voice, and reap much comfort/fruit/benefit from hearing His voice and knowing He is Good and Faithful, even as I struggle with this hard reality of losing the close fellowship of my Dear Daddy, our family shepherd. 

I love you and miss you, Dad!  I am thankful you loved and shepherded me/us well! 

Thank you, FATHER!

Give Your Accounts with Joy

 

Giving an account for those you're called to love and lead-

The person in your house that claims your first and nearest attention, is, undoubtedly, your wife;  seeing you are to love her , even as Christ loved the Church, when He laid down His life for it, that He might "purify it unto Himself, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing."  The same end is every husband to pursue, in all his intercourse with his wife; to use every possible means that she may be freed from every spot, and may walk unblamable in love.  

Next to your wife are your children;  immortal spirits whom God hath, for a time, entrusted to your care, that you may train them up in all holiness, and fit them for the enjoyment of God in eternity.  This is a glorious and important trust; seeing a soul is of more value than all the world beside.  Every child, therefore, you are to watch over the utmost care, that, when you are called to give an account of each to the Father of Spirits, you may give your accounts with joy and not with grief. 

John Wesley 

When we give an account before God for the loving care and spiritual admonition of our children, will He declare we were faithful?   Did we watch over their souls with utmost care?  

Will our teaching and instruction of God’s Word be like garlands around their heads and pendants around their necks?  

As they leave home and cleave to others, who and/or what will have a greater, more weighted, approving influence in their lives?  

I pray God’s Word will win! 

I pray their curiosities, liberties, and temptations,  will prove to be empty, vain pursuits compared to the deep well God has so richly given them in Jesus!  

Will our children receive the counsel our parents gave us? 

“Listen, sons to a father’s instruction, and pay attention to knowledge that gives insight.  Because I give to you a good education, do not leave my teaching. 

When I was a son to my father, still tender, and cherished by my mother, 

then he taught me and he said to me, 

‘Let your heart take hold of my words, keep my commandments and live. 

Get wisdom!  Get insight! 

Do not forget and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.’ ”

Proverbs 4:1-5

Who’s counsel and influence will they value most? 

Who’s counsel will they believe and follow? 

Oh LORD, who and what will You use in their lives to make them wise and insightful proclaimers of truth to the generations to come?

Will they draw from the Wellspring of Living Water that never runs dry?  Will they drink from Your cup and be filled, never to thirst again, or will they drink from the world for what does not satisfy? 

Oh LORD, have mercy on us as parents, that we may not lose hope in You!  Help us to trust Your work will continue, perfected according to Your good pleasure, come what may, to generations You have placed under our influence and care, even those yet unborn (Psalm 78:1-8).  

May those You ordained to be placed under our spiritual care continue to be  nurtured by You, encouraged and strengthened by Your gracious endless giving!! 

May You draw our children in a more intimate knowledge of You, that they may know You are closer than we ever imagined or desired to be known of them. 

I pray they will live to please You.  

Please give them wisdom and insight by searching out Your treasured truth and riches.  

Please give them understanding we did not attain.  

Thank you for the privilege of loving and holding our children for a purposeful brief season.  May we never underestimate Your work in their lives, nor burden them to walk in our likeness.  

I pray by Your grace they will see You as HOLY, HOLY, HOLY and OTHER, set apart from us, from themselves, and from the world.  I pray their hearts will yearn for You, that they may live in such a way that is honoring to You because they delight in You above all their desires!!  

Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching,

for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

Proverbs 1:8-9

Please multiply grace, peace, and joy to sustain our hearts for the purpose You’ve called us to.  Please help us to parent our children well, though our presence in their lives has changed from responsibility and authority to counsel and support, if they should seek us out.  

I am thankful for the very brief season we enjoyed and treasured with our children! 

Please help us to release them to Your care, lest we become burdened and weighed down with grief for letting go. 

May our hearts cling to your praise and glory in this new season that we may live to love You and others as we seek to serve, even if by sacrifice, for your glory alone!  

Agnus Dei

Corem Deo    

Photo:  One from a collection of favorite Christmas photos we took by setting up the tripod... 

I should post the photos we have in sequence some day!  

A Quieted Storm

 

 

It’s been 6 1/2 years since this event took place in our lives.  It still grieves me to recall it, but the pain is finally not raw.  I share this because I’ve learned to be thankful for this trial God allowed to test and strengthen our son and family in the authority of God’s Word.  I’m proud he faced this trial with God’s grace and faith in the One he knew had called him to salvation and secured him to stand firm on the Word of God!  

A conversation less than "courageous" left us feeling rejected and betrayed by close friends that October weekend.  Differences surfaced, but we never imagined our faith would come between us.  I wish we'd been sooner aware of what differences would divide!  Their reaction upon finding out that our family is aligned to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, ironically, was in stark contrast to the love they professed, and sadly proved not to endure.

We prayed with him before he left that Sunday morning. He prayerfully and respectfully approached them to communicate his faith, to explain why it is rooted in God's Word, and in who God is, according to the Scriptures, and not in the traditions of man centered choosing. They decided that day they no longer desired to love and respect him anymore.  

Their previous spoken admiration of him, his ability to communicate truth was suddenly opposed, and they no longer approved of his scriptural proclamation. 

He faced them alone. 

We prayed, and we were very proud!  

There was heat on that cool day.  

We believe he demonstrated restraint and leadership, responsibility, and loving care.  

They voiced their desire to reduce and break him.  He asked if they'd be willing to read the Scriptures together, so they'd better understand his stance, but instead they challenged and denied him that blessing.  They told him he was "puffed up", because his family and church values the discipline of reading and studying God's Word. 

They belittled him and accused him. 

After hours of attempting to encourage peace, he was told to "man up..."!!

He did!!  

He stood firm on God’s word, but he couldn't hide the wet, raw grief.  

His faith cost him!  

There were moments he couldn't speak, so they spoke for him, words unmatched by what he really wanted to say.  

They spoke their words of untruth.  

Communication ended. 

No more contact. 

They forced him away.  

He didn't want to leave.

Why did they encourage their daughter to believe he did? 

We continue to be thankful he faced both a spiritual and emotional battle that day, alone.  

He lived up to his name “Mighty Crowned Warrior”! 

He wanted nothing more than to take responsibility and carefully assure them he was secure in his convictions concerning the Word of God.  

Why was this “wrong” and "not fair..."?  

Their words were bitter, and their rejection was no less ungracious and an unloving. 

Many years have passed since that fall day, yet the memory lingers.  I oft ask the Lord to help me forget.  

I still wonder, since they believe they had a choice, why did they not choose a more loving, just, scriptural way to express their sudden, opposing awareness of a doctrinal divide??

It's grievous to not be able to forget, but I am learning to be thankful the Lord still uses this experience to remind me of my need for Him, to search out His Word daily, to plead for His mercies, new every morning, and grace to help me forgive their unkind and unloving rejection. 

I believe the LORD allows hardship for my good.  His will is sovereign and gracious, even when His mercies are sometimes severe.  

He continues to deepen my faith according to “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” ways that are past finding out, as Jesus taught us to pray. 

I continue to ask Our Father to do the same for them, to surround each of them with gracious, merciful, enduring friends who will love and embrace them better than we could.  

I pray the Lord will  encourage them in His Spirit and Truth.  I pray our time together marked them with a greater awareness, growing appreciation, and yearning desire for God's Word, as I pray they seek out His holy, inerrant words and unchanging reputation.  I pray they will have a heightened sensitivity and desire to know who He is, to embrace truth, to seek peace with others, and desire healing restoration with the Body of Christ for the days and years to come. 

I pray the Lord will bless them and be gracious to them. 

Note: I long wrestled with this grief.  The LORD used this season to grow me in my trust of His sovereign and blessed giving and taking.  This was a severe mercy for which I’ve learned to praise and thank Him!!  

This is my confession, and by it, the LORD has used this processing of emotional hurt and verbiage to quiet a storm in my memory. He has given me courage to share what I’ve long desired to say!  

Travailing in Birth a Second Time

“Let the Christian parent, anxious and earnest for the spiritual and eternal wellbeing of her children, take encouragement from the preceding narrative, and give herself to prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit upon her family.  

Taking hold of His word, let her remind God of His promise, 

‘I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring;’ *

and thus travailing in birth a second time in the energy of faith, and in the wrestling of prayer, it will be the joy of her heart to behold Christ formed within them in the hope of glory.”

Mary Winslow

Book: Life in Jesus: A Memoir of Mrs. Mary Winslow, Arranged from the Correspondence, Diary, and Thoughts by her son, Octavius Winslow, D.D.

page 86

May it be so, LORD, is my prayerful heart’s cry! 

* Isaiah 44:3

Photo: Mother’s Day at the home of Matthew and Grace, captured and shared by Grace’s dad, Pastor Shane.

Faith to Be Strong

https://youtu.be/8OpUlIXDgGk

Give us faith to be strong 
Father, 

we are so weak 


Our bodies are fragile and weary 


And as we stagger and stumble 


To walk where you lead 


Give us faith to be strong 



CHORUS: 


Give us faith to be strong 


Give us strength to be faithful 


'Cause life is not long but it's hard 


Give us grace to go on 


Make us willing and able 


Lord, give us faith to be strong 



Give us peace when we're torn 


Mend us up when we break 


This flesh can be wounded and shaky 


When there's much too much travel 


For one heart to take 


Give us peace when we're torn 



CHORUS:

Give us faith to be strong 


Give us strength to be faithful 


'Cause life is not long but it's hard 


Give us grace to go on 


Make us willing and able 


Lord, give us faith to be strong 

Give us hearts to find hope 


Father, we cannot see 


How the sorrow we feel can bring freedom 


And as hard we try 


Lord it's hard to believe 


So give us hearts to find hope 



CHORUS:

Give us faith to be strong 


Give us strength to be faithful 


'Cause life is not long but it's hard 


Give us grace to go on 


Make us willing and able 


Lord, give us faith to be strong 

Give us peace when we're torn 


Give us faith, faith to be strong.

Words and Music: Andrew Peterson

A Time to Tell

 

He established a testimony in Jacob 
and appointed a law in Israel, 
which he commanded our fathers 
to teach to their children,
that the next generation might know them, 
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
and that they should not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God. 
Psalm 78:5-8, ESV 

Prayer:

Lord, 

Thank you for those who told us about ‘the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done’ (v.4). Help us to ‘tell the next generation’ (v.4), to teach our children ‘so that the next generation will know them … that they in turn would tell their children’ (v.6). 

Lord, we pray that our children and grandchildren would ‘put their trust in [You] and would not forget [Your] deeds but live in such a way to treasure and keep [Your] commands’ (v.7).

Psalm 78

Photos:

Happy Mother’s Day 2021! 

Time together was and will always be a treasured gift!  I am grateful!!  

Thank you, LORD, for this lasting and most memorable of blessings I enjoy as a mother! 

5 

NO Richer LOVE

 

It’s been said... 

“There is no human love like a mother’s love.  

There is no human tenderness like a mother’s tenderness...

In all ages everywhere, the true children of a true mother ‘rise up and call her blessed’; 

for they realize, sooner or later, that God gives no richer blessing to man than is found in a mother’s love.”

Henry Clay Trumbull, Grandfather of Elisabeth Elliot

From his book:  Hints On Child Training 

A Birthday: 30 Year Mile Marker

 

 

A mother's mission field is "at her feet (and quite possibly under them and in her arms and on her back and currently drawing something indelible on something irreplaceable.)" 

-Jeremy Walker, The Brokenhearted Evangelist 

Happy Birthday to our number one beloved son who made us parents and convinced us quickly of wanting more children!!  You made parenting more fun, being that you were always known as the third parent!! 😂

You have blessed us, immensely! 

I love you, Son! 

❤️ Your Mama

The Bible Stands

One of my favorite past time family hymns (one of a number) we taught and sang with our children concerning the value and immeasurable treasure of God’s inerrant Word in our daily lives was...

Mark Stephen introduces Matthew to sing the first verse of The Bible Stands 🥰 

Matthew introduces Mark Stephen to sing the following verses of The Bible Stands 🥰 

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: 

but the word of our God shall stand for ever. 

Isaiah 40:8, ESV

1. 
   
2. 
   
3. The Bible stands like a rock undaunted
   ’Mid the raging storms of time;
   Its pages burn with the truth eternal,
   And they glow with a light sublime.
   • Refrain:
     The Bible stands though the hills may tumble,
     It will firmly stand when the earth shall crumble;
     I will plant my feet on its firm foundation,
     For the Bible stands.
4. The Bible stands like a mountain tow’ring
   Far above the works of men;
   Its truth by none ever was refuted,
   And destroy it they never can.
5. Chorus
6. The Bible stands and it will forever,
   When the world has passed away;
   By inspiration it has been given,
   All its precepts I will obey.
7. Chorus
8. The Bible stands every test we give it,
   For its Author is divine;
   By grace alone I expect to live it,
   And to prove and to make it mine.
9. Chorus
10. 
    

Author:  Haldor Lillenas, 1917

We prayed for our children, as Jesus prayed...

 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 

15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 

17 Sanctify them in the truth;  your word is truth. 

18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 

19 And for their sake I consecrate myself,  that they also may be sanctified in truth.

John 17