Crime Scene Photo

This is all that is left of a nearly full stick of butter. Forensic evidence cleared the two older girls of any wrongdoing, and the prime suspect has been arrested on unrelated charges involving the sugar bowl. We should be able to keep her off the street for a long time, so she will not be a danger to the public.

Ask my mom...it seems that such things repeat themselves from one generation to the next. My family had a butter thief too, but he/she did not leave such obvious signs of her/his identity. I think we caught this one soon enough.

God's So Good! For Real!

Do we really believe God is good? The proof is in how much of our lives we trust Him with. What do we risk for Him? How much of what He gave us do we invest completely for Him, trusting that He will reward us? The Apostle Paul was one of those who did everything with God's reward in mind. Although he suffered for his service for God, he didn't seem to think the suffering was a big deal. In fact, when he made a list of the sufferings and sacrifices in writing, he was embarressed. No, all of those things were nothing because he knew something about God, and this thread is woven from cover to cover in the Bible. GOD IS GOOD! God wants people to know Him. To know God, is know He is good. Even in His justice and terrible judgement, He is good, and full of mercy.

If we believe God is Who He says He is, we will take what He gives us and do what He wants with it. It's that simple.

Jesus told a story about this. A rich man entrusted three servents with various amounts of money and left on a long journey. Upon returning, he found that two of the servents had put his money to good use and had twice as much money as he left with them. He gave them the rule over their profit. One man now had twenty talents, and the other had ten.

The last servent was a different story. When asked for the money back, he was ashamed. He whined and squeaked that the master was a hard man. He said that he was afraid, and he had buried the talent in the ground. He retrieved his talent from the dirtand brought it back, wrapped in a dirty napkin, all alone. The master had trusted his servent with what he knew the man was capable of handling, and he was angry. Then, it turned out that the master was indeed a hard man. He took away the talent from the unprofitable servent and gave it to the one who had twenty. He had wanted to reward this servent, but the man had no faith in his master, and had stripped himself of all the blessing he could have had.

God has been dealing in my heart this year about the meaning of this parable. There was a time that I was afraid to submit to God's will for my life. I looked at certain things that others suffered in serving God and concluded that God was hard. That in serving Him, I would have to go through things that were more than I could handle. (This is a clever deception-yes, it is beyond me, but no, it's not me that does anything anyway. That is a another blog, though.) I have seen this attitude in others also. They are willing to live their lives for Him. As long as they get to decide things. In other words, "As long as I'm calling the shots, what I do will be for God. Because if I give God the helm, He's going to take me where I don't want to go." I lived this way for a long time, thinking that God would have to accept me because I wasn't holding back much. There were only a few things that I wasn't willing to do for Him. only a few pieces of myself that I wanted control of. I didn't believe God was GOOD.

There are so many ways that this attitude affects our lives. Sometimes, we hide what He gives us to serve Him with. We pretend it doesn't exist. Sometimes, we try to change God's plan to be more to our liking. Sometimes, we do His bidding, but we hate it. We think God might have a cruel streak for the demands He has made of us.

This attitude is a lack of faith, and it is sin. It will seriously hinder anything we can do for God, making us unprofitable to Him. The essence of faith is believing that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

The truth is, God is good. His goodness, grace, and mercy are such a part of our everyday lives, that we don't even recognize that every good gift is from Him. Let me just go through some of the things He has done for me.

*He saved me! I am going to live forever in Heaven!
*He wants me to know Him--me! Know HIM!
*He has a plan for my life--one in which I have; perfect peace all the time, protection a Companion (God Himself) to comfort me in trial,a Guide, and not just any Guide-this one actually made me to do the things He is guiding me to do!
*a calling, and a good one
*a wonderful, precious family
*confidence
*a promise that God can do something good, even with my gunk! "and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose." Rom. 8:28

That's the short list. After the first one, I could stop! He still owes me nothing, I still owe Him everything--He could only have saved me from my sins if He was GOOD, but the rest-that is just more and more of His amazing goodness

Hebrews sums it up nicely: "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Heb. 11:6 (italics mine)

Internet Again!!

I am so thankful we now have internet! I can blog again--that is, when I get the time. We keep ourselves pretty busy around here. I am just loving the work, though. The girls love being in Mexico, and we are all learning Spanish little by little. Thanks to everyone who is praying for us. Keep it up!

URGENT MISSIONARY PRAYER REQUEST

Stephen and Angela Benefield, missionaries to Cambodia, are going through the fire today. Their two year old daughter, Faith, went to heaven yesterday morning. The family had been dealing with illness for a long time. As of now, I know that their four year old, Emma is sick also. Pray for them for a special outpouring of God's grace. Pray for healing for their sick ones. Pray that the financial burden will be eased. Pray for the extended family in America. They are also grieving and want to help, pray that God provides for them also. This is a precious, godly family. I love them dearly, and my heart grieves with them. Please take time throughout your day and bring them the support of God's family!

Hey out there!

Just in case anyone checks in here to see if I'm still alive, I thought I would let you all know that I am not dead. Far from it, in fact! We are having an amazing time and learning so much! God put us in a wonderful place to learn, learn, and learn some more, and it's not just Spanish. We are learning about how ministry works, about the culture of Mexico, and how to get around.

There are tons of things that God is teaching us right now, and I will talk about them, since I'll be able to online more often in the future, but right now I wanted to thank everyone who is praying for us. God bless you, and I beg that you don't stop!!!

At long last--a post!

Ok I know it's been forever. I've been online once in the past three months, and Blogger was down! We have lots of news, though! We are learning Spanish, (irregular verbs and all!) and are able to watch a thriving ministry in action. My husband is learning faster than I am, because he gets out of the house to talk to people more, but I am tracking faithfully behind him. It has been amazing, and I am even learning how to cook some real Mexican food! I made pozole. The first time was bad--I was limited to a non-authentic recipe. The Bible college student I invited to share with us was polite, but he then offered to show me how to make it right. That's good stuff! (I tried menudo once long ago. Another unworthy recipe. And what a mess. It's my husband's favorite food. I should try it again sometime.)
Other news of us is a new addition due around October! What a blessing from the Lord!
The occasion for this posting is the first service of a new church. My brother-in-law is the pastor and he invited us to come out and help. The first service will be Easter Sunday, and we are on our way up.
Thank you all so much for your prayers! I can't say how much I appreciate it.
Oh, one more thing. I didn't realize that I had "moderate comments" switched on for several months. I was beginning to wonder what happened to all my readers. (Can we all say, "DUH!!!")Ah, well, I guess I'm not the brightest crayon in the box at times. Sorry. See you later!

Happy New Year!

A poem I found and memorized as a teen:

The New Day, Author Unknown

This is the beginning of a new day,
God has giving me this day to use as I will,
I can waste it-or use it for good.
But what I do today is importent because,
I am exchanging a day of my life for it.
When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever,
Leaving in its place something I have traded for it.
I want it to be good and not evil,
Success and not failure,
Gain and not loss,
In order that I shall not regret the price that I have paid for it.

May I also add to this that at the end of my day, or year, or life, it's not what I say or feel about myself and my accomplishments that matter. What I really want is for God to look at my life and say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

So Happy New Year (Yes I know New Year's Day was days ago, but it still counts!) My resolutions for the new year start with this day now. Tomorrow I want to continue with that day. Each will be lived out for God, moment by moment. I want to take what He has giving me and do His will with it. Right now, I can't look too far down the road. I just know that each day He gives me, He is enough, and if my days are given to Him, they will be success and not failure, gain and not loss!

Next week we will be moving to Mexico for language school. As soon as we get internet, I will start blogging again, but I don't know how long that will be. So God bless; thanks for reading!

Hi there!

I'm moving and packing and running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Sonoma County is getting quite the deluge of rain. I'll try to get a picture of the back yard so you can get an idea of how bad it is. We are in a pretty good spot here, but there are a few areas close by that are needing to be evacuated because the Russian River is flooding. You can just tell this rain is serious!

Still trying to get it all done by Sunday. That means I have to get off my duff and get busy! See you later!

Packing and the Blueberry Girl

Ok we are packing and I am bushed for the night. I am going to blog, crochet, read my Bible, and go to bed. We plan to be all packed into the trailor by Sunday, then relax a couple of days and leave on Thursday. A few days in Santa Maria, and then Mexico!!!!

Now the bluberry story. It begins with a confession. I let my three year old daughter watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with me last month. A mistake. I had foolishly thought that it would be as appropriate for children as the last one, and Ruth has never been afraid of anything on TV yet. Excuses excuses.

Well, I was disturbed by the creepy Willy Wonka guy--a childlike, effeminate, pale-faced man invites children into his wonderland ranch, I mean chocolate factory. This is way too close to the Michael Jackson hearings for me to enjoy that kind of stuff, but I digress; this is about Ruth's reaction, not mine.

She was alarmed when Violet turned blue. She started to shake, and I reasurred her everything was fine. She seemed to be ok, so I didn't think anything of it. (Except nothing scarey on TV for her!) Back to today. She and her two year old sister were playing in their room, and Ruth runs in to me, "Mommy! Becca's blue!" Of course that kind of thing is enough to send me running. Sure enough there was Rebecca-blue dyed popcicle stick in her teeth, studiously trying to eat it. Her lips and cheeks were bright turquois. Ruth started to cry. I cleaned Rebecca up, took away the stick, and then proceeded to try to reassure Ruth, but she was really upset. She kept coming to me crying. I was a little out of sorts as to how to deal with this because Ruth never gets emotional. When she does, it's usually fake and obvious, but this was real.

I told her Rebecca was fine. I told her to stop being scared. Then she saw that somehow some of that blue dye had gotten on her hands. She freaked. "I BLUE MOMMY! I BLUE!" I picked her up, washed her hands and set her on her feet. Then I quietly told her to look at me. It took a while, but finally she did. I took her chin in my hand to reinforce the eye contact and said slowly, "Mommy will NOT let Ruth turn into a blueberry. Mommy will NOT let Rebecca turn into a blueberry. Do you understand?"

She looked right into my eyes, then said, "OK!", jumped down, and ran into her room, completely fine!

That just made me think of when Jesus said we need to have childlike faith in God to come to Him. When we are terrified and don't understand what's going on, God does, and He tells us, "Be still, and know that I am God!" When we sit still to listen, there He is with a promise like, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." We can try to figure it out on our own-and we can't, or we can just trust Him like Ruth trusted me.

The other thing it made me think was, "Wow! What a responsibility to have someone trust you like that!" Yeeks. I wish I was more like MY heavenly Father.

Happy Christmas to you!

Last Sunday we had a birthday party for Jesus at church, and they asked everyone to tell what Jesus means to them. I was all set to fight tears during my testimony, because I was struggling already, but my daughter saved me from that by puking on me at the beginning. Everyone laughed a little and it was easily wiped up with a paper towel. Then I started again, and suddenly everyone screamed, "NOOO!"

My Elisabeth had found a partially digested fragment of apple on my skirt that I'd missed and delightfully popped it into her mouth.

No chance of crying there.

I will blog again about what I said, just wanted to "share"

We are visiting my dad's church--as you can see, they aren't stuffy people at all.

The picture is Becca and her new haircut!