Fav Quotes 2014

• "Sometimes when we least expect it, a small cross proves a lovely crown..." ~ Louisa May Alcott / "The Quiet Little Woman"

• "If God is calling me in this then He will equip me to it."  - Dannah Gresh 

• "Troubles are helpers if we take in kindly and the bitterest may sweeten us for all our lives." ~ Louisa May Alcott / "A Hospital Christmas"

• "Women are life-givers who need to speak life to others." - Dennis Rainey

• "When night comes to your world, what do you see? The darkness or the stars?  Hopelessness or hopefulness?  Sometimes, just as He did so long ago, God uses the darkness to reveal His stars-" ~ Max Lucado / 'Follow the Star' from "One Incredible Moment"

• "the cheerleader without the cheer is like pop without the bubbles." - Robyn McKekvy on wives cheering on their husband

• "Love is only love if chosen." ~ Max Lucado's One Incredible Moment

• "You and I have been given by God the privilege to train our appetites." - Ravi Zacheriah 

• "God has reserved you for a special task. In His hands we're not only useful, but priceless."   - Joni Erickson Tada

• "God draws straight lines with crooked sticks." - Joni Erickson Tada

• Deny your weakness, and you will never realize God's strength in you.        -Joni Eareckson Tada

• The greatest good suffering can do for me is to increase my capacity for God. ~ Joni Erickson Tada

• Heartache forces us to embrace God out of desparate, urgent need. God is never closer than when your heart is aching. ~ Joni Erickson Tada 

• "The heart is restless until it finds rest in Jesus Christ."

• "Half of real beauty, virtue, & romance of the world gets put into humble souls, hidden in plain bodies."               ~Louisa May Alcott  / Mrs. Podgers' Teapot

• "The greatest ability is availability."

• … Our burdens are our wings; on them we soar to higher realms of grace; without them we must roam on planes of undeveloped faith, for faith grows but by exercise in circumstance impossible.…"  - streams in the desert March 10

• "Great hearts can only be made by great trouble. The spade of trouble digs the reservoir of comfort deeper, and makes room for consolation." ~ Charles Spurgeon 

• "Nothing echoes like an empty mailbox." ~ Charlie Brown 

• (paraphrase) When you let expectation move from a desire to a demand, selfish anger rears up. (Chip Ingram)

• Love opens us up and we start to feel our pain.  - John Gray (90/10 rule)

•  she says about her man - "I feel like a bird circling & circling an island & never asked to land on his shores"

(.•   )               (•.•✽)

• When coals  separate they cool off; to stay hot they have to stay together.

• "Work is a gift of God. If you cannot do what you love, then learn to like what you do." ~Elizabeth Elliot 

• "Don't let your misfortunes find a home!" ~ Call the Midwife / Season 3 Episode 6

• "Comparison is thief of joy. "

• "A nation's greatest defense is NOT its military, but the family. Our nation's greatest asset is NOT the national treasury — it's the family. The moral spine of our country is NOT in lawmakers — it's in the family, which spawns & nourishes character."          ~ Dennis Rainey

• "What is Joy if it goes unrecorded? What is love if it is not shared?"     Call the Midwife / Ep.8 Season 3

• "If you don't love God first and most, you will have no idea how to love others." 

• "It is by loving and not by being loved that one can come nearest to the soul of another." ~George McDonald

• "Without friends no one would choose to live, though possessed of all other advantages." ~Aristotle.

• "You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes." - Winnie-the-Pooh

• “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” ~ Einstein

• "Discretion is the better part of valor." ~Shakespeare  

• "A man who prays much in private will make short prayers in public."   Moody 

• "Journeys end in lovers' meeting." Shakespeare 

• "FAITH is eyes on Jesus. Fear is eyes on the problem."

~ Pastor Missionary Kouami Midekor / Togo / Matthew 14

• "our Father is committed to supply our needs not our greeds" ~ Anne Ortlund

• "I've learned to kiss the waves that throw me against the Rock of Ages."     ~ Spurgeon 

• "Dwell on the size of your God not the size of your giant."

• "You must not dig up in doubt what you have planted in FAITH."  ~Elizabeth Elliott

• "We need to quit struggling and start snuggling."  ~ Corrie ten boom

• "Never mind how great the pressure is, only where the pressure lies. Never let it come between you & the Lord. Then the greater the pressure, the more it presses you into His heart." Hudson Taylor

• Introverts & Extroverts isn't about hating & liking people rather it is about how we charge our batteries."

~ Tim & Joy Downs

• "If you can laugh at it, you can deal with it." ~ Joan Rivers 1955-2014

•  "You got no love in your heart, you got nothing.  No dreaming. No story. Nothing."   ~Australia 

• "Running ahead does NOT hurry up God."  ~ Pastor Chuck Swindoll / Abraham waiting from 80 to 100 for Issaic to be born 

• "Man is to behave like God the Father. The wife is to behave like God the Spirit. The children are to behave as God the Son." ~ Paul Kingsbury  #God'sdesignformarriage. 

• "Man can legalize it but it does NOT legitimize it."  ~ Paul Kingsbury.  #gaymarriage

• "God is using all of your experiences, both good and bad, to develop your character to match your calling."     ~Lysa TerKeurst 

• "I must exchange whispers with God before shouts with the World."      ~Lysa TerKeurst 

•  "Gather where wisdom gathers not where wisdom scatters."                 ~Lysa TerKeurst 

• "You steer where you stare."  ~Lysa TerKeurst 

• "Leave your footprints on the heights." ~ Dennis Swanberg

• "I'm your wife but you are my life."       ~ a woman said to husband. 

• "It is our pleasure to be a friend to others; is God's pleasure to give us a friend." ~ Stephen Davey 

• "We are blessed to be a blessing."      ~ Brain Kluth

• "Trouble is momentary. Memories last forever.  So just hold hands."  #marriage #relationships #families

• "Let the wife make her husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave." ~Martin Luther

• "Our sin has the ability to hurt the most those who trust us the most." 

~ Stephen Davey
#DavidBathsheba

• "Happy list: ✓ something to do  ✓ someone to love  ✓ something to look forward to." ~ Elizabeth Elliott

• "Joy actually sparkles in darkness, and like heavenly fireworks, Joy doesn't require daylight and cloudless skies." ~Patsy Clairmont

• "He who angers you conquers you."       ~ Elizabeth Kenny

to carry a little life ...

I am a story collector.  I am a story keeper.  I like to listen to someone's story.  I like to understand what makes them tick, what makes them smile, and what makes them sad.  I am emotionally vested. It is treasure in the raw.  I have a vast library of stories and as I think stories begin to come together and dots begin to connect and my thoughts enter into new territory.  Often these stories are kept within my library for my own pondering but sometimes the story must be told...

I have a co-worker friend whose story has a similar vein as me and my nieces.  She once opened up to tell me about her child that she miscarried.  I have not experience this in my family sphere when she was telling me.  My heart ripped for her as she stated that she often wonders about this child she will never know.  Inside my heart I am screaming 'I will see this little one and you too can if you fellow Jesus'.  I don't say it aloud.  I want her to hear not shut me down.  Maybe another time ...

Another story comes by a book.  This child is a child with a lot of health problems and does not have many days on earth.  As the story unfolds it is how the mother and father cope with the health issues and with not knowing how long they have with this precious little girl.  I don't remember the title of the book.  Some of the details are foggy.  I am thinking the little girl's name started with an A like Angie or Angel.  What I do remember well is the 'vision' the mother had.  The mother was awake and this dream was of comfort.  It was God surrounded with little children and He was telling them that He has  parents who wanted a baby and He had a tough assignment.  He wanted to see who was up for the challenge.  He went through the list.  Hands went up but then as the list got harder and harder, the hands weren't going up except for one.  This little girl called Angie said she was willing to undergo all of the heath issues and limited days on earth.  This is just a paraphrase and I so wish to find that book!  But what I remembered most about this was how it comforted the mother to know that God had a purpose for this precious baby as well as for her and her husband.  It changed the mother perspective and renewed her weary soul that if Angie could sign up for this hard challenge, she could be up for this challenge as well.

Another baby story comes from Joni Erickson Tada.  Again I don't remember all the details but I do remember Joni saying that this mom knew that something was wrong with the baby and the baby wasn't going to live.  The mom so determined to give this baby in her womb all her best and to be proud to have carry this baby as many days God would give.  I was thinking wow..... to have presence of mind to be joyful and not wallow in grief and loss... I don't think I could do that.

Another story is King David's baby story.  He lost a baby.  He grieved and morned and prayed over the baby but when the baby died, he washed himself up and morned no more.  The people around him wondered at this.  King David's reply was that he could not bring the baby back but that he would go unto the baby meaning that when he died he would go unto this baby.

I've squirreled these stories away never knowing if I would ever need them.  I am not a mother nor will I ever be one.  I do have a mother instinct and vision so maybe some day I could use them....

News! My little brother and wife are having a baby.... lasted all of twelve weeks.  The little one was the size of a blueberry.  I was still in the process of accepting the idea of another pair of feet pattering around.  A new personality to discover and enjoy.  Gone.  Never to know ... at least not here on this earth.  Heaven and eternity though will be ours  to know each other ... so hard to wrap my mind around.  What comfort can I bring to my brother and his wife?  I have these stories.... they are a comfort to me but how do I be a storyteller....?

in AD 70 ...

In the back of my mind I had wondered if today's Israelis could trace their linage to King David or other great Jewish Bible characters and why or why not?  Maybe I was told back in my college Bible classes and I wasn't paying attention.  I really never pursued that question out loud.  No longer do I need to question it!

While reading "An Indescribable Gift" by Pastor Stephen Davey, the answer was given.  I was so excited to see how God works in Mighty Ways even in little questions.

We have Jesus's lineage listed in both Matthew and Luke to show that He is the true Messiah but the Jews are still looking for the true Messiah.  So if they are still looking for the true Messiah why haven't we heard of today's Jews tracing linage back to King David?  They can't!  All the records were destroyed when the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70.  "To this day, no genealogies exist that can trace the ancestry of any Jew back to his tribal roots.  No Jew can prove he's from either the priestly or the royal line."

Wow!!!  I find this so interesting.  Interesting that God is in the details.  He has the answer so straight forward.  He keeps pointing all humanity to His Son.  Sad though, because we fail to see Jesus Christ as the Answer...

the bride's veil ...

Have you ever wondered about "& the government shall rest on His Shoulders"? (Isaiah 9:8)  I may have had some wonder but I am living in an age of really bad governments.  Governments that war against its people.  Governments that war with other governments.  Governments that sell off morals and liberties.  Governments that distort truth and freedoms.  So at face value I am glad that the government rest on Jesus's shoulders. He has the last Word.

Pastor Stephen Davey has such a God-given gift of wisdom and knowledge and I love his An Indescribable Gift message where he colors in Isaiah's full picture of the government resting on His Shoulders.

"When the year of Kiddushin was over, the groom would begin a noisy procession to the bride's home.  ... After arriving at the bride's home, the two of them would then begin the walk back to the groom's home ... during that walk, at some point in the brief journey the bride would remove the veil from her face and lay it upon the groom's shoulder, and the crowd would chant a song that included the words 'her authority is upon his shoulder.'  Her life is upon his shoulder: the government of her life was now upon his shoulder.  Obviously this reference includes the sovereign rule of Christ over all the governments of the world, but what is lost is the imagery of a husband who loves his wife and bears the responsibility to care for her, and she finds security and rest in his authority and provision. That is the picture Isaiah is drawing!" (from Davey's message)

As a woman a veil over the face is a covering of safety.  In today's terms I see it like a pair of sunglasses.  Every spring I go for my Saturday sun walks.  I am not the most confident and have to do a lot of cheering myself out there.  Putting on a pair of sunnies help in my little mind that there is a layer of protection between me and others.  If they can't see my eyes, they can't see me.  Yes, I know crazy notion but it gets me out there walking!  So if I lay that protection on the shoulder of my husband, it means that I am allowing my husband to see my vulnerability and allowing his strength to shield and protect me.

"He's coming for you, and upon His broad, omnipotent shoulder you can, as His bride, lay your veil, as you surrender to His authority and His care and His provision.  We say to Jesus Christ: "the authority of my life is upon your shoulder.  My trust for care and provision is upon your shoulder."  We cannot fully describe Him, but we can fully surrender to Him. And as you place the veil of your dreams and your wishes and your will upon His shoulder..." (from Davey's message)

I love that I can lay all upon Jesus's shoulders.  I seek safety.  I want to be protected.  I don't want to be out there on the stage of life all by myself.  Gladly, I have a Husbandman that is my Shield and Defender.  And what broad strong shoulder He has.

It also means that I allow Jesus to govern me.  I must follow His Lead.  I am quite alright with that.  I am human.  I make mistakes.  I run empty of Joy and Love and Thanksgiving and Strength.... etc.  He never runs low.  His resources are rich and plentiful.  He wants me to take His Resources and to use.

I think in pictures and word-pictures and this masterpiece is one I shall cherish and remember and walk more uprightly in this rich abundant life Jesus has given me.