An (Almost) Wordless Saturday

Number Twenty-four is our "baby". To everyone else, he looks like just another high school senior playing basketball, I'm sure.

But his dad and I know what it took for him to wear the Ambassador uniform. He almost didn't. He almost threw it all away. We know this for sure: Prodigals come home by grace alone. The law doesn't welcome weary, sick rebels back - just ask that elder brother. Elder brothers see returning prodigals as being Damaged Goods, and they regard the welcoming father as being foolish and gullible.

We literally put steaks on the grill ("killing our fatted calf") this past summer. And that uniform you see in the above picture? Well, that is his "robe".

We have no idea what the next chapter will hold, in this our personal parable of the Gospel, but we are certain of one thing - the love of God is better than we know, and the grace of God is more than we've experienced.

For now, on this night, she who sowed in tears has reaped in joy.

Gratitude Journal

...for a snow white Maltipoo puppy.

...for friendships that last a lifetime.

...board games...

...for the (finally) long T-shirts! I can't tell you how much I love the latest, long, lean shirt silhouette. Please God, may we never go back to those unflattering "belly shirts".

...massages at Day Spas...

...helping a daughter roast her first turkey...

...for friends with names like "Faith", and friends who live in "Faith", and friends who walk in faith by grace through faith.

...for the gift and the grace of the gift...

...for finances...

...berry cobblers, red lipstick, and the cute little blonde my son is dating.

...being blessed with two daughters who outgrew the silly, giggly "need to be the center of attention" phase by age seventeen, more or less. It was fun while it lasted, but it didn't (and shouldn't) last long. That's why it was fun. Today, they are poised and mature and confident.

...the last lettuce harvest of the year, for a garden being "put to bed for the winter" this week, for western boots, and All Things Handmade...

...40's music, cold nights and warm days, the view outside my own kitchen window.

...being literally surrounded by friends and family this past year. Seriously. How many times did they literally surround me with their love? I finally understand the Scripture, "You surround me with songs of deliverance." The songs are raised by the men and women who are committed to you, in relationship. They sing all around and over your life, and your heart is restored.

...a man who "gets me", who isn't threatened when I say what I am thinking.

...consequently, my daughters each married men who "get" them. After all, they've never known a male-female relationship to be any different. Don't all husbands "get" their wives? Don't all husbands have a wife who flourishes under his oversight and care?

...for books, blogs, and very, very smart phones. What a bold new world I live in.

...for new direction in my life, exciting new opportunities, new projects I'm itching to get started on...

...for the fact that I get to walk past a beautifully decorated nursery about twenty times a day - and each time, I feel the butterflies in my stomach, as I eagerly, joyfully anticipate the birth of a grandson. Born into my home. That, friends, is stinkin', sloppy blessed.

...for pedicures, hair grown out long this winter, and still being able to wear my size 8 Levi's - with spandex, but nevertheless...

...for Ralph Lauren pajamas - cotton, well made, comfortable, bought on clearance. And the knitted socks-of-many-colors I wear with them.

...for my boy, who scored 25+ points in the second half of his game last week, for a win. For living off of tall cups of coffee from Weigels, as we travel to the games. For falling into our beds after midnight, after the game.

...for a granddaddy who took my boy out to lunch today, and God was lavishing His favor upon the boy, based on the spritual riches of his grandaddy.

Gratitude

I know it's cliche, but giving thanks really is transformative.

There's another cliche, and it's the one about "mixed feelings". Not only is it cliche phraseology, it is half-true at best. The real truth is that we feel what we focus on, and we focus on what we feel. What we choose to pay attention to, and how we choose to pay attention to it, is a choice...a choice that will dictate to our hearts how we feel.

The real truth is that we cannot feel truly thankful and unhappy at the same time. If we focus on all the reasons to be grateful, we feel what we focus on. If we focus on the faults of others, or on what we perceive we lack, we feel what we focus on.

You and I can feel our way right out of boredom or discouragement. We can feel our way right out of anger or anxiety. The miracle antidote is the feeling of gratitude. Last year, I began a tradition of sorts...a November gratitude journal.

Here is the second annual Season of Harvest Gratitude Journal ~ because I want to feel what I focus on, and I need to focus on what I feel. The warmth and joy that ensues from giving thanks brightens my November afternoons, and makes me feel tranquil and privileged. I really am a daughter of privilege. My Father has given me an unfair advantage called Grace. There is nothing "balanced" about that.

...I am thankful for orange woolen yarn - it knits into such soft folds of scarf pieces or cowls or those cute fingerless gloves or even a hat.

...for the clicking of those rosewood or bamboo needles, as they obey my hands, as my hands perform the intricate task of knit and purl. I love watching my hands do it, the yarn woven in, out, around, through into something beautiful and useful.

...for half price sales at Hobby Lobby, where I picked up some adorable vintage-looking French-design wrapping paper. The wrapping paper has to speak value to the hand made gift it will soon wrap.

...that he always makes me coffee, first thing in the morning. And it's always sweet and creamy-good.

...for the miracle that is Pandora radio, streaming songs and songs and songs from the 40's right into the palm of my hand - my newest Happy Thing. (I know - I'm always two steps behind with my technology.) That 30's and 40's generation lived in such difficult and uncertain times, yet their music was so happy and positive. "You could be swingin' from a star!"

...for my vintage record player and all the Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, and Acker Bill records.

...for a certain grandbaby, who is soon to make his grand entrance. Ten years of cheek pinching, for all those times he stopped kicking just when I'd put my hand on his mommy's belly!

...for sons who serve their country.

...for being made righteous.

...the fact that I grow into righteousness, righteousness does not grow in me. I grow into the Unfathomable Gift, as I behold the Giver.

...for daughters who laugh loudly and contagiously, the sound floating up the hallway of a nest that thought it would be empty, but isn't ever.

...for a man who still takes me to the movies. (Megamind is hilarious!)

A Slice of Church Life

Those who follow this blog know that my dear friend, over at Hope Springs, is expecting her fourth baby at forty years old. This past Sunday, Harvest Church joyfully attended her "Forty With the Fourth" party...

This is our Wendy...who is "Forty with the Fourth"...and adored by all at Harvest for her faithful friendship and continuity. This woman honors relationships, remembers details, and treasures all the little traditions that come with church life.


See the little desk? My daughters Hannah and Sarah purchased it at an antique store, painted the bottom that pretty blue color, and painted the top surface of the desk in chalkboard paint. Then they painted Ethan William Cantrell's initials, and glued them on the front. Sarah's husband Jonathan then painted a small Snoopy on the chair...wish you could see it - I forgot to snap a picture.


But I did remember to snap a picture of my gift...crochet baby booties

and a knitted matching scarf - so Ethan and Mommy can match this Christmas. Yup, I made them. ::perky sniff::


The Fancher's house was packed...inside and out.

Everywhere you looked, you saw a woman with child...

Where did all the men go?? Didn't they want to see all the cute baby stuff? Why are our men outside?

Oh well...let's open presents!

There's dad, on the left, with the "Joe Cool Dad" Snoopy shirt on...


Gathering everyone into the room for a time of prayer.

Friends like Joe Cool Daddy Doug and Wendy are worth the stickin' and the stayin'. I would not trade continuity in relationships for anything. You have to remain on your plot of ground to reap the harvest of the seeds you sowed. I feel so privileged by God to have "built houses, and dwelt in them, planted vineyards and eaten the fruit of them." God forbid that I build, and someone else inhabit. How sad if I were to plant, and another eat.

"Dwell in the land and cultivate continuity (faithfulness)...and verily, you shall be fed."

~Proverbs.

Legalism

The law was and is the school-master, ever pointing us to Christ. Legalism mistakes the classroom for graduation. Gentile legalists have taken the law and made it the end instead of the means. They live life, figuratively speaking, chanting their long and short vowel sounds, drilling their math facts, strutting their Geometry theorems...thinking that the Greatest Teacher of All is giving them a straight "A".

When the point of the law was to point us to the One who is not a ordinance, is not a law, is not a rule, but is a person.

The difference between living under the law and living under grace is the difference between being in school all your life, making straight A's...

...and graduating, falling in love, starting a family, and nurturing that family by all means possible. Legalist believers and Grace believers know the same things and do some of the same things - but only the Grace believer , who truly understands grace, is able to take what she knows and apply it to her relationships. Only the grace believer does what she does for the higher and deeper and better reason. Because of relationship.

And relationships are all that matter - loving God and loving the people He has placed in proximity to us in this life.

3-D Ultrasound of Timothy

This just in, this afternoon! Timothy will be here in less than a month, it seems. He could come anytime between next week and next month. Hannah went in today for another ultrasound, and this time it was the newer three dimensional-type...isn't he the cutest thing you ever saw?! He's makin' a "mad face", because the nurse jiggled him around and he didn't like it.

I found myself sitting on my front porch today, the realization dawning on me that it was a God-kissed day. The sun warming my shoulders, the sound of the waterfall that pours into the pond, caught up on all my work, my knitting in my hand, prayers for all of Harvest's new babies on my heart, a letter from my oldest son telling us that God is granting him favor and promotion, partly through his dad, and he knows that.

Tim emailed our son's drill sergeant awhile back - something most parents never do - and told him that we were praying for him, and that he could do "anything he wanted" to our son. (!!)

Drill sergeant, three inches from my son's nose, shouting to Josiah: "Atchley, you are different. I like you. Your dad wrote me and said I could do anything I wanted to you."

Josiah to DI: "That sounds exactly like this recruit's father, SIR!"

...and then he got a promotion, for his intensity and skill. Josiah said, and I quote from his letter, "as usual, God gives me favor through my father."

...and then he asked us to write out Scriptures for him, so that he can streamline his devotions and fit them in with his letter reading time.

Pinch me. All this, and Jesus too. Try and tell me that grace isn't the central theme of the gospel, and thus, the central theme of our lives here on earth...try and tell me that life is about something other than the grace of God, and I'll think you a potential heretic. It is such heresy, to not believe in a God of All Grace, who gives More Grace, and who sits on a throne of Grace, surrounded by a rainbow, one of the symbols of Grace!

This "living of the gospel" thing is the hardest, simplest, profoundest, most wonderful thing I've ever experienced in my life, and ever will experience.

Oh, nothing but the blood of Jesus! Not my good looks or education or work ethic or any such thing...only Jesus, all for Jesus, because of Jesus.

Best Organizational Strategies for The Top Producers - Those Grace-Girls

You can't give a cup of cold water to one of God's children, and not be rewarded. All my grace-girlfriends are big-time producers, and hard workers.

"I outworked them all, yet not I, but the grace of God in me..." the well-known words of the apostle Paul, my all-time hero, other than Jesus...well, and other than my husband. I know that sounds cheesy, even though it is true.

There is something about a life that is animated and empowered by the grace of God. You often work very hard, and get very tired, but it feels like an effortless doing. What it is, actually, is maximum effectiveness with minimum human effort.

This state of being, this effortless doing, is The Art of Living in Grace, and is a harder, artful nuance to achieve than powering one's way through life in a perpetual state of active doing.

I'm by far no expert. But when I'm in the flow of Grace, I know it. I know it, because my days become fluid, like water, and I simply flow. I respond to the topography of my life, moving around obstacles, inhabiting my moments receptively and effortlessly. A lot gets accomplished. A lot.

Here are a very few things I have learned from these seasons of grace, lessons I hope to inhabit until they become INward HABITs ~

~ Just get started. Say yes to the thing. A thing once begun, is half done. Do it. Get started. Now.

~Get rid of clutter. Self explanatory.

~Surround yourself with joyful people. Just because you are in full time ministry, you are not obligated to spend too much time with anyone who is a drain on you. Spend the majority of your time with people who worship a Big God, believe He gives More Grace, and who make you feel like a Special Lady. Everyone else can take a number.

~Don't be available at a moment's notice. It is impossible to maintain a creative spirit if you are overly accessible to everyone.

~Don't waste time talking about your problems with someone who can do nothing about them. Unless you are speaking to a Praying Woman, you are better off casting all your cares upon The One who cares for you.

~Take out your emotional trash several times a day. In my home, our medium-sized kitchen garbage can has to be taken out several times a day. Your emotional well being, particularly in times of stress, is no different. Keep short lists, hold no grudges. Stop several times a day, on the inside, and do a heart-and-body scan. If you sense tension or emotional negativity, speak to your soul! Get that trash out of there, before it stinks up the place! If you find you have to empty the trash cans of your heart several times a day, that just means you are a busy, caring woman, who gets a LOT done, and touches a lot of lives, every day. It's normal.

~Practice the Presence. Our God is a reservoir of relaxation. He is our hiding place...our little cabin in the woods...our cottage on the beach...He is vacation for the spirit, accessible to you twenty-four times a day and more. Run into His presence often.

When it comes to accomplishing things of eternal value, a legalista can't hold a candle to a grace-girl. A grace-girl can do all things through her revelation of Christ - and in direct proportion to her revelation of His great love and greater grace.