Happy Birthday, My Love!

This past Sunday was my Tim's 47th birthday.


Yeah. The day after our daughter's wedding. After enjoying our guest speaker, Neil Silverberg, and receiving heartfelt birthday love from all of Harvest, we were exhausted. But thanks to Hannah and Justin, we managed a celebration. Hannah and Justin came by the house later Sunday evening and brought us dinner, a small cake, and a present for dad...






Hannah made this T-shirt!


Dad, wearing Isaac's hat...Hannah, Tim, and Isaac giving the camera their best "dumb redneck" pose. This picture is falling-down-funny!

Was there ever a busier, more satisfying March? Not in my life, not so far. March 2010 is definitely going down in the family history books.

PS. You would be most definitely blessed if you went to www.harvestchurch1.com , go to the resource page, and look up the MP3 of Neil's message this past Sunday. It is there, available for free...

The Nest Is Emptying...

This is one of the portraits we hung in the church foyer, as part of the wedding decor...Sarah, Jonathan, and Amber Marie, our "granddog".


This is a little of what we had to get done today. ::sniff:: Such an empty room. We finished moving Sarah's things to her new house for her. Have I cried yet? Oh. Yes.


...thus, Retail Therapy was in order. Here is what I found this afternoon at Tuesday Morning. Since I was feeling tired and a bit sad, I bought them both. They are happy in my kitchen, next to the coffee maker.

People, I am in serious renesting mode. Heaven help my husband, may God have mercy on his soul.

Be forewarned, gentle reader. Lots of posts to follow on topics such as "what color to repaint the kitchen and dining room", the gospel, My Brand New Life With Only One Kid Left At Home, gospel, my very first yoga classes (yet to be taken - stay tuned), gospel, the search for the perfect new armchair for the livingroom OR sewing my first slipcover (whichever option moves me when the time comes), the gospel, expanding the garden, raising blueberries and seventeen year old boys, the gospel, recipes, decorating ideas...

...and did I say the gospel of grace? I can't seem to ever stop talking about it. Your inheritance is way better than you know.

Stay tuned. I love you for visiting me here on my blog!

Our Sarah's Wedding

Harvest Church did it again. They came together as an expression of true community, and provided a complete wedding reception for our bride and her groom. Tim and I are blessed to tears, thankful for our church family.

You don't know what it meant to us that you were there. You were there in every sense of the word - physically, emotionally, spiritually, you were fully present, and have been since this adventure with Sarah and her Jonathan began.

To look around that church at 190+ faces (many of those from our parent church, Trinity Chapel, where Jonathan was raised from the time he was young) was a joy beyond telling for us. To know that they would be fully fed and entertained at the reception (such dancing!) was a stunning blessing.


My Stunning Daughter-Bride, and her handsome father, almost 200 guests looking on...


Dear family and pastor-friends, gathered in prayer

The moment they were presented as man and wife

A reception moment

Cake for the groom

"Is there anyone else in the room but us?"

First dance as man and wife

See the bride's footwear? She wore them for the ceremony, too. That's my girl. See the other boots? That is the maid of honor, the bride's twin sister Hannah. The bridesmaids wore strapless, knee length beaded gowns with western boots. It was adorable.




The princess waves goodbye as she and the groom drive away in the groom's "noble steed". Festooned with caution tape. Ahem.
many thanks to the sweet Liz Overton for her pictures...





Our Girl




Tonight is our Sarah's last night under our roof as an Atchley. The feeling is beyond bittersweet. Rehearsal went well and the rehearsal dinner was a time of "togetherness" that I will always remember.



Wedding is tomorrow at three o'clock. My little girl. My little "tomboy" has grown into a Godly and talented woman. This night marks her final, brief sleep under her daddy's authority and covering as "daddy" - but she gets the intense joy and complicated privilege of returning home, and still take her place under him as her pastor.



My dear friend (who is a pastor's wife and a pastor's daughter) Donna Jean once wrote Sarah the most insightful, moving letter about what it really means to be "the pastor's daughter". Remembering her wise words is what blesses, fills, and ministers to my heart this night. My friend brought my daughter a word in season, for sure, with gems of wisdom tucked in between the words telling her what to look for in the "right man"...that man who will someday marry "the pastor's daughter".


Praise Him! God has given Sarah a man who understands the unique relationship between pastor-daddy and daddy's girl. It is a father-daughter dynamic that is truly unique in all the world, and if a future husband does not understand it and honor it, he does his wife, her pastor-dad, and ultimately a whole church body a disservice.


Because when that relationship is beautiful and right, as it has been in our home (not perfect, but beautiful. There is a difference.) it is a joy above joy to those daughters to serve their father side by side in ministry. For my girls, it has always been a dream. It is coming true. What these girls need is not another pastor....not another father...those positions are well filled. They need a husband-lover and a friend. A friend who is not intimidated by the love they have for their daddy.


That is a tall order, and it is a rare man indeed who can meet up to it - respecting and cherishing the bond that his young wife will always share with her pastor-father. Sarah's man rose to the occasion - Hannah's man did so as well, and my heart magnifies the Lord in it!



Goodnight, little Sarah. I had a dream once, too, when I was young and about your age...and you came true.

Life These Days - In Pictures

Our youngest - opening his birthday card, membership to the YMCA enclosed!



We "partied up" the front door...



A quick birthday cake from the grocery deli, because after all, birthdays come once a year, but weddings are (in our estimation) once in a lifetime...we are getting ready for the big day - three days away!


Sarah's "personal" shower...getting a pretend "tatoo". A result of an unfortunate loss on her part in a party game. We all howled in delight.




The Princess...in her blinky-crown. This thing lit up!





Sarah and her bridesmaids and her puppy, before embarking on a day of much shopping.


She'll be Mrs. Howe soon.



Me n' my gang of girls at another bridal shower. This is a picture-of-a-picture!

Our fresh baby's breath arrived via refrigerated truck, Fed-Ex'ed today.


I immediately began making two wreaths for the front doors of the church, and at this point a dear friend graciously took on the task for me.


...and she delivered the final product an hour ago! A big shout-out and thank you to the beautiful Kate Damron! Wooo Hooooo!



I Am Justified

Many aspects of the flesh are disarmed and eliminated by a deep
apprehension of our justification by faith. Faith in Christ cures unbelief,
anxiety, and insecurity, and in so doing it cuts the roots of envy, jealousy and a host of related egocentric fleshly patterns
.”

Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life

No Such Thing...


Psychology has proven what the writer of Ecclesiastes always knew...that there is no such thing as a "state of arrival". We set goals, we aspire, we pursue...all great things to do. But by the time we attain whatever it was we wanted so much, by the time we arrive at our longed-for destination, the "getting" is never all we imagined it would be. We want the next thing. This is human nature. There simply is no changing it, unless you can change your hard-wiring. It is a result of the fall...we work, we sweat, and then we must do it all again, because this world and all that is in it is passing away - in perpetual entropy.


Please hear me: Now is the good part. All "later" is, is a "now" that has not happened yet. You will never be happy later, if you are not happy now. If you do not learn to savor and love "now", you will not even recognize the "later". Today is the best day, because it is the only day you have. You won't be satisfied - fully satisfied - until heaven. In this life, on this side of eternity, the best days are always the season you are in now.


Why? By the time you reach the goal you have set, your brain has already annexed the property. What once was the thing that would make you happy when you finally got it, now becomes one more thing in a long list of attainments, small and large, that continue on and on. And if you never reach the goal you set, if you never attain the thing you wanted...well, what then? The eyes of man are never satisfied with anything but their Maker.


The goal of singing a song is not to finish it. Think about that. The idea is to simply sing. To enjoy singing.


"Let my life be like a love song."


This time next week, the last of my two daughters will be married. This time next week, the wedding will be over, and Tim and I will be cleaning up the church sanctuary, preparing it for Sunday. My thoughts, no doubt, will be a mixture of lingering over the beautiful events of the day, and looking ahead into Sunday, mentally preparing for what comes next.


There is always a "next".


Now is all there is to take joy in. All of this process, before the wedding day, is the best part of it. Next week, as I busily decorate the church and clean out the gorgeous post-and-beam barn for the reception - that will be the "fun part". As I hear the soft music and my son seats me in my place at the front of the church as mother of the Bride, and I then stand up to welcome the Bride to the strains of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"....that will be the best part.


When Sarah walks down that aisle, into the arms of her beloved, that will become the best part.


And when I, at the end of the day, sink wearily and gratefully into the arms of my beloved, and we switch off the light for rest, with a lingering kiss and a whisper of "mission accomplished"....ah, that will be the sweetest moment, too.


Life goes on. Always, it goes on. Now is the best part.