Our Son is Coming Home Wednesday...



...and we take delight in him...

"Pick Yourself Up"

Nothing's impossible, I have found
For when my chin is on the ground
I pick myself up, dust myself off, start all over again!

Don't lose your confidence, if you slip
Be grateful for a pleasant trip
And pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again

Work like a soul inspired till the battle of the day is won.
You may be sick and tired, but you'll be a man, my son!
Don't you remember the famous men who had to fall to rise again?
They picked themselves up, dust themselves off, and started all over again!

Jet Ski Afternoon

Found this picture on my smartphone today. It makes me miss my Preacher. I snapped this last month - on a late afternoon when we decided to rent a jet ski! Note: it was not warm...it wasn't a cold day, but it wasn't warm, either. Silly couple that we are, we chose to do it anyway.







And. We. Loved. It. We got there almost at closing time - we were the last ones allowed to rent a jet ski that day. We tooled around for two hours, going up and down the Tennessee river.

I saluted Neyland Stadium as we jetted by it, because hope springs eternal in a Volunteer heart. Heaven knows, I need optimism. Two words:



Tusca-dang-loosa Ala-daggum-bama.

Such a great evening, this was. The best of all my favorite things - sunshine, river, downtown in my hometown, high speeds, and having to hold on tight to my Pastor.

Mexican Restaurant Man

My Preacher and I have a favorite Mexican restaurant.

We go to it alot. I'm just sayin'. We like it, and if I have to buy bigger pants in the future, I will blame that on La Fiesta.

On the outside wall of the restaurant is a mural. This mural has always been there, I see it each and every time I pass through the hallowed double glass doors. Last week, there was a small difference. Some person with a sense of humor did something...and I swear, I think of my small but happy band of readers when I see things like this, and I always grab the smartphone because I have to share it with you:




I hope you feel blessed and enriched by your visit to this blog today.


That is all.

A Water Tower Cozy - Stop The Madness!

I was in a craft store recently, browsing through a knitting magazine. I ran across a photo that so disturbed me, I brazenly grabbed my Droid and took a picture of the picture. I thought of all of you gentle readers, and felt you simply had to see...





This photo says it is not a fake. Someone, somewhere (God bless them) took the time to knit a water tower cozy - I assume by machine.


Stop the madness!


I refer you to my recent post "Top 5 Indicators You Might Have Too Much Time on Your Hands"...


...and I amend it, as of this moment, to "Top 6 Indicators". Number 6 is "When you find yourself with the slightest urge to knit a water tower cozy."

Facing Our Fear - Women Equipped to Love and Lead

We Girls So Rock!


Women feel the most inadequate in our relationships with other women, I think. Mothers and daughters, daughters and mothers, sisters, girlfriends...we women feel and fear our own falling short, we sense that we are not adequate for one another.

I look across the landscape of the body of Christ, and the topography is littered with the baggage of female friendship gone horribly wrong, and with the broken pieces of the hearts of mothers and daughters. It is time that judgment begin in the house of God, and that is not what you think.

Have you not heard? The house of God is the only safe place for judgment - because Christ carried our griefs and sorrows, He sits now on a throne of grace, beckoning to us to run to Him in our time of need. We can get our needs met by His satisfyingly durable lovingkindness, and then turn and freely give what we have freely received to our mothers, daughters, sisters and friends.

(...and FYI, when the Bible says, "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" it is speaking of the afflictions and persecutions of this life, not of our position before God. Context, context! Salvation cannot be at the same time sure and unsure, secured by Christ, but subject to our inadequacy.)

Out there, in a world bereft of grace, you are written off for your inadequacy. At the throne of grace, you can find healing for every relationship. For what offense have you forsaken a friend? With what imperfection do you charge a mother? What daughter can bear up under the weight of propping up a mother's fragile sense of self? We must stop needing other daughters of Eve to be for us what only Christ can be.

Let us run to Him!

Every broken relationship, healed. Every loose thread, woven back into the tapestry. Every bond, strengthened. Every inadequacy, swallowed up in the vast overflowing overadequacy of the Finished Work of Christ.

Where you have fallen short in relationship, Christ can stand tall, as He stands strong to meet needs in others you cannot fill. Where others have fallen short towards you, Christ can stand tall, becoming your need-meeter. We can forgive others for their inadequacy, and we can forgive ourselves of the same.

Who can say she has been a perfectly adequate friend...sister...mother...daughter? That is much like saying, "Who can say she is without sin?"

Inadequacy is our lot in life until we are fully and finally changed to be just like Jesus. But the enemy of our soul has somehow made us fear facing up to the fact that we wound and are wounded. We hide in the bushes from each other because we are inadequate, fallen flesh, not yet glorified.


Come out, come out, wherever you are!


Come forgive, and be forgiven. Come begin again. Or again/again/again/again. If my mercies are new every morning, then yours are too. Who am I to withhold them from you?

When women naturally and freely nurture one another, releasing one another from our falling short, cheering one another on in this difficult journey of life, one in which even we the righteous are "scarcely saved" out of persecution and trouble...

...well, I think it will make an unbelieving, not-at-all saved watching world want to escape their judgment, and come be judged in The Father's House.

If God has declared me righteous, who can be against me? Certainly not you.

Face it...you just cannot be against me. I cannot be against you.

Looks like we are stuck with being for each other.

I'm so glad.

Underlined Bits - Oswald Chambers




"This is the will of God, even your sanctification." 1Thessalonians 4:3


It is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me; is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me all that has been made possible by the atonement? Am I willing to let Jesus be made sanctification to me, and to let the life of Jesus be manifested in my mortal flesh?

Beware of saying—Oh, I am longing to be sanctified. You are not, stop longing and make it a matter of transaction—"Nothing in my hands I bring." Receive Jesus Christ to be made sanctification to you in implicit faith, and the great marvel of the atonement of Jesus will be made real in you.

All that Jesus made possible is made mine by the free loving gift of God on the ground of what he performed, my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness), a holiness based on agonizing repentance and a sense of unspeakable shame and degradation; and also on the amazing realization that the love of God commended itself to me in that while I cared nothing about him, he completed everything for my salvation and sanctification. {#Romans 5:8} No wonder Paul says nothing is "able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in him one with God, and it is done only through the superb atonement of Christ. Never put the effect as the cause. The effect in me is obedience and service and prayer, and is the outcome of speechless thanks and adoration for the marvelous sanctification wrought out in me because of the atonement.


These words (from the devotional "My Utmost For His Highest", by Oswald Chambers) sound so much like the messages we've been hearing at Harvest of late. A Gospel-foundation has been faithfully and firmly laid, and thus, the outworking of the Gospel is being made evident in lives!



"Evidence". Our behavior isn't the reason we are righteous. It is evidence of having believed and gratefully accepted the fact that we have been made righteous.



Here is the thing about grace, and churches that "do the hard thing" and preach and teach a pure, New Covenant grace - these churches have the same sin and struggling people that legalistic churches do. But these struggling ones feel safe enough, in an atmosphere of true Gospel, to come out into the light, so that they can be restored. If you have ever "restored" anything, you know it takes time.



Law drives sin underground. Make no mistake. In a law-driven home or church, sin is there. Hidden. Grace will eradicate sin by creating a safe place for people to learn how to live in identification with Righteousness, without fear of being shamed.



Part of restoration is to teach about what sort of life best brings glory to God, for the grace we have been so lavishly given! When someone messed up, Paul put it this way, in the New Covenant:



"You have not so learned Christ..."

Random Beauty and Cuteness and Personal Opinions

Oh, those wood counters! Simple and beautiful. Warm and unpretentious. Please don't take me the wrong way when I say that granite is so "last decade"....we all have things in our home we'd like to update or change, so if you already have granite countertops, it's cool. And if you just love granite, it's cool. Really. I don't. So please be cool with me, too, like I'm cool with you. If granite is your choice, I'm all for it. But, if you are just now renovating your kitchen, consider something other than. Designers the world over are saying that granite is one of those things that has been "done to death" - granite and that ubiquitous "great room design" in the center of the house...the one that now sort of reminds you of the gym in your local school. What were we all thinking, right?

There are so many other warmer and more interesting materials for your kitchen - investigate!

And if you ever are able to get your hands on a French bottle drying rack for a decent price - jump on the opportunity. I love mine. (This picture is not mine, not my kitchen, but I do have wood counters and a French bottle drying rack...)



Really study the simplicity of this party. The photo tells a story. This would be so easy to replicate, and looks so beautiful. Any bridal or baby shower...any birthday for any age....so, so appropriate!





I also love the story that this photo tells. Confession: we now drink from Mason jars. I fell for the whole idea of it...I downright swoon over the grainsack tablecloth thing, and Mason jar glasses. We love it. I want those jar tags, for when we are feeding a dozen people...which will probably be this week, knowing the way my life goes.




I could not resist tossing this photo in...because I love you. I know for a fact that this little guy (or girl) in his or her Halloween costume - cute little lobster in a pot - has absolutely made your day.



You're welcome.