Results of the Routine

If there is one thing marriage and children have taught me, or I should say, God has taught me through marriage and children, is that there is no certainty, no surety, no routine apart from our sovereign Lord.  He is the only certainty.  He is where we find our security.  And the one thing to remember is that this one unchangeable, all powerful, certainty is all Good.  The goodness of God, it is not a clique; it is not a sweet saying to put on plaque.  It is a truth to be apprehended by faith and to be believed at all costs.  It is a truth that the Devil, the world, and our flesh will seek to cast doubt upon at every turn.  We can say we believe in a sovereign God, but if sovereign and not good what comfort does that bring, what strength does that provide?

Admitted with 105 degree fever 1 week after a HIB vaccine.

After an MRI and consultations with lots of specialists we found it was a most likely a staph infection that had traveled almost, but not quite, to his thigh bone from the sight of the injection.

IV antibiotics for 3 weeks administered through a PIC line was prescribed.

 

 

7 days into the treatment his fever spiked again and we discovered he was allergic to the Vanc.

This is when we discovered Angry Birds.

 

 

 

Maintaining Spiritual Zeal

This was an email I got from a friend. It was written by a pastor in Wales. I thought it was really good so I'm going to post it. Mostly so I can go back and read it.

Maintaining Spiritual Zeal

There is not one way to true spiritual fervour. There is no master key that opens every life to being fervent in Spirit. Let me give you many directives that are truly important, and some not so important (you must decide which is which for we are all different members of the body). How may this grace of true zeal be yours in greater abundance than it is at present? Thirty guidelines:

1. Don’t neglect asking God to make you more fervent in spirit every single day.

2.Go to bed on time and get up on time each morning so that you start unrushed.

3.Sit under the best ministry you can get each Sunday. If you can get better preaching elsewhere why stay here? Life is too short.

4.Hitch your wagon to a star. Our lives are creaking ol d wagons; our congregation is a groaning wagon, but there are stars to which we can be hitched. I am talking of Martin Luther, John Bunyan, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, J. Gresham Machen, Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Read what they say; if they have recordings then listen to them. Learn of their lives and their battles. Makes them your role models – a number of men not one. Let their example and teaching help draw you through life. Hitch your wagon to them.

5.Unclutter your life. Our lives are all a pruning away what is inessential and a search for the simple things of the gospel.

6.Allow extra time to do things and to get to people and places.

7.Pace yourself. Spread out big changes and difficult projects over a period; don't lump the hard things all together.

8. Take one day at a time.

9.Separate your worries from your concerns. If a situation is a concern, think about it, and ask God what he would have you do and let go of the anxiety, and put your trust in him. Why worry about situations concerning which you can do nothing? Commit it to the Lord and get on with life.

10.Live within your budget; don’t use credit cards for ordinary purchases.

11.Have backups; an extra car key in a friend’s house, an extra house key buried in the garden. A rickety old laptop . . . even a typewriter for emergencies.

12.K.M.S. (Keep Mouth Shut). This can prevent an enormous amount of trouble.

13.Carry a Bible with you to read while waiting in line.

14.When we are ill, we are never quite as ill as we imagine we are. We always add on a proportion. Remember you are never as bad as you think you are.

15.Get enough rest, and eat sensible enjoyable food. One morning you don’t feel like reading the Scriptures. You don’t feel like working or praying. So you tend to say to yourself, 'Well I’m not feeli ng well today and I can’t do this.' No. You mustn’t say that, you must rouse yourself. Shake off dull sloth and joyful rise.

16.We all feel better if our minds are being exercised. Read more than the daily paper and novels. Do more than watch the TV. Think. Read non-fiction. The more you use your mind the better.

17.Get organized so that you use your time to maximal efficiency. It is amazing what you can do if you plan well.

18.Listen to CD’s while driving. That can redeem the time.

19.Write down thoughts and inspirations that have come to you or you’ll forget them.

20.Every day, find time to be alone. Once again, every day, find time to be alone.

21.When you are bowed down, then talk to God on the spot. Try to nip small problems in the bud. Don’t wait until later.

22.Make friends with as many godly people as you can.

23.Keep some little cards; inscribe new Scriptures on them; commit them to memory.
24.Remember that the shortest bridge between despair and hope is to say, 'The Lord Omnipotent is King.'

25.Keep smiling when you are tricked and criticised.

26.Take your work and studies seriously, but not yourself at all.

27.Develop a forgiving attitude (most Christians are doing the best they can).

28.Do everything for double usefulness. Bake two cakes or two quiches and take one to someone who is housebound. Write two letters to missionaries when you are in the rare writing mood.

29.Men and women, 'we must hurry.' That was the great word of William Chalmers Burns in Scotland as he thought of the shortness of the time. Buy up the opportunities of the week that lies ahead. It will never return.

30.Never resist an inclination to pray.

Paul the Apostle urges us to ensure that the energy of the Spirit is at work in us constantly with no hindrances preventing it. Resist the hindrances, remove the obstacles, and maintain the glow. You cannot work up the fire but you can remove the ashes and be stirring up the gift of God within you. We must not quench the Spirit. We must resist the drift to becoming lukewarm. That is not an option. The Lord will spew us out of his mouth if we do not become fervent in spirit. We must recapture every day our first love.

-- Geoff Thomas

Grandma Lehr

My Grandma Lehr went to be with the Lord yesterday evening. She was sitting up on the side of her bed with mom's arms around her. Mom was saying Psalm 23 to her and that is when the Lord took her. She left her old, worn out shell and, in an instant, entered into the presence of her almighty Savior. Death had no sting. The final enemy was vanquished, and Grandma is forever safe in the everlasting arms.

Where to Begin

I know it's been forever since I posted. So long in fact that no one may be checking this blog anymore. Oh well, I know eventually someone will check. And, for those who can remember the post before this, my house is definitely not in the pristine condition it should be since my excuse for not blogging was cleaning our abode. It is, however, clean and getting cleaner and more organized as time goes on. I actually did get my scrapbook corner built and organized. I'm soooo excited about that one. We've also got some of our vegetable garden in and I've been working on my first flower garden. So just in case you were wondering I have been doing something--just not blogging.

And one more note. I know there are a few of you who are always wondering if another baby is on the way and think maybe I'm not blogging because I'm sick or tired or both. So the answer to that question is, no a baby is not on the way. Russ and I would love to have another one but that is out of our hands. We are so thankful for the way the Lord has blessed us with each other and then with William. And I must say every month I think to myself, "God proves himself to be God in so many ways, praise his name."

And now, finally, I'll start posting again. A few each day till I get all our current pictures organized.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Post without a Picture

Thus far I have tried to keep my words at a minimum as I know its much more fun to look at pictures of William than to listen to me. And do not fear, I don't intend to change the practice. But I can't resist posting a link to an essay that has become one of my favorites. Every time I read it I want to stand up and shout AMEN, or whatever you shout to give your hearty approval.

It's about the value of a woman's work in the home. I chose the word "woman" and not "mother" because much of what he writes can be applied to the wife at home whether or not she has children.

The name of the essay is "The Emancipation of Domesticity", and it was written by G.K. Chesterton who was British. It took me several readings before I could thoroughly digest most of what he is saying and each time I read it, the reading becomes even more enjoyable because the humor, satire, and illusions have become more familiar. In other words, I've found it to be well worth the effort and no, I couldn't follow all of what he said with one read. The beginning is the hardest to get through so don't stop till you've finished.

Here is an excerpt:

Babies need not to be taught a trade, but to be introduced to a world. To put the matter shortly, woman is generally shut up in a house with a human being at the time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren't. … Now if anyone says that this duty of general enlightenment is in itself too exacting and oppressive, I can understand the view. I can only answer that our race has thought it worth while to cast this burden on women in order to keep common-sense in the world. But when people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult but trivial and dreary, I simply give up ... For I cannot with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean.

When domesticity, for instance, is called drudgery, all the difficulty arises from a double meaning in the word. If drudgery only means dreadfully hard work, I admit the woman drudges in the home, as a man might drudge at the Cathedral of Amiens or drudge behind a gun at Trafalgar. But if it means that the hard work is more heavy because it is trifling, colorless and of small import to the soul, then as I say, I give it up; I do not know what the words mean. To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labors and holidays; to be Whiteley within a certain area, providing toys, boots, sheets cakes, and books; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it.

How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.

Laundry & Seasons

Wherever I am that’s where William likes to be. I like it that way too--as long as he’s not whining. But whining or not, he comes along for the ride. Here he is in the laundry basket along with his clean clothes at the end of a laundry cycle.



A laundry cycle that will begin again all too soon. For you see, although these clothes are clean, he will, very soon, wear them and then spit up on them. And the cycle will begin again—undress him, open his closet door, get a clean onesie, throw the dirty onesie in the washbasket, empty the washbasket into the washer, empty the washer into the dryer, empty the dryer into the clean laundry basket, fold the clothes, open the closet door and put them away—an endless repetition. But not the only endless repetition in my life. Far from it. There are the dishes, meal preparation, dusting, vacuuming, mopping, and the list goes on. Which brings me to my thoughts on Time. They are not my thoughts. They were a study my dad did on Ecclesiastes that my sister was in on and she shared them with me. I found them to be just what I needed at this season of my life and so I’m writing them down as a way to remember and use them.

Time is: The realm in which we live. Everything is controlled and revolves around time. It is inescapable. God created time, he owns time and he has given time to us as a gift. Time is the most valuable thing we have. With time we can experience friendship, and love, make money etc. Without time there is no life.

As we live in this realm of time we come to realize that our lives are made of endless repetitions. That is to what the phrase, “vanity of vanity” refers in Ecclesiastes. The man without God realizes this and despairs of meaning. He reasons, “Life is meaningless made up of endless inescapable repetitions. Therefore I must find what pleasure I can by whatever means as a way to escape this meaningless repetition.”

The Christian has a different response.

1. He first realizes that his meaning and contentment come from God. These are also gifts God gives to man. We cannot find contentment in the seasons or even callings of life. We must find contentment in the person of our Lord and Savior.

2. He then acknowledges that life is made of repetition. But instead of despairing, he embraces this as God’s plan and purpose. Instead of thumbing his nose at the cycles of life he should ask himself, “What does the Lord have for me to learn about Him, about me, about others through these repetitions?” “How can I reflect the beauty, order, care, love of my creator by the way I do the laundry over and over?”

3. He realizes that time on earth is a time of seasons. Like it says in Ecclesiastes 3. Our lives will go through all kinds of seasons. These seasons are not random. They come and go by order of a sovereign God. Each season of life will bring with it opportunities and limitations. Just as each season of the year has both opportunities and limitations. Winter is wonderful for snowmen and summer brings the beauty of crepe myrtles. The one who refuses to embrace the snowmen in winter because he longs to see the crepe myrtle blooms is a pitiable creature. So too are we if instead of embracing the season of life God has for us and rejoicing in it we long for something different.

4. Finally, at least finally for this blog, the Christian lives in light of the truth that there is life after death. The implication of eternity in a realm of time is that the Christian does not have to scurry around seeking to experience all there is to experience in the here and now. He can be at peace, embracing all that God brings in each season of life while knowing that those experiences are but the tip of fuller and greater experiences that will go on for the rest of his eternal existence in the presence of his good and glorious Father.

What that means for me is that I will try not to look at the repetition of laundry and dishes and spit up as something that is bad or bothersome. It is what God has for me now. It is a season that brings with it the most heart-warming smiles of a sweet little boy and the love of a wonderful man.