Grafted, Gratitude, and Grace

 "...Sam Van Aken has grown a new variety of fruit tree that produces 40 different types of stone fruit each year."

My, oh my, what a beautiful tree, what a beautiful metaphor, what a beautiful reality...

"you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree,  do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. "
Romans 11:17B-18 ESV

What a gift we have been given to be grafted in and to be nourished, loved, to live, and to bear fruit. To bear with,  to love one another.

By bearing one another's burdens, by loving we fulfill the law of Christ. and his law, his commandment...to love one another. This is what proves we are his, his disciples, what gives God glory. This bearing one another and this bearing of fruit are the same. Loving as He loved by laying down our lives. Bearing up in order to bear the fruit of love.

Bear One Another's Burdens

6 Brothers,^[a] if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. ² Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. ³ For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴ But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. ⁵ For each will have to bear his own load.

Read more at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+6&version=ESV#qrG30jqkPPSZZZuZ.99

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

¹² “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants,^[a] for the servant^[b] does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. ¹⁷ These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Grafting is not without it's pain and neither is growth. Pruning is required

For more, click on the tree of forty fruits to the right to be take to Sam Van Aken's website and enjoy listening to his reason for taking on this project.

The King's Speech

This is one of my favorite movies. Well written, directed, and performed in every aspect, masterfully presenting the themes of perseverance and courage, friendship and loyalty, and trust and devotion we all need and can provide one another as we face our unique weaknesses and difficulties whatever our station in and era of life. 

Favorite quote:

King George VI: Listen to me. *Listen to me!*
Lionel Logue: Listen to you? By what right?
King George VI: By divine right if you must, I am your king.
Lionel Logue: No you're not, you told me so yourself. You didn't want it. Why should I waste my time listening?
King George VI: Because I have a right to be heard. I have a voice!
Lionel Logue: [pauses] Yes, you do.
[Longer pause]
Lionel Logue: You have such perseverance Bertie, you're the bravest man I know.

These are thy wonders, Lord of love

Music link below

The Flower

 By George Herbert

How fresh, oh Lord, how sweet and clean

Are thy returns! even as the flowers in spring;

         To which, besides their own demean,

The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring.

                      Grief melts away

                      Like snow in May,

         As if there were no such cold thing.

         Who would have thought my shriveled heart

Could have recovered greenness? It was gone

         Quite underground; as flowers depart

To see their mother-root, when they have blown,

                      Where they together

                      All the hard weather,

         Dead to the world, keep house unknown.

         These are thy wonders, Lord of power,

Killing and quickening, bringing down to hell

         And up to heaven in an hour;

Making a chiming of a passing-bell.

                      We say amiss

                      This or that is:

         Thy word is all, if we could spell.

         Oh that I once past changing were,

Fast in thy Paradise, where no flower can wither!

         Many a spring I shoot up fair,

Offering at heaven, growing and groaning thither;

                      Nor doth my flower

                      Want a spring shower,

         My sins and I joining together.

         But while I grow in a straight line,

Still upwards bent, as if heaven were mine own,

         Thy anger comes, and I decline:

What frost to that? what pole is not the zone

                      Where all things burn,

                      When thou dost turn,

         And the least frown of thine is shown?

         And now in age I bud again,

After so many deaths I live and write;

         I once more smell the dew and rain,

And relish versing. Oh, my only light,

                      It cannot be

                      That I am he

         On whom thy tempests fell all night.

         These are thy wonders, Lord of love,

To make us see we are but flowers that glide;

         Which when we once can find and prove,

Thou hast a garden for us where to bide;

                      Who would be more,

                      Swelling through store,

         Forfeit their Paradise by their pride.

(if you do not have a Spotify account, Spring I can be heard by clicking on link)

What more could God have given

artwork is ©Julie Chen of www.lifeversedesign.com 

This beautiful piece is found here 

The Promise

The Lord God said when time was full

He would shine His light in the darkness

He said a virgin would conceive

And give birth to the Promise

For a thousand years the dreamers dreamt

And hoped to see His love

The Promise showed their wildest dreams

had simply not been wild enough

But the Promise showed their wildest dreams

Had simply not been wild enough

The Promise was love and the Promise was life

The Promise meant light to the world

Living proof Jehovah saves

For the name of the Promise was Jesus

The Faithful One saw time was full

And the ancient pledge was honored

So God the Son, the Incarnate One

His final Word, His own Son

Was born in Bethlehem

But came into our hearts to live

What more could God have given

Tell me what more did He have to give

What more could God have given

Tell me what more did He have to give

The Promise was love and the Promise was life

The Promise meant light to the world

Living proof Jehovah saves

For the name of the Promise was Jesus

At last the proof Jehovah save

For the name of the Promise was Jesus

~Michael Card        

       

30 Days of Thankfulness 4

Thankful for a lovely, gracious, compassionate, thoughtful, intelligent, enjoyable, fun-loving daughter! I love you, Grace.

30 days of Thankfulness 3

Thankful for a husband who believes excellence is a gift from God and practices to be a good steward of that gift. I love you, Ed!

30 days of Thankfulness 2

Thankful for a beautiful baby, now a lovely, godly young woman,  that God blessed me with 22 years ago. I love you, Sarah!

30 Days of Thankfulness

Being home and dinner with the family.

The Power of Stories

Fall recipes

Recipes from the past week and were included in the previous post's collage included:

Waffles with Pumpkin Butter 

Lasagna Soup

Black Bean Soup with Cider Roasted Vegetables and Foccacia

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie

Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies 

I added the toffee! :)

Click on the items to take you to the recipe.

The Riddle

The Riddle

There was a man back in '95

Whose heart ran out of summers

But before he died, I asked him

Wait, what's the sense in life

Come over me, Come over me

He said,

Son why you got to sing that tune

Catch a Dylan song or some eclipse of the moon

Let an angel swing and make you swoon

Then you will see... You will see

Then he said,

Here's a riddle for you

Find the Answer

There's a reason for the world

You and I...

Picked up my kid from school today

Did you learn anything cause in the world today

You can't live in a castle far away

Now talk to me, come talk to me

He said,

Dad I'm big but we're smaller than small

In the scheme of things, well we're nothing at all

Still every mother's child sings a lonely song

So play with me, come play with me

And Hey Dad

Here's a riddle for you

Find the Answer

There's a reason for the world

You and I...

I said,

Son for all I've told you

When you get right down to the

Reason for the world...

Who am I?

There are secrets that we still have left to find

There have been mysteries from the beginning of time

There are answers we're not wise enough to see

He said... You looking for a clue I Love You free...

The batter swings and the summer flies

As I look into my angel's eyes

A song plays on while the moon is hiding over me

Something comes over me

I guess we're big and I guess we're small

If you think about it man you know we got it all

Cause we're all we got on this bouncing ball

And I love you free

I love you freely

Here's a riddle for you

Find the Answer

There's a reason for the world

You and I...

The King's Speech- A Tale We All Live

Well, you never know what might happen when you turn 50! A few days before the big event, a friend called early one Saturday morning to see if I would join her in an adventure. The firm handling the publicity of The King's Speech here in the US invited her to be interviewed for a nationwide commercial and encouraged her to bring her friends. Let's just say she didn't have to ask twice.

Love. This. Movie.

So here's the two minute commercial made available this week and when the five minute version is ready I'll post it.

This brought back memories that I had not visited in awhile. The strength and grace of those who bravely face difficulties and well-meaning (and some not so well-meaning) folks who add to their struggles, the ones who walk encouragingly beside them, so beautifully portrayed, are  why this film is so well loved. Please take time to see it if you haven't. Take someone with you, someone who has a challenge to face, who needs encouragement or who needs to take the role as encourager. You won't regret it.

50

Yep the big 5-0! Well, like Bilbo I intend to make this a year of adventures...take a trip or two with dwarves, stop at the last Homely House, slay a dragon, but forgo the ring. In all seriousness, this is what I hope to make an integral part of my life...

"Gratitude never comes from avoiding difficulty, but from finding yourself sustained through it. The degree of joy rises to the degree of gratitude, and the level of gratitude corresponds to the level of God’s grace experienced in our suffering. God’s sustaining providence brings relief, even when life becomes unspeakably difficult."~Randy Alcorn

A Year of Gratitude following Ann Voskamp's lead by keeping a gratitude journal, while making my way through her challenging yet encouraging book, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are .

And I take Scotty Smith's prayer as my own:

A Prayer About Ordained Days and God Thoughts

     All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Psalm 139:16-18

     Heavenly Father, it’s my birthday, and the number just keeps getting bigger. I’m no longer 60, I’m officially now in my 60’s. There was a day when that sounded like the “ancient of days.” Honestly, I don’t feel any different than when I was 41.
     As “vast” and “great” as the sum of my years seems to me today, vaster and greater are my thoughts of you. The number of my years is calculated merely in terms of several decades, but if I tried to “do the math” concerning your glory and grace, I’d have to count every grain of sand on every beach that has ever existed. With David I can honestly say, “How precious to me are your thoughts.”
     Father, keep on rescuing me from all wrong thinking about you. Keep showing me how little I really see and understand about the greatness of your love for us in Jesus. That won’t embarrass me, it will truly thrill me. May the gospel keep on getting bigger and bigger and bigger. 
     It’s a source of incredible peace and freedom to know that you’ve ordained all of my days for me. That doesn’t feel like unfair fatalism, but rather, Fatherly affection. I’ll not live one day more or one day less than you decree, by your sovereign purposes and eternal pleasure. I’ve already outlived my mom by 49 years and my dad outlived me by 31.
     There’s a part of me that would like to turn the clock back for a possible “do-over,” especially for certain stretches of my life. But then again… not really. Your name is Redeemer and you’re the God restores years eaten away by locusts. I choose to rest in your love rather than stew in my regrets. I have great hope in your commitment to make all things new.
     All I ask is that each additional day, week, month or year you appoint for me in this world… that each will be filled with a greater grasp of the only love which will never let go of me. By your Spirit, Father, continue to reveal to me how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ—the only love that surpasses knowledge (Eph. 3:18-19). Everything else will take care of itself. So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ matchless and merciful name.

Time and Grace

  

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully, Right Where You Are
 

“I watch the hands move grace on the clock face. I’m growing older. These children growing up. But time is not running out. This day is not a sieve, losing time. With each passing minute, each passing year, there’s this deepening awareness that I am filling time, gaining time. We stand on the brink of eternity.”~ Ann Voskamp

The Sunrise of Your Smile

Dedicated to Sarah and Grace.

Reject the worldly lie that says,
That life lies always up ahead,
Let power go before control becomes a crust around your soul,
Escape the hunger to possess,
And soul-diminishing success,
This world is full of narrow lives,
I pray by grace your smile survives.

Now close your eyes so you can see,
Your own unfinished memories,
Now open them, for time is brief,
And you'll be blest beyond belief,
Now glance above you at the sky,
There's beauty there to blind the eye,
I ask all this then wait awhile,
To see the dawning of your smile.

Michael and Susan Card penned the lyrics above to give , as he says, "...all the advice...[we] could cram into one song ... to the kids...." They chose for a time, as we did, to homeschool their children.  It has been and is a lifestyle that challenges us in many ways. Challenges that more often than not have show the selfishness of my motives and actions which is why I appreciated those, whatever their educational or other lifestyle choices, who are willing to share their thoughts, ideas, triumphs, and struggles.  Susan Card wrote of her experiences as a homeschooling mom in The Homeschool Journey . When I read her book I was challenged by her willingness to do the things that she needed to do for her children's well-being even if that meant stepping outside the "normal" (whatever that is) homeschool choices. But more so I was encouraged to examine what my heart's desire was for my girls. My hope and prayer is that God will take I have done, both the wise and the foolish, and redeem it.   As any parent, and their children, will honestly confess, I haven't been the perfect, or even best, role model, but I hope they know that

"...I would wander weary miles,
Would welcome ridicule, my child,
To simply see the sunrise of your smile,
To see the light behind your eyes,
The happy thought that makes you fly,
Yes, I would wander weary miles,
To simply see the sunrise of your smile."

Love you girls. 

Molly--the Humane Tutor R.I.P.

I'm thick-headed. With my Daddy's recent knee troubles and subsequent surgery, my sisters and I have recently had visited upon us the revenge every parent dreams about foisting on their unsuspecting but richly deserving children; returning the stubbornness that made parenting us ever the daily challenge. He resisted going for diagnosis on knee trouble until one of my sisters made an appointment, picked him up, drove him to the doctor's office and sat with him during the exam. I can now say with a clear conscious that my stubbornness is clearly an inherited trait, and given Daddy's example, that will sustain me well as I get older and perhaps provide an opportunity for revenge on my own children.

But it was Molly that taught me how thick-hearted I was.

thick-hearted
condition that can prevents the human from becoming humane


humane
c.1450, variant of human, used interchangeably with it until early 18c., when it began to be a distinct word with sense of "having qualities befitting human beings." But inhuman still can be the opposite of humane.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

Monday, was a day that I knew was coming but that I had tried to ignore.

Molly came home with us twelve years ago after a visit to the local Humane society to look for a "watch-dog". My husband was doing a fair amount of traveling one summer and with only two small children at home with me, I wanted another set of ears to listen for strange noises at night. And to bark at those strange noises, so that I could get up and see what those strange noises were, not find them and then worry all night and then complain to my husband. Yes, I'm neurotic. Why do you ask?

We chose Molly because she was docile, and, in our minds, clearly abused. She cowered when the worker brought a broom into the room and when my younger child played with a chain in the visiting room, Molly hid under the bench. There was no leaving her, not as long as there was breath in my tender-hearted girls. So home, she came. She obediently went into the bathroom that adjoined my girls bedroom to spend the night. She never tried to get out as I put a gate in front of the door to keep her in that bathroom. We were satisfied, we had a dog who was docile and would let us know if there were noises to be investigated. We could now sleep in peace. Until, at least midnight that is. At which time Molly made an appearance beside my bed, tail wagging and ready to play. No bother, I walked her back to the bathroom, noting that the gate was still up, (hmmm?). Then started back down the hall to my bedroom, getting as far as the family room, when Molly came bounding behind me, and clearing the sofa in one leap, turned to face me with tail wagging, ready to play. Did I mention it was midnight? So much for docile. Oh well, she was going to be my cheap alarm system, right? Wellllll....we soon noticed that Molly wasn't barking at anything. Not the postman, squirrels, other dogs. Nothing. Not good. So for three weeks, I wondered what to do. Having a dog just to walk, feed and scratch between the ears was not why I had signed onto this relationship. But I walked, fed, and scratched between her ears. And she loved it. And I realized my hard-heartedness. I didn't recognize the hardness until I felt it leave as I watched her enjoy her ear scratching. But it was there and it felt good to let go of it. And then it happened, she barked. Well not exactly a bark, but a sound. She was finding her inner bark (name the movie) and then bark she did, often and at everything. She did everything a dog is supposed to do. Chased rabbits, guarded our suburban lawn from encroachers, and patiently endured being dress-up by little girls.

She was afraid of thunderstorms and let us know it, but she never met a stranger she didn't like and was always the happiest one to see whomever walked through our doors. She reveled in her twice daily walks, loved her mealtimes and ours too...when we had steak.


Her delight in everything good was infectious. And her delight was multiplied when I would let go of my hardness and enjoy it as well. In that, she was my biggest cheerleader when I got it right and my humbliest, and most patient, critic when I got it wrong, which I did often. In short, she taught her humans how to be humane.

We guesstimated that Molly was somewhere between 15 and 17 years old. Up until the day before she died, she tugged at the leash to go in a different direction. She was stubborn. Maybe, she was stubbornly hanging on for us, I don't know, but stubborn she was. Over the course of the last year, we had watched her age ...quickly and quietly. She went from her tail-wagging, energetic fun-loving puppy dog self to a dog who had lost her hearing, most of her sight and her ability to walk up and down steps. I didn't care about all of that, she was my dog and would continue to be so because I could take care of her, forever...right?. But after a severe seizure, which we now realize was the second of two in 4 days, that left her weakened, I could no longer deny what was happening. Denial was not being the humane creature she had faithfully taught me to be. So we, through tears, said our good-byes and once again, she was our comforter and our tutor. She never once wavered in her love for us and in teaching us to love well even at the end.

Thank you, Molly. RIP

Fencing

My dad arrived this weekend to watch my younger daughter participate in her first fencing tournament. He came appropriately dressed to *fence*.


Needless to say we realized that our wires got crossed.

He came bearing gifts as well.


A girl is never too old to be wowed or spoiled by her daddy.