Pictures

© Victoria 2009

Snowy Night Sky

© Victoria 2009

Blue Skies

© Victoria 2009

A Tooth I Got To Pull

© Victoria 2009

Ready For Snow

© Victoria 2009

Our Dog

© Victoria 2009

My Own Little Window Seat

© Victoria 2009

Two Sweets

Feeling Blessed

I've watched my siblings grow up, my parents grow older, and God become part of our everyday lives.

It has been a road with hills, valleys, and lots and lots of mud. Somedays I felt ready to give up, but all in all, God has given each of us the strength to press on. 

As the little ones have grown older, I'm beginning to realize that I won't always be "Sissy". Before I know it, they're going to think of me as more of a peer. Many memories that I hold dear are already beginning to be forgotten by them because they truly were just too young to remember.

It is my hope that I continue to grow close to each one of my siblings and that even when we're old and gray the love we share today will not be forgotten. 

Challenged by World Challenge

As I ate breakfast this morning, I picked up the latest letter from David Wilkerson with World Challenge.  

This is a man who I have been inspired by since I discovered his book, "The Cross and the Switchblade" when I was eleven or twelve. 

Not sure if any of you know his story...If you don't, google him, read the book I mentioned above, whatever- God has used this man in mighty ways. He is a Christian example of faithful obedience and one that must not be forgotten. 

David Wilkerson always shares good messages, but like all people, some are better than others. The one we received in the mail yesterday is one of my favorites! 

First he encouraged God's people to pray. Daily and with all their heart. Then, came the meat of the message. He paraphrased Hebrews 5:12, "By this time you ought to be teachers". 

Let that sink in!

He went on to basically describe the lives of many people. They've heard many sermons, are familiar with God's promises, have been faithfully "stirred", and blessed by God many times. He asks, "And yet how often are we quickly deflated when trial comes?". He was mostly speaking to those men and women closer to his generation. He challenged them saying that in many ways they had failed the new generation. 

I am part of that youthful generation he was speaking of. But even so, I have not been neglected. I have been brought up in the fear and admonition of the Lord and I too ought to be a teacher by now. 

Like the men, women, and children who traveled with Moses as the generations have passed, many of the youth do not know the Lord like many of those before them. Wilkerson did to us today what Moses did to the generation he spoke to. 

For those of us (old or young) who know God, have seen His faithfulness, have been given His promises: It is time to live like it. The learning will continue but we must not forget the purpose of our salvation. It is not to be made comfortable, but to equip us to teach others of the Lord and His great mercy. 

Let us thank God for men like David Wilkerson who trust and obey. One humble man took one step of obedience back in the 1950's and a series of obedient steps has led him to reach the World! 

"Therefore, we shall lay up these words in our heart and soul, and bind them for a sign upon hands, that they may be as frontlets between our eyes. And we shall teach them to our children, speaking of them when we sit in our houses, and when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up." 

Deuteronomy 11:18-19

To hear this sermon "By This Time You Ought To Be Teachers"  go to 

http://media.tscnyc.org/mp3/20090111S1.mp3

If you'd like to read the sermon, let me know and I'll get it to you! 

Sharing

A recent post from someone else's blog that is more than worth taking a look at! Check out and let me know what you think.

 

Click on this link:

Making Home: Our Amusements Are Dulling Our Minds

All for Good

I normally wouldn't disclose the ending of a book. But, since this in no way ruins the plot, I'm going to share something from a book I finished last week. It's called "Katie's Dream" and it was written by Leisha Kelly. 

It reminds me to count it all joy - especially the trials. 

"We survived. More than that, we were blessed...We ended up taking them [a family in need] a meal most every Sunday we came into town. We had little. But it felt good to give. Emma had known that. Thank God she had passed it on.  

Thank God for the opportunity to know Hazel and George and Edward and all the other difficult people we'd ever had to love. God knows what he's doing wrapping up the crazy mix He put on this earth. 

'We wouldn't know sweet if it weren't for sour,' Grandma Pearl had once told me. 'Wouldn't know the answers without any questions, nor God's saving hand without something to be saved out of.' 

Such is life. A parade of opposites. A jumble of trials, punctuated by moments of the purest bliss. Love and conflict. Laughter and sweat and tears. We saw so much of it all, bringing up little Worthams. And Hammonds. And it was good. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. "

After all, as God's people:

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, 

to those who are called according to His purpose. 

For, whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, 

that He might be the first born among many brethren. 

Romans 8:28-29