This has been a great week and it shows up well in my phone’s pictures.
Continue reading “Friday’s Five Favorites”Category: Family life
March in Review
I’m loving Daylight Savings time! The Golden Hour in my kitchen has been so pretty this month!
My grandsons come nearly every week for Bible club. Oh, the joy to teach them of Christ! This was a lesson about the miracle at the wedding of Cana. We got to have a celebration, like the wedding feast. But our celebration was to rejoice in the fact that one of them had trusted Christ as his Savior at home that morning!!!
Then, joy of joys his brother accepted Jesus as his Savior three days later! My heart is so very full!! I’m thankful that salvation is simple enough for a little child to understand. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Matthew 19:14
My precious parents celebrated their 67th anniversary on the 23rd of March. How blessed we are to celebrate with them. God has given them the joy of many years, each one a gift from His hands and we are thankful!
I’m getting to help a friend with a project in her beautiful 100 year-old house and it’s been such a joy! Here’s a little peek at the work in progress. Old homes have such character and beauty!
I had the blessing of attending ladies prayer advance in Roanoke, Virginia.. It was three days of singing, praising God, having the Word of God poured into us, spending precious time in prayer, and an added blessing was time together as friends. I came home with sunshine in my soul!
This past week was spent in Kentucky with my parents. What a blessing to get to serve them during their senior years. I got to cook for them, dig in the dirt and plant pansies, take them to appointments, do some household tasks, and just spend time together with them. Precious! I also had a fun lunch date with my sister and had the opportunity to catch up! So very blessed!
We all struggle with ups and downs of life and I am certainly not immune to those. However, I want to focus my attention on my great God because he is better, sweeter and richer than anything this earth has to offer.
Tell me how you have seen God at work in your life this month!
What Would You Give Up Just To Have Peace In Your Home?
As a woman who loves to bake, I can tell you that there’s nothing more disheartening than baking up a new bread recipe then cutting a slice after it’s cooled only to find that it’s dry!
Ugh.
It’s frustrating to go to all that trouble only to have dry morsels fill your mouth like so many tumbleweeds in the desert. But did you know that God’s Word tells us that there is a time when dry bread can be a good thing?!
Proverbs 17: 1 says
Better is a dry morsel with quietness,
Than a house full of feasting with strife.
There is nothing appealing about a dry morsel to our taste buds, but God’s Word says the blessing of quietness and peace is so great, that it makes a dry morsel more desirable than moist bread, dipped in Olive oil!
This passage is saying that peace in the home is beyond all other material blessings. A home full of feasting is wonderful, until that home is full of strife. Have you experienced how hard it is to take a bite of anything when there’s strife and contention around the table? We all have.
If peace is so desirable, then what keeps us from having it? Why isn’t it permeating from our family relationships as it should?
There can be other causes, but ladies, God’s Word gives us several pictures in Proverbs that point the finger of strife in our direction. It’s a hard picture to look at because it’s very telling. This is convicting to my own selfish heart. Listen to ways we can destroy the peace…
A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping. Prov. 19:13
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house. Prov. 21:9
Prov. 25:24 It is better to live on a corner of the roof than to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
Prov. 15:16, 17 Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure with turmoil.
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, Than a fatted calf with hatred.
Listen to what is being traded in so that apeace can be found –
- Strife
- Quarrels
- turmoil
- brawling
- hatred
What would a person take so they could enjoy quietness at home?
- a corner of the housetop
- a corner of the roof
- just a little material goods
- a dinner of herbs
- a dry morsel
Love sweetens dry morsels
~Matthew Henry
If you’re realizing that there is little peace in your home, recognize that if you are a child of God, you have the Prince of Peace living in you! The Christ in you should permeate each relationship, allowing His peace to rule.
Ask the Lord if you’ve contributed to the strife by being contentious and quarrelsome. Be still and let His Spirit speak to you. Then humble yourself and make it right before God and also your family. Invite them to come in off the rooftop, and serve up some dry morsels, slathered with love. Peace will return.
P.S. It’s better for your pride to be hurt than your family destroyed.
Lovingly,
The Grace Gift of a Family Vacation
Who doesn’t LOVE going to Pigeon Forge in the Smokey Mountains?! Last weekend we were blessed to gather there for a family vacation. After all the restrictions, I have truly rejoiced each time a planned event actually gets to happen! This time away was our 2020 Christmas gift to our children and their spouses, so we’ve been planning this for many months. What a precious time it was and how full our hearts are after four days and three nights together! This is hard, but I’m just going to share five highlights of the many fun moments we shared.
We opted to have all but one meal in our condo. We divided up the days and mealtimes and each contributed food for that meal. The first night we made it easy and brought pizza in since we had just checked in an hour before. I added a salad to round out the menu. Here is everyone (except my husband who’s taking the picture) at the table. We were a happy clan!
Whitney and I both have September birthdays, so we celebrated with a delicious Lemon-Raspberry Cake from Blackbird Bakery in Bristol, VA. How special to have the whole family there to celebrate with us! That in itself was a precious gift!
For a little added fun, we had a game competition that lasted the whole weekend. That was Whitney’s idea and it turned out to be a great plan! We played Sorry, Dutch Blitz, Spot it, Miniature Golf, Scrabble and Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza. That last game is hilarious and great for a crowd!!!
I loved our game time because it kept us connected even at hours when we were really tired. Instead of scrolling on our phones, we were playing games, laughing ourselves silly, and pushing up our competitive sleeves to gain more points on the scoreboard! Whitney kept an ongoing tally of the winner and second place contestant of each game, and then awarded the first and second place champions on Monday morning. Who do you think won???? Keep reading!
it was really great that the condo has a putt-putt course on site. Beside it is a playground, and just up the way was the pool. It was all literally outside our door! Our little guys enjoyed all of those fun activities and the Lord was gracious to give us beautiful days in which to enjoy it all.
We had several special times in God’s Word and prayer as a family. How sweet to gather together to thank the Lord and also leave our burdens and requests. I’m so thankful for a family who loves Jesus. Equally special was seeing individuals open the Bible in their own little space and spend time with the Lord before our day began. Yes, my heart is full.
I’m not boasting and don’t desire to make you envious of our family time. It was truly a gift from the Lord and we praise Him for it. There are heartaches and burdens, needs and concerns in our family, just like in yours. How precious to be reminded even this week that as the Lord heard Hezekiah’s prayer and told him that He saw his tears, our God hears us and sees our tears, too.
Whatever may be grieving your heart today, refresh your spirit by remembering that the Lord cares and is at work in your life. Cry to Him as Hezekiah did, then watch to see how He will comfort you.
I pray your weekend is refreshing as you fellowship with believers and worship our great God!
Oh, wait…the first place winner of our game competition was Alli, and anyone who knows our family will not be surprised at that! Second place was awarded to her equally competitive mother!
What are some ways you keep everyone connected during family times?
Girl’s Trip #2
Almost 3 years ago my girls and I took our first girl’s trip. We were celebrating my birthday then. We had so much fun, and it was such a special blessing to connect with one another, that we were excited to plan another one!
Last weekend we took our second trip to celebrate a special 30th birthday, and I’ll let you figure out who’s turning 30! We went to a spot in South Carolina that was absolutely beautiful and perfect for our two night, three day getaway!
The most important part of any time is the people with whom you share it! We get along so well and it’s just so easy to be together. How blessed I am!
The place we stayed was on the 11th hole of the golf course, and also near a beautiful lake! There were stunning views all around us!
We chose to bring food and cook supper, lunch and breakfast. We want to have good food anytime we get together! This time did not disappoint!
To celebrate the birthday, we went out to dinner one evening. The picture below was my Tomato pie. It was amazing! It’s very different from the recipe that I make, and I loved it!
For birthday cake, I brought Chocolate Orange cakes – an Ina Garten recipe that we love. We went to a beautiful gazebo at the Lakeside for our birthday party.
There were so many fun things to do! One day we spent five hours in the swimming pool and had it almost completely to ourselves. What a fun, relaxing day!
No girl’s trip is complete without some shopping, right?! Soooo…
We had intentional times of conversation, talking about important matters in each of our lives. We had times of prayer and times in God’s Word. I’m so thankful we can share those spiritual moments that knit our hearts together.
Whitney did a great job planning the location for our getaway. We are all looking forward to the next event that we can celebrate!
Have you ever had a strictly girls trip? What was the best part?
RefreshHer 