Daybook

For Today...

Monday, January 19, 2015

 

 

Outside my window...  It's dark now but it was a glorious day!  Close to 40 degrees with lots of snow melt today but I think we are due for more snow this week.

 

I am hearing... the T.V. I'm watching Love It or List It on HGTV

 

I am thinking... about how good a hot bath would feel.

  

  I am thankful...

• for an easy transition to my bifocals
• the warm and sunny day we had today
• warm, fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookies
• new books 
• birthday tea time with friends.

 

 

 I am creating... a new afghan from {this} pattern.  It is called the Greenway and is the Harlequin Pattern.

 

  

 

  I am enjoying... being able to walk outside in this nice weather.  It really has been longing for Spring!

 

  

I am wondering...  

 

 

 I am reading... through the Bible with my Good Morning Girls group.  I read Exodus 11 this morning.  I just finished reading the Hardest Peace by Kara Tippetts and highly recommend it.  It's only $2.99 on Kindle right now.  I am also very slowly making my way through Keep A Quiet Heart, by Elizabeth Elliot.  I read a few short chapters each night before bed. 

 

 

 I am praying...

• for the salvation of some very precious loved ones and for my older children to be led by God in all areas of their adult lives. 
• For a friend I met two years ago at a ladies retreat that had a massive heart attack this last week.  She was life lighted out and has one of 3 stents put in.  She is doing well and I'm so grateful!  Please pray for Jan and her recovery and future surgeries.
• Many more requests -

  

 

 Around the house... The living room is scattered with yarn and crafting stuff along with legos, blankets, paper, colored pencils, markers etc.  Creative messes ;)

 

 

  In the kitchen...  I made my boys happy today and made them some chocolate chip cookies.  :) 

 

I am (still) learning… to let go and let God.  It is best to be taught by Him.  This is such an old entry but it is still so applicable.  So this entry is from November but I'm leaving it because it seems to be where God has me right now.

 

 

 A devotional to share...  This is from My Utmost For His Highest.  I had printed it out and taken it with me on my retreat.  It led to an in-depth study of Mark 10:17-30.  I've highlighted a few points that really caught my attention and caused me to ask some questions of myself and my motives.

Peter began to say to Him, "See, we have left all and followed You." —Mark 10:28

Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is “for My sake and the gospel’s” (10:29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, “I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.” Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, “No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ‘This is what God has done for me.’ ” Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.

Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse— “Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go any further” (see Luke 9:57-62).

“Then,” Jesus says, “you ‘cannot be My disciple’ ” (see Luke 14:26-33).
True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.

 

 

 A few plans for this week:  We are hopefully staying close to home.  Christopher needs a haircut and Civil Air Patrol and both boys have piano lessons but after all that I hope we can stay home.  Ahhhh

 

 A peek into one of my days...

 

 

 

  This post is linked at The Simple Woman's blog. 

Surrender

At the beginning of the new year I was able to take a much needed retreat for 4 nights, 5 days at a monastery about an hour and a half north of my home.  I stayed in a private hermitage - no phone, no internet, no television.  There was a cd player and lots of silence.  It was a wonderful time of prayer, reflection, study, silence and surrender.

 

 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and He will direct your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

January 8, 2015

 

A very fine snow is gently falling outside. I have the blinds in the Hermitage open so that I can watch the snowfall. It's peaceful. I know though that outside it is harsh. Cold. Bitter cold. The falling of the snow is calming nonetheless from where I sit under the warm hand stitched quilt.

 

It took a few days to get used to the silence - yesterday the acceptance came and the deafening distractions of silence began to fade. It is my last full day here at the hermitage. I have a mere 27 hours left before I check out. I want to stay longer... The slow pace and the quiet has been good for me. The symptoms of anxiety I was having (tension headaches, heart palpitations, fatigue) are gone. I feel like I can breathe here. I wonder will they return when I do?

 

Around mid December I felt the Lord say to me that the new year was to be one of surrender. I admit surrender sounds scary.

 

Surrender: to lay down, to yield up, to release control.

 I thought, why couldn't it be the year of blessing or the year of hope? Those are nice words. What I've learned though is the very fear of surrender is what God wanted from me. He didn't want me to surrender so He could play twisted games with me. No, that is Satan.

 

God desires my surrender so that for Christ's sake and the sake of the gospel I can be a witness of love and faithfulness to this world. He asks for my surrender to His will. Jesus surrendered to His Father's will... so can I. He asks me to surrender because he sees the big picture of my life and knows what lies ahead.

 

My surrender is releasing fear and control. His desire for my surrender is for me to walk in faith and confidence that no matter what happens, His Presence, His Peace and His Provision will meet me there. Always.

 

Did I accomplish surrender this week?

 

No, not entirely.

 

What I did learn is that surrender is a daily act. Just as God's mercies are new to me every morning, so is my surrender to be to Him.

 

Surrender, my daily dying and declaration of love, trust and dependence on Him.

 

Surrender, a living sacrifice of my life in exchange for His life lived through me.

 

Surrender, my yes to Him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I brought simple, healthy meals but there days were cold (-30 and higher with windchills) so I did drive into town one night and enjoyed a warm meal at a restaurant.  :)