Does God Gush Over Us?

Ben is here for the day, and I always look forward to having him over;

at almost 3 months old, he holds my heart with a fierce grip.

When I was changing his diaper this morning, he was happy and smiling,

and then,

 my favorite part,

he got all gushy  ~

you know, that sweet little baby smile that is

larger than a regular smile,

the one that melts your heart...

This got me thinking about God's love for us,

and I remembered a quote by Max Lucado from one of his books...

"If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.

If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.

He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning...

Face it, friend. He is crazy about you! ” ― Max Lucado

Here are the photos of our four sweet grandchildren

on our refrigerator,

and every time I see them, my heart melts.

They are the "apples of my eye"

and I am crazy about them.

God shared His love for His Son on the day

Jesus was baptized...

After all the people were baptized, Jesus was baptized. As he was praying,

the sky opened up and the Holy Spirit, like a dove descending,

came down on him.

And along with the Spirit, a voice:

"You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love,

pride of my life."

Luke 3:20-22  (The Message)

Wow! "pride of my life" ~

such a beautiful expression of God's love for Jesus,

and just think, He loves us like that...

we are His children,

chosen and marked by His love,

the pride of his life.

Think about this today as you look in the mirror ~

there is the face that makes God's heart melt,

and He holds your heart with a fierce grip...

and I think He may even give a little gushy smile

when He thinks of you!

Think on These Things ~ Psalm 8

(photobucket)

 LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory

in the heavens.

 Through the praise of children and infants

you have established a stronghold against your enemies,

to silence the foe and the avenger.

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels

and crowned them with glory and honor.

You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

you put everything under their feet:

all flocks and herds,

and the animals of the wild,  the birds in the sky,

and the fish in the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.

LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8

I so love it when God brings His message to me in more than one setting,

confirming this message in my heart. He did so with the above verse, during

Pastor Chris' message on Sunday, and in the song below.

The photo is of St. Mary's Lake on Glacier Park ~ a favorite place for us to visit,

although the trips are too far apart. I love the majesty of the mountains, and seeing them

always makes me think of the Father and His masjesty and glory. We live about 50 miles

from the Beartooth Mountains and we can see them as we travel on the way to church, far away,
 yet still visible, that we may think upon God and is blessings His has given us, because He truly

loves and cares for each of us. I hope this is a blessing for you today!

I am a Friend of God
sung by Phillips, Craig and Dean

(youtube)

I am linking up with Lorraine for

Come in!

 

I'm linking up with

Internet Cafe Devotions

for Word-filled Wednesday

Jesus desires to have a relationship with each of us,

to have fellowship with those who heed His voice

and ask Him into their hearts and lives.

The photo above is of our former guest room in our Dear Old House.

As empty nesters, we had room to share when anyone came to visit.

We gladly opened our door to let them in so that we could spend time with them.

I have asked Jesus into my heart so that I may have a relationship with Him.

I desire to spend time with Him and to get to know Him more each day.

Unlike my guest room that took preparations to get it ready,

such as washing the bedding, dusting and vacuuming,

setting out welcoming items such as a candle, book,

and a carafe of water,

We need only open our hearts to Jesus and He will come in.

There is no need to clean up our lives and make ready,

just open our hearts and ask Him in.

Here I am!

I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

Revelation 3:20

Rest and Be Refreshed

I wish I could run outside and snap a picture of our neighborhood,

but Ben is napping and I don't want to leave him alone.

So I snapped this shot from our front door...

As you may know, we moved to a new house in November,

but what you may not know is,

WE ARE LIVING IN A CONSTRUCTION ZONE!!

Our little cottage is surrounded by the construction of new homes,

all in various stages and various noises. This photo just shows one of 6 homes being built

right by our home, and it has been fun to see the process of house-building.

These men have been working day after day,

and they all have a specific job to do.

Some do the initial digging of the hole for the house,

 and others drive the dump trucks to haul it away.

Others ready the earth for the forms, and then they pour the cement

from the cement mixer with the help of Big Red.

(Okay, I am getting into dangerous territory here,

as I really know nothing about the specifics of building a house.

Just pretend I do!!)

Foundations and basements are poured,

walls go up,

and I hear lots and lots of hammering,

trucks,

and

all that goes with this process of labor.

Yes,

it is quite noisy, and yes,

 Lucy our golden retriever really dislikes it,

but that is a story for another time.

Some days, the noise is more than I can take,

but I remind myself that our home went through the same process

and the existing neighbors lived through the noise

of our home being built.

The noise is essential to the 3-month it takes to

build a home that will last a lifetime,

so I am learning patience.

This is how Ben handles it...

This is a bit out of focus,

but I took it from across the room so that I didn't wake him from his nap.

He sleeps,

he swings and sleeps to the rhythm of the swing.

He sleeps,

snuggled in his Snuggly cocoon in his bassinet,

listening to soft lullabies to drown out the outside,

the quiet rhythm of the songs and his breath

lulling him to sleep, not a care in the world.

No loud truck bothers him

no hammer wakes him.

He sleeps in the middle of the construction zone

and he trusts me to take good care of him.

It is like this with God, isn't it?

Our lives are surrounded by the stuff of life,

the noise and the hustle and bustle of carving out a living, raising a family,

driving to work, running to the doctor, mowing the lawn,

running the vacuum, and on and on it goes.

Sometimes the noise and activity are too much,

and we need to retreat to a quiet place,

a place where we can get alone with our thoughts and our prayers

and spend time with the Father who cares for us.

(Heartlight)

"Come with Me by yourselves

to a quiet place

and get some rest."

Mark 6:31

Think on These Things

@ With a Grateful Prayer and a Thankful Heart blog

Faster than a speeding bullet...

Faster than a speeding bullet.

More powerful than a locomotive.

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

(flicker)

No, this isn't one of my grandchildren...

This is a description of our computer now that we have it back after 2 weeks. It had to have a new hard drive, and apparently it had been ailing much longer than we knew. Because it still worked, we didn't realize that some of the problems we were having were from this, but now that it is back, it is like new, and it is SUPER FAST!!

I must say, the 2 weeks has been like a step back in time, a time when, well, we didn't have a computer. It was nice, really, and I read a couple of books I have been meaning to read, reorganized our spices and got caught up on the Walton and Ingall's families. I was able to keep up with the Grands, especially Ben, who I just started watching full time this week.

But I must confess, even if we had our computer these past 2 weeks, I didn't really have anything exciting to post, and I also admit that this post isn't exciting, either, but I just wanted to touch base, say "I'm back" even if you didn't miss me, and I promise to get caught up on the 165 emails I missed, as well as blog and Facebook posts.

I'll leave you with this verse and t-shirt graphic for now, and I'll try to have something more profound to say next time!

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
2 Timothy 1:9-10

 

My Little Valentine

My sweet little Eli came for a visit today, and we made some pretty and yummy Valentine's Day cookies together.

I made the sugar cookie dough before he came, so that it could chill and be ready to roll out after he arrived. He loved helping me cut them out, and we even made a few large heart-shaped cookie pops...

As you can see, Eli's favorite part was decorating the cookies (and eating them, of course!).

I didn't get any other pictures taken, I am sorry to say, but the cookies all turned out fine, and Eli took his home along with a few for big brother Jack, who was in school, no doubt having a wonderful Valentine's Day party in his second grade class. Eli and I also got in a quick trip over to Maya's house, where she and her mommy, Sara, served us beautiful Valentine's Day cupcakes; sorry, no pictures of those, either.

Eli got to have lunch here at home with Grandpa, because Erin and John were having a Valentine's Day lunch out, and now he is home with his family and I am planning on making a nice dinner for Lauren and I to elebrate the day. It has been one of those special days of touching base with family, and I enjoyed my morning with Eli.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Follow on Linky Followers

As you may have heard, the popular Google Friend Connect (“GFC”) is going away March 1st for non-Google blog platforms like WordPress, and the scuttlebutt is that it will be eventually phased out completely to be replaced by Google+. GFC was never really so much an “I follow this blog” tool as it was an attempt at the whole Facebook “friend, like” concept.

Bloggers need a good “follower” tool and one that is not tied to a million other services (seems like Facebook, Twitter and Google are linked to everything else on the Internet). It needs to be simple, fast, easy-to-use and reliable.

Introducing LINKY FOLLOWERS. (www.linkyfollowers.com) Brent Riggs, owner/creator of Linky Tools created this FREE service that a group of mom bloggers tested and helped develop.

The inevitable question: can your GFC followers be automatically moved over? NO. Google won’t allow access to those accounts (the part you need like email addresses) but more importantly, YOU really shouldn’t sign up someone to a new service. They should voluntarily sign up themselves. You’ll need to ask your GFC folks (and all your blog readers) to follow you using Linky Followers but its easy, quick and did I mention, free? They’ll love the tool. It’s a cool way to organize and follow the blogs you love. You can get started by clicking FOLLOW ME over on the right side of this blog where the Linky Followers widget is displayed, or by visiting: www.linkyfollowers.com Hundreds of bloggers a day are signing up. Check it out. You’ll love the tools.