This N That

 Back again :)

Denver and Sophie got engaged recently...

Marnie made all the amazing cakes!!

the wedding is in January :)

And last week I met up with my Mennonite friend Stephanie in Deloraine.  She and her family are moving back to the USA (Georgia) after 10 years with the Mennonite church here.  We didn't get to see each other very often, but I will miss knowing she is 'just down the road'...

I gave her my Deloraine Blanket ('colours of nature') that I'd been working on for a while and recently finished...

And I've bought more yarn to make another one for myself...

It will be a link for us both, to Deloraine, and each other :)

Haven't had a lot of time for charity knitting, but got some fingerless gloved finished recently and sent off to a charity in the south of the state...

And packed 2 shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, for a boy and a girl in the 5-9 age group...

Forgot to take an 'unpacked' photo of all the goodies that went into the boxes before I delivered them to church for collection, but this is what was on the top layer...

there is stationery and toiletries underneath

A couple of new book acquisitions...

I plan on making a few changes to the blog next year.  At the moment I'm not finding enough time to get Weekend Words done each week AND an update blog on my doings, so next year I want to balance it out a bit more, which might mean I don't always get a Weekend Words post done (or it might be a bit shorter, which is what I'm transitioning to over the next couple of months), but hopefully I can update you more on what is happening here.  Anyway, that's the plan, will see how it eventuates :)

And remember...

xx

Weekend Words

 From Water My Soul...

Rest

Read: Leviticus 25:1-5; Matthew 11:28-30; Hebrews 4:1-11

When I found myself standing in the middle of the living room wondering why I was there and what I was looking for, I suddenly understood my mum so much better.

As a girl, I didn't know how it was possible to forget what you were seeking before you got to the next room.  When it happened to Mum sometimes, I'd think, "She must be aging remarkably fast."  I couldn't believe it might happen to me someday.

I didn't realize it at the time, but the years of our youth inhabit a very small length of time.  Every additional year of life adds more responsibilities, bills, names, acquaintances, work, repairs, things needing your attention.  There's so much more to do, so much more to remember, and so many more people making demands on your time.  Life can become a whirlwind of haste.  No wonder a middle-aged brain blows a fuse occasionally and forgets what it was supposed to remember.

God knew we needed rest.  A night's sleep to recharge our batteries between the days.  A day of rest and worship to begin each week.  In the Old Testament, even every seventh year was set aside to be a year of rest for the land (see Leviticus 25).  It seems to me that God never intended us to charge at life as if we had to get it before it gets us.  He planned for us to have decent intervals of rest and rejuvenation.

"Come unto me," Jesus invites, "and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;...and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:28-29).  Here Jesus twice promises rest if we'll only come to him, give him our sins and burdens, and learn to abide in him.  He wants us to slow down, to make room for him, and to understand that a life lived too fast loses much of its peace. 

An anonymous writer penned these words: "Returning to solitude, that meadowland for hearts, allows fruit to be borne, for fields left fallow to rest, yield richest harvest."

That was why God created a day of rest, a year of Sabbath, and night for repose.  If we don't take time for rest and refreshment, if we burn out completely, the harvest will suffer.  We won't just stand in the middle of the room wondering what we're doing there; we'll neglect to care for our souls and the souls of our children.

In a world full of increasing chaos and turmoil, the balance of rest can be hard to find.  Some seasons of life are incredibly wearying, and rest seems illusory.  Minds and bodies are stretched thin, the responsibilities of family, mortgage, and business as well as home and church and school are a daily juggling act.  Then the promise in Hebrews becomes especially beloved: " There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (4:9).

Hebrews 4 is a challenge to enter into God's rest, and it sums up what should be the reason for all our work: "Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest" (verse 11).  If rest seems fleeting and illusory here, and our brains are stressed out by trying to keep up with the demands placed upon them, that verse puts everything back into it's proper perspective.

Our most important job is work that takes us closer to heaven, God's peaceful, stress-free home.  He has created eternal rest for all is people.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for the rest you've promised.  When life feels out of control today, remind me that some things can wait but that spending time with you and caring for my family can't.

Weekend Words

 From Be Still and Know...

"Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations?  Then be happy, for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow (James 1:2-3 LB).

Today the world is full of people with lives full of trials.  Our attitude and approach to trials has an important effect on our reaction to them.  We can let them become problems, or we can let them become triumphs by lifting our sights above them to the Lord who is in complete control of them.

Christians can expect the PRESENCE of trials in their lives.  They are not exempt.  "Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7).  We would prefer another method than trials but we have no right to question God's method.

The presence of trials is a part of the refinishing and developing process of bringing us to a place of spiritual maturity.  This should be our goal - reaching out to a life of maturity in the Lord.

Christians throughout the Roman Empire were noted for the joyful way they met problems.  Paul is a good example.  He and Silas could sing praises to God at midnight in prison.

But God's Word assures us that in the midst of our trials joy can be real.  "Is your life full of difficulties and temptations?  Then be happy."  The important thing is how we react to trials.  As they come, count them one by one, and count them with JOY, not joy for them, but joy in the midst of them.  We think it is joy when we escape trial, but not so in God's plan.  As we accept and count them all joy, we mature and grow in patience as we learn the needed lessons.  Adversity is a great teacher.

Our reaction to trials reveals the level of our maturity.  What is our reaction when we are criticized?  Our feelings are hurt?  When lonely, discouraged, or disappointed?

If we are growing, can we COUNT our testings with joy?  We may not always be joyful, nor enjoy our trouble, but we can count it with joy.

From Oasis of Hope...

God's Consolation

"When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul." - Psalm 94:19 NASB

As you go about your day, do you ever worry over a problem?  Perhaps it's how you're going to pay a certain bill.  Maybe a situation at work or with a coworker causes you concern.  One thought leads to another, then another.  Soon your mind becomes an anxious mess.

It's so easy to get into that cycle.  God doesn't want us to live that way.  Anxiety doesn't come from Him.  We make it worse by worrying instead of asking God for help.

Frequently, the issues we are distressed about are outside of our ability to manage anyway.  By allowing anxiety to grow we think we can gain control of the situation, and we don't want to give it up.

God wants to help us.  He's waiting for us to ask Him.  He will relieve the burden on our minds.  He can be trusted to take care of our needs.  He longs to comfort and console us as a human parent would.  When we hand over control, our minds can be freed of anxiety, and this will delight our souls.  It is such a relief to let it all go and trust God to handle all our concerns.

Releasing the need to control and acknowledging God's power over all things, we can learn to trust Him with the things that cause anxiety.  What is weighing heavily on your mind today?  Is worrying about it going to help?

God wants to lighten your burden.  Take your concerns to God in prayer and leave them there.  He will give you peace and console your mind.  Sit back and watch what God will do.

- Julie Wilson Smith

Weekend Words

 From Behold the Lilies...

"Man's goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?" - Proverbs 20:24

"Do all things without murmurings and disputings." - Philippians 2:14

The view of my home from the top of the hill was different.  Instead of looking horizontally at the house and barn, I looked down on them.  Instead of seeing only patches and spots, I saw the whole place.  I had a distant, encompassing view rather than a close-up view.  How refreshing it all was.

Another time I had the privilege of looking down on thousands of treetops.  The sight was completely different from that of looking up through the branches and leaves of a tree.  I was humbled and awestruck as I gazed at the swaying sea of green.  It impressed me to realize that God sees each individual leaf among the millions of leaves below me.  Then I thought of how He also sees me and cares for me.

The view from above is different.  It takes in the whole plan, the complete layout.  The view from below sees only patches and spots.  The narrow view from below allows us only to look at things, while the wide view from above allows us to look on them.

You may wonder why the Lord had brought you to a certain place or put you in your circumstances.  You may have struggles you cannot understand.  God has a perfect layout, an overall plan into which you fit.  He does not expect you to understand everything, because you do not have the view He does.  But He expects you to trust His view and plan.  He reveals enough of His plan in the Scriptures to give you a refreshing view even though you do not have the same lofty position that He does.  Then someday, if you keep trusting, you too will see things from a heavenly point of view - and you will see that His plan was perfect.

From In Green Pastures...

A Lamp for the Footpath

God's Word as a guiding light is a lamp unto our feet, not a sun flooding a hemisphere.  It is not meant to shine upon miles of road, but in the darkest night it will always show us the one next step; then when we have taken that, carrying the lamp forward, it will show us another step, and thus on till it brings us out into the full, clear sunlight of coming day.  It is a lamp, and it is designed to lighten only little steps, one by one.  We need to learn well the lesson of patience if we would have God guide us.  He does not lead us rapidly.  Sometimes we must go very slowly if we wait for him.  Only pace by pace does he take us, and unless we wait, we must go in darkness.  But if we wait for him, it will always be light for one step.

Weekend Words

From Our Daily Bread...

Artist: Abbot Fuller Graves - American painter (1859 - 1936)

Love Beyond Boundaries - Read Psalm 103:8-17

"So great is his love for those who fear him." - Psalm 103:11

"God has been so good to us!  I want to thank Him for our anniversary."  Terry's voice was steady, and the tears in her eyes showed her sincerity.  Those in our small group were deeply moved.  We knew what past years had held for Terry and her husband.  Though a believer, Robert suffered from the sudden onset of severe mental illness and had taken the life of their four-year-old daughter.  He would be institutionalized for decades, but Terry visited him, and God did a beautiful healing work, helping her forgive.  Despite profound heartache, their love for each other grew.  

Love and forgiveness like that could only come from one source.  David writes about God this way, "He does not treat us as our sins deserve ... As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:10, 12).

The mercy God shows us comes through His expansive love: "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love" for us (v.11).  Love so profound compelled Hm to go to the depths of the cross and grave to take away our sins so that He could bring all who "receive him" (John 1:12) home to Himself.

Terry was right.  "God has been so good to us!"  His love and forgiveness reach beyond unthinkable boundaries and offer us life that never ends.

- James Banks

From In Green Pastures...

Artist: William Kay Blacklock - British painter (1872 - 1924)

Serving Christ in His People.

When we lay our lives at Christ's feet in consecration, and tell him that we want to serve him with them, he gives them back to us again, and bids us use them in serving his people, our fellow-men.  In the humblest and the lowliest of those who bear Christ's image Christ himself comes to us.  We do not know when he stands before us in a lowly one who needs our sympathy or our help.  It would be a sad thing if we turned him away unfed from our doors some day, or neglected to visit him in his sickness.  Let us not say we love Christ if we are not ready to serve those whom he sends to us to be served.

Weekend Words

 From Be Still and Know...

"The joy of the Lord is your strength." - Nehemiah 8:10

Many physical fitness programs have been developed to produce strong bodies.  There are programs for developing strong muscles, programs for exercise and diet, programs for taking a series of vitamins and minerals.  This is done to increase the strength and energy needed for each day.

In God's Word we are given a prescription for increasing our strength.  One ingredient of this prescription is joy; and inner joy produced by the Spirit of God.

Nehemiah and his people were observing the Feast of Tabernacles.  As the law was read the people began to weep over their sins.  But Nehemiah and Ezra said, "This day is holy to our Lord, and be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold" (Nehemiah 8:10, Amplified).

Nehemiah encouraged them to rejoice in the Lord as they read the Word.

There is a special inner joy that overflows from the heart.  It shines from the eyes.  It gives special beauty to the lives of people.  The secret of this joy is the Lord, for He is the source of the joy.

When we have the joy of the Lord we are strong in the midst of trials and tensions, fears and frustrations of life.  Joy gives strength to our bodies and spirit.

The Amplified Bible reads, "Strength and stronghold."  He who trusts and rejoices in the Lord has a strong fortress in which he is safe.  The joy of the Lord transforms our weakness into His strength.  It is not every joy that brings strength, but the joy of the Lord.  His joy is the joy of salvation, the joy of a yielded will, the joy of fellowship with Him, the joy of His steadfast love.

Do we know that inner joy that brings strength because we spend time with Him who is its source?

Someone has said, "The oil of gladness reduces friction and eases the wear and tear of living."

A joyful heart gives a joyful face.

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine" (Proverbs 17:22).

From Behold the Lilies...

"And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.  And all the people saw him walking and praising God." - Acts 3:8-9

Did this man overdo it with his thanksgiving?  He had something to be thankful for, and he was not ashamed to let others know about it.  In his gratefulness, he probably even forgot that there were onlookers.

Can those around us tell by our lives that we appreciate what Christ has done for us?  Do we express our thanks to God?  Or are we like the nine lepers who, although glad to be healed, forgot to say, "Thankyou"?

Do we dwell upon God's benefits to us, or do we think negatively?  Do we lift our hearts in praise, or are we prone to discontentment?  Our circumstances do not determine whether we rejoice or not.  As the saying goes, "If Christians do not rejoice, it is because they do not live up to their privileges."  May it be our common experience to give thanks in everything.

Be of Good Cheer - There's Nothing to Fear

Cheerful thoughts like sunbeams lighten up the darkest fears,

For when the heart is happy there's no time for tears...,

For the nature of our attitudes towards circumstantial things

Determines our acceptance of the problems that life brings.

And since fear and dread and worry cannot help in any way,

It's much healthier and happier to be cheerful every day.

And if you'll only try it, you will find, without a doubt,

A cheerful attitude's something no one should be without,

For when the heart is cheerful, it cannot be filled with fear,

And without fear, the way ahead seems more distinct and clear,

And we realize there's nothing that we must face alone,

For our heavenly Father loves us, and our problems are His own.

- Helen Steiner Rice

Weekend Words

From Our Daily Bread...

Retrieval Practice: Read Exodus 20:8-11

"Remember the Sabbath day." - Exodus 20:8

Have you ever been in the middle of telling a story and then stopped, stuck on a detail like a name or date you couldn't recall?  We often chalk it up to age, believing that memory fades with time.  But recent studies no longer support that view.  In fact, they indicate our memory isn't the problem; it's our ability to retrieve those memories.  Without a regular rehearsal of some kind, memories become harder to access.

One of the ways to improve that retrieval ability is by regularly scheduled actions or experiences of recalling a certain memory.  Our Creator God knew this, so He instructed the children of Israel to set aside one day a week for worship and rest. In addition to the physical rest that comes from such a respite, we gain an opportunity for mental training, to recall that "in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them" (Exodus 20:11).  It helps us to remember there is a God, and it's not us.

In the rush of our lives, we sometimes lose our grip on the memories of what God has done for us and others.  We forget who keeps close watch over our lives and who promises His presence when we feel overwhelmed and alone.  A break from our routine provides an opportunity for that needed "retrieval practice" - an intentional decision to stop and remember our God and "forget not all his benefits" (Psalm 103:2)

- John Blase

From Oasis of Hope...

Rest and Be Restored

"And He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest awhile." (Mark 6:31a NASB)

"Rest awhile."

You might be saying, "Yeah, right!  Have you seen my life?"

Life has gotten so fast-paced and chaotic.  Everywhere we turn, often at all hours of the day, something or someone is competing for our attention.  Television, computers, smartphones, text messages, email, and social media clamor at us continually.  Our spouses, children, friends, and co-workers have legitimate needs we have to fill.  Where in our hectic, busy lives can we rest awhile?

When Jesus told His disciples to get away by themselves to a secluded place and rest, they had just returned from a busy time of sharing the message of Jesus.  They brought the sad news of John the Baptist's tragic death.  Especially in times of stress and grief, we need to intentionally seek out time alone with the Lord.  If there is something specific causing us unease, we need to leave it for a time so we can be restored and ready to deal with it once again.

Jesus knows of our need for physical, emotional, and spiritual rest.  Being human Himself while on earth, He had the same needs for rest as we have.  Jesus often intentionally went away to spend time alone with God the Father.  By example, He taught us how to live a healthy life of abundance.  Part of doing that included drawing away for rest when He needed it.  He showed us we are not being selfish to care for ourselves in undisturbed rest with Him.  In resting at the feet of Jesus, our souls can be refreshed.  By taking time away from the busyness of life, we are better equipped to deal with it when we return because we are refreshed.

Take some time today, if possible, to intentionally get alone with the Lord and rest in His presence. 

- Jodine Zeitler

"We observe the Sabbath best when we use it for both rest and worship." - Billy Graham