Gifts 606 - 620

Pursuing a heart of thankfulness...

606 - boys breaking out in singing

607 - fun new games to play

608 - creative science experiments

609 - pretty clear skies

610 - painted nails

611 - figuring out new things

612 - open windows

613 - silly kid jokes

614 - watching kids think

615 - good finds at the thrift store

616 - time to pray
617 - first meal on the deck
618 - kitchen timers - otherwise I think most of my food would get burned!
619 - looking through old pictures
620 - shaking dice

James moved into his new "home" on Monday - the kids colored some fun pics for his bare walls
 

 

Benefits of the Law

One of my friends and I are going through Elyse Fitzpatrick's book, Idols of the Heart. In the chapter we reviewed last night, she listed out four benefits of the law. I appreciated her insights and wanted to share them with you...

The law helps me by serving as a tutor - it helps me understand I don't possess any natural goodness - by examining myself against God's perfect law, I see my failings

The law also humbles me and brings me to the end of my self-righteousness - it shows me that I am not worthy of salvation - I have nothing to commend myself before a completely holy God - it strips away my illusions of goodness and helps me see how much I am in need of God's forgiveness

The law teaches me how thankful I am to be for Christ's perfect keeping of it - I am bound to Christ because He kept the law perfectly, then bore the punishment for my law breaking in His body - by this my heart is prompted to overflow with love and obedience - as I compare my lawless life with His perfections, I am overcome with gratitude

The law becomes the standard of righteousness that I seek to obey out of thankfulness - my desire for holiness swells up out of a heart filled with gratitude - the law no longer condemns me because I have been given the perfect record of Christ - as I grasp the truth of my utter dependence on His mercy, the law causes me to see my sin and long for His character in my life - I desire to be holy because I love Him and want to be like Him

from pages 51-52

correction - a couple of days ago I wrote that 400 lightning strikes hit the ground, Dave said it was actually 4000!

a couple more pics from our time in Index
 

 

 

 

 

Rock Climbing in Index

I know I've been a bit negligent with consistent blog-posting for the last many months. In theory, my life is going to calm down a bit this week (no more adventures after tomorrow, going to King Tut), and I'll get things under better control - Dave just laughs when I say this. Anyways, in order to post something, I figured showing pics from our rock climbing adventure on Sat would be good. We are friends with a family whose husband and wife Dave has known since high school. They are wonderful, adventurous sorts of people who enjoy rock climbing and were willing to share that sport with us. Here are some pics of our time in Index, WA which is supposed to be some of the best climbing granite in the state! 

playing around while the route is getting set

Josh, ready to go

Josh at the top

this pic gives you an idea of how far up it was ~30 yards

repelling down

Dave on his ascent

repelling down

Hannah at the beginning

me at the top...I really enjoyed the repelling down

Fun at Sun Mtn

For any of you who don't know, we've been have some bad weather conditions here in Wenatchee. A week and a half ago, we had a storm where, I guess, there were 400 lightening strikes that hit the ground. That created numerous fires around the area, and since we've had little to no wind, the skies have been cloaked with a cloud of smoke. Since that was the case, and Dave has been off, we decided to head out and find some cleaner air. We went over to Sun Mtn and enjoyed some outdoor activities there...

they have the best biking trails
 

 

you can tell how smokey it was there our 1st day, the 2nd day was far better
 

the kids love their game room area
 

Josh had fun making a fort out of all the huge couch pillows
 

Gifts 589 - 605

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

589 - quiet Sunday afternoons

590 - playing Yahtzee

591 - birds in flight

592 - fresh air

593 - the smell of pumpkin bread

594 - heart shaped rocks

595 - bananas on ice cream

596 - picking tomatoes

597 - silly sentences

598 - checking things off the list

599 - thank you notes sent

600 - hand made notes

601 - willing volunteers

602 - soft sheets

603 - bunnies on walks

604 - blue nail polish

605 - chewy cookies

 

 

 

Wenatchee River Road

I wanted to share another bike ride/trail in our lovely Wenatchee area. This one is called Wenatchee River Road and is just about 10 miles outside Leavenworth. If you choose to bike this trail, the first half can be pretty steep - we did a decent amount of walking although I think Dave biked the whole way. You'd definitely need geared bikes in order to make it. The second half is a softer slope downhill mostly on dirt road and ending with a bit of single-track. The single-track is somewhat rutty and not the easiest (in my opinion - I never can get into my toe-clip-things). Josh did it all no problem, Hannah always struggles on any difficult biking stuff. The nice thing is that the way back is pretty easy to bike as the slope is more gradual - I don't think we did any walking then. You could also walk the road/path, but that would obviously take quite a bit longer. 

The majority of the trail is through forest until you get near the end, then it's along the Wenatchee River. You could go all the way to the end of the trail, but we generally just find a nice spot along the river and park ourselves there. It's great to bring a lunch or a snack and then play and eat at your leisure. At this time of year the river was quite low, but last time we went it was quite a bit higher. Kids can easily play along the sides (so bring water shoes), but you need to be careful of the strong current in the middle. As you can see from the pics, it is just a traditionally picturesque Washington river. 

 

 

 

 

A Lesson Learned

Earlier this week I wrote about all the things that had been going on the last week or so, but I didn't really talk about what was probably the most difficult thing. I wasn't sure I wanted to write about this, but maybe it will help some of you, and it's also good for you all to see that I'm not perfect - it is easy to appear a lot more great in a blog than in real life. 

Last week was amazingly challenging for me in my relationship with Dave, maybe even the worst ever - we normally get along fine most all the time. I honestly didn't like him very much, he certainly wasn't doing anything right, and somehow was able to do everything wrong. I didn't even want to be around him at some points. He wasn't meeting my expectations, and I wasn't happy about it! Now, Dave is by no means perfect, but he definitely is not as completely terrible as I was making him out to be in my mind. It is always incredible  to me how the mind can feed upon itself and make small things into huge things. It can go so quickly from he forgot to put his plate in the dishwasher to, boy, he sure doesn't do anything around here (example only). 

Outwardly, I'm sure Dave knew I wasn't happy with him, but I still did what I was supposed to and proceeded through the days grumbling all the while to myself. Clearly outward actions are what really count, right? Of course, I knew better than that and was miserable about my attitudes, but unwilling to let them go. I was happy to ignore the ways I was damaging our relationship - I'm sure it's not fun living with someone who is mad about everything.  

This went on till Friday morning when I woke up early, probably about 4 a.m. I hadn't been sleeping too great that week. Anyways, while I was lying there a thought struck me like a thunderbolt...I recognized that this was a spiritual battle...that Satan would like nothing better than to tear our marriage apart. We are currently in the midst of some relatively big things - organizing the Children's Ministry, working hard on our Gospel Community to be intentionally evangelistic - if Satan could sidetrack us and get us inward focused, attacking each other, then he wouldn't have to worry about us advancing the gospel. We are in a war, it's just not physically evident, but it's much more important than any physical war has been. It's critical that we are on guard against anything that deters us from the goal of bringing God glory. 

That morning after Dave got up I told him about some of the things that had been bothering me. We quickly reconciled and all the anger and frustration just melted away...too bad I hadn't done that back at the beginning. The whole situation made me mindful of how important it is to have clear communication, to take no record of wrongs, and to not give into resentment. We need to be each other's ally, not the enemy. I'm thankful that God granted me the grace to see the harm I was doing before it went much further. I'm also thankful that Dave is so patient with me. 

1 Cor 13:4,5 (partial) Love is patient, love is kind...
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

some cool lightening pics from the storm a couple nights ago
 

 

Satan's Six Arguments

We've been reading the book, You Can Change, in our evening devotions. Yesterday there was a great section on arguments Satan uses to tempt us that were helpful to me. The authors adapted them from John Flavel's work (pgs 129-130).

1. The pleasure of sin

Temptation: Look at my smiling face and listen to my charming voice. Here is pleasure to be enjoyed. Who can stay away from such delights?

The believer: The pleasures of sin are real, but so are the pangs of conscience and the flames of hell. The pleasures of sin are real, but pleasing God is much sweeter.

2. The secrecy of sin

Temptation: This sin will never disgrace you in public because no one will ever find out.

The believer: Can you find somewhere without the presence of God for me to sin?

3. The profit of sin

Temptation: If you just stretch your conscience a little, you'll gain so much. This is your opportunity.

The believer: What do I benefit if I gain the whole world but lose my own soul? I won't risk my soul for all the good in the world.

4. The smallness of sin

Temptation: It's only a little thing, a small matter, a trifle. Who else would worry about such a trivial thing?

The believer: Is the majesty of heaven a small matter too? If I commit this sin, I will offend and wrong a great God. Is there any little hell to torment little sinners? Great wrath awaits those the world thinks are little sinners. The less the sin, the less the reason to commit. it! Why should I be unfaithful toward God for such a trifle?

5. The grace of God

Temptation: God will pass over this as a weakness. He won't make a big deal of it.

The believer: Where do I find a promise of mercy to presumptuous sinners? How can I abuse such a good God? Shall I take God's glorious mercy and make it a reason to sin? Shall I wrong him because He's good?

6. The example of others

Temptation: Better people than you have sinned in this way. And plenty of people have been restored after committing this sin.

The believer: God didn't record examples of good people sinning for me to copy, but to warn me. Am I willing to feel what they felt for sin? I dare not follow their example in case God plunges me into the deeps of horror into which He cast them. 

The deck is almost done!!! Brandon has done an excellent job!!!
 

 

 

Life Update

It sure seems like a lot has been going on around here, so I figured I would update all of you. :)

GCC Retreat - last weekend we had an all church retreat out in Cedar Springs by Lake Stevens. It was lots of fun and particularly great to spend some time getting to know many people we had not met before or had not really talked with too much. There were a handful of teaching sessions and our church service on Sunday. During free time, the camp had a zip line, go carts, laser tag, giant swing, and other crazy things to do. I must admit that I only did the go carts, but Dave did all of them. :)

James returned - on Tuesday he arrived back in Wenatchee after being gone not quite 3 months. He's been adjusting quite well and will begin college on the 24th. We called to get him in at the dorms and found out all the rooms were full. Thankfully, they had a number for a room for rent that ended up working out. It's only a couple of blocks away from the school. I actually think that will be much better both with not having so much potentially bad influence from other dorm mates, but just living in a home is nicer. 

My aunt and uncle are visiting - My dad's sister and her husband are out from CT, and we've been enjoying spending time with them this past week. Today we had a most lovely day up at the lake playing lots of games and going out on the boat. Lots of laughing and fun. 

Gospel Community Groups - two Sundays ago was the last meeting with our five-family group. We birthed into another group and added a new family. On Wed we had a good conversation about where can intentionally spread the gospel. There were lots of ideas discussed and it's likely we will do a combination of a few of them...some as families, maybe some as wives/husbands and some more service oriented. Right now we're praying about how to proceed and should decide within the next couple of weeks. 

School - hasn't really happened! I've decided to start in October. :) But really, with so much going on it's been a pretty dismal start. We actually went on another lovely bike ride on Thursday, and Dave said to the kids, "You don't know how great you have it!" James quickly agreed. (I'll blog about that outing later.) We've squeezed in a couple of math pages, handwriting, and spelling but not much else. Hopefully next week things will get going. 

And, right now, I'm watching a cool lightening storm. I even got a couple of pics earlier on that I'll post some other time. For now, here are some more pics of our beautiful Wallace Falls hike.