“Remembering our heroes, the guarantors of our freedom, does not in any way more hallow their service or sacrifice; it does not in any way magnify the significance of their accomplishments in the protection and preservation of our liberties; it does not add to their valor, their honor, or their eternal reward; rather the great benefit of memorializing our American heroes is in the hope settled in our own hearts, the resolve established in our own souls, and the steadfastness confirmed in our own lives: when we remember who they were and what they have done for us all, only then will we be capable of laying hold of our hope and attending to our responsibilities as the trustees of freedom’s future; we look to the heroes of yesterday in order to insure that there will be heroes tomorrow.” ~Theodore Roosevelt

When Darkness Comes

I know that God runs everything. I know that all that happens to me or my family runs through the protective care of His Sovereign fingers. I know that all those things, good and challenging, are for my good and for His glory.

Sometimes though, when those seemingly sad things happen I can despair and forget my hope. I want Him to remove them NOW! I try to figure what I've done wrong, so I can make it right...cuz then maybe the bad will go away.

In the providence of His good will, I have been learning something new. Waiting on our good God to bring us through trials is at times exactly what we are to do. Sometimes, it is not His desire to "take them away". There are times when the darkness is just going to linger. This does not mean we are to give up, but to expectantly wait on His deliverance while we continue to obey His word.

David's Psalm 40:1-3 say he "waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord."

So, it seems to me I should cry out to God and then I wait patiently for Him.

"We fight for joy. But we fight as those who are saved by grace and held by Christ." John Piper

Give to the winds thy fears,

Hope and be undismayed.

God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears,

God shall lift up thy head.

Through waves and clouds and storms,

He gently clears thy way;

Wait tho His time; so shall this night

Soon end in joyous day.

Far, far above thy thought,

His counsel shall appear,

When fully He the work hath wrought,

That caused thy needless fear.

Leave to His sovereign sway

To choose and to command;

So shalt thou, wondering, own that way,

How wise, how strong this hand.

Paul Gerhardt 1656

My Magic Dust

The past two weeks, my mom and I have spent all our time cleaning the house. Of course, cleaning is a never ending project, but we really went through and deep cleaned every room. It was a second wave of our "moving-in" process. We actually finished this endeavor on Wednesday, took yesterday off, and touched up today. Tomorrow, we are having some new friends over and will hopefully be able to bless them with a clean, scorpion free, spider free, not so furnished home. We are really looking forward to it.

Through the endeavor of cleaning a big house, I have come to rely a lot on google. It's silly maybe, but you can find so much stuff on there! Really, you can. Cleaning product staples in our home have been bleach, vinegar, simple green, and Windex. However, I discovered (or re-discovered) through google articles another cleaning product that we rarely use. I have never thought that baking soda was that great of a thing, except in chocolate chip cookies. However, I have come to realize that it takes smells out of sinks, used couches with old musty smells, carpet with cat nastiness etc. It's really quite a wonder. It also cleans a pan right up if you bring some water and a handful of baking powder to a rolling boil. My mom (Lisa) decided that it was like a magic dust for me. I throw it into the dishwasher, into dirty pots, onto smelly carpets, and anywhere else I feel that it might just do some good. I even used it to clean off that really nasty sticky grease stuff that collects on top of cupboards. Voila! Everything is like new again! So, if you're like I was, and thought that baking soda was an old cleaner and really doesn't work, give it up. It's absolutely amazing!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day Mommy!

I love you sooooooo much!

Thank you for
Making us breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Folding 5-15 loads of laundry for us each week!
Teaching us school
Cleaning up our house
Reminding us to take our shoes off at the door
Washing our sheets
Giving tons of kisses and hugs
Sewing our duvet covers
Reading us books
Mopping the floor
Unpacking zillions of boxes and making all of our "junk" into a beautiful home!
Modeling a God fearing woman for all of us to look up to and copy

NEXT 2009

Hey there everyone! I have been thinking and thinking and thinking this last week trying to come up with something to blog about. I know, that's really lame, but seriously, I couldn't think of anything. Moving into a new house is exciting for us, but does not create much exciting conversation for those outside the house. We have been painting and getting rust off of some metal yard furniture for the past two weeks. Not exactly the most interesting thing for me to blog about unless you too are trying to get rust off of metal furniture. Anyway, I finally figured out something to write about. 2 things actually :) Only one today though.



Josh Harris is a preacher at Covenant Life Church in Maryland. If you've never heard of him, you may recognize his popular book's title I Kissed Dating Goodbye. It's a fantastic book. All about why Christians should not give their heart away to a boy or girl before they get married to them. It's just great. Anyway, Josh Harris' church puts on a conference every year called NEXT. You can see all about it at www.thisisnext.org . Although I have never been to this conference, it looks really good. According to the site, "Next isn't built on 'new.' It isn't about the next trend or fad. Next is built on the old, treasured, and true. It's about rediscovering old truth and recommitting to it." What I have learned about this church and its ministries is that they work hard to teach and practice biblical doctrines. They do not follow the fads of "common christianity" today, but learn from great Christians of history. The important thing is unity between brothers and sisters in Christ to live their lives to glorify God.

Another one of my favorite preachers C. J. Mahaney preaches there. There are other great preachers too that you can read about at the website. Last year I was bummed that I couldn't go (reason being that I live far away from Maryland, have no money, transportation, or place to stay), so I instead had a great time listening to many of the sermons from the conference. All of them that I listend to were so encouraging and challenging. So if you are looking for some good sermons by some good pastors with firm doctrine, check out some of these sermons from last year and the new ones that will come out this year. They are made available on their website underneath "resources."

Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!