Unrealized Blessings

Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed or those we enjoy now. 
~A.W. Tozer

Gratitude

Sweet is the breath of vernal shower,
The bee's collected treasures sweet,
Sweet music's melting full, but sweeter yet
The still small voice of gratitude.

Thomas Gray

Grandma .M. inherited this old table to which many memories and leaves have been added, readied to be laden with a bounty and surrounded by dear ones. Cranberries float in a pool of water within the footed vases each centered with a votive. Bittersweet and dried wildflowers make up the centerpiece. Candles are ready to be lighted in the eighteenth century chandelier. Sprigs of bittersweet brighten each place setting, with Grandmother's embroidered napkins. Back to baking . . .

Wishing You and Yours a Blessed Thankfulness

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore

Words: , cir­ca 1636 (Nun dank­et al­le Gott); first appeared in Prax­is Pi­e­ta­tis Mel­i­ca, by Jo­hann Crü­ger (Ber­lin, Ger­ma­ny: 1647); trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by , 1856.

Photography by B. W Lowery

Giving Thanks

For the hay and the corn and the wheat that is reaped,
For the labor well done, and the barns that are heaped,
For the sun and the dew and the sweet honeycomb,
For the rose and the song and the harvest brought home --
Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving!

For the trade and the skill and the wealth in our land,
For the cunning and strength of the working man's hand,
For the good that our artists and poets have taught,
For the friendship that hope and affection have brought --
Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving!

For the homes that with purest affection are blest,
For the season of plenty and well-deserved rest,
For our country extending from sea unto sea;
The land that is known as the "Land of the Free" --
Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving!

~Author Unknown

It's That Time Again!

When all the leaves are off the boughs,
And nuts and apples gathered in,
And corn stalks waiting for the cows,
And pumpkins safe in barn and bin,
Then Mother says, "My children dear,
The fields are brown, and autumn flies;
Thanksgiving Day is very near,
And we must make thanksgiving pies!"

Make Today Beautiful

"Teach us to number our days aright--that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12

We so number our days aright, when we give to each one as it passes, its own measure of faithfulness. Our days come to us 'one by one'. God breaks up His great years, into 'little sections' for us--that we may be able to get along with our work, our burdens, and our struggles. Take the 'single days' as they come to you. He who has learned this secret--has gained a heart of wisdom.

Take the 'one little day', and . . .
do all its duties faithfully;
seize its opportunities;
endure its trials;
meet its temptations victoriously;
bear its burdens;
receive its blessings;
miss not its privileges;
do all the kindness you can;
make it a beautiful day.

Anyone can live 'one single day' sweetly and victoriously. Make today beautiful. Then do the same with tomorrow, and with the next day--and so on, to the end of your life! Thus you will 'number your days' in a way that will make each one profitable. Thus you will write on each day's page--a record of which you will not be ashamed, when it is spread before you on the judgment day.

Our morning prayer each day should be, "Lord, teach me to number my days!"

~J. R. Miller

A Weekly Journal #2

Outlook today...
The sky is still a deep, dark blue as I arise to write, with a glimmer of light in the east lighting the sky. I sip Sweet Maria's Classic Espresso Blend of our freshly roasted coffee, feeling thankful - as I look forward to celebrating and giving thanks to God for His many, many, MANY blessings!

On my mind today...
Those MANY blessings that I count instead of sheep!

Biggest challenge in the coming week...
Getting the gardens "put to bed for the winter" before the snow flies! There is still much I hope to do to ease the workload in spring.

Blessings from the past week...
A molar broke just before we left on our two week road trip to Key West and back. . I was only eating rice! Dunno! First toothache ever. Anyway, my dentist removed the broken portion, put in a temporary filling, set up an appointment with the oral surgeon upon my return. It is beyond his expertise. He said an infection is likely so I am thankful that hasn't happened so far. I will have dental surgery next week to remove the rest and start a bone graft.

What's cooking in my kitchen...
Not much yet but made the Minestrone Soup (recipe in last week's journal) and plan to serve that for our supper this evening. SO good and healthy too! Today I will shop for the holiday feasts and start preparations tomorrow
This is our menu:

Turkey with Cranberry-Pecan Stuffing
Oyster Stuffing
Mashed potatoes with roasted garlic (home grown)
Gravy
Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows/pecans
Corn (home grown)
Butternut Squash (home grown)
Winter Vegetable casserole (mostly home grown)
Fruit Salad (with melon, grapes, blueberries, pineapple, mandarin oranges garnished with fresh mint)
Cranberry sauce (mother-in-law's old recipe)
Homemade Rolls (mother-in-law's old recipe)
Pickles (homemade), olives
Fresh mozzarella (homemade by son-in-law!)

Freshly roasted Coffee
Herb Teas

Mince meat pie
Apple pie
Pumpkin pie (home grown)
Ice cream

Our youngest daughter will prepare the turkey and stuffing. Our oldest daughter does the winter vegetable casserole for the vegetarians among us. Both entres are extraordinary! A few other things may be added to the menu. The day promises to be very special! I am excited!

Appearance today...
Tan straight skirt with Privos ballet style sport shoes, tights, jewel neck long sleeved cotton ribbed sweater, tan lace scarf, gold locket and earrings, hair as usual although about six inches shorter (mid back length) making it easier to manage. Haven't been to a hairdresser in over thirty years. My beloved trims my hair, gingerly because he wants it long.

Exercise goals for the week...
Most of it comes from managing this spacious old home and many gardens leaving little energy or time. If I need more exercise, there is always more work to do!.

Reading this week…
My beloved Bible

Home making tasks this week...
This week will be busy with Thanksgiving day preparations and our youngest daughter's birthday brunch.

Something new I want to try...
Hope to create a new center piece for our dining room table using Bittersweet and whatever else strikes my fancy when I go agathering. Also should add some to the front door baskets. Closer to Christmas, I will add evergreen and holly.

My week is looking...
Very busy!

Creative projects I'm working on...
Didn't get the new warp on the small Schacht loom ye but working on a pair of lavender blue wool mittens. Ripped out the scarf I'd started as the pattern did not do justice to the beauty of the yarn.

For devotions...
Have been rereading, studying and meditating on the end times passages in Jeremiah.

God has been teaching me...
To be still . . . and obey. "He must increase, but I decrease." (John 3:30)

A simple pleasure...
Watching Max (our cat) wash!

A picture to share…
This another view from the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway. Breathtakingly beautiful!

The Humble Life

Verily, I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; not withstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. (Mt. 11:11)

"Human estimates of greatness are ofttimes defective, sometimes false. Men see only the outward appearance.

Many people are not as great--as they seem to be. They practice tricks which deceive the world. They pass for great--while in reality, they are very small in character. Strip off their gaudy tinsel--and but little would be left.

Other people, however, are greater than they seem. They lack the popular qualities which attract attention and win applause. Yet they are great in their souls, great in spiritual graces, in heart-purity, in the elements of true manhood, in moral strength.

But there is an Eye that sees all things as they are! It pierces all thin disguises, and penetrates to the core of things! It discerns the poor shriveled soul--which is hidden beneath the external glitter. On the other hand, it sees in the humble life, which gets but little praise of men, whose outer form is homely and plain--the true worth, the qualities of holy character.

It is well that we sometimes stop to think--how we appear to God, what God thinks of us. One says, "There is some things in every man's heart, which, if we could know--would make us hate him!" Perhaps this is true; but it is true also that there is something in every Christian, in even the most repulsive, which, if we could know, would make us love him.

As God sees us, we are both worse and better than we seem to any other eyes in all the world. He sees the hidden faults and the secret stains; but He also sees the feeble yearnings which at length will be splendid spiritual qualities. I love to think of this side of the lives of my fellows--not the poor stained fragments of being which my eyes now see--but what they will be when God's work of grace in them is finished!"

~J. R. Miller "Life's Byways and Waysides"
~The Spinning Wheel by G. B. Torriglia

Amen!

"We had low clouds and kind of a misty sprinkling.

I love all clouds and felt surrounded, sort of like a hug from God.

It's truly been a blessed day."

~Charlene Sidorvich

Cares Transformed

"For the Christian, all of life's conditions and circumstances are transformed.

Take the matter of CARE. Every life has 'cares'. There are cares in business. There are cares in home-life. There are cares of poverty--but no less has the rich man his cares. Childhood has its anxieties; young faces sometimes appear careworn. No one can escape care!

To many people--life is very hard. But Christian faith transfigures care, for those who are Christ's and have learned how to live as He teaches us to live. He tells us not to worry about anything, because our Father is caring for us. He tells us that life is a school, and that all our cares are parts of lessons which He has set for us. That means that every care has hidden in it--a secret of blessing--a gift of love which our Father has sent to us. Every time you come to a hard point in your life--an obstacle, a difficulty, a perplexity--God is giving you a new opportunity to grow stronger, wiser, or richer-hearted.

We try to make life easy for our children--but God is wiser than we are. He wants His children to have struggles--that they may grow strong, holy and noble!

Thus it is that common care is transfigured by the grace of Christ! It enfolds blessings for us. It carries in its 'dreary form' secrets of blessing for us. Even our 'drudgeries' have blessings in their wearisome routine; we get many of our best lessons out of them.

All we need to learn is how to meet our worries, and they are transfigured for us! Paul tells us in a wonderful passage how to get this transformation of care: "Do not worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7. God's peace will then shine through all life's frets. Thus care is transfigured, by the love of Christ in the heart."

J..R.. Miller "Life's Byways and Waysides"
Painting: Camille Pissaro "Woodburning"

To Everything There is a Season

"How silently they tumble down
And come to rest upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,
Content to sleep, their work well done,
Colors gleaming in the sun.
At other times, they wildly fly
Until they nearly reach the sky.
Twisting, turning through the air
Till all the trees stand stark and bare.
Exhausted, drop to earth below
To wait, like children, for the snow." -

Elsie N. Brady, Leaves
Photo: November in the Blue Ridge Mountains

The Duties in Friendship

"It is very sure that merely worldly ease and comfort are not the best things we can seek for our friends. It is natural that we should want to shield them from hardship, burden-bearing, and sorrow. But in the very tenderness of our love, we may rob them of the best possibilities of their lives.

When God would bless us most largely in a spiritual way—he does not give us all ease and luxury. He knows that the room must be darkened sometimes, if we are to learn to sing the new, sweet song; and that before we will accept heavenly good things, it may be necessary that our hands shall be emptied of absorbing earthly things.

One of the first duties of friendship is prayer. Perhaps most of us do pray for those we love when they are sick or in great trouble. But what do we ask for them then? Probably we pray that they may recover from their sickness, or be comforted in their trouble. But are these love's best intercessions?

When our friends are sick, it is right for us to pray that they may get well—but that should not be our only request for them. The sickness has a mission from God—something it was sent to do in them and for them. It would be a great misfortune, therefore, if they should recover from their illness, and get out into the busy world again, and miss receiving the blessing which the illness was commissioned to bear to them. While then we pray for the curing of our friends, that they may return to their duties—we should also ask that the will of God in their sickness may be done in them!

Then if we pray for our friends who are in sorrow, what should we ask for them? The sorrow also comes as God's messenger, bringing gifts of love. The best blessings of life lie beyond experiences of pain—and we cannot get the blessings, without passing through the experiences. We should plead that our friends may not miss receiving the gifts which the messenger, sorrow, holds in his hands for them. It would be very sad if pain or grief should come into a life and pass—leaving no blessing, no enriching.

But not only when they are sick or in sorrow should we pray for our friends—they probably need our prayers far more—when they are in health and joy and prosperity! "When you see me growing rich," wrote a good man to a friend, "pray for my soul!" We may all say to those who love us and watch over our lives, "When I am very happy and very prosperous, and when all things are bringing me joy—pray for me!"

So we should never fail to pray for our friends, to beseech of God the best things for their lives. Their greatest danger is not sickness, nor bereavement, nor loss of money, nor pain—but, lest they forget God. Thus should we exalt the aims and goals of our friendships. It is not enough to seek to give pleasure to those we love, to make them happier; we should endeavor also to impart to them enduring good.

And not only to our personal friends should we seek thus to do good—but to all whose lives we touch. Everyone who meets us should be the better for it, taking from us some inspiration and uplifting. We are debtors to all men—we owe love and love's service to everyone. God sends us to carry blessing to each person we meet. It may be a lowly one who stands before us tomorrow, one who is unworthy, one who has sinned; it may be an enemy, one who yesterday wronged us, spoke bitter things of us, tried to injure us. This does not matter. We are sent from God with something for this very person, whoever or whatever he may be.

The love of Christ in us says to this man, "I long to impart unto you some spiritual gift!" We dare not refuse this ministry of love to any being under heaven. Then we do not know how sorely he needs us, how hungry he is for love, in how great peril he is this very moment—sent to us perhaps as a refuge, that we may be the bosom of Christ to him, that he may be saved by a word, a look, a kindness, a prayer, of ours."

~J. R. Miller
~Family Treasures by Barbara Mock.

Suffering

Ever feel like this poor old car? Somehow it is still beautiful! Beauty, it has been said, is in the eye of the beholder. Isn't it a wonder how some such vehicles are chosen to be dismantled, pounded, reshaped, sandblasted, painted and restored?

No pain - no gain . . .

"Everyone has sorrow. Being a Christian does not exempt anyone from grief. But faith in Christ brings a transformation of sorrow. Not only are we taught to endure the sorrows that come to us patiently and submissively--but we are assured that there is a blessing in them for us, if we accept them with love and trust.

One of the deepest truths taught in the Bible--is that earthly sorrow has a mission in the sanctifying of life. "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. God disciplines us for our good--that we may share in His holiness." Hebrews 12:10-11

We dread pain! And yet the person who has not experienced pain--has not yet touched the deepest and most precious meanings of life.

There are things we never can learn--except in the school of pain! There are heights of life we never can attain--except in the bitterness of sorrow. There are joys we never can have--until we have walked in the dark ways of sorrow. Not to have sorrow, in some form, is to miss one of life's holiest opportunities. We get our best things--out of affliction! "I have refined you in the furnace of suffering!" Isaiah 48:10"

~ J. R. Miller "Life's Byways and Waysides"
~ Photograph (used with permission): c HMMooreNiver

Earth's broken things

I have an old vase that belonged to Aunt Alice. When her estate was dispersed, the broken vase sat in the nearly emptied room, passed by, ignored, undesired, unclaimed, rejected by all those who had been there before our arrival. It obviously had suffered the ravages of time and her extensive travels, shattered and subsequently pieced back together with love and care. I don't know its history but suspect great sentimental value, perhaps a gift, possibly an heirloom (for she had acquired many items from estates of her parents and those who came before) or perhaps it was given to her by one of her ardent admirers. We'll never know

Many people believe something that has a chip, scratch or dent is worth less than it would be if "perfect." Although I appreciate beautiful things and good quality, a flaw reminds me of people and more particularly of myself for I am far from perfect. Broken, needs work, under construction" or incomplete might well describe yours truly!

The vase stands in a place off honour on our guest room dressing table ever reminding . . .

"This man welcomes sinners--and eats with them!" Luke 15:2

I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you!" Matthew 21:31

"Christ is building His kingdom with earth's broken things.

Men want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken--in building their kingdoms. But God is the God of the broken, the unsuccessful, of those who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth's broken lives, and there is no 'bruised reed' which Christ cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty. He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow--and make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise. He can lift earth's saddest failure--up to heaven's glory!"

~ J. R. Miller
~Aunt Alice's Pitcher

Choosing

"Only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better." Luke 10:42

Paul prayed that his friends "may be able to discern what is best." Philippians 1:10.

We must be always making choices in this world. We cannot take up everything that lies in our path--and we ought to choose the best things. Even among 'right things' there is room for choice, for some right things are better than others.

There are many Christians, however, who do not habitually choose the best things--but second-rate things. They labor for the food that perishes--when they might labor for the food that endures unto everlasting life. Even in their prayers, they ask for temporal blessings, when they might ask for spiritual treasures!

They are like "the man with the muck-rake", in Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress'--who only looks 'down' and drags his rake among the weeds and worthless rubbish--while over his head are crowns which he might take into his hands! They are like Esau, who sold his valuable birthright, for some lentil stew. They toil for this world's vain things--when they might have been laying up treasures in heaven!

We only have one life to live--and we ought therefore to do the best we possibly can with it. We pass through this world only once--and we ought to gather up and take with us the things that will truly enrich us--things we can keep forever!

It is not worth our while, to toil and moil, and strive and struggle--to do things that will leave no lasting results when our life is done--while there are things we can do which have eternal significance!

"Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things!" Colossians 3:1-2

~J.. . R. Miller "Life's Byways and Waysides"
~Flowerys in a basket by Antoine Berjon

The Embracing Arm

"The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms!" Deuteronomy 33:27

"There are some choice thoughts in the figure of 'God's embracing arm'.

One thought is protection. A father puts his arm around his child when it is in danger. Just so, God protects His children. Temptations beset us on every hand. Many people think of 'dying' with dread, fearing to meet it. But life has far more perils than death! It is easy to die--when one has truly lived for Christ; it is only entering into eternal joy and blessedness. But it is hard to live. At every point there are perils. We need protection. Here we have it, "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms!"

Another suggestion is affection. The father's arm around the child, means love. The child is held in the bosom, near the heart. John lay on Christ's bosom. The shepherd gathers the lambs with his arms and carries them in his bosom. This picture of God embracing His children with His arm, tells of His love for them. It tells also of intimacy, and closeness of relation. The bosom is the children's place.

There is yet a tenderer phase of the thought here. It is especially in the time of danger or suffering, that the mother carries the child in her arms. She takes it up when it has fallen and hurt itself, and comforts it by enfolding it in her arms. When it is sick, she presses it to her bosom.

We have here, a picture of the special sympathy and tenderness of our heavenly Father for His children--when they are in pain or in trouble. This is one of the blessings of suffering--it gets us to the inner place of divine affection, nearest to the Father's heart! God draws us nearest--when we are in trouble or in pain!

The arm is also the symbol of strength. A mother's arm may be physically frail--but love makes it strong. The arm of God is strong--it is omnipotent. It supports worlds! When that divine arm encircles one of His feeble children--all the power of the universe cannot tear it away!

Every true human friend is more or less a strength to us. Yet the finest, securest human strength--is only a little fragment of the divine strength. "Trust in the Lord always--for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength!" Isaiah 26:4. This is omnipotence! Here is an arm that never can be broken, and out of its clasp we never can be torn!

Another thought concerning the everlasting arms, is endurance. There might be protection, affection, and strength--and yet the blessings might not last. We have all these in human love--but human arms grow weary--even in love's embrace. But the arms of God are everlasting. They shall never grow weary. It is everlastingness, which is the highest blessedness of divine affection and care!

Here is something that lasts, which knows no separation, which never unclasps. The arms of God are everlasting. Neither death nor life can separate. The mountains shall depart, crumble, vanish--but God's kindness shall never depart from His beloved child!

There is a very sacred thought in the word 'underneath'. A father tried to save his child in the waves, clasping his arms around the beloved form. But his arms were too weak, and the child slipped from them, sank away in the dark waters, and perished. But the arms of God are underneath His children--and none can sink out of His embrace! His arms are always 'underneath'.

The waves of sorrow are very deep--but still and forever underneath the deepest floods--are the everlasting arms. We cannot sink below them. If we lie down in sickness, the everlasting arms are underneath us. If human friendships are stripped off, and we stand alone in our bereavement, still we are not alone. Underneath are the everlasting arms. God remains--and God suffices.

Then, when death comes, and every earthly thing is gone from beneath us, and every hand unclasps from ours, and every face of love fades from our eyes, and we sink away into what seems darkness--it will be only into the everlasting arms! To every true Christian, death is only departing from earth's weariness and pain--to forever nest in the bosom of Christ!

If we realized that the eternal God is our refuge, and that the everlasting arms are truly underneath us--our joy would not fluctuate as it does, nor our zeal be so fitful. We need a deeper repose in Christ, a more trustful settling down upon Him and upon His atoning work. Then nothing could disturb our confidence, nothing could chill our ardor, nothing could hinder our consecration. Then in sorrow we would rejoice, in temptation we would be victorious, and in all of life we would be Christ-like and strong!"

~J. R. Miller, "Life's Byways and Waysides"
~Painting: Mother and Child by Frederic L. Leighton

A Weekly Journal

This week will commence a different sort of journal rather than the Daybook. I wasn't comfortable with all the "I"s in the Daybook nor the copy write restrictions. Another dear like minded friend has suggested this new format:

My outlook today…
Sunny both inside and out! An older neighbor man used to call me "sunshine" which thought makes me smile. He was always cheerful.
It does look like the upcoming week will, indeed, be mostly sunny.

On my mind today…
The happy memories of the past couple of weeks and all that needs to be done before the snow flies. Looks like most of the leaves have fallen so finishing the clean-up will be one major priority this week as the lawns are mowed perhaps for the last time this season.

Biggest challenge in the coming week...
Will be completing all that needs to be done outside on the lawns and gardens especially not knowing how much time there will be. One day is an early morning appointment with the Oral Surgeon to deal with a broken molar which my dentist feels is beyond his expertise. This happened just before our trip so he pulled the broken part (would you believe I was eating rice when this broke?) and put in a temporary filling. Have been using lots of Ibuprofen and clove oil. ~smile~

Blessings from the past week...
We just spent sixteen days traveling down to Key West and back (for a total of 4,000 miles) arriving home yesterday. We spent eight days at The Gardens Hotel which is listed in "1000 Places to See Before you Die" as well as in the top 100 most beautiful and romantic small hotels in the world. It was lovely and a world apart from the business of Key West. My beloved had a 20 year service award for an all expense paid trip for four days anywhere on the East Coast which we combined with our 40th Anniversary trip! (He will soon have 30 years with the company but has been too busy to get away and needed to use this.). So anyway, the past days have been filled with blessings, happy memories, safe journeys and reflections on forty years of a wondrously happy, blessed marriage.

What's cooking in my kitchen...
Our daughter often makes baked pancakes and says how easy they are to prepare for breakfast or supper and especially weekend guests This recipe is from a dear southern lady, Vickie Hutchinson (http://my-daughters-and-me.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-autumn-kitchen-baked-apple-pecan.html) and makes good use of the pecans we just got in Georgia, some of the half bushel of Honey Crisp apples in the frig and some of our daughter and son-in-laws luscious maple syrup:

Baked Apple Pecan Pancake
(from scratch)

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon sugar
2 large tart apples, sliced (about 3 cups)
1/4 cup melted butter (I used less)
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup sugar (to make cinnamon sugar) - I used slightly less

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Saute sliced apples in butter.
• For pancake mixture: combine flour, milk and salt (do not over mix).
• Add eggs and 1 tsp. sugar
• Layer in pie plate: apples, pecans, and pancake mixture.
• Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over pancake mixture.
• Bake at 400 degrees until puffy and browned, about 20 minutes.
• Top with honey or syrup, or sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Serves 4.

My appearance today...
A black mini waffle knit long skirt, a bottle green cotton ribbed knit long-sleeved sweater, black ballet sport flats, black tights, a hand knit purple/bottle green/ivory bamboo scarf and gold knot earrings. Hair is pulled back into a chignon.

Exercise goals for the week...
We walked miles many days these past couple weeks so my ankle seems to have healed sufficiently to add more walking to my daily schedule again above and beyond all that chores require.

My reading this week…
I took a novel on our trip but really prefer devotional reading and especially the Scriptures which are so much more profitable!

A Scripture passage I am memorizing/meditating on…
Philippians Four has so much in it that I am drawn to this chapter over and over for focus and consolation:.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Home making tasks this week...
Monday: vacuuming throughout, watering plants, laundry
Tuesday: dusting throughout, washing kitchen, bath and summer kitchen floors
Wednesday: ironing, changing linens, laundering them
Thursday: miscellaneous
Friday: this day is usually reserved for errands and time with friends although other days include time such times as well so Friday is for the overflow or catching up. Friday evening is date night!
Saturday: my beloved is usually home so much time is spent preparing meals and spending time with him. Oftentimes, our youngest daughter likes to spend this day together so we might do errands and have lunch together. One of my favourite things is one on one time with the special people in my life.
Sunday: (my favorite day) Our Lord's Day

Something new I want to try...
Vickie Hutchison's Maggiano's Little Italy Minestrone Soup: http://my-daughters-and-me.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-autumn-kitchen-minestrone-soup.html

Homemade soup and bread is one of my favourite meals. Minestrone Soup has long been a favourite. Have been looking for a recipe that reflects all it should be. This sounds ideal and a recipe I can hardly wait to try this week:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• ½ cup diced onion
• 1 medium carrot, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon flour
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups Maggiano's Marinara Sauce
• 1 small baking potato, diced
• 2 plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 medium zucchini, diced
• 1 yellow squash, diced
• ½ cup canned chick-peas, drained
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 dark green romaine lettuce leaves, diced
• ¼ ounce fresh basil leaves (stems removed), chopped
• ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus some for garnish
• ½ cup tubetti or other small pasta

1. In a large stock pot, melt butter over low heat. Add onion, carrot, celery and oregano. Cook, covered, until vegetables are soft but not browned, about 20 minutes. While you're waiting for Step #1 to simmer, slice and dice and measure the rest of the ingredients.
2. Add flour and stir to form a paste. Add garlic, chicken stock, marinara sauce, potato and tomatoes. Raise heat and bring mixture to a boil. If you're making the soup to eat today, start the water for preparing the pasta according to package directions. If the soup is for tomorrow, wait until Step #5.
3. Add zucchini, yellow squash, chick-peas, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.
4. Stir in romaine, basil and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
5. Re heat soup over medium-low heat. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.
6. Divide pasta among individual serving bowls and ladle hot soup over pasta.
7. Garnish with Parmesan cheese.
Focaccia bread is wonderful served with this soup.

My week is looking...
Joyful as I resume my routine!

Creative projects I'm working on...
Hope to get back to weaving this week and put a new warp on the Schacht.
.
For my devotions...
Reading lots of the beloved pastor J R Miller's works together with the associated passages. Also still studying passages related to the end times which are fast approaching, knowing full well even tomorrow will not come for some of us.

God has been teaching me...
The need to focus on Him through His Word and the need to understand, submit and obey Him in all things. It is so easy to become sidetracked, caught up in things of the world which leads to fear of what the future might bring but I am learning and have SO much more to learn!

A simple pleasure...
The sight of our cat, Max sleeping contentedly in a ray of sunshine

A picture to share…
One of the views we enjoyed most on our trip was from the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway where we saw cattle peacefully grazing in the meadows beyond which rose the foothills of the mountains, still with some autumn colour in the trees. Here and there were round bales to feed them come winter.

"Autumn is the eternal corrective.

It is ripeness and color and a time of maturity;

but it is also breadth, and depth, and distance.

What man can stand with autumn on a hilltop and fail to see

the span of his world

and the meaning of the rolling hills that reach to the far horizon?

~ Hal Borland

(This photo was taken by HMMooreNiver and used with permission )

Wow!

May be able to comprehend with all saints

what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,

that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Ephesians 3:18-19

"Think of the length of the love of Christ--in its wonderful forgiveness, its infinite patience, its mercy that endures forever.

Human mercy is usually very short. There are evil chapters in your 'life story', which you would not for the world, uncover to the eye of even your gentlest friend! "He would detest me!" you say, "if he knew these things about me!"

There are evil thoughts in your inner life--feelings, emotions, desires, lusts, imaginations, jealousies, envyings--which you would not dare to lay open to your neighbor's gaze! "He would loathe me!" you say, "if he knew these things about me!"

Yet Christ sees all, knows all--and still He loves. He loves unto the uttermost. His mercy endures forever. His patience never fails. When the love of Christ clasps a human life--its clasp is for eternal years! He says to each of His children, "I have loved you with an everlasting love!" "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from you!"

We may think also of the depth of Christ's love. How shall we fathom it? Human love is often a stream so shallow--that it cannot cover even the minor faults and the trivial mistakes of its object. But the love of Christ is so deep--that it covers everything, hides completely out of sight, the multitude of our sins, and buries them forever in its unfathomable abysses!

"May you have the power to understand, as all God's people should--how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is! May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it!" Ephesians 3:18-19

~J.. R. Miller - SERMONS., "Life's Byways and Waysides"
~Photo: View on Blue Ridge Mt. Parkway (day before yesterday)

Why? Oh Why?

"God does not deal with us in this 'sentimental' way!

"A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to Him, crying out, 'Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession!' Jesus did not answer her a word!" Matthew 15:22
We are apt to forget that the aim of God with us, is . . .
not to flood us with tenderness all the time,
not to keep our path always strewn with flowers,
not to continually give us everything we want,
not to save us from all manner of suffering.

No! God's aim with us, is . . .
to make something of us,
to build up strong and noble character in us,
to mature qualities of grace and beauty in us,
to make us more like Christ!
To do this--He must ofttimes deny us what we ask for, and must seem indifferent to our cries. "Jesus did not answer her a word!"
There are 'sentimental ideas of God' prevalent, which are dishonoring to Him. There are those who imagine that God's love means tenderness that cannot cause pain. They think that He cannot look a moment on suffering, without relieving it; that He must instantly hear and answer every cry for the removal of trouble.

Not such a God--is the God of the Bible! When suffering is the best thing for us--He is not too sympathetic to let us suffer--until the work of suffering is accomplished in us. He is not too kind to be silent to our prayers--when it is better that He should be silent for a time, to allow . . .
faith to grow strong,
self-confidence to be swept away, and
the evil in us--to be burned out in the furnace of pain!
There is a danger with all of us--our tenderness lacks strength. We cannot tolerate to see people suffer, and so we hasten to give relief--before the ministry of suffering is accomplished. We think of our mission to others, as being only 'to make life easier for them'. We are continually lifting away burdens, which it were better to have left resting longer on our friend's shoulder! We are eager to make life easy for our children--when it were better if it had been left hard.

We must learn that God does not deal with us in this 'sentimental' way. He is not too tender to see us suffer--if more suffering is needed to work in us the discipline that will make us like Christ!

Here we have the key of many of the 'mysteries of Providence'. Life is not easy for us--and God does not intend it to be easy!

Suppose for a moment, that God immediately gave us everything we ask for--and immediately removed every little pain, trouble, difficulty, and hardness that we seek to have removed; what would be the result on us? How selfish it would make us! We would become weak, unable to endure suffering, to bear trial, to carry burdens, or to struggle. We would be only children always--and would never rise into manly strength. God's over-kindness to us--would pamper in us all the worst elements of our nature, and would make us only poor driveling creatures!

On the other hand, however, God's wise and firm treatment of us, teaches us the great lessons which make us strong with the strength of Christ Himself.
He teaches us to yield our own will to Him.
He develops in us--patience, faith, love, hope and peace.
He trains us to endure hardness--that we may grow heroic, courageous and strong.

It is well for us to make careful note of this--that in all God's delays when we pray--His aim is some good in us.

Perhaps we are willful, asking only for our own way--and must learn to say, "May Your will be done."

Perhaps we are weak, unable to bear pain or to endure adversity or loss--and we must be trained and disciplined into strength.

Perhaps our desires are only for earthly good, not for heavenly blessings--and we must be taught the transitory character of all worldly things, and led to desire things which are eternal.

Perhaps we are impatient--and must be taught to wait for God. We are like children in our eager restlessness--and need to learn self-restraint.
At the least, we may always know that silence is not refusal--that God hears and cares, and that when our faith has learned its lessons--He will answer in blessing!

"The Lord disciplines the one He loves, and punishes every son whom He receives." Hebrews 12:6

"God disciplines us for our good--that we may share in His holiness." Hebrews 12:10

~J. R. Miller, "The SILENT Christ"

One Day at a Time

This rose with its homely name is one of my favourites for a lot of reasons. The sight and exquisite aroma of the Cabbage Rose which blooms last but a fleeting day reminds me of the enormous significance of living each day to its fullest and one day at a time

"And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day." Genesis 1:5

One of the secrets of happy and beautiful life, is to live one day at a time. If we would learn it, it would save us from the worry that in so many people spoils the days, and would add immeasurably to the value of the work we do. For, really, we never have anything to do any day—but the bit of God's will for that day. If we do that well—we have absolutely nothing else to do.
Time is given to us in days. It was so from the beginning. We need not puzzle ourselves trying to understand just what the "day" was in which God wrought in creating the universe—we may leave this matter to the scientific men and the theologians; but it is interesting to know that each day had its particular apportionment in the stupendous work. At the end of each of the creative periods we read, "There was evening and there was morning, one day." So it has been ever since.

Time is measured to us by days. Each day has its particular section of duty, something that belongs in between sunrise and sunset, that cannot be done at all if it is not done in its own hours. "There was evening and there was morning, one day, a second day, a third day." This breaking up of time into little daily portions means a great deal more than we are accustomed to think.

For one thing, it illustrates the gentleness and goodness of God. It would have made life intolerably burdensome if a year, instead of a day, had been the unit of division. It would have been hard to carry a heavy load, to endure a great sorrow, or to keep on at a hard duty, for such a long stretch of time. How dreary our common task-work would be—if there were no breaks in it, if we had to keep our hand to the plough for a whole year! We never could go on with our struggles, our battles, our suffering—if night did not mercifully settle down with its darkness and bid us rest and renew our strength.

We do not understand how great a mercy there is for us in the briefness of our short days. If they were even twice as long as they are, life would be intolerable. Many a time when the sun goes down—we feel that we could scarcely have gone another step. We would have fainted in defeat—if the summons to rest had not come just when it did.

Night with its darkness seems to be a blot on the whiteness of day. It seems to fall across our path as an interruption to our activity, compelling us to lay down our work when we are in the very midst of it, leaving it only half done. It seems to be a waster of precious time, eating up half the hours. How much more we could accomplish, we sometimes say, if the sun did not go down, if we could go on without pause! Night throws its heavy veil over the lovely things of this world, hiding them from our view.

Yet night really is no stain on the splendor of day, no thief of time, no waster of golden hours, no obscurer of beauty. It reveals as much beauty as it hides—for no sooner has the sun set, leaving earth's splendor of landscape, garden, and forest in gloom—than there bursts upon our vision the other splendor of the sky filled with glorious stars.

When the privilege of work is interrupted, God has another blessing—the blessing of sleep. One may figure out with mathematical certitude that it is a waste of time to spend one-third of each day in the idleness of sleep.

But these hours, which seem to be lost, in which we appear to be doing nothing, bring us new gifts from God. An old version renders the Psalm verse, "He gives his beloved in sleep." We lie down with our vitality exhausted in the toils and struggles of the day. Then, while we sleep, God comes to us in the silence and stillness, and refills the emptied fountains. It is really a new creation that takes place in us while we sleep—a miracle of renewal and restoration! We die, as it were—and are made to live again.

Thus we get hints of the graciousness of the divine thoughtfulness in giving us time in periods of little days, which we can easily get through with, and not in great years, in which we would faint and fall by the way. It makes it possible for us to go on through all the long years and not to be overwrought, for we never have given to us at any one time more than we can do between the morning and the evening.

Not only are the days short, so that we can go on to eventide with our work or our burden—but they are separated as by an impassable wall, so that there can be no overflowing of one day's care or responsibility into another. Night drops down its dark curtain between the days, so that we cannot see today—anything that is in tomorrow.

Our Lord taught us that we sin if we let ourselves try to carry the load of any day, but this one little day. "Do not worry about tomorrow," he said, "for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." If we allow ourselves to borrow anxiety from tomorrow, we shall find that we have a greater load than we can carry.

The only true way to live, therefore, is one day at a time. This means that we should give all our strength to the work of the present day, that we should finish each day's tasks by nightfall, leaving nothing undone at setting of sun that we ought to have done. Then, when a new morning dawns—we should accept its duties, the bit of God's will it unrolls for us, and do everything well that is given us to do.

We may be sure, too, that there is something for each moment, and that if we waste any portion of our day—we cannot make it complete. We should bring all the energy and all the skill of mind and heart and hand to our duty as we take it up, doing nothing carelessly or negligently. Then we can lay our day back into God's hand at nightfall with confidence, saying, "Father, I have finished the work which you gave me to do today."

But we should never be anxious about either yesterday or tomorrow. Yesterday is gone, and we never can get it back to change anything in it. It is idle, therefore, to waste a moment of time or a particle of strength fretting over it.

Tomorrow is not yet ours, and we cannot touch its life—until it becomes our today. God means us to put our undivided energy into the doing of the present day's work. If we do this, we shall have quite enough to do to fill all the hours and to engage our best energy and skill and strength. In this way, too, we shall best prepare for tomorrow. One day's duty slighted or neglected, prepares confusion and overburdening for the next.

The days are all woven together in God's plan, each one following the day before and fitting into the day coming after it. Each takes up the work which the day before brought to its feet, and carries it forward to deliver it to the one which waits. A marred or empty day anywhere spoils the web, losing the thread.

If we learn well the lesson of living just one day at a time, without anxiety for either yesterday or tomorrow, we shall have found one of the great secrets of Christian peace. That is the way God teaches us to live. That is the lesson both of the Bible and of nature. If we learn it, it will cure us of all anxiety; it will save us from all feverish haste; it will enable us to live sweetly in any experience.

~J. R. Miller (1903)
~Photo: The Cabbage Rose

Thoughts Build Character

"When, on my bed, I think of You, I meditate on You during the night watches." Psalm 63:6

It is a law of life--that our thoughts build our character.

If we meditate on the purity, the holiness, the goodness, the love, the righteousness, of Christ--these qualities will print themselves upon our own hearts.

Paul has given us an infallible direction for the best spiritual culture.
"Whatever is true,
whatever is noble,
whatever is right,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable--
if anything is excellent or praise worthy--
think about such things!" Philippians 4

(J. .R. Miller "The Lesson of Love" 1903)
Illustration from the collection of J. Frey

The more Christ has suffered for us -

Christ is that golden pipe through which the golden oil of salvation runs!

The more Christ has suffered for us--the dearer Christ should be unto us. The greater and the bitterer Christ's sufferings have been for us--the greater and the sweeter should our love be to Him. O my friends! there is no love but a superlative love, which is any way suitable to the transcendent sufferings of dear Jesus. Oh,
love Him above your lusts,
love Him above your relations,
love Him above the world,
love Him above all your contentments and enjoyments;
yes, love Him above your very lives!

Certainly the more bitter His sufferings have been for us, the more eminent should be our love to Him. Oh, how should this inflame our love to Christ! Oh, that our hearts were more affected with the sufferings of Christ! Who can tread upon these hot coals--and his heart not burn in love to Christ?

Oh, the infinite love of Christ--that He should leave His Father's bosom, and come down from heaven--that He might carry you up to heaven; that He who was a Son should take upon Him the form of a servant:
that you slaves--should be made sons;
that you enemies--should be made friends;
that you heirs of wrath--should be made heirs of God!
To save us from everlasting ruin, Christ was willing to be made flesh, to be tempted, deserted, persecuted, and to die upon a cruel cross! Oh what flames of love to Christ, should these things kindle in all our hearts!

Oh, let a suffering Christ lie nearest your hearts!

(Thomas Brooks "The Golden Key to Open Hidden Treasures")

Photo: Flowers of Key West

Wishin'

"You are absolutely beautiful, my Beloved; there is no flaw in You!" Song of Songs 4:7

Plato expressed a desire that the moral law might become a living personage, that men seeing it thus incarnate, might be charmed by its beauty. Plato's wish was fulfilled in Jesus Christ! The holiness and the beauty of the divine law were revealed in Him.

The Beatitudes contain an outline of the ideal life--but the Beatitudes are only a transcript of the life of Christ Himself! What He taught about love--was but His own love stated in a course of living lessons for His friends to learn. When He said that we should be patient, gentle, thoughtful, forgiving, and kind--He was only saying, "Follow Me!"

If we could gather from the most godly people who ever have lived, the little fragments of lovely character which have blossomed out in each, and bring all these fragments into one personality--we would have the beauty of Jesus Christ! In one person you find gentleness, in another meekness, in another purity of heart, in another humility, in another kindness, in another patience. But in the holiest of men, there are only two or three qualities of ideal beauty--along with much that is stained and blemished, mingled with these qualities. In Christ, however, all that is excellent is found, with no flaw!

"You are absolutely beautiful, my Beloved; there is no flaw in You!" Song of Songs 4:7


~J. R. Miller

~Photo: The Veranda on "our" cottage at The Garden Hotel in Key West where we spent many an hour in recent days

The Test of Amusements

"Lovers of pleasure - rather than lovers of God" 2 Timothy 3:4

"Is the love of pleasure growing upon you, gaining the power and the ascendency over you? Is it dulling the keenness of your zest for spiritual pleasures? Is it making Bible-study, prayer, communion with Christ, meditation upon holy themes--less sweet enjoyments than before? Is it making your hunger for righteousness, for God--less intense? Is it interfering with the comfort and blessing you used to find in worship services, or in Christian work?

If so, there is only one thing to do--hasten to return to God, cut off the pleasure which is imperiling the soul, and find in Christ the joy which the world cannot give, and which ever enhances the life. We must test all our pleasures and amusements by this rule--Are they helping us to grow into Christ-likeness and spiritual beauty?"

~J. R. Miller

The Ruined Handkerchief

"We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

"It is one of the wonders of divine love, that God will take even our blemishes and sins, when we truly repent of them and give them into His hands--and make them blessings to us in some way.

A friend once showed Ruskin a costly handkerchief, on which a blot of ink had been made. "Nothing can be done with that!" the friend said, thinking that the handkerchief was now ruined and worthless. Ruskin carried it away with him and after a time sent it back to his friend. In a most skillful and artistic way--he had made a fine design on the handkerchief, using the blot as its foundation. Instead of being ruined, the handkerchief was made far more beautiful and valuable.

Just so, God takes the flaws and blots and stains upon our lives, the disfiguring blemishes, when we commit them to Him, and by His marvelous grace--changes them into strength and beauty of character!

David's grievous sin, was not only forgiven--but was made a transforming power in his life.

Peter's pitiful fall, became a step upward through his Lord's forgiveness and gentle dealing. Peter never would have become the man he afterward became--if he had not denied his Lord, and then repented and been restored.

There is one thing always to be remembered. Paul tells us that we become more than conquerors in all life's trials, dangers, struggles, temptations, and sorrows--only "through Him who loved us." Without Christ--we must be defeated. There is only one secret that can turn evil into good, pain into blessing--that is the love of Christ. There is only one Hand which can take the blotted life--and transform it into beauty."'

J.. R. Miller "The Lesson of Love" (1903)
Painting: The Green Hat

Losing Self

"If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." Luke 9:23-24

"The Christian's first duty—is to honor his Master. He must be willing to sink himself out of sight—in order that the name of Christ may be magnified. It is not possible to both honor Christ—and yet to honor ourselves before men. The wreath on our own brow must fade—if we would keep the wreath for Christ beautiful and green. We must decrease—that Christ may increase. We must be willing to fall into the shadow—that the full light may be cast upon Christ's lovely face. We must be ready to suffer loss—that the cause of Christ may be advanced. But all this seeming decrease if we are true at heart to our Master, is only seeming.

The honor on our brow is never so bright as when we have willingly stripped off the stars from ourselves to bind them on the brow of Jesus. It is easy to mar the beauty. We have all seen people chafing and envying, when position and influence once theirs—passed to others.

There is no severer test of character than comes in such experiences as this. It is not easy when others achieve promotions that we had hoped to win, for us to keep our spirits gentle, generous, and sweet. It is not easy, even in school, to have another win the prize which we sought and hoped to take, and then not to feel envious of him—but to treat him with true affection, joining his fellows in sincere honoring of him. It is not easy in the home, for a plain, unattractive child to see a bright, popular, brilliant sister idolized and petted, receiving universal praise—while she, the plain, homely one, is neglected and left without attention—it is not easy for the plain girl to see this and yet keep loyal affection in her heart and join cheerfully and sincerely in the honoring of the favorite. It is always hard to decrease—while another increases, especially if it is at our own cost.

Yet only as we learn to die to self, do we become like Christ. Unrenewed nature seeks all for self—and none for Christ. Becoming a Christian is the taking of Christ into the life—in the place of self. Then all is changed. Life has a new center, a new aim. Christ comes first. His plan for our lives is accepted, instead of our own. It is no more what we would like to do—but "What does the Master want us to do?"

It is no longer the pressing of our own will—but "May Your will, not mine, be done." This is the foundation of all Christian living—the dying of self—and the growing of Christ in the heart. So long as there remains any self-will, any unsubmission, any spirit of disobedience, any unconquered self, asserting its authority against the will of Christ—just so long, is our consecration incomplete.

This lesson has its very practical bearing on all our common, every-day life. Naturally we want to have our own way. We like to carry out our own plans and ambitions. We are apt to feel, too, that we have failed in life, when we cannot realize these hopes. This is the world's standard. The successful worldling is the one who is able to master all life's circumstances and make them serve him in his career. He is the man who "increases" until he fills a large place among men. The world has little praise or admiration for the man who "decreases" in his property, brilliance, power, or prosperity.

But we who read the Word of God know that there is an increase in men's eyes—which is a dwarfing, shrinking, and shriveling of the life in God's sight. We know also that there is a decrease in human eyes, which as God sees it, is a glorious enlargement and growth.

The greatest thing possible in any life—is to have the divine plan for it fulfilled, the divine will go on in it—even though it thwarts every human hope and dashes away every earthly dream. It is not easy for us to learn the lesson—that God's ways are always better for us than our own. We make our little plans and begin to carry them out. We think we have all things arranged for our greatest happiness and our best good.

Then God's plan breaks in upon ours—and we look down through our tears upon the shattered fragments of our fine plans. It seems wreck, loss, and disaster. But no—it is only God's larger, wiser, better plan—displacing our little, imperfect, shortsighted one.

It is true, that God really thinks about our lives and has a purpose of His own for them, a place He would have us fill, a work He would have us do. It seems when we think of it, that this is scarcely possible—that each one of the lives of His countless children—should be personally and individually thought about by the Father.

Yet we know that this is true of the least and lowliest of believers. Surely if God cares enough for us to make a plan for our life, a heavenly plan—it must be better than any plan of ours could be! It is a high honor, therefore, for His plan take the place of ours, whatever the cost and the pain may be to us.

This law of the dying of SELF, and the magnifying of Christ—is the only way to true usefulness. Not until self has been renounced, is anyone ready for true Christian service. While we are thinking how this or that will affect us, whether it will pay us to make this sacrifice or that self-denial; while we are consulting our own ease, our own comfort, our own interest or advantage in any form—we have not yet learned fully what the love of Christ means. This projecting of SELF into our serving of our fellow-men, mars the service and hinders its effectiveness.

We wonder if the person is 'worthy'—and if he is not, we do not want to waste our love upon him. We resent with impatience, the lack of gratitude in those we aid. We decline to serve others, because they are beneath us. That is, we put all our life on a commercial basis, and unless it seems to promise well for us in the way of outcome, we are not ready for it.

We need to learn the true meaning of Christ's love, for he never asks whether we are worthy or not, nor does he keep account of the number of times he has forgiven us. The law of love, which is the one law of all Christian life, does not follow the world's maxims. It is not 'so much'—for 'so much'. It asks not if there will be a return. It does not keep account of treatment received—and strike a balance for the governance of its future actions. It gives and serves and helps regardless of what it has received or may receive.
This law of the dying of self and the magnifying of Christ—is the secret of Christian peace. When Christ is small—and SELF is large—life cannot be deeply restful. Everything annoys us. We grow impatient of whatever breaks our comfort. We grieve over little trials. We find causes for discontent in merest trifles. We resent whatever would hinder or oppose us. There is no blue sky in the picture, of which SELF is the center. There are no stars shining overhead. It begins and ends in a little patch of dusty floor, with gray walls surrounding it and shutting it in.

But when SELF decreases—and Christ increases, then the picture is enlarged and takes in all of heaven's over-arching beauty. Then the stars shine down into its night and sunshine bathes its day. Then the life of friction and worry is changed into quietness and peace. When the glory of Christ streams over this little, cramped, fretted, broken life of ours—peace comes, and the love of Christ brightens every spot and sweetens all bitterness. Trials are easy to bear when self is small—and Christ is large.

We are apt to grow weary of the bitter, sorrowful struggle that goes on in our hearts, evermore, between the old nature and the new nature, between the old self and the new Christ. It seems sometimes as if it never would be ended. It seems, too, at times, as if we were making no progress in the struggle, as if there were no decreasing of self—and no increasing of Christ. We find the old evil things unconquered still, after years of battling—the old envies and jealousies, the old tempers, the old greed, the old irritabilities, the old doubt and fear and unbelief.

Will there never be release from this conflict? Yes, if only we live patiently and bravely, in faith and love and loyalty, SELF will decrease—and Christ will increase until he fills our whole life. If we reach up ever toward the light—our past of failure and unworthiness will be left behind and we shall grow into the fullness of the stature of Christ! The new will conquer and expel the old—until it becomes. "None of self—and all of Christ!"'

O the bitter shame and sorrow
That a time could ever be,
When I let the Savior's pity
Plead in vain, and proudly answered,
'All of self—and none of Thee.'
Yet He found me; I beheld Him
Bleeding on the accursed tree;
Heard Him pray, 'Forgive them, Father!'
And my wistful heart said faintly,
'Some of self—and some of Thee.'
Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Sweet and strong, and, ah! So patient,
Brought me lower, while I whispered,
'Less of self—and more of Thee.'
Higher than the highest heavens,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, Thy love at last hath conquered;
Grant me now my soul's desire,
'None of self—and all of Thee.'
—Theodore Monod

~Losing SELF in Christ by J. R. Miller, 1903

A Morning Prayer

"Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You.

Show me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul.

Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord, for I hide myself in You.

Teach me to do Your will, for you are my God; may your gracious Spirit lead me on level ground. For Your name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life; in Your righteousness, bring me out of trouble." Psalm 143:8-11



The sweetest flower needs heaven's sunshine and dew—to perfect its beauty and sustain its life. So does the holiest human life need God. A picture without sky in it is incomplete. Just so, a day on earth without a glimpse of heaven to brighten it, dies without a blessing. We rob our own heart and impoverish our life—if we do not avail ourselves of the help and renewal which we may get through prayer. Prayer lifts us into the very presence of God. It brings down upon us the power of Christ, according to the measure of our need, and the measure of our faith. He who lives without prayer—lives without God. He who lives a life of prayer—walks with God by day and by night. The more we have to do, and the more care we have—the more do we need to begin our days with prayer! No day starts well without its morning prayer. We need to get the touch of Christ's hand upon us, to give us calmness and strength as we go forth.



~J R Miller (1896)

Photo: The Flowers of Key West

The Gift of Burdens

Cruising at a high rate of speed in and out of traffic on a six lane highway is more than enough to remind me of how quickly one's life might be changed. One wrong move and . . . Well, we won't go there but the reminder is what is important so that I do earnestly pray,

"Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord, for I hide myself in You." Psalm 143:9

" Each day is full of dangers--dangers we cannot see, and from which we cannot protect ourselves. Disease lurks in the air we breathe, and hides in the water we drink, or in the food we eat. Along the street where we walk, on the railway over which we ride--there are perils. Any moment we may be stricken down! There may be enemies who are plotting against us, conspiring to do us harm.

There are certainly spiritual enemies, who are seeking to destroy us! The sunniest day is full of them. No African jungle is so full of savage and blood-thirsty wild beasts--as the common days in our lives are full of spiritual enemies and perils. These dangers are unseen--and hence cannot protect ourselves. "Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy! He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour!" 1 Peter 5:8

What, then, can we do? As we go out in the morning we can offer this prayer, "Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord, for I hide myself in You." We can thus put our frail, imperiled lives--into the hands of our almighty God!

"Cast your burden upon the Lord--and He shall sustain you." Psalm 55:22. We are not promised that our prayers shall take the perils and temptations out of our day. It is not thus, that God usually helps. We are bidden to cast our burden upon the Lord--but we are not told that He will lift it away from us. The promise is that we shall be sustained and strengthened in bearing it.

We need the burden! It is God's gift to us, and has a blessing in it, which we cannot afford to miss. Prayer does not take our trials away--but it puts our life into the hands of God--so that in His keeping, we shall be kept from harm while we pass through our trials. It brings God's grace into our heart--to preserve us from falling into sin; and God's strength into our life--that we may be victorious over our enemies.

Not to pray as we go into the day's dangers and trials--is to meet them without the help of Christ, and surely to suffer hurt, and possibly to fall into sin!"

~J. R. Miller "For a Busy Day" 1895
~Girl Reading by a Waterfall

Think on These Things

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8

"Do this in remembrance of Me." 1 Corinthians 11:25

"The secret of all the noble heroisms of the Church, has been passionate love for Jesus!

The Lord's Supper was intended to keep Christ always vividly in remembrance. We are to think of Him, when we have the sacred memorials of His love in our hands, reminding us of what He did to redeem us. But we are to think of Him just as devoutly, when we are away from the sacred table--in the midst of worldly tasks and circumstances.

If we always remember Christ, it will keep us faithful in our loyalty--as true to Him out on the streets, and when we are tempted and tried--as when we are at His feet in prayer.

Remembering Christ, will transform us into His likeness. Our thoughts are the builders, which rear the temple of our character. If we think of unclean things--our lives will become unclean. If we think of earthly things--we will grow earthly. If we think of Christ, if thoughts of Him are in our mind and heart continually, we will be changed, moment by moment, into His beauty!

The highest attainment in Christian life--is to always remember Christ, never to forget Him, to keep His blessed face ever before us. Then we shall never lose His peace out of our hearts. Then we shall never fail Him in any duty or struggle. Then we shall never be lonely, for remembering Christ will keep us ever conscious of His gracious presence."

~J. R. Miller "The Life of Jesus"
~ Bruce W Lowery - The Cape May Lighthouse

Troubles

Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?--Luke 24:38

"Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?" The Lord cares for all things, and the meanest creatures share in His universal providence, but His particular providence is over His saints.
.
"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him."

"Precious shall their blood be in His sight."

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."

"We know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose."

Let the fact that, while He is the Saviour of all men, He is specially the Saviour of them that believe, cheer and comfort you. You are His peculiar care; His regal treasure which He guards as the apple of His eye; His vineyard over which He watches day and night. "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." Let the thought of His special love to you be a spiritual pain-killer, a dear quietus to your woe: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." God says that as much to you as to any saint of old. "Fear not, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward."

We lose much consolation by the habit of reading His promises for the whole church, instead of taking them directly home to ourselves. Believer, grasp the divine word with a personal, appropriating faith. Think that you hear Jesus say, "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." Think you see Him walking on the waters of thy trouble, for He is there, and He is saying, "Fear not, it is I; be not afraid." Oh, those sweet words of Christ! May the Holy Ghost make you feel them as spoken to you; forget others for awhile--accept the voice of Jesus as addressed to you, and say, "Jesus whispers consolation; I cannot refuse it; I will sit under His shadow with great delight."

~Charles Haddon Spurgeon
~ Desk in my Kitchen

The Two Birds

Early one recent morn, I heard a strange noise upstairs. When I finished my quiet time (and coffee), I ventured into the hall where I heard the source of the commotion. A grey bird was frantically fluttering against the sheer curtained window of the weaving room.

What to do - it happens that there is a balcony door in the hall, so I opened that, closed all the other doors and then went in to the weaving room, past the window to coax the poor bird toward the hall. Thankfully, it immediately noticed the fresh morning air and flew to freedom.

I am not sure how it got in, but likely down the chimney. We occasionally have chimney swifts but I didn't hear any this year.

The seemingly imprisoned bird reminds me of the story in the piece below:. .

"'Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty." Job 5:17

He is not happy at the time, at least, in the world's way. No affliction for the present seems to be joyous--but grievous. No one enjoys having troubles, sufferings, trials, sorrows. Therefore this statement made by Eliphaz appears very strange to some people. They cannot understand it. It is contrary to all their thoughts of happiness.

Of course the word 'happy' is not used here in the world's sense. The world's happiness is the pleasure that comes from the things that happen. It depends on personal comfort, on prosperous circumstances, on kindly and congenial conditions. When these are taken away--the world's happiness is destroyed.

But the word happy, here means blessed--and the statement is that blessing comes to him who receives God's correction. To correct, is to set right--that which has been wrong. Surely if a man is going in the wrong way, and God turns his feet back and sets him in the right way--a blessing has come to the man!

Afflictions are 'God's corrections'. They come always with a purpose of love in them. God never afflicts one of His children, without meaning His child's good in some way. So blessing is always intended by God. It is usually afterward that people begin to see and to understand the good that God sent them in their trial. "You do not understand what I am now doing" said Jesus, "but you shall understand hereafter." "No chastening seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." So when we have troubles and afflictions, we may know that God wants to do us good in some way through them.

Since this is so, Job was exhorted by Eliphaz, "Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty." God chastens us to bless us--to do us good. He chastens us because He loves us.

He is not a true parent, who sees his children doing wrong, and yet fails to correct them for fear he may hurt their feelings. He ought to think of their higher good, and chasten them now--to profit them afterward.

This is the way our heavenly Father works. He never loves us better--than when He is correcting us. Therefore we ought not to despise this chastening. We ought not to murmur or complain when God does not give us our own way--but checks us, lays His afflictive hand upon us, and sends trouble upon us! We ought to have such faith in God--that we shall submit quietly, confidently, and sweetly to his will--even when it brings a heavy cross into our life.

A great many people need to pause at this line--and learn it. They do not treat God's chastening with reverence. Sometimes they are crushed by it, and refuse to look up into God's face with submission and love. Sometimes they grow bitter against God and say hard things of Him! We ought to reverence God's chastening; we ought to listen to the voice that speaks to us in our grief or pain.

The way in which God brings blessing through chastening, is emphasized: "For He wounds--but He also binds up; He strikes--but His hands also heal." Job 5:18. God never smites with both hands at once! When one hand is laid upon us in affliction--the other hand is reached out to help, to uphold, to heal.

Sometimes there is a trouble in a man's body which requires the surgeon's knife. There must be amputation, or cutting away, or cutting into. In such a case the skillful surgeon does not hesitate. He thinks far more of his patient's health for the future--than of his comfort at present. So he uses his knife--that he may cure disease, or save life. He wounds--to heal. He makes sore--that he may bind up. It is just so in all afflictions which God sends. He chastens--that He may deliver from the power of temptation. He hurts the body--that he may save the soul. He takes away earthly property--that He may give true, heavenly riches.

One writer tells of two birds and how they acted when caught and put into a cage. One, a 'starling', flew violently against the wire walls of its prison, in unavailing efforts to escape--only battering and bruising its own wings. The other bird, a 'canary', perched itself on the bar and began to pour forth bursts of sweet song, from its little throat. We know which bird was the wiser and happier.

Some people are like the starling--when they are in any trouble, they chafe and fret and complain and give way to wretchedness! The result is, they only hurt themselves, make themselves more miserable, and do not in any sense lessen their trouble. It is wiser always, as well as more pleasing to God, for us to bear our trials patiently, singing songs of faith and love--rather than crying out in rebellion and discontent.

Job wanted to get near to God in his great trouble; he cried, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him!" He felt sure that that would be the best and safest place for him to be. We ought not to lose this lesson. When trouble is upon us--the true thing for us to do, is to flee to God! Some people, in their affliction and sorrow--flee away from God. Thus they lose their joy and peace, missing the comfort which they would get if only they kept near to Him. The right way to respond, is to try to find the way to God's very presence. He is the only safe refuge, when the storms of trouble break upon us. The first thing always, in any time of trouble--is to find God and hide away in His bosom, as a child runs to the mother in alarm, or as the little bird flies to its nest. To find God--is to be safe!

God is our truest and best friend! He is our Father--we need never fear to go to Him. He gives heed unto our cries. He loves us. All His omnipotence is on our side. No mother's heart was ever so full of love for her child--as is the heart of God for us, His children!"

~J.R. Miller "Finding God's Comfort" 1896
~Photo: Bluebird by Bruce W Lowery:

The Blessings in Sorrow

For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee.: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest on me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong. II Corinthians 12:8-10

 "Sooner or later, sorrow comes to every home. No conditions of wealth or culture or social standing, or even of religion, can exclude it.

When two young people come from the marriage-altar, and set up their new home, it seems to them that its joy never can be disturbed, that grief can never reach their hearts in that charmed spot. For a few years, perhaps, their fond dream remains unbroken. The flowers bloom into still softer beauty and richer fragrance; the music continues light and joyous, with no minor cords; the circle is unbroken; children grow up in the tender atmosphere, blessing the home with their love and lovableness; the household life flows on softly and smoothly, like a river, gathering in breadth and depth as it flows. In other homes, all about, there are sorrows, bereavements, but amid these desolations of the dreams of other households, this one remains untouched, like an oasis in the desert; but not forever does the exemption continue.

There comes a day when the strange messenger of sorrow stands at the door, nor waits for bidding and welcome—but enters, and lays his withering hand on some sweet flower!

The first experience of grief is very sore—its suddenness and strangeness add to its terribleness. What seemed so impossible yesterday, has become a fearful reality today. The dear one whom we held so securely, as we thought that we never could lose her, is gone now, and no more answers to our call. It seems to us that we never can be comforted, that we never can enjoy life again, since the one who made for us so much of the gladness of life has been taken away.

The time of the first sorrow is to every life a most critical point, a time of great danger. The way is new and untried, one over which the feet have never passed before. At no other point, therefore, is wise and loving guidance more needed. Many lives are wrecked on the hidden reefs—and the low, dangerous rocks which skirt the shores of sorrow's sea. Many people find in grief—an enemy only, to whom they refuse to be reconciled, and with whom they contend in fierce strife, receiving only injury and harm to themselves in the unavailing conflict.

An impression prevails, that sorrow is in itself a blessing in its influence, that it always makes purer and holier and better—the lives that it touches; but this is not true. Sorrow has in itself no purifying efficacy, as some suppose, by which it removes from sinful lives their blemishes and stains. The same fire which refines the gold—destroys the flowers. Sorrow is a fire, which in God's hand is designed to purify the lives of his people, but which, unblessed, produces only desolation. It depends on the relation of the sufferer to Christ, as a friend or enemy; and on the reception given to grief, whether it leaves good or ill where it enters. In a Christian home, where the love of Christ dwells and holds sway, sorrow should always leave a benediction. It should be received as God's own messenger; and we should welcome it, and listen for the divine message which it bears. For God's angels do not always come to us—as we are apt to imagine them coming, in radiant dress, with smiling face and gentle voice. Thus artists paint them thus—in their pictures.

Thus we imagine them—in their ministries. We think of them as possessing rare and wondrous loveliness; and so, no doubt, they do as they appear before God, and serve in his presence. There is no unloveliness in any angel-face in heaven. No angel has features of sternness; but, as these celestial messengers come to earth on their ministries, they appear ofttimes in forms which appall, and fill the trembling heart with terror and alarm! Yet ofttimes it is when they come in these very forms—that they bring their sweet messages and their best blessings.

"All God's angels come to us disguised,
Sorrow and sickness, poverty and death,
One after other lift their frowning masks,
And we behold the seraph's face beneath,
All radiant with the glory and the calm
Of having looked upon the face of God."

Wherever God's messenger of sorrow is thus received in a Christian home, with welcome even amid tears and pain—it will leave a blessing of peace, and will make the home sweeter, tenderer, heavenlier. We speak of love as the atmosphere in which the home reaches its best development in the direction of happiness, as in summer warmth the flowers unfold their rarest beauty and sweetest fragrance; but really no home ever attains its highest blessedness and joy, and its fullest richness of life, until in some way, sorrow enters its door. Even the home love, like certain autumn fruits, does not ripen into its sweetest tenderness, until the frost of trial has touched it.
When a green log of wood is laid on the hearth on a winter evening, and the fire begins to play about the log—a strange, plaintive music comes from the wood. A poet would tell you, that, while the tree stood in the forest, the birds sat amid its branches, and sang there, and that the notes of their songs hid away in the tree. Then he would tell you that the music you now hear from the log as it burns, is this bird-minstrelsy, which has remained imprisoned in the wood until brought out by the hot flames.

The poet's thought is only imaginary, but it well illustrates a truth concerning the life of a Christian home, which is worth pondering and remembering. In the sunny days of joy, the bird-notes of gladness are sung all about us, and sink away into our hearts, and hide there. The lessons, the influences, the tender impressions, the peace, and the beautiful things of quiet, happy, prosperous years, fall upon our lives, as the sunbeams and rain showers fall the fields and the long autumn and winter and early spring—and seem to be lost. There appears but little to show for so much absorption of brightness and blessing. Our lives do not appear to yield the measure of joy they should yield. Then the flames of trial are kindled; and, in the heat of suffering, the long-gathering and long-slumbering music is set free—and flows out! Many of the world's best things have been born of affliction. The sweetest songs ever sung on earth—have been called out by suffering. The richest blessings that we enjoy—have come to us out of the fire. The good things we inherit from the past—are the purchase of suffering and sacrifice. Our redemption comes from Gethsemane and Calvary. We get heaven through Christ's tears and blood. Whatever is richest and most valuable in life anywhere, has been in the fire.

Our love for one another may be strong and true in the sunny days, but it never reaches its holiest and fullest expression until pain has touched our hearts, and called out the hidden treasures of affliction. Even the love of a mother for her child, deep and pure as it is, never reaches its full wondrousness of devotion and sacrifice—until the child suffers, and the mother bends over it in yearning and solicitude. The same is true of all the home loves—the best and divinest qualities in them come out only in the fires. The household which has endured sorrow in the true spirit of love and faith, emerges from it undestroyed, untarnished, and with purer, tenderer affections, with less of animosity, of selfishness, and earthliness. When husband and wife stand together beside their dead child, they are drawn to each other as never before; their common grief is purifying. Children which remain are dearer to parents, after one has been taken. Brothers and sisters grow more thoughtful and patient in their mutual fellowship, when the home circle has been broken. There is in an empty chair in a Christian home a wondrous power to soften the animosities of each, and refine all the affections and feelings. The cloud of grief which hangs over a household, like the summer cloud above the fields and gardens, leaves wondrous blessings.

Is it raining, little flower?
Be glad of rain.
Too much sun would wither you.
Twill shine again.
The sky is very black, tis true,
But just behind—it shines blue.
Are you weary, tender heart?
Be glad of pain;
In sorrow, sweetest things will grow
As flowers in rain.
God watches, and you will have sun
When clouds their perfect work have done.

But how may we make sure of the benedictions which sorrow brings? Even the gospel is the savor of death to those who reject it; and sorrow, though it may be God's evangel, ofttimes comes and goes away again, leaving no heavenly gift. How must we treat this dark-robed messenger, if we would receive the heavenly blessings it bears in its hands?

We must welcome it, even in our trembling and tears—as sent from God! We must believe that it comes from our Father, and that, coming from him, it is a messenger of love to us, bearing a true blessing to us, though it is a loss or a pain. We must ask for the message which God has sent us in the affliction, and listen to it as we would to a message of gladness. It has some mission to us, or some gift from heaven. Some golden fruit lies hidden in the rough husk! Some bit of gold in us, God designs to be set free from its dross—by this fire. There is some radiant height beyond this dark valley, to which he wants to lead us.

Christ himself accepted and endured with loving submission—the bitter sorrow of his cross, because he saw the joy set before him, which waited beyond the sorrow. In the same way, we should accept our griefs, because they are but the shaded gateways to peace and blessedness. If we cannot get through the gateways, we cannot get the radiant joys which wait beyond the sorrow. Not to be able to take from our Father's hand, the seed of pain, is to miss the fruits of blessing which can grow from no other sowing. If we are wise, we will give sorrow as cordial a welcome as joy; for it is from the same loving hand, and brings gifts as good and as golden.

We must remember, that it is in the home where Christ himself dwells—that sorrow unlocks its heavenly treasures. A Christless home receives none of them. Those who shut their doors on Christ, shut out all blessedness, and, when the lamps of earthly joy go out—are left in utter darkness! A wise forethought will make sure of the hopes and comforts, of a personal interest in Christ; and of having him as a guest in the sunny days, that, when the shadow of night falls—the stars of bright hope may shine out!

~Sorrow in Christian Homes. by rJ. R Miller (1866)
~Afternoon Delight by Larie Snow Hein.

Trouble Sleeping?

The nights were long, fraught with anguish and concerns, tossings and turnings . . .that is, until the Merciful Grace of . . .

"God, my Maker, who giveth songs in the night.--Job 35:10

Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise the God who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded argosy. It is easy enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow--the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is skilful who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by--who sings from his heart.

No man can make a song in the night of himself; he may attempt it, but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let all things go well, I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I go out of the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and wherewith shall I frame a hymn of praise to God?

How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where no jewels are? Let but this voice be clear, and this body full of health, and I can sing God's praise: silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of languishing, and how shall I then chant God's high praises, unless He Himself give me the song?

No, it is not in man's power to sing when all is adverse, unless an altar-coal shall touch his lip. It was a divine song, which Habakkuk sang, when in the night he said,

"Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

Then, since our Maker gives songs in the night, let us wait upon Him for the music. O Thou chief musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is upon us, but tune Thou our lips to the melody of thanksgiving."

~Charles Haddon Spurgeon
~Painting: "Woman in Garden of Peonies by Abbott Fuller Graves

My Paternal Grandmum

Grandma passed away when my father was very small, leaving Grandpa a widower for the second time. This photograph may have been taken on their wedding day. My aunt who was also quite young has sweet wistful memories of her dear mother, described as having beautiful long red hair. She was known for her sweet, gentle ways and her beautiful smile.

My thoughtful aunt recently gave me the unfinished quilt Grandma had started before she died in the thirties, a precious fragment of a beautiful, simple life, seeming left unfinished. I notice she carefully stitched the edges of this quilt!

She was a strong Christian whose elusive sweet fragrance still wafts through our memories and envelopes even the grand daughter she never knew with the carefully stitched pieces of her love.

I found this poem in her scrapbook:

God"s Way

God moves in a mysterious way

Althou' we cannot see

He has such wonders to perform

To help you and me.

Strange things may happen here and there -

We wonder why 'tis so

But God has reasons for such things

That happen here below.

Sometimes in spirit we rebel

When he sends griefs to bear.

We wonder in our inmost hearts

If He can really care.

If we would wait with patience thru

'Til all is said and done

We'd understand the reason why

Of all 'neath the sun.

There's not a trouble fraught with pain

That comes to you or me

But God has meant for someone's good,

To us a mystery.

The old time hymn so true and sweet

I read with eager eyes.

God moves in a mysterious way

But O, how wondrous wise!

Sometimes things seem to go all wrong
Inceasing fear and woe

In tantalizing cruel ways

That tempts us mortals so.

We feel God has forsaken us

When clouds o'er hang our day.

He knows the best, altho' He moves

In a mysterious way.

~Belle Tooley Stacy

Echoes of Life

a clipping from Grandma's c.1930 scrapbook

Poetic Beauty

"The burning bushes are still retaining their glorious color.

I like the second part of October

with the deep burgundies and browns and the sunny golds.

The really bright scarlets are pretty much on the ground now,

but the deep colors are comforting."



~J M Benson

Discouragement

"We are not apt to think of discouragement as either dangerous or sinful. Some people seem to think it rather a pleasant experience than otherwise; at least, they appear to find a sort of relief and satisfaction in dropping down now and then, into a depressed mood. They make no effort to overcome their disposition to sadness, or to climb out of the deep valley of shadows—up to the mountain-tops where the sun is shining. They resent the kindly efforts of those who would help them to be cheerful, as if they were meddling with matters which do not belong to them.

We should settle it once for all—that the ideal Christian life is one of habitual cheerfulness. It has its experiences of difficulty, of disappointment, of suffering; but these are meant to be only lessons set for us to learn, and we are not expected to fail in them. Provision is made for us in the grace of God, by which we may overcome in every such experience, and be more than conquerors through him who loved us. A feeling of discouragement creeping into our heart should be met, therefore, as a temptation. He who opens to it, and lets it in—does not know to what sin and sorrow it may lead him. An example will help us to understand the peril of discouragement.

A fragment of old history tells us of the Israelites, that at a certain time they were much discouraged because of difficulty of the way. The way itself was indeed hard, rough, and dreary, leading through the sandy desert, where the heat was intense, with no shelter anywhere from the sun's fierce, smiting rays. It was discouraging also because it was a sudden interruption of their journey. When they were at the very gate of the promised land, a barrier was thrown across their path, and they were compelled to make a long detour through an inhospitable wilderness, instead of entering at once into the country toward which for so long their hopes had been leading them. What made it all so much worse was the needlessness of it—but for Edom's disobligingness. Edom would not allow his brother Israel, to pass through his country to reach his own land. Indeed, he said that if he attempted to pass, he would resist him with armed force. It certainly was very discouraging to be treated so by a brother. We are scarcely surprised that the Israelites were discouraged, and yet we must read the story through to the end, to see to what the discouragement led. They murmured against God and against Moses. Then murmuring grew into profane contempt of God's mercy and goodness, and to the grievous sin of rebellion. It is when we follow it to its final outcome, that we see the true nature of discouragement.

Many people find the way of life hard at some time or other. There are scarcely any who do not come upon points of hardness, even amid the most prosperous and happy years. There are elements in many people's condition and circumstances, which in themselves are hard. Sometimes it is sickness, sometimes poverty, sometimes sorrow. The burdens are heavy. The toil is oppressive. The way is wearisome. Then sometimes, as in the case of the Israelites, much of the hardness is caused by unbrotherly conduct. There are brothers who put barriers in the way, and make life harder for brothers.

We all need to guard our conduct most sedulously, lest we become hinderers of others in their godly living. It is a sin to be a hinderer. We commit a grievous wrong against another, when we make life harder for him—when we make it harder for him to be true, honest, pure-hearted, and worthy. Edom made it immeasurably harder for Israel, simply by being disobliging. There are many people who make the way longer and harder for others, when by a little unselfish obligingness, a little cheering helpfulness, they might make it easier for them. It is a sin to be a discourager!

The ten spies who brought back the cowardly report about the giants, and thus spread disheartenment and dismay—wrought a great crime against the people. Their discouraging words led to most calamitous consequences—the doom of death on a whole generation, and the shutting of a nation out of the promised land for forty years. Yet similar wrongs are being committed continually right in our own Christian days. Discouragers go about among men, and, by their gloomy, pessimistic words—they make life incalculably harder for them. They put out the lamps of cheer and hope which shine in men's homes. They quench the very stars that burn in the sky above men's heads. They take the gladness out of hearts. They see only the dark shadows of life, never the sunshine; and they prate wherever they go of gloom and doom. They never bring us a message of cheer. We are never stronger, braver, happier, or truer—for meeting them.

On the other hand, after a talk with one of these discouragers, we always feel as if part of life's beauty had faded, as if there were less to live for. Our stars of hope shine less brightly, and a sense of weariness and languor creeps over our spirits. Life is harder for us after meeting them. There should be nothing but condemnation for the discourager. He is an enemy of his fellows. He casts a black shadow over human hearts. He is an enemy to mankind. It is a great sin against humanity—to make life harder for men.

Our great Teacher spoke some of his most scathing words against those who put stumbling-blocks in the path of God's little ones. This divine censure falls upon all who in any way lay hindrances in the paths of others. The Christian duty of everyone is to be an encourager, a helper of others in their life. No mission can be nobler, diviner, than that of him who lives to be an inspirer of hope and cheer, and to make others braver and stronger for life's experiences.

There is a pleasant story of a plain woman in Glasgow, who, one summer day, was walking along a street in which some poorly clad children were running barefooted at their play. A policeman saw this woman stoop down again and again as she went on, each time picking up something which she put in her apron. The officer supposed she was finding and appropriating something she should not take, and, hurrying after her, demanded in a threatening manner that she let him see what she had in her apron. The trembling woman complied, and showed the guardian of the city's safety some pieces of broken glass which she had gathered up out of the street. "I thought I would take them out of the way of the children's feet," she said. The act was a beautiful one. The poor woman was doing angels' work. She was making the street a safer place for the children to play in.

There are some thoughtful people who will never let a piece of banana-skin or orange-peel lie on the pavement—but will stop, no matter how hurriedly they are walking, to remove the dangerous rind, lest someone might be made to stumble, and be maimed by stepping on it. It is well that there always are those who have an eye and a hand for such ministries, who are ready to save us from the consequences of others' hurtful carelessness. It should be our aim, not only to pick up bits of broken glass from the children's playgrounds to make them safer, and to lift from the sidewalks bits of orange-peel or banana-skin to prevent accidents to the unwary—but in all life's ways to gather out the stones and the stumbling-blocks, and whatever might hinder or hurt our fellow-pilgrim in his journey.

Whatever the cause of, or whoever is responsible for the hardness, there is no doubt that in every life, there are many experiences which have a discouraging tendency. It may seem almost too much to say that whatever the hardness of the way may be, nevertheless, a Christian should never be discouraged. Yet this is the other side of the lesson. It is never safe to give way, to even the beginnings of discouragement; for if we do, we cannot know what the end will be.

Discouragement cherished leads to despondency and despair. Even if it does not grow to such sad ripeness, it works grievous harm in a life. It produces a noxious atmosphere, in which all the lamps burn but dimly. It weakens one's moral purposes, and paralyzes one's energies. A discouraged man is only half himself. He takes hold of duty with only half his usual earnestness. His feet drag wearily as he goes about his duties. Discouragement makes the hard path—much harder; and the heavy load—much heavier. We should live continually so that our life shall make it easier for others to live; never to be hinderers—but always helpers, of others. No one can afford to yield to discouragement, even for one hour, in the smallest degree. We require all our strength all the time—if we would be equal to the burden, stress, and responsibility of our common days.

Life is not easy for any of us, if we would meet it worthily, and make of it what God expects us to make. It is necessary that our eye shall be clear, its light undimmed; that our heart shall beat with full pulsings; that our hand shall be strong and steady, and that all our powers shall be at their best.

This cannot be—if we are the prey of discouragement, or if we yield in even the smallest degree to its influence. Then, not only does discouragement weaken us, unfitting us for our best work—but it leads to doubt and unbelief, and ofttimes to other sins! It leads to murmuring and complaining, and these are sins which grieve God. It makes men blind to God's goodness, and ofttimes rebellious against God's will. Many people throw away their chance in life, through discouragement.

When Norman McLeod was a boy he was much discouraged, and, in a fit of petulance, said, "I wish I never had been born!" His pious mother said, "Norman, you have been born; and, if you were a wise child, you would ask the Lord what you were born for." He took the good advice, and found that God had a noble plan for his life.

"But how can we keep from being discouraged?" asks someone. "When the way is hard, when the burdens are heavy, when the path is through hot deserts, when even friends make life harder for us—how can we help being discouraged?"

There is an answer to this question of fearfulness in the words of the old Hebrew prophet: "Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. The Sovereign LORD is my strength! He will make me as surefooted as a deer and bring me safely over the mountains!" Habakkuk 3:17-19

If we are Christians, there never can be a sufficient reason why we should be discouraged. "If God is for us—who can be against us?" We need only to abide in Christ, doing always our simple duty, and leaving all in his hands. There is no doubt that every hard thing that God permits to come into our life, has a blessing wrapped up in it. The things which appear before us as discouragements, prove to be helps toward nobler attainments.

A Christian physician, whose career has been full of faith and noble ministry, gives this experience: He was a poor boy, and a cripple. One day he was watching some other boys on the ball-field. They were active, strong, and wealthy. As he looked on, his heart grew bitter with envy. A young man who stood beside him noted the discontent on his face, and said to him, "You wish you were in those boys' place, don't you?" " Yes, I do!" was the answer. "I reckon God gave them money, education, and health," continued the young man, "to help them to be of some account in the world. Did it never strike you," he continued, after a moment's pause, ''that he gave you your lame leg for the same reason—to make a man of you?" The boy gave no answer, and turned away. He was angry—but he did not forget the words. His crippled leg was God's gift! To teach him patience, courage, perseverance! To make a man of him! He thought of the words until he saw their meaning. They kindled hope and cheer, and he determined to conquer his hindrance. He grew heroic. He soon learned that what was true of his lame leg, was true also of all the difficulties, hindrances, and hard conditions of his life—they were all God's gifts to him to help him to be of some account in the world—to make a man of him.

The lesson is for all of us, especially for young people who seem born with more than their share of disadvantages, limitations, hard conditions. God gave them this heavy load, whatever it is, to make something of them. The deformity, the burden, the weight of some other one's need laid upon the shoulder, the inheritance of difficulty which seems to be a hindrance to a worthy life—is but another opportunity to grow, to become stronger, richer-hearted, more a man or a woman, to win a higher place in life, and a brighter crown in glory! In any case, we should never give place to discouragement for a moment!

If we are God's children, we have only to keep ourselves in God's hands, and keep our own hands off; then, out of the sorest difficulties and the hardest conditions, blessings will come. God lives, and is caring for us, and we can say: "God is in his heaven—All is right with his world."

DISCOURAGEMENT by J. R. Miller, 1896

Living by the Day

"It is life's largeness which most discourages earnest and conscientious people. As they think deeply of life's meaning and responsibility, they are apt to be overwhelmed by the thought of its vastness. Life has manifold, almost infinite, relations toward God and toward man. Each of these relations has its binding duties. Every life has a divine mission to fulfill--a plan of God to work out.

Every individual life must be lived amid countless antagonisms, and in the face of countless perils. Battles must be fought, trials encountered, and sorrows endured.

Also, the brief earthly course--is but the beginning of an endless existence, whose immortal destinies hinge upon fidelity in the present life.

Looked at in this way, as a whole, there is something almost appalling in the thought of our responsibility in living.

Many a person who thinks of life in this aspect, and sees it in its wholeness, has not the courage to hope for success and victory--but stands staggered, well-near paralyzed, on the threshold. Despair comes to many a heart when either duty or sorrow or danger is looked at--in the aggregate.

But this is not the way we should view life. It does not come to us all in one piece. We do not get it even in years--but only in days--day by day. We look on before us, and as we count up the long years with their duties, struggles, and trials--and the bulk is like a mountain which no mortal can carry. But really, we never have more than:
one day's battles to fight, or
one day's work to do, or
one day's burdens to bear, or
one day's sorrow to endure,
in any one day.

It is wonderful how the Bible gives emphasis to this way of viewing life. When for forty years God fed His chosen people with bread from heaven, He never gave them, except on the morning before the Sabbath, more than one day's portion at a time. He positively forbade them gathering more than would suffice for the day; and if they should violate His command, what they gathered above the daily portion, would become corrupt. Thus early, God began to teach His people to live only by the day--and trust Him for tomorrow.

At the close of the forty years, the promise given to one of the tribes was, "As your days--so shall your strength be." Deuteronomy 33:25. Strength was not promised in advance--enough for all of life, or even for a year, or for a month--but the promise was, that for each day, when it came with its own needs, duties, battles and griefs--enough strength would be given. As the burden increased--more strength would be imparted.

The important thought here is, that strength is not emptied into our hearts in bulk--a supply for years to come--but is kept in reserve, and given day by day, just as the day's needs require.

When Christ came, He gave still further emphasis to the same method of living. He said, "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today!" Matthew 6:34. He would have us fence off the days by themselves, and never look over the fence to think about tomorrow's cares.

The thought is, that each day is, in a certain sense--a complete life by itself. It has . . .
its own duties,
its own trials,
its own burdens,
its own needs.
It has enough to fill our heart and hands for the one full day. The very best we can do for any day, for the perfecting of our life as a whole--is to live the one day well. We should put all our thought and energy and skill into the duty of each day, wasting no strength--either in grieving over yesterday's failures, or in anxiety about tomorrow's responsibilities.

Our Lord, also, in the form of prayer which He gave his disciples, taught this lesson of living only by the day. There He has told us to ask for bread--for one day only. "Give us this day our daily bread." He again teaches us that we have to do only with the present day. We do not need tomorrow's bread now. When we need it--it will be soon enough to ask God for it, and get it. It is the 'manna lesson' over again. God is caring for us, and we are to trust Him for the supply of all our needs--as they press upon us. We are to trust Him, content to have only enough in hand for the day.

If we can but learn to thus live by the day, without anxiety about the future--the burden will not be so crushing. We have nothing to do with life in the aggregate--that great bulk of duties, responsibilities, struggles, and trials--which belong to a course of years. We really have nothing to do even with the nearest of the days before us--tomorrow. Our sole business is with the one little day, now passing. Its burdens will not crush us--we can easily carry them until the sun goes down. We can always get along for one short day. It is the projection of life into the long future, which dismays and appalls us. This lesson makes life easy and simple!"

~ (J.R. Miller SERMONS "Living by the DAY")

Indian Summer

"The hazy, cloudless skies of Indian Summer.

Leaves scurrying down the street before the wind.

The cold shiver from an arctic blast.

Indian Summer.

The last warmth of the sun.

Chilly mornings and glorious warm afternoons.

The Harvest Moon.

The Hunter's Moon.

The Rainy Season.

Dry corn stalks clattering in the wind.

The touch of frost on grass and window pane.

The smell of burning leaves."

Keith C. Heidorn

Photo: The Way Home (our road)

Burdens

"Cast your burden upon the Lord--and He shall sustain you." Psalm 55:21

This privilege is a very precious one. We all have our burden. No matter how happy anyone is--he is bearing some weight of care, or sorrow, or responsibility. Continually we find our load too heavy for our own unaided strength. We feel that we cannot carry it without help. Human love comes up close beside us, willing, if it were possible, to take the burden from our shoulder, and carry it for us. But this is not possible. "Every man must bear his own burden." Most of life's loads, are not transferable.

Take pain, for instance. No tenderest, truest love--can bear our pain for us, or even bear any smallest part of it.

Or take sorrow. As close as human friendship may come to us when our heart is breaking with grief--it cannot take from us any least portion of the anguish we suffer, as we meet bereavement.

Or take struggle with temptation. We can get no human help in it, and must pass through the struggle alone.

It will be noticed, too, that God Himself does not promise to bear our burden for us. So much is it an essential and inseparable part of our life--that even divine love will not relieve us of its weight.

The teaching from all this, is that we cannot hope to have our life-burden lifted off. Help cannot come to us, in the way of relief. The prayer to be freed from the load, cannot be answered. The assurance is--not that the Lord will take away our burden when we cast it upon Him, lifting it away from our shoulder. It is, instead, a promise that while we bear our burden, whatever it may be--that the Lord will sustain us. "Cast your burden upon the Lord--and He shall sustain you." He will give us strength to continue faithful, to go on with our doing of His will, unimpeded, unhindered, by the pressure of the load we must carry.

An alternative rendering of this verse is, "Cast your gift upon the Lord--and He shall sustain you." Thus we see, that our burden is a gift of God to us! At once the thing, which a moment ago seemed so oppressive in its weight, so unlovely in its form--is hallowed and transformed! We had thought it to be an evil--whose effect upon us could be only hurtful, hindering our growth, marring our happiness. But now we see that it is another of God's blessings, not evil--but good, designed not to hurt us, nor to impede our progress--but to help us onward!

A gift from a human friend, is a token and pledge of their love for us. In like manner, God sent this gift to us--because He loves us. It is a memento of divine affection. It may be hard for us to understand this. It may be a burden of pain, and pain seems so opposed to comfort--that we cannot see how it can be a gift of love. It may be sorrow; and sorrow never for the present seems to be joyous--but always grievous. It may be great loss--the stripping from us of life's pleasant things, leaving emptiness and desolation. How such burdens as these can be tokens of divine affection, God's gift of love--it is hard for us to conceive. Yet we know that God is our Father, and that His love for us never fails. Whatever comes from His hand to us--must be sent in love!

The world offers attractive things--pleasures, gains, promises of honor and delight. To the eye of sense, these appear to be life's best things. But too often they enfold bitterness and hurt, the fruit of evil. At the bottom of the cup--are dregs of poison! On the other hand, the things that God gives, appear sometimes unattractive, undesirable, even repulsive! We shrink from accepting them. But they enfold, in their severe and unpromising form--the blessings of divine love.

We know how true this is of life's pains and sorrows. Though grievous to sense, they leave in the heart which receives them with faith and trust--the fruits of divine blessing. Whatever our burden may be, it is God's gift, and brings to us some precious thing, from the treasury of divine love. This fact makes it sacred to us. Not to accept it--is to thrust away from us, a blessing sent from heaven. We need, therefore, to treat most reverently--the things in our life, which we call burdens.

We should regard all the gifts of God to us--with affection. This is easy for us so long as these gifts come to us in pleasant form--things that give joy to us. But with no less love and gratitude should we receive and cherish God's gifts, which come in forbidding form. It is the same divine love which sends the one--and also the other. The one is no less good--than the other. There is blessing as truly in the gift of pain or loss or trial--as in the gift of song and gain and gladness. Whatever God sends--we should receive in confidence, as a gift of His love. Thus it is, that our burden, whatever it may be, is hallowed.

It may not always be easy to carry it, for even love sometimes lays heavy burdens on the shoulders of its beloved. A wise father does not seek always to make life easy for his child. Nothing could be more unkind! He would have his child grow strong--and, therefore, he refuses to take away the hard task. God is too loving and kind, too true a father--to give us only easy things. He makes the burden heavy--that we may become strong in bearing it. But He is always near; and He gives us the help we need, that we may never faint beneath it. Thus we may always know, that our burden is our Father's gift to us!

(J. R. Miller "Things to Live For" 1896)

Down Memory Lane

Is there anything more lovely, more beautiful and fair;
Like a crown of glittering jewels, on summer's golden hair,
Than glorious October, with skies so deep and blue,
When every bush and shrub and tree is dyed the deepest hue?

Oh! If I were but an artist, I'd work with patient care,
With brush and colors soft and bright, I'd paint a picture rare,
I'd paint the maples on the hill, all scarlet red and gold,
The hickory like a yellow cloud, reflects the sunshine bold.

The sturdy oak in cardinal robed, to shades of deepest wine;
And hiding half the old stone wall, green fern and crimson vine.
The whisp'ring pine trees here and there in everlasting green:
And by the pasture fence, there'd be the flaming sumac seen.

And then the softly murmuring brook where graze the gentle herd,
The shadows creeping down the hill, the flash of passing bird.
The rolling meadows emerald green, the orchard bending down
With many kinds of luscious fruit, all golden, crimson, brown.

The purple mists o'er distant hills,
Bright lights and shadows dim,
A cottage white where children play
and sing the evening hymn.

And when my picture fair was done, I'm sure there'd yet remain
So many lovely things that it would not contain,
For artists cannot paint the charm, nor poets write in lays
All the beauty of October's glorious dreamy days.

~Winnie B. McNamire

I never knew my paternal grandmother for she died shortly after the birth of her baby in the thirties, leaving an infant, as well as my father and three older siblings. My father died when I was six so I never learned much about Grandma until recent years when I was blessed to be reunited with my father's closest sister.

Last weekend I visited this dear Aunt who presented me with a quilt top and scrapbook from her small trove of precious momentos. She was only eleven when she lost her mother whom she so lovingly describes as gentle, with beautiful long red hair, a beloved Sunday School teacher and president of The Ladies Aid Society. Grandma started the quilt which is meticulously hand stitched and also made a scrapbook using a 1930 Sears, Roebuck & Co. Wallpaper Catalogue, filling the pretty pages with poems, patriotic articles and "pieces" her little children had learned for S.S. Programs.

I didn't know she enjoyed poetry so these clippings provide a wondrous glimpse into her interests and the thoughts of her heart.

This poem entitled "October" is from Grandma's scrapbook.

The. October photograph was taken this past week..

Daybook

Monday, October 26th

Outside my window...
The sky is black, dark and chilly.

I am thinking...
Yes, and isn't it a joy?

I am thankful for...
The opportunity to sip my coffee quietly before day breaks.

I am wearing...
An ankle length pale rose brushed cotton gown with long sleeves, a wide scooped neck edged with narrow lace through which is laced narrow satin ribbon to tie above several tiny buttons with loops, a pretty quaint chemise-like style. Bare toes are tucked beneath a coverlet, hair is still in the usual "up" style as it is so long that I get tangled in it otherwise.

I am remembering...
What a wonderful concert we attended Friday night, a group of eight madrigal singers. Mesmerizing!

I am going...
To see my friend and neighbor who have their home on the market, heading for Florida later in the week. They don't want to maintain two places nor deal with the cold, snowy winter.

I am reading...
Passages from my Bible related to end times and the scrapbook my grandmother started in 1930 in which she saved favourite poems and articles that caught her fancy. It is a fascinating glimpse into the heart of a lovely young woman who died of septicemia in her thirties.

I am hoping....
To work outside cutting back more perennials and finish cleaning up the Potager. The carrots, chard, kohl crops and mesculen will continue growing and producing. The cold frame contains more greens for late fall. Maybe I will try moving in some herbs like garlic chives and chocolate mint for winter use. Yes! That would delightful!

On my mind...
The importance of focus on "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things . . . And the God of peace shall be with you. (Philippians 4:8, 9b)
i. e. The Word of God!

From the garden shed...
Thinking of making a rose hip wreath.

Noticing that...
The sky is brightening to a midnight blue as I write
Pondering these words...
"Especially look to those sins to which your crosses have some reference and respect. Are you crossed in your goods? Think if you did not over-love them and get them unjustly, or if in your children, see if you did not over-love them and cocker them, and so in all things of like kind. In what God smites you, see if you have not in that sinned against Him, and so frame to lament your sins and to seek help against them."
—William Whatel

From the kitchen...
Planning to pick Kiwi this week to make into preserves which I have never done before. They are so good! I don't think it will be green but maybe a rosy colour as the skins change with the sweetening frost.

Around the house...
Must vacuum throughout, prune the scented geraniums I brought inside for the winter and take care of the laundry.

One of my favorite things...
The sun shining through sparkling frost-patterned windows.

From my picture journal
These are Winter Hardy Kiwi which grow on trellised vines in our orchard. Each one is a bite-sized delight! The vines are heavily laden this year.

For more daybooks, do visit http://www.thesimplewoman.blogspot.com

As Little Children -

Almighty Father,

Conscious of our own weakness, and trusting only in Your grace and power--we beseech You this day to increase and multiply Your mercy upon us.

We are going forth to tread on slippery ground--may You uphold us.

Our march is through a land of which Satan is the prince--may You protect us.

Snares at each turn await our steps--may You guide us.

We look around--and fear. We look up to You--and take courage. By Your grace alone can we stand. If Your grace should fail us--instantly we fall. Our earnest prayer is,

"Hold me up--and I shall be safe!" Psalm 119:117

(Henry Law "Family Prayers")

Mother and Child c 1885 by Francis Coates Jones.