Dear friends,
Today I will be moving this space to somewhere else, please come and follow me, I would love to see you there! (“Why I moved?” read about it here)
(don't forget to bookmark it!)
This space, however, will be still open for you to come and read through the archives in a quiet evening.
Thank you…and see you “around the corner”, one click away from here.
When the heavy load of school time is over, then he goes and takes out his calligraphy kit, his notebook and spends hours drawing, writing, inventing.
He goes to the bookshelf and takes out two books, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci ,who will be (I can already tell), his best friend this summer and a huge one full of Leonardo’s paintings and drawings, and he enjoys this time; and I see the fruit of a Classical Education at hand. He is following the masters, he has been exposed to them, he knows he can find the best teachers in the books around our home, and he enjoys doing so.
But his best teacher is his Dad, and now his little sister comes and asks him to ride her bike with him, he agrees, he has learned this from Dad. He always comes to him.
So Big-brother comes and teaches her to ride her pink bike without the little training wheels, and she smiles, and he does too. And behind the scenes, my older daughter captures the moment, she loves to do so. She comes out from the living room where she has been, behind the piano trying to play by ear a new favorite piece, and grabs the camera and follows the wheels, the smiles, the feet, the joy.
I smile, I have learned by God’s grace to love the simple things that happen in our daily lives. I am grateful, for there could be no other better place for me than this, my home, and God has given me grace to understand that.
I am excited that our summer is here; summer in our home is not meant to put the books away, but to take out our favorite ones again; summer is here and it is about enjoying our children’s play and capturing the moments and keeping them in our hearts.
My Beloved gave me a gift yesterday; he paid for my annual mammography, and was there, sitting in the waiting room awaiting for me; he hugged me hard when he saw me coming out, and I fell in love once again.
Yes, it is not something I like to do, but have been faithful in doing it once a year since I turned 35. My doctor recommends to have a mammography and an ultrasound taken together, because both are complementary, and so I have done.
The room was cold, freezing cold, and as I stood there, I prayed, and to be true, the hardest thing for me while being there was to think about the “what if…”
“What if they found something?” and at the same time I found myself responding, “If they find something, then it will be on time, that is why come to have this tests taken, to be able to detect on time any abnormalities”. But most of all in that cold, freezing cold room, I prayed to my Heavenly Father, and asked Him to give me the peace which comes only when we rely on God’s faithfulness, in His sovereignty reigning in our lives. Why was I afraid?, He is my Father, and He upholds me with His mighty hand, even in the most cold, freezing cold rooms.
What about you? Maybe today you can pick up the phone and set an appointment for your so long-awaited mammography.
The songs of the birds fill our home, as they love to come this time of the year to our backyard to sing their praises to our Maker; the roses are in full bloom, as well as the gardenia. The apple tree has only two little apples, but it amazes me how can we eat from a tree such delicious fruits. The Jacaranda is beautiful, its flowers and seeds are a wonder to see.
Creation never ceases to praise the Maker, and it just amazes me.
Saturday is here, and I will be on a plane as you read this, and I am bringing with me the Bible verses I have been collecting, the Bible verses I have been memorizing and I will use the flying time to study them, to review them, to delight in them.
The more I walk in this journey of the spiritual discipline of memorizing the Scriptures, the more I love it but at the same time, I have found that the hardest thing for me has been to remember to memorize!
I go through them early in the morning, but as the day goes by I forget to go through them several times. Now I am thinking that I will use my iPhone’s alarm to remind me to stop and pray and review my verses. I need this. I am prone to wander, prone to forget what is really important in my daily life.
My friend Lisa, encouraged us to print the verses we are working with and write lots of notes on them to study them; so this is what I will be doing on the plane.
One important thing that I have also learned on this journey is that if I want to memorize only one or two verses in a chapter, instead of the whole chapter (which I prefer) I make sure to read several times that chapter, and know the context of the entire book, or epistle where it is found. This is very helpful, because it will prevent me from memorizing verses out of context; which we all know is not a safe thing to do.
Related posts {From the Archives} Beyond Reading… and Meditating on God’s Word. and One Thing That Can’t be Graded
Tim Challies invited us to read The Bruised Reed, a Puritan classic by Richard Sibbes, and this is the seventh post on the series. (Part one is here, part two is here, part three, part four, part five, part six)
While reading these chapters which are so beautiful and descriptive, I though I would write my review as in a simple short story.
In a land not so far from us, a land that resembles the heart of the sinner, his thoughts, and his will; a desolate land always in darkness, lived stone-hearted-men. These men were always longing and seeking, even though they did not know what exactly they wanted to find. Their nature was evil, and none, not even one wanted to do good. None of them wanted to be in the light, they were afraid of it, they loved darkness.
Their lives were like the wind, blowing hard and never able to be restrained, their women were always quarreling in the streets, in the market, just like a continual dripping that never ceases; their children and youth were free, or so they thought, because their parents had believed their ruler, The Prince of Darkness, and never loved them, never instructed them, All were selfish, each was looking for his own pleasures to be satisfied.
But God, Light himself, looked upon them, and had mercy on them. He sent the Prince of Peace to the land of war, to the land of despair, and he dwelt among them; but they were so blind, that could not recognize Him. They despised Him, and killed Him.
The Prince of Peace was Life itself and could not stay in the grave, He overcame the Prince of Darkness, and with His life He ransomed many of the stoned-hearted-men.
The Prince of Peace took those He chose, and brought them out of darkness into His admirable Light, He brought them into a new kingdom, the Kingdom of Light. He loved these sinners when they did not love Him, and changed their stone-hearted-men into a heart willing to love, He gave them a new name, Covenant People, and sealed them with His own Spirit, so even though, many looked as weak as a bruised reed, the Prince of Darkness could not drag them away from the light, no matter how hard he tried, they belonged to the Prince of Light. It was Grace and everlasting Love that bounded them to their new King.
The Covenant People, started a New Life, it was not easy, because the darkness was always trying to pull them away from the Light, they still had family and friends in that kingdom, and they had to live among them, and shine in their midst.
Living under a New King, in a world full of darkness was hard at times, some were persecuted, some others were always fighting against a desire within them that did not let them do as they wanted; some wondered if they were really victorious, but the King of Light always reminded them that He was there, by their side, that He had conquered and had given them weapons and means to stand victoriously through the darkest nights.
The government of the King of Light was wise, He knew that his new Covenant People, needed not external laws to bring condemnation, so He wisely wrote with His finger dipped in His own blood, His laws in their hearts, and gave them a desire to obey them. He knew them, he remember their weak condition and because of His great mercy, gave them His Spirit and put on their Hands His Sword.
The Covenant People could now walk in light because Light abided in them.
They were weak, but they knew that The Prince of Light was Victorious, and was always on their side.
Tomorrow, Megan will be sharing with us about Using Timelines with our Little Ones.
The Saturday in our home front will be a happy one, we will go have breakfast in a new Bistro that my Beloved says it is delicious…so I am excited about it.
Later in the afternoon we will have our home school open house; friends will be joining us as my children give some presentations.
Meanwhile, I want to introduce you to these ladies, you may want to visit them as they have wise words to say.
Diane at Theology for Girls, and Christina at Heavenly Springs.
If you home school you may have one of those ugly and useful file organizers, well maybe after seeing this picture you may want to get in the mood of getting your old pair of blue jeans and start painting.
Isn’t it gorgeous?
Well, Rebekah is the artist…. you may want to visit her too at The Fortnightly Purse. (Be sure to read the comments, because there she says what kind of prep. she had to do the metal surface before applying the paint)
Now is your turn, my Friend, I would love you to leave a note in the comments box, because I really want to know YOU!
Today is Saturday, and visiting with Friends is a joy!
May you enjoy your friends and family this weekend!
Today I posted a recipe (simple and delicious) of a Coffee Jello here.
As we were drinking another cup of coffee, I said ” I cannot explain you how much being a Reformed Christian has changed my whole life”
I grew up in a Christian environment, the type which never mentions words like, “religion, sin or hell, sacrament or Lord’s Day” However, it included many phrases like, “give and you will be blessed”, “You can do all things through Christ” – the context did not matter -, “You are more than conqueror”, “You are the child of the King” -i.e live like a princess!- Now I see behind and lower my head, and bless my Redeemer.
Yes my life has changed dramatically; doctrines reached me in the kitchen, in the dining room, in my bedroom, in my backyard. The Teachings (Doctrines) of the Word have changed my worldview.
“Sovereignty, for example, has changed me tremendously.” I kept saying to my friend, “Believing that God has chosen His own, and has called them to be His own changes more than my view of how God saves his people, it changes my attitude towards every single event that happens around me”
God is Sovereign. He is Sovereign when I do not understand why winters last so much, or when I see pretty and beauty all around me. God is Sovereign when I sit or when I walk. He is Sovereign.
Doctrines should change us, the body of teachings in the Bible must change us and make us more godly; if not we are in danger, we are only puffing up.
Grace meets me every day, and what I believe I must live.
The “T” in T.U.L.I.P changed me; Total Depravity still changes me; I am the daughter of a King, yes indeed! but I am much more than that, I am His. I am hidden in Him, I do not deserve being where I am, I need a Saviour but I also need a Sanctifier. I am lost without Him. Sin is real, my fights are real, but I am His!
The Five points of Calvinism, the Five Solas of the Reformation, words like Monergism or Theology would not avail much if they would not reach me in the kitchen, in how and why I cook for my family, in my marriage bed, in my conversation with my friends, in my daily life.
