Last season pics

Not Cronologic

Boys in winter

New additions to family


Bench at park that Rod made for my birthday.

Had very special friends over for my birthday, they brought me bright tulips and carnations. It was my aunt Lana and her two beautiful daughters, Sonya and Debra.

Slapped a cake together for B-day.

These are my two treasures.
Thanks Deb for the pic

Boys at my house got me some flowers for Mothers Day.

Elisha play at the school.

Sonya this is for you, who helped make the alter.

Happy with it??

Look what I found!

WWOOOWW!! Ask God for a little wisdom and He just pores it on you. You have to read this if the past post spoke to you in any way. It is a quiz as to how humble we are in our relationships. My friend and cousen Selma always talked about brokenness and I never really know that it was just another word for humility. Here is the link.

Pride or Humility

My faults humility
I’ve been exploring the difference between real and faults humility. Since Jesus was washing feet with a towel and basin at the last supper, I’ve been asking about what it really means in that light. Here are some of my ideas, and I sure wish that you would add or take away according to your wisdom.
Pride

The inability to take a complement

Constant need to mention good deeds, even when no one asks

Rejecting help, service, or gifts

Putting myself down

Criticizing others to try to make myself look better

Ranking jobs

Doing good to be seen by others

Real humility

Realizing my desperate need for God

Being obedient and able to be led

Realizing my own weakness

Giving others the chance to fail

My Vows

Today is the day we consider the vows we made when we were baptized. Rod and I reread them this morning in preparation for the meal of remembrance. Here they are:

Before the prayer:

1. Do you recognize the teachings of Jesus, which have been laid before you, to be the truth and the true foundation of blessedness?
2. Do you believe in and agree with the twelve points of the Christian faith, and will you diligently witness to them?
3. Do you desire the intercession of the church so that God may forgive and remit the sins you have committed either knowingly or in ignorance?
4. Do you desire to yield, to give, and to sacrifice yourself to God the Lord in the covenant of Christian baptism?

After the prayer, each one is asked the following six questions while kneeling:

1. Have you now understood enough of the Word of the Lord to recognize it as the way to eternal life?
2. Are you sorry with all your heart for the sins you have committed against God, either knowingly or in ignorance? And do you henceforth want to fear God and never willfully sin against Him anymore, but rather die than willfully do anything against Him?
3. Do you believe that God, through Christ and the intercession of His people , has forgiven and remitted your sins?
4. Do you desire to accept brotherly admonition and discipline and also to use it toward others when necessary?
5. Do you desire to give and sacrifice yourself to the Lord in Heaven with body and soul and all that you have, and to yield yourself in obedience to Christ and His Church?
6. Do you desire to make a covenant with God and with all His people and to be baptized on confession of your faith?

Now that Easter is upon us we like to check ourselves and see that we are still keeping them. The hardest one for me besides keeping the faith is to use brotherly admonition. When I use it, my own house has to be clean, and I always have to keep my motives pure and humble. That's not easy, but it does serve to bring us closer to each other and to God.

There are no excuses to use before God because He sees into my heart and knows my deepest secret thoughts. It appears that if I don't keep my vows then I am a lier and Gods word says that the devil is the father of all who lie. This pretty much sobers us up at this time of year.

Sign

I finally finished my sign, it is carved into the wood. I've never tried carving before and it was an exciting venture.
The paint is acrylic and I hope it weathers well as it it is going outside. It has a few coats of varnish.
It's funny how I have trouble knowing when to stop paining, tossing the question "When is it good enough?????"

Blessed

Last week Rodney came in from work and joined me in the sewing room and asked me this question: "Nelda, Do you like it here?"

Well, first thing my fingers came up and I started counting.

#1 I have a wonderful husband who I can’t seem to get enough of.
#2 I have two lovely children, healthy, full of fun, and intelligent.
#3 I have more clothes then I can store.
#4 I have enough food to keep me slightly overweight.
#5 I have a huge house that I can barely maintain.
#6 I have a pretty healthy body and mind.
#7 My children still have grandparents on both sides of the family.
#8 I have some beautiful friends who refresh my spirit.
#9 I have the opportunity to spoil my kids with gifts if I so choose.
#10 The bank doesn’t own any of my possessions.

… I ran out of fingers, and those are only physical blessings. I would have to be ungrateful not to like it here. Counting my blessings can be a never ending task. It would be sinful if I had a case.

More important are always the spiritual blessings. So let me employ my toes for the job.

#1 I have God’s love, forgiveness and the promise of heaven.
#2 I have knowledge of the way.
#3 I have freedom to practice, preach, and learn God’s word.
#4 I have almost daily prayer meetings with the church.
#5 I have a preacher who teaches not only what I want to hear, but also walks before me as a good example.
#6 I have a voice that can be used to praise God with.
#7 I have a body of believers to help me should I fall into sin or get sick.
#8 I have the opportunity for good works and deeds that help the poor and blind.
#9 I have Gods spirit living in me the moment I was reborn.
#10 I have Jesus’ example of how to live and give my all.

Two Years

Second blog Birthday today

Reevaluating

It is my second blog birthday and I have a few things that I have to ask myself. I have some fears too.

I fear giving impressions that are not reality.

I fear standing up for or speaking about principles that I don’t always live up to.

Do I become a hypocrite as soon as I verbalize virtues what I don’t quite measure up to? Am I better off never talking about them? Should I chuck my blog because there is the opportunity to show only some things and not others?

There are the times when this blog challenges me to attain what I profess and there are times when I can see my mistakes and how I am growing and learning from them.

I do have many struggles that I couldn't begin to share, but once they have been fought through I know I own a gold mine. This I am not afraid to write about.

I kept this quote from Dr. Laura’s book Ten Commandments that I found interesting. It was from the chapter on bearing false witness.

“The reality is that one can believe and live by standards…but imperfectly. That is not hypocrisy, that is the reality of the limitations of all human beings to attaining divinity.”
-Dr. Laura Schlessinger

“Under the new rules, you can be called a hypocrite for upholding old standards of virtue that you don’t exemplify perfectly; but you can’t be called a hypocrite for sinking into utter moral squalor, as long as you profess to believe there is nothing wrong with it. So the defender of traditional morality is kept constantly on the defensive, since only he can be accused of hypocrisy…and you may look hypocritical when you’re only human.”
-Joseph Sobran

Anyway is it not something I am about to take lightly as it concerns me. It comes up frequently in Ernie’s sermons and it always makes my ears pop up. As Jesus said it is much better to go silently then to say you will go and not go.