Saul (trying for depth)

I'm currently reading in I Samuel. What an awesome section, and what lessons are there for me! I get so sad reading about Saul, seeing as I know his end.

Do you know any verses that cause you to be poor and of a contrite spirit, and tremble at God's word? (This is from Isaiah 66:2--the man to which God will look.) One of these verses for me is I Samuel 15:22,23, emphasis on 23: 22"And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. 23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry...."

I don't know about you, but the word that would perfectly describe me in my youth is "rebellious." I tremble to think how I used to be, and bless the Lord for mercifully sparing me having such daughters! I'm amazed my mom didn't kill me, or, at least, disown me. She would've been justified in doing so, believe me.

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ has made me a new woman; He stopped me in "my wild career" (a line from a hymn). He drew me to Himself, the One who is altogether lovely. He caused me to love holiness, to want to be like Him--to hate sin. Why would I want to embrace that which killed my Beloved? I still sin--thank God for the Spirit of God that doesn't leave me alone--but I don't want to! He convicts. I have an Advocate with the Father--Jesus Christ the righteous. Glory to God.

In my lost estate, I dabbled in things pertaining to witchcraft. As a lost girl, I sinned and committed idolatry--worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator. And my dear Father tells me that REBELLION is as WITCHCRAFT, and STUBBORNNESS!!! (yikes!) is as iniquity and idolatry! Wow. Please, God, don't ever let me be found there.

And so, these verses cause me to tremble. I tremble when I think of how "prone to wander" I am, not so much physically, as in my mind, where, I believe, the battle is won or lost. I tremble to think how stubborn I can be. How easy it is NOT to be stubborn when things go your way! And rebellion. How God used this verse to teach me (and continues to teach me!) submission to my dear husband. How desperately I needed this lesson if I was to have a Christian marriage, something I had never seen before I married (there were lots of young singles in our church, and our pastor was single). What mercy and grace I've been shown!

More on such verses later. Thank you for reading.

Yippee!

Why? A new SOFA! Actually, used. Got it at Goodwill (good spotting, Mi!) for only TWENTY BUCKS! AND it's a sofa bed, in good shape! AND it doesn't stink! (You'd think my lover would look a little happier about it, eh?)

The sofas are now in a "U" shape around the fireplace, and it is cozy, cozy, cozy. Three sofas. We're loving it.

Come visit; we'll light up the fireplace and make some hot cocoa and open our bibles. Just say when.

Depth

Please don't give up on me! SOON there will be more entries, hopefully with some DEPTH! Thanks for hanging in there. (And yes, it IS Christy.) Yours and His, Vivian, who had the best time in McKinney--between Ikea and Genghis Grill....

Identify!

What is it, ladies and gentlemen? Place your guesses here.

The girls are off to McKinney! Ian's broken heart will immediately heal, when "the boy of my dreams" sees his Emmie.

I gave little Sarah the great news--Grandpa got a HOLIDAY HAM (pronounce HAM with about 4 syllables! Southern style)! I LOVE to hear her say this. She's a hoot!

IKEA's inventory will be diminished shortly. You've GOTTA go there.

Life's unfair. Misty's posting late at night. How DOES Grace beat me to it? Blame it on the early-morning Abby.

Bunch of stuff and nonsense, eh? Thank you, Helwigs. Love comes in many forms; one of our favorite manifestations is commenting! Good visiting with you. I'm ready for the Helwig blog to kick in.

Have a great week! Greg has my cell phone this week. Sarah's is mine minus 1. You do the math!

Happy Birthday, Misty!

Our dear dotter-in-love has a birthday today! Have the best one ever! You are such a blessing to me! I thank God for a godly wife to my son, and mother to my baby grands! I love you!

Here she is with her beautiful babies and my sweet mom. Happy Birthday!

Nursing, and other musings

My poor Sarah is facing a nursing strike from Miggy. I never heard of such a thing, but there she is. I'm so sad for them! I nursed 5 little cling-ons, and loved every minute of it. Convenience! My girls (and Misty is included in that number!) all are so much more together than I was! I nursed my kids in bed; they sit in a chair, always, and never put the baby in bed with them. I was too wiped out to even think of starting that way. I have lots of fun nursing stories, but I think of Chad reading them and blushing, and I decide not to post them. (Explanation of this pic at the end. Read on.)

The Papa has a day off today, as he has a meeting in Abilene Saturday and they don't want him to get too many hours. He's gonna take me for a brisket sandwich in Comanche for lunch today, at Taco Jim's (or Joe's?); where ELSE would you go for brisket? (Maybe his mom named him Taco, and his middle name is James....)

Getting caught up on the house after 2 weeks of company, followed immediately by a week away at Grace's, where I got iced in for an extra day. How nice was that! Treat! My sweet Ian, 4, said, My heart BREAKS when you go away, Emmie! I told him that's the nicest thing anyone ever said to me. Precious boy! I got a time of bondage (thank you, Algore!) with my little Abby. She is stiff as a board, and we always try to bend her in the middle. And she actually fell asleep on me not once, but three times! Grace was amazed. Amazed Grace.... And my little Sarah (it's so much less confusing with one Sarah around; not as fun, but less confusing) did her girly thing all week. She actually didn't cry too much while I was there.

Grace and I made some curtains for Sarah's room--they came out kinda neat. Maybe Grace can post a pic. Let's hear it for Stitch Witchery--no-sew! One can do a lot with that. My sewing machine isn't portable. Also, Grace's bedroom window has a high arch, and the people across the street have a two-story.... Easy, cheap fix--Elmer's glue! Had fun smearing on a layer, and, Voila, no more see-through! And it peels off when you're done. Grace thought the panel she did had a nicer design than mine.... We got a lot accomplished that trip, but I am most proud of one accomplishment. We (I say we, but mostly I [hate to take all the credit]) managed to give Aunt Sarah an almost-full container of baby pastel mints with the little white sprinkles! I could eat the whole package! Boy howdy, those are GOOD! Grace only ate a few, because we had a hard time figuring if they were "raw" or not.... And, except for one moment of extreme cruelty, Dean (my son-in-love) was very nice to me. (I asked him how long I could stay, and he said, we'd talk after three weeks.) (That wasn't the cruelty.) (Sorry, Dean; I HAVE to tell!) He went to lunch at Genghis Khan without us! Mongolian stir-fry! The BEST! My FAVORITE! (To Dean's credit, he DID take me there, AND did treat me, once.) I mourned the rest of the visit, but he chose to ignore my behavior. It was a wonderful visit nonetheless (great word!) (no-net-he-less). Did I mention the trip to IKEA? I could LITERALLY move in there! I HAVE to take Heather there sometime.... And Christy got a wokka-wok out of it.

My dear husba is currently a mess! We spent last Friday night in the ER in Comanche. He gets an upper respiratory infection, on top of his asthma, a couple of times a year, and he was about due. He was so miserable! Then on Monday, he severely pulled, strained, sprained, popped (?) his calf muscle reffing a girls' game in Lometa, and, in extreme pain, had to wait until the end of the guys' game so he could take the other ref home. How sad is THAT!? The coach and the superintendent were extremely kind to him, getting ice for his leg and trying to be a comfort to him. Thank you, Lometa! (I always did like driving through there.) Greg's really looking like an old man lately. Anyway, no more reffing for him this season. Whatamess!

On a happy note, at our last LNO, the girls decided to practice dancing, to a song that will remain unnamed. (Write and ask them.) (Hint: They were getting their moves from Donny Osmond!) (Another hint: The word "nerdy.") Sarah was not brought up dancing, and the dear child has NO, maybe NEGATIVE rhythm. (I was NOT brought up that way.) The result is above (I thought it would be here!). Christy is obviously telling us she's "da man," and Sarah, poor dear, looks like she's fixin' to pick up Mingy (not to be confused with Miggy, the dotter), the cat! (They're working on their choreography.) Sad, eh? I was not wearing my Depends, therefore I was just the photographer. I spared them my busting out in "The Funky Chicken," which I perform at choice Bunny Foo-Foo moments. "A good time was had by all."

Enough nonsense for now. It's 19 degrees in beautiful Blanket, and my hands are feeling crispy. Off to find some chai latte and read my Bible. To quote Christy, "To comment is to love." Selah.