Additional Blessing

My husband and I have had an amazing year. We moved back to the Northwest and have had the opportunity to be near family for the first time in over 25 years. A week ago, we welcomed our new granddaughter, Sierra, into the family. What a blessing to watch the continuity of family and to have the opportunity to make a significant impact on the lives of our incredible grandchildren. We worked hard at raising our sons. We were purposeful, involved, and did our best to let them know that they were thoroughly loved for who they were as individuals, not for who they might become. We are thrilled with the men they have grown up to be and as our older son delights in fatherhood, we are blessed to see what a difference he makes in the lives of his children. We weren't perfect as parents, still aren't, and neither are our boys but we love them so much and we are totally proud of them. Each has chosen a life partner and we dearly love our girls too! We are so blessed. How can we contain such blessing? I guess we don't. Our joy spills over and hopefully encourages someone else in some small way. Tomorrow I get to babysit. I love it! It'll be crazy, non-stop activity and I may be exhausted when mom and dad come home but I'll be smiling, just grinning from ear to ear, because of the amazing privilege to share an additional blessing.... a new little girl. What joy, what wealth, what blessing.

My Grandson Prayed

Our kids came over tonight, rather spur of the moment. It was Kayla's ballet night; they needed to go to the grocery store or eat out. Eating out had greater appeal and they called us to go along. We thought it would be more fun at our house than a restaurant, especially for the grandkids. So they picked up KFC and combined their dinner with our dinner and we sat down at the table, held hands, and three year old Colton prayed. He prayed for our family, he thanked God for the day (in detail), for his food, for having fun, for..... everything. It was amazing! We had never really heard Colton pray before and it was thoughtful, organized, and long! That means he's been paying attention when his dad and mother pray. That means he knows the One he's addressing. That means he's comfortable, talking to Jesus in front of other people. That means he's done this before, many times before. I'm still processing the entire experience. My heart is so full that it aches a bit. I am so blessed. I never adequately imagined what it would be like to experience this continuity of family, of our Christian family. The beauty of it surpasses my words so I'm just going to sit here and enjoy my full, achey heart and I'm going to thank the Lord for the joy I received today because my grandson prayed.

Deep Cleaning

We have an air duct cleaning company here today, cleaning the heat vents, furnace, cold air returns, dryer vent and sanitizing everything. The process involves huge hoses and compressors, lots of noise and quite a bit of cash! We generally keep a clean house but my husband has been changing the furnace filters every month and they keep coming out filthy. We decided we needed to get into the places we couldn't see and clean them out too. And that requires specialists. Life is like that. On the surface our lives appear clean, proper, socially acceptable but deep inside the recesses of our minds and hearts, filth can be hiding. Sometimes it's small stuff, like molds and mildews - like a critical spirit - small stuff but deadly! We need to cleanse our hearts and lives by engaging the Specialist, God Himself and following Romans 12 verses 1 and 2: "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (The Message) Once we let God "deep clean" our lives, everything is changed. We will respond differently to people; we will love more freely and accept others without judging them. Isn't it good to know that your life can be really clean, from the inside out? Plus the peace that will come is unsurpassed by anything in this world. It's time to clean house!