Of Joy and Satisfaction

I just started a book this afternoon by John Piper entitled, When I Don't Desire God: how to fight for joy. The first six pages have been really good! The first chapter introduces a doctrine called Christian Hedonism, which Piper describes as an extremely liberating yet devastating principle. The doctrine states that God is most glorified in the soul that finds deepest satisfaction in Him. Wow! That liberates us to find joy in God. However, this can also be devastating when we come to the realization that remaining sin causes complete satisfaction in God to be impossible.

Piper goes on to state that the journey toward joy is never an easy one. I look forward to finishing this so far excellent book over vacation (we leave tomorrow morning!). I'm sure that I'll have plenty of food for thought, and therefore, more blogging material! I'll just leave you with this quote from C.S. Lewis,

"Pleasures are shafts of glory as it strikes our sensibility....But aren't there bad, unlawful pleasures? Certainly there are. But in calling them "bad pleasures" I take it we are using a kind of shorthand. We mean "pleasures snatched by unlawful acts." It is the stealing of the apples that is bad, not the sweetness. The sweetness is still a beam from the glory....I have tried since....to make every pleasure into a channel of adoration. I don't mean simply by giving thanks for it. One must give thanks, but I meant something different....Gratitude exclaims, very properly, "How good of God to give me this." Adoration says, "What must be the quality of the that Being whose far-off and momentary coruscations are like this!" One's mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun....If this is Hedonism, it is also a somewhat arduous discipline. But it is worth some labour."

Amen. See you all in a week (we mean it this time!).
posted by Lydia

Going to Maine

See y'all in a week!

posted by Caroline

I love this piece of music. It makes you want to get up and move!

posted by: Caroline

Big Boom, or Let There Be Light?

I love this video. Could it get any clearer to evolutionists that their theory just doesn't make sense, and that the "missing link" doesn't exist?

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.
Psalm 19:1-2
posted by Lydia

Mamma's New Hutch

We've prayed for several years now that God would provide Mom a hutch.
How the Lord blesses us.

posted by: Caroline

Our Summer in a Nutshell

Well, summer is almost at an end (sigh). School is starting up and the weather will soon start to get crisp and cool. Leaves will change and the smell of woodsmoke will be in the air. Hmmm. Maybe fall isn't so bad:-). Anyway, just thought that I would share some pictures from our summer to show you some of what we've been up to!Sisters...they know everything about you, but still love you anyway! (I don't know who said it, but she sure nailed it!)
Ahh, cousins. What would we do without them? We miss you guys!

My identical twin in another life. Yeah, strange. We're just about as unrelated as you can get:)

Graduation parties... and, umm, more graduation parties!

We certainly have some unforgettable memories to carry into winter. It makes me wonder what next year will bring......?

posted by Lydia

Our Day On The Lake

A cold little Abby.

We bring our kayak all most every where now.
Mom and Dad took her for a spin. (There's a water skier in the background.)

You can't really tell in this picture,but fall is starting to creep over the hills.

This was the best sunset I've ever seen.

posted by: Caroline

Carissa's Graduation Party

Well, Carissa's graduation party was last Saturday. It was a wonderful day, despite the wee bit of rain we got during the cutting of the cake (you know, just enough to get you wet and cold). We had a great turn out, as you will see by the pictures. These are just some snapshots, as some of us found ourselves extremely busy fooling around (ahem), I mean, entertaining the guests :). Here are a few of my favorites.

Arranging flowers for the center of the tables. Many hands make light work! And in the background is my totally unfazed mother taking a picture:)
( Carissa is the lovely young lady in the white coat.)
The finished product. Charming.


Daddy, figuring out just how many slow cookers he can plug in without blowing the circuit.

Carissa's corner. Bits and pieces of, well, Carissa! This was also the crying corner.

Thank goodness for kitchen help! We couldn't have done it without them.


More helping hands.

Lots of guests. I believe that we were receiving instructions for lunch.

Let's eat!

Just horsen' around. If you look really closely, you can see rain falling in the back ground. Fortunately, this did not dampen every one's fun!

Dear friends, good food, and Christian fellowship. What more could one want?

Chris and mystery man.

Congratulations Carissa! We love you!

posted by Lydia

Electrifying!

(You may want to pause the music in the side bar.)

posted by Lydia

How sweet and awful is the place with Christ within her doors,
While everlasting love displays the choicest of her stores.

While all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues, "Lord, why was I a guest?

"Why was I made to hear Thy voice, and enter while there's room,
When thousands made a wretched choice, and rather starve than come?"

'Twas the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew us in,
Else we had still refused to taste, and perished in our sin.

Pity the nations, O our God, constrain the earth to come,
Send Thy victorious Word abroad, and bring the strangers home.

We long to see Thy churches full, that all the chosen race,
May with one voice and heart and soul, sing Thy redeeming grace.
~ Isaac Watts


posted by Lydia

The Domestic Delema

I had a very interesting conversation the other day that really caused me to think. The three women that I was talking to (or rather, listening while they talked) were nurses at the nursing home where I volunteer during the summer. It all started as most of these conversations do: with flattery. They all gushed for a while about how cute I was, how good I was with the residents, and how mature and adult like I was for a fifteen-year-old. Then, like clockwork, came THE QUESTION. You who are between the ages of twelve and twenty are probably quite familiar with this question, "What are your plans for collage? What are you going to do with your life?". And so, I began (once again) to explain that I had no plans to study for a career upon graduation from high school. This won me the first of many "Wow, what planet did you drop from?" looks. You know the one. "Well, what are you going to do than?", came the next predictable question. I sighed, viewing this as reoccurring trial rather than an opportunity. "I want to be a stay-at-home mom.", I said, wishing with all my heart that I had used a better choice of words. I want to be so much more than just a stay-at-home mom. I want to be a helpmeet to a godly man. I want to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I want to serve my family as the Bible outlines in Proverbs 31, Titus 2, and so many other places. But before I could snatch back the already uttered words, one of the nurses pressed on. "Of course you realize," she quipped condescendingly, "You are going to have to marry some one really rich to make it on one income." And so I began, patiently I hope, to explain about our family, living frugally, and was about to introduce her to the beauty of thrift stores, when I was cut short with " Well, your dad must make more than you realize, because it's just not possible for a family to live on one average income." So, apart from wounded pride and an insult to my intelligence, what did I come away from this discussion with? I felt silly and inferior. That's right, my bubble had definitely been busted and my little candle snuffed out. When I got home later that day, after telling my wonderful, wise, and fugal mother about the incident, I took it to God in prayer. Imagine my relief when sanity began to set in. I am not inferior or foolish for embracing the amount of clarity that God has given me at this time, and no one should have the ability to steer me from the path that He is leading me on. There are so many things that I now wish I had told those women. Would they have thought me even more off my rocker than they do now? Possibly( although they obviously thought that I couldn't get much weirder after I told them that I wanted ten kids!). But I need to stop every now and then and ask myself who I am trying to please: the ever-changing conveyor belt of pop culture , or my wise and loving Heavenly Father who always knows exactly what is best for me? Which would you rather be pleasing?

Posted by Lydia

A blessing from God

After it rains, this is what our yard looks like. It turns all fresh and green. A lot of people get depressed when it rains, but isn't that how we sometimes view blessings from God? Not as blessings but as trials or something we just have to get though? As I think about starting up school again I tend to become depressed. I must pray that God will help me not to view school work as cloudy skies but rain that will help me to grow.
posted by Caroline

Blueberry Picking

I love August! Don't you?

posted by Caroline

A Lovely Poem

I wanted to share this poem on the true beauty of godly femininity. As we as young ladies continue in our Christian walk, it is always a blessing to receive encouragement from other like minded women. I don't know much about the author, but these words never fail to challenge me and give me focus for the future. May the words give you a new rigor to rise up and press on in your God-given roles as wife, mother, or daughter (or all three!). Enjoy!

The Need of the Hour

What does our country need? Not armies standing

With sabers gleaming ready for the fight;

Not increased navies skillful in commanding;

To bound the waters in iron might;

Not haughty men with glutted purses trying

To purchase souls and keep the power of the place;

Not jeweled dolls with one another vying

For palms of beauty, elegance, and grace.

But we want women, strong of soul, yet lowly

With that rare meekness, born of gentleness;

Women whose lives are pure and clean and holy,

The women whose name all little children bless;

Brave, earnest women, helpful to each other,

With finest scorn for all things low and mean;

Women who hold the names of wife and mother

Far nobler than the title of queen.

Oh! These are they who mould the men of story.

These mothers, oftime shorn of grace and youth,

Who, worn and weary, ask no greater glory

Than making some young soul the home of truth;
Who sow in hearts all fallow for the sowing

The seeds of virtue and of scorn for sin,

And, patient, watch the beauteous harvest growing

And weed out tares which crafty hands cast in.

Women who do not hold the gift of beauty

As some rare treasure to be bought and sold,

But guard it as a precious aid to duty-

The outer framing of the inner gold;

Women who, low above their cradles bending,

Let flattery's voice go by and give no heed,

While their pure prayers like incense are ascending

These are our country's pride, our country's need.

Ella Wheeleer Wilcox

posted by Lydia

A Sunday Walk

After church on Sunday, young people from our church and a sister church got together for fellowship. We had a great walk up hills and through the fields. It wasn't until we were all the way up on the highest hill when it started to rain. :)

They've wanted to be sisters since they were 5, if not before then!

Despite wet shoes and jeans we all had a good time.

posted by Caroline