Multitude Monday: Frolicking With Father

Sometimes, when there's disorder or chronic illness in the home, the sheer weight of life can take your breathe away, leaving you wondering: how do unbelievers face the day? How do they find hope and joy and hold on to it for dear life?

Me, I have the Father. He is Hope and Joy. He grasps my hand softly and takes me frolicking in the heavenly realm. He teaches me to rise above my circumstances and drink of a new hope...a hope to come.

I wouldn't want it any other way. If the weight of life didn't wear on me, there would be no frolicking with my Father.

Giving Thanks Today:

Thank you, Father, for these graces and blessings:

~ For the cardinal gracing the bare brown branches, reminding of color to come.

~ For little Beth calling me into the bathroom during church-morning prep, "Mommy, come wipe me. I had a poooopy!" I couldn't believe the size of the thing and I said, "My goodness. That is a big poopy for such a little girl."  And that little girl looked up at me, all dimpled and four-eyed, with a beaming proud smile: "Thank you", she responded.

~ For my Peter working so expertly, gently, with the nursery babies and toddlers...and enjoying every minute.

~ For the associate pastor and his wife, finally with child and beaming with joy. They may have had prior heartache because they waited until 20 weeks to announce it. (Although when she quit dying her hair I had an inkling and privately rejoiced.)

~ For my Mary growing in gentleness and self-control; she sets my heart all a flutter.

~ After hearing bad news about a friend's daughter, I felt sad on Sunday. Then later when cuddled next to my husband, I rejoiced that I had him to share my burdens. "I'm so glad I have you for a life partner", I whispered, not knowing if he was still awake.  Surprisingly, he whispered back, voice heavy with sleep, "We'll always be together." Praise the Lord!

~ I'm officially an e-bay idiot. I won an auction for my girls' science program. Novice that I am, I rejoiced and paid immediately. Then the seller contacted me and reminded me, after seeing my Ohio address, that it was advertised as local pick-up...In Maryland...and was I possibly visiting Maryland just then, or was it an oversight?  My bubble deflated and I decided that homeschoolclassifieds is a lot simpler. The blessing is: the seller, being a Christian, is sweetly dealing with me, even stating that it's in great shape and she wants me to have it.  She's mailing it to me and I'm paypaling her the postage.

~ My boys, who follow my curriculum hunts closely, have been watching the e-bay e-mails, finding themselves intrigued by the whole thing. Yesterday during their playtime I heard them setting up an auction and having a bidding war over playroom toys. I always have to chuckle at their made-up games. They find a way to involve their sisters and I'm reminded again that children don't need toys...just their imaginations. They have the most fun not with Lincoln Logs or race cars or dolls, but with the schemes they make up.

~ Another sweet, loving letter from our Divya from India. Compassion children have to write three letters per year to their sponsors, but they can choose to write more. Thankfully, our Divya chooses to write fairly often. Her words and her heart, recorded on the page, make the love swell up in me and I long to be able to visit her some day. It's a miracle we're praying for. Click here to sponsor a child and have your heart wrecked forever...in the best way.

~ For the exquisitely painted children's book We Played Marbles, an historical fiction picture book about two boys who play on the high dirt mounds that used to be old Fort Craig, from the Civil War. "With poetic text and striking oil illustrations, Tres Seymour and Dan Andreason create a beautiful, haunting story that will touch readers of all ages."

Indeed. I was quietly awed by this book.












~ For an especially nice Children's Bible Study this last Saturday about Joseph's special robe and his brother's jealousy, and about how God takes something meant for evil and uses it for good. Bible stories build our faith and they're worth learning over and over again...even for us old folks. They reveal the heart of God and remind us that we also are the Josephs, the Jonahs, the Rahabs, the Leahs, the Sarahs, the Abrahams and Queen Esthers. That we are the ten lepers and the woman at the well. That God loves us too, no less than the Bible greats. And that He's ever so much involved in our daily lives and pain...and that He has a plan.  A plan never sounded so beautiful as when you hide in your heart and head, the plans recorded in the Bible; they will awe you.

What's beautiful in your life today, my friend?

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