America, the Beautiful

We sang this song in church this morning and in light of the political mess in our nation right now, I found that the words touched me even more than they normally do.  I have no big speech to go along with this, just a healthy dose of patriotism to go with the knowledge that those of us who are Christians had better put 2 Chronicles 7:14 in practice, before this song is a thing of the past.


Listen closely to the second verse ... it gives me chills every time I sing it.

America, the Beautiful

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,

Whose stern, impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness!

America! America!

God mend thine ev'ry flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved,

And mercy more than life!

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness, 

And ev'ry gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees, beyond the years,

Thine alabaster cities gleam,

Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

more than I can count

I have been reading many, many posts on blogs and facebook about all the things people are thankful for this year and thinking that I should have been joining in, but I didn't get it done, so here it is, all in one day.

My 30 days of thanksgiving ...

1. Assurance of my salvation
2. Continued forgiveness
3. Ronnie
4. LB, JW, and D
5. My parents
6. Growing up in a loving, Christian home
7. Ronnie's parents
8. His growing up in a loving, Christian home
9. My brothers, sisters in law, nieces and nephews
10. Extended family
11. My wonderful church family that is a true family
12. The blessing of a place to serve
13. The home school group that we are privileged to be part of ... another family for our family!
14. Friends ... old and new ... for me and for my children
15. Ronnie's jobs
16. Ronnie being willing to work more than one job so that I can stay home and educate our kids.
17. The freedom to home school
18. The variety of curricula available ... making it possible for me to customize our school to my children
19. Our home
20. books to read
21. music ... specifically hymns and other "Christian" music
22. modern conveniences
23. the freedom to travel
24. the beauty of nature
25. traditions
26. breaking with tradition occasionally
27. Packing shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child
28. Volunteering with OCC year round
29. The people I have met through OCC
30. Working in the processing center in Atlanta

So, there is my list ... not really in order and definitely not complete - really just the tip of the iceberg, but at least it is a start!

I heard a preacher on TV this morning saying that "unexpressed gratitude feels like ingratitude."  I've not heard it put exactly like that before, but it is true and all too often I am guilty of feeling gratitude, but not expressing it ... shame on me.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

resolution

1. The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination.
2. A resolving to do something.
3. A course of action determined or decided on.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/resolution
 

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I don't much like New Year's Resolutions.
 
My reasoning is simple.  I don't like the idea of taking a fresh, untainted new year and then deciding on January 1st what I am going to feel guilty about on December 31.  I create enough guilt throughout the year without choosing it on New Year's Day.
 
Despite those feelings, I am setting some goals for this year ... not necessarily goals that are fully attainable, just things I want to work towards.  And in the interest of keeping myself accountable, I am going to share a couple of these goals with you.

1.  This year I want to work on being content in whatever situation I am in.  Too often recently, I have found myself battling the green-eyed monster of jealousy.  I am not sure that I would label my emotions this way in the moment I am experiencing them, but I can't deny that is the source of my discontent.  My prayer is that I will be more like Paul.   Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, [therewith] to be content.  I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:11-13

2.  I do have one goal that I absolutely want to accomplish this year.  Ronnie and I have decided to read through the Bible with the kids this year.  We have chosen to use The One Year Bible plan. This is something we haven't done before but I am excited about having a plan for our Bible times together.  In the past we have been somewhat random, so this should help us to be more focused in our reading. 

So, that is it.  My plan for 2010.  What about you ... do you have a plan for the new year?

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2009 ended on a good note.  We spent the first part of the evening with our church family eating wonderful soups and listening to a great group of guys sing for us.  We finished off by observing the Lord's Supper.  It was a wonderful time of worship.  Our pastor reminded us of his sermon on Sunday night when he challenged us to make 2 Peter 3:18 our verse for 2010. 

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

We ended 2009 at the home of our friends, Brad and Amy, where we listened to their neighbors shoot fireworks and watched the ball drop in New York - which is somewhat anti-climactic if you don't live in the Eastern time zone - but nevertheless, still tradition.  The kids had a wonderful time staying up late and playing with each other and even joined the adults for a toast at midnight (with grape juice, of course). Overall, we had a great time saying good-bye to 2009.

Out with the old, in with the new.

Happy New Year!

giving thanks

Many of the blogs I follow have been featuring Thanksgiving related posts and I figured it was time for me to add mine to the list.

I have many more things to be thankful for than I can list in one post, but I think I'll focus on some specific things that are happening (or have happened) this week.

First, we had a wonderful collection week for Operation Christmas Child. We had great fun for a great cause. On Monday I took our final paperwork to our area coordinator. This is one of my favorite parts of collection week. I love getting to talk to the sweet lady who is the coordinator and it is wonderful to see the next step for the boxes. We'll go a step farther later this week, but I'll tell you about that later.

Another great thing about this week is that Ronnie took the entire week off of work. This is very unusual for him, and we have been enjoying hanging out at his mom's house this week. She lives a couple of hours from our house, so it is nice to get away and leave the normal responsibilities at home. Plus, it is nice to get to spend the time with Ronnie, just relaxing.

I am also thankful for a wonderful opportunity that LB has had this week. My parents, along with my oldest brother and his wife took a trip to Montana this week to spend Thanksgiving with my sister-in-law's family and after much, much deliberation, we agreed to allow LB to go with them. I have to admit that it was hard for her Mama and Daddy to say that she could travel completely across the country without us, but we finally decided that we would put aside our fears and give her this special opportunity to spend the time with her grandparents and do something she'll remember all her life. From what we hear, both from LB and from my Mama and Daddy, she is having the time of her life! I'll even add that I am thankful for snow in Montana. LB was so hoping to see real snow (remember, we live in MS) on this trip and she has gotten to see LOTS of it! I can only hope that the adults who are with her are taking lots of pictures of my girl in an element, totally outside of her natural element.

This weekend I am going to get to do something I have been wanting to do for several years and I want to add this to my list of things that make me thankful. Ronnie and I, along with a few other people from our church are headed to Suwanee, GA *best I can tell this is somewhere northeast of Atlanta, but I'm not driving, so it really doesn't matter if I know where it is* to work in a processing center for Operation Christmas Child. I have been taking part in the local end of packing shoeboxes for years now and I am super excited to get to see, and take part in, the next phase of the process. I can't wait to report back next week about the trip this weekend!

Finally, I am thankful for all my family, especially our son who just turned 8 this week. I'll dedicate a whole post to his birthday when I get back home and can load my new pictures on my computer, but for now I'll just say Happy Birthday, JW!

(This is not a new picture, it is just the only one I could find on Granny's computer of just JW)


I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.