{Day 10} Interrupted by a Theme

I don't know what this may mean for you or even for me today.  Every once and a while, I find a theme emerge during my time reading the Bible in the morning.  Currently I'm reading a Psalm and a Proverb every day, and in preparation for participating in a retreat, I'm also reading a chapter or two of Henri Nouwen's book The Return of the Prodigal Son.  Today's theme appears to be JOY.

Unless the Lord had given me help,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
When I said, "My foot is slipping,"
your love, O Lord, supported me.
When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought joy to my soul.
~Psalm 94:17-19 

The prospect of the righteous is joy,
but the hopes of the wicked some to nothing.
~Proverbs 10:28 

Gratitude, however, goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift.  In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline.  The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.

~Nowen, p. 85

Because of who GOD is, joy can be the drumbeat of the life of the Christian.  We begin by trusting Him, we continue trusting Him, we involve ourselves in the discipline of gratitude, and our hearts begin to change.

Our pastor in Cambridge was fond of saying, I'm not what I ought to be, but I'm not what I used to be either.  The quotes above are convicting, because they remind me how often I let resentment and discontent rule my life, rather than joy.  But the hope I find here is that God frees me, in Him, to choose joy and gives me myriad reasons to do so.  The other glimmer of hope is knowing that I do choose joy more often than I used to.  That is the Spirit at work in my heart.  That is the Spirit at work in your heart.  How marvelous that God takes our complaining, grumbling, whining hearts and transforms them, when we deserve to be left in our misery!

 Interrupted by grace in the Word this morning and just had to share it with you.

JOY, my friends!

Perhaps you could leave a comment sharing how God is working joy into your heart these days?  I'd love to hear about it.

{Day 9} Interrupted by a Really Great Day

Today was just plain peaceful.  The sun was shining.  The kids wore summer clothes.  School was conducted outdoors.  Katherine took a long morning nap.  Homeschool Co-op gym was held outside.  We got some Rita's Italian ice to celebrate the summery spring day.  And spaz-mom didn't make any appearances.  

Days like these are as common as I would like, with all of life's responsibilities and demands.  Do you find that to be true?  At this moment I will not take for granted that God interrupted us by grace in giving us such a gift.  I am thankful.  And that is all for this evening, folks.

How was your day?

{Day 8} Interrupted by My Best Laid Plans

I love Mondays.  For us the are generally unscheduled, quiet home days.

Today was different.

Two things rocked our Monday-boat.  The first was taking Katherine to the doctor during walk-in hours to have her little ears checked for infection.  (My mom, who is in town for most of the month - yay! -  told me to take her, and I knew that every time she saw Katherine with a snotty nose she'd say, "Have you taken her to the doctor yet?"  So I took her.)  She had not infection, thankfully.  Nevertheless, that jaunt up the hill to the doc's set our school start back about an hour.

The second blip on the screen was a trip I had planned  into our lessons, to the Museum of Natural History for Elizabeth to stroll through the Native American exhibit noting on a map what regions of the United States different tribes were from.  I was so excited about having come up with a not-another-novel-to-read history activity for her, so despite our late start, we were going to go for it!  Well, we learned something together on our trip to the museum.

It's not open on Monday.

The best laid plans of mice and men, as they say.

The Bible says

In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.  

Proverbs 16:9

In the middle of our morning, I'd had a couple of what I'll call spaz-mom moments, just a couple more occasions of unnecessary loss of patience with the kids due to my own lack of self-control.  Yep, a little of that.  Again.  >Sigh.<

Apologies extended, I was determined to get to that Museum and redeem the day, even though our outing would extend well into Katherine's normal naptime.  But the Good Lord had a different idea for redeeming our day: getting us outside in long-awaited gorgeous weather, in an unexpected place, at an unanticipated time.  And so He interrupted me by grace.

To take advantage of the parking we'd paid for, we set to strolling around.  The museum abuts the University of Pittsburgh's campus and many people were out: having their lunches, going to class, running, or just sitting, obviously thankful to be free to be outside.  Finally!  We made our way to a few different landmarks, enjoying the freedom of no schedule, beyond getting back to the car by 1:46pm!  I learned how many states Elizabeth can identify on a blank U.S. map.  Brian ran around and around a large fountain.  Katherine attracted many admirers.  I took it all in, quite thankful that silly museum is closed on Mondays, especially given I certainly did not deserve such a gift, (being spaz-mom and all).

God is good.  Is He not?

A very kind Pitt student offered to take our photo,
but Brian bolted before he could press the button.
I love this photo!

*     *     *

How did the Lord interrupt you by His grace today?

{Day 7} Sabbath Rest

Hi!

Sundays are off days during blogging series, and with Blogger I can schedule this ahead of time to post today.  Neat, huh?

May God bless you as you gather for worship in your corner of the world.

See you tomorrow!
Heather

{Day 6} Interrupted by a Bridal Shower

I dunno about you and how your week was, but I'm so glad to have my feet up at the moment!  With hot tea and an m&m cookie at my side and some sniffles in my nose, I'm ready to share with you, then bid this week adieu and Sabbath it up tomorrow.

Today, my friend, Jenna, and I hosted a bridal shower for our friend Carolyn who will marry this June.  I would summarize our time together with one word: FUN!  How delightful to gather together to laugh, tell stories, open gifts, play games, and celebrate a friend and her upcoming marriage!  FUN!!

First thing this morning, because my sluggish and sleepy brain could do little else, I prepared Carolyn's gift.  The gift consisted of two parts: serious and slinky.  I'm sure you can guess what the latter was, >wink<.  The former was a book I really appreciated reading early in our marriage called, For Women Only: What You Need to Know About the Inner Lives of Men.  As I inscribed it, I thought about what my own husband means to me and how I've grown and changed throughout our ten and a half married years, which prompted me to include something like these sentences:

You're about to marry your forever friend and ally.  But sometimes he'll feel like neither or just be confusing.  Love him for who he is, just as Christ loves you.

You know, I sure don't always love my husband as Christ has loved me.  (Right, Colin?!)  But I am thankful for how weddings remind me of work God has done in our lives, of how much there is to appreciate about Colin, and how much happiness and growth there can be in our future days and years together.

I was interrupted by writing that little inscription.  God has been very gracious to me in providing the husband He did and using our relationship to shape both of us.  There ain't no such thing as "Mr. Right," but I sure do think Colin is "Mr. Just-Right-For-Me!"  Interruptions like these help me to keep our relationship in perspective, and I am thankful to God for that.

Amen?

{Day 5} Interrupted by Pure Joy

Whew!  This has been some week, I tell ya.  Nothing dramatic, just a week's-worth of nights of interrupted sleep that culminated in a (fortunately not severe) migraine today.  I'm really tired.

Having a migraine today was particularly "painful" because I needed energy to get some things done for co-throwing a Bridal Shower tomorrow morning and because the weather was glorious.  So much sunshine!

The kids also seem to be under the weather with something respiratory, two of them having just come off of something gastrointestinal.  Such a bummer for their little selves!

I sighed a lot today.

Finally in the late afternoon, I had the energy to get our stuff together to make some quick stops at Target and Trader Joe's for final supplies.  I decided to tag on a quick trip to the park for the kids, because it seemed so wrong not to spend any time outside today, colds or not.

As I prepared to go out, taking some things out to the car before Katherine was awake from her nap, Elizabeth followed me out the front door.  I had to cross to the other side of the car, and in that time got the most beautiful view of joy and freedom.  Elizabeth was frolicking and twirling in the sunshine on our front sidewalk - arms out, head back, a giant smile on her face.

She was greeting the spring weather with proper gusto!

That was my little grace interruption today, in the midst of the pain and the busy: witnessing such a carefree expression of joy.

I'd like to practice such expressions a little more in my life.

The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy!

Psalm 126:3

{Day 4} Interrupted by the Word

Oh friends, I am really tired tonight.  A weeknight baseball game followed by blogging and then a baby who had a restless night are working their sleepy-time magic on me at the moment.  So I will be brief, but hopefully coherent.  :)

This morning as I was praying, confessing my sins and also sharing with God my heart's concerns of late, which have mostly revolved around wondering what I "should" be doing for school, with our family, etc., He graciously brought this verse to mind:

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Matthew 6:33

Okay, I'm hearing you, Lord.  I get all tied up in knots about things and, while I may say I trust you, I'm setting You aside in exchange for worry.

I thought for a little while about how this verse might influence how I think about current concerns.  Then some other verses popped into my head as I thought about resting in God:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.  Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus, gentle and humble of heart, inviting the weary and burdened to come to Him and find rest.  Boy I needed that this morning!  And to return to the thought several times throughout the day.  It particularly influenced how we started our day.  The kids were sluggish, having gone to bed late and being awakened early by the garbage truck - a Thursday morning tradition!  My natural inclination would have been to stick to the schedule and "get things done."  But reading of this tenderness of Jesus influenced me to move in that direction in relating to the kids.  We took our time, put a little "home" back into our homeschool, and still got our work done.  Hallelujah!

Today I'm thankful that God was so gracious to interrupt my "usually scheduled program" of prayer and Bible reading with some additional words that were just right.  God is so kind to us, is He not, when He gives us the "just right" right when we need it?

With that, I say to you, g'night!