Joy in the Journey

Michelle, our 19 year old daughter....Photo by our daughter, Rebecca (15)


Today is a small celebration in our home, the fragrance of Italian meatballs is wafting from my oven awaiting the tastebuds of my husband...a birthday celebration dinner. It's these simple things that truly bring happiness...As I form each meatball with my hands, I think of my Italian grandma and the love she put in her cooking...and that is me too. I look upon my plain hands as I make our dinner of meatballs to simmer so artfully in our pasta gravy and I see my grandma's hands. And yes, I said pasta gravy. You see, all real Italians know that what Americanas call sauce is truly our gravy. Yes, gravy. Pasta gravy to be exact!


Our four daughters above, me and my dear husband below.

Just arriving from out of town our girls were having a discussion in the car on introvert and extrovert people....deciding how some people were both, intro and extroverts....and their mama (me) was one of them. Some of our daughters argued that I was more of an introvert, only to hear another say...."No way, mom is an extrovert for sure!" "She can't even go into a store without sharing with the checker and asking how their day has been talking about the jar of nutella she is buying!" My husband jumps in..."Mama is like me, she likes to talk and laugh when she likes to talk and laugh but when she is tired and feeling quiet she really doesn't like to mess with people, we like to be quiet at those times and keep to ourselves."

Yes, my husband was right, I'm a bit of both, and he is a bit of both. Not to mention my Italian and German heritage. Yes, being one half Italian and one half German makes for a rather colorful personality, subdued but bright, merciful but discerning, salted with a teensy hint of prophet and I pray always saturated with the love of God.



It's in these quiet times and seasons that many who don't understand quiet solace with God might look upon me and think and even say... What does she do? I work in my home, and I am on most days content in the Lord. Is that to say the walls do not scream at me at times when the girls are all away and my husband is at work? No, we mothers will all face that at some time in our life and my season is already showing glimpses of that...But the secret is contentment and knowing who we are in Christ, with a clear conscience. Knowing we are whole in Christ.


One of the best gifts we can give our families is contentment and quiet of heart and that we should never depend on people to make us happy. Let's make sure and teach our children it is okay to be alone, that our walk with the Lord is what the world may call a lonely walk at times.... It's okay. Some of the alone times will always be our best times with the Lord.



When that fellowship of others does come at times, it's the Lord and we will know that, it will lift us up, it will make us feel loved, never pull us down or demean...although many times it will quietly, sweetly and privately challenge and convict our hearts. It should spur us on in a loving way unto the Lord and a deeper walk with Him, our Father.




To those who run across this blog, please be blessed. God's ways are simple. Rest in Him. : )



I must say ciao, and check in on the meatballs baking, our oldest daughter, Lea (26) just came in exclaiming..."It smells so good in here! It smells like Grandma Oddo's house!" Yes. (big smile) That is my aim this day. Mission accomplished. : )

~Amelia




Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, ~1 Thessalonians 4:11

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The Saint Must Walk Alone, an Excerpt from Man - The Dwelling Place of God by A.W. Tozer



This chapter, in entirity: The Saint Must Walk Alone



The complete book: Man - The Dwelling Place of God


Excerpt:

The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his Saviour glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see his Lord promoted and himself neglected. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and overserious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart...

Two things remain to be said. One, that the lonely man of whom we speak is not a haughty man, nor is he the holier-than-thou, austere saint so bitterly satirized in popular literature. He is likely to feel that he is the least of all men and is sure to blame himself for his very loneliness. He wants to share his feelings with others and to open his heart to some like-minded soul who will understand him, but the spiritual climate around him does not encourage it, so he remains silent and tells his griefs to God alone.

The second thing is that the lonely saint is not the withdrawn man who hardens himself against human suffering and spends his days contemplating the heavens. Just the opposite is true. His loneliness makes him sympathetic to the approach of the broken-hearted and the fallen and the sin-bruised...

The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful "adjustment" to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are they saints.

By A.W. Tozer

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