If you have a Vision for a Godly Home; are seeking a home of Peace and Joy, where the heart of Jesus is reflected, I pray this blog will be of encouragement to you. Grab a chair, pour yourself a cup of coffee...let's reflect and ponder together...
"Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;
Home-keeping hearts are happiest,
For those that wander they know not where
Are full of trouble and full of care;
To stay at home is best."
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Hello, Thank you for stopping by. I'm a middle-aged veteran home educator, happily married 44 years, mother of four sweet adult daughters, grandmother of 4 precious little children, three boys and a girl. We live in the forest. I design, sew, write, enjoy art, cook, and take care of our many fur angels. ...I'm also a hopeless romantic who wishes it were the 40s again. Follower of Christ, I cherish my personal relationship with the Lord. A pro-life advocate and ethical vegetarian; think: John Wesley, William Booth, Fred Rogers and Frances of Assisi. I laugh hard and pray hard too! Live, Laugh, Love...And pray hard...That's me.
Are we free to celebrate our feminity in a God glorifying way? I hope so. The following poem I found this morning. Enjoy and be blessed, may we be free indeed in Jesus. Blameless in our Father. That you may approve things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. ~Phillipians 1:10
This is really good. What is our standard, what is our foundation? So many these days will follow a herd but not the Word, the Father's love letter to us.
The herd may be going after something that looks good, and it may make us feel included to be included in that herd, but all of that can dissipate if we are not firmly rooted in our relationship with Jesus. Sometimes the herd can recite the Word but it is cold, not in love or concern. It's rules with no relationship with Jesus.
I've noticed that some families who used to look so conservative now look like the mod squad. I wonder if they followed a herd mentality instead of the Word? That is so sad to me when I see that...
Are we following the Lord Jesus, our anchor, and spending time with Him? Do we know the Lord, our Father? Have we strayed from our Father? Much like drifting far away, little by little as we go into the water at the beach. Before we know it, we can't even spot our starting point....how far we drifted without realizing it.
How do we know the Lord? We spend time with Him. We read His love letter to us, the Bible daily. If you know someone, you spend time with them and listen and share with them your intimate feelings and thoughts, our questions and problems in life and our praises too!
Here is a wonderful blog entry by our daughter Michelle on prayer, a much needed message for today.
I ask this question.... Are our very lives a peaceful protest to a crazed world? Does our very life and our demeanor represent Christ?
The way we dress, the way we talk, the spirit of things we watch and listen to, how we treat others...
Oops! Your philosophy is showing!
My daughter Marianna will share at times on modesty. She uses this picture of this celloist playing his beautiful music in the midst of war ruins as a peaceful protest. Pictures paint a thousand words...
We too can be a Peaceful Protest by our lives showing what our philosophy is by the way we dress and act...What picture are we painting?
Sara (Groves) continued to introduce the song with the story of Vedran Smailovic, a cellist with the Sarajevo String Quartet. In 1992, in the middle of the war in that country, Smailovic witnessed a bomb attack that took the lives of 22 of his neighbors standing in a breadline at a bakery. In protest of the chaos, hatred, killing, and stupidity of war, the cellist immediately brought out his cello, sat in a chair in the middle of the crater, and filled the air with beautiful music for 22 days (one day for each person killed on that spot).
As Sara told this story every night, she emphasized the importance of BEAUTY as a protest in the face of all that is wrong in the world. While bombs were still exploding and sniper fire rang through the street, a lone cellist risked his own life, and protested the ugliness by holding up beauty in its face.
The ideal still matters, even when reality does not reflect it. Love conquers hate. Light pushes back dark. Beauty matters.
Some people can't see God unless a Bible verse is included. They are blind.
Sit with me and tell me once again Of the story that's been told us Of the power that will hold us Of the beauty, of the beauty Why it matters
Speak to me until I understand Why our thinking and creating Why our efforts of narrating About the beauty, of the beauty And why it matters
Like the statue in the park Of this war torn town And it's protest of the darkness And the chaos all around With its beauty, how it matters How it matters
Show me the love that never fails The compassion and attention Midst confusion and dissention Like small ramparts for the soul How it matters
Like a single cup of water How it matters
Show and Tell Time...
We really enjoy the Duggar Family and purchased their book after two of our daughters had checked it out from the library. This is such a great book, there are cute recipes, their house plans and most of all, poignant thoughts of how the Lord has dealt with them in their personal lives. For me, it has been a bit of a support group in a book. So refreshing to me. My husband and I were reading it and it was such a renewal for our souls....
Christian Books.com has nice pricing for a new copy as well.
Here is a question in the book the Duggar family is often asked:
Q: Seeing how you all dress so much alike, I'm wondering how the children in your family are allowed to expres their individuality.
A: We always laugh when a question like that comes in! As one of my sisters said, "Mom, when we go out to an event somewhere, we often see groups of teenagers who are all dressed alike -- sometimes they're all in black, or they're all wearing jeans, or they're all wearing the same kind of T-shirt. Sometimes they all have nose rings and tattoos!" We're just like them; all of us Duggars wear similar kinds of clothes. But instead of being influenced by peer pressure, we're guided by our family's standards of modesty and what we read in the Bible.
~Jessa Duggar, age sixteen
Let's Wrap it Up...
I would like to add to the Beauty how about you? : )
I hope you enjoy this additional Sara Groves song as well... (feel free to mute the music on the bottom of this page)
Let's add to add to the Beauty... May our lives be a Peaceful Protest unto the Lord.
Hope to add to beauty on thats-italian.blogspot.com soon, maybe a new recipe or something? Have a blessed week! ~Amelia
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
~II Chronicles 16:9a
In this day and age even in the homeschool realm, it can be grievous when examining what has happened through the years. Many Homeschool Hearts for the Lord have been traded for the arena of academia, a badge of busyness, the world and selfish gain for many.
It's our choice, which path will we take? Every day is a journal page. What will we compose? It's so easy to become immersed in what is around us, and not check in with the Father on things.
Many have even moved to pet doctrines instead of the simple gospel.
There may even be times when we say the lovely, sweet name of Jesus and we are looked upon as a fanatic by the Pharisaical.... This is a frightening reality and symptom today of what has happened to hearts.
Will we stand for Jesus?
Who do you say Jesus is?
What is our heart? Are our hearts divided?
The Lord's eyes search to and fro....Looking for a perfect heart.
I just loved this video with Anne Graham Lotz and others....I thought it was so beautiful. I was looking for the words to her talk last week, Just Give Me Jesus and I came across this beautiful video. I hope you enjoy it too, the conference is over and done with but I think you will be ministered to just the same.
Just give me Jesus...
(Please feel free to mute the music at the bottom of the page) I can't get Him out of my mind....And I can't get Him out of my heart...
The Pharisees couldn't stand Him, but found they couldn't stop Him...
What are you looking for? Who are you looking for? As Mary said to the gardener.... Just give me Jesus and everything will be alright....
Just Give Me Jesus.
And now for a good old retro sermon, just as timely for today as it was then in the 50s.
Even in the 50s only eight missionary candidates out of 100 were spending daily prayer time. I doubt very seriously it would be any better today. It's interesting that the Communists have more dedication to their "gospel" than many Christians.
Let's remember our homes are our first ministry. : )
We listened to this sermon a couple of weeks ago in our homechurch. You can find wonderful sermons like this on SermonIndex.net. My husband subscribes to the sermonindex weekly podcasts. This Billy Graham sermon was one of those podcasts.
It's been a while since I've been able to blog much, we are terribly overloaded lately trying to build a house in the country. Thank you for the kind comments on past posts, I appreciate them so.
God bless you all, ~Amelia
P.S. I do hope to put a wonderful recipe up soon our oldest daughter made for us on thats-italian.blogspot.com
Are we free to celebrate our feminity in a God glorifying way? I hope so. The following poem I found this morning. Enjoy and be blessed, may we be free indeed in Jesus. Blameless in our Father.
Photo taken by our daughter, 
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And now for a good old retro sermon, just as timely for today as it was then in the 50s.
