Sweet Surrender: December 2008

December

.... Always a full and wonderful month.....

We celebrated Adam's 35th birthday.

Kaleb came to spend his two week Christmas vacation!! and Nana and Papa came for a few days around Christmas. We got a big snow storm which kept them here until late Christmas morning. (Yay!) Papa George came that afternoon to spend five days with us. My neice and her husband, and a friend of Adam's from work and her husband came for Christmas dinner. We had a great Christmas dinner together but it got cut short as the snow began to come down so heavy and everyone tried to get out while they could. Our friends barely made it before the roads closed. My neice and her husband were a few minutes behind them and ended up coming back to stay the night. (Yay!... I love the snow.) Adam's brother Aaron and our two nephews came the next day to spend a couple of days. We really enjoyed having all of the Christmas company at our house and not traveling anywhere for the first time in quite a while. It was truly a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful December.

Of course, it's not quite over.....

Today is Nicholas' 10th birthday and the cake is in the oven. It's just our family of five today. This Sunday after church he will celebrate with a housefull of friends.

I pray that all of you had a wonderful December and a blessed celebration of our savior's birth!! Happy New Year!!

How God Speaks to Me Through Paul:

Paul understood his own insignificance. He understood that he deserved nothing and was given everything. He understood that sharing this indescribably amazing gift with others was more important than anything else. Paul had passion for Jesus. "Although I am less than the least of all God's people..." (His own insignificance.) "...this grace was given me..." (Deserved nothing, given everything) "...to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." (Sharing this indescribably amazing gift with others.) Isn't this what we have all been called to?, To preach the gospel......to share Jesus with others? God chooses the weak, and gives them His strength. Paul understood his own weakness. In 1Corinthians 2:3-5 Paul says: " I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preachings were not with wise and persuasive words, but with the demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." Paul understood that he was powerless against sin without God's Holy Spirit at work within him. "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do- this I keep on doing......What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God- through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:18,19,24,25) Praise God that He has rescued us and given us His Spirit! "And what is Paul? Only (a) servant......the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything , but only God who makes things grow." (1Corinthians 3:5-7) God speaks to me through Paul because he is just like you and me. Weak and powerless in our own strength, but graciously lavished with the strength and power of the Holy Spirit to plant and water seeds, then trust our Lord to make them grow.

Green Leaves

"Blessed is the man...(whose) delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither..." Psalm 1:1-3

The Lord gave me a wonderful reminder of a familiar picture today. As I was cleaning house I noticed some of my plants were looking a little sad and droopy. One in particular had gone much too long without water and was beginning to lose some of it's leaves, while other leaves had begun to wither. Looking at my plant now you would never know. I pruned away the dry and fallen leaves and fed it some water this morning, then it spent the day soaking up the water I had poured into it's soil. Now it is perked up and full of life again. Of course, if my plant had been planted by a stream, it would never have gotten sad and droopy and begun to dry up. After all, a stream would provide a constant source of nourishment, not just a once a week watering. We are much like that plant... in need of a constant source of nourishment, not just a once a week watering. Since God's Word is the nourishment we need, then blessed are those who delight in it and meditate on it day and night. Blessed are those who delight in spending time in God's Word every day, not just at church on Sunday mornings. Sunday morning gives us a good watering, but not enough for us to continue soaking in all week. Eventually we begin to dry up. Sure, when we get back into the Word, it can certainly perk us up and fill us with life again. However, during our drought we had to wither, droop and possibly lose leaves. My droopyness sometimes looks like depression or insecurity. My withering looks sometimes like laziness, and sometimes like distraction disguised as busyness. Your symptoms of dryness may look different than mine, but like a dried up leaf, we have no life in us to be lived for the Lord when we are lacking nourishment. During our "drought", we are vulnerable to the "heat" that comes in temptation and trial.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water, that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; it's leaves are always green..." Jeremiah 17:7,8

Lord, make us like green leaves, constantly nourished by your Word!!

Adoption Update

From a recent email sent by our case worker:

"Just by way of information, the court schedule in Addis is getting congested -- resulting in court dates now being scheduled more like 8 weeks out rather than the usual 4-6 weeks. We have no idea how long this trend will continue, so expect to continue working on that mantra, "patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue!""

8 weeks out refers to the time once our paperwork is translated and turned in to the courts, which is what we are currently waiting on. Travel to pick up the boys will be 5 weeks after the court date. March or April?? "God's timing is perfect, God's timing is perfect!" (Yes, I'm reminding myself!)