For His Service

Read Mark 6:48-51. This is where Jesus sends His disciples in a boat ahead of Him to Bethsaida while He goes to the hills to pray. At four in the morning, they saw Jesus walking on the water and thought He was a ghost. “He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.” Jesus was about to pass by them, and when they cried out, so He immediately spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Jesus climbed into the boat with them and the wind died down. He dissolved the scary situation, by HIS presence. I, too, have been like the disciples “straining at the oars” -- paddling against the wind with all my might…and all my small powers, trying to overcome the hardships of life on my own. It is exhausting and futile. The Lord is a gentleman, walking by my boat as I working up quite a sweat trying to do it all in our own power and strength. All the while He is waiting for me to cry out to Him and invite Him into our boat, our circ...

John-Michael now needs glasses to read and watch TV.. The bluebirds are deciding on which birdhouse they would like to nest in..and the backyard has plenty of birds at the feeders. I can see the pond's fish again (they are no longer hiding at the bottom). The new fence is up...hopefully it will keep Olivie' and Dirk in! The garden is almost bare, but it won't be long before things are full of blooms! I love Spring time...new blooms, new baby birds, new butterflies, changing landscape...

So, I was wondering. How do all of you handle half-birthdays with your children, or do you "handle" them at all? Yesterday, my oldest, Noah, turned 12 and 1/2! He is on the downhill side of being a teenager...yep..13! Amazing! In our house, we allow the children to choose what they would like to have for dinner...on their half-birthdays and they do get a cake...and no, not a half of a cake. LOL... So, what do you do to celebrate 1/2 birthdays? I would love to hear ..we still have a 7 and a 10 year old and ...before we know it...they will have their half-birthdays!

Let me let you in on a secret; parenting is hard work and it certainly isn't for cowards. Children are selfish, liars and thieves ...at least in their natural state. LOL ... What do we do? We aim for their hearts. This is the only way to have lasting change, in any of us. Jer . 17:9 tells us The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Oh, how I have learned that our hearts will lie to us. We have to teach our children that fact and we have to counsel, instruction, and nurture them to live beyond what their hearts are telling them is true ..or telling them to do. Instructing a Child’s Heart by Tedd and Margy Tripp is a great book for trying to change the heart, thus changing the behavior. They tell about the biblical adjectives that describe the heart: The heart is adulterous, anguished, arrogant, astray, bitter, blameless, blighted, broken, calloused, circumcised, contrite, crushed, darkened, deadened, deceitful, deluded, devoted, disloyal, en...

If you haven't seen the movie, Secretariat, watch it! We really enjoyed watching it as a family. One of the characters, Penny Chenery , gave a bit of wisdom: "This is not about going back. This is about life being ahead of you and you run at it! Because you never know how far you can run unless you run". Today, I went to middle Georgia and ran a 5K with Daddy. It was the first 5 K for both of us! He is 66 and ran it in 42 minutes! I am 40...and ran it in 29 minutes! I was 7th best for my age and gender. When you run, you certainly want to slow down....you just get tired..but you just tell yourself...you can do it! Don't give up! So is life... just keep going...don't give up. Give it your best!

I am glad that God gave us laughter. Think of proverbs 31 ...yes, that woman. LOL ... She is the woman we all try to be. Proverbs 31:25 says, "She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come". I strive to be that woman. I don't ignore my circumstances. I do not hide my head in the sand and pretend that I do not have problems. However, I do KNOW who holds my problems and HE is trust worthy. I try to stop monitoring God's actions in my life, and trying to orchestrate things I can't control to be different, and stop striving for my junior-God pin, as if He needs my help. :) I feel free when I accept that God has me in His hands and I stop struggling to do something different than what He has planned. A few years ago one of my friends (you know who you are) called me to free a mocking bird that had gotten stuck in a mouse-glue trap in her garage. I do not know how long this mocking bird had struggled but this is not a small bird and could h...

I have been blogging for a couple of years...mostly for my own sanity. It helps me deal with the drama of raising and homeschooling 3 kids. It helps me have a place to "dump" my emotions ..other than on poor Russell Pate. It helps me process the hard things: hurt feelings, my son's neurofibromatosis, broken promises, my trust issues, etc. It is good for me to get it out. Today, I looked... I saw I had cyber friends from Slovenia, Canada, India, China, Taiwan, Netherlands, Russia (I have been in Moscow and Krasnoyarsk...truly beautiful), the British Virgin Islands, United Kingdom, and Germany. It is so cool to know you are out there. I pray that my story can some way help you to have a better day, be more grounded in your faith, or just laugh! So..back to every day things. I teach at Veritas Classical School. The children attend school one day a week and are homeschooled 4 days a week. It is a Classical school...no non-sense...High expectations...Higher level thinking. My ...

I was once dead and now I am alive. I was once a hired person and now I am a daughter (Luke 15:19-24). I was once a servant but now I am a friend (John 15:15). I was once NOT His people, but now I am His people. I was once not His beloved, but now I am His beloved. (Romans 9:25-26). I was once far away and now I am near (Ephesians 2:13). I was once darkness but now I am Light in the Lord (Eph. 5:8). I was once "not a people", but now I am part of the people of God. (1 Peter 2:10). Romans 8:38-39 We are now and forever children of the heavenly Father, and neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John-Michael finally agreed to let me cut his hair. Here is his long hair look...and his new look. Now, if I can get his 12 year old brother to let me cut his hair. We did get our privacy fence approved. The old split rail is down..and the new is going up. Those of you who REALLY know me...know that I love birds. I can't wait to put up more bird houses on the fence posts. Life is full of surprises...I wish I could share what was going on, but some things aren't mine to share. Please pray for tender hearts and love to flourish . God knows what I mean. :)

I am so thankful for God's provision and His mercy and grace. He has provided most of the money my friend needs to adopt the little girl that was placed in their lives. This seemed a near impossible task.... more money than we could provide. Then...HE DID IT! So thankful..... He has provided a fencing guy who will put up the fence for 1/2 what other companies will do it for. So thankful....He has blessed me with a better husband than a deserve. Russell shows me honor, care, and love each and every day (how many can say that and it be true). So thankful..... John-Michael hasn't complained of any nerve pain this week. So thankful......The kids have been fairly obedient..as far as kids go. So thankful....We are on Winter break...so NO SCHOOL!!! So thankful... so thankful....

Tonight we were able to get married in a church, Mount Pisgah Methodist Church in Alpharetta, GA to be exact. well, we RENEWED our vows... The church was beautiful. The wedding singer was Josh Wilson (google him..his music is great) 21 years ago, I married him at his mother's beautiful Victorian home... Oct 17, 1989 to exact. :) What a great day we had! Then..and Now

I have two bits of news to share. First, my dear friend, Kathy...a mom of 7(5 adopted/ 2 biological)... got an amazing call a few days ago. First, let me say..that her 6 year old daughter has been praying for a baby sister. Kathy told her that the only way she was getting a baby sister is if God plopped one in their laps. That is pretty much what has happened. Her phone rang.....A 2 year old little girl who has come from a bad situation... needs a home immediately and a private adoption is going to happen. So...for the cost of lawyer fees (around $5,000)...they will have a new sister! Since it has been around a year that they got back from 6 months of living in Guatemala, they really need help with those fees. If any of you can donate anything, even $10, please do to my website www.scripturepainting.com and go to the donate button on the front page. Kathy and John are homeschooling parents... they love the LORD...and wish to honor him. The second bit of news is...I received this email...

One of my friends had the unfortunate experience of being called the devil by a "pastor". My friend is certainly a believer...a godly man who shows his love of Jesus by his actions. Apparently, they had a theological disagreement of some sort. It saddens me that there are Christians who claim Jesus' name ...yet don't embrace HIS model of showing love. He did minister to the unloved, to the shunned, to the lowly.. He ministered with them and hung out with them in order to draw them to repentance. He showed love to them by giving them His time and His attention. He loved them...and He spoke truth to them. I think it is sad that people who claim His name sometimes don't follow Jesus' lead. Instead,they follow the lead of the Pharisee. They put heavy burdens upon the people that they are around out of an over inflated sense of "Holiness"...but there is no love or compassion in their words or actions. The Pharisee says....You must get right with God...bef...