Action photos of the cat

These are action photos--Ha! (ps my tablescape is on my spindle cottage blog http://spindlecottage.blogspot.com/

happiness---the why of it

This is for spiritual Sundays--for other participants go here: http://bloggerspirit.blogspot.com/


God is good to give me the thoughts I need to think on at the right time in answer to my plea. I needed this stuff by Piper and by Paul Tripp about why I can be happy even when the world is so broken. It is mainly because God is sovereign and glorious and working out His plan. He is Happy because He works all things according to the pleasure of his will--Psalm 115:3--"Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases."


"And if none of His purposes can be frustrated, then He must be the happiest of all beings. This infinite, divine happiness is the fountain from which the Christian Hedonist drinks and longs to drink more deeply." Piper-based on Psalm 115:3 I need to meditate on God's happiness


"The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God. Not from God, but in God." AMEN

I can be happy because I can trust (not understand) that God is good, God is loving, God is working out His plan, God works all things for His glory. There is nothing more wonderful than His glorious being , His beauty, and realizing ...seeing some of this glory in my lifetime.

My understanding is not the source of my happiness--"We simply need to accept that the reasons God does what he does in our lives, or how our life fits into the whole of his grand redemptive plan, will never be completely clear in this life. This is why real rest and peace is not found in knowing and understanding. It is only found in trust. Only when you have a quiet confidence in the Lord behind the plan and have come to know his love, wisdom, power, and grace, will you be able to rest in hope--even when you do not understand what God is doing in a particular moment in your life..................we trust in his holy name." Paul Tripp

But basically the thought that hit me is that I can be happy because God is doing what He pleases--working all things out for good.....He is happy...I can be happy in Him.

Singing a fall song for Greatgrandpa

Rhi sat in the stroller because it was like Greatgrandpa's wheel chair ;-)

How much trouble can a 13 month old get into in 10-20 minutes?

Our Grandchildren came to visit for 4 days and I decided to take a few minutes to document Alden's trouble making capacities! He climbs everything--here he is getting into the laptop.

Helping with the vacuum
Whipping the cord--at one point in went in the other direction with the cord and fell flat on his face.
Meanwhile---his sister quietly colors
He went up and down this small set of stairs a ton of times during this time period.
He climbed another chair at another table to get the keys and cell phone
He loves to just stand on chairs
He decided to sweep up and then he tasted the little broom
Meanwhile his sister just calmly tries on a hat
He actually tried to break the lock
Outside he went right for the fountain
There is a rain guage in the pot beside him--before we realized what he was doing he drank from the moldy guage!
More climbing
and more climbing--this is the big stairs!! You would think he would be tired....I am ;-)

The romance of frogs

 

I like frogs---so I am posting a picture of one my mother-in-law got when visiting England. Frogs make me smile!!

Sign Beauty

I like this poem--again by Paul Tripp

....To gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. Psalm 27:4


God has filled His world with beauty.
There is the beauty of:
the delicate orchid
the spotted leopard
the multi-hued sunset
the pillowy cloud
the golden sun
the delicious meal
the giant oak
the iridescent snake
the white-capped wave
the ribbony grain of wood
the song of a bird
the endless variety of music
the flash of lightning
the shimmering scales of a fish
the new white snow
the ragged rocks of the mountain
the tender kiss
the whisper of the breeze
the green curtain of the leaves
the security of a father voice
the tender touch of a mother's hand
the crystal display of a starry night
the percussive song of a rain day
the green of the pasture
the blue of the sky
the black of the night
the brown of the soil
the yellow of the bee
the red of the rose
the white of the cloud


"All of those things have been painted with beauty, but it is not ultimate beauty....No, the physical glories of this created world are meant to be sign glories. The amazing beauty that surrounds us every day was designed to be sign beauty. .....that would point to the ultimate beauty that can be found only in the One who created them."

True!

Hope in suffering

"What the Lord expects from us at such seasons is not to abandon ourselves to unreasoning sorrow, but trustingly to look sorrow in the face, to scan its features, to search for the help and hope, which, as surely as God is our Father, must be there. In such trials there can be no comfort for us so long as we stand outside weeping. If only we will take the courage to fix our gaze deliberately upon the stern countenance of grief, and enter unafraid into the darkest recesses of our trouble, we shall find the terror gone, because the Lord has been there before us, and, coming out again, has left the place transfigured, making of it by the grace of his resurrection a house of life, the very gate of heaven.” - Geerhardus Vos

A God Wink about fear

I was praying to God about some fears and He amazingly had me read this today!!

Fearless Forever

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Psalm 27:1


In a world that is held
In such deep darkness
Where the light of truth
Often seems more of a flicker
Than a flame,
In a world where
Deceit
Dishonesty
Falsehood
And foolishness
Divert and distort
The lives of so many,
In times when a myriad
Voices
Say so
Much
About so many things,
Where confusion seems readily available
And clarity seems hard to find,
In a world where opinions
Rise to a place
Where only truth should be,
And every voice
Seems to get an equal hearing,
In the constant cacophony
Of ten thousand
Contradictory voices,
It is a wonderful
And amazing thing
To be able to say
With rest and confidence,
The Lord is my Light!
My heart has been lit
By the illuminating
And protective glory
Of His
Powerful and transforming grace,
My mind has been renewed
By the luminescent presence
Of His truth-guiding
Holy Spirit,
And my life has been guided down straight paths
By the ever-shining lamp
Of His Word.
I am not afraid,
But it is not because
I am strong
Or wise.
I am not afraid,
But it is not because
I have power
Or position.
I am not afraid,
But it is not because
I have health
Or wealth.
I am not afraid;
But it is not because my circumstances
Or relationships
Are easy.
I am not afraid
For one glorious reason:
I have been lit by the
Lord of Light.
In the darkness
Of this fallen world,
I no longer walk
In the night,
But I have been given
The Light of Life.
I am not afraid
Because light lives in me.
This one amazing reality
Gives me rest;
I have been rescued from
Darkness
And transported into the
Light
And I am not afraid.


Paul David Tripp