Photos 1 & 2 Kim’s dream texture, soft light mode, 100% opacity.
Photo #3 Kim’s dream texture. linear light mode, 85% opacity.
Still following,
Elizabeth
Monday, July 25, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Everyday miracles…
“There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
— Albert Einstein
my continuing gratitude list #1243-#1249
-taking youngest granddaughter to see “Winnie the Pooh”
-how a walk helps lift lethargy
-God speaking to my heart through 1 John 4:10-17
-walking with youngest granddaughter around our local fitness trail
-youngest granddaughter spending the night with us
-seeing the ministry where my brother works
-a young woman from the apartments near our prayer center wandering in and giving her life to Christ!
Gratefully yours,
Elizabeth
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Chosen and appointed…
We are chosen by God. We are appointed to go, wherever that go might be. Some of us are sent to make disciples in other nations of the world, some are appointed to stay and to reach and to make disciples of our own children, neighbors, friends, co-workers. God’s will is that the fruit of our lives brings spiritual sustenance and nourishment to others and that the fruit of our life remains, is lasting and enduring, even down through successive generations. We read in the fifteenth chapter of John that this is only possible as we remain, dwell, stay, and abide in Christ. We must be drawing our life-giving sustenance from Him. Just as a plant drinks up nourishment from the earth and that nourishment flows through the plant and eventually causes it to bring forth fruit, we draw our spiritual nourishment from Christ resulting in fruit being produced in our life. Our concentration isn’t on making the fruit happen, but on staying connected, rooted and grounded, in Christ. The fruit is a then a natural consequence.
Still following,
Elizabeth
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Friday's Favs…Old library table
My challenge this week was to think of something to share without having done any projects or made any purchases…I didn’t even try any new recipes to share with you. Oh, except I made the most delicious fish tacos! Hubs liked them so much he asked for them twice in one week! I didn’t photograph the process though, so maybe next week I will have to make them again and share the recipe.
This week I decided to share with you my very first ever refinishing project. I did it years ago when we lived in the little white parsonage on Mt. Hood. My mother in law gave me what she called a “library table”. It was covered in a thick black lacquer finish. What a job it was to strip it and sand it! Afterwards I gave it a simple oil stain finish. To this day, it’s one of my favorite things in our home.
For years I would face the table with the rickety old drawer against the wall.
This is the way the drawer was when it was given to me.
Now the drawer side faces out, and I just consider it part of the old table’s charm.
She has dainty legs.
(And yes, I still absolutely LOVE the $1 a square foot Craig’s list wood floor that my handy man son in law and the men from our church put in our downstairs last summer.)
A reminder from Ann Voskamp’s book 1000 Gifts, Eucharisteo (giving thanks) ALWAYS precedes the miracle,
sits on the old table.
Over the table hangs this tapestry from my mama.
It’s another of my favorite things.
If it wasn’t so expensive I would have it reframed.
In the meanwhile, I have painted the frame changing it from its original brown
to red, and now recently to dark gray with some distressing.
That’s it for this Friday’s Favs.
I hope you all have a Happy Friday and a blessed weekend!
Elizabeth
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The walk…
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Drive to my daughter’s house,
put two year old granddaughter in the jogging stroller,
walk the 1 1/3 miles from her house to the local fitness trail that surrounds the golf course,
walk the 2.2 miles around the fitness trail,
walk the 1 1/3 miles back.
Not a big deal, right?
After all, I often walk two laps around the fitness trail by myself.
The difference I didn’t count on was pushing the 27 pound granddaughter plus the 30 pound stroller.
Let’s just say it was slow going on the part where you have to walk uphill.
I actually almost called my daughter to come get us rather than to walk back to her house.
(Except I was too proud and too stubborn to admit to my marathon running son in law
that I couldn’t do it and had quit.)
So, my simple pleasure this week?
Finishing.
Still following,
Elizabeth
He loves anyway…
There’s a reason He uses the word “poured”
God’s love has been “poured” out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit*
It’s the Divine Flow*
His love to me, then through me to others
My job is to keep the conduit clean, free flowing
To let love flow
To me when I feel undeserving, because I am
yet He loves anyway
Through me to the one that rubs me the wrong way, that I find difficult to love
yet He loves anyway
The family member who isn’t doing things the way I think they should do them
yet He loves anyway
The church goer who is twisting up their own life through disobedience, but blames God
yet He loves anyway
The one who wanders in, high on drugs, caught in immorality, sobbing on my Sunday clothes
yet He loves anyway
The daughter in the Lord who used to worship with us, now a prodigal
yet He loves anyway
The immigrant, the immoral, the homeless, the harlot, the rich, the rude
yet He loves anyway
Me, just the conduit, the pipeline, and it’s easier said than done
but all I have to do is keep the pipe clean, unclogged
and let His Love, He Who Loves Anyway, flow unhindered
Still following,
Elizabeth
*Romans 5:5 Amplified Bible
* I first heard the term “The Divine Flow” in a booklet by that name by John Osteen, Joel’s father
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Beach cottage dreams…
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