Throwback Thursday...

Where does the time go....can you name these children???

More Than One thousand Tomorrows Later...

                         

 

The saddest moments are when life passes by...  

 5 years ago...on that cold February day we drove...2 hours to say goodbye to my Aunt who had battled cancer for many years of her life. I remember it like it was yesterday. The hospice wing of the hospital....machines beeping....tears silently falling down every face. I looked into your beautiful, brave face and wondered why...why are these moments when our hearts are so broken a moment that we must live.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                    But is it these moments when our hearts are broken really times that life forces them open so they can fill with love...And I let my troubled mind wonder...

 

 

One day no one would ever see through these eyes again. Be in this body of warm life. Think any of these thoughts in this place of skin and bone and blood again. Once I wasn’t yet here, and someday I just wouldn’t be here. The lid would close tight and they’d lower me too into earth.

 

What song does the world sing when your voice is forever silenced?

Does the wind still murmur through leaves of silver birch at pond’s edge though you never walk that way again? 



Does sun kindle a grey sky into a dawn inferno though you no longer rise?

 

 

I remember a time when I was young...afraid I might die like someone in a movie did...

 

“Your body is like a tent, Jessica.”Mom told me “See? What I’m touching, this is just your tent. The real you is deep inside, your soul, the part of your that feels and loves and makes you!”
 “Your body tent will die. Everyone’s body tent dies.”
She finds my eyes again.


“But you, the soul-you on the inside, that will never, ever die!. God made our souls to live forever and ever.“
Hmm....forever and ever...

You awoke a short moment and we gathered around you and took turns at our attempts at goodbye.
We brushed away tears that didn't stop.

 

 And here too, near the pit of mortality and what that means for fragile humanity, us who are but a vapor, withering grass.

 

We drove home in silence. The kind of silence that you don't have to talk out words to communicate with each others hearts the sorrow. 

 

 

 

 

 

May we always live in a way that we are ready for when we are called out of this world. We all wish we knew the number of tomorrows we had left. But we don't and death could find us at any time.....do you know Christ as you personal Savior? Remember...no amount of good works will make us good enough. We  much all go to Calvary for ourselves and accept Jesus and let His blood forgive our sins so we can have a home in heaven someday.

 

 

But life went on.... We gathered on that cold day in the early day of March to celebrate you and your life.  We cried more while Sarah McLachlan sang I will Remember You and pictures of you rolled across the screen. 

 

 

Its a sad, sad thing....to have to loose you.

I want to call you so bad sometimes. To tell you I met a lady where I work that's as clean crazy as you. To have those conversations that the 16 and 17 year old me wasn't old enough to think to have. To have just one trip to Basken Robbins for some ice cream and long talk. To polish the plant leaves and vacuum the carpets in the same direction, then again the other way to lift out *all* the dirt I brought in with my bare feet.  

 

But God called you.....

And before we knew it future became the past. We all live and we all die. In spite of what's been gained and what's been lost. But an end is not goodbye,  the sun comes up and seasons change. 

             "If only there could be an invitation that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, never got stale. And when ever  wanted we could open it up and live that moment all over again." -Ann Voskamp

   

 

I love you Aunt Jackie!! I miss you so much along with the rest of the family left here living on.  Thank you for those hot summer nights we stayed up late drinking soda eating cashews and painting nails.

 

Your Jessica Lynn <3

 

 

 

 



::Hearts::

What has the Lord laid on your heart to make for  Valentines day?

We are making lots of things....more pictures coming soon, but for now here is a verse for y'all!

 

"Create in me a clean  h e a r t  O God,

and renew a right spirit within me."

~Psalm 51:10~

 

Have a blessed day...Love~ Maggie

Welcome to The New...

 Another year over....a new one just begun. So many thing we did not get done in 2014. It would be so nice if we could just get the chance for a do-over. It would be easy to feel like a failure... and in truth,

 We are failures. at least the brave honest ones of us are.

Maybe...just maybe for a moment God wants us to realize we are failures, without HIM, that is.

Do you have a desire to do something great in your lifetime?


 Deep in our hearts we all have that burning desire...


The desire to do something great is an inborn response to the fact we are created by God to do great things for God. The fact that we were created by a great and eternal God... God has infinite purposes for everything He created. We serve an eternal God. We are eternal. We are designed to live and  to live eternally. Each thing we do has eternal purpose. Each decision we make, big or small, has eternal meaning.
 Throughout history, God has empowered ordinary men and women to do great things that glorify Him.

Joseph had a dream to do something great in the eyes of his family.
Moses had a desire to do something great for his nation.
Paul lived out a God-given burning passion to reach the Gentile world with Gospel of Jesus.

All God wants is the ordinary. The ordinary ones...the failures. The ones that just can't get it together... It's in this that we realize we can't...But He can. It's that humble heart that knows without the power of Jesus...It doesn't have a reason. But the humble heart.

Just a humble heart...

          That's what God wants. The humble-teachable heart that He can lift up.


What if this was the year to not make New Year's resolutions....But to look to God for new solutions to  old year's problems.

At the close of the old year, and the beginning of this new year. Take  moment to reflect on the old year. Who touched your life in a really special way? What were some big lessons you learned? Is there someone you need to forgive? Is there someone that helped your relationship with Christ grow? Take a moment and let that someone know...you never know how much you may bless someone.


But one thing I do.....
     Pressing on toward the mark. That mark of the high calling of Jesus Christ.

Straining forward to what lies ahead!!
                                                                                     Philippians 3:13,14

What are your plans for this New Year? What is one (humanly) impossible thing you are too scared to ask God for? What Godly character quality do you want to possess this year? What is a 'problem' from the old year you need to get rid of...by finding a God-given solution?

     Happy New Year Friends!!

~Yours Truly

 

Relationships

'God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath seen? And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also."

 1 John 4:16-21

God's love is the source of all human love, and it spreads like fire. In loving His children, God kindles a flame in their hearts.  In turn, they love others, who then are warmed by God's love pouring through them. Broken relationships can, and will hinder our relationship with God. If we have a problem or grievance with a friend or family member, we must make every effort to restore this broken relationship as soon as possible. We are hypocrites if we claim to love God while we are harboring feeling and said truthfully, hating our brothers and sisters. Our attitude is a reflection of our relationship with God. It's so easy to say that we love God when the blessings are flowing and all that costs us is weekly church attendance. But the real test of our love for God is how we treat the people right in front of us that God placed in our lives as our family or friends and fellow believers. We cannot truly love God while neglecting to love those who are

created in His image.

 

 Often we want to judge others rather that removing the log from our own eye. Some sins seem bigger than others because their obvious consequences are much more serious. Murder for example seems to be much worse than hatred, and adultery seems much worse than pride. But this does not mean that because we only commit 'little' sins we deserve eternal life. All sins make us sinners, and all sins cut us off from our Holy God. All sins therefore lead to death, regardless of how great or small they seem. Don't minimize "little" sins and overrate "big' sins. They all need to be forgiven, and they all CAN be forgiven. (Romans 3:23)

Lets love each other...pray for one another, with a pure heart.  Take the courage to restore a broken relationship!!

Have a beautiful Wednesday resting in the love of Jesus!

Love, Jessica <3

only one life..

"Only one life twill soon be past...

only what's done

for Christ will last."

C.T. Studd

 

 

 Have a blessed Day!

In Christ Alone~

Abigail

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of  July!

 

May we never ever, take our eyes off the true reason that we have freedom today in America!

 

"God bless America, land that I love, stand beside her and guide her, through the night with the light from above....from the mountains, to the prairie, to the ocean, white with foam....

GOD Bless AMERICA,

my home sweet home!"

 

Enjoy listening :)

 

 

Enjoy your fourth!

In Christ alone~ Abigail