There are Days Life is the Title of a Book

There are just days that you can tell all that happens in life by quoting titles of books (read only the titles or this won't make sense). So I am going to express myself through some of the few titles that line our bookshelves.

This was the feeling after the spring breeze kept calling for me  to just stop and relax....which came after one of those days.

And these days just make me want to be 

All of which was just started by this

Leaving me feeling 

 .

Causing me to what to shout!!!!......

But these words come through strongly

As I allow God to continue to teach me that

Just a fun way to say that God is refining me through all the circumstances of life and preparing me for the His glory. Sometimes it is just fun to see it through silly eyes.  Do you have a title of a book that can tell your day, week, or life?

Preparing My Heart

In preparation for Easter this year the Lord is drawing me to Him.  This season He is teaching me more on His Sovereignity.  A word we throw out in Christiandom, but to get our heads around the concept of sovereignty is another story. The beginning of preparing my heart for the victory of the RESURRECTION I am reading through Bread and Wine by varies authors.  Since God is teaching through different authors I will be sharing through their words on different writings that have penetrated my heart and spirit..

Discipleship and the Cross - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

But there is yet another suffering and yet another disgrace that no Christian escapes.  Only Christ's own suffering is the suffering of reconciliations.  Yet because Christ did suffer for the sake of the world's sins, because the entire burden of sin fell upon him, and because Jesus Christ bequeaths to the disciplines the fruit of his suffering - because of all this, temptation and sin also fall upon the disciples.  It covers them with pure shame, and expels them from the gates of the city like the scapegoat.  Thus does the Christian come to bear sin and guilt for others.

Individual Christians would collapse under the weight of this, were they not themselves borne by him who bore all sins. In this way, however, they can, in the power of Christ's own suffering, overcome all the sins that fall upon them by forgiving them. Thus do Christians become the bearers of burdens: "Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" Gal. 6:2  Just as Christ bears our burdens, so also are we to bear the burdens of our brothers and sisters.  They law of Christ which must be fulfilled is the bearing of the cross.  The burden of my brother or sister that I am to bear is not only that person's external fate, that person's character and personality, but is in a very real sense that person's sin.  I cannot bear it except by forgiving it, in the power of the cross of Christ, in which I, too, have a portion.

Those who are not prepared to take up the cross, those who are not prepared to give their life to suffering and rejection of others, lose community with Christ, and are not disciples.  Discipleship is community to the suffering Christ.

Praise God for the Cross!!

Hope Chest

As a senior in high school she knew what she wanted in her future...to be a wife.  When graduation came around, parents, family and friends were inquiring what she wanted for graduation.  Although she was already enrolled in one of the largest Universities in the country, her eyes were more focused on becoming a wife.  She anticipated the day she would be engaged and began to prepare for the fulfillment of her dream.

Instead of the usual accessories asked for by a college co-ed, she asked for a "hope chest".  Family and friends were more than thrilled to start the collection of household items, even if a proposal had not occurred.  Her Dad was delighted to buy a well-crafted, "piece-of-wood" for his daughter.  Her style at the time was contemporary, having no clue what her decor would be when she finally had a home.  The "hope chest" was bought, walnut with straight contemporary lines and lined in cedar.  Each celebrated occasion the "hope chest" was added to.  Everyday dishes, stainless steel flatware, linens, a wooden rolling pin and a bunny rabbit cookie jar.  Each item added to the chest brought anticipation of the fulfillment of the dream.

Yes, it has survived all six children, and yes, five boys and a hubby!  No scares!

There is very little that remains from the items placed in that chest over 32 years ago.  The dishes have long been broken, the flatware was mainly lost outside in the dirt from her boys, linens worn out and the rolling pin has fallen apart... but the bunny rabbit cookie jar remains.

Her "hope chest" still sits at the end of her marriage bed, continuing to be filled with memories from her union...  baby books, baby clothes, children's awards, pictures, shoes, and cards collected through the years. In other parts of the world, it has the name "glory box"... an appropriate name for a box of life's treasures.

This year, I am going to find my own daughter a "hope chest", one that she can start collecting her dreams in. I am sure her style will be very different from mine.  Hers will come for her 20th birthday and I am sure she will fill it with different items.  My prayer is that her "hope chest" will one day be filled with dreams that have gone beyond everything she could have "hoped" for.

My "hope chest" still has room to hold memories from my grandchildren one day....maybe it will be passed down and enjoyed in the future by a granddaughter or great-granddaughter.  Maybe I will be able to place the first item in her "hope chest".  Maybe they will see it as their "glory box."

Do you have a "hope chest"?  I know Kim at Field of My Dreams has a hope chest...maybe she will share her memories also.  Whether we have a "hope chest" or not, I am sure we can all tell about how our dreams have been fulfilled beyond our imagination.   Spring just seems to pull me back into dreams and the magical days of youth...how about you?