One Quiet Life

...conversations with my girl about her future. Watching her eyes light up, listening to her plans, affirming her gifts. These are good things. ...the Lord's provision. It doesn't always come in the way or time I'd like, but it always comes. ...books that challenge me to change my way of thinking. ...sisters in Christ who uphold me in prayer. ...fresh coats of paint ...laughter. With my husband, my girl, friends. Precious times. ...and these, I thank thee for personal mercies, a measure of health, preservation of body, comforts of house and home, sufficiency of food and clothing, continuance of mental powers, my family, their mutual help and support, the delights of domestic harmony and peace, the seats now filled that might have been vacant, my country, church, Bible, faith. ~ Valley of Vision

She'd denatured parts of her own existence by printing and framing and freezing them. And they'd become denatured even further by being written about, analyzed, lionized by other people, by strangers.  - Anna Quindlen Still Life with Breadcrumbs (p. 231) and this, It’s great that struggling and lonely people can find community, resources, and honest conversations with others online. But one drawback is that we can feel a weird sort of obligation to put our private stuff out there for everyone to read -- as if a little privacy were the same thing as a lack of authenticity. - Rebecca Reynolds @ Thistle and Toad  as well as this, The internet makes the world too big sometimes. Big can be good, as the internet delightfully stretches our reach across the globe, enabling us to glimpse what gospel laborers are so faithfully doing in various creative ways. But then, when our view is stretched out across the world, it is far more difficult...

" I am deeply persuaded that the foundation for people-transforming ministry is not sound theology; it is love ."  At first I wanted to close the book . The club-wielding Pharisee inside of me was quick to decry Paul Tripp's words. Join me at Out of the Ordinary to read the rest...

"My daily behavior is my attempt to get what is important to me in various  situations and relationships. My choices and actions always reveal the desires that rule my heart."  Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands It had been the most difficult week I could remember in quite a while. Unexpected bills, a heat-pump on its last legs in the most brutal stretch of winter so far, two days of jury duty an hour away, and disappointing news. They had all converged in five tortuous days. I was at my breaking point when I opened the book for a much-needed reprieve. Yet the words were like a bucket of ice water thrown in my face. I thought back to my behavior of the past week. I'd been upset, and I let everyone who came within a 10-mile radius know it. As each new disappointment came, I looked for someone to blame - my husband, our insurance company, the electric company, the legal system, and, finally, God. How could he let these things happen? Didn't...