We spent Christmas with family around the state, and celebrated the New Year with a quiet weekend at home. We've enjoyed Marshal with us for every celebration! We've enjoyed playing games as a family, Sequence, Rummikub, and Apples to Apples. We have found Apples to Apples to be really fun as Gabe and Lydia expand their reading vocabulary, and we are surprised at their creativity at pairing up words.
With the New Year, the pace of life has not slowed. I just got a picture in my head of a wagon wheel. Lord, hold us together, that we might rest in the secure arms of Him at the axle, as the centrifugal force of life draws us outward along the many spokes. He reminds me that He intends to do just that! We have so many spokes in our lives right now with the Navy. Marshal is in a pressurized work environment as he heads his department and readies it for a looming inspection. We have a future household move ahead, as well as Marshal's change of homeport with the Navy in between. There is the priority of raising our children well and schooling them besides, then my own certification in Nutritional Therapy and our home to sell. Whew! I'm sure there will be other surprises along the way. I do sense the Lord's grace upon us now, and feel excitement for what lies ahead. What a wonderful, beyond comprehension, joy to know a God who is Infinite, All-Knowing, All-Powerful, and LOVES us. What a gift to be the child of a Father that protects, cares for His dependents in the most loving manner with perfect wisdom, and desires to give good gifts to His children. I was most undeserving, unworthy, born cursed, trapped in unknowing pride and rebellion against a Holy God, made evident by the things He has made. By His work I saw my pride and was humbled before Him, His glory and power and Holiness. I believed in the free gift of Christ alone to clothe me in His righteousness that I might live, an adopted daughter of the King of Righteousness. I am reminded that in such a life of faith that is tangible, there is no room for fear of what surrounds. There is only fear of God, who will unleash his wrath against all unrighteousness in the last day, Who compells me to hate evil and love as He first loved us.
Wow. I didn't know that I was going to sit down and write that this morning! May someone be encouraged in their faith today.
We kept the tradition. Gabe and Lydia had our bags full of valentines the week before. Each evening as they headed to bed, they reminded Mom to get busy and make some for them! Each morning they sighed to see Mom still procrastinating. "What do you do all night when we go to sleep, Mom?!" Alas, they had special notes from Mom on Valentines day. Grandma came for her birthday, and I made the most delicious German chocolate cake, which we partitioned into four last pieces on Sunday. See Gabe's sigh of ecstasy as he savors it.
