To Walk The Talk

He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
I John 2:6

Here's how I know and how others can tell if I am abiding. Do I walk as He walked? He walked in truth...He never once misrepresented His Father. He also walked in compassion...He always had time and energy to minister to anyone at any level in any situation.
Obviously we can't BE Jesus, but we are to be LIKE Jesus.
I am so glad that we get to live this out one day at a time...one minute at a time. All my daily people encounters and private thoughts I may bring to Him to be measured and graced with His instruction and blessing.






It's Iris Blooming Time in Wisconsin. We have purple and a few yellow irises blooming on the north side of our house. It's a huge show back there where not many people can see them.

We took our canoe, some friends with their little boat with us, and floated down the Billy Boy Flowage Monday evening. There were white, blue, but mostly yellow irises (flags) all along the banks of the flowage. Most people miss this show, too. They bloom in June here on the flowage where only a few fisherman will ever see them.
Maybe there's a lesson in the faithful, beautiful iris for me. A good part of abiding has to be the willingness to bloom right where I am, not for who sees or appreciates it, but for my Creator.

And They Shall Abide

Micah 5:4 And He shall stand and feed His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God; And they shall abide, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; And the One shall be peace.
In a changing world...
They shall abide!
In a world where new and different is "cool"...
They shall abide!
In a world where the news is bad and upsetting...
They shall abide!
Where crime happens in small rural communities...
They shall abide!
In a world of busy-ness...
They shall abide!
John 15: 4,5 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much, fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.




These potted plants are from Aunt Jo's Greenhouse. Each time I walk up to the house getting home from a cleaning job or otherwise these flowers bless me. Just the little oasis I need.



Brad and I were creating this stove wood yesterday from big blocks to this perfect size for me to handle. I love making firewood. I am hoping that the children will someday enjoy it as much as I do. So we were splitting this with the gas splitter and I was carefully ricking it for drying and dreaming about having warm fires next winter in my little Lopi with the glass in the door.

Elv and I love to sit there each morning with our coffee and Bibles getting our day off to a good start. As I was dreaming along I suddenly remembered the very words Elv used when he announced to me that he'd brought home wood for me to make into stove wood..."STOVEWOOD" !!! Oh, stovewood! Oh, how fun! He means COOKSTOVE wood. What a riot of cheerful anticipation those words create.

We found a cookstove this summer for $50.oo advertised in the paper. The man had it stored carefully under tarp against his garage...just for us. It's an old Quick Meal, not very popular, just a "plain Jane" were his words when we called him. We brought it home and have it in the dining room.

But I want to use it. Imagine getting the kitchen warm of a chilly morning with a few sticks of kindling and wood, making coffee and eggs over it, maybe building the fire up and baking bread in it later on in the morning. So we've been looking at that stove and dreaming...of our cabin someday.

And one day Elv said, " Lets convert it!" Oh, goody! What does that mean? It means that he will put a couple gas burners on the part that isn't wood stove burners, and add a gas burner under the oven part and presto! we'll have a gas/wood cookstove. I can hardly wait and he says we can install it here in my kitchen. I don't have to wait for cabin days, later.

So I grabbed a stick of my "stovewood" that I was working on in my daydreams and ran into the house with it, thrust it into the firebox of my stove...and it's a perfect fit. My dear husby had cut it to exact length, as well.

The truth is we'd like to save money and that's part of the reason we like our new idea for cooking, but the truth also is that we like simple living.

Keep abiding...in Jesus and in prayer.

Just A Wee Posting For My First

Just to get started with what I hope is a way to create purpose in my scribbling from time to time. I really don't care about an audience for the most part, but not long ago I was challenged about this. Jerry Mahor, who is from Ohio, preached at our little country church where we attend and made it clear in his sermons that everything we do should count for Jesus.
My first thought was, "What can little me do to make a difference in this big old sinful world for Jesus?!" First thing that came to mind was my time spent in writing. I like to write down what I noticed, what I am learning, what's not right in this world, what's neat about something, and my own homegrown wisdoms that might or might not be profound.
It might interest you to know that in the last year three of our children married. It was a very busy year at all levels. It's enough to say that when it was over; I knew I needed some quiet time.
I chose crocheting, reading, photography, and scrapbooking as my quiet time projects. It's been wonderful.
This picture of the loons is one of my small triumphs in picture taking. Our whole family was out in canoes when I got this shot.