Inspired Prayer

This prayer INSPIRED my soul while reading it:


Friday, Feb. 14, 1896

I awake at half past two, and seek the Lord, as is my practice, for wisdom and grace, mingling my prayers with thanksgiving for His tender, loving compassion toward us. The words of Isaiah 40:28-31 seem appropriate and impressed upon my mind.


Isaiah 40:28-31 (supplied)

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, [that] the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? [there is] no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to [them that have] no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.



My prayer is, Help me, O my heavenly Father, to trust wholly in Thy wisdom and not to lean to my own understanding. Guide Thou my pen and direct my speech that I shall not sin against Thee with voice or pen. I must have grace. I plead, Teach me Thy truth, that I shall not err from Thy way. O my Lord, I am weakness itself, but Thou art strength, fortitude, and courage to Thy people if they will only diligently make Thee their trust.

Sabbath, Feb. 15, 1896


The Lord is good and merciful. I want my gratitude offering constantly ascending to God. I long to have a deeper sense of His goodness and of His changeless love. I long daily for the waters of life. I must continually have my strength in God. My dependence must not waver. No human agency must come between my soul and my God. The Lord is our only hope. In Him I trust, and He will never, no never, fail me. He hath hitherto helped me when under great discouragement.


I will thank the Lord and praise His holy name. I will praise the Lord that in Him I can trust at all times. He is the health of my countenance and my strong tower into which I can run and be safe. He understands my necessities and He will give me the light of His countenance that I may reflect light upon others. I will not fail nor be discouraged. I look to Thee, my heavenly Father, to give strength and grace. I will praise the Lord at all times and not wait for a happy flight of feeling. Then praise the Lord, for He is good, and His mercies will attend me morning, noon, and night. A happy flight of feeling is not evidence; His Word is my assurance.


Taken from: That I May Know Him pg. 266

God's Perfect Love

Contemplating 1 John has been an awesome experience. I just can't seem to move on. The book itself seems to be a book of contrasts.

Light::::::Darkness
Spirit of Truth::::::Spirit of Error
Keeping His commandments::::::Not keeping His commandments
Confessing that Jesus is the Son of God::::::Denying that Jesus is the Son of God
Sons of God::::::Children of the devil
Loving your brother::::::Not loving your brother
Righteousness::::::Unrighteousness

It lets us know, that we do have to make a choice. There is no straddling the fence but a "one side of the fence or the other". A firm decision for one or the other. Keep in mind that no decision is actually making a decision.

BUT...

The overall theme that really caught my attention is such a simple thought yet not deeply contemplated by many and I think just simply overlooked...

God's perfect love.

God manifesting this love by sending His Son to redeem us

Not that we loved God, but that He loved us

God is love

Because of this love that God has toward man, this is our duty:

• Loving God
• Believe that Jesus is the Son of God (we have been given enough evidence)
• Keeping His commandments
• Don't love the world
• Confessing Jesus Christ
• Love one another in deed and in truth and perfecting that love

Just a thought

Fall Beauty

 

 The last lingering sunflower colored just right to remind us of fall...

 A nest used and laying wait for next year...

A road leading to where???

A butterfly out of nowhere.  Isn't too cold???

 A girl and her dog...

Which road do I take???

I think I'll take this one...

I think I'll walk up there.  Maybe not today...

God's beauty is everywhere!!!

 

 

Wherever we turn, we hear the voice of God and behold His handiwork. From the solemn roll of the deep-toned thunder and old ocean's ceaseless roar, to the glad songs that make the forests vocal with melody, nature's ten thousand voices speak His praise. In earth and sea and sky, with their marvelous tint and color, varying in gorgeous contrast or blended in harmony, we behold His glory. The everlasting hills tell of His power. The trees that wave their green banners in the sunlight, and the flowers in their delicate beauty, point to their Creator. The living green that carpets the brown earth tells of God's care for the humblest of His creatures. The caves of the sea and the depths of the earth reveal His treasures. He who placed the pearls in the ocean and the amethyst and chrysolite among the rocks is a lover of the beautiful. The sun rising in the heavens is a representative of Him who is the life and light of all that He has made. All the brightness and beauty that adorn the earth and light up the heavens speak of God.   
     Shall we, then, in the enjoyment of His gifts, forget the Giver? Let them rather lead us to contemplate His goodness and His love. Let all that is beautiful in our earthly home remind us of the crystal river and green fields, the waving trees and living fountains, the shining city and the white-robed singers, of our heavenly home-- that world of beauty which no artist can picture, no mortal tongue describe. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9.

Goodbye My Friends

It was a moment of sad departure...

 Mario and Sassy 

We will miss them!!!!

  We had a family conference and decided that it was time to find our horses another home.  They had been with us for 4 years and not serving any purpose other than kinda hanging around and eating lots of hay.  We knew that we were coming upon a hard winter and to get another 6 tons of hay was going to be very tight on the wallet.  


So, we began the hunt or rather look for buyers.  We checked around and began hearing that horses were a dime a dozen in the area.  Would we have to literally give the horses away or sell them for really, really cheap???  Two purebred Halflingers!!!   It was beginning to look like it.


We then got a response from a family in Montana that wanted to make a trade after seeing the listing on Craigslist.  Oh my, they were heaven sent.  (See a full post on Consecrated Families).  It was just what we were looking for and just what they were looking for.  Thank goodness, we weren't going to have to just give the horses away. What a great deal.

Anyway!!!!

This is who arrived at our homestead Monday evening:

Cloe

Purebred Nubian Doe

4 years old

Pregnant--Kidding in February

Lightning

 Nubian Doeling

4 months

 Annie

 LaMancha

2 years old

Annie, Cloe and Lightning

Racer

Purebred Nigerian Dwarf Buck

1 year old

What have we gotten ourselves into???!!! 

It has been an interesting experience so far.  We did our research and decided to take the plunge.  The girls are totally committed (actually, it was their decision) and are having a great time.  Totally different from handling two 850 pound horses that eat like you wouldn't believe.  

So, thus far, we are tickled pink and learning like crazy.  I think I could get use to this.  All except Racer. Boy does he have a scent.  We will decide what to do with him--whether we breed him or trade him in for a Nubian Buck.  He is kinda cool though.  Really mellow personality. 

Oh my goodness, what am I turning into.  A modern day "homestead loving, make your food from scratch, quilting, homeschooling mom" country girl.  I AM LOVING IT!!!

We will keep you posted.  

Hope and Prayer

Hope is defined as: A desire of some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable.

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. Romans 12:12

We must find ourselves "rejoicing in hope," for we serve the very God of hope.  He fills us with joy and peace so that we may "abound in hope"; through the Holy Spirit.

God is forever training us through the difficulties that we have and it is our privilege to approach God in prayer with humility and a helpless heart.  Let us petition the throne of grace with our thoughts and desires forever upward.  Our heavenly messengers are waiting for our sincere and heartfelt prayers.

 

"Prayer moves the arm of Omnipotence."  COL 173

Prayer has "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."  Hebrews 11:33-34


And then we WAIT on the Lord...

in cheerful anticipation

[It is] good that [a man] should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3:26

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but [when] the desire cometh, [it is] a tree of life.  

Proverbs 13:12

God's Promises

 

Yesterday, we were picking tomatoes from the garden--a freeze was predicted for that night.

I was questioning myself.

Which tomatoes should I pick???

Can we still cover the plants and leave some of the tomatoes out a little longer?

I was getting kind of anxious.

We hadn't gotten as many tomatoes as we hoped.

I was feeling that our harvest would be short.

Before I knew it, we began to have sun showers.

It was beautiful.

Then we saw this beautiful rainbow.

God reminded me of all of His promises.

For all the promises of God in him [are] yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. 

2 Corinthians 1:20

My heart rejoiced!!!

How wonderful God is!!!

But, He wasn't done.

He decided to show us a double rainbow

(We get those often here)

 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 

 2 Peter 1:4

Food Storage and Winter

 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. Proverbs 31:16


She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household [are] clothed with scarlet.  Proverbs 31:21

Afriend of mine asked about food storage, so I thought I would post some of what we do. 

There are so many different reasons why families practice food storage.  Some times it has to do with people having large families, biblical principles (a good example is Joseph in Genesis 47), locality, emergency preparedness and sometimes a well stocked pantry just puts a smile on a mom's face. 

When we purchased our 20 acres our home wasn't big enough to have a cold storage inside, so out we went.  Our first choice was to place in a root cellar. The hole is dug and ready to go (oh yeah, winter is on the way--project for next year).  So, we took one of the small outbuildings and fit it with shelving.   We use rubbermaid buckets and 5-gallon pails fitted with Gamma Seal Lids to store grains and legumes.  The shelving is able to hold all of our canned foods.  The only problem that we ran into last winter was during the coldest of winter (below zero--doesn't happen often).  We didn't think to insulate the floor and our potatoes were sitting on the floor, so we had some damaged potatoes.  We do keep a small heater in there that runs to keep temperatures just around 40 degrees.  We also store our winter squash and onions (burlap bags).  My husband is in the process of turning a larger room inside of the work shed/his office to move everything into for this winter since the root cellar will not get done before winter starts.

Once a year, usually in the fall, we stock up using our winter shopping list and replenish in late spring.

Canning is a big to-do around here.  Last year, we canned nearly 600 jars of food.  We harvest from our garden and there is an area about 40 minutes from here, Greenbluff, where there is over 30 farms that we usually get our fruit.  I also can dry beans which I use to think was a dumb idea, but I got a little wiser.  Because of where we live and winter, if we just happen to have a big snow, and the electricity goes out, canned bean are easy to open and warm up on the wood stove.  It is also cheaper than buying from the store.  Now that is a good idea.  We usually do pinto (great for refried beans and other stuff), garbanzo (hummus, soups, sandwich fillings etc.), and kidney (great for soups, different vegetarian patties etc.). 

We also dry lots of strawberries, cherries, apples and bananas--great for granola and just eating.

We have a staple home-made food list such as bread, granola, gluten, and other food stuff that we keep in the freezer for use.  That comes in handy during canning season when no one wants to particularly cook and during the winter.

Peek at our shopping list at Consecrated Families.

Food storage is so much fun.  My family claims that I "keep stash."  Yes, I do!!!