Seeing God's Hand

  But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.  Philipians 4:10&18

 

We've been going through Spiritual Depression by Dr. Martin Loyd Jones and our last Bible study meeting this morning was based on Phillipians 4 : 10 - 20 and learning to be content.  In our discussion on verse 10 we spoke a bit about how God uses us to be a blessing to others and how when we are able to show love or give gifts to others we must beware of pride and recognize this giving of ourselves is of the Lord.  We also mentioned how important it is to recognize God's provision in the smallest details of our lives.  And then we talked about many other things. 

Wait, I can't leave this alone until I share what I learned this morning.  You see those phrases in verse 18, now here is Ephesians 5:2

 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

Now I'll probably mess this up because I didn't take notes but let me try to explain what I'm getting at.  The passage in Philipians was Paul's thank you to the church for their material/physical gifts of love they had given to him.  He made sure the praise for that first went to the Lord (vs. 10) but he thanked them sincerely as well.  Ephesians 5:2 the Greek words for sweet - smelling aroma are the same as in Philipians and if I get it right the only 2 places these two words are used in scripture.  So, the inspired scriptures use the same words to describe the loving gifts of the people to Paul, (Philipians 4: 18) to command us to walk in love (I would assume it means to others because vs 1 of Ephesians 5 commands us to be imitators of God) just as Christ loved us IN GIVING Himself for us. 

Am I writing this clear enough to get the point across I think we are to learn?  We must love and care for one another in such a great, deep, encompassing, self-sacrificing way that it measures up to Christ's sacrifice for undeserving sinners!  What a command.  Are we able to do it?  Well, we can't forget the scripture 
But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.  Isaiah 64:5-7

but it is still a command!

 

Well, that's my understanding of it anyway.  I, of course, could be completely wrong and I could have misunderstood what I was also taught this morning so feel free to pass on more teaching and correcting!

 

Now obviously it was a heart-filling kind of morning.  But the practical parts of the day, like kids and lunch and clean up also have their place and so we couldn't stay studying all morning.  Thankfully, those three all meshed together in a wonderful potluck lunch together with the same ladies. After lunch was finished and the clean up was almost done I came across a little package of flower food accidently left behind from the cut flowers the kids had given to their well loved teacher/babysitter.

I smiled to myself as I put it my pocket because I'm not a huge cut flower person myself (maybe mostly because I don't have room to put them that's 100% accident proof :) and thought how unlikely it would be that I would have flowers in my house before the crystals went stale.  (Steve's not a flower giver and I'm also 100% okay with that)

And I didn't think about it again.

But tonight, just after I had the kids tucked in bed there was a knocking on the back door.  I couldn't imagine who would be coming over but opened the door only to find to my great surprise a friend from church with a.................................................

 

bouquet of cut flowers!!!!

 

 

And I felt as though the Lord was telling me the things that I had learned this morning, about how He uses His children to bring blessing to others but how we must see His providing hand in it, are lessons that I must not forget.
I felt as though I had to use those flowers to give praise to Him for how He cares for me, in giving me a glimpse of His love in sending flowers a few hours after I had picked up that little package of crystals and smiled at the irony of my taking them home to sit on my counter, useless.
Thank you, Kathy and Brittany, for heeding the command of the Lord to walk in love, to be used for His greater purpose of cementing the things I was made to think so carefully about this morning.
I'll treasure those flowers and I'm thinking that flower food will allow them to be around to be enjoyed for a while.

Music Lessons??

And I wondered why I was getting a headache and why the lady was laughing as we tried to talk on the phone!

Happy Victoria Day

It seems so unreal because indeed it was a happy day for us and yet not that far away tornados ripped buildings and lives to bits leaving hearts devastated and homes, counties and hospital in ruin.

And these happy pictures and the blessings and peace they portray leave my puny mind and heart overwhelmed...

 

We took in a parade in Fort Langley.

 The mounted police officer and his dog were a real hit but we were sad he didn't come to our side of the street for some shoulder pats.

 Look at the sun on that gorgeous flag there in the middle.  You know, peace, democracy, blessings....

 high fives all around

 and then off for some horseback riding....Cara delighted in it.

 my cute baby :)

 And Sam enjoyed a few rounds...while I delight in Leah's confidence in leading Leaf around the field.

 This little Cody monster was pretending to be a RCMP in the parade.  Because I didn't allow him to keep his guns (sticks) that he had shoved in his shorts along for the ride he alternately waved at the crowds and tossed us candy.  :)  If you are ever bored or in the doldrums I invite you to invite Cody over for an hour or two.  He has a most delightful imagination and the things he comes up with are guaranteed to make you smile if not laugh out loud!

 Cam was a jockey on a race horse....not that Leaf was that excited about living up to his lofty title :)

 And then this dear girl spent time riding around the field on her own until...

 Nana Lynn put her on the lunge rope so she could do some trotting and cantering....

she would be happy if she could be there all day long, for lots of days in a row!

So very, very thankful for the special times.

Mother's Lunch in KG

First off, pinning on the pretty flower that Cam was very excited for me to wear.

 We went to the music room so the class could sing us songs and recite memory verses they've learned this year.  Cam's not much for crowds and feeling like he's in the spotlight...this was his I'm-nervous-and-trying-not-to-think-about-it look.

 He had to come stand in front of me to sing me a special Happy Mother's Day song.  He didn't mind to make crazy faces....

 We went back to the classroom for some taco and salad lunch...and a couple more songs.  So grown up looking with a sweet smile and pants a few inches on the short side.  He's changed a lot since September!

It was a special time together.  We both enjoyed it so much! 

Feels like Summer

Taking advantage of another beautiful day to practice for the bike a thon with her Dad!!

a) Sounds like they went all over the countryside so I'll update with a km amount if I find one out :)
b) I was invited to bike with her for the real deal but I'm getting worried that I won't be able to keep up!

Sunny Days!

Gorgeous May weather we're having here!!

soccer for Sam

 This spring we signed up Sam for soccer.  He was sooooooo excited and even got to the laugh/crying point (auntie Carolyn!!??) when he found out Steve was going to be his coach.  He comes home dripping with sweat, smiling from ear to ear and brimming over with stories after every game.

Last week we went as a family to go watch his game and it was a gloriously sunny evening.  I didn't get too many pictures of him close enough to see who's who but I caught a few that show the essence of it all.

Here he is running back toward us having just scored his first goal.  Pretty happy about the whole situation.

 This game they didn't have enough kids show up for subs so he played the whole time.  When they stopped long enough to mow down a few orange slices he was all sweaty and happy and healthy looking.  Such an incredible blessing.

My favorite picture of the night turned out to be the one of his two brothers who were slightly chilled but still tickled to be watching their big bro play. Because it's not going to be too often I'll find them cuddled up like that.