Social Drinking at Gramma's

Jenn... this one is for you (you would fit right in!):

At Gramma's house, drinking coffee is a social event. We gather for this mini ceremony multiple times every day, including but not limited to mid-morning, after lunch, and evening. The most important questions to be answered during each of these occasions is "Who will drink?" (to which a simple raise of the hand will get you into the coffee club for that particular session) and the next question is "Where will we drink?" In this house, coffee is not made to merely be consumed in any given location, but rather to all drink together in one appointed location. It could be in the living room, the front yard, the back yard, or in the deck/sun room. And so, everyone knows that once they have poured and readied their coffee that they will all meet up in this one spot for usually at least 10 minutes of coffee fellowship and conversation. These are often when the best conversations occur too, such as talking about funny members of the very extended family, what's on the news, what the neighbor told us, who we saw in town, updates from our family around the world, good jokes, bad jokes, what life was like when gramma and grampa were young, what bad things my dad and his brothers did when they were young, and so much more. So even if I should be studying, I nearly always make time for the family fellowship around the coffee cup. I often come away having learned something new, or having had a good chuckle, and I'm pretty sure I always come away with a smile on my face.

Still Here

Sorry that I haven't posted for a while, my like-minded friends. As you know I was on the road travelling up to British Columbia last week, and since I have been here I have been working fairly steadily on finishing up a DS (and enjoying seeing family members again). I have also hardly been online as we are on a dial-up phone-line (isn't life hard?) So my thought is that I won't be posting any big posts until this DS is done as it is priority right now. But I just wanted to let you know that I am still thinking of you and have not forgotten this blog of ours. I just finished a great biography on Martin Luther, and I hope to put some of my favorite quotes of his on here eventually. What an amazing individual!

I hope that all is well with you guys. Things here are beautiful. My grandparents live in a lovely town that is surrounded by mountains and has a beautiful lake. The weather is warm, the days are long, the lake is refreshing, gramma's garden is glorious, and you can't beat reading under the apple tree in the back yard. It is great to be here.

My grandparents are a delight. My gramma is silly and fun and loves people. We always have a great time. She is almost 80, and most days I feel like she can run circles around me. My grampa is 85 and he is just finishing his yearly read through the Bible. He is in Revelations. After he finishes, he says that he will go back and read the New Testament again before he starts back in the beginning next year. They are people whose love for the Lord, love for others, and love for God's work has never dimmed even over the course of many, many years. I have a wonderful spiritual heritage... a sweet grace of God to be sure.

Okay, friends... I'm going to go take a few bites of watermelon, and then I'm heading down the street to do some yardwork for a family friend. Love and miss you guys.

June's Reading

I have begun June's book of the month, "Life Management for Busy Women", and am just barely into it, but I am really enjoying the book so far. It is very practical and applicable. It also reminded me of a wonderful book that I haven't read or studied carefully for a long time, and that is the book of II Timothy. So I'm excited to be reading through II Timothy... the little book which as E. George says is "a letter that contains a straightforward, heart-to-heart, hard-line call to Timothy to live a hardened, tough-as-nails, disciplined life... so that Timothy could glorify God with his life and his service... and so that he could stand up to the trials of life." That's the kind of life I want to live.
Anyway, I thought I'd just post a few of my favorite quotes or thoughts from the book so far.

May we remember that we live one day at a time... yet we are living for eternity in that one day! -p. 6

We must be women who wait on the Lord. In spite of the busy-ness of life, you and I must learn to look to Him each new morning. We must realize that LIFE management is really SPIRITUAL life management. -p. 11

You and I need the spiritual food only the Word of God can provide... and that takes TIME. -p. 13

Behind the passionate life of every passionate saint is a passion for God and His Word. -p. 13

Also Mrs. George was giving some of her tips that she'd learned, and she said, "It's these three small steps that I have faithfully taken for the past 30 years that have helped to develop a personal reservoir of God's Word at the heart of my life." The phrase "small steps that I have faithfully taken" really stuck out to me as a reminder once again that in our spiritual lives, battles are fought and victories are won in the small choices. It is our daily actions and daily choices that will add up in 5 years... either to find us faithful in our pursuit of the Lord-- or to find us complacent in our walk or even off the path and playing with sin and temptation. We might be tempted to "give in" to something just this once, but how we must fight even the smallest of temptations, because the smallest of temptations can lead to the biggest of sins if they are fed and fueled enough. And so as E. George says... "small faithful steps on a daily basis"... this is the tough-as-nails way of life that is required to walk in such a way that that we will be found as faithful and obedient servants to our Master.

Why I Like this Finger

I shut the car door on my finger last night. It’s such a little part of my body, but I don’t think that anything has been quite that painful in a while. I howled and pranced around and put ice on it, but eventually I thought a little beyond the throbbing pain, and today I’m thankful for this for a few reasons:

1. It reminds me that I can feel. I have the amazing sense of touch and feeling, and not everybody in the world has that.

2. It reminds me that I have fingers. I have 10 fingers, 2 hands, 2 arms, and they all work great. God made them ingeniously!

3. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. God created the body to be self-healing. As soon as I got this little injury, my body responded. It formed blood platelets to stop the bleeding. The body then sent in its troops of white blood cells to help combat infection. Now my body will begin to repair itself by regenerating vascular tissue and will heal and close up the wounded area. And all the while, I just keep doing my thing. What a neat body!

4. It reminds me of the good health that I have. The Lord has graciously given me good healh and strength and the full use of my body. I shouldn’t take that for granted!

5. I am reminded of the Body of Christ that is compared to a physical body. It’s a great analogy. When one part of the body is hurt, all should hurt with it. This was indeed the case with my finger. The rest of my body was very sympathetic and hurt with it. It’s also a reminder that the body is diverse and unique and we should appreciate each part so much. I only have one left index finger which I happen to use all the time, and in the same way, the Body of Christ needs all of its members. When one part of the spiritual body is hurting and suffering we should rush to help that member, to hurt with that member, and to heal that member… just like the physical body does.

6. Finally, as I sat icing my finger last night, I was reminded of Christ’s suffering for us. This seems like a very trite comparison. My finger feels great compared to Christ’s suffering, but when we get a sharp physical pain, it’s a very tiny reminder of the immense pain of the cross. Christ suffered immense physical pain, but He experienced even a more terrific horror of sin and separation which we cannot begin to fathom. His wounds were not for nothing… we are healed because He was wounded.

The little reminders of life are often the best.

Jodi's Top Ten

Hi Kids... I just thought I'd give you my top news items, since I am still working on my next "serious" blog. =)

#1. Today I read a whole chapter in my World History book on Muslims and the Islam religion... Interesting.
#2. Tonight I had spaghetti and broccoli for dinner.
#3. Today I received my book of the month for June in the mail! Yippee... I will begin reading soon.
#4. Today I did something that I thought I would never do. I went against every fiber in my being and started something that I at one time detested. I signed up for Facebook. Now I have two things that I thought I would never own in my life... a facebook account and my own blog. Yikes. No it's not peer pressure; I think that it will be a good way to keep in touch with people.
#5. Today is the first month of June, and in 2 days some people in another country may be deciding what my next year will consist of.
#6. Two days ago I was with one of you and eating cheetos. Now I'm eating broccoli... Hee hee (that's a good thing.)
#7. Tomorrow night is Friday night, and I will probably do homework... no, I don't hate my life.
#8. Venezuela just made national television as I'm writing this. By the way, did you know that living in Venezuela is more dangerous than living in Iraq? It's true. Living in Washington DC is also more dangerous than living in Iraq.
#9. Today I also got August's book of the month in the mail.
#10. I think that 2 days from now I will post a "real" post. Until then, all my love to you.