You Capture: Spring

I love spring, it's my favorite time of year. Everything is green and growing and new. The weather is beautiful, fresh breezes, warm days, cool nights.

Gemma gave her playhouse a spring cleaning and it's occupied once again.

The bubbles have made a reappearance.

My roses are blooming beautifully.

Ladybugs have made my yard their home.

It's time to plant my garden. I love picking out seeds, planning, and planting the fruits and veggies we will harvest this summer and fall. We have such a wonderfully long growing season here. I had tomatoes through November last year. It's so rewarding to harvest the things you've grown.

Planting my garden has got me thinking about another garden that needs tending. In this garden, however, I am not the master gardener. That role belongs to Jesus. I find myself asking Him, "What work needs to be done in the garden of my heart? Have I allowed the weeds of selfishness and pride to grow there? Those are going to have to be pulled out, aren't they? Do I need any pruning back? What seeds should be planted, love, patience, self control? Have I been watering and fertilizing enough by spending time in the Word and prayer? Show me, Lord, what we should do!"

I'm excited about this year's crop. I can't wait to see the things my Gardener is going to produce in me.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.  You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by the message I have given you.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing...  My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father. "

John 15:1-5,8

You Capture: Spring

My Daily Prayer

New Music

My husband was just at Catalyst West Conference and brought home Eternity Invades by Vicky Beeching. that was just released. I really, really love this CD. It's been several years since I've heard an album that I like every single song. You know, sometimes there's just music that you instantly love and connect with. I personally don't find it very often, but this is one of those few. Check it out.




Eternity Invades

And I quote...

"The maturity of a Christian experience cannot be reached in a moment, but is the result of the work  of God's Holy Spirit, who, by His energizing power, causes us to grow up into Christ in all things. And we cannot hope to reach this maturity in any way other than by yielding ourselves up, utterly and willingly, to His mighty working."

-Hannah Whitehall Smith, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life

You Capture: Sweet

I promise

that I don't

(usually)

eat a whole

bar of chocolate

in just

one sitting,

but I had this idea

and was willing

to suffer for my...

...art?

so I ate the whole thing

before lunch.

You Capture

In The Groove

Have you ever felt like you've found your spiritual groove in something? You know you are called by God to do something, He's gifted you to do this thing and do it well, and you really love doing it. You feel alive, on fire, at the top of your game because you are doing what you were made for. I know what I was made for: I was made for ministry. Specifically, discipling and teaching others to study the Bible. For a couple of years now I haven't been able to do those things very often, not because of a lack of desire, but a lack of opportunity. If you want to know why you can look  HERE and HERE.

Recently though, God has given me a regular, daily opportunity to do the things I am called and gifted to do. I am discipling and teaching someone to study the Bible: my daughter. It's not that I didn't want to do it before, but she wasn't ready then. She is now.

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be back in my groove, to feel the Spirit of God moving in me, speaking to me, giving me insights into the Word, showing me the exact things that I need to say to minister to my daughter, to help her understand, to challenge her and encourage her. It's an awesome thing. It's a God thing that I am able to do this with my daughter.

I love Gemma more myself, I would lay my life down for hers in a heart beat, but my relationship with my daughter is challenging. A lot of times we clash. Our dispositions are in some ways very different. I am quiet, she is chatty. I'm predictable, she's a firecracker. I've always been willing to learn the easy way, she seems to want to learn the hard way. One gentle scolding was always enough to make me repent of wrong and not misbehave again, Gemma needs to be disciplined over and over again for an offence repeated many times before she really changes. Another thing, for whatever reason, she has always been very resistant to learning and being taught by me. It doesn't matter on what subject, spiritual, homework, general information, she has a hard time receiving instruction from me.

A couple of months ago I really felt the Lord calling me to have Gemma read the Bible everyday, and then discuss it and pray with her every morning. I sat down one morning and started looking through my Bible. God immediately started showing me what scriptures I was to have her read. In an hour I had enough for her daily reading for the next few months, and they flowed together beautifully I knew it was just what her little heart needed, but I wasn't sure how it was going to go over. Time wasn't the issue, we had time in our morning routine to add Bible reading. A willing heart on Gemma's part was. She had been going through a rather long spell of being resistant to spiritual things.

So I had several people, as well as my husband and myself, pray for her heart to be open to the things of the Lord and my instruction. After a couple weeks of prayer, I plunged into the Word of God with Gemma. She was resistant at first. The first week was especially hard. I really felt like the enemy was pressing in and trying to discourage me continuing. I was expecting attacks and kept going right along, despite her attitude. And I prayed more.

God answered those prayers. Gemma doesn't fight me anymore about reading the Bible. She doesn't roll her eyes. I don't feel like I'm pulling teeth to get her to talk about what we've read. She enjoys it. She participates. She wants to change and is changing. Praise God!

Last year was a really rough year for Gemma. I don't know why, but it was. If someone had told me that a year later she would be willingly studying the Bible with me everyday and trying to apply it to her life, I wouldn't have believed it!

And so I'm back in my groove, teaching, discipling. And there's no one I'd rather be doing this with than my daughter.

Imitation

"Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:1

You Capture: Fresh

Fresh fruit.

Fresh flowers.

Fresh air.

Fresh bread.

Fresh start.

"The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By His mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin fresh each day."
Lamentations 3:22-23

You Capture

You Capture: Comfort

What's comfort?

There's comfort food.

Curling up with a cup of tea and a book for a quiet afternoon.

There's a loving family.

But what about when those things aren't enough? Have you ever been there, when you feel like your world is ending? The rug has been pulled out from under your feet. Bewildered. Hurt. Reeling. I've been there more than once. What do you do then? A cup of tea and chocolate isn't going to help. Even a hug from a loved one isn't enough.

This is comfort: God loves me. When everything is chaotic and crashing down around me, I've found it to be true. He loves me. It's the only lasting comfort I've ever found.

 

"For we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

"I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

Big Blue Flower

We had a busy Easter, Gemma had four egg hunts in one day! Here she is in her Easter outfit, including the tights that I dyed my hand blue for.

It's a GOOD Friday

Jesus paid it all,

All to Him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow.

Oh, praise the One who paid my debt

And raised this life up from the dead!

You Capture: Feet

These feet have been moving lately! Gemma has been on spring break this week and Matt took some time off work.

We left our cats with extra food and water and took off for a few days. We especially made sure this guy, Cyril, with his little white mitten kitty feet, was not in our room. Several years ago we went to the Grand Canyon for five days. I checked under my bed before we left to make sure Cyril wasn't under it. I didn't see him and closed the door. Apparently he was in there, hiding in the closet, and ended up being locked in our room without food or water for five days and four nights! He was fine (who knew a cat could go that long without water!) and even used a laundry basket with some towels in it as a litter box so we didn't have to clean the floors. He was more upset about being separated from his brother (we have two cats) and interested in seeing us than he was in food or water when we finally came home!

Anyway, the weather was perfect for sandals and bare feet. We went to the Long Beach Aquarium and walked around the nearby harbor. We also went to San Diego.

We went and played at the beach, toes in the sand. I love the beach, I grew up near the beach and have fond memories of playing in the sand and waves with my siblings, friends, and cousins. My family moved inland when I was 15.

I still live inland, about an hour or so away from the ocean. It's always a treat to go back to the beach. Gemma loves it too. Her bare little feet scamper back and forth across the sand collecting shells, splashing through the waves. She would roll in the sand if we let her.

This picture is courtesy of my husband. I love walking by the sea, hearing the waves crash, feeling the sand squish between my toes as the cold water rushes past.

I love leaving footprints in the sand. Footprints are really interesting to me because they show where you've been. It makes me think of a snail leaving a trail behind as it moves along through life. The thing is, our lives do leave a trail. Good or bad, there's evidence to prove where you've been and what you've done. I'm ashamed of some of the places my feet have carried me, places I wish I had never gone, things I wish I had never done.

I can't help but think of some other feet that walked along the sand. These feet were pierced, as was the owner's hands and side.

Jesus' feet were pierced so that He could erase the trail of the footprints we wish we hadn't made. My regret, my sin, has been away because Jesus died and rose again.

Like the tide that washes away footprints left in the sand, Jesus washes away our sin and the evidence of the things we regret.

"Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!  You will show us your faithfulness and unfailing love as you promised..." Micah 7:19-20