Sweet Potatoes and a Surprise

Robbie tried Sweet Potatoes out this week - they went over much better than the peas!  He didn't slow down his eating pace when I slipped some in with his oatmeal (which he did with the peas), and even let me feed him whole spoonfuls of the orange mush at a time.  I would say he didn't just tolerate them either - after each bite he would make the 'mmm!' sound and even tried to chat with me and smile while eating.  Unfortunately I don't have pictures - he was eating too fast to snap any.  This boy loves his food.

The surprise is that I'm going to be working a bit from home for my (previous) boss, Kara, at the SOA!  I'm excited for the opportunity to work with her again and contribute to a very large project she's buried under, and of course the opportunity to have the extra income is nice.  So forgive me if my blogging slows a bit.  

Lately I've been thinking a lot about what I learned from reading "The Shack", by William P. Young.  Specifically, how I live from day to day in light of what I believe eternity will be like and who I know God to be.   I'm convicted that often times I do not live what I believe - I am faithless and anxious and greedy and selfish.  If I believe that God can weave every circumstance in my life for my greatest good (wether or not the circumstance itself is good or not), and that His love for me is great and nothing can separate me from it, then I should be living without fear.  Every moment of every day, regardless of what is going on.  The passage that haunts me from "The Shack" is the one that talks about how we dwell on the past, and we fear the future - and that when we envision the future, we rarely if ever picture God to be there.  And so our present day is racked with guilt, remorse, fear, greed, what feels like a mad scramble for something solid or good or comforting.  What a destitute people we are!  The glory of it all is that we are free from that way of life, if we give our lives to Jesus and allow him to save us from ourselves.  How sad it must make the Father to watch us live just one day, not to mention an entire lifetime, without Him.  He offers us peace and wisdom, comfort and healing, unmatched love and complete tenderness - and to drive home the point, He sent his own Son to us here on earth so that our little human minds could have a chance at grasping this great love in a way that makes some sort of sense to us: flesh and blood.

I have discovered a few blogs written by others who have discovered the grace of God and have committed their lives to following him.  Leslie and Tyson... Tricia and Nate... Kathryn... Angie... The reason I keep going back to these blogs and faithfully reading is because each person is in the middle of unimaginable crisis - cancer, cystic fibrosis, stroke, death of a child... heartbreaking circumstances that threaten to shake their faith in the goodness of God.  And yet each blog is a song of praise to God, glorifying who He is and what He is doing through their lives - even through the pain.  (The song you hear is one that plays on Angie's blog, and I included the lyrics at the end of this post.)  Each of these authors are experiencing what it means to live in Christ TODAY - they look at the past to find evidence of how God was moving and working in their lives, and they look to the future with hope for eternal life spent with their Father, free from pain and injustice and sickness.  It allows them to live in the present with faith (built on the past) and hope (waiting for what they know is coming).  I want my present to look more like that - filled with faith and hope.  I am praying today that you would also find more room for Jesus in your days, and that you would allow him to build your faith and hope in who He is and what He has promised.

"Glory", by Selah

One day eyes that are blind will see you clearly

And one day all who deny will finally believe

One day hearts made of stone will break in pieces

And one day chains once unbroken will fall down at your feet

So we wait for that one day come quickly

We want to see your Glory

Every knee falls down before thee

Every tongue offers you praise

With every hand raised

Singing Glory

To you and you only

We'll sing Glory to Your name

One day voices that lie will all be silent

One day all that's divided will be whole again

One day death will retreat and wave its white flag

One day love will defeat the strongest enemy

So we wait for that one day come quickly

We want to see your Glory

Every knee falls down before thee

Every tongue offers you praise 

With every hand raised 

Singing Glory

To you and you only

We'll sing Glory to Your name

We know not the day or the hour

Or the moments in between

But we know the end of the story

When we'll see

Your Glory

Every knee falls down before thee

Every tongue offers you praise

With every hand raised

Singing Glory

To you and unto you only

We'll sing Glory to Your name

One day...