one year

just born

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today

country people

We attempted a creative pose in the ditch with the milkweed plants recently. A real photographer could wave a magic wand or snap their finger or just think happy thoughts and get all participants to look his or her way with an incredible award-winning and winsome pose. Since I don't make any claims of being a real photographer, here is the group of participants complete with pasture and barbed wire as props.

In his own effort to avoid waste, Sam has combed the adjoining cornfield for corn that the combine left behind. Here he is spoon - or rather trowel feeding one of our steers. And for the record, the camouflage shirt, sweat pant shorts, black crew socks and hiking boots is not a style he inherits from his father or really any other male adult in our family. Such style is only permissible on four-year old boys.

spinning

James MacDonald this morning is talking about where sin started (yes, I'm stuck on the sin thing because it seems to be a recurring problem in my life and in the lives of those around me.

He went to Genesis 3:1,2 and 3 and pointed out what Satan first said to Eve:

 ¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 

So I thought, "Wow, that is so typical. When I'm being tempted by something that might be off-track, what can I get by with and how firm are the rules?" 

And either Eve had a short memory or she CHOSE to spin what God has said to slough off the blame away from herself. Here she is twisting God's words to make him look like the heel instead of herself.Actually God told them simply not to eat from the tree. The One who created her. The One who loved to talk and walk with her in the perfect place he created for her. All in an attempt to impress the one who most wanted her to mess up and be miserable.

 ² The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

And the wretched being that the Devil is, he gets her to think about how she can get by with just a little sin and how it will enrich her life so fabulously. 

⁴ "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 

And isn't that so typical. "What can I get by with, how close can I get and what are these rules and standards anyway imposing on me, closing me in a box, keeping me stuck here?"

I'm insulting God. Yeah, God. The Master Designer of EVERYTHING. He is the One who originally formulated the guidelines to help me live with the least backtracking and clean-up from mistakes.  

I hate cleaning up messes. They always take much longer to mop up than the act of making a mess. But I still spin and scheme at ways to get around what I know I should do. I still feel injured and persecuted when its my motives that are stinking.

The word "rebel" is so enticing, Except I'm really a conformist, according to Mark Driscoll. If I'm sinning like everyone else, I'm conforming. 

A Jesus kind of rebel does what is hard and makes the decision to do the uncomfortable, inconvenient and unpopular. A Jesus rebel looks hard for truth - not truth that I've formulated, but truth from the Way, the Truth and the Life.

And I just can't help but listen to this song again and again because it defines the terms again.

stains

Last week, Priya had school pictures. 

The general rule for clothes Priya's wears to school, I've learned, is to avoid light colors.

This picture day was an exception. A cream colored shirt from Grandma seemed like a good idea and it had this embroidery and sparkly stuff around the neck that might be nice in a picture. Then she got to pick the color of the picture background. She picked red.

Then in memory of the many fun, charming, cute and adorable garments that have gone the way of the rag pile, I reminded her that she did have a white shirt and that just for today she could be careful to avoid major stains.

There were only two palm-sized grass stains and a few other remnants of the day's activities when I picked her up from school. 

"I tried, Mom. I really tried."

We applied good old Spray 'N Shout, washed and it's almost as good as new.

[I'm relieved  that she can still play unhindered. She doesn't worry if her hair looks perfect or if her shirt has a grass stain on the elbow. She plays. Oh she has preferences if the choice is hers: two low pigtails or one low side ponytail, held in place by a plethora of snap clips and either the grass green knit or the red velour pants. But her choices are hardly made with vanity in mind.]

Is this how it is with our sin stains, in a small glimpse? We try... and forget and get stains. God cleans them up. We try... and forget and get more stains. God cleans us up again. I wonder often how God ever puts up with us, His children. (most often when I get so weary of my own kids forgetting again).

That Newsboys song from the 90's comes to mind: 

when we don't get what we deserve
it's a real good thing (real good thing)
when we get what we don't deserve
it's a real good thing (a real good thing)

born to sin
and then get caught
all our good deeds
don´t mean squat

sell the Volvo
shred the Visa
send the cash to Ma Theresa
great idea
the only catch is
you don´t get saved
on merit badges

when we don't get what we deserve
it's a real good thing (real good thing)
when we get what we don't deserve
it's a real good thing (a real good thing)

doctor´s coming
looking grim
"Do you have a favorite hymn?"

check your balance through the years
all accounts are in arrears
guilt is bitter
grace is sweet
park it here
on the mercy seat

last week milestones

Priya lost two teeth while Ellie gained one last week.

Not only did Uncle John and Aunt Janet go to all the work of digging up their extra strawberry plants, they also packed them up, transported them hours across Minnesota, dug up the patch beside the granary AND planted them with amazing efficiency.

faces

and she walks

In addition to eating tomatoes and having a gorgeous up-do, Ellie has mostly perfected walking as well. All this in anticipation of turning 11 months old today... (in the background: her next two oldest siblings are playing in the gravel on the driveway, but certainly not for a lack of suitable toys)