Thursday, April 26, 2012

Afternoon tea

After a crazy week of moving, work, and a sick babe, my afternoon tea with this little lady sure did make me happy.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Rain rain

My parents watched my sister's kids for a couple of days this rainy week so my mom and I brought the kids to the children's museum. We made it through the whole morning with only 1 (minor injury induced) meltdown. Not bad with 6 kids , 3 of whom are 17-20 months!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Spring

A lovely "hike" before a nice spring storm. I love this season!

Friday, April 6, 2012

gratitude

Two books that I am reading right now have brought up this same story in the Bible. Usually when we see things repeatedly it means that we need to pay attention. So I have been thinking on this lately...especially this Easter season.

The following story is from Luke 17: 11-19. It is the story of Jesus healing the 10 men with leprosy. First you have to grasp how people with leprosy were to be treated.  Leviticus 13:45  explains, "The person with such an infectious disease (leprosy) must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp." 

Luke 17:11-19
"Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.

One of them, (ONLY ONE OF THEM!) when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked im--AND HE WAS A SAMARITAN.

Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." 


Now three things stood out to me as I was studying this passage and thinking about my own ability or inability to give thanks.

First: ONLY ONE CAME BACK TO THANK JESUS....and HE WAS A SAMARITAN {the ones who "grew up in the faith" did not.) Surely I would be the one who would come back and give thanks, right?

Two: My first thought when considering whether I would have in fact given thanks was, "well of course...this was life changing for these men...if Jesus did something that life changing in my life OF COURSE I would give thanks!" umm.... salvation?

Three: Jesus says to the Samaritan who returned, "Rise and go--your faith has made you well." Wasn't he already physically well. So in giving thanks to God he was made fully well...body and soul. Wow, Pretty cool.

Gratitude. May it increase in my life. Happy Easter all!