"There are moments in the tireless care of the dying beloved
that are so intense with self-giving love
that they would not be traded for any death."
Link HERE!
October 31, 2014
"Praying for Boys" ~ End of the Month Wrap-Up
"I don't really care
anything
about raising men who excel at
everything.
My goal isn't to raise professional baseball players,
or even the next president of the United States.
My prayer is for my sons to work hard,
take pride in what they do,
and know the value of not always finishing first.
I want them to fail in some things
so their pride in their own abilities will be realistic
and they'll know their own personal limitations.
Sometimes, the greater lesson is in our failures...
and our limitations are often what
lead us to the cross for help."
-Brooke McGlothlin-
"For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor."
Galatians 6:3-4
October 30, 2014
"TBT" Halloween over the years!
And remembering my amazing Grandpa Springer today...
he passed away one year ago on 10/30/2013.
October 25, 2014
"You Must Not Go Alone"
Words from:
"Waking the Dead"
by John Eldredge
Setting Hearts Free
"Waking the Dead"
by John Eldredge
Setting Hearts Free
"A few years ago, as Stasi and I really began to wake up and have our eyes opened
to the spiritual battle raging against us and those we love,
she said, 'Quick little prayers just aren't going to do it anymore.'
to the spiritual battle raging against us and those we love,
she said, 'Quick little prayers just aren't going to do it anymore.'
How true it was; how true it has become.
If we would do what Jesus did-
heal all those who are under the power of the devil-
and if we would find the life that he offers us,
we have to fight for it.
Fiercely.
That is where we are now in this great Story.
The primary reason most people do not know
the freedom and life Christ promised
is that they won't fight for it,
or they have been told not to fight for it.
Friends, we are now in the midst of an epic battle,
a brutal and vicious war against an Enemy who knows his time is short.
Open war is upon you,
whether you would risk it or not."
The Way of the Heart
"If all of this is true (and it is true),
there are some deep and urgent implications.
Many of those have probably begun to occur to you already.
But there are two I must unveil.
You might remember that the first Christians were called
"followers of the Way".
They had found the Way of Life and had given themselves over to it.
They lived together, ate together, fought together, celebrated together.
They were intimate allies; it was a fellowship of the heart.
How wonderful it would be if we could find the same.
How dangerous it will be if we do not.
Finally, let me ask you a question:
How would you live differently
How would you live differently
if you believed your heart
was the treasure of the kingdom?
Because we are at war, the business of guarding the heart is a most serious business indeed.
It is precisely because we do not know what the next turn of the page will bring that we nourish our hearts now, knowing at least this much: we will need our whole hearts for whatever is coming next.
Above all else, you must care for your heart.
For without your heart... well, have a look around."
Fellowships of the Heart
"Elrond summoned the hobbits to him.
He looked gravely at Frodo.
'The time has come,' he said.
'The Company of the Ring shall be Nine; and the Nine Walkers shall be set against the Nine Riders that are evil. With you and your faithful servant, Gandalf will go; for this shall be his great task, and maybe the end of his labors. For the rest, they shall represent the other Free Peoples of the World; Elves, Dwarves, and Men. Legolas shall be for the Elves; and Gimli son of Gloin for the Dwarves. They are willing to go at least to the passes of the Mountains, and maybe beyond. For men you shall have Aragorn son of Arathorn, for the Ring of Isildur concerns him closely.'
'But your road and our road lie together for many hundreds of miles,' said Aragorn. 'Therefore Boromir will also be in the Company. He is a valiant man.'
'There remain two more to be found,' said Elrond. 'These I will consider. Of my household I may find some that it seems good for me to send.'
'But that will leave no place for us!' cried Pippin in dismay.
'We don't want to be left behind. We want to go with Frodo.'
'That is because you do not understand and cannot imagine what lies ahead,' said Elrond.
'Neither does Frodo,' said Gandalf, unexpectedly supporting Pippin.
'Nor do any of us see clearly. It is true that if these hobbits understood the danger, they would not dare to go. But they would still wish to go, or wish they had dared, and be shamed and unhappy. I think, Elrond, that in this matter it would be well to trust rather to their friendship than to the great wisdom.'
'Let it be so, then. You shall go,' said Elrond, and he sighed.
'Now the tale of Nine is filled. In seven days the Company must depart.'"
(J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring)
We Happy Few
"Once more, lend a mythic eye to your situation.
Let your heart ponder this:
You awake to find yourself in the midst of a great and terrible war.
It is, in fact, our most desperate hour.
Your King and dearest Friend calls you forth.
Awake, come fully alive, your good heart set free and blazing for him and for those yet to be rescued. You have a glory that is needed.
You are given a quest, a mission that will take you deep into the heart of the kingdom of darkness, to break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron so that your people might be set free from their bleak prisons. He asks that you heal them. Of course, you will face many dangers; you will be hunted.
Would you try to do this alone?
Something stronger than fate has chosen you.
Evil will hunt you.
And so a fellowship must protect you.
Honestly, though he is a very brave and true hobbit, Frodo hasn't a chance without Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. He has no real idea what dangers and trials lie ahead. The dark mines of Moria; the Balrog that awaits him there; the evil orcs called the Urak-hai that will hunt him; the wastes of the Emyn Muil.
He will need his friends.
And you will need yours.
You must cling to those you have; you must search wide and far for those you do not yet have.
You must not go alone.
From the beginning, right there in Eden, the Enemy's strategy has relied upon a simple aim: divide and conquer. Get them isolated, and take them out.
When Neo is set free from the Matrix, he joins the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar- the little hovercraft that is the headquarters and ship of the small fellowship called to set the captives free. There are nine of them in all, each a character in his own way, but nonetheless a company of the heart, a 'band of brothers,' a family bound together in a single fate.
Together, they train for battle.
Together, they plan their path.
When they go back into the Matrix to set others free, each one has a role, a gifting, a glory. They function as a team. And they watch each other's back. Neo is fast, really fast, but he still would have been taken out if it hadn't been for Trinity. Morpheus is more gifted than them all, but it took the others to rescue him.
You see this sort of thing at the center of every great story.
Dorothy takes her journey with the Scarecrow,
the Tin Woodman, the Lion, and of course, Toto.
Prince Caspian is joined by the last few faithful Narnians,
and together they overthrow the wicked king Miraz.
Though in the eyes of the world they are only gladiator-slaves,
walking dead men,
Maximus rallies his little band and triumphs over the greatest empire on earth.
When Captain John Miller is sent deep behind enemy lines to save Private Ryan,
he goes in with a squad of eight rangers.
And, of course, Jesus had the Twelve.
This is written so deeply on our hearts:
You must not go alone.
The Scriptures are full of such warnings,
but until we see our desperate situation,
we hear it as an optional religious assembly for an hour on Sunday mornings."
It Must Be Small
"When he left Rivendell,
Frodo didn't head out with a thousand Elves.
He had eight companions.
Jesus didn't march around backed by hundreds of followers, either.
He had twelve men-
knuckle-heads , every last one of them,
but they were a band of brothers.
This is the way of the kingdom of God.
Though we are part of a great company,
we are meant to live in little platoons.
The little companies we form must be small enough
for each of the members to know one another as friends and allies.
Is it possible for five thousand people who gather for an hour on a Sunday morning
to really and truly know each other?
Okay,
how about five hundred?
One hundred and eighty?
It can't be done.
They can't possibly be intimate allies.
It can be inspiring and encouraging to celebrate with a big ol' crowd of people,
but who will fight for your heart?
Who will fight for your heart?
Church is not a building.
Church is not an event that takes place on Sundays.
I know,
it's how we've come to think of it.
'I got to First Baptist'
'We are members of St. Luke's'
'Is it time to go to church?'
Much to our surprise, that is not how the Bible uses the term.
Not at all.
Certainly, the body of Christ is a vast throng, millions of people around the globe. But when Scripture talks about church, it means community.
The little fellowships of the heart that are outposts of the kingdom.
A shared life.
They worship together,
eat together,
pray for one another,
go on quests together.
They hang out together,
in each other's homes.
I'm not suggesting you not do whatever it is you do on Sunday mornings.
I'm simply helping you accept reality---
Whatever else you do,
you must have a small fellowship
to walk with you
and fight with you
and bandage your wounds.
Remember,
the path is narrow,
and few find it.
Few
means "small in number",
as opposed to, say, massive.
This
is
essential.
This is what the Scriptures urge us to do.
First.
Foremost.
Not as an addition to Sunday.
Before anything else.
It must be intimate.
It will be messy...
Fight for it.
A true community is something you'll have to fight for.
You'll have to fight to get one,
and you'll have to fight to keep it afloat.
But you fight for it as you bail out a life raft during a storm at sea.
You want this thing to work.
You need this thing to work.
You can't ditch it and jump back on the cruise ship.
This is the church; this is all you have.
Without it,
you'll go down.
Or back to captivity.
There are no other options."
Above all else, you must care for your heart.
For without your heart... well, have a look around."
Fellowships of the Heart
"Elrond summoned the hobbits to him.
He looked gravely at Frodo.
'The time has come,' he said.
'The Company of the Ring shall be Nine; and the Nine Walkers shall be set against the Nine Riders that are evil. With you and your faithful servant, Gandalf will go; for this shall be his great task, and maybe the end of his labors. For the rest, they shall represent the other Free Peoples of the World; Elves, Dwarves, and Men. Legolas shall be for the Elves; and Gimli son of Gloin for the Dwarves. They are willing to go at least to the passes of the Mountains, and maybe beyond. For men you shall have Aragorn son of Arathorn, for the Ring of Isildur concerns him closely.'
'But your road and our road lie together for many hundreds of miles,' said Aragorn. 'Therefore Boromir will also be in the Company. He is a valiant man.'
'There remain two more to be found,' said Elrond. 'These I will consider. Of my household I may find some that it seems good for me to send.'
'But that will leave no place for us!' cried Pippin in dismay.
'We don't want to be left behind. We want to go with Frodo.'
'That is because you do not understand and cannot imagine what lies ahead,' said Elrond.
'Neither does Frodo,' said Gandalf, unexpectedly supporting Pippin.
'Nor do any of us see clearly. It is true that if these hobbits understood the danger, they would not dare to go. But they would still wish to go, or wish they had dared, and be shamed and unhappy. I think, Elrond, that in this matter it would be well to trust rather to their friendship than to the great wisdom.'
'Let it be so, then. You shall go,' said Elrond, and he sighed.
'Now the tale of Nine is filled. In seven days the Company must depart.'"
(J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring)
We Happy Few
"Once more, lend a mythic eye to your situation.
Let your heart ponder this:
You awake to find yourself in the midst of a great and terrible war.
It is, in fact, our most desperate hour.
Your King and dearest Friend calls you forth.
Awake, come fully alive, your good heart set free and blazing for him and for those yet to be rescued. You have a glory that is needed.
You are given a quest, a mission that will take you deep into the heart of the kingdom of darkness, to break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron so that your people might be set free from their bleak prisons. He asks that you heal them. Of course, you will face many dangers; you will be hunted.
Would you try to do this alone?
Something stronger than fate has chosen you.
Evil will hunt you.
And so a fellowship must protect you.
Honestly, though he is a very brave and true hobbit, Frodo hasn't a chance without Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. He has no real idea what dangers and trials lie ahead. The dark mines of Moria; the Balrog that awaits him there; the evil orcs called the Urak-hai that will hunt him; the wastes of the Emyn Muil.
He will need his friends.
And you will need yours.
You must cling to those you have; you must search wide and far for those you do not yet have.
You must not go alone.
From the beginning, right there in Eden, the Enemy's strategy has relied upon a simple aim: divide and conquer. Get them isolated, and take them out.
When Neo is set free from the Matrix, he joins the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar- the little hovercraft that is the headquarters and ship of the small fellowship called to set the captives free. There are nine of them in all, each a character in his own way, but nonetheless a company of the heart, a 'band of brothers,' a family bound together in a single fate.
Together, they train for battle.
Together, they plan their path.
When they go back into the Matrix to set others free, each one has a role, a gifting, a glory. They function as a team. And they watch each other's back. Neo is fast, really fast, but he still would have been taken out if it hadn't been for Trinity. Morpheus is more gifted than them all, but it took the others to rescue him.
You see this sort of thing at the center of every great story.
Dorothy takes her journey with the Scarecrow,
the Tin Woodman, the Lion, and of course, Toto.
Prince Caspian is joined by the last few faithful Narnians,
and together they overthrow the wicked king Miraz.
Though in the eyes of the world they are only gladiator-slaves,
walking dead men,
Maximus rallies his little band and triumphs over the greatest empire on earth.
When Captain John Miller is sent deep behind enemy lines to save Private Ryan,
he goes in with a squad of eight rangers.
And, of course, Jesus had the Twelve.
This is written so deeply on our hearts:
You must not go alone.
The Scriptures are full of such warnings,
but until we see our desperate situation,
we hear it as an optional religious assembly for an hour on Sunday mornings."
It Must Be Small
"When he left Rivendell,
Frodo didn't head out with a thousand Elves.
He had eight companions.
Jesus didn't march around backed by hundreds of followers, either.
He had twelve men-
knuckle-heads , every last one of them,
but they were a band of brothers.
This is the way of the kingdom of God.
Though we are part of a great company,
we are meant to live in little platoons.
The little companies we form must be small enough
for each of the members to know one another as friends and allies.
Is it possible for five thousand people who gather for an hour on a Sunday morning
to really and truly know each other?
Okay,
how about five hundred?
One hundred and eighty?
It can't be done.
They can't possibly be intimate allies.
It can be inspiring and encouraging to celebrate with a big ol' crowd of people,
but who will fight for your heart?
Who will fight for your heart?
Church is not a building.
Church is not an event that takes place on Sundays.
I know,
it's how we've come to think of it.
'I got to First Baptist'
'We are members of St. Luke's'
'Is it time to go to church?'
Much to our surprise, that is not how the Bible uses the term.
Not at all.
Certainly, the body of Christ is a vast throng, millions of people around the globe. But when Scripture talks about church, it means community.
The little fellowships of the heart that are outposts of the kingdom.
A shared life.
They worship together,
eat together,
pray for one another,
go on quests together.
They hang out together,
in each other's homes.
I'm not suggesting you not do whatever it is you do on Sunday mornings.
I'm simply helping you accept reality---
Whatever else you do,
you must have a small fellowship
to walk with you
and fight with you
and bandage your wounds.
Remember,
the path is narrow,
and few find it.
Few
means "small in number",
as opposed to, say, massive.
This
is
essential.
This is what the Scriptures urge us to do.
First.
Foremost.
Not as an addition to Sunday.
Before anything else.
It must be intimate.
It will be messy...
Fight for it.
A true community is something you'll have to fight for.
You'll have to fight to get one,
and you'll have to fight to keep it afloat.
But you fight for it as you bail out a life raft during a storm at sea.
You want this thing to work.
You need this thing to work.
You can't ditch it and jump back on the cruise ship.
This is the church; this is all you have.
Without it,
you'll go down.
Or back to captivity.
There are no other options."
October 15, 2014
"Praying for Boys": Mid-Month Discussion Question from Brooke McGlothlin
"Boys are just prone to pride, aren't they? Whether it's hanging on the basketball rim after a slam dunk, wanting to drive the fastest car or truck, or joyfully sinking their brother's battleship, pride seems to be deeply ingrained in the hearts of boys.
And it's not all bad.
I actually like the idea of my boys taking pride in what they do. When they set their minds to something, I want them to finish well, do the best they can, and encourage those around them to do the same. I want them to win plenty of games, score plenty of goals, work hard for plenty of As, and earn plenty of promotions.
But I also want them to
lose some,
miss some,
and fail some.
What do you think about the idea of wanting our children to fail sometimes? Do you agree it is valuable?"
And it's not all bad.
I actually like the idea of my boys taking pride in what they do. When they set their minds to something, I want them to finish well, do the best they can, and encourage those around them to do the same. I want them to win plenty of games, score plenty of goals, work hard for plenty of As, and earn plenty of promotions.
But I also want them to
lose some,
miss some,
and fail some.
What do you think about the idea of wanting our children to fail sometimes? Do you agree it is valuable?"
October 12, 2014
October 11, 2014
October 8, 2014
21 Days of Praying for Boys at the MOB Society
I'm currently in month 6 out of 21 months in my "Praying for Boys" journey,
while over on the MOB Society blog they are currently on
day 6 out of 21 in their "Praying for Boys in 21 Days" journey!
Here's the link for today's article, lining up with my topic for this month:
October 7, 2014
October 6, 2014
October 4, 2014
Fishing Trip at Auntie LoLo's
Practicing with the new rod before heading out to the lake.
What did ya catch Soy Sauce?!
He caught a brother!!!
Playing in the leaves.
Heading out to the lake.
They are both super psyched about fishing!
Bennett out in the "boat" with Uncle Carl.
Soy Sauce and Auntie LoLo
FISH ON!!!!
Bennett caught a trout!
(With a lot of help from Uncle Carl!)
Soy Sauce wanted a ride too!
Back to the cabin for pizza :)
Fall at Rocky Lake
Not a bad place to live!
October 2, 2014
Spontaneous Pasco Road Rrip: Round 2!
Carl and I decided to make a last minute trip to Pasco, Washington this past Saturday,
to hang out with Erik on his work overnight!
I had done this drive before, with the lovely Auntie Shelby :),
so I knew it was a quick and easy drive, 2 1/2 - 3 hours depending on stops and traffic.
Before we left I googled "Events in Pasco" to see if there was anything fun to do while we were there, since we would be getting in much earlier than Erik.
I found a Fall Festival in Pasco that looked like lots of fun for the boys,
so that was it, we packed our bags and hit the road!
The first thing Bennett did when we got there was hop in for a barrel ride!
Then we took a "hay ride" out to the corn maze.
(There was no hay, lol!)
But there was fun!
Swinging on the bars turned out to be their favorite part of the "hay" ride :)
Heading out to attempt to find our way through the massive corn maze...
...it was a Seattle Seahawks theme.
I do not like the team, but this corn maze was super impressive...
Click the link HERE to see what the maze looked like from above!
The boys had a blast going through the maze.
We didn't actually make it all the way through,
after going around in circles for a while I finally asked a worker-bee to take us out...
I was ready to get some food and not in the mood to be lost in a corn maze anymore!!! lol.
After getting some snacks we checked out the other activities.
Ropin' Bulls
Pettin' Pigs
Jumpin' Bails
Not jumping far enough on the bails
"Cheese!"
One last barrel ride!
Soy Sauce even got lucky enough to get a private ride...
He was too little but since he was the only rider at the time,
the girl who was driving promised me she'd keep a CLOSE EYE on him!!!
He loved it so much :)
Our last stop of the evening was the corn pit.
The boys both cried when it was time to leave...
3 hours there wasn't enough I guess!!
But when we got to our next destination, the HOTEL, they were more than pleased :)
We hit up the pool and hot tub before bed time, then Erik got in around 10 p.m.
and Carl watched the boys so I could go have a drink with Erik and his crew at the bar in the hotel.
Then the next morning we slept in, had a rockin breakfast of McDonald's and Albertson's fresh donuts, then watched the first half of the Packer game (@ Bears) before hittin the road again.
Carl did a great job driving while I sat in the back entertaining the boys.
Sawyer enjoyed taking selfies on the drive home, as you can see :)
It was a fun fun fun trip!
We LOVE being able to spend time with Erik when he's working!!!!!
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