Mercy

Mercy

God of the Publican,

Be merciful to me a sinner; this I am by nature and practice, this thy
Word proclaims me to be, this I hope I feel myself to be; Yet thou has not left
me to despair, for there is no 'peradventure' in thy grace; I have all the
assurance I need that with thee is plenteous redemption.

In spite of the number and heinousness of my sins thou hast given me a
token for good; the golden septre is held out, and thou hast said 'Touch it and
live'. May I encourage myself by a sense of thy all-sufficiency, by faith in thy
promises, by views of the experiences of others. To that dear refuge in which so
man have sheltered from every storm may I repair, in that fountain always freely
open for sin may I be cleansed from every defilement. Sin is that abominable
thing which thy soul hates, and this alone separates thee and me. Thou canst not
contradict the essential perfections of thy nature; thou canst not make me
happy with thyself, till thou hast made me holy like thyself.

O holy God, make me such a creature as thou canst take pleasure in, and
such a being that I can take pleasure in thee. May I consent to and delight in
thy law after the inner man, never complain over the strictness of thy demands,
but mourn over my want of conformity to them; never question thy commandments,
but esteem them to be right. By thy Spirit within me may my practice spring from
principle, and my dispositions be conformable with duty.

Valley of Vision

Baby update # 2

Well, Hudson is now 12 weeks old and such a good baby! I'm so blessed. I think a lot of it is due to the principles gleaned from the book "Preparation for Parenting/Babywise. He's now consistently going to bed around 9 pm give or take 1/2 hour and then he wakes up anywhere from 4-5 am and goes back down til I wake him around 7ish. We had a check-up yesterday and Hudson weighed in @ 14.5 lbs. and is 23 inches long! Praise the Lord for healthy, happy babies. I just love him so much and enjoy every moment of snuggling and holding him :-) . A couple weeks ago he found his hand and prefers sucking on it vs. the pacifier. He's starting to make little squealing sounds and respond when spoken to. It's just so much fun!!!
Titus finished his Math U See multiplication book. He's now moving on to division since he can accurately multiply in the thousands. Timmy continues to progress with reading and it's just so fun for both of us. When we're out and about now he recognizes words and larger numbers, too.
Kyle's doing good. He's busy with work - trying to keep his numbers up. They've been cutting benefits so that they don't have to let go of anyone. It's such a blessing that Kyle has always balanced work and family time so well. He still takes time to read to the boys at night and they just love it. He's also very active on Titus' baseball team and will start coaching Timmy's tee-ball team this Friday. Tim is so excited he's been waiting for tee-ball for a whole year now.
As for me, well same ole', same ole' - I guess. I'm cooking, doing laundry, schooling, nursing, doing more laundry, nursing, grocery shopping, piano lessons, and trying to keep a good balance. That's very difficult for me as I tend to be VERY task-oriented. I haven't been in the Word very much and I'm not doing enough "Bible-time" with T&T. I pray that I will keep my priorities straight and put the Lord first, then my marriage, then the children. Pray with me, please.

New Pictures

A Prayer

The Broken Heart

O Lord,
No day of my life has
passed
that has not proved me guilty in thy sight.
Prayers have been
uttered from a prayerless heart;
Praise has been often praiseless
sound;
My best services are filthy rags.
Blessed Jesus, let me find a
covert in thy appeasing wounds.
Though my sins rise to heaven thy merits
soar above them;
Though unrighteousness weighs me down to hell,
thy
righteousness exalts me to thy throne.
All things in me call for my
rejection,
All things in thee plead my acceptance.
I appeal from the
throne of perfect justice
to thy throne of boundless grace,
Grant me to
hear thy voice assuring me:
that by thy stripes I am healed,
that thou
wast bruised for my iniquities,
that thou hast been
made sin for
me
that I might be righteous in thee,
that my grievous sins, my
manifold sins,
are all forgiven,
buried in the ocean of thy concealing
blood.
I am guilty, but pardoned,
lost but saved,
wandering, but found,
sinning, but cleansed.
Give me perpetual
broken-heartedness,
Keep me
always clinging to thy cross,
Flood me every moment with
descending grace,
Open to me the springs of divine
knowledge, sparkling like
crystal,
flowing clear and
unsullied through my
wilderness of life.

Valley of Vision

Quotes

For quite some time now I've been wanting to take a few minutes and write out some of my favorite quotes that I've heard over time or read in favorite books. This will be a project that will take me several days if not weeks to accomplish....

"But there is no use in trying to engraft an opposite nature on one's own.
What I am, that I must be, except as God changes me into His own image. And
everything brings me back to that, as my supreme desire. I see more and more
that I must be myself what I want my children to be, and that I cannot make
myself over even for their sakes. This must be His work, and I wonder that it
goes so slowly; that all the disappointments, sorrow, ... I have passed through,
have left me still selfish, still full of imperfections!"

Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss

We are so blessed!

It was a wonderful night!

Church Baby Shower