Hearts in Service Blog

  It's been a very strange week and nothing went as planned. We set out on Monday afternoon to deliver food to my in-laws and visit with them a bit. When we arrived they weren't home and there was a pile of bloody towels in the garage. Yikes! After calling around to different places we discovered that my father-in-law was in the emergency room with a broken nose and broken cheek bone. He was doing what he wasn't supposed to be doing (yard work) and fell flat on his face on pavement. He's on the mend, but that was an unpleasant afternoon. The rest of the week went from there. It's been a week of meetings, work and trying to get things done around the house as I get ready to leave for a week long trip on Saturday night. I am thankful that Dan and I were able to squeeze in a walk a few times.  When I'm out in nature, peace descends on me almost immediately.  It's just one of the ways I feel God's presence the most and hear His voice. So I'm always happi...

I woke at 4 a.m. this morning and as I stumbled my way into the kitchen and grabbed some coffee I was feeling grumpy. I had not intended on being up this early, but my internal clock decided I needed to get out of bed. It's easy to grumble and complain when I'm tired. And even easier to see everything through a negative lens. However, as I spent time in God's word and prayer this morning I was reminded of the many things I'm thankful for and the ways He has blessed me.  In the dawn's early light, I recalled the following blessings. 💗 I'm thankful I live in a beautiful area with lots of places to get out and hike.  💗 I'm thankful for this time of year when everything in blooming. 💗 I'm thankful for reminder that God isn't done with me yet. 💗 I'm thankful for milestones and celebrations.  💗 I'm thankful for the joyful laughter of little ones at church. 💗 I'm thankful for bits of beauty in my home.  💗 I'm grateful that I am meetin...

There are days when discouragement settles in like a dark cloud and it seems as if my responses to everything are not what I want them to be.  I feel irritable and defensive, prickly and ready to snap or weepy and sensitive to everything. Those are the days when I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above the surface of life. My desire to walk like Christ does not line up with my real and imagined failings as His child. I feel frustrated that the path chosen for me has not been a walk through the meadow, but one of hard things and struggle. On those hard days of bad attitudes, whining, prickliness and striving, I'm tempted to ask the Lord, "What in the world were you thinking?" "I am not cut out for this." "I feel like a weed." I look at others and wonder why they have it so easy. I can fall into the thought pattern of "I'm a failure," but then I remember Philippians 1:6. " I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in y...

This week was about family. It was a good week which ended with a 50th birthday celebration for my brother-in-law. That was followed by a very nice Mother's Day. I gave the message at church and then later in the day my husband and children took me out to dinner and showered me with flowers and cards. Today is the day I normally go back over the previous week and find the many ways I've seen God's hand and list my thankful things.  The main thing I'm thankful for is the family God has given me. And it's so very easy to paint a picture that seems as if everything is perfect.  My life is NOT perfect; not even close. I am a work in progress as are all of the people in my life. My family struggles often. We get irritated with one another and sometimes angry. But at the end of the day, we love one another. We say "I'm sorry."  One of the reasons Mother's Day is a hard day for many is that you can look at someone else's family and only see the lackin...

  Work, clean, cook, prepare, do, hurry! Racing from one thing to the next is what I'm good at.  Checking things off my list, in time to add more things to the list. And the list stretches on and on. Run here, run there. I'll slow down tomorrow, next week, next month. But in the tomorrow and next week and next month there is always something else to do. I'm skilled at working my "to-do" list, but  often inept at stopping at  "to-day." “Martha, Martha,”  the Lord answered,  “you are worried and upset about many things,   but few things are needed—or indeed only one. " (Luke 10) Many times this is me. When I stop to read and pray, I have a difficult time shutting off the thousand thoughts buzzing in my head. It's hard to focus on  the task of listening . The worries and concerns drown out God's voice at times. I read a verse and a word reminds me of something I need to do.  Or a concern I have. The next thing I know, my mind is a million m...

“The simplest things are overlooked. And yet, it is the simplest things that are the most essential.” ― Thomas Lloyd Qualls “Up to one’s last breath, one may retain the simple joys of childhood. Right to the end, one may intoxicate one’s spirit with flowers, with beauty and with smiles.” ~ Eliphas Levi “The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight.” ~ Mary F.K. Fisher “All soup is soul food.” ~ Bee Wilson I feel blessed to have had such a background, where animals, food raising, harvesting and canning were a natural part of life. ~Trina Frugality is enjoying the virtue of getting good value for every minute of your life energy and from everything you have the use of. ~ Viold Robin Each week in my home consists of doing the tasks of cooking, baking, sewing, canning, and cleaning or some combination of these things and then I start all over again the next week. But I truly do enjoy doing it. I find tha...

Some days the best you can do is put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward. Some days you get knocked flat out on your back and lay there for a bit, trying to catch your breath before struggling to get back up. Other days it seems as if you are running like the wind with joy chasing right behind you.  Our lives are a constant ebb and flow of experiences, circumstances and emotions. But each day is a choice to keep forward movement going. Life is unpredictable and sometimes you receive news that leaves you shaken.  Dan's dad reading the results of his recent heart procedure to us. Nathan celebrated his 32nd birthday. Other times you receive news that leaves you joyful.  Emily being inducted into the Phi Sigma Gamma Honor Society. I've experienced a gamut of emotions the past couple of weeks, but despite the ups and downs one thing that remains steadfast is the fact that God loves me. Regardless of what I'm facing, He is walking with me through it. And no m...