Hearts in Service Blog

Isaiah 51: 12-16 (New Living Translation)- "I, yes I, am the one who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like the grass and disappear? Yet you have forgotten the Lord, your Creator, the one who stretched out the sky like a canopy and laid the foundations of the earth. Will you remain in constant dread of human oppressors? Will you continue to fear the anger of your enemies? Where is their fury and anger now? It is gone! Soon all you captives will be released! Imprisonment, starvation, and death will not be your fate! For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar. My name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. And I have put my words in your mouth and hidden you safely in my hand. I stretched out[d] the sky like a canopy and laid the foundations of the earth. I am the one who says to Israel, ‘You are my people!’" I've been really wrestling with some things in my life lately and thought I would talk about it a bit this morni...

I've been working on putting together a devotional on loving our husbands for a ladies luncheon. In trying to find verses related to that, I was struck by an observation. There are a couple of verses that command men on how to be a good husband but there are a multitude of verses that address our role as wives. The Bible seems skewed in our direction. Does that mean that the Bible was written by men in a patriarchal society? I don't think so. I think that perhaps we have more power as women than we realize. Our obedience to scripture and the way we act towards our husbands is directly related to the way they behave as husbands. For example, so many women complain that their husbands won't lead their families. Yet, they nag and complain and bully them. They are always telling them what to do. If the wife would only be quiet, be respectful, and allow their man the opportunity to lead they might be surprised at his willingness to step up and lead! That doesn't mean t...

We have a ladies luncheon each month at church and take turns hosting it. It's my turn in February and the luncheon falls on Valentine's Day. I wanted to do something special so I made invitation cards with a Valentine's theme. Here are a few of them. For some reason the pictures didn't turn out great, but you get the general idea. I only have a few more to do. It is really kind of a relaxing way to spend a half hour or so.

Well, today is my 47th birthday. It's hard to believe in just 3 years I'll be 50 because I still feel about 20 years old. I wanted to share one of my gifts because I think they are beautiful. A lady in our church stopped by this afternoon with some handmade goodies. She made me 2 hot pads and a dish towel. An apron. Isn't it cute? And lastly, a table runner. Close up. I have the whole apple theme going on in my kitchen now. Overall, I've had a pretty good day. We haven't really done anything special because of church and small group tonight but after you get to a certain age, birthdays are kind of overrated!

Someone gave me a box of these little wooden rolling pins and apples. I think they are cute and I would love to use them. The problem is that I'm coming up blank. Most of them have wire threaded through them. Some have the wire only on one side. Some have the wire threaded through both sides. I was thinking of using them to make a wreath but they are not hanging properly. The only thing I could think of was to remove the wire and just hot glue them to the wreath. Does anyone have any other ideas of what to do with these?

Emily seemed off today and sure enough, she had a fever by late this afternoon. I just went to check on her and this is how I found her. Poor kid! I know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow.

I looked out the window this morning to check the temperature and we have a -4F reading! Brrrrr!!!!!!!!!!! I looked at the other window pane and noticed the most beautiful sight. The ice had formed a pattern on the pane. It looked like perfectly etched jewels in the window. The only thing that could of caused this was the hand of God and I was reminded of Job 38:29-30 - "From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone,when the surface of the deep is frozen?" Isn't His creation beautiful?