Together as One

Together as One

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Miracle Rose

Now to most of you 'green-thumbers' out there you will not be able to relate to this at all! 
An important gene of my mother's, grandmother's and some sister's was not passed on to me.  The gift of a green thumb.  I am not able to grow nice plants....I kill them everytime!  And the harder I try; the more I kill.  I have determined to follow instructions and to grow real plants in my house and outside but determination doesn't cut it.  My dear hubs kind of shuttters when I try to garden any of our landscaping.  :)  I have tried watering, under-watering, over-watering, talking, spraying with organic, non-toxic things and......still death.

My dear mother-in-law had a dwarf rose that I volunteered to watch for her while they are gone for the summer.  I told her it was a very risky thing to do and gave her no warranties on it's life when she returns...but she trusted me.  By some miraculous work of God it has bore three roses so far!  I am ecstatic!  Check this out!

My hope has been renewed and yes, that is an african violet next to it which is blooming, too! Amazing!


I am so thrilled with my black thumb possibly turning green that we are considering putting in some raised garden beds soon.  I have some good friends, who are great gardeners, to whom I can go to for counsel and I know Dad and Mom will take over when they come this winter.  When we were up north and I saw the beauty of their gardens I was moved to do some gardening here, too.  After all, we can have three gardens a year here if we know what we are doing.  And fresh vegetables from our own garden sounds so much more appealing than from the store. 

 So from all you Florida gardeners....I need your advice on what to plant when and where.

Do Not Lust

Our Ladies' Discipleship Class had a very challenging lesson on Sunday.  When we think of 'lust', we usually relate it to men or in a sexual context.  While it does include that, how does 'lust' relate to us as women?  Some interesting challenges that were shared were lust for food or lust for things.  Lust is to set our heart on something or desire it for the wrong reason.  Food and things are not wrong unless we want them for a wrong reason.  Do I eat what I should or do I self-gratify and over eat?  What about buying things that are on sale and are good deals?  Do I buy what I need or do I buy what I want NOW?  An interesting thing we have shared with our children when someone thought they had to have a certain thing NOW (and then their joy would truly be full), was to wait a month and pray that month.  If God was still leading you to buy it and you had the cash to pay for it...it was yours.  The funny part is that after a month of waiting, the item no longer looked like it would make your joy complete (it was another thing instead!).

We talked about how we have become so calloused to immorality and have accepted lust as a normal and harmless activity.  Our class discussion leader wondered what the divorce/re-marriage rate in America would be today if  you would have to sacrifice a body limb in order to divorce or re-marry.  Interesting.... really, how many people would divorce their spouses or marry another if they had to first cut off a limb of their body?  I think the statistics would drop incredibly or become non-existent.  But isn't that what we do when we divorce and/or re-marry?  We cut off our spouse/children and they are 'limbs' of our own bodies.
Lust is not a "victimless crime".  There are mental, emotional, physical, financial, and spiritual consequences affecting every person who is directly or indirectly connected to our lives, including our descendants and the Body of Christ.  "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself".  Rom. 14:7

How can we teach our eyes, hands, and heart not to lust?
1.  Fully dedicate our eyes, hands, and heart to the Lord.
      If I fully dedicate my body to God, it is no longer mine and cannot be used for me only.  I am under 
      His ownership.  He owns me. I am His servant to be used for His service.
2.  Make a covenant with both eyes.  Job 31:1
3.  Review Solomon's instruction on avoiding strange women and evil men.  Lots of warnings and 
     instructions.
4.  Train our eyes, hands, and hearts to see life through God's eyes.  What is His perspective?

SELF-CONTROL:
Self control is transforming desires to please self into desires to please God.
I must conquer self, else I will become a slave of self.
Self control is more than moderation.  It is absolute resolve to discontinue self-indulgence.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Micah 6:8

Recently our church watched a DVD by Jim Sammons on the importance of memorizing and meditating on Scripture.  We heard testimonies of how God often uses the verse we are memorizing as a way of escape from a temptation we may face that week.

This week we were challenged to all work on memorizing Micah 6:8.
I was inspired this morning as I read Micah 6:6-8 out of the New Living Translation (& commentary).

"What can we bring to the Lord?  what kind of offering should we give him?
Should we bow before God with offerings of yearling calves?
Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?

Verse 8:  No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.".

Israel responded to God's case against them by trying to appease him with sacrifices, hoping he would leave them alone.  But sacrifices and other religious rituals aren't enough;  God wants changed lives.  He wants his people to be fair, just, merciful, and humble.  God wants us to become living sacrifices, not just doing religious deeds, but living rightly.  It is impossible to follow God consistently without his transforming love in our hearts. 
People have tried all kinds of ways to please God but God has made his wishes clear:  He wants his people to do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly with him.  In your effortst to please God, examine these areas on a regular basis.  Are you fair in your dealings with people?  Do you show mercy to those who wrong you?  Are you learning humility?

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Laundry, Laundry, Everywhere!

Mounds of laundry and ironing...
First of all, I took way too many clothes along on our trip.  How do you pack to be gone for a month?  If I overpack for one trip it seems I underpack the next time.  This time I overpacked but after clothes ride around in a trunk for a month, they need laundered.  The washing is almost done and now alot of it needs ironed.
Back to reality.  In some ways it has been great to be back home and in some ways it has been harder than I expected....back to reality and a busy schedule.
Wednesday night it was great to be with the youth and the Bible Study we enjoy with them.  Our church has been blessed with youth that really desire to walk in truth and an hour and a half is never long enough for our classes.  After class they picked up some pizza, pop, and Jane brought some super-delicious birthday cakes. 
Today I went with my daughters and some of their friends and moms to the Farmer's Market down town.  It was very interesting with a wide variety of things for sale.  I esp. enjoyed the produce and came home with some delicious black cherries, tomatoes, radishes, and star fruit.  After doing a few house duties us ladies enjoyed the afternoon shopping in Lakewood Ranch area.  Derek's room is in  bad need of some updating so we were looking for things for him.  Hopefully we can do some painting next week before school starts.  I will try to post some 'before' and 'after' pictures.  None of us Weaver ladies are big shoppers so it didn't take us real long in any stores.  We kind of like to go in and look for what we are looking for and then be out again (not to mention our 'budgets').  We didn't have to make much for supper as we found out the men had 'treated' themselves to pizza while we were gone...compliments of Kyle and Dustin!
I am looking forward to meeting with our Discipleship Class of ladies tomorrow.  (Our Discipleship Classes consist of ladies (and men) of a variety of ages from 12 on up.)  Our class is a combination of special ladies who have bonded closely.  It is an easy class to teach because of everyone joining in and taking part.    Tomorrow our discussion is on reconciliation.  Huge subject. There is so much I don't understand yet about reconciliation  but I am so thankful for Christ, who was the perfect example for us.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Home Again!

Goodbyes......


and we're off......


What a ride!  Six of us squeezed into our car (along with all our luggage).  JR was quite certain we would need to tie some luggage to the top but with some organization we managed to get it all in.  No, it wouldn't all fit in the trunk so the rest went on our laps.  KaShondra, Dustin, and Derek needed to be dropped off at the Flint Airport, which was on our way south....two hours south.  The poor boys had to put their long legs into position and pretty well stay put until arrival.  Oh, the memories we make....






6,280 miles later..... midnight......we are home!
What a blessing we have enjoyed!
And what a blessing to be home again!
There really is no place like home.


Anything can be fun!










Cousins at Mio Pizza

The simple beauty of nature

Monday we went out to enjoy the simple beauties of nature.  The AuSable River is the one we hoped to go canoeing/tubing on but got rained out.  We also visited an historical graveyard and homesite nestled in a forest of Jack Pines.  It was a beautiful, quiet retreat.



The men trying to decide if they should go down over the edge....


So so thankful Dad was able to go with us. 
This is the nearest thing to heaven to him without actually being heaven.






A Michigan Alligator

The Royal Wedding

Pictures fail to do justice to the beauty of this wedding.  The first barn was 'the chapel' and was beautifully decorated with japanese lanterns along the ceiling and 450 white garden chairs.  It was a vintage style wedding and had lots of candles in mason jars with lace tied around for an added effect.

Introducing the new "Mr. & Mrs. Jubal & Kalie Handrich


The next barn was the dining barn.
There were about 50 round tables coverd with dark purple tablecloths.
Each table had homemade cloth napkins, real dinner plates and silverware.



Dinner was 'olive garden' salads, dinner rolls, steak and chicken shishkabobs and choice of rice or potatoes



Lots of sheer fabric and lights completed the look


The Royal Wedding Cake

and tons of delicate desserts...


(The flash from my camera kind of ruined the effect of everything being candlelit.)


Fairview at it's best

JR and his John Deere


Erica riding along


A beautiful field of sunflowers along Joel's lane





Perry Lakes, my dad's favorite fishing hole


Barn my dad helped build when he was young


My brothers all own their own businesses up there.  This is Dave & Don's factory



These are the machines they build


AJ & Joel's business


Joel's business on left


AJ's business


Erica's toy


Boys and their toys