Another Year!

Another year is dawning!
Dear Master, let it be,
In working or in waiting,
Another year with Thee,
Another year in leaning,
Upon Thy loving breast,
Of ever-deepening trustfulness,
Of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of mercies,
Of faithfulness and grace,
Another year of gladness,
In the shining of Thy face.
Another year of progress,
Another year of praise;
Another year of proving
Thy presence "all the days."


----Frances Ridley Havergal

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."      1 Peter 1:3


Love, Blessings and a Happy New Year!!

Amy Jo
 



What Have We Done Today?

We shall do much in the years to come,
 But what have we done today?
 We shall give our gold in a princely sum,
But What have we done today?
We shall lift the heart and dry the tear,
 we shall plant a hope in the place of fear,
We shall speak the words of love and cheer,
But what did we speak today?

 

 

We shall be so kind in the after while,
But have we been today?
We shall bring to each lonely life a smile,
But have we brought today?
We shall give to truth a grander birth,
And to steadfast faith a deeper worth,
We shall feed the hungering souls of earth,
But whom have we brought today?

 

We shall reap such joys in the by and by,

But what have we sown today?

We shall build us mansions in the sky,

But what have we built today?

'Tis sweet in the idle dreams to bask:

But here and now, do we our task?

Yet, this is the thing our souls must ask,

What have we done today?

 

----Nixon Waterman

 

This is such a beautiful poem and it really causes reflection. What have I done today?

 

xoxo,

Amy Jo

 



God's Plans

God's plans are like the ocean,
Varied as the winds that fall---
All are products of His wisdom,
All are subject to His call.
Not a breeze that stirs the tempest--
Or a sparrow down doth fall,
But our Heavenly Father knoweth ---
For He watches over all.

--Elizabeth E.S. Williams



Home Should Be A Happy Place



" I have stated before that " home should be a happy place because all work to keep it that way." It is said that happiness is homemade, and we should endeavor to make our homes happy and pleasant places for us and our children. A happy home is one centered around the teachings of the gospel, and this takes constant, careful effort by all concerned."
--LeGrand R. Curtis





Wonderful Clutter

A great deal of wonderful clutter-- all of it carefully ordered and intimately meaningful to the homemaker. She cares little about the intrinsic value of any of her possessions as long as it's something she loves. --Billy Baldwin

Today I'm off to visit my Aunt. She just moved to a new place. We are also going to Mt. Dora's antique district.... I can't wait. Blessings to you today.

xoxo,

Amy Jo



Homemaking

Being a full time wife and mother - is not a destructive drought of usefulness but an overflowing oasis of opportunity. It is not a dreary cell to contain one's talents and skills but a brilliant catalyst to channel creativity and energies into meaningful work; it is not a rope for binding one's productivity in the market place, but reins for guiding one's posterity in the home; it is not oppressive restraint of intellectual prowess for community, but a release of wise instruction to your own household; it is not a bitter assignment of inferiority to your person, but the bright assurance of the ingenuity of God's plan for the complementarity of the sexes, especially as worked out in God's plan for marriage; it is neither limitation of gifts available nor stinginess in distributing the benefits of those gifts, but rather the multiplication of a mother's legacy to the generations to come and  the generous bestowal of all God meant a mother to give to those entrusted to her care. -- Dorothy Patterson



Blessings = Buttons

If blessings were buttons we could fill many, many jars

'Cause God gives us blessings more numerous than stars. ---Amy Jo

O.k. so maybe I need to leave the poem writing to someone else....but these words just came to me when I took these pictures. So I shared them with you all.... y'all sure are lucky ;) LOL

xoxo,

Amy Jo



Poor Man?

I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich.---Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford



Family Support

Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no support, we've put it in an impossible situation.------Margaret Mead

This quote is so true. It used to be that the grandparents were only a little run down the road or across the field. Your Aunts, Uncles and cousins were just a hop or skip away. Not today. Our closest family member is 20 minutes from our house. But most are at least 30 minutes to an hour away. I sure do miss having family around..... someone to count on... someone to visit with.... when life gets boring you run over and see what your family is doing....People don't stay in the same town like they used to. Families need support that they are not getting.  These are just thoughts, that do not have answers. At least I don't have any answers.... Do you? Your thoughts on this please.?.

xoxo,

Amy Jo



Happy Easter!

Joyfully, this Easter day, I kneel, a little child, to pray; Jesus, who hath conquered death, Teach me, with my every breath, To praise and worship Thee. ---Sharon Banigan



Thankfullness

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.----Ralph Waldo Emerson



Give A Smile

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.----Mother Teresa



Beautiful Decor

source: Romantic Home Magazine

"If you have been afraid that your love of beautiful flowers and the flickering flames of the candle is some how less spirtual than living in starkness and ugliness, remember that He who created you to be creative gave you the things with which to make beauty and gave you the sensitivity to appreciate and respond to His creation. Creativity is His gift to you and the "raw materials" to be put together in  various ways are His gift to you as well. ----Edith Schaeffer The Art of Homemaking.

Blessings,
Amy Jo

The Lord's Day, Are We Doing Our Best

" I can't find my socks!" the young boy cried, his voice filled with despair.
"And I've lost my Bible" his sister chimed. "Can't find it anywhere!"

"Mom, what's to eat?" the toddler cried, still in his little p.j.s.
"I don't know," his mom replied. "I haven't bought groceries for days!"

Dad soon got up, wandered down the hall, " Hey honey....where's my tie?"
"Don't ask me now, I'm ironing", came mother's sharp reply.

The baby then woke, some milk got spilled, a fight broke out between two. Dad burnt the toast, brother flipped on the TV---oh, what's a mom to do?

Arising late this family found chaos at every turn, Each Sunday morning this same scene played---you'd think they would have learned!
Finally at the church safe and sound but stressed out to the max--- Wishing the service would soon be done so they could go home and relax.

But returning home they found a mess, the house now out of order, and with no food Dad soon had to make a quick "run for the border"!

The rest of the day was catch-up time-- where was the Lord in this? On this His day, did He have a plan this family completely missed?

Across the street that very same day, another family arose, But something was different, for at this house here's how their Sunday goes:

"I've got my Bible," the young boy cried; his voice was filled with glee. "And I've packed the diaper bag," his sister chimed. " Does anyone else need me?"

"Yeah--- cinnamon rolls!" the toddler cried, dressed in his Sunday best. The family joined hands and blessed the food, inviting Christ to be their guest.

Each put on their clothes and gathered their things while from the CD player arose songs of praise and thanksgiving and choruses filled with prayer.

Soon out the door and on their way, they talked of the service to come--- The fellowship, the new truths of God--oh, how they longed for some!

When church was done, a new family they met and invited them home to eat, no fear of returning to a messy house did they have when approaching their street.

They opened the door and from the kitchen came a most glorious smell. The table was set, and dessert had been made--no need here for Taco Bell!  After a lovely meal with their new found friends, the kids gladly napped for they knew that the rest of the day would be focused on God, with so many fun things to do!

At the close of the day, when tucking all in, these parents were thrilled to see Once again Sunday brought them closer to God--the way it's supposed to be.

Now, let me ask you, ladies so dear--- yes, a quick quiz now I'll give---

When it comes to your Sundays, God's most special day, In which house do you live?
----Karen Ehman (from her book A Life That Says Welcome)

When I read this poem she wrote, it made me really think.... Do I really put as much effort into the Lord's Day as I should? After 19 years of marriage, we definitely have a Sunday morning routine. But, maybe the whole day is not as God focused as it should be. I will definitely be working on this. If you have any comments on how you spend your Lord's Day please share them.

Blessings to you,

Amy Jo

Don't Pass The Blame

If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth it's riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place. ---Rainer Maria Rilke



Live Looking Up

Comrades, let us be resolute. Let us, by whatever name we are called, be soldiers, Nazarites, Priests. Some will praise us, some will blame us; let us not care too much about either praise or blame. Let us live looking up, looking on, standing true by the grace of Him who has called us.---Amy Carmichael



Morning Prayer

He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.---John Bunyan



A Mere Apprentice

There are many who want me to tell them the secret ways of becoming perfect and I can only tell them that the sole secret is a hearty love of God, and the only way of attaining that love is by loving. You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. Begin as a mere apprentice and the very power of love will lead you on to become a master of the art. ---St. Francis of Sales



Measuring Ourselves By Ourselves

We might as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone....(We) have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to subsitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost.  --- A.W. Tozer

Until We Meet Again,

Amy Jo

Humble Tasks

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.--Helen Keller