Odds and Ends

Posted on May 31, 2007 by Barbara Harper

It’s a busy week!! The ladies’ newsletter needs to be printed tomorrow (I’m almost done), invitations for the ladies’ luncheon need to be completed before Sunday, I need to make tickets…..

Good news is that some ladies’ got together and helped me complete the little decorations for the centerpieces this week. What a relief!

Jason leaves to work at a Christian camp in CA Saturday — he’ll be gone til August. Jesse goes to camp Monday and desperately needed some pants — his legs are the fastest growing part of him and it’s hard to keep him in pats that cover his ankles. He’s 13, and I had to go to the men’s department for some of his things today. His inseam is the same as his brothers’ and dad’s! (He was thrilled.) But he’s skinny, so I had to find the smallest size men’s pants.

But — it ought to be really quiet next week!! And I should be able to get everything else done for the luncheon in good time. But this week with decorations, invitations, nailing things down with the caterer, the newsletter, and getting kids ready for camp kind of snowballed on me. I don’t know if I will do my usual Friday and Saturday postings — just depends on how tomorrow goes. I may post but have to wait to visit people. I am keeping up with Bloglines but not much else.

Oh! I won a book in one of Katrina’s give-aways! I think that is the first thing I’ve won through a blog.

I wanted to share some things I’ve seen here and there that you might enjoy.

Rob at ivman’s blague (the iv stands for “instant vacation”) has some funny computer error messages listed. Be sure and look at the name of the error message across the top as well as the buttons. One of my favorites: “User error. Replace user.”

Everyday is a Holiday and house wren studio has some wonderful eye candy!

On a serious note, there are some demonstrations and protests in Venezuela over Chavez’s non-renewal of a TV station’s license, if I understand it correctly. Police have set tear gas off during peaceful demonstrations and one student has died. Jungle Mom has been posting updates about the situation and I am sure would appreciate your prayers not only for this current situation but for Venezuela in general. Freedoms are eroding there very quickly.

Seems like there was one other thing I was going to share, but I can’t remember what it was now…. guess I’ll save it for another time if it comes back to me. 🙂

Booking Through Thursday: Paper or Plastic?

Posted on May 31, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Questions for today from Booking Through Thursday:

Do you read e-Books?
If so, how? On your computer, or a PDA?
Or are you a paper purist? Why?

I have never read an e-book — I can’t imagine sitting at the computer for the length of time it would take to read through a book — although I probably sit at the computer long enough to read a book. 🙂

I think in my mind I think of reading on the computer in shorter bits — I even lose attention in very long posts or e-mails or articles. Plus there’s just something about curling up on the couch with a throw blanket and a good book. 🙂

So, I am not a paper purist in the sense that I think all books should be on paper and it’s a travesty to have books on the computer — not at all. I’m glad books are available on the computer, but my preference is to take any lengthy reading away from the computer.

I don’t own a PDA, so that might make a difference. I can’t imagine reading a book through that tiny little screen. But my husband and two older kids use them a lot. I may try it out down the road.

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Messies Anonymous

Posted on May 30, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Some years ago I read and enjoyed The Messies Manual by Sandra Felton. I don’t remember how I first learned she had a web site called Messies Anonymous and sent out a daily list of e-mail tips, but I signed up for them. Each e-mail contains a message for the day — one thought or perspective or thing to put into practice — a word of encouragement, a quote (like “Not everything you face can be changed, but everything you change must first be faced” and “Clutter is the result of postponed decisions”), and family reminders (“In our family, we put what we need the next day by the front door the
night before” and “In our family, we don’t drop our things when we come in the door. We take them and put them where they belong.”) There is also a segment called “In the trenches” with a note from someone from one of Yahoos “Messies” groups about something they learned or tried. At least, these things were in the e-mails that I received when I was subscribed to the list.

The e-mails are repetitive by design — sometimes it takes hearing things over and over before they become a part of our thinking. I would copy and paste the things that particularly spoke to me in different sections (one for quotes, one for family sayings, one for tips, etc.). When it got to the point that the daily e-mails were familiar to me, I unsubscribed, but I did glean a host of helpful tips during my time on there. I highly recommend it.

For more tips, head over to Shannon’s place at Rocks In My Dryer.

Personal meme

Posted on May 30, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I’ve seen 3 different interesting-looking memes on friends’ blogs today. I don’t want to do them all at once, so I’ll spread them out this week.

I saw this one at Diane’s of Candid Reflections.

1. Three words to describe you?
Honest, careful, detailed.

2. Your favorite color?
Blues & pinks, some greens.

3. Describe your style?
Feminine, somewhere between country and Victorian.

4. Favorite recreational activity?
Reading, blogging, playing games.

5. Pets?
Suzie, half collie, half German Shepherd.We’ve had her about 11 years.

6. Favorite Hymn?
There are too many great ones to have just one favorite, but on top of the list would be “I Could Not Do Without Thee” and “Before the Throne of God Above.” And “In My Weakness.” And “To Behold Thee“……

7. Favorite Scripture?
Again, way too many to have just one, but two of my favorites that I keep coming back to over and over again in my life are Isaiah 41:10: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness,” and Psalm 16:11: “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

8. Favorite Quotation?
I love good quotes and have many of them. One I come to often is “God does not waste suffering, nor does He discipline out of caprice. If He plough, it is because He purposes a crop” from J. Oswald Sanders.

9. Dress/Skirt?
Dresses, but they are hard to find.

11. Favorite CD?
One of my first posts was about favorite CDs. Probably highest on the list are A Quiet Heart and Anthems.

12. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
Ireland.

13. Lake, Ocean, River?
I like them all but probably ocean would top the list. I love the vastness, the waves, the sound of the surf.

14. Diamonds or Pearls? ?
Hmm… I like them both depending on the setting. Probably pearls, I guess.

I won’t tag anyone, but let me know in the comments if you do this and I’ll come read yours.

Book Give-aways!

Posted on May 29, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I just discovered today a blogger named Deena at A Peek at My Bookshelf who will be giving away one book a week during the summer from June 1 to August 24. She’ll review a book each week for the contest, and whoever leaves a comment on the post of the featured book will have their name entered to be drawn the following Thursday.

Sounds like my kind of contest! Click on the doggie button for more information.

Time Travel Tuesday: First Date

Posted on May 29, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Today’s topic for Time Travel Tuesday, sponsored by My Life as Annie, is our first date.

I honestly can’t remember my first date. I know who it was with, but I don’t remember what we did. I do know I was way too young!!!

So, if it’s ok, I am going to write about my first date with my husband.

I was a junior in college and he was a sophomore. We worked in the college library: I was at the front desk while he worked in the periodical room. If both places weren’t busy, somehow he and I were both assigned to help another guy, John, whose job was to get the returned books back in place on the shelves. We all enjoyed each others’ company.

Then one day in January, after we had been working together one semester, Jim asked me out. I found out much later that he had been trying to get John to ask me out because John was very shy and didn’t date much. John kept declining, so Jim finally said to himself, “Well, if she’s such a nice girl, why don’t I ask her out.” So he did. 🙂

Unfortunately I had extension the night he asked me for — extension was our Christian college’s word for a ministry outside the college. Every Friday night I went with a few other girls to a nursing home about 45 minutes away and visited with some of the residents, especially those who didn’t receive many visitors. When I told Jim why I couldn’t go, he understood, but there was still a part of him that wondered if maybe I didn’t want to go.

As it turned out, it snowed that evening. At dinner time it was announced that all extensions were canceled because of the weather. After dinner I found Jim waiting for me and he said — and to this day he doesn’t remember saying this — “Since you can’t serve God tonight, do you want to serve mammon?” I knew he was joking, but it kind of made me wonder about this guy. 🙂

We went to a basketball game in which his best friend was playing. Neither of us are very athletic or very interested in athletics, but it was something to do on a Friday night. He told me later he discerned that it might be best to steer away from athletic events for future dates. 🙂 But we did have a good time. It happened to be a Friday the 13th the weekend before final exams.

One of my good friends was friends with Jim, and they had very much a “buddy” relationship. I think because of that and because we worked together, I thought of Jim as a nice guy who was really fun to be around, another “buddy,” but didn’t really think of him as a potential boyfriend. Yet I found myself uncommonly excited when he asked me out. 🙂 And because we had known and worked around each other for a time, I felt comfortable and could be myself.

Our relationship grew from there. We dated around a year and a half and were engaged about 6 months before we were married. That was 27+ years ago. 🙂

I don’t have a picture from our first date — I don’t have many pictures from our dating days at all, and somehow most of them are a little blurry — but here they are:

To participate in Time Travel Tuesday, just click on the button at the top of this post.

Memorial Day

Posted on May 28, 2007 by Barbara Harper

“It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died; they gave up two lives — the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for their county, for us.

All we can do is remember.”

~ Ronald Wilson Reagan
Remarks at Veteran’s Day ceremony, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, November 11, 1985

The purpose of all war is peace. –Saint Augustine

But the freedom that they fought for,
and the country grand they wrought for,
Is their monument to-day, and for aye.
~Thomas Dunn English

All we have of freedom, all we use or know – This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.
~Rudyard Kipling, “The Old Issue,” 1899

Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.
~John Quincy Adams

(Graphic courtesy of Anne’s Place)

No work of mine…

Posted on May 27, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I am often burdened for dear friends caught up in religions that teach that their salvation is dependent on their own acts alone or on what Christ did for them on the cross plus their own works. I was wanting to post something emphasizing the fact that it is faith and dependence on Christ alone that saves when this part of this hymn came to mind:

Complete in Thee! no work of mine
May take, dear Lord, the place of Thine;
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And I am now complete in Thee.

Yea, justified! O blessed thought!
And sanctified! Salvation wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And glorified, I too, shall be!

(From the hymn, “Complete in Thee” by Aaron R. Wolfe, 1821-1902 and James M. Gray, 1851-1935)

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:5-7.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9.

Psalm Sunday: Psalm 18

Posted on May 27, 2007 by Barbara Harper

(Our Psalms Sunday hostess, Erica, is needing to put Psalms Sundays on hiatus for a while due to her schedule, but I wanted to go ahead and post this one since I had it ready a couple of weeks ago. I have enjoyed studying through the Psalms more than a usual read-through.)

Because of the length of Psalm 18, I am going to refer to the link to it here rather than copying the whole thing here. This Psalm appeared in II Samuel 22, a song David wrote “in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul.”

I love the way this Psalm begins: “I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” With a God like that — how can we help but trust in Him? The more we meditate on Him, His greatness, His character, His ability, I think that generates even more trust.

Verses 3-6 speak of David’s calling out to God in his distress; verses 7-19 tell of God’s answer. What a powerful, majestic God!

7 Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, Because He was angry.

9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down With darkness under His feet. 10 And He rode upon a cherub, and flew; He flew upon the wings of the wind.

We need to picture God coming to our aid in just the same way.

16 He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, From those who hated me, For they were too strong for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the LORD was my support.

In verses 20-24 David says that God rewarded him according to the cleanness of his hands — there was no unconfessed sin in his life that would hinder God’s deliverance.

These verse have been some of my favorites for years, especially the first one:

28 For You will light my lamp; The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 For by You I can run against a troop, By my God I can leap over a wall.
30 As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

31 For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?
32 It is God who arms me with strength, And makes my way perfect.
33 He makes my feet like the feet of deer, And sets me on my high places.

As I read those, I can’t even think of any appropriate commentary — they are so expressive and beautiful.

Verse 34 says, “He teaches my hands to make war, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.” Ecclesiastes 3:8 speak of “A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.” When it is a time of war, if it is His will and your cause is His, He will give wisdom and strength for it. Verses 35 – 42 continue on in that theme of God giving him victory over his enemies. Verses 43-45 speak of God’s making David the head of nations and making foreigners submit to him as their new leader.

Verse 46: The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted.

The rest of the chapter gives acknowledgment and praise to God for His deliverance of David.

It is sometimes when we’re “backed into a corner” and there is no deliverance except from God that we see how truly powerful and able He is. We see just glimpses now of His majesty and power — I can’t imagine what it will be like to see Him one day in all His glory.

And these mere glimpses of Him are more than enough to inspire our confidence that He can take care of any problem His children have!

My Advocate

Posted on May 26, 2007 by Barbara Harper

My Advocate

I sinned. And straightway, post-haste, Satan flew
Before the presence of the most high God,
And made a railing accusation there.
He said, “This soul, this thing of clay and sod,
Has sinned. ‘Tis true that he has named Thy name,
But I demand his death, for Thou hast said,
‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die.’
Shall not Thy sentence be fulfilled?
Is justice dead?
Send now this wretched sinner to his doom.
What other thing can righteous ruler do?”
And thus he did accuse me day and night,
And every word he spoke, O God, was true!

Then quickly One rose up from God’s right hand,
Before Whose glory angels veiled their eyes.
He spoke, “Each jot and tittle of the law
Must be fulfilled; the guilty sinner dies!
But wait — suppose his guilt were all transferred
To Me, and that I paid his penalty!
Behold My hands, My side, My feet! One day
I was made sin for him, and died that he
Might be presented, faultless, at Thy throne!”
And Satan flew away. Full well he knew
That he could not prevail against such love,
For every word my dear Lord spoke was true!

— Martha Snell Nicholson