I Hear Thy Welcome Voice

Posted on December 16, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I hear Thy welcome voice
That calls me, Lord, to Thee,
For cleansing in Thy precious blood
That flowed on Calvary.

Refrain

I am coming Lord!
Coming now to Thee!
Wash me, cleanse me in the blood
That flowed on Calvary!

Though coming weak and vile,
Thou dost my strength assure;
Thou dost my vileness fully cleanse,
Till spotless all, and pure.

Refrain

’Tis Jesus calls me on
To perfect faith and love,
To perfect hope and peace and trust,
For earth and Heav’n above.

Refrain

All hail! atoning blood!
All hail! redeeming grace!
All hail! the gift of Christ our Lord,
Our Strength and Righteousness.

Refrain

~ By Lewis Hartsough

His Dear Wife

Posted on December 14, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Several years ago I heard Claudia Barba speak at a ladies’ conference at a nearby town. Her husband had been a church planter and an evangelist and currently has a ministry helping church planters get their churches established. He had spoken at a missions conference at our church a few years earlier and his family was there: I may have met Claudia then, but I didn’t know she spoke to ladies groups and I didn’t know she was the sister of a college friend, who was the pastor’s wife at this church. You know how some people can speak and convict you and you feel like you’ve been beaten up, and others can speak and convict you and leave you feeling hopeful and encouraged and looking forward to what the Lord can do in and through you. Claudia is the latter kind of speaker. Her talks were practical and convicting and went right to the root of my selfishness, but they were tremendously encouraging as well. At that time she mentioned an e-mail list she had started called “Monday Morning Club.” It was primarily for minister’s wives, but was open to everyone, so I subscribed. I’ve been enjoying Claudia’s Word-based instruction and encouragement ever since. Later our own ladies group was blessed to have Claudia as a speaker at our spring Ladies’ Luncheon.

This particular “Monday Morning Club” e-mail has spoken to my heart again and again. Even though my husband is not a pastor, every Christian is a minister of the gospel in some way, and I found much to convict and inspire in this piece. I don’t know what brought it to mind again, but when I thought of it this morning I e-mailed Claudia to ask permission to publish it here, and she graciously gave it.

If you would be interested in receiving Claudia’s Monday Morning Club e-mails, you can e-mail her at cbarba@ipresson.com. The Barba’s web site is Press On! Ministries.

His Dear Wife

by Claudia Barba

It happened again recently. Sitting in church, I heard the pastor welcome us to the service: Dave Barba and his “dear wife.” I think that pastors use that phrase as a graceful way to introduce me when they have forgotten my name. But it always makes me want to laugh as I imagine my husband as a majestic buck in the deep woods, and me as the docile doe by his side. My son (Bambi, I guess) added to my amusement years ago when, during a similar introduction, he grinned at me and formed antlers with his fingers on his head.

This time, after my invisible (I hope) laughter, I began to think about that word—“dear.” It was okay to daydream; none of the pastor’s announcements applied to me.

“Dear” people are precious—beloved, highly esteemed, valuable, cherished, and treasured. I like to believe that that is how my husband thinks of me. But “dear” also has another definition, and I am sadly aware that sometimes that meaning can apply to me as well. “Dear” can mean expensive. A wife can be precious to her husband, or she can be costly to him.

On a literal plane, I can be a drain on his budget or a plug for it. When money is scarce, I have to make every dollar stretch a mile. I can do it cheerfully and creatively, or I can do it grudgingly. One attitude makes me precious to him; the other makes me just another burden—his doe spending his dough.

When he preaches, I can be his silent cheerleader. I can stay awake. I can nod and smile at him from the pew, listen and take notes. I can thank him for praying and preparing, and tell him how the Lord has used his sermons to help me. That makes me precious. On the other hand, criticizing or ignoring his preaching costs him dearly, for it damages his confidence in the pulpit.

When enemies attack our ministry, I can crumple, weep, and blame him for my pain. After all, if he would just be perfect like me and please everybody all the time, no one would criticize and life would be bliss! Or I can bravely and tearlessly remind him in our most painful times that the Lord is the One Whose approval we need. Pleasing everybody else, all the time, is impossible.

If he has worked hard for few visible results, I can “dearly” remind him of the laws of sowing and reaping. I can point him to the future, when God will reward his labor. Or I can drain his spirit by questioning if the ministry is really worth all the work.

When he gets discouraged, I can find ways to lift his heart: a picnic in the park or a love letter slipped into his briefcase. I can pass along compliments from others and promises from the Lord. I can be steady, patient, prayerful, and dear until he’s himself again. I can be his ladder for climbing out of the pit. Or I can jump in with him and then expect him to lift me out.

I can praise his leadership at home and his skill working with people. I can honor the hidden character and steadfastness that I know better than anyone else. I can point out the good I see in him. How precious it is for a man to know that his wife admires him! Or I can take the good for granted and focus on his flaws—costing his self-image dearly.

Someday (long before your funeral, I hope), your husband may say that you are a woman with a price “far above rubies.” That can be true because of your incredible value to him, or because of what it costs him to keep you around. I want to be precious, not expensive—don’t you?

Show and Tell Friday

Posted on December 14, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts “Show and Tell Friday” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Guidelines are here.“

You know how we get used to the things we have around us and don’t “see” them any more (which is probably why we like to rearrange them sometimes), and then one day something catches our eye and brings a smile. That happened this morning with this little figurine. Jesse bought it for me at the gift store at the camp he went to last summer.

When he first went to camp in about the 4th grade, he used some of the spending money we sent with him to buy something for each of us. I’m not sure why he thought of it: traditionally none of us brings back presents when we travel. But he’s continued to do that every year. This morning I “saw” this again and it reminded me of the love of a then 13, now 14 year old boy for his mom. I’m glad he’s not afraid to show it.

Holiday Home Party and Christmas Tour

Posted on December 13, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Karla at Karla’s Cottage is having a “What do you love about your holiday home?” party and BooMama is hosting a “Christmas tour of homes.” I’m using this same post for both events. 🙂 All of these have appeared on my blog before — I don’t think we have added anything new this year. Yet. 🙂

So come on in…

Have a slice of Harvest Loaf Cake.

Even though its name sounds fallish, we like to use it for the holidays. I don’t make it at Christmas because we have all those pies then, but usually some time in early December I make some for us and some for gifts.

I am a Christian and believe Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ who came to die for our sins. I’ve been saying “Happy Holidays” for years, though, to include Christmas and New Year’s Day, so I am not trying to be “PC” by saying Happy Holidays. 🙂

Decorations on the piano. I did the calligraphy about 20 years ago in an adult ed. class — but I haven’t done any calligraphy since then.

My mom gave me this several years ago. I has a button in the back that you can push to hear Christmas music and watch the lights flash. The boys have loved this. Since my mom passed away almost exactly two years ago, these gifts from her are even more treasured.

This is something else my mom sent: a Nativity musical figurine.

This is one of my most special treasures, also from my mom. I collect Boyd’s Bear figurines, and somewhere she found this Christmas tree with little miniature scenes all though it.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

On the other end table are these snowpeople. I got the three snowboys because they reminded me of my three sons. Then the boys got each of the bigger snowmen in a crane game. So we put them all together as our family representatives. I should get a little feminine hat for one of the bigger ones to represent me.

I have pastel colors and a lot of pink in my home. That’s a bit of a dilemma at Christmas with all the reds: some of my ornaments and things that were given to me have red in them. In recent years I’ve leaned toward the maroonish bluer reds and dark pinks that would go better with the rest of the decor. But, as I said in the earlier posts about ornaments, I want this all to be family-friendly more than “designer” decorating, so for the most part I just don’t worry about it. However, I was delighted to find this little snowman in my living room colors:

One of my favorite decorations is this little mouse. If you light the candle in the back it looks like a fire in the fireplace.

Here is the fireplace in the family room with the stockings. I made the plaid ones after we were first married and a dear friend knit the others for each of the boys as a baby gift after they were born. The rest of this room is in blue, tan, and off-white, so the red doesn’t clash with pinks in here.

I need to redo the white fluffy parts on mine and my husband’s stockings and maybe appliqué something on them.

Here is our tree with a few favorite ornaments:

These are some felts ones I made early on in our marriage, I think from a kit. I love the little sheep.

This is a Boyd’s Bear ornament my dear friend Carol gave me:

This is from a set of Victorian ornaments that I love which includes a ball and a teardrop shape with the same little flower cluster:

This is a nativity ornament which clips on to one of the light bulbs so it shines through. Someone gave this to someone else at a Secret Sister Christmas party at church, and I liked it so much I went out and bought one for us. I think it is the only Hallmark ornament we have.

This is one I made early on. It has about 1/3 of a toilet paper roll inside and is wrapped in a strip of red felt. White felt circles go over the ends and cross-stitch floss is used to sew the tops and bottoms on in that drum-like pattern. Then little strips of felt are rolled around the end of toothpicks for the drumsticks, and they are glued on. This is made to sit on a branch, but you could use the same floss to make a loop through the edge of the top white felt circle.

This is from a cute little felt snowman set I liked. I bought it rather than made it, but I made the little plastic canvas candy cane.

This one is special to me because it is one of the first ones I ever made. I found the little circle, stained it, found the little miniature tree, dipped the tips of its branches in glue and then it different colors of glitter, then glued it into the circle and added a gold thread loop.

This is one of our newer ones, bought last year at the Christian bookstore. Having all boys, I’ve loved cards and ornaments with little shepherd boys.

This is one of my two attempts at One Stroke painting.

This is one of several cross-stitch ornaments I made several years ago. I think these were the first things I cross-stitched. Sorry this one is a little blurry.

I made this ornament last year — after Christmas, actually — after seeing various button wreaths on a few blogs:

I realized afterward that the little Christmas tree is a charm rather than a button, but that’s ok. 🙂

Thanks for visiting! I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.

Psalm Sunday: Psalm 57

Posted on December 9, 2007 by Barbara Harper

1 Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. 2 I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.

3 He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.

4 My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.

6 They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.

7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

8 Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.

9 I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations.

10 For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.

11 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.

Other versions list a heading saying this is a “Prayer for Rescue from Persecutors,” a Psalm of David when he was fleeing from Saul in the cave. Even though we may not face that exact type of persecution, I think the day is coming when we might. Even now there is not a general favorable attitude toward Christianity as there has been in past decades in this country. Really, it’s unusual to have a general public attitude favorable toward Christianity — in many countries throughout much of history, persecution has been the norm.

And even if we’re not facing persecution for our faith or our stand for Christ, sometimes we can face opposition as David did when someone takes it upon themselves to try to thwart our cause or decides they just don’t like us. Many people battle “office politics” or family problems or bullies or any number of contrary people or circumstances. So I believe this Psalm can be applicable to any situation in which we face opposition.

Our first recourse, as David’s was, is to cry unto the Lord, trusting Him to undertake, protect, and deliver us. I love the way verse 1 is worded. I love that God is our refuge.

I love also that David is not only concerned for his own situation: he is concerned for God’s glory. He wants God to be exalted in his situation. You see this echoed throughout the Psalms. In Psalm 109:26-27, David says, “Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy:That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.” Too often we just want deliverance; we want out of the problem or situation, as fast as possible, and we may remember to thank the Lord, but we don’t often think about wanting Him to be exalted or His glory to be seen in the midst of it all. I am touched by how, in many of the Psalms, David doesn’t just cry out for help, but his heart for his God is seen.

Once again David tells the Lord of his circumstances, then focuses on God’s mercy, faithfulness, and ability to deliver. My heart is fixed….other versions use the word “steadfast” instead of fixed. We could say David steadfastly fixes his heart on the Lord. In verses 7-10 he looks forward in faith. When he says he will praise the Lord, I am not sure if he means “I will praise you now despite my circumstances: I will focus on You and not the dilemma” or if he means “I will praise you in faith, knowing that You will save me.” I think there are ways that both views are applicable.

I am so thankful that in the midst of any calamity, we can trust in God’s mercy and take refuge in Him.

See Butterfly Kisses for more thoughts on this Psalm. and feel free to join us in meditating on them.

Never further than Thy cross

Posted on December 8, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I saw two verses of this in a book I was reading last night, and when I looked it up today I found it was a hymn. I’ve never heard it — it would be a good one to put back into the hymnbooks.

Never further than Thy cross,
Never higher than Thy feet;
Here earth’s precious things seem dross,
Here earth’s bitter things grow sweet.

Gazing thus our sin we see,
Learn Thy love while gazing thus,
Sin, which laid the cross on Thee,
Love, which bore the cross for us.

Here we learn to serve and give,
And, rejoicing, self deny;
Here we gather love to live,
Here we gather faith to die.

Pressing onward as we can,
Still to this our hearts must tend;
Where our earliest hopes began,
There our last aspirings end.

Till amid the hosts of light,
We in Thee redeemed, complete,
Through Thy cross made pure and white,
Cast our crowns before Thy feet.

~ Elizabeth R. Charles

Bloggy love

Posted on December 8, 2007 by Barbara Harper

No photo hunt post today — the theme was “long” and I just couldn’t come up with anything — and have a really busy day ahead anyway.

So I thought this would be a good time to take care of some long over-due bloggy business.

My good blog friend Alice gave me the “You’re an Amazing Blogger” award weeks ago. No, Alice I didn’t forget — please forgive me for taking so long to respond! Thank you so much!

What usually holds me up in acknowledging these things is figuring out who to pass them on to. In some ways I could give them to everyone, but I don’t think that’s what’s intended. I don;t want to leave anyone out — I appreciate everyone who comes here. But to narrow it down a bit, some of the bloggers I consider amazing are:

Dawn at 4:53 am. A Christian crafty lady, she displays a sweet spirit and sense of awe and wonder at God’s creation. And I like her craft entries, too!

Melli at Insanity Prevails. She has a way of making everyday life always seem like such an adventure. I love her enthusiasm and cheerfulness. Even in hard times she traces God’s hand in it and relies on His strength.

Lizzie at A Dusty Frame. I admire her honesty and the evidence of grace and God’s strength as she deals with being a temporary single mom while her husband is incarcerated. The lessons of faith her family has been learning have been a joy to witness.

Karla at Karla’s Cottage. She’s one if my favorite crafty bloggers, and I’m so glad she shares what she’s working on. I am amazed at how much she can get done in a short time!

Then, more recently my good blog buddy Jen gave me a couple more awards. Thanks so much!

One was the Blog Buddies award. There is a sense in which everyone who comes here is a blog buddy. 🙂 But I’d like to pass this on to few whom I feel I know a little better:

Alice at Hello, My Name is Alice.
Diane at A Watered Garden.
Susan at By Grace.
Bet at Dappled Things.
Ann at From Sinking Sand.
Jen at Joyful Notes.
Rita at The Jungle Hut.
Laurel at Laurel Wreath Reflections.
Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.
Cindy at Notes in the Key of Life.
Janeen at Our Story.
Jewel at Down In My Little Valley.
Kim at Life in the 10/40 Window.

Jen also passed on the me the Tough Blogger award for being “a tough blogger who is true to yourself.” Thanks, Jen!

This is kind of a hard one to pass on as my brain is scrambled right now and I can’t think of any blogger I know who isn’t true to themselves.

And jen also gave me the “Nice Matters” award (thank you!). I passed that on to several folks a while back.

In other bloggy news — at some point in the near future I think I am going to move my awards and links and maybe my blogroll up into the “About Me” section at the top right. I think it would make my sidebar look neater. And, though I love the awards, I fell a little funny about displaying them all there — don’t want to seem like I am bragging on myself. 🙂 So if you have blessed me with an award and don’t see it on the side, either I am busy with Christmas stuff and don’t have it up yet or I will have moved it. It may be after Christmas before I get to that, though.

Thanks, dear blog friends!

Show and Tell Friday: Surprising Picture Book

Posted on December 7, 2007 by Barbara Harper

This was a souvenir we bought the first time we visited the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. It’s a reproduction of a Victorian-style book and not an actual antique, but I love the poems and illustrations.

This has an added feature of what’s called “Surprising Pictures.” There are pictures throughout that look one way at first…

but then you pull a little ribbon, and the picture starts to change…

into another picture.

Maybe it’s leftover girlhood — the title does say Surprising Pictures for Little Folk — but I love this. 🙂 It’s also fun to bring it out to show children who come over. I keep it put up and handle it very gently while showing children so it stays in good condition. But little ones, especially, are fascinated by the changing pictures. I love that part, but I also love the Victorian-looking illustrations and poems.

Soup-tacular

Posted on December 7, 2007 by Barbara Harper

It must be recipe week in the blogosphere, between Shannon’s call for quick and easy recipes on Wednesday and BooMama’s Soup-tacular today. Fine with me — I like finding new, good recipes! And I love soup when the weather’s cold.

I posted this first one a while back, but I’ll repost it here so as to have all these together:

I love potato soups, and some day I am going to make a completely-from-scratch one. But in the meantime this quicker version does nicely. I found it in a Quick Cooking magazine (now called Simple and Delicious) (one of Taste of Home’s spinoffs). It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s good.

Corny Potato Chowder

4 bacon strips, diced
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 can (15 oz.) whole potatoes, drained and diced
2 cups milk
1 can (14 – 3/4 oz.) cream-style corn
1/2 tsp. garlic
1/8 tsp. pepper

In a large saucepan, cook the bacon and onion until bacon is almost crisp; drain. Add potatoes; saute for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the milk, corn, garlic salt, and pepper. Simmer, uncovered, until heated through. Yield: 4-6 servings.

I use the already-cooked-just-microwave bacon (we don’t use bacon very often, so that works well for us), then just mix all the other ingredients together and heat through. I don’t use that much onion either — more like a tablespoon of minced onion. And I use garlic powder rather than garlic salt and just add a few sprinkles of salt. I also buy the already diced canned potatoes. And I just use 1 cup milk — I like more stuff and less broth or liquid in soups.

Quick Vegetable-Beef Soup

1 lb. ground beef or ground turkey
Minced onion
Garlic powder
1 cup Minute Rice
1 can tomato sauce
1 can mixed vegetables
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Brown the meat and onion and cook the rice according to package directions. Drain the meat and add rice, tomato sauce, vegetables, and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer til heated through. We like to serve it with crackers or corn muffins. You can use frozen (or even fresh!) vegetables if you choose — you would just need to cook them longer. This soup is also good for adding leftover vegetables.

Chicken Ramen Noodle Soup

2 packages chicken-flavored ramen noodles
1-2 cups cooked chicken cut into bite-sized pieces
Minced onion
1 can mixed vegetables

Prepare the ramen noodles according to package directions. Add cooked chicken, vegetables, and minced onion to taste; heat through. As with the above recipe, you can use frozen or fresh vegetables if you prefer.

Chicken and Rice Soup

2 cups cooked, diced chicken
Minced onion
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 cans chicken broth or 2 c. water and 2 tsp chicken bullion
1 cup Minute Rice
1 can mixed vegetables
Salt and pepper to taste

Do you see a lot of similarity between the last three recipes? 🙂 Just mix these ingredients and heat through.

I make Turkey Bone Soup the same way, except I take the bigger bones from the turkey, boil in a big pot of water for about and hour, remove the bones, run the broth through a strainer to get out any little bits of bone or gristle, then proceed as above, only using leftover turkey instead of chicken. It’s one of my favorite leftover turkey dishes.

All of these are fairly adjustable: you can add more or less of any of the ingredients according to what you like and what you have on hand. In most of them I like to sprinkle a little frozen corn in with the mixed vegetables.

Laying down life

Posted on December 6, 2007 by Barbara Harper

One of the things that continues to surprise me is just how far selfishness still has its roots in me.

An incident yesterday and a quote I saw this morning, among other things, brought it all to the forefront again. Someone called yesterday and the conversation got off on the wrong foot right off the bat when I said hello and heard voices, but no one answered. We’d been getting a lot of either political calls or calls where someone hung up as soon as we answered, so I figured it was one of those kinds of calls. When they finally spoke, I was irritated and it showed in my tone. It was someone I knew, but she hadn’t realized someone had picked up the phone, so she was talking to someone else with her. Then she told me about a problem resulting from an apparent oversight on my part, though I hadn’t gotten the information that I needed to take care of anything. Then, you know how sometimes people will talk and forget a detail like a name or what day something occurred, and then they get sidetracked trying to remember that detail when it doesn’t really have anything to do with the conversation? Well, that happened with this lady, and I was busy, still holding in one hand the things I’d been taking care of when the phone rang, and irritated in general, so I just interrupted and said, “Well, that’s not important,”and proceeded to discuss what we needed to do to take care of the situation.

Yikes!

My whole tone and demeanor indicated a lack of love and concern and a selfish preoccupation. Instead of being helpful and kind, I let it be known that I was bothered.

Then this morning on girltalk, Kristin shared a quote from a book by J. I. Packer. I’ve not read anything of his, but this quote struck me:

“The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor–spending and being spent–to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others—and not just their own friends–in whatever way there seems need.”

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:12-13.

I’ve long believed that laying down our lives is not just martyrdom, not just physical death, but rather the everyday serving another by sacrificing our own time and attention for them. I’ve long believed that my schedule is in God’s hands, that even interruptions are allowed by Him, may even be His divine appointments for the day. That struck me full force one day when I realized the healing of the woman with the issue of blood took place while Jesus was on his way to heal Jairus’ daughter. Imagine how Jairus felt after he’d found Christ to come and heal his daughter who was dying, then this woman interrupts, then he receives word that his daughter has died (Luke 8:41-56). Yet Jesus reassures him that she would be made whole — and she was. He brought her back from the dead, and how much more glorious the whole situation was in the end.

In fact, if you study the life of Christ, He was constantly interrupted. He rose a great while before day to pray, and people came seeking him out. People were constantly wanting His attention, yet you never see Him ruffled, short-tempered, irritated, bothered.

I’ve known these things — but I often fail at living them.

By love serve one another. Galatians 5:13b.

I do want to serve others. But I tend to want to do it in my own way, at certain times or through certain events. If I listen to a conversation or fill a need, then I want to pat the other person on the head and say, “OK, I’ve served you for a while. Leave me alone now so I can do what I want.” That’s hardly characteristic of Christ.

And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. II Corinthians 12:15.

Most of the people with whom I have to do are very loving in response. I generally don’t have to worry about expending time, energy, and care on people who don’t love me — so how much more willing should I be to “spend and be spent” for them?

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. Mark 8:35.

Lord, forgive me for thinking that my time, energy, schedule, resources, and everything else are my own. Help me to remember it is all Yours, and I am here to serve You, not live for myself. Help me to truly love You with all my heart and soul and mind and strength and to love others as You have loved me — sacrificially, unselfishly, continually. I need Your grace, because my natural bent is to be self-centered, to serve occasionally and often with the wrong motives. Help me to lay down the bits and pieces of my life every day rather than trying to grasp back enough for self. Help me to serve and love on Your terms and not my own.