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

(Photo courtesy of everystockphoto)

(You can read more of Mrs. Nicholson’s poetry here.)

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: Colorful

Posted on May 25, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Theme: Colorful | Become a Photo Hunter | View Blogroll

I was drawing a complete blank as to what to post for this week’s theme until my husband came to my rescue with this suggestion. I had sent him this card either when we were dating or in our early married years. We’ve sent each other scores of cards in two years of dating and 27 years of marriage, but there are some that are favorites, and this was a favorite of his. The funny thing is that he has been working in coloring matching first for automotive carpet fibers for a number of years and now for plastic colorants — we had no idea when I first sent this card that he would be working with color. He has this card on top of his filing cabinet now. I think in his old office he had it on his bulletin board.

Inside:

Show and Tell Friday: Dollstones

Posted on May 25, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home created and hosts a fun activity called “Show and Tell Friday,” asking folks to share something special, perhaps a “a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find,” something old or new.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I collect Boyd’s Bear figurines (though I really don’t like the new “Pleasantville” ones). One of their lines is called Dollstones, and over the years my husband has given me a few of those. I just love these portrayals of scenes in the life of little girls, and being from Boyd’s, they always have a bear in the scene somewhere. I love the detail and the sweetness and femininity of each piece.

This was my very first one:

I think this might be the most recent one. I was trying at one time to collect some of the Boyd’s figurines that reflected some of my interests, and I used to do a lot of needlework.

I don’t have a little girl to enjoy these with. Maybe I’ll have granddaughters one day.

If you’d like to see or participate in “Show and Tell Friday,” visit There’s No Place Like Home.

Why are we so surprised?

Posted on May 24, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I am going to be very discreet with details for privacy’s sake, though the family I am thinking of doesn’t have computer access and doesn’t read my blog. Some folks I know are in counseling for a serious family situation. When a very glaring, obviously wrong way of handling something was pointed out to one of them, she couldn’t see the correction needed over hurt that someone would say she did something wrong.

Another friend who was acting in a very petulant manner over an issue went into an enraged fit when someone commented on her anger.

Why are we so surprised when someone points out to us that we’re doing something wrong? We’re sinners — we naturally do wrong. We’d be the first to admit that we don’t have it all together yet. We probably know deep down that we have blind spots to some of our character flaws and that we tend to excuse or justify negative traits in ourselves that we see as faults in others (i.e., I’m determined but another who acts the same way is stubborn.) But let someone try to correct us, and they are being hateful, petty, or, one of the favorite adjectives in today’s Christianity, judgmental.

True, some people are judgmental. Some are busybodies. Some correct too much or too easily. Some people who mean well can correct in an unkind or hurtful way.

I have to admit, when someone points out something in my life that needs correction or attention, my first response is not, “Thank you! I am so glad the Lord laid that on your heart to share with me.”

But it probably should be.

The only reason I can think of that I don’t respond that way is pride.

Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. Proverbs 9:8-9.

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. Proverbs 12:15.

A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise. Proverbs 15:12.

The ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise. He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding. Proverbs 15:31-32.

As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. Proverbs 25:12.

I used to tell one of my sons who had trouble receiving correction in his early teens that if he didn’t acknowledge that a certain action or attitude was wrong, he could not correct it or change it. I often shared with him Proverbs 28:13: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

If we can get past the sting of hearing criticism and prayerfully examine it to see if it is just, then we can confess it to the Lord (and to whomever else we might need to confess it) and correct it and grow in wisdom and character — and stop causing a problem in other people’s lives by continuing on in the fault.

Isn’t that much better than hanging on to our hurt and indignation?