He's the lily of the valley ...

i just took these pics ... i love this time of year ... the flowers we inherited start to bloom bloom bloom!

there are 6 different colours of lilies ... i feel rich when i walk outside and take it all in!

the lollipop lilies are my favourite ... they look so happy ... *smile*

the roses are abundant as well ...

and the flower basket in the front ... which struggled so with the cooler spring ... has more than made up for it ... it cheerfully greets me every morning ...

and all these flowers reminds me of this old hymn ...

The Lily of the Valley

I have found a friend in Jesus, He's everything to me,
He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul;
The Lily of the Valley, in him alone I see
All I need to cleanse and make me fully whole.
In sorrow He's my comfort, in trouble He's my stay,
He tells me every care on Him to roll.

Chorus:
He's the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star,
He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.

He all my griefs has taken, and all my sorrows borne;
In temptation He's my strong and mighty tower;
I have all for Him forsaken, and all my idols torn
From my heart, and now He keeps me by His power.
Though all the world forsake me, and Satan tempt me sore,
Though Jesus I shall safely reach the goal.

Repeat Chorus.

He will never, never leave me, nor yet forsake me here,
While I live by faith and do His blessed will;
A wall of fire about me, I've nothing now to fear,
With His manna He my hungry soul shall fill.
Then sweeping up to glory to see His blessed face,
Where rivers of delight shall ever roll.

Repeat Chorus.

laundry

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood.
The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young
woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside.
"That laundry is not very clean", she said.
"She doesn't know how to wash correctly.

Perhaps she needs better laundry soap"

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the
young woman would make the same comments.


About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a
nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband:

"Look, she has learned how to wash correctly.

I wonder who taught her this?"

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and
cleaned our windows."


And so it is with life.. What we see when watching others
depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

The Incredible Patience of God

we just finished reading this book ... and it's another that i highly recommend ... lane adams does a great job of answering the question of "why am i still struggling with lack of growth in my faith? ... "

the book jacket says:

"Many believers become discouraged with the long process of growth in their walk with Christ. In fact, Lane Adams believes it is "the rare spiritual prodigy" who moves rapidly to spiritual maturity. In this refreshing and helpful book, he offers encouragement, candid humor and practical insight for those who are struggling in their Christian life.

In many ways, some Christians today are indistinguishable from the culture around them. They deny moral absolutes of right and wrong, and affirm situational ethics. Their God is one-sided - all blessing and no judgment. In this book, Lane Adams urges Christians to seek a balance between asking for forgiveness and being accountable."

summer is quickly going by

summer is going by quickly in my little corner of the world ... so fast that i've barely had time to take pictures of our beautiful manitoba fields ... full of varied colour and displaying the faithfulness of God! we also have "big sky country" in our world ... for cloud watchers, it is paradise!

the other day i noticed that we have a new condo going up - in the bushes right outside our front door! i don't know if it will ever be inhabited ... it may be just an extra nest for the forward thinking bird that constructed it ... it is amazing how perfectly shaped and well made it is ... another display of God in nature ... where else would these little creatures have learned how to make these nests exactly the size and shape needed ... not to mention what type of material to construct it with!

my peonies are almost finished blooming for the season ... we had a major storm blow through last week and it soaked the flowers and dropped them to the ground, where they started to rot ... i cut off 2 bag fulls of blooms ... but they were spectacular while they lasted ... a reminder for me to enjoy the moment ... that is all that we are guaranteed ...

visitors have also been plentiful these past weeks ... an aunt from finland was here ... it was great to see her ... then my teenage niece and nephew came for a quick little visit a few days ago ... they were vacationing at their grandma's place (my mom) and she took a road trip this way ... leo hadn't seen the kids in years ... he was surprised at how tall they had gotten, and mature for their years ... of course i had to take them for a walk to the beach, while leo and my mom chatted at home (leo hasn't been able to go for a walk since the doctor's visit - the weather and extra pain have kept him indoors - but there is always hope for another day!)

here is a picture of me and my very spry, active mom (she is 74) ... her energy always amazes me and totally leaves me in her wake! i pray the Lord gives her many more active years ...

just sending out blessings to my blog buds - both old friends, new friends and those who just happened by ... life is made sweeter by you ... !

picture taken yesterday of our peonies

And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying,

"Oh, that you would bless me indeed,

and enlarge my territory,

that Your hand would be with me,

and that You would keep me from evil,

that I may not cause pain!"

So God granted him what he requested.

1 Chronicles 4:10

doctor's appointment

today was leo's doctor's appointment ... if everything goes along "normally" for him, we go in every 3 months ... and today was the day ... this is leo's 4th doctor in as many years ... in fact, if you type in "doctor" in the search browser at the top left of my blog, you'll see how many times i've actually written about that topic! it is so important for everyone to have a family doctor they can trust ... but this is especially so for folks with any chronic problems ...

i have to testify to how God has been good to us in this regard ... it seems every doctor in the past 4 years has added something positive to leo's well being ... they have been really good guys ...

i always go in with leo - and my standard joke is that they get 2 for the price of one! i get to know the doctors as well as leo does ...

today was an extra special visit because we walked to the clinic! it is only 2 blocks away and leo has been doing so well with his little walks ... his doctor was impressed with how good leo looked and how his walking has improved ... *smile* ... i thought how wonderful it is to have the clinic so close! we used to drive 45 minutes to another town for these appointments - and then the wait was l-o-n-g ... the doctor was usually 45 minutes late! it was a horrible time for me ... i must admit that i prayed MUCH before and after those trips ... and poor leo - it was so uncomfortable for him ... he can't sit for long periods (like 5 minutes) without a lot of discomfort ... i used to dread dread dread the appointments ... plus i've been doing all the driving for the past 5 years ... the winters were just the worst ... what a blessing it now is to be able to walk to our appointments ... i've shared in past posts how the Lord wonderfully worked it out for good - when leo's long time doctor left his practise and forced us to step out in faith to find another doctor - which lead us to a town closer to us - which eventually led us back to our own small town clinic ...

so many things recently have seemed like misadventures ... especially the family doctor issue - i have to confess to being fearful of the future at times ... worried (though i like to use the word "concerned", when in reality it is that sin of worry that plagues me) - then the Lord takes pity on me, hears my prayer, and once again delivers me out of that anxiety pit and plants my clay feet on the Rock ... He opens my eyes to a better way through the change that so scared me at first ...

i'm just praising my Saviour, Who is so patient with me ... and answers my prayers in the way that is BEST for me ... which may or may not be what i asked for!

blessed be His name!

a new tv ... :o)

leo and i broke down and bought a new tv last month ... one of those fancy HD LCD ones ... a sony ... yup - it's nice! so much lighter than our 160 pound toshiba, that we have had for many years ... i just love the thought of being able to move furniture without calling in the muscle!!!

one problem though - the tv has this feature that makes it go dark automatically during certain scenes ... i mean really dark! ... so i phoned sony's help desk to see how we could shut this feature off ... it turns out that it is a glitch in this particular model of tv ... so the tech guy made up a "fix" for us and is mailing it to us ... we plug the "fix" in (the sony has outlets like a computer) which then allows it to "talk" to the tv and fix the problem ... sure beats the old repair guy way of doing things!

wouldn't it be nice if this worked in our spiritual lives too? ... we see a problem in our behaviour or lifestyle - God sends a fix ... we plug it into our hearts and it solves the problem for the rest of our earthly sojourn ... that would be a hallelujah moment for me ... *huge grin* ... unfortunately i need many fixes for the same problem, applied in different ways - before i am on the winning side ...

as far as eternity goes - Jesus IS the forever fixer of our hearts - no more touch-ups required!

sending a shout out to my american buds ... happy 4th of july!!!!