The kids and I returned this weekend from spending the week in Oregon with my parents and an overnight at my brother David's house. I always love any reason to visit my parents...and this time it was to pick up computers that we bought and had sent there (gotta love the no tax in Oregon!);and to bring back my mom's piano from when she was a girl. Grace and Faith will be starting up lessons this fall with a dear woman in our church. The keyboard worked great for Grace last year...but it was time to start thinking about the "real deal"!:)
We started our trip with a stop in Tacoma to visit some friends from Yakima (who had moved to Tacoma). We had a couple of sweet hours of catching up that went by way too fast and got to say hello and cuddle with the newest addition to the Chargualaf family, 2 week old baby Luke! They sent us off with a picnic chicken dinner (thank you Matt...what an unexpected blessing!) and we enjoyed it a couple hours later as we made our way to my parents!
We ended up having a full week! I don't know if my parents are tired but I sure am!:)
Swimming, two nights of camping with my parents (Papa kept all the boys the second night and the girls went home! Thanks for the special memories, Papa!)and then a visit with my brother and his wife, Michelle. I was so humbled by their hospitality and extra loving care they gave to us in the less than 24 hours we were there....David spent 6 hours working on the computers to get them ready to be used by the kids and Michelle made me a belated birthday cake...I wish I could have shared a piece with all of you...it was chocolate cake with coffee frosting....AMAZING!!!! Thank you so much for serving us while we were with you!
I towed a little U-Haul trailer home with the piano in it...and we spent a lot of time listening to music...Jeremy Camp's CD "Carried Me" (an "oldie" but wonderful!) was a favorite this trip and it was exactly the truths I needed to hear and preach to myself...especially as I have been looking ahead to a new school year beginning...but not feeling rested like I hoped I would be from this past year!
Jeremy Camp wrote "Carried Me" in and around the marriage and then death of his first wife (she died four months after they were married from Ovarian cancer). His songs share a passionate love for his Savior and remind me a lot of David's psalms to the Lord in the book of Psalms. One song in particular resonated within my soul and is the cry of my heart as I get ready to add to my plate and feel so unequipped to do so! You can listen to it "here")
"Holy fire burn away, my desire for anything that is not of You and is of me,I want more of You and less of me. Empty me, fill, won't you fill me, with You."
The words reminded me of the words of John the Baptist in John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease."
The more I see who I am apart from Christ (i.e. all my sin!)...the more that all I want is to become so very small so that God can be seen as so very great...for who He is...the Creator, Sustainer, Saviour, Life-Giver, Redeemer, Justifier, Grace-Giver...He is everything our soul longs for and so much more that it will take all of eternity to grasp who God is!
So, my prayer is that God will continue to weed out the sin, to take away all my selfish desires, my plans that, though they seem good are not necessarily God's plan; and that He would fill me with great desire for what He desires!
We started our trip with a stop in Tacoma to visit some friends from Yakima (who had moved to Tacoma). We had a couple of sweet hours of catching up that went by way too fast and got to say hello and cuddle with the newest addition to the Chargualaf family, 2 week old baby Luke! They sent us off with a picnic chicken dinner (thank you Matt...what an unexpected blessing!) and we enjoyed it a couple hours later as we made our way to my parents!
We ended up having a full week! I don't know if my parents are tired but I sure am!:)
Swimming, two nights of camping with my parents (Papa kept all the boys the second night and the girls went home! Thanks for the special memories, Papa!)and then a visit with my brother and his wife, Michelle. I was so humbled by their hospitality and extra loving care they gave to us in the less than 24 hours we were there....David spent 6 hours working on the computers to get them ready to be used by the kids and Michelle made me a belated birthday cake...I wish I could have shared a piece with all of you...it was chocolate cake with coffee frosting....AMAZING!!!! Thank you so much for serving us while we were with you!
I towed a little U-Haul trailer home with the piano in it...and we spent a lot of time listening to music...Jeremy Camp's CD "Carried Me" (an "oldie" but wonderful!) was a favorite this trip and it was exactly the truths I needed to hear and preach to myself...especially as I have been looking ahead to a new school year beginning...but not feeling rested like I hoped I would be from this past year!
Jeremy Camp wrote "Carried Me" in and around the marriage and then death of his first wife (she died four months after they were married from Ovarian cancer). His songs share a passionate love for his Savior and remind me a lot of David's psalms to the Lord in the book of Psalms. One song in particular resonated within my soul and is the cry of my heart as I get ready to add to my plate and feel so unequipped to do so! You can listen to it "here")
"Holy fire burn away, my desire for anything that is not of You and is of me,I want more of You and less of me. Empty me, fill, won't you fill me, with You."
The words reminded me of the words of John the Baptist in John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease."
The more I see who I am apart from Christ (i.e. all my sin!)...the more that all I want is to become so very small so that God can be seen as so very great...for who He is...the Creator, Sustainer, Saviour, Life-Giver, Redeemer, Justifier, Grace-Giver...He is everything our soul longs for and so much more that it will take all of eternity to grasp who God is!
So, my prayer is that God will continue to weed out the sin, to take away all my selfish desires, my plans that, though they seem good are not necessarily God's plan; and that He would fill me with great desire for what He desires!
Comments
I'm also so glad to hear you have a "real" piano!!! Keyboards are okay for beginning players...BUT there is nothing like the "touch" of a piano! So excited too, that both girls are going to be taking lessons!
Have a great school year! Love you!
Looks like a great time, I LOVE Jeremy Camp's songs too...And I agree, the words are so humbling...Have fun getting ready for schooling those little rugrats! It's all six this year right?
What a sweet blessing, getting to spend time with your family! And how handy to have a computer genius in the family (we have one too, and I don't know what we'd do without him)! :)