The Silence Was Broken

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power, After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.” 

Hebrews 1:1-4

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined." 
Isaiah 9:2

I have an admission to make. “Silent Night” has never been one of my favorite Christmas carols. I never really knew why, but it just hasn’t been up there on my top list of favorites. I think I know why after thinking about it some recently. For one thing, I’m not a fan of schmalzy sentimentalism, and this song has a bit of that. I mean, was it really silent and calm? Probably not. But I understand the point and I’m not saying I won’t sing the song with gusto every Christmas, because, “Alleluia to our King. Christ the Saviour is born!” Yes, and amen, I love the last lines. And “Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth,” what a glorious truth, even in the midst of the sentimentality. So I’m not suggesting it’s a bad song or that I won’t sing it out. I just like some of the other Christmas carols better.  

Kevin DeYoung posted this yesterday, and the first line in the song, “It was not a Silent Night,” resonated with me. I can’t say I like the song he posted as much as he seems to, though it’s a good one,  but it got me thinking. 

No, it wasn’t a silent night, for the reasons mentioned in the song, but in an even more significant way. Here’s where I went as I pondered yesterday.

It had been about 400 years since the last prophet had received a word from God to share with Israel. Think of it. 400 years of seeming silence from God as the people waited for the fulfillment of His promise to send Messiah to save His people from their sin. Many were looking for Messiah and hoping in God, the time was right, and those who knew the Scriptures, were waiting. Then, suddenly the silence was broken, not by another prophet, but by the cry of a baby, the baby, and the announcement of angels to a group of shepherds in a field, the angels were praising God, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14) The silence was broken when God sent His Son into the world to redeem His people. He, Himself, came to rescue His people from their sin. Simeon in the temple was one of those who waited, and He recognized Him, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2: 29-32) Hallelujah! 

Christmas isn’t just about the baby in the manger. What we who know Him are celebrating isn’t just the manger, but the Cross and the Resurrection. We celebrate because Immanuel, God With Us, came to live among us and live out the law that we could not and be righteous, fulfill all righteousness, for us. He is our ultimate Passover Lamb, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:16-21).

The silence was broken when the Word became flesh (John 1:1-4). “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13). 

This is Christmas. This is what we celebrate. This is why we celebrate!

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Slow to Anger

Psalm 86:15

“But you, O LORD, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” 

Last night our church held a praise service where members were invited to share praise and thanks to God for His faithfulness. Even the children participated. One young child said that he is thankful that God is slow to anger, even when we are not slow to anger. I was very much struck by that. I thought, “Do my children know this? Have I taught them specifically that God is slow to anger, and what an incredible mercy this is? When you think that at any moment what I deserve is to be wiped out because of my sin, yet we are shown such mercy?” 

In Sunday School recently, we have been studying the attributes of God, and yesterday we discussed His faithfulness. Have you truly pondered the awesome truth that God is a covenant-keeping God? Our teacher yesterday took the book of Ruth and taught us about the faithfulness of God. I have to tell you, I was reduced to tears several times yesterday, though I thought I knew the book of Ruth very well and have read it many times, as I pondered in a fresh way how patient and faithful our God is. I was struck by several thoughts as we discussed this book. First of all, and I’ll admit you might want to take this first observation with a grain of salt as I’m not 100% sure it’s an accurate thing to take away, but I was struck by the fact that Naomi suffered due to decisions her husband made for their family. Yet, in her submission, you don’t see her blaming him. Then, when things seemed most dire, she returned home, back to the land of the covenant promises of God, and God rescued her. He was always faithful to her, even when her family left to escape covenant consequences in the land. God gave her Ruth. Then I got to thinking about Ruth. I wonder, what did Ruth see in Naomi and her God that she was converted to trust in and follow God? I wonder, did Naomi teach her about Him? What we do know is that Ruth didn’t only commit to stay with Naomi, but more importantly, she trusted God.

The book of Ruth is a rich picture for us of the Providence of God in the lives of His people, and such a shadow that points us to the grace of God. What reduced me to tears yesterday was when Ruth has this exchange with Boaz, “Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, ‘Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”  (Ruth 2:10) I got to thinking that this is the kind of amazed awe and gratitude I have for God when I ponder the gift of salvation and grace He has granted me. Why me? Why, Lord, have you opened my eyes to see the wonder of Your law and to see my wretchedness and to see the amazing gift of grace in Your Son? Why have You seen fit to shower such grace on me to rescue me from so much of the foolishness and bad teaching that abounds in much of evangelicalism and brought me into the Light and shown me the truth and granted me a hunger for Your word? It has to come from You, Lord, I could never have come to this on my own. 

The second thing that humbled me to tears yesterday was reading what Boaz said to Ruth, “The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” (Ruth 2:12). On reading this, it came crashing in to my understanding in a way I’ve never fully appreciated in just this way before that this is what we do when we trust in Christ. Let me explain what I was thinking through and rejoicing in. Ruth placed herself under the refuge of the covenant keeping, only true God, and she could trust Him. When we are trusting in Jesus, this is exactly what we are doing. We are not striving to earn His favor, we are not having to perform or jump through hoops to get Him to notice us or ‘bless’ us. No. In our poverty and wretchedness, we place ourselves under His protection, trusting in Him alone. We have nothing to offer Him to earn favor. We simply come and surrender and shelter in Him. In this, we are cleansed and counted righteous because He is righteous. He protects us from the wrath we deserve, and He makes us His people, safe in the clothing of His righteousness, no longer aliens and foreigners without hope in the world, but cleansed and adopted and free. What amazing grace! It occurred to me that when we truly trust Him, we are free to obey Him and live as He would have us to live. When we are loved and protected and redeemed like this, why would we want anything else?

So, as I was still pondering all these things, when I heard that child Sunday night express thanks that God is slow to anger, my heart sang, “Yes and amen!” 

Seeing Through the Glass Darkly

I found myself weeping as I stood in the greeting card aisle of the store today as I tried to find a sympathy card that didn’t sound so very trite and full of empty sentimentalism void of true comfort to send to some friends. I wept as I read empty sentimentalities and thought of the deep, deep pain my friends must be suffering today. I did finally settle on a card and added my own feeble words to send, but, oh, how my heart hurts to contemplate the sudden and unexpected grief my friends are experiencing.

 I know that these friends know the Savior and that we who know Jesus, when we grieve we do so with deep and abiding hope, but grieve, and grieve deeply this side of Heaven we still do. And I believe our compassionate Savior sees those tears, every single one of them, and He intercedes for His own. But, oh, how we see through the glass darkly here during the journey of life some days.

I once heard Sinclair Ferguson say, “The boasts of one Christmas letter may be the griefs of later ones.” I know I’m not feeling much like writing a happy, happy, happy Christmas letter this year. I know too many for whom this Christmas will be a bittersweet one. This has been a hard year. 

And yet, there IS hope. This world is not our home. Peter tells us that this life is fleeting, but a little while. (1 Peter 1:6-9) Jesus has conquered the grave. We have real hope because of His resurrection. When we abide in Him, resting the weight of all our hope on Him, we trust that His promises are true. For those who repent of their sin and trust in the righteousness of Jesus, we have a sure and steadfast anchor for our souls. He alone is the way to peace with God, and that peace is a sure and steady anchor. 

I recently learned this hymn, and it has become a favorite, as I often find much comfort in songs that remind me of truth, not empty sentimentalism, but real comfort that lasts and points to our sure Savior. 

Treasures in Song

We found my hymnal. I’ve been looking for it for the last two years. I guess it was in one of the boxes that went into storage when we downsized for the last two years, and now that we’re finally opening all the boxes in our new house, we found it. We also have our piano back after two years of storing it. It’s days like these that I wish I’d listened to my mother and really practiced the piano instead of just sort of practicing. She told me I’d feel that way one day, and she was right.

This hymnal has been a great help for years, and I’m glad to find it again. These have been the go-to songs for me since childhood, treasures that help me remember timeless truths that focus my eyes on my God and Savior, especially at times when I feel adrift or lonely. Tell me you can keep a self-centered pity party going while singing “Jesus Paid it All.” Certainly after singing the first three verses, once you get to the fourth verse and sing these words, “And when before the throne, I stand in Him complete, ‘Jesus died my soul to save,” my lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow,” you just see if tears that started out self-pitying and self-centered don’t melt into tears of repentance and joy and just awe with a renewed focus on what truly matters in life and in death.

I love that with the church we have been attending since we moved here my children will learn and sing and hear the voices of the saints in the aisles around us sing together a beautiful mix of rich hymns and also a solid mix of the rich new hymns that are being written by people like the Gettys and Sovereign Grace and people like that. What a rich heritage good music that sings the deep things of the gospel gives us to lean on when our hearts are heavy and when they are joyful and all the times in between. I wonder if anyone is going to put together a new hymnal with some of those good newer songs. I would like that a lot. I have complained a great deal in the past about how shallow so much of the newer praise choruses are, but one thing I’m very thankful about having gotten the privilege of worshiping with Parkside Church last year while we lived in Cleveland was being introduced to the wealth of actually good new music is being written. I truly did not know. I had not heard much of it before then. So it’s a joy to find a church here that also sings those songs I’ve grown to love and so many of the timeless old hymns as well. Serious, thoughtful, doctrinally deep preaching of the Bible and music that focuses our attention on the gospel are so refreshing to start the week and encourage us in the faith.

Yesterday we sang “Amazing Grace,” and the verse that stuck out to me where I am right now was this one, “The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures; he will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.” I almost put those words out as a status update, but I didn’t because out of context I know so many people who would take it the wrong way, with a shallow view of the Lord promising good to me, and I just don’t want to convey that. It’s not talking about worldly riches, but eternal life, and that is real hope. Jesus, the anchor for my soul. I am thankful. So very thankful.

Because We Can!

I didn’t actually mean to quit blogging. The early days of blogging when we formed friendships and networks and linked to each other and blogged about our blogging addiction and lived for comments and links and badges for the sidebar and whatnot seem very long ago indeed. These days, writing long blog posts seems to be much more difficult. These days, short little Facebook status updates and Twitter tweets seem to take up more time and energy. Does anyone even read blogs anymore? For me, when the Google reader went away and I discovered Facebook, it seems my infatuation with blogging dwindled. And I’m not all that sure this is a good thing, this addiction so many of us have to Facebook. Not at all. In fact, I have thought for some time now it’s quite the opposite of a good thing, but I haven’t given it up yet, either. I still want to write blog posts, but finding time and energy seems harder. Where did I find the time back in those long ago blog days? (Long ago in blog time, anyway. It does seem almost a lifetime ago, but in fact it was almost 9 years ago when I wrote my first blog post with trembling fingers, wondering if I was really ready to put my thoughts ‘out there’ for strangers to possibly read. I know this because my daughter was just a baby, and she’s 9 now. Wowza. Where in the world did all that time go?)

All that said, to say I would like to blog more, truly, but I’m not making any promises. I’m not even sure anyone ever even reads this blog anymore besides my parents. It’s not like I’ve had anything interesting to say here for some time. But there’s a new me. Well, not actually a new me. More like the same me, but older, in a new place. We’ve moved. Again. Third summer in a row we’ve had to pack up house and move. Hopefully we will get to stay here a bit longer this time. Packing up and moving three summers in a row is exhausting.

For a bit of fluff blogging, here’s a bit of a where I am right now sort of post.

After two years of living in an apartment and/or duplex kind of place, we get to be in our own house again, and we are loving it. The last two years were kind of difficult, but I’m finally feeling like we’re home, and things are settling nicely. Since moving to the great state of Texas this month, my husband and I have adopted a new catch phrase: “Because we can!” Let me show you a bit of our weirdness:

·         Park in the street over night? Yes! Because we can!

·         Park the camper in front of the house for one overnight while we’re unpacking? Yes! Because we can!

·         Launch a potato gun into the green space behind the house? Yes! Because we can!

·         Fireworks in the backyard? Yes! Because we can!

·         Tiki torches on the back porch? Yes! Because we can!

·         Drive 70 (or more) legally on the interstate or on the way to church? Yes! Because we can!

·         Drive faster than 35 MPH legally anywhere in town? Yes! Because we can!

·         Listen to loud music? Yes! Because we can!

·         Put the surround sound speakers back on the TV? Yes! Because we can!

·         Stop walking on tiptoes in the house and worrying about bothering someone else? Yes! Because we can!

·         Grill on the back porch? Yes! Because we can!

·         Not have to remind my youngest ONE MORE TIME to be careful not to make ‘stompy feet’ noises? Yes! Because we can!

·         Not have to tell my youngest not to run in the house? Yes! Because we can!

·         Sing, loudly, in the house? Yes! Because I can! (I have missed singing so much. I finally feel like I’m getting my song back).

·         Put out the bird feeders again? Yes! Because we can!

·         Sit on the back porch and read for several hours and NEVER hear a siren? Yes! Because we can!

·         Sit on the back porch and enjoy peace and quiet and bird sounds and crickets? Yes! Because we can!

·         Did I mention, grill? On the back porch? Yes! Because we can!!

I think we are going to like it here. I do feel like we’ve come home. I struggle with feeling guilt that we’ve had to move our kids around the country so often, and I know it’s not always been easy for them, but you should see how excited they are about living in Texas. Speaking of making the kids move and emotions, we saw the movie “Inside Out” and I cried. A lot. I also laughed a lot. So did my husband and kids. I am so incredibly thankful for this family God has knit together for us and for how resilient He has allowed our kids to be over the years. He has been very kind to us, and I am grateful.

The Strangeness of Growing Older

You know that moment when you find out that one of the more mature members of the cast on a show you watch was born just one year before you were born, and that feeling of surreal shock it gives you, because he seemed so much older than you still feel on the inside? Or that moment you sit outside the banquet hall where your husband’s high school reunion is being held, and he says, “This can’t be the right place - it’s all old people going in that door,” and you think for a moment, blink a couple of times, and say, “You know, I think we are the old people now,” and you both sort of psych yourselves up to either go in that door or leave and not look back? Or when you try to wrap your brain around the fact that U2 and all the other ‘80s music groups that you’ve loved are ‘Golden Oldies’ to your kids in the same way that your parents’ beloved ‘60s music was to you? Or when you are reminded that 1990 really isn’t 10 years ago, not by a long shot, even though it really, truly feels like it? Or when you realize that BOTH of your sons are taller than you, and have been for a while now, and their voices have that deeper man-quality about them all of a sudden and they all of a sudden need to shave? Or when you realize your oldest son only has 2 more years of high school left, and his brother is right there at his heels ready to start high school next fall, and you try really hard not to do the math for remaining years that will take your breath away if you think too long about it regarding their little sister, and you feel like it’s only been a few blinks since they were little and cute and cuddly and barely walking and you felt so overwhelmed with being a mom to ‘littles’ and you were frustrated with all the older moms who kept telling you to ‘cherish every moment’ because it goes so quickly? 

And now here I am, living that moment, living that season of life. I no longer have ‘littles’ and all the types of frustrations that filled the mommy blogs and MOPS discussions back then, (and which complaining - which it very often was, honestly, I found annoying even at the time - I wasn’t all that into ‘mommy blogs’ and parenting magazines that focused on superficial things that in the long run weren’t actually the most important concerns). No, now I have the, in my opinion, more difficult, but so rewarding, time of older kids, being an older mom when I don’t think it’s nearly as cute or wise or funny or kind to blog about the things my kids say and do. Now I’m much more careful about what I share about them, because they really are their own people. And I should have been more careful, back then, too. But that’s for another blog post, another day. It’s not really what I had in mind to write about today, but I did read a good post regarding that here, that is worth reading and thinking about.

Those older moms who always wistfully told us to cherish every moment? I understand them a little better now. People are not kidding when they tell you that time flies. It does. Oh, how it does. And as I’m in this season of being an older mom with kids who are getting older and on the verge of flying from the nest in just a blink of time, it seems, I find myself wondering and pondering. Have I taught them enough? I know I’ve failed in many ways, as we all do, none of us are perfect parents. But I know they’ve heard the Gospel along the way, often, maybe not as often as I wish now looking back as it could have been, but often and in various ways and discussions and watching us live life in light of the Bible truth we know and the Savior we love. My prayer is that, in spite of our imperfect and learning-along-the-way parenting, please, God, would You draw my children to You every day? May the faith we’ve taught be more than just their parents’ faith, may they know and love Jesus and repent and trust Him for life?

I didn’t actually set out to write a blog about being a mom, though. What I was really thinking about was how strange this whole thing of getting older is. Inside, I still feel like I did when I was in my late 20’s, though I am so thankful to be able to look back with tears of gratitude that I’m not actually the same person I was then. God has graciously taught me so much along the way and through the years of reading His Word and listening to men who preach it faithfully. I saw a quote the other day, and I don’t remember it word-for-word, but it was something about how you may read the Bible and forget exactly what you’ve read when you get up that morning, but over a lifetime, faithful, daily reading of the Word will ultimately shape your thinking. I can bear witness to that. I may not be able to pinpoint exact moments of Bible reading or exact sermons heard, but a lifetime spent thinking about them and filling my mind with them has shaped me, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. I am so grateful. I look back at the prideful little thing I was back in my youth, and I’m so thankful for things along the way that God has used to gently humble me and change how I think and then how I act. I have a long way to go and much to learn, but by His grace, what a wonderful Savior Jesus is to be so very patient with His own!

Growing older is a strange thing. It’s amazing how when you’re young, it seems like you have all this time to do things, but how quickly you are all of a sudden nearing the end of your son’s high school years and you’re not in your 20’s anymore and time just seems to have drifted, sifted away while you weren’t looking because you were so busy in the very dailyness of it all.  All the adults I knew as a kid, I thought they were so put together and knew so much. And they did, but now that I’m that adult, I realize how insecure, scared, young they must have felt deep down inside sometimes, too. It’s a humbling thing to realize you are now the adult that the marketers target as you hear ‘your’ music playing in the grocery store, and as you realize politicians and CEOs and doctors and lawyers and important people, as far as making society run goes, not to mention pastors and elders at church, are your age…….and younger. It’s a weird thing to be the mom who your kids think knows everything, when you know how much you don’t know. We are that generation now. Sometimes that’s an overwhelming thought. But it also makes me appreciate my own parents so much more. They were here once, too, feeling these same strange feelings I’m feeling, and they did it well. I’m thankful for their example, and their love and support. Most importantly, I am extremely thankful for the example of a Christian home, and for the many, many, many faith filled discussions as we rose up, as we sat, and as we walked along the way. What my parents learned from the Bible, they shared with us, and that is a true legacy. I hope I’m doing the same well with my own children.

We’ve had some difficult things happen in our extended family recently, a heart-breaking loss, that has me thinking even more about mortality, and how fleeting this life is, and what a gift each day is. How important it is to know Jesus and love Him and live in His light every day. We have today, but we really do not know about tomorrow. Only He knows the days of our lives, before there ever was one of them, and I want to live the days He has given me well. One of the great comforts of this life is knowing that Jesus knows my days, before there ever was a one of them, and I belong to Him. He knows every day, and He is ever interceding for His own. I don’t want to fear growing older, and all the strangeness that brings, and I also don’t want to presume upon tomorrow. I want to trust Him with even the uncertainty of these days. He is Lord. May my life be a reflection of Him.

Psalm 139:16

“Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” 

James 4:13-17

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ - yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” 

Status Update, March 2015

Seeing as I haven’t posted anything here since the end of December, Happy (not so )New (anymore) Year, blog world! My blogging ability seems to have waned along with my mood this winter. Winter in Cleveland has been quite an experience for this former Florida girl. I thought I liked a little winter, and I do like A LITTLE winter. Snow is great and pretty and fun when you only get a couple of big snows and then it melts away soon after. Though people jokingly warned me about winter here, I do not think I was prepared for quite so MUCH winter. I think you can’t be prepared for it until you experience it, and when you experience it you will either love it or hate it. Guess which side I landed on along with my many falls on icy sidewalks? I told someone recently that I think Cleveland winter has done its work and turned me into a bona fide snow Grinch. We haven’t seen grass or sidewalk or driveway since November (brief respite in an unusually snow-free December which lulled me into blissful unpreparedness) and January, oh, January, when we began to get mounds of snow and ice and more snow and gray, gray, gray, dismally gray skies for MONTHS. I’ve been truly fighting a bit of the winter blues, what with winter in general and some other things along the way that I don’t want to write about, and my energy for writing was completely sapped. So, if anyone even bothers to check here anymore, I’m sorry for the blog silence, but maybe, just maybe I can start getting my head above the gray clouds again now, with the hope of spring around the corner.

Driving here is not fun on a good day, in the winter it’s been….interesting. Throw in the mix that the last time we had the oil changed in my car (the one 4-wheel-drive vehicle we own) they put the wrong size cap on and it slowly lost all its oil without us realizing it, resulting in one day the car just not driving at all and the bad news that the engine was completely fried, and, well, it’s been a frustrating winter. Now, three weeks and quite and expense (but not a new car payment!) later, I have my car back with a new engine. Thankful, I am.

I know I shouldn’t complain and be so low in the winter. I know people who are facing real hurts and struggles, for whom I’m praying daily, and my griping about winter in Cleveland is pretty lame, which only makes me feel even more guilty about the confusing fog of blues into which I descended over the past few months. But my fog was real for me, and I’ve been praying through it, and God is good all the time, even when my feelings and emotions lack zeal. How extremely thankful I am that my standing with God and salvation are not based in my feelings and strength, but in my gracious Savior Jesus, who never wavers and who is ever interceding for His own.

Some great news today is, as I said on my Facebook wall just now: The sun is shining! The snow is melting! It’s a glorious 46 degrees and for the first time since November it feels LOVELY outside without a coat! No coat! No need for hat, scarf, OR gloves! The air doesn’t hurt my face! And I can see pavement on the sidewalks! No more ice skating to school! There are even a few spots of, what’s that stuff called again? Oh yes, grass! Dare I say the long, gray misery of winter may be coming to a close at last? AND I hear birds. Birds! I’d almost forgotten how very much I love to hear birds singing. It’s a lonely world when the birds go silent. So long, winter!

I will say that one very bright spot in our year here in Cleveland has been the church we get to join with while we’re here. The prayer, music, and Bible teaching are so rich, and I have been greatly encouraged by this body of believers and their commitment to worshiping Jesus well. I think this encouragement has done much to keep the blues at bay. 

So, not a very serious post, but hopefully one to get me back to blogging again. I hope. If you’re interested, I have found a couple of books that are helping me learn how to pray well, and they’ve been a blessing to me alongside reading my Bible. One is The Valley of Vision, and the other is Prone to Wander: Prayers of Confession and Celebration by Barbara R. Duguid and Wayne Duguid Houk. 

Happy (almost) spring!