Intentions

Hello there,

Well, I think I'm finally going to do it. I've been thinking for close to a year now about starting a blog. I've felt like I haven't had time to commit to it, so I've held myself back until now. I still don't know how much time I'll have to commit to this, but there are several reasons why I want to at least begin and try to keep a blog going. First of all, I want to be able to better share the happenings in my own family with my extended family. Second, I hope by God's grace and for His glory, to be an encouragement to whoever is reading this.

Since I'm terrible at getting up to date pictures of our kids to our families, I'm hoping this will encourage me to keep some current pictures posted for you to see them grow. (By the way, this picture is from last summer...see what I mean.) I also want to share a bit about our homeschooling ventures. And, if you know me, you won't be surprised to hear about books I'm reading, sermons I've heard, verses that are encouraging, etc.

So, there you go, those are my intentions. I feel like I have so much to share that if I started now, it would be a jumbled mess. Instead, I'll just leave you with one verse and a thought.

At church yesterday, Pastor Dave spoke about solitude and challenged the congregation to make a time for solitude with God. He mentioned A.W. Tozer speaks about this in his book, The Pursuit of God. This is a great book. I've been reading through it for a long time now and am only on chapter 6. I'm amazed though how much I'm left to ponder until the next time I sit down with the book again. Anyway, I was encouraged to pick up the book again today. I know it wasn't a coincidence that the very chapter I had left off midway, was one that discussed how our sinful preoccupation with visible things blinds us to God's presence in our lives. Have you ever noticed this fact?

Tozer talks about how well-known Christians that we feel "found" God in a special way, didn't find Him because they were/are God's favorites. He wills for all of us to share the same intimacy with Him. The reason they were different from the average person is that "when they felt the inward longing, they did something about it. They acquired the lifelong habit of spiritual response. (p.63)"

As David said in Psalm 27:8 "When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face LORD, will I seek"

My unassisted heart is barren clay,

That of its native self can nothing feed:

Of good and pious works Thou are the seed,

That quickens only where Thou sayest it may:

Unless Thou show to us Thine own true way

No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead.

-confessed in a sonnet by Michelangelo