Queenbeesupreme's Xanga

Life is too short, Love is too sacred

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:08:22 GMT

"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."
1 Corinthians 13:4-7

The ideal Christian life, is one of unbroken kindliness. It is dominated by love—the love whose portrait is drawn for us in the immortal thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. We have but to turn to the gospel pages, to find the story of a Life in which all this was realized. Jesus never lost his temper. He lived among people who tried Him at every point—some by their dullness, others by their bitter enmity and persecution, but He never failed in sweetness of disposition, in long-suffering patience, in self-denying love. Like the flowers which give out their perfume only when crushed, like the odoriferous wood which bathes with fragrance the ax which hews it—, the life of Christ yielded only the tenderer, sweeter love to the rough impact of men's rudeness and wrong. That is the pattern on which we should strive to fashion our life and our character. Every outbreak of violent temper, every shade of ugliness in disposition, mars the radiant loveliness of the picture we are seeking to have fashioned in our lives.

The perfect beauty of Christ, should ever be envisioned in our hearts, as that which we would attain for ourselves. The honor of our Master's name, should impel us to strive ever toward Christlikeness in spirit and in disposition.

We represent Christ in this world; people cannot see Him, and they must look at us to see a little of what He is like. Whatever great work we may do for Christ, if we fail to live out His life of patience and kindness, we fail in an essential part of our duty as Christians. "The servant of the Lord must be gentle." Only as our own lives shine in the brightness of holy affectionateness, and our hearts and lips distill the sweetness of patience and gentleness, can we fulfill our mission in this world as Christ's true messengers to men.

Life is too short to spend even one day of it in bickering and strife. Love is too sacred to be forever lacerated and torn by the ugly briers of sharp temper. Surely we ought to learn to be patient with others, since God has to show every day such infinite patience toward us. Can we not, then, train our life to sweeter gentleness? Can we not learn to be touched even a little roughly, without resenting it? Can we not bear little injuries and apparent injustices, without flying into an unseemly rage? Can we not have in us something of the mind of Christ which will enable us, like Him —to endure all wrong and injury and give back no word or look of bitterness?

There is no temper so obdurately bad —that it cannot be trained into sweetness. The grace of God can take the most unlovely life— and transform it into the image of Christ!

J. R. Miller, "About Temper", 1912

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:41:16 GMT

I am very bad about updating this blog as my readers may have already noticed...today, however, I feel compelled to share this point of conviction that I was reminded of as I prepared to teach my high-school girl's Sunday school class.

Thomas Watson (English Puritan pastor c.1620-1686) reminds us:

We glorify God by walking cheerfully. It brings glory to God, when the world sees a Christian has that within him that can make him cheerful in the worst times; that can enable him, with the nightingale, to sing with a thorn at his breast. The people of God have ground for cheerfulness. They are justified and adopted, and this creates inward peace; it makes music within, whatever storms are without. 2 Corinthians 1:4. 1 Thessalonians 1:6.

2 Corinthians 1:4 - who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

1 Thessalonians 1:6 - And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

If we consider what Christ has wrought for us by his blood, and wrought in us by his Spirit, it is a ground of great cheerfulness, and this cheerfulness glorifies God. It reflects upon a master when the servant is always drooping and sad; sure he is kept to hard commons, his master does not give him what is fitting; so, when God’s people hang their heads, it looks as if they did not serve a good master, or repented of their choice, which reflects dishonour on God. As the gross sins of the wicked bring a scandal on the gospel, so do the uncheerful lives of the godly. Ps 100:2. ‘Serve the Lord with gladness.’ Your serving him does not glorify him, unless it be with gladness. A Christian’s cheerful looks glorify God; religion does not take away our joy, but refines it; it does not break our viol, but tunes it, and makes the music sweeter.”

~ from the sermon Man’s Chief End (emphasis mine)

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:48:13 GMT

Happy 20th Birthday, Ray!!!

I know that you must be feeling all sorts of confusing and conflicting emotions now that you are leaving those zany teen years behind...

... but let me remind you that one day on the calendar does not change who you are on the inside. God is doing a mighty work in you, even on those days when it does not feel like He is.

You have seen His faithfulness through the years in our family, in our church and in your own life and He has promised to be faithful to the end. Keep looking to Christ and continue to go HARD after Him.

You are such a blessing to our family. I thank God for you and for the godly young woman you have become. I pray that this birthday finds you fighting hard to remember and believe EVERYTHING you know to be true.

I am so proud of you and am blessed to call you my daughter and my friend.

I love you MUCHLY and MORE!

PS - I refrained from posting more pics (or videos) of you because you NEVER know what I might come up with on this medication!

Monday, January 28, 2008

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:28:17 GMT

In your hand are power and might,
and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.
1 Chronicles 29:12

WHEN I have nothing in my hand
Wherewith to serve my King,
When Thy commandment finds me weak
And wanting everything,
My soul, upon Thy greatness cast,
Shall rise divinely free;
Then will I serve with what Thou hast,
And gird myself with Thee.
~ ANNA L. WARING

HOW are we to approach such blessed strength? First of all, through a steadfast will to refuse nothing that God requires of us, and to do nothing deliberately which can displease Him. Next, we must learn to take our faults humbly, as proofs of our weakness, and use them to increase our trust in God, and our mistrust of self. Neither must we be discouraged at our own wretchedness, or give way to the thought that we cannot do or bear any special thing; our duty is, while confessing that of ourselves it is impossible, to remember that God is all-powerful, and that through Him we can do whatever He may require of us. We must learn to say with St. Augustine, "Give me what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt."
~JEAN NICOLAS GROU

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 23:31:12 GMT

It has been a lovely and weather perfect day for us in Florida. As we got in the car to share lunch with some of our church family the temperature in the car read...

We have had a great day and are still celebrating being together as a family and enjoying God's many blessings to us. This afternoon, our family had lunch at Don and Barb Reisinger's home (servant hosts extraordinaire). They, along with Mike and Leisa Goodall, planned and executed lunch for 21 people. We had a great time eating, reading Scripture, singing together and just fellowshipping around the table.

The girls led in some songs

Two of my favorite people on this earth - Grace and Al Paar

This explains a lot!

Corrupting her precious little sister

And, yes, the kids DID swim!

AND we wore shorts and flip-flops!

Stuffed!

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 14:29:04 GMT

Christmas in Florida...

Tuesday ~ 12/25/2007

Hi: 79° Partly sunny with a 20 percent chance of showers. Highs in the upper 70s. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph becoming light and variable. Lo: 61°Partly cloudy. Lows 55 to 60. North winds around 5 mph.

Anybody care for a swim??

WARM Christmas greetings to you and yours!

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:07:12 GMT

But when the fullness of the time had come,
God sent forth His Son,
born of a woman, born under the law,
to redeem those who were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption as sons.
~ Galatians 4:4-5

Therefore, having been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
~ Romans 5:1

The Ascols

Grace, Sarah, Rebecca, Joel, Tom (with Jackson), Rachel, Hannah and Donna

A very blessed Christmas from our home to yours

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:52:03 GMT

This I Cannot Understand

(author unknown)

The grace of God is the unhindered, wondrous, boundless love of His heart, poured out upon His people in a countless variety of ways, without stint or measure--not according to our deserving, but according to His infinite heart of love!

This I cannot understand--so unfathomable are its heights and depths! God's love is infinitely tender, and self-sacrificing, and devoted, and patient, and eager to lavish its best of gifts and blessings, upon the objects of His love.

Put together all the tenderest love you know of, the deepest love you have ever felt, and the strongest love that has ever been poured out upon you--and heap upon it all the love of all the human hearts in the world, and then multiply it by infinity--and you will begin, perhaps, to have some faint glimpse of the love and grace of God towards His people!

"May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it." Ephesians 3:19

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 11:19:00 GMT

I read this devotional today and prayed for all of my church family that are currently struggling financially and without a steady source of income because of job loss and the poor economy in Southwest Florida. God still reigns and we are confident that He is doing a mighty work in those families and in the church. However, in the midst of the pressing, it is often hard to remember those truths that are unchanging and applicable to God's children. I pray that as God presses each of us, we would remember and believe that He is a compassionate, omnipresent, ever-faithful, righteous and true God that is working all things for the good of His children and for His glory.

"We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed" (2 Cor 4:8)
Pressing on...

"Burdened beyond measure" (2 Cor. 1:8)

"...that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Cor. 12:9)

God allowed the crisis to close around Jacob on the night when he bowed at Peniel in supplication, to bring him to the place where he could take hold of God as he never would have done; and from that narrow pass of peril, Jacob became enlarged in his faith and knowledge of God, and in the power of a new and victorious life.

God had to compel David, by a long and painful discipline of years, to learn the almighty power and faithfulness of his God, and grow up into the established principles of faith and godliness, which were indispensable for his glorious career as the king of Israel.

Nothing but the extremities in which Paul was constantly placed could ever have taught him, and taught the Church through him, the full meaning of the great promise he so learned to claim, "My grace is sufficient for thee."

And nothing but our trials and perils would ever have led some of us to know Him as we do, to trust Him as we have, and to draw from Him the measures of grace which our very extremities made indispensable.

Difficulties and obstacles are God's challenges to faith. When hindrances confront us in the path of duty, we are to recognize them as vessels for faith to fill with the fullness and all-sufficiency of Jesus; and as we go forward, simply and fully trusting Him, we may be tested, we may have to wait and let patience have her perfect work; but we shall surely find at last the stone rolled away, and the Lord waiting to render unto us double for our time of testing. --A. B. Simpson

(Streams in the Desert)

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:48:35 GMT

For the record...

I am a bad mother.

I usually post a little tribute on my child's birthday, at least that is what I have been doing the last year or two. So, here it is Becca's 22nd birthday and I was getting ready to post her little tribute when I realized what a bad mother I have been. You see, on Sept 16th, my precious firstborn, Sarah, turned 24 and, for reasons unbeknownst to me today, I failed to post anything regarding her birthday.
I know that I remembered her birthday. See the cake...
I know that I wished her a happy birthday, sang to her on her birthday, gave her breakfast in bed and presented beautifully wrapped birthday packages (notice the Christmas wrapping paper!)

And yet, I failed to acknowledge it on Xanga. I suppose my excuse is that her birthday fell on a Sunday and I don't usually check xanga or post on Sunday. But then again, that is a lame excuse. I could have posted on Saturday or on Monday.I simply forgot and I feel like a very bad mother.

However, knowing Sarah as I do, I am confident that she has not only forgiven, she has forgotten, if she even thought about it in the first place.

So, before I say anything about my dear Becca, I want to say how grateful to God I am for the gift of my eldest, Sarah. She is such a joy to our family and such a blessing to me personally. I am so grateful that God, in His mercy and grace, has allowed her to live at home for the last 24 years, to not only complete her homeschool studies, but to also finish her AA degree and, Lord willing, her bachelor's degree. When she finally leaves the nest, we will all feel the void. She is such a giving and loving daughter who is learning with each passing day and each passing year how to find her contentment and joy in Christ. I know that whatever plans God may have for her, the lessons that she is learning while being a single young woman still living at home will serve her well.

So, please allow me to express my love and thankfulness for Sarah.

I love you, Sally Mag, from the depths of my heart and truly thank the Lord for the daughter and friend that you are to me. God is so good.

I love this picture of Sarah...it is a classic look!

Okay, segue to Becca...
Happy
Birthday, to my wonderful, gifted, ubberly brainy (sorry, did I just
give you a "nerd" label?), athletic, sensitive second-born, Becca!
.

God has blessed Tom and I with just the right children to keep us humble and grounded, smiling and scratching our heads and Becca is no exception. Becca's natural sense of humor and artistic giftedness keeps us amazed at how God has put her "together." We praise Him that He has captured her heart through Jesus Christ and given her the desire to use that humor and artistry to serve Him. We are continually blessed and awed by her musical gifts. I am also inspired by her ability to understand complicated mathematically equations while still being able to relate to a group of wiggly, talkative middle-schoolers. She is blossoming into a lovely young woman, while still placing herself under the protection and care of her parents. We are grateful for her humble acceptance of our continued role in her life as she traverses the path from child to adult. She is a joy to our family!!

Happy Birthday, BECCA!!!!

With little Lydia

The pappa...

Becca, I love you so much and thank God that I was deemed worthy to raise such a precious child. Thank you for being such a gracious and grace-filled daughter and friend to me. May Christ continue to be formed in you and may you always use your gifts for Him.

Here are some pics of both my eldest...
With their great friend and bud, Beth and her husband John

With their grandparents

With the sisterhood

With the 'rents at their AA graduations (ummm....that stands for Associate of Arts)

I am the MOST blessed woman in the world!

*edit* Evidently I was not paying attention to proof this carefully before posting. I think that I caught all the mistakes on the second read-through. :)