Jesus I Come

Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of my sickness, into Thy health,
Out of my want and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of earth’s sorrows, into Thy balm,
Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm,
Out of distress to jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into Thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
Out of despair, into raptures above,
Upward for aye on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the joy and light of Thy home,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

~ William Sleeper

1. Ron won a free lunch for 10 at Chipotle for dropping his business card in a bowl by the checkout. Today the girls and I met Ron and his co-workers there for lunch and enjoyed his winnings.

2. Here is our pumpkin that I told you about last time. We named him Simon. Afton kisses him every time we leave the house and assures him that we will be back soon. When we do come back Ponder greets him with a smile and a wave and a special little "Hi!"



Also, Happy Birthday in two days to my sweet husband who did such a good job carving it and who does such a great job being the man of our house and the delight of all our hearts around here.



3. This time of year someone around here always a runny nose or a cough or has had a one off vomiting episode or something. I think that is true for most households with young children. The colder months are fun months, but they are also the months of the sickies. If you are like me you spend a lot of time guessing and trying to figure out if the symptoms du jour are a big deal and especially if they are contagious. I can't tell you how many Sunday mornings we have gone back and forth over whether or not the symptoms one of the girls was showing was reason enough to keep them home from church. I hate to be the mommy that spreads germs around the town so many play dates and trips to the library or play ground have been scratched due to what were probably innocuous little symptoms. I just know how hard it is on the whole family to have a really sick kid so I never want to be responsible for someone else's family having that fortune. More than often I err on the side of caution so we spend a lot of the sickie months indoors. In our own doors. Anyway, this year, the nursery at the church where I attend Bible study handed out a sheet at the beginning of fall listing the symptoms that preclude a child from attending their nursery. To me it has been so helpful! I thought there might be some other mom's who spend their time waffling on just how sick or contagious their child is and would find this list helpful too. A child is likely too contagious to be hanging out with other kids if he/she has any of the following symptoms: 1.) Has vomited or had diarrhea in the last 72 hours. 2.) Has had a fever in the past 24 hours. 3.) Currently has a yellow or green runny nose.

I hope that list will be as liberating and informative to you as it was too me.

4. Speaking of sick little cuties H1N1 made a visit to our house last week and hit our precious little Ponder pretty hard. If anyone ever wondered what swine flu looks like one year here is a picture taken on day three of her bout with it after her fever had broken and she was on the upswing. As you can see she is still look pretty rough!


We are all doing fine now. In fact thanks to Tamiflu none of the rest of us got symptoms at all and Ponder was back to herself about four days from the onset. There are all sorts of rumors and bad press going around Tamiflu and for all I know some of them may be true, but all I can say is it seemed like a miracle drug to us during that week and I am sincerely thankful to God for it. We are so blessed with health in my little family and it humbles me and makes me truly grateful.

The Throne of Grace

"for whatever reason God chose to make man as he is -- limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death -- he [God] had the honesty and courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When he was a man, he played them man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it all well worth it.

~Dorothy Sayers
Letters to a Diminished Church

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have on who has been tempted in every way, just as we are -- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:15 & 16

On the Golden Rule

One of the things I hate most in life is being misunderstood. I hate saying something the wrong way and sounding cold or rude or unconcerned or indifferent or angry or annoyed or...you know anything that I actually am not trying to be at the time. I hate the feeling of knowing what someone thinks I think or feel and knowing they have it all wrong. I especially hate the feeling of not being able to explain myself well enough to be understood. I hate being sized up and mentally classified by someone I know sees me all wrong. I hate people thinking they know my motives or intentions or what I will do next when they really do not know me at all. I really, really hate these things. I hate being misunderstood.

Why am I bringing this up in a post about the Golden Rule? Well, because when I really sit and think about the Golden Rule, when I think about what I wish that others would do to me, this is what I think about. My ultimate wish for how I would like others to treat me is that they would really listen and take the time to understand me and until they do they would assume the very best of my motives and intentions and give me a huge benefit of the doubt and tons and tons of room to grow. Humble mercy, I guess, is what I would call it.

So with that in mind, how am I doing at following the Golden Rule? In a word? Horribly. I pride myself on being an excellent judge of character. I size people up in a moment and almost irreversibly make my mind up about them. I have never met a stranger I couldn't almost immediately classify. I am no better with non-strangers, with friends and loved ones. I assume I know them so well that I know their every reason for doing something and exactly what they will do next. I have a terrible habit of jumping to conclusions and leaving no room for the chance that I may be wrong about someone. This is a sad, sad picture of myself I am painting. But it is an all too accurate portrayal as well.

How ironic that the kind of treatment I desire most from my fellow man is the kind of treatment I can be so very stingy with; the exact kind of treatment I find it so difficult to offer to others. It reminds of a quote I heard once that was something like the sin you despise most in others is often the one you struggle with the most in your own life. That is not the exact quote, but it was something like that. I am wondering if anyone else has the same struggle. When you think about how you want to be treated by others, does what comes to mind kind of mirror one of your biggest struggles or weaknesses in the way you treat those around you? I would be interested to hear.

To the Person Who Took My Wet Laundry Out of the Washer and Tossed it Aside

Dear Sir or Madame,
Forgive me. You are obviously very important and I didn't take that into account when I left my laundry in the washer for a few extra minutes so I wouldn't have to leave my bawling baby unattended. Don't worry I am not as important as you, so it doesn't matter if all my towels air dry in clumps and smell like mold.
Your friend,
Nobody

I wanted to write this note out on a 3x5 card with a sharpie and tape it to the wash machine. Ron wouldn't let me. He said I would be embarrassed if anyone ever found out it was me. I am not sure I would be, but I am pretty sure I should be. See, I told you he is good for me.

The funny thing about me getting so mad about this situation (Oh and I was really mad. The first note I wanted to write can't be reprinted here.) is that just this morning I was listening to and I thought really learning from a sermon on humility. The crux of it was that humility means considering other people (their hopes, dreams, feelings, needs, desires to do their laundry) as more important that than yourself. That means that while I wanted the unknown launderer to be considerate of me, to think that perhaps I had a good reason for not returning to the laundry room the minute my final spin cycle ended, the right and humble way for me to look at it would have been for me to consider that perhaps they had a good reason for needing to start their laundry without delay. You know, maybe they had to leave suddenly for an unexpected trip and had no clean clothes. Maybe they hated to take my wet towels out of the washer, but saw no other option. Maybe not. The point is I don't know why they did it, but the humble and Christlike response would have, funnily enough, been much like my letter - minus all the sarcasm. It is hard not to think of myself as the most important person in the universe. It is something I hope I can learn to do.

My towels are fine to by the way. The world did not end. I found them very soon after they had been taken out and cast aside (see, I was trying to come back as fast as I could) and was able to put them right in the dryer without having to wash them again. I made sure to be back to retrieve them from the dryer the moment it stopped. I may have a long way to go towards humility, but I know how to take hint.