Jesus loves me, this I know. This category is about Jesus, the Living Word, my prayers to Him, my worship of Him, His relentless pursuit of my heart and His invitation to me to come to Him in Sabbath, my Savior, my Rest.
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip or be moved.
He who KEEPS you will not slumber.
{He who watches over}
He who KEEPS [His people] will not sleep.
The LORD is your KEEPER.
{the LORD watches over you}
The LORD is your shade on the right hand (the side not carrying a shield).
The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.
The LORD will KEEP you from all evil.
{the LORD will keep you, guard you from all harm}
He will KEEP {watch over} your life.
The LORD will KEEP {watch over/guard} your coming and going
from now until forevermore {for always…}.
The question:What does it mean to be “kept”?
In awe of the Keeper…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: I can see He is not sleeping – so I can! Peacefully. He is at work on my behalf. Makes me start singing: You dance over me while I am unaware…He is KEEPING me…
It was a Wednesday 05.09.79, the evening of a beautiful spring day. The mysterious baby was coming – boy or girl? I had no idea. But I was hoping for a baby girl. 30 minutes after arriving at the hospital (where I refused to go until I was having difficulty “handling” contractions), she arrived.
I see perfection for the first time in my life. She is pink and shaped perfectly and gentle. I am not alone…
Two hours later they place the little bundle in my arms in our temporary home and she looks at me as if she has always known me. I breathe in the mystery of her and know that my heart is tied to this little human being in an eternal way. I feel the love I give her come back to me. God gave me the gift of her, entrusted me with her life and I cannot fathom how life-changing it will be.
Shiny blond hair and bright blue eyes accessorize this girl’s joyous personality. Everything about life is another opportunity to laugh and be happy and to bring the same to all around her. She squeals with delight at the slightest provocation. She is fun and she is joy. She is star bright and star light.
Was it really thirty years ago that I held this beautiful stranger as close as humanly possible? Did I really start my wobbly ascent into motherhood so long ago? Hard to believe, difficult to comprehend.
Yet, more mysterious is the fact that this girl, this amazing woman of God with the angelic voice, this anointed exhorter and song writer, DP’s devoted crazy-in-love-with-him wife and Hunter’s creative and attentive mommy is that same baby I held. The fact that I had anything at all to do with this woman boggles my mind. The fact that I held her first, that I prayed over her and sang to her and got to mommy her ~ I am humbled. Because Tara? Has turned out!
I am so proud of you, Tara. I am so pleased with the choices you are making every day and the life you are living to please the Father. Happy Birthday, my firstborn, my child. Happy Birthday!
Thirty wishes for Tara on her 30th birthday:
Oh, my first born~I thank God for you. I pray you will always know how much I thank God for you.
Passionate kisses and lifelong love with Dave. That is what I want for you. I love how you love your husband. I pray that you two keep the fires sizzling hot!
Thousands of hugs from Hunter. You are such a good mommy, Tara, really-so good. I hope you will get ready to receive the fruit of all the love you give.
Courage to be all God has called you to.
Courage to do everything God planned for you before the foundation of the world.
Hope in your heart for all the secret desires…”Your desire is the confirmation that the destination is there,” as Carman used to sing!
Revelation on the deep things of God (“Deep calls to deep…”).
I wish for you to hear God’s secrets, praying you’ll stay so close He’ll actually confide in you (He confides in those who fear Him…).
I wish creativity for you – that you’ll always be energized when you get to flow in that aspect of the character of God – making the world brighter for everyone who knows you.
I wish for you to stay strong and healthy, and vigorously active (just like your grandma…:{ not like me).
I wish for a million good hair days.
May you live long on the earth and may it go so very well for you (check out that 5th commandment!).
I pray that you’ll be surprised by the great things God has in store. Nothing to fear in your future. He is already there and it is good times!
More traveling! You love it. The world needs what you and Dave bring. I pray that gazillions more travel opportunities open up!
But I pray you’ll always live close by. Let “home base” be near your mom and dad, okey-dokey? Settled.
I pray that your love for the Word will just keep increasing (time in the Word is time with the Word).
May the songs increase. Write, girl, write!
I wish for you to understand the power behind your soft voice. It is there!
I wish for you to have true friends – the kind who will deposit good things into your life and replenish you after all you pour out.
My wish for you is to do tremendously well on the keyboard and teach me the stuff I do all wrong.
May your worship please the Lord.
May your voice be heard around the world.
I pray for you to walk in wisdom.
Enjoy your youth. These are amazing days. Enjoy them fully.
I pray for the Lord to order your days and help you, as a family, to schedule carefully – always listening for Holy Spirit direction.
May you have the financial provision to complete the tasks the Lord has placed in your hands. I pray for the money to come so your generous giving may increase! Dig wells, care for the orphans, teach and preach and obey every day. Lord, send the money it takes!
Stay humble, my sweet. Kill pride the second you see it anywhere in your life.
I am praying the Lord will bless you and keep and make His face shine upon you.
I am praying that the smile of the Lord will be on your life. Remember – He is rejoicing over you with singing.
And I wish for the joy of the Lord to be your strength – all the strength you’ll ever need.
Love you babe…Mom
NOTE TO SELF: Be the driving force to get her birthday shelves built by her dad! :)
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler, And from the perilous pestilence. 4He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler. 5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day…
Psalm 27:4-5 (New International Version)
4 One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelterof his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.
Psalm 31:19-21 (New Living Translation)
19 How great is the goodness
you have stored up for those who fear you.
You lavish it on those who come to you for protection,
blessing them before the watching world. 20 You hide themin the shelter of your presence,
safe from those who conspire against them. You shelter them in your presence,
far from accusing tongues.
21 Praise the Lord,
for he has shown me the wonders of his unfailing love. He kept me safe when my city was under attack.
Psalm 55:8 (New International Version)
8 I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm.
If ever I finish my first book, Grace from the Garden-Things You can Learn about God while Digging in the Dirt, my second book will be In Search of the Sabbath Song – about the Songs of the Lord that take you from stressed-to-rest. Lofty goals, no?
I am intrigued by those Psalms cited to be songs for the Sabbath. I will tell you this, if you do any type of ministry or have a title or volunteer in most any church in America, Sunday ain’t your Sabbath. It is another work day, albeit “for the Lord.”
But I have been meditating on Psalm 92 recently. There is verse 10, particularly, that promises a fresh-oil anointing. Fresh. That would signify green, life-giving, Holy-Spirit-flowing, a “new” thing. Sometimes I go a really long time on an old batch. And it makes me wonder what if?
What if we set aside one 24-hour period weekly for rest from our work? What if we worked 6, rested one – every single week? What if it were a day on which no other days had a hold? What if we had a day holy, blessed, from the Lord Himself for us? What if we wholeheartedly, joyously, and “relaxedly” Sabbathed? In this culture? Right here in western-culture America?
Because I know what it looks like not to live this way. I wrote about it here, recently. That – we do pretty well. Below, some thoughts I am turning over in my heart…
Psalm 92 – The faithfulness and lovingkindness of the LORD
A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath Day.
Verses 1 – 11 tell us what a Sabbath day looks like, how it is a blessed and special day. It is full of joyousness and remembrance, giving thanks and taking the time to just notice the faithfulness of God.
Living thankfully. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord…
Living full of praise. And to sing and make music to Your Name, O Most High…
Time spent declaring God’s lovingkindness. Proclaiming Your love in the morning…
Time spent declaring God’s faithfulness. And Your faithfulness at night…
Walking in victory. …the wicked…and all evildoers…will be forever destroyed…scattered…
Refreshed, anointed. I have been anointed with fresh oil…(youknow when you are operating in something fresh from the Lord!)
Wild-ox anointing. You’ve made me as strong as a wild ox…
Strength and grace. That is what the wild-ox anointing is about. Oxen were tamed in ancient times by putting a heavy yoke on their necks and tying them to an already-broken, old ox. They’d do that until they were so used to it that they could take that yoke off and the ox would still behave and work like it was under that yoke, tied to that old ox.
Jesus said, “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy-burdened (yoked) and I will give you rest…” He is saying He will lift that heaviness off us. Strength can come again – we’ll kick up our heels as if we had not been broken by that heavy yoke. The joy of the Lord will surge through our veins and our spiritual youth can be restored!
All this from Sabbath? What if…
If the first half of Ps. 92 is giving us a glimpse of how to celebrate Sabbath, the second half tells us what life looks like when you are living with a flowing, fresh-oil anointing (when you have actually set aside time to celebrate Sabbath). This, this is living!
You’ll be able to see the hand of God in the things going on around you. (vs. 11) Your vision won’t be so tunneled, wondering and worrying about the circumstances. You’ll be able to discern by spiritual vision what is happening and how God is at work.
You’ll be able to hear the voice of the Lord more clearly. (vs. 11)
You will flourish (turn green) like the palm tree. (vs. 12) The dates of the palm tree, if a person had enough of them, could make a person rich. Healthiness. Fruitfulness.
You will grow strong like the cedar tree in Lebanon. (vs. 12) Deep-rooted, stable.
You will love the House of God and His presence. (vs. 13) You’ll be planted and flourish in the courts of God, in His presence.
You’ll still be fruitful in old age. I am 49-and-a-half and this makes me so happy. Regardless of the knees going or a “pause” ahead of me, staying in the fresh flow of the Holy Spirit means I can remain spiritually youthful and flourishing right to the end! I plan on producing fruit right on in to old age – fruit that will last! I was chosen for it! (John 15.16)
You will show/declare that the Lord is upright. You will not just be a witness to God’s glory (not just a tradition-passer), but you will be actual evidence of His work on the earth. Like the woman at the well who was so bowled over by the Living Water she could not contain her discovery that she went through her entire town saying “Come and see,” you will show people, by the overflow of love and exhuberance you have for God, straight to Him. They will find Him through you. You’ll be the proof.
I’d like to so learn to receive this gift for us from the Lord that weekly I will (unashamedly) enjoy a day on which I won’t be heard asking with agitation, “What time is it?!?” I’d like to have that day on which my timeframe has no hold. But rather, I’d like to awaken weekly on the day set aside and, with freedom from worry and care, with great anticipation ask, “What is this time for, today, Lord?” True adventure. And rest from the craziness.
I remain on my quest for the Sabbath Songs…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Be still. Know that He is God…I think maybe You are trying to tell me something?…
The challenge – The Bible in 90 days (June 1 – August 29)http://www.biblein90days.com/index.php?option=com_challenge&pgID=5 “Dive into the Good Book and read the Bible from cover to cover before summer ends. The Bible in 90 Days Summer Reading Challenge is designed to unify your whole church family in a simple but life-changing goal – to read every word of the Bible this summer.”
I much prefer digging in deep and taking more time, but there is also the beauty of immersion. The summer seems a ridiculous time for it (with a family reunion, traveling, vacation and a little thing called Heaven Fest), but that is what is intriguing me….
Found in drafts folder from last summer. Mea Culpa. This was part of the writings by a group of us who read Sacred Romance last summer and wrote about it. Wrote a lot about it! My apologies to Amy Jo for my delay in posting this, but she did include a quote about April which makes it seem as though it was meant for now. Maybe it was…
Amy Jo and her husband, Damon
EPILOGUE: Remembering Toward Heaven
From Amy Jo: How lovely that Tolkien, T.S. Eliot and Annie Dillard should all be quoted in the epilogue! Interspersed in our authors’ final thoughts, there are jewels I must point out…
On Living From Desire: It is in this section that the authors quote T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land,
“April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire.”
“Sadly, many of us have been led to feel that somehow we ought to want less, not more. We have this sense that we should atone for our longings, apologize that we feel such deep desire. Shouldn’t we be more content? Perhaps, but contentment is never wanting less, that’s the easy way out. Anybody can look holy if she’s killed her heart; the real test is to have your heart burning within you and have the patience to enjoy what there is now to enjoy, while waiting with eager anticipation for the feast to come.” (p.199)
On Rehearsing the Story: “Our acts of remembering must therefore involve both essential truths and dramatic narrative. I believe we need to hold the creeds in on hand and our favorite forms of art in the other. There are films, books, poems, songs, and paintings I return to again and again for some deep reason in my heart. Taking a closer look, I see that they all tell me about some part of the Sacred Romance. They help wake me to a deeper remembrance. As Don Hudson has said, ‘Art is, in the final analysis, a window on heaven.'” (p.205) It is my opinion that the last two sections, Where We Have Come From and Where We Are Headed, are part of the very rehearsing the authors recommend. I am encouraged by the quote of Annie Dillard on p. 209, “The world is fairly studded and strewn with unwrapped gifts and free surprises… cast broadside from a generous hand.” These gifts and free surprises are to me, what inspires encouragement to live, a desire to dream of the future, and an insatiable urge to see, imitate, manufacture, and praise God for beauty.
May God use these things often to refresh my memory of His faithful and Sacred Romance!
Yes! Yes! Yes! Thanks, Amy Jo! And AMEN!
PS – April is being kind of cruel…S n o w ! ? ! today…
If you try to plant too many things, you will be defeated. But if you start with one or maybe three things that you simply must grow for they cannot be purchased to perfection like you could grow them, then you will not only survive, you will thrive. And since you are only really counting on those one-to-three things, since they are getting all your love, you’ll end up realizing, Well, I could probably tuck a basil plant here since I am here frequently, and maybe a few radishes under the shade of the zucchini leaves. And soon you’ll be companion planting and actually doing more than you thought.
But if you go to the store and buy 37 packages of seeds, you are doomed. Doomed.
My favorites.
I started out gardening with ZERO experience in 1997. I am a city girl with a farmer’s heart – except that they have to pretty much work the farm 24/7 365 days a year and I am not quite that committed. I decided on tomatoes.
My Aunt Rosie always served us home grown tomatoes fresh from her garden and regardless of whatever else was served, they were like having the best Texas steak you have ever seen on your plate.
So when I decided to do it, I actually went to the library and checked out about 17 veggie garden books and one wholly devoted to tomatoes and read and read and read. The author of the tomato book basically said, “If you’re going to grow tomatoes, you should grow the best ones on the block. Do not go into it half-heartedly. Do everything possible to have the sweetest, biggest, most amazing tomatoes anyone has ever seen.” So, as a tribute to all the books I’d read about them, I actually planted about 17 tomatoes plants and they were the BEST tomatoes I had ever seen in my life! Now-the neighbors and everyone I knew dreaded seeing me coming, but I kept everyone I knew fully tomato’ed!
Other stuff I like to grow
Zucchini and yellow squash are great to grow for grilling. But they take a lot of room. I grow them mainly because I can feel haughty when I am in the store and they are selling for $1.00 each and I have just picked 7 or 8 of them for dinner. ALWAYS pick them young, slice in thick on the diagonal, toss them in extra-virgin olive oil, season and grill. You get great grill marks and they are delectable!
Peas are the gardener’s candy. Sugar snap peas are wonderful because you can eat the whole pod or not, as you wish. Great stir-fry. Very sweet. The grandbabies and I snack while we work!
Radishes. Don’t try these in the heat of summer. They get too hot. But they grow quickly and are very fresh and crisp early. Plant them outside now if you want.
Beans are easy. Every kindergartener starts out this way.
Peppers are great. They are pretty plants, too, so they make a great potted plant and there are just so many varieties you can’t get in the store.
I also like lettuces, and sometimes okra and the eggplant is so pretty (but I always forget how to fix them). So many directions a person could go. And don’t forget to tuck in some marigolds and nasturtiums while you’re at it. They’re edible, add some beautiful color and keep the icky bugs away to boot!
My real bottom line.
But there I go again – telling you too many things at once.
So, if I could only plant one thing, it would be tomatoes. Those transparent-barely-pink things on your fast food burgers are NOT tomatoes. Late summer, you can find some great tomatoes at the farmer’s market, but there is nothing, I mean nothing, like growing your own.
They are worth the effort, the babying, the prep, the watching, the watering and weeding! And if you can grow the tomato, which is THE most wondrous thing, you can now grow anything! Good times!
I Corinthians 15.35b The Message: We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a “dead” seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don’t look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different.
Tomatoes, of course! And maybe…
About three years ago I was in a meltdown during planting season. It was the middle of June and I hadn’t done anything. There sat my 3 4-foot-by-4-foot boxes: empty. I knew I had no strength to accomplish anything, to plant, but I needed something. I planted a purchased tomato plant in one. One had 3 green bean “volunteers” coming up, so I just put a trellis in it (seeds from the previous year had gone into the soil and were growing with no effort on my part) and I found a zucchini seed or two in my produce drawer in a little baggie and popped those in to the final garden square.
They filled my three boxes. They actually looked beautiful and tended to. They grew though I was barely functioning and every single day they gave me the hope I needed that normalcy would return and I would grow past the place I was in. Every day a new leaf or flowering would appear, I knew I was another day past the sorrow – that life would happen again.
Those were all I could handle. Yet, we had zucchini and beans and tomatoes that summer as if I had worked for them. It was like God tended my garden when I couldn’t. It was God and it was good…
So go easy on yourself and garden!…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: I am not behind, either.
pictured: scouting out last year’s tomatoes one evening…I spy!
Genesis 2.8 NKJV “The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there He put the man whom He had formed.”
And if we are smart – we will make every effort to get back to the garden with Him!
Gardening can seem overwhelming, but it isn’t if you take it step-by-step, here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept…
First things first.
If you believe you are sorely behind to be able to garden this year – you’re NOT! Spend 5-15 minutes each day this week cleaning up debris from the fall and winter. Clear out dead leaves, sweep patios and empty all of last year’s potting soil into a large trash can. It can be re-used, of course, but we’ll add some good stuff to it and re-freshen it for this year. Hose down the pots and line them up.
Does that seem overwhelming? Then just tell yourself: I’ll clean up a 3-foot x 3-foot area. that’s all. I am betting you’ll like it so much you’ll want to keep on, but if not, stop there. Little by little, it can be done.
Do you know what you’ll see? Green everywhere. Perennials will have been emerging that will suddenly “show up!” You will have a fresh clean palette in which to work.
Start indoors.
It is safe to go ahead and start some things indoors now (because our final frost date of May 10 is approaching quickly). Any annual flower or vegetable seeds, really – have at it! If you have a super-sunny windowsill or a grow light, you’ll have nicely established seedlings in mid-May, right when you want them for outdoor planting.
Sow outdoors.
There are actually things you can be planting directly outdoors already. My broccoli has been in the ground (from seedlings) for a couple of weeks and last week’s weather didn’t phase them a bit. I put out onion sets yesterday and they could have been in earlier. Right now it is safe to plant radishes and carrots, sugar snap peas and spinach and chard and lettuces.
Tomorrow, I’ll tell you my current garden “plan of attack.” I am like everybody else: busy. So, it has to get tucked in here and there, but it will be so worth it when you see that you have buried a seed and caused new life to explode – first in the garden, later (if you do veggies) into your body!
God will make a way,
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength for each new day
He will make a way, He will make a way.
By a roadway in the wilderness, He’ll lead me
And rivers in the desert will I see
Heaven and earth will fade
But His Word will still remain
He will do something new today.
With love and strength for each new day
God will make a way, He will make a way
(From the devotional book God Will Make A Way)Late one evening, Don Moen received a phone call with devastating news: his wife’s sister had lost her oldest son in an automobile accident. Craig and Susan Phelps and their four sons were traveling through Texas on their way to Colorado when their van was struck broadside by an eighteen-wheeler truck. All four boys were thrown from the van.Craig and Susan located their sons by their cries, one boy was lying in the ditch, another in an area wet from melted snow. Nearby was his brother who landed by a telephone pole. All were seriously injured, but when Craig, a medical doctor, reached Jeremy, he found him lying by a fence post with his neck broken. There was nothing Craig could do to revive him.
When Don received the news of this tragedy a few hours later, he recalls, My whole world came to a standstill, but I had to get on a plane the next morning and fly to a recording session that had been scheduled for several weeks. Although I knew Craig and Susan were hurting, I couldn’t be with them until the day before the funeral.
During the flight the morning after the accident, God gave me a song for them: God will make a way where there seems to be no way. He works in ways we cannot see. He will make a way for me. The song was based upon Isaiah 43:19 NASB Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.
This song would bring comfort to Craig and Susan when all hope seemed lost. It touched the hurt in their hearts with hope and encouragement. Don received a letter from Susan in which she quoted Isaiah 43:4 NASB: Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life.
Susan wrote, We’ve seen the truth of the scripture. When Jeremy’s friends learned that he had accepted Jesus into his life before he died, many of them began to ask their own parents how they could be assured of going to heaven when they died. The accident also prompted Craig and Susan into a deeper walk with the Lord as well as into new avenues of ministry. Craig began teaching Sunday school at their church and Susan became active in Women’s Aglow, sharing with various groups her story and the Lord’s provision in her time of sorrow.
She has since said, “The day of the accident, when I got out of the van, even before I knew our son was dead, I knew I had a choice. I could be bitter and angry or I could totally accept God and whatever He had for us. I had to make the decision fast. I’ve seen fruit come as a result of that choice. If I had to, I’d do it again. It’s worth knowing others will go to heaven because of what happened to Jeremy. God really did make a way for us!”
I see in my mind’s eye a big healthy baby – 9 pounds, 10 ounces. Two weeks past her due date, she arrives: peacefully, happily. She settles in as the newest and final addition to the home of love being built by my lover and me. She is the object of affection and delight to her four older siblings. She is a reward and gift to her mommy and daddy.
Chunky at birth, she elongates into a tall-for-her-age, skinny pre-schooler who uses her voice, sweet and syrupy, to melt us and get everything she wants.
She is 5 with a tiny heart-shaped face and big, expressive eyes. There is a big yellow bow in her tightly permed hair and she twirls in a polka-dot skirt. She doesn’t just like school, she looooooooves school!
She runs, during the elementary days, to keep up with her brother. If he is playing baseball, so is she. If he is madly roller-blading – she will keep up. Though we fear her tiny frame may snap from the pace, she is ever just an “nth” of a step behind Rocky.
As a teen, she follows Jesus with all her heart. She prays her sister, with tears, back from the brink. She becomes a stained glass artist and stars in the school play. She learns to drive while worshipping her head off in the car with her mama. She is a blessing.
Age and maturity reveal one of the kindest people I have ever known. She serves and cares and quietly sets things aright. She is 23 now. The baby is 23. And I love her.
I don’t know where the years have gone, Stormkins, but I cherish every moment you have been mine. I love you so deeply, my sweet baby girl. All 23 candles on represent a wish I have for you this year.
Twenty-three Wishes for Stormie on Her 23rd Birthday
I wish for you to “prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” 3 Jn 1.2 nkjv
I wish an unending smile for your face – so your dimples will deepen and delight will spread over your whole head.
I wish the warm and cheerful feeling of yellow flowers to surround you no matter where you are, regardless of any circumstance.
I want your heart to be in peace.
I want you to always and forever know what it means to be free in Christ, totally, completely free! And I rebuke the enemy. I rebuke Satan from even trying to enslave you in any way.
May God’s will be done in your life, all the days of your life, as you bring Him glory – on earth as it is in heaven.
I hope dad and I have given you what you need to be everything God intends. If we have forgotten anything – you know where to find us. It’s not too late!
Never forget how many people adore the stuffing out of you! You are loved-like-crazy by me and dad and Tara and Dave and Hunter and Stephanie and Tristan and Gavin and Guini and Gemma and Rocky and Jovan and Averi and Tredessa and Elise and all the cousins and all the aunts and uncles and don’t forget Grandma and Grandpa Moslander…
“Be-member, mama, we like to ‘shnuggle.'” I will never forget those words nor your voice when you were 4 telling me that. I wish for you to remember it always, too, because I am still happy to ‘shnuggle’ with you!
For the man. The one. The right time. I wish him for you, Stormie. I am praying for him, too.
I wish for you a bunch of cute little Stormies. Oh-even if you only get one like you, she will make you so happy. I guarantee it.
I wish for you to reap all the seeds of godliness and generosity that you have sown. I wish for the bread you have cast upon on the waters to now be found! May it come back to you.
I pray for the heavens to open and loud, clear-cut direction and guidance for your life to be announced with trumpets and singing. I pray you will never wander aimlessly.
I am believing for continued favor on your life.
I remind God about showing you mercy and gracing you mightily (empowering you to be everything He created you to be; empowering you to do all He has called you to do!).
My wish is that you will be full (all the way to capacity and running over) of the Holy Spirit.
I wish for you to always walk in truth.
I will always believe in you. There has not been even moment I have not loved you fully, madly.
I wish you could see what I see when I look into your eyes. There is eternity behind them – there is joy and love and life and lightheartedness – so much life. You’re barely out the starting gate…
I wish for you to have no heartbreaks or sorrow. But if you must, I wish for the LORD to be your comfort (your keeper and the Lover of your soul) so you’ll look back and say, “I would not trade the pain for how I know Him today. It has been worth it.”
My prayer is that you’ll have joy and rejoicing in these early twenties: “in the days of your full-grown youth.” (Ecc. 11.9 Amp). I hope you will relish your youthful vigor and live fully from the heart, seeing and pursuing whatever brings you happiness and pleases the Lord.
“Oh how sweet the light of day, and how wonderful to live in the sunshine! Even if you live a long time, don’t take a single day for granted. Take delight in each light-filled hour…Live footloose and fancy free. You won’t be young forever.” (Ecc. 11 The message)
May the LORD bless you and keep you, my Stormkins. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the smile of the LORD be on your life and may you bring Him joy and be His forever.
Happy Birthday, my baby. Twenty-three years ago today was such a blessed day in my life. I didn’t even know how much at the time, but, wow! God was so good to have given you to me! I love you, babykins!…mom
NOTE TO SELF: Take Stormie to Anthropologie for her birthday. Buy her something sweet.
pictured: I was trying to find a good pic of Stormie’s eyes because I love them. This was as close as I could get; Stormie on 4/15/86 with her daddy just a little while after her birth.
Amy Jo and her husband, Damon
