Finishing touches

We are making a few little things for the wedding.

Yesterday, we were rolling napkins, Sis and I.

Handsome had made me over a hundred and sixty yellow paper circles to serve as napkin rings.

I enjoyed sitting across the table from Sis rolling napkins.

She talked about her time as a waitress while we worked.

Later, it was Jase and Anne sitting around the table with me.

Anne and I were folding pinwheels from gray paper and Jase was tracing holders for the flower petals.

(We are not allowed to throw rice or birdseed, so we will be throwing rose petals.)

Today, along with homeschooling, I’m hoping to finish the pinwheels.

I’m also planning on doing some staging.

Since we live so far away from the bride, she can’t see the decor.

Therefore, I’m going to set one table up with all the items and take a picture and send it to her.

I plan on doing this for all the decor that I can.

These pictures will be with lists of the items required, inside numbered totes.

I’ve been putting together totes with numbers to correspond with my decor list.

The plan is to have all of it together for when we go to set up.

That way I am not trying to explain each area, nor handle everything myself.

Hopefully, it will streamline both the setting up and the taking down.

It’s been such a journey.

Learning to live differently.

I’ll be honest, sometimes I feel frustrated over all the limitations.

But each time I do, it’s like a warning light.

Reminding me that’s not the proper way to see it.

God has allowed all these changes and many of them I’m very thankful for.

I think of Job’s words:

Job 2:10 KJV — But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Job didn’t sin with his lips, because his heart was right before God.

He didn’t understand all the changes in his life, but he served God faithfully.

I want to walk in the same way.

To accept either “good” or “bad” in life as an opportunity to walk with the Lord.

Because most of the time, my perspective calls something either “good” or “bad” depending upon how I feel or perceive it.

Obviously, God’s view point is far superior.

As we put the finishing touches on the last details for the wedding, I want to remember.

No matter how it all comes together nor how different it all has to be due to the current restrictions, it’s a wonderful moment.

The beginning of a new family.

Praise the Lord!

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank You for all the changes. Thank You for allowing the things I do not always understand nor want. For I know I can trust You completely. Lord, thank You for teaching me and my family so much through all these changes. Please continue to hone our hearts, to guide our steps, and to guard our words, that we might not sin against You. I love You, Jesus. Amen.

Because sometimes words escape you

We knew it was coming.

He’d driven three hours, weeks before, to talk to her father.

And yet the words have escaped me.

Until now.

I’m so thankful to God for His blessing.

Marriage is His idea.

Genesis 2:24 KJV — Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Malachi 2:15 NKJV — But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.

Hebrews 13:4 NKJV — Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

Marriage is honorable.

God created it and it’s an incredible blessing.

As I look backwards over our twenty plus years of marriage, I’m so grateful for my husband.

And I can look at our daughters, our son, and son-in-law resting in the knowledge that God is guiding each of them.

They each have given their lives to Christ and therefore, He will see them through, no matter what may come.

When the call from our Bell came, the sound of her voice told me more than words.

This young man, who loves the Lord and has been raised by godly parents in His ways, had asked for her hand in marriage.

I cried.

Tears of joy.

For I know God is in this.

Recently, with my husband’s hand clasped in mine, our hearts open before God, as we prayed for these two and the new family they will become, another mother had tears of joy as well.

After we had finished she turned to me, dabbing her eyes.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that, to think about how my husband and I have always prayed for our son to find a godly wife, and you have prayed for your daughter to have a godly husband, and God has brought them together…”

Hopefully my smile was as warm as my heart.

“I know. I just cried my tears already. But I know.“

Circumstances being such, they are planning a small family wedding in August.

I thought about that.

Turned to my husband, “Can you believe it?! God is giving us two new sons in the same month! A new son-in-law and a grandson!”

Praise God!

A Mighty Man of Valour

When our son was born a phrase jumped out at me from the Scriptures.

1 Chronicles 7:9 KJV — And the number of them, after their genealogy by their generations, heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men of valour, was twenty thousand and two hundred.

It’s actually used several times in Scripture.

1 Samuel 16:18 NKJV — Then one of the servants answered and said, “Look, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person; and the LORD is with him.”

David made mistakes, but he was the greatest King Israel ever had and more importantly, he was a man after God’s own heart.

So, I prayed this over our son.

“Lord, make him a Mighty Man of Valour.”

I don’t remember exactly when, but within the last year, I was praying that same thing for our son again and the Lord spoke.

Why don’t you pray this for your other son?

I was like Job.

Nothing to answer.

However, I began to add our son-in-law to my prayers in a new way.

I was praying for him regularly, but not in the same ways I was praying for our son, born into our family.

It was clear, I’d missed a step.

Marriage is just as much a joining the family as birth.

We were thrilled when our daughter married our son-in-law.

He’s a godly man, who truly loves all of us, and we love him.

And I praise God for him.

Infact, getting to live in his home with our daughter and baby was such a blessing.

He treated me as a cherished guest.

Sometimes, when I couldn’t leave my room, he’d bring me a plate of food and sit on the floor to chat while I ate.

There are so many thoughtful things he did for me while I was there.

He’s always willing to help in anyway he can.

He’s a humble guy too.

When I try to let him know how much I appreciate him, he simply points to Jesus.

Or he’ll say, “It’s all God.”

So why am I going on and on about him when I know he’d rather me not tell everyone what a blessing he is?

Today is his birthday.

And this is my small way of thanking God for adding this young man to our family as a son.

Because:

Psalm 127:3a NKJV — Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,…

And I think that includes adult children who marry the ones born into our family.

Happy birthday, son!

May God richly bless you!