The World Needs Better Friends and What's Up Short and Sweet. Also a word on the Duggars.

Ann Voskamp has done it again!  : )

"It was after Mare Griebe said she was done with me, that I knew."

No matter which end you are on this, this is a great article, it touched me greatly.  So glad to see some 'Mare-human-like' feelings honestly written.

I won't add to the blog,  I sure don't want to get in the way.  I do hope you too will enjoy this blog as I did.

...........



As my dear old dad has always said...   The more people I meet the more I love my dogs.   Ain't it the truth!  Ha!

I'm doing a little better this week, so thanking God for my blessings and praying through anxieties.  (Trying to!)  : )

So thankful Michelle is fine, I didn't write about it last week but she had a strange lump on her arm and we have found that it is fine, a great doc said so.  (A Gift).   ...Why mother's get grey though in the meantime?   Is it any wonder why the emotions of this gal were flying last week?

I have a feeling as I look back on this season of my life, an only child, two parents, divorced, both 85 years of age, four sweet daughters and hubs living in this crazed age we are in...   We also see and are discouraged by but not destroyed by nutty people full of the false kind of churchdom, or without.   You get the picture. ....I will see how the Father carried me. ...Because He is.

........

On the Duggars.   I miss their program greatly.  Our entire family does!  I cannot tell you the encouragment we receive from the Duggar family.  Is it because we idolize them?  No.  Do I think the Duggars are perfect?  No, of course not. Are we a.t.i.?  No, never have been, we have always believed we have the same Bible.  ...But in this day and age it is difficult to find fellowship, in this day and age of the drop of the name, Duggar even some pastors and their wives say suspiciously... "The Duggars..."  ...As they intentionally say no more.  I want to say... "Okay.  I get it."  I get it in more ways then one. ...At least I think I do.

Many people really don't like goodness do they.



As my husband so wisely said the other night...

If the Duggars were lukewarm this would not be an issue now.

...........

Signing off from the Forest Cathedral...

This morning I saw two doe and a little spotted fawn.  It was the picture of God's Perfect Handiwork, Sweetness, and Innocence.   It was so, so precious, the mommy was galloping around in the back property near my back door... She was having the greatest time ever!   She was showing her baby how to play. A Gift to see.


Oh God help us to know and learn to play even more so...   Please help us to depend on You as You provide for us, emotionally and physically.


Good Evening Loves,   amelia from the Forest

A Bunch of Boogers and a Few Good Ones

On the Pringle family from the book, Anne of Avonlea:

...they either accept someone, and that someone is automatically integrated into the town's activities, or do not and that person is completely ignored.



Yes, they are amongst us,  it is very difficult to focus on the precious saints when the Pringle is wishing us to be gone and showing it clearly.  Green is one of my favorite colors, but not envy.

...We think to ourselves as I do at times...  If only they knew what was going on in the theatre of my life now...  Would they behave differently?   Perhaps not, the coldness is chilling.   It is the very gall they gave to Jesus on the cross.  


You see, I've been concerned about my dad, trying so desperately to give it to the Father and leave it there.   My dad has taken another fall in the rehab center...   The entire situation has driven me to tears.  


I read in my Streams in the Desert devotional this morning...

An excerpt:

We were under great pressure, .... so that we despaired even of life ...  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.   2 Cor. 1: 8-9.

Pressed beyond measure; yes, pressed to great length;
Pressed so intensely, beyond my own strength;
Pressed in my body and pressed in my soul,
Pressed in my mind till the dark surges roll.
Pressure rom foes, and pressure from dear friends.
Pressure on pressure, till life nearly ends.

Pressed into knowing no helper but God,
Pressed into loving His staff and His rod.
Pressed into liberty where nothing clings;
Pressed int o faith for impossible things.
Pressed into living my life for the Lord,
Pressed into living a Christ-life outpoured.



It's a good devotional this morning if you read that particular devotional.  You can receive them by email as well.  The emailed ones seem a bit more contemporary then my hardcopy, so I prefer my hardcopy, but some may enjoy the convenience online.    Streams in the Desert.



I hear such a sweet song this morning...  Listen to the words and enjoy, I heard this yesterday after arriving home...It made me smile.


Yeah... It made me smile yesterday, only God knew how I needed to smile!


It seems sometimes when we do visit a church no matter how great the sermon and how kind the pastor is, there are always those boogers.   My daughters arriving from a burb-church, and I were discussing in the kitchen a most unfortunate, immature person in a church.  A Pringle.  

She's a booger!  I said, a bad one!  She looked at me with such anger as if she just wanted me gone!  She was so angry that she was oblivious or didn't even care that I was smiling at her!    But then there are those sweet ones...those good ones... 

 Janie thoughtfully says...Yea, it's kind of like human kind in general...A bunch of boogers and a few good ones. 

Joycie:  It's everywhere we go isn't it?  Even in so many churches... A bunch of boogers and a few good ones.  

Pringles.  Forward snobbery, reverse snobbery.  Insecurities that equal hurt to others.  Pringles.  .... And it sure isn't Christ.

So correct.   So correct.

Yesterday hubs and I went to Patriot-Town after I dried my tears of concern over my dad coupled with a misunderstanding in the car...Coupled with the boogers, coupled with mixed feelings because after all... There are a few good ones there.   I had stood in church as it closed watching my tears plop down...hoping it wouldn't be noticeable, hoping my mascara would behave.  I felt like someone had taken their finger out of the dike and the water works were not going to stop.  It was a culmination of everything.  Just everything!



After the service as we drive I sense the change of atmosphere in townships as I silently watch out the car window..

We are upon Patriot-Town.  They even have a charming buff-colored period old 40's brick activity building for the WWII servicemen.  A long lost cousin of my mine has a pharmacy there, a friendly man with striking blue eyes.  He knows all the elderly by name as they come into the pharmacy.

Hubs and I adore this town.



Now you must know...Patriot-Town is one of the most polite if not *the* most polite towns I have ever seen.    It's very interesting the various spiritual entities over various towns and areas.   This is a *good* one.

We arrive at the restaurant greatness and see an old friend exiting the restaurant and he tells us..."Did you know?

I have cancer.  ...The people at my church are really nice, y'all need to come visit.  They've already made a list of people to take me to M.D. Anderson for treatments.   They'are really nice..."  

So precious.  Les is form the burbs where we are from, it seems both our families landed out this way to live a simple life... We taught the Sunday school class he and his wife attended back in the burbs...

I've always noticed Les's humility, the son of an elderly Assembly of God pastor.  Les and his wife adopted a precious little boy after they raised kids of their own, I remember just as it was yesterday, the sweet chubby fists of that baby-boy who grabbed my pearl necklace, breaking it as beads bounced over the gym flooor, seeing Les's wife's horrified face...I yell!  Don't worry it's dollar store!  (It was funny)  The good thing about cheap jewelry, even if you really like it and in my case had taken good care of that cheap necklace for years... it looked good by George...Hey.  It's (say it with me)  Dollar Store!  *big smile*

This precious baby has grown into Les's running buddy.

Perhaps it is Les who should have taught the Sunday school class?   Yes Les, we just may take you up on your invite dear one.


We see our precious chinese friend, she and her sweet husband own the restaurant.  They are a darling young couple.   We've befriended them and enjoy their friendship of sorts although brief in conversations.   We've taken a liking to each other.  I had noticed she was not herself yesterday...    She tells me through tears of her own, "My mother called from China, she has a tumor in her pancreas, I'll be gone for a month to visit her..."

I tell her Jesus is already there with her.  We will pray, I touch her arm, I think touch is important.  This woman is so precious, she nods through tears.  I'm thinking..

We all have problems don't we?  Some are much, much more severe then others.  Oh God help us to support one another!   And the support comes in strange places at times doesn't it?   The Church is everywhere.



...And I have to remind myself of what I told Jessie, the precious young chinese woman...  Jesus is already with me too!

That is what Elisabeth Elliot wrote me once when I was expecting our youngest, Grace and on bedrest with some complications.   I still have that little postcard she wrote, I have several from her.

I wonder if Elisabeth Elliot's daughter feels as I do sometimes now that her mother is growing older and ill?



This is a photo of of several of our daughters; Grace, Janie and Joycie with Elisabeth Elliot and her precious, precious husband, Lars this photo is from a couple of years ago.  I think Zuzu must have taken this particular pic.

I will close now, just wanted to share some thoughts and food for more thoughts here this morning.


I do hope you are having a sweet morning Loves,  we must be the *Good Ones*.  We might have to stand alone (kneel alone) in order to do so.  I hope this blog will be a place to come and be encouraged and share.   You are not alone.   Our reward may be in Heaven.  God sees all and knows all. That goes as a double reminder for me.   ~amelia, the last child in the woods...

Smile Into the Fear

Sharing a video this morning of a most beautiful song that Jem, (hubs) and I have grown rather fond of lately, we listen to this song in the car on our dates, the words are so exact and encouraging to my heart...    Brave.

You want to run away and you say it can't be so...When you stand up and open your hand...

In the face of what I don't understand...

a reason to be brave..

We love music, I've played in the past, and Jem is a musician besides being a real estate broker in oldtown...  In our home, music is a big deal.

This is such a great season of life.  Life!   But then when I see my dad and how his health is going...his choices...   I must face what I don't understand.  ... A reason to be brave.  Hold on ...Time carries on...

I hope you too are blessed by this fantastic song...it's an old one but just as new to my heart today.


I love the symphony in this video, it gives me such a rush.  ....The female musician with the big blonde curly hair is so great.  I'm wearing my hair big and curly these days.   Putting on my Stevie Nicks. : )   I like it, it's natural and it's me I'm finding... It's a nice feeling I do believe.

The composer in the video..He is composing with such fervor, such preciseness...such care.   He reminds me of our Father, the Director of our Lives.  The musicians watch His every move...  His every quake and expression.  



Heard an interview of Josh Groban the other afternoon, did you know he was bullied in school?  He seemed quite humble actually in this interview, I'm glad I was able to see and hear it, he was not mister perfect at all, just a nice guy attractive in his imperfections and realness.



The other morning I was praying, so worn out from a long wearing drive to visit my father in rehab.  I was sitting on the Father's lap so to speak and He reminded me of the little, sweet books I would read when I was a wee little girl as an only child, my quiet life, listening to the birds outside of my bedroom...the beautiful watercolor paintings in the books...and the Father reminded me...

You are still that Child to me...   I see it all....   I will take care of things.   Don't you worry.  


Oh those words have helped me immensely!

For...

People will always let us down but the Father won't.


In the meantime, I am enjoying planning this wonderful wedding for our daughter and *adorable* son-in-love.    Wow.  What a blessing this crossing of paths is.

I've always remembered the scripture in Isaiah that says in (my words)   The people will stand back and say:

"Look what God has done!"

And truly when I see these two young lives meeting, I say... Look what God has done!



I read this quote this morning on my kitchen flip calendar:

"Every day we live is a priceless gift of God, loaded with possibilities to learn something new, to gain fresh insights."
   ~Dale Evans Rogers



So many insights, everyday is loaded with them.  : )

God will whisper if we will listen and *hear*...   Isn't that right?

Have a sweet day Loves,    ~Amelia, the veteran homeschool mom, getting to know myself and God even more so in my 50s.   The Last Child in the Woods...