hear no evil, speak no evil

when my son max was three or four and up to some orneriness, he
would say, "mommy, don't see me."

what a great illustration of how we try to hide our own ugliness.
unfortunately, "there is nothing concealed that will not be dis-
closed, or hidden that will not be made known.  what you have
said in the dark will be heard in the daylight and what you have
heard in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the rooftops."
(luke 12:2,3)

not exactly a refrigerator verse.  more of a rooftop one.

a true indicator of the state of our hearts is how we speak to our
husbands and children when no one else is listening . . . how
we talk about our friends when they aren't around . . . and how
we treat the least in the kingdom (the dog!)

Lord, have mercy!
-lea

i'm linking to spiritual sundays.

headache at walmart

my daughter, shelby, gets fussy at me for spending so much money
at my neighborhood grocery store.  "mom, that chicken costs twice
as much as at walmart."  i know, but walmart's garish flourescent
lighting, the hard floors, loud noises, and crowds of people are
such an assault.

google image

monday, however, i mustered my courage to make the thanksgiving
supply run at the local walmart.  shelby would have been so proud
of my great attitude.  "this will be fun.  there will be so many good
deals, etc."

but, 20 steps into the store and i felt like everyone was yelling at
me, the lights hurt my eyes, i couldn't find the stuffing, and my
head was pounding.  i frowned looked at a sweet elderly man,
who said, "well, it's our church singer.  yvonne would be so glad
to see you!  she just thinks you're . . ."

i immediately thought of sonja's post on the dangers of putting
Christian bumper stickers on our cars.  people expect us to act like
Christians, if our cars are saved.  :)  well, the same is true of
sunday singers.  people expect us to be as cheerful on monday,
even at walmart.

speaking of cars, when i approached mine, i saw that the front left
tire had been shredded.

are you kidding me?

love,
lea

"let your gentleness be evident to all.  the Lord is near."  philippians 4:5

crumbs from the table

when my children were quite young, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12, i took
them to hear a famous preacher.  it was important to me that they
be exposed to as many of the Lord's treasures as possible.

unfortunately, upon arrival we were told that the chapel seats
were reserved for the college students.

"we will stand in back, then, and enjoy the crumbs from the
table."

brazilian pastries

the preaching was inspiring, exhilarating really, and we hardly
noticed that we didn't have seats, when the man of God looked
back and said,

"are those children standing in the back?"

my heart dropped, because i thought we were going to be cast
out of the auditorium.  my little ones looked up at me with big
eyes.

"bring them up here so that i may lay hands on them and  pray
for them."

brazilian prosciutto and cheese wheel

our crumbs turned into a feast.

love,
lea

"let the little children come to Me, and do nothing to hinder
them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
matthew 19:14

trials to glory

after an entire day of tears and pressing into the Lord with my
heartache, i felt like i had been to church.  i almost told someone,
"at church today . . ." but remembered i hadn't actually been in
the building.  why did it feel as if i had?  i think it is because
when we suffer and lean into Him, we feel very near to Him.

jp recently posted an inspiring quote from anne lamott at her
witty blog, seens from the back of my eyelids, which holds an
answer  to my question.  "when God is going to do something
wonderful, He always starts with a hardship; when God is going
to do something amazing, He start with an impossibility."

one of my heroes of the faith, richard wurmbrand, supplies his
perspective.  he was tortured in a communist prison during the
cold war for his faith.  after he was released from prison, he
frequently referred to those days of glory.

glory?

"in our darkest hours of torture, the Son of Man came to us,
making the prison walls shine like diamonds and filling the
cells with light."

that surpasses any church service i have attended, but oh, the
cost.  please pray for our brothers and sisters of the faith who
are being persecuted today from azerbaijan to yemen.

love,
lea

"then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to
death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me."
matthew 24:9

i'm linking to spiritual sundays!

gifts from holland, canada, and texas!

when i returned from brazil, i had an intriguing package all the
way from holland!  sweet saskia sent me a lovely pink necklace
to commemorate breast cancer awareness month.  she also added
precious tiny ribbons and fun stickers.

what she doesn't know is that i have a small collection of delft
from the netherlands.  thank you, saskia!  i hope everyone will
visit her gorgeous blog, join my joy.

yesterday, another package arrived from canada!  i can't describe
how my life has been enriched by this lovely lady.  she has taught
me to see with eyes bent to beauty and to  express the Lord's love
with gracious sensitivity.  her gift is not only a generous gesture
but an expression of love, because  she sent me a treasure that
reminded her of me.

thank you, dear rosie!  you couldn't know that i have the absolute
twin bird roosting beneath the lamp in my powder bath.  i hope
everyone will visit your exquisite blog, roses and rutabagas, which
delights with every visit.

and believe it or not, i have also received another wonderful
gift all the way from the exotic country of texas!  my dear
friend, janette, from janette's sage, has enhanced my life with
her wisdom, inspiring stories, loving comments, . . . and a
spectacular handmade pillow!

when i told her it looked perfect in my kitchen, she said, "i'm not
sure what you will do with it in there."  :)

so i wanted her to know it also looks pretty in my family room!

well, it would if my family room wasn't on its side.

love,
lea

"if you then . . . know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask Him!"  luke 11:13

monday's mommy mentoring moment

dear emily,

i have a sweet younger friend, uncanny colleen, who has written
a precious letter to her five year old son.  how much will he
cherish an entire letter all about him?  i could imagine her reading
this to him at his rehearsal dinner in 20 years, even though he still
thinks he is going to  marry his mommy.

this reminded me that hans' dad wrote him a letter everyday of his
freshman year at college.  those sweet notes of encouragement are
bundled up next to the ones my grandma had written me.  if we
treasure them so, why don't we write more of them ourselves?

i now realize that my email encouragements to our five children
cannot replace a hand written letter.  a beautiful sheet of paper can
be taped to the bathroom mirror or cradled between the pages of
their bible.  emails are too easily deleted and forgotten.

when shelby was seven, we chuckled at a note she wrote hans in
her careful cursive.

"dear pappy,

we are so proud of the way
you  have led us through.

love,
shelby"

last Christmas, 17 years later,  she hand stitched it onto fabric on
which she had sewn perfectly straight lines to look like notebook
paper.

love,
lea

"simon peter, a servant and messenger of Jesus Christ, sends
this letter to  those who have been given a faith as valuable as
yours, in the righteousness of our God . . ." 2 peter 1:1

autumn with adam and eve

as hans and i strolled beneath glorious autumn leaves, we crunched
the fallen crimson and yellow ones under our feet.   i love these
walks, because we talk about so many interesting subjects,  and
not always our children.  :)

this day we were discussing adam and eve.   hans maintained that
when God asked adam, "where are you?", he might not have been
referring to his location but to the state of his heart.  he might as
well have asked, "who are you now?"

adam replied, "i heard you in the garden, and i was afraid because
i was naked; so i hid."

"who told you that you were naked?"  their nakedness had never
been an issue before their disobedience, and hans wondered if
things might have gone better for them had adam answered, "we
disobeyed and were hiding because we felt ashamed."

instead he revealed that he considered himself unveiled and no
longer covered by God's good favor.  he also demonstrated his
fear of God just like the servant who "knew" Him as the hard
master and hid his talent.  (matthew 25:25)

moreover, adam seemed to consider himself "out", which, of
course, is exactly what the serpent intended.  one strike, and
you're out?

love,
lea

ps.  i am linking to joyce's at "i love pretty things"
      and to ginger and charlotte's at "spiritual sundays."