Psalm 42

Psalm 42 (paraphrased by me)

As animals long for water to drink, to satisfy their thirst, so I want to long for you my God. I want everything in me to long for you. I want to know the living God. I want to meet with You everyday. When I go through difficulties and I have only my tears, I remember how I used to run to God and live in His comfort...and the times that I praised Him. It helps me remember that when I am sad/discouraged/angry that I need to put my hope in God and continue to praise my Saviour. Sometimes it feels as though my troubles are causing me to question where my God is...but I know that my hope is in God and I will continue to praise Him all day long. I know God is my rock.

"By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me

— a prayer to the God of my life."

Psalm 42:8

 

 

Psalm 63

Psalm 63 (as paraphrased by me)
You are my God and I want to continue to seek you. I want to long for you with all that I am. I have seen your wonderful works in my life and have felt your presence. You love is better than anything in this world. I will praise you and lift up my hands in worship. I want your love to satisfy all my deepest desires. Throughout the night, when I wake, I want to be talking with you. I know that you are my help through all my deepest storms and I will cling to you; even when I feel threatened and overwhelmed with this life.  I will continue to rejoice in you, my God.

Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

 I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

~Psalm 63:7-8~

Psalm 27

Psalm 27
This is just Psalm 27 in my own words as I read it and pray it into my life.

No matter what I face in life, God is always my strength. I don't have to be afraid of anything because God is the anchor the one who holds me together and gives me my salvation. No one can take that away. I can be confident in my unchanging God.
I am looking forward to the day when I see the Lord's face and dwell in His home and see His beauty. For He continues to take care of me no matter what. Because the Lord saved me, I will sing His praises and worship Him. I will seek His face; please Lord might I find You? I know that even if everyone left me, or everything was taken away, the Lord would never leave me. He would never forsake me. Please teach me your ways. Help me to walk in your ways. May your desires be my desires.

"I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."

~Psalm 27:13-14~

2015

Well, it's been awhile, but I guess that's what happens in life! Life happens!

The beginning of 2015 was busy with our Upward Basketball Season 4! We spent every Saturday in January and February and 1 in March at Basketball. It's a whirlwind of a season, but I think it was a good one. We had a lot of kids out this year...more than I expected which made for some stress in terms of organizing a number so large, but thanks to our Heavenly Father, He provided some new coaches, coaches who were willing to coach two teams and a venue within the school board at a local elementary school which was really awesome! It definitely paved the way for next year, and we should be able to continue to support that many kids hopefully...
A lot of our time over those months were dedicated to the Upward Basketball ministry. God has blessed this ministry with three partner churches and many many volunteers from young to old! The message of Jesus was shared to all our Upward players and their families! It can't get much better than that!
Also, this year, Micah got to play for the first time! Next year A will get to play...and she is already practicing and can't wait until it's her turn to play too. I can't wait to watch her!

Well we enjoyed a little down time in March and then we swung right into April and Easter. This year's Good Friday service and Easter Sunday service were both so powerful, awe-inspiring and encouraging. We are so blessed to be apart of our church family. 

I guess this post doesn't have much inspiration, but mostly just a catch up over the last few months.
However, I am hoping to blog a little more in the coming weeks as I hope to do a study on prayer with the Psalms. The devotion encouraged summarizing the Psalms to help with prayer life. Prayer always seems to be an area I need to work on, so I'm hoping this will help my prayer life. I always try to write down my prayer requests, or who I'm praying for and then remember to pray for them as often as I can...but I usually do really well for a bit and then I struggle with it again. I really want to have a consistent and meaningful prayer life with my Heavenly Father. It's only by His strength I can whether the daily storms. So stay tuned (hopefully) for a little study on the Psalms and prayer :)

I hope you've all had a blessed Easter and are renewed in your faith and looking forward to when our Saviour comes again!

Christmas 2014

And the dust is finally starting to settle. After a whirlwind few days, we are finally home tomorrow after 4 days of Christmases in a row! The kids haven't even been home to play with their new things!

What a crazy Christmas...a Christmas full of rain and cloudy days...(no beautiful white snow to marvel at) but it made for great driving conditions, so I'm thankful for that.

We spent our time visiting a lot of family and celebrating time and gifts and renewing our familyship together. Lots of good food and games and chats.

A and Micah, enjoyed themselves as well, despite taking turns battling a nasty cold, they seemed to be enjoying the attention and of course the gifts. They have also turned into pretty good travelers, despite hearing A ask, about every minute - "we there yet" , if you can handle that on repeat, they do pretty good. I think we've also heard the "ABCD" song by A about a million times as well...but hey, if she's happy and singing, I don't mind hearing the same song over and over.... :)

It's very interesting seeing gifts change as the kids grow. Seeing the clothes get a size larger each Christmas, seeing the kids' interests change, or level of difficulty change. This is the first Christmas that Micah has received lego or playmobile....I'm already figuring out how I'm going to have to re-organize his room to accommodate a good organization system for lego and playmobile... he is loving this stuff...I think it'll be good for his engineering brain and his imagination.

A is finally taking a small interest in dolls...mostly the brushing of their hair...she's a very tactile/learn through the senses type of girl, so she seems to love to brush/touch hair. It will be a good skill for her to learn to play with dolls, I think. She still loves to watch cooking or to pretend to cook, so I'm sure she will be pretend cooking for her dolls very soon.

To all our family near and far, thank you for a lovely Christmas time.

And as always, so important to focus on what Christmas truly is about. I've heard it said that Christmas is mostly about family and spending time with those you love...but what about those people who's loved ones have passed away? (Remembering our dear Kalyna - her ornaments are sparkling on our tree - but oh to see her lovely smiling face on our Christmas card would just warm my heart....) Who can't make it home to celebrate with loved ones? Who is all alone? That reason for Christmas would simply be painful to them. However, the real reason for Christmas can be celebrated by everyone, no matter what. Doesn't matter if you are all alone, if you can't make it home, if you are missing your loved ones, especially at this season.  No, everyone, anywhere, any age, can celebrate Jesus. We can celebrate His birthday and what this means for our lives. Jesus was born to die for our sins...that if we ask, we can be forgiven and some day live with Him in Heaven. Even Micah can tell that to you now! :) It totally melted my heart today when in KidJAM, Micah answered the question - What present would you give to Jesus - and he said "myself". So glad that Micah is starting to understand what life is all about.

I'll leave you with these verses: Our KidJAM verses from these past two weeks...

Luke 2:11

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

 

Matthew 2:11
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

 

I hope that you are having a Christmas that is full of our Saviour's love and peace.

The greatest love story

So right now we are going through a book called "The Story" which is essentially excerpts that are taken out of the Bible. They are in chronological order and they depict the love story of God from old testament to new. It puts it a little more plainly so that people who don't have Bible college classes (me being one of those people) to figure out how everything fits together in the Bible, (not that you need Bible college to understand the Bible...but I'm sure there are things that I would understand more about the intricacies of the Bible, if I had studied it academically) this allows the story about how God loves people so much and is working on getting them back. I came across this group of verses in Isaiah today after I searched "you are mine". It really brought it home for me. So since I'm on for devotions at our staff meeting this week, I thought I'd write my thoughts down and share them with all of you. Thanks for reading.

 

But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob,

he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead.

Since you are precious and honored in my sight,

and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life.

Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.

I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’

Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth—

everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

~Isaiah 43:1-7 NIV~ 

 

As I was reading this, I was wondering whether there were any comments on this passage, when I came across the same verses in the message version.

 

1-4But now, God’s Message, the God who made you in the first place, Jacob,

the One who got you started, Israel:

“Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called your name. You’re mine.

When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.

When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.

When you’re between a rock and a hard place, it won’t be a dead end—

Because I am God, your personal God,

The Holy of Israel, your Savior.

I paid a huge price for you:

all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!

That’s how much you mean to me!

That’s how much I love you!

I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you.

5-7“So don’t be afraid: I’m with you.

I’ll round up all your scattered children, pull them in from east and west.

I’ll send orders north and south: ‘Send them back.

Return my sons from distant lands, my daughters from faraway places.

I want them back, every last one who bears my name, every man, woman, and child

Whom I created for my glory, yes, personally formed and made each one.’”

~Isaiah 43:1-7 MSG~

 

Read that a couple times and just let the words sink in.

 

It's not very often that I use the message translation, but I really like how they spell it out very plainly.

A few things stand out to me: I love the phrase "You're mine". God says right there "You're mine". We're His. Could it be said any more clearly than that? We belong to Him...there's not if, ands or buts about it. He created us for himself...and the sooner we realize that this means...the sooner we lose our identity issues and find our self-worth in the one who created us for His purpose and glory.

I also love the part about how He is always with us: "When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you. When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down. When you’re between a rock and a hard place,it won’t be a dead end—" I need this so much. This assurance. This promise. That when life seems like it's too much to handle, that I'm not alone and the road doesn't end. That road will end in Heaven...so I'm never stuck. If this earth crumbles and life ends...Heaven awaits...

Also, the part of "that's how much I love you" and it goes into detail of just how much God loves us. We have the advantage of knowing that He did go to extreme lengths to get us back...with His son. Jesus died for us, for all our tendencies to go our own way, just because God desires us so much. As Pastor Deve put in His sermon...we are the bride that God desires. He wants us to want His love, just as a man wants his girlfriend to love Him and commit to Him...(but on a much bigger scale as God's love surpasses the love of a guy for his girlfriend). We can't compete with that kind of love, we have to simply fall into it and accept the love He lavishes upon us.

And lastly, "I want them back, every last one who bears my name, every man, woman, and child

Whom I created for my glory, yes, personally formed and made each one" --God won't just let us go our own way, He will pursue us. Remind us of His love for us at every turn. Through creation, through other people, through circumstances....He will use so many ways to remind us of His love. Wow. You can't push Him away. You can't lose Him. (You can walk away, push Him away, but He will always be there.....calling out to you). God wants us. He wants everyone that He has created, because He created each one of us for His glory. This also reminds me that we should also have this passion too....a passion to share this love of God with all people - God wants everyone of them to turn to Him. He created them. He loves them. That should be our passion too.

 

Just a few thoughts from me. Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

 

Our little A is 3!

What a great day today was! It was just a really really nice day.
I so enjoyed spending the afternoon with my little girl. It's crazy. I felt like my heart exploded inside of me today. I have known that I loved her...but I think maybe today was the first time that I loved her as my own.
She's three now! Now we have celebrated 2 birthdays with Ava! It feels really awesome that we've been apart of two of them now. As I look back over the past year of firsts, I'm really loving the seconds...things seem to be so much easier the second time around. I have decided that I like seconds. Ava's second birthday party, it will be her second Thanksgiving, her second Christmas, etc. Looking forward to experiencing all these seconds with Ava...seconds seem much sweeter and I am so thankful for these!

Well, here's to my smart, funny, ambitious, creative, music loving, full of energy, strong-willed, vivacious, energetic, emotional, empathetic, loving, curious, entertaining, beautiful daughter. We are so blessed to have you in our lives and are looking forward sharing many thirds and fourths and fifths and so on with you! Love you!

I shall leave you with Ava's life verse:

For the Lord himself goes before you.

He will be with you.

He will never leave you or forsake you.

Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.

~Deuteronomy 31:8~