March Music Roundup

 I haven't shared any songs in awhile so I thought I'd share some that have been a blessing to me recently.  These are mostly newer to me artists.  

A friend introduced this song by Katy Nichole to me,  

Sarah Reeves is a singer my husband heard on a podcast he follows and shared her music with me.  

Lydia Laird is one of my favorite to listen to; I love her voice and the lyrics to her songs are wonderful.  

Jeremy Rosado is a singer we heard at a festival in the fall and I was so blessed by his testimony, love for others and lyrics.    

We are Messengers isn't new but this song has really blessed me.

 

In Jesus Name by Katy Nichole

 

Details by Sarah Reeves

 

This I know by Lydia Laird

 

Come & See by Jeremy Rosado

 

 Close by We Are Messengers

 

 

Bonus: This song was released by Dolly Parton after the passing of her husband (Carl Dean) of almost 60 years!  What a beautiful tribute and testament to a long-lasting marriage. 

If You Hadn't Been There by Dolly Parton 

 

Waiting & line-cutters: Revisiting Jarius

 

 **For more thoughts about Jarius see my post titled Stay from Dec. 2020**

I have a confession to make....one of my biggest pet peeves is people who cut the line.  There are legitimate cases and those are fine but recently it seems to be getting worse.  I find it so selfish and inconsiderate.  A certain local store seems to attract this type of shopper.  The ones where one person gets in line and then another person with an entire cartload of merchandise cuts the line to meet up.  Does it really affect my life overall, no, but I still find it infuriating.  

One day I was in the shower and my mind went to these recent events.  As I was thinking over this, God brought to mind the account of Jarius and the woman with the issue of blood.  Boom...convicted!

Look at the passage in Mark 5:21-43; it's a little long but take some time and read through it.

Here's Jarius; coming to Jesus because his daughter is dying.  Jesus agrees to go to Jarius' house. Jarius trusted that Jesus could heal is daughter!  Jesus had agreed to go to Jarius' house!  All looked to be okay.  But then Jesus stops.  A woman had touched Him and He stops to have a chat?  I can only imagine the desperation and impatience that Jarius was feeling.  Then it gets worse.  While Jesus is talking to this woman Jarius receives the news that his daughter had died.  

What? But Jesus agreed to come?  Why would He agree to help and then let her die?  How could Jesus give such seemingly false hope to Jarius?  Honestly, my blood would have probably boiled, I probably would have had some not-so-nice thoughts towards this woman.  Sure she was sick but his daughter was dying!  How could Jesus prioritize this woman over a dying child?  

Here's what we forget...Jesus NEVER forgets us.  His timing is NEVER wrong.  It is SO hard to wait.  Jesus wasn't frantic or in a rush, because He has conquered death and holds the keys (Revelation 1:18). It's easy to look at this passage and think that Jesus prioritizes certain people over others but He holds all His children with the same love.  He knows far more than we do, He wasn't concerned about timetables because He rules the times, seasons, death & life.  

In both of these cases Jesus shows His authority and He is glorified.  Only He can heal not only from physical ailments but heal hearts (vs. 34 “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”) and only He can conquer death ( vs. 41-42 Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement.)

How often do we pray about something, look into Scripture, read God's promises and believe that yes, Jesus has promised to answer.  But then we wait, sometimes things get worse, we feel desperate, we get angry, confused, we cry out "Why do I see other's being healed/delivered while I sit here in this situation watching it get worse."  "Where are you God?", "I've read Your promises...why aren't You fulfilling them in this situation?"  Dear reader, bring all of that to God!  Cry out to Him!  He can handle it, but remember, His timing is ALWAYS perfect, He is ALWAYS with us, He ALWAYS fulfills His promises..in His perfect way! Those "line-cutters" aren't a surprise to Him and will never change His perfect purposes and plans. 

A couple thoughts that actually just came to me as I was reading this passage:

- Both Jesus and Jarius are concerned for their daughters! This is the only place in Scripture where Jesus calls someone daughter.    And Jesus is able to heal both.  So as I think of how desperate Jarius wanted healing for his daughter, how wonderful to see Jesus concern and care for His daughter. 

- He brought both from death to life through faith (the woman spiritually, the girl physically) showing His authority and power in every aspect of life. 

- Jarius wanted Jesus to lay hands on his daughter to make her well.  The woman trusts the same touch of Jesus to make her well.  

 

Recent Crafting

 In my last post I mentioned that I would post the finished oval mat/doily that I was making.  It's more of an eye shape than a full oval but I do love how it came out.  I was looking for a way to brighten up the table for Valentine's Day.  I had some leftover red cotton yarn from a previous project and some leftover white.  The yarns are not the same weight as the red is technically a 4- worsted weight and the white is a baby cotton 2 - fine.  Despite this I think it still worked up nicely; however, I do want to do another doily for spring/Easter using just the fine weight.   The pattern I used is a free pattern from craftorator.com

Another area that I wanted to add interest to is our front door.  Due to the fact that it is mostly window I haven't tried to decorate it much.  This year for Christmas I decided to use an adhesive backed hook and hang a decoration.  I really liked having something on the door.  After Christmas, I was trying to decide what to put up and remembered that I had had a tree of life wreath craft pinned for awhile.  All of the supplies for the wreath can be purchased at the dollar store; so I figured even if it came out awful I wouldn't be out much money.  I used the instructions from The Shabby Tree. The wreath came together nicely and I love how it looks on the door.  

So, that's the bit of crafting I have been doing.  I'm currently waiting for some yarn that I ordered so I can start on another hat project.  I'd love to hear and see what you have been crafting!

This & That

I have a few different blog posts started but haven't had the time to really sit and write out all my thoughts.  So, I thought I'd give a quick picture post showing some of life recently.

While the kids were on vacation we did a quick evening trip into Boston.  They had a display of several giant nutcrackers.  They were all different types of animals.  Our youngest has been obsessed with nutcrackers lately so this was especially fun for her.  We also finally made it to Lakon Patisserie a place our other daughter has been asking to go for about a year. 

 

We finally got some snow!  Along with the snow came very cold, below zero, temperatures.  Kitty was having none of it and parked himself in front of the under cabinet heat vent. 

I've also been doing some crocheting.  This hat pattern was written differently than other patterns I've used so it took me awhile to figure it out...and I pulled out most of it about 4 times. But I'm thankful that I figured it out.  I love the cable pattern and one of my girls has already asked for one of her own.  My current work in progress is an oval mat for the table that I'll post a picture of later.  

Lastly, I shared in another post about my Word for 2025 being rest.  While thinking about this I was trying to come up with a phrase to help me remember to keep my focus on Jesus and truly resting in Him.  Below is the phrase God gave me.  I had fun making this little graphic from an adobe template.  Another simple way to be creative.

Word for 2025

 

 

Back in June of 2023 I blogged about the book I was reading Having a Mary Heart in A Martha World and in that post, titled Busy, Busy, Busy I shared an expanded version of the verse above.

 "Come to me, all who [labor until worn out] and are [loaded down, burdened] and I will give you [refreshment for your soul].  Take my [bar that unites us in work] upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and [lowly in spirit relying on God] and you will find [blessed tranquility of soul].  For my yoke is [good, eternally useful] and my burden is [easy to bear, not burdensome]." 

I found this expanded version to be such an encouragement.  The different definitions for the burdens we will face and the different types of rest Jesus provides shows how His care is so complete for every circumstance we will face.  The ideas of refreshment and tranquility especially spoke to me; similar yet different and nourishing our souls in different ways.  We can be refreshed to carry on and we can carry on in tranquility when we are united with Jesus in His purposes and relying on Him for every step.

A few months ago I was chatting with one of our girls and she suggested the word rest for 2025.  The more I thought about it the more I realized how well it dovetails with my word for 2024.  I had chosen faithful as my word for 2024.  As God has been teaching me to be faithful, regardless of if things change or don't change; learning to rest in His faithfulness and to leave those things that burden me in His hands, is an important thing to focus on in 2025.  

The other side to this is the day-to-day practice of learning that it's okay to rest.  In a world where we're constantly told to be more, do more, learn more, find our value in more.  We need to  remember that we have value in Whose we are not what we do, that being united (yoked) with Jesus means we just have to follow His lead and it's okay to let the rest go.  To not be distracted by things/busyness that doesn't really matter.  To find our rest in Him is what we really need to do. 

So, my word for 2025 is rest! 

2025 Bible in a Year

I've posted a few times about plans I've used for reading the Bible in a year.  If you have never read through the whole Bible I encourage you to make that a goal. 

Over the years I have used several different plans and in 2024 I used a plan that went through just the New Testament in a year.  It was great to take it much slower, some days only reading a few verses.  This year I'm once again reading the whole Bible.

Back in 2020 I chose the Historical Sequence plan on Youversion and have decided to once again use that plan.  This plan is split into 12 parts, which feels nice to complete a section each month.  It's much more reading than the New Testament one I just finished but it will be good to make it through the whole Bible again.  

Whatever plan you choose, whether a New Testament, Old Testament, full Bible or another plan. The most important thing is to be in God's Word each day.  We so often ask for God's leading but then leave the "map" unread.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all!  As with the start of any new year I'm pondering what I want to focus on this year.   I already have a reading plan for reading through the Bible in 2025 and I already have a "word" for  the year.  I'm hoping to blog about both of these soon. 

One goal that I always seem to have is to blog more often.  I go through spurts of blogging regularly and then get busy and it falls to the side for awhile.  I've realized that, while I love blogging, it's just something that for now will stay a bit sporadic.  Life is still very busy with home,  four kiddos and their activities, along with school and church volunteering responsibilities.  I've never had a large readership; which for the most part I'm okay with. I would love to grow this blog into something to really bless others; I'm just never quite sure what that would look like.  I mostly blog to keep track of things God is teaching me; I love to teach so it's encouraging when God uses those things in the lives of others as well. 

I've debated starting another blog.  As some may recall, a few years ago this blog was flagged as "inappropriate" on Facebook by someone I had as a connection (still don't know who and it really doesn't matter).  There is no appeals process so since that time it has been blocked from being shared on any Meta platform (Instagram, Facebook, etc.).  I don't have a clear direction of turning this into something bigger so I'll just keep it as is for now.  

I'd love to hear suggestions of what you enjoy reading for content or what you would enjoy seeing more of here in this little spot on the web.  

So, those are my rambling thoughts on this first day of a new year.  I am excited to see how God will guide this year.