Read This...

http://daddystractor.com/2014/02/24/the-heartbreak-of-foster-care/

So true.

On My Heart

Lately, I have been thinking. Just sitting and thinking, working and thinking - spending a lot of time in thought... about a few things. Things that God, my Father, has been teaching me (again).

So, here are some things I have been learning (relearning).

1. I took this spiritual gifts test: www.sdrock.com/giftstest and I was wondering... if the Spirit of God has given me gifts in certain areas, how am I using them? What are my strengths, what are my weaknesses? I wonder what God is preparing me for, and how He wants to use me in the future. But then again, it may not be the future - it may be today. Is there some place I could be a vessel of God's grace today, but I am too focused on other things to see it? Father, I pray that I would have open eyes, that your Spirit would lead me. And that I would follow.
  
So what am I to do with this? The more I study the Word, the more I see, it is not that complicated.

"Trust in the Lord, and do good . . . delight yourself also in the Lord. . .  commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. . . Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." Ps. 37:3-7

To trust Him,

Delight in Him,

Commit my way to Him,

And Rest
in the Lord.

 

I guess I have floated accidentally seamlessly in to my second thought...

2. Ashlin, Study His Word!

"Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom." Ps. 51:6

There is no truth apart from God's word, and there is no wisdom except from the Lord. There is no life or growth unless the branches abide in the Vine. John 15:5. I have heard it said many times, you cannot be stagnant in your Christian walk; you are either moving forward or you are slipping back. It is foolishness to think otherwise.

"There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness." Proverbs 30:12

The Bible is like a mirror. If we do not look in it, we will not see our filthiness. Father, do not allow me to have blind eyes. Let me see my sin so that I won't stay where I am, but be cleansed by Your grace!
Go has given us such beautiful promises in His word for those who will seek Him.

"He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust; His truth shall be thy shield and buckler." Psalm 91:4

3. Prayer. God works in mysterious ways. For whatever reason, He has chosen to work through prayer. He has commanded us to pray. And He has shown us many examples of the power released through the prayers of His saints. Mtt. 14:23, 21:22, Lk. 18:1, Rom. 8:26, Acts 6:4, Prov. 15:8, James 5:13-16, Eph. 6:18, and Rev. 8:3-6 are just a few.
In my own life, He has shown Himself mighty through prayer and I give thanks for the recent reminders He hast sent me to pray.

I am so thankful for the family I have and the people God has placed in my life that encourage me and help me to relearn these simple truths.

"O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together, I sought the Lord and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed." Psalm 34:3-5

C. S. Lewis

“The Weight of Glory.”

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.
All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.
This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously.

- C.S. Lewis

  

 

 

Dig A Well

My mom shared this: dig a well in prayer with me and it was really encouraging. I hope you read it and like it. (Since I am obviously not going to write any more blog posts this year, maybe I could share one written by another... )

The last thing I wanted to share with you is something I read this morning and had to re-read for the simple truth that struck me so deeply.
A reminder of the importance of this Call.

"We may take heart from the suffering of Job. Suffering was the necessary proof of the reality of his faith - to us, as to his contemporaries and his enemy Satan (his and ours). The suffering of our Savior proved the reality of His love for His Father. The world still needs to be shown that there are those who, no matter what the circumstances, will, for the love of Him, do exactly what God commands. The end He has in view is a glorious one. We can fully count on that, as we can count on the naked wood's one day exploding into a glory of blossom." -Elisabeth Elliot

 

May you be filled with His joy, peace, and blessings from above.

 

Love in Christ,

                                                                                    Ashlin

Are you having a beautiful September?

September!

I don't have anything smart to say. Just popping in to say my life has been very busy. I have been in a program for about a month and a half that will by the end have me certified as a Nursing Assistant (with a couple other certifications as well). It is quite an experience! The class is filled with 24 other people, who help to make a mosaic of stories. Only God knows all their stories, the past, the present, the future and all.

"Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the tune, and not be dismayed at the "rests." They are not to be slurred over, not to be omitted, not to destroy the melody, not to change the keynote. If we look up, God Himself will beat the time for us. With the eye on Him, we shall strike the next note full and clear. If we sadly say to ourselves, "There is no music in a 'rest,'" let us not forget "there is the making of music in it." The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life. How patiently God works to teach us! How long He waits for us to learn the lesson!" ~Ruskin

I hope and pray that I am learning more than things about nursing. I hope I am learning more faith in God, for times of rest or crescendo.

Right now, it is time for me to be silent; to wait on Him and be filled with His peace in the waiting.

50 Years Ago Today. . .

Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered I Have a Dream, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

Audio for this speech.

To be honest, this is the first time I've read through his entire speech and understood it all. I mean this time I really understood the scripture Martin Luther King, Jr. quoted and all that it meant, both in context in the Bible and as it was related to the times in 1963. So much has changed in this country now. So much for the better; there has been a great progress. And sadly, some of the change has been for the worse.

Through it all, may we as the Christians in this nation, and all around the world, never cease to pray for our nation, our people and our leaders.

I Have a Dream

"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

 

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
 

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
 

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
 

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
 

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
 

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
 

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
 

We cannot walk alone.
 

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
 

We cannot turn back.
 

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
 

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
 

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
 

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
 

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
 

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
 

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
 

I have a dream today!
 

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Just Some Quotes (Family)

The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing; but in our culture, we apply for a curse and reject blessings. Something is wrong with this picture. ~ Doug Phillips

The family is the true society ~ Pope Leo XIII

Family means putting your arms around each other and being there.  ~Barbara Bush

In a houseful of toddlers and pets, you can start out having a bad day, but you keep getting detoured.  ~Robert Brault

 There is no cure for laziness but a large family helps.  ~Herbert Prochnov

"A family without a commitment to the God of the Bible has no hope of stemming the tide of cultural onslaught. If we mix a little biblical truth, a little secular psychology, a little romance novel ideology, and a little eastern mysticism, we will get a deadly mixture of lies. Unfortunately, this is exactly what many Christian families do." ~ Voddie Baucham

Any woodsman can tell you that in a broken and sundered nest one can hardly expect to find more than a precious few whole eggs. So it is with the family. -Thomas Jefferson

"If parents have raised their children to be great doctors, lawyers, athletes, or musicians, but have not trained them to honor them and obey God, they have failed." ~ Voddie Baucham

Having a place to go - is a home.  Having someone to love - is a family.  Having both - is a blessing.  ~Donna Hedges

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family. ~Thomas Jefferson

What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life - to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories.  ~George Eliot