Whatever's been happening here...

Busy, busy, busy..... Today my brother, Shawn & his two children, Kirra & Ezra came in from Hawaii. So, Kirra is out riding horses with Elisabeth & Abigail, Ezra and Deborah are picking out melodies on the piano behind me & I am back inside working on colonial era dresses for our George Washington Family day next weekend.... well, that is, that is what I should be doing. Instead, I am writing on my blog?!

This morning Elisabeth and I went to Bible Study with some sweet ladies from Muldoon Baptist Church. We are studying with Beth Moore in the book of Esther! That is one incredible study right there, I highly, highly recommend it to any woman! I have thoroughly enjoyed digging into the word & watching the story come alive to me! I mean, I've read the book of Esther many, many times & learned it's story by heart since I was a little child in Sunday School, but to see the pieces of the puzzle put together in ways that I've never imagined... seeing parallels between the circumstances in Esther and prophecies & songs and writings from other places in the Bible, and seeing how God's name, though not officially in the pages of the book of Esther, is most definitely on it, has been so, so awesome! My favorite quote, and I learned this at the beginning of the study... recently has been this. Cause you know how we, especially as homeschoolers, and protected young people are told again & again to surrender the pen of our lives and our stories to the hand of God for Him to write. Well, the truth that I found so incredible is this : "When we trust our lives to the unseen but ever present God, He will write OUR LIVES into HIS STORY & every last one of them will trun out to be a great read with a grand ending... And not just in spite of those catastophies. Often because of them. Don't just wait and see. Live and see."

Now about those dresses....

My Magnificent Obsession

So, I have a blog. Regardless of whether or not anyone reads it... :) I have commited this year, 2009, to be my 'Jesus Year'. & it has definitely started out with a bang! I attended a Beth Moore & Travis Cottrell Conference in December & there I purchased an audio series taken from the verse in Psalm 37, "Delight yourself in the Lord & He will give you the desires of your heart." I took the challenge to Delight myself in the Lord & let Him become the delight of my heart this year & already He has changed my life!! When I was in the middle of listening to Beth's series on delight, I was also listening to a CD by Steven Curtis Chapman. The song that caught my attention was "Magnificent Obsession"

Lord, You know how much
I want to know so much
In the way of answers and explanations
I cried and prayed
And sitll I seem to stay
In the middle of life's complications
All this pursuing leaves me feeling like I'm chasing down the wind
But now it's brought me back to You
And I can see again

THIS IS EVERYTHING I WANT
THIS IS EVERYTHING I NEED
I WANT THIS TO BE MY ONE CONSUMING PASSION
EVERYTHING MY HEART DESIRES
LORD, I WANT IT ALL TO BE FOR YOU, JESUS
BE MY MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION

So capture my heart again
Take me to depths I've bever been
Into the riches of Your grace and Your mercy
Return me to the cross
And let me be completely lost
In the wonder of the love
That You've shown me
Cut throught these chains that tie me down to so many lesser things
Let all my dreams fall to the ground
Until this one remains

Seriously. What powerful lyrics. My magnificent obsession. This is my heart for 2009... and for the rest of my life. "His love is better than life." Nothing else... Nothing else matters.