Counting from #15 - #21

Sow a thought and you reap an act
Sow an act and you reap a habit
Sow a habit and you reap a character
Sow a character and you reap a destiny

- Charles Reade

A thought spilled out of my ever-wandering mind the other day:   Ideas are gifts.  The very thoughts of my head are gifts!  Especially if I act upon the thought.  And act again.  And again. And again.  A new thought produces a new act.  And a new act produces a new habit.  Over time, this little gift of an idea produces character.

So today I share seven good and perfect ideas (i.e. gifts) from Judi Rossi's book Enhancing Your Marriage.  The fifth chapter focuses on Covenant Love - love as an extension of the Cross.  Love as an extension of Christ's covenant love for us.  Love as an extension of Christ's love in us.  May these ideas root in the soil of our hearts, reap an act, grow a habit, shape a character, destine our marriages, for...

1. "As Christian marrieds, we have a high calling - forgive, reconcile, restore - the very message of the cross.
2. "If my life is based on proclaiming God's message to the world [and to my husband], I don't want to do anything that would challenge that message."
3. "Following God requires our commitment to build a marriage God's way.  H way takes time, wisdom, patience, courage, and perseverance, all of which God possesses.  And by His grace, so do we."
4. "What you believe about love right now - true or false - is presently doing three things.  1. affecting your marriage;  2.  shaping your behavior and responses to your mate; 3. helping determine your future happiness and emotional well-being.  What you believe is that important.  How much better to believe the truth!"
5. "God has chosen to love us, not with an irrational emotion but with deliberate kindness, genuine compassion, and righteous concern for our well-being.  Therefore, He doesn't love us because of who we are, but because of who His is."
6.  Moses permitted divorce because the hearts of men were hard toward their wives.  Thank you, God, that Jeff's heart towards me is tender and mercy-full.
7. In covenant love we don't love our husbands because of who they are but because of whose we are.  We are God's. And God's love is in us.  Love as an extension of Christ's love in us.  Love as an extenion of Christ's love for us.  Love as an extension of the cross.

Counting from #8 - #14

Continuing the count for the week of Dec 25th - Jan1st:

8.  2 surprise CDs for Christmas: Matt Maher, the love in between and Casting Crowns, Come to the Well.  Can't wait to download them to my iPod and just sit...and know...that He is God.

9.  A FREE, perfect toddler table to outfit our school room.  Perfect!  Did I mention it was perfect?
10.  Success!  Re-organized school room receives flurry of activity from four spunky students.  Mommy got the kid-eye perspective right this time.
11.  The prayer of faithful husband answers long-held hope of faithful wife.  Lead on my dear husband.  Lead on!
12.  A heavenly reminder to just 'BE' in the moment shifts my eyes to the back seat of the car - and sees beautiful 5 yr-old daughter glowing in sun's rays.  BE-autiful!
13.  Pure Grace - my husband's patient, caring attention during a hormone hayride. 
14.  Encouragement from friends known and unknown.  I will keep stepping.  I will keep counting. I will keep going further up and further in.

Further Up and Further In

Somewhere about the final chapter of C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe series, main characters Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy proclaim, "Further up and further in!"  After all they had seen, all they had done, all the places they had already visited and conquered and declared the victory, their final words cry out for even more.  "Further up, and further in!"  In Narnia and this world alike, where God directs the adventure, there is always more.

A few months ago I pressed, "pause" on writing.  Life got busy. We moved a family of six 5000 (!) miles around the globe, set up a new school house, embraced the Christmas season with even more boxes to open and yet, there is more.

More experiences to share.  More words to untangle from my spaghetti brain.  More prompts from the Lord to travel, "further up and further in" this writing adventure.

So I step.  Inspired by an amazingly grace-filled woman aptly named Ann, I travel further up by looking up.  And His abundance flows right down to my feet.  One thousand times one thousand I receive from the author of my own adventure - Grace, Peace, breath, life, even the very bread I eat - and do I even say, "thank you"? Can I even remember to give thanks? 

I step again, traveling further in.  "Pray always, rejoice continually, and give thanks to the Lord in all circumstances" (1 Thes 5:16-18). I travel further in by submitting to God's will, enter in to His very presence in prayer, pause long enough to re-experience the joy He offers - for joy is a gift, and stop to merely say, "Thank you" for what I see and for what I can only imagine.


I don't really know how to travel this road further up and further in, but I am starting today by responding to Ann's challenge tojust say "Thank you,"  Thank you for the gifts the Lord has brought.  Thank you for the gifts He continues to bring.  And thank you for the gifts He promises to bring - for there is always more.

Won't you join me as we count them out together?  Won't you start your own list?  Just to see how much more is in store for you...and me?

My One Thousand Gifts (#s 1-7):

1. A Savior, my Savior, who rescued me from the death of sin
2. My man - who has loved me when I was unlovable and has pursued my heart for over 20 years
3. Samuel - my firstborn and constant surprise
4. Emilie - the mirror of my own heart, if not my own face
5. Sarah - the personification of childlike faith
6. Jack - the joy of the Lord captured in a 4 yr-old
7. A family...my family...the place I call home.  My heart longed for 'more' through years of higher education and professional pursuit.  Praise God that He always offers 'more.'