A CHALLENGE

Our book table at the Women's Conference - it was fun to set it up and to sell the books, but it was not fun taking it down! 

Our Women's Conference took place at Cornerstone on Friday night and Saturday of this past weekend. Janet Pope was our speaker. I really enjoyed her - she was challenging to me. She has memorized fourteen BOOKS of the Bible in the past sixteen years along with many other chapters in between. She recommended that we read, meditate, and memorize God's Word. She also recommended that we memorize whole passages so that we don't take verses out of the context and so that we get the whole picture of what God is saying. What I thought was so good was when she said that it doesn't really do any good to just memorize the scripture unless in doing it we are seeking to know the HEART of God. She mentioned that many Christians feel a "disconnect" with the Lord because they don't really know his heart. She gave the example of our relationships with friends. Some people are our friends but we don't "connect" with some the way we do others. It usually takes knowing something of the person's heart for us to connect with them. She also said that just KNOWING God's heart is not enough. We have to HAVE God's heart and then DO the things that God has planned for us to do in the world.

The speaker recommended that we start with Psalm 1 to memorize and ask God to show us what he wants us to learn from it as we learn a verse a day and then take about a week to review it every day. Here it is:  

"Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his DELIGHT is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish."

This was challenging to me - when Janet recited scripture, she just made it so alive - she knew it well, and it was obvious that she knew the Lord well, too! 

A TIME TO RELAX AND HAVE FUN!

Saturday night was a much needed relaxing night after a week of crazy busyness! It was a week filled with obligations as well as a lot of other things that made my week very stressful. After our Women's Conference on Saturday (very good!), Terry and I had the pleasure of taking Shelley, Matthew, and Bob out for Shelley's birthday. (which was Friday) We went to a new place for us - Cheeseburger in Paradise. It was a good place to get a burger and lots of other things as well. It is decorated in tropical decor and was a fun place. Matthew is usually very congenial about getting his picture taken and pleasantly says, "Cheese!"

Somehow my pictures got out of order, so after eating we all went back to Shelley and Bob's and just relaxed and played outside for a while with Matthew. I love this picture of Matthew lying in the grass!

It was a beautiful week - couldn't help but enjoy the green grass, the trees, tulips, and this nice evening. We are very blessed!  "He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them." Daniel 2.21

Terry decided Shelley and Bob's door could use a little fixing, so he got right to it and was pretty successful in making it close better. What would we do without Terry?

And here Terry is with our sweetie! They are great buddies! Terry loves being with Matthew! I suspect it is the same for Matthew.

Here we are back at the restaurant with Shelley opening her present from us and Matthew helping!

We played with Matthew for about an hour outside back at their house. He showed me how he makes a basket. I was trying to teach him to dribble first, but I think he is too little yet.

One thing that we did that was fun this past week was take Matthew to Toys 'R Us to buy a tricycle. He got to pick out the one he wanted (within reason!) and this is the one he chose. He really can't ride it very far yet. He can make the pedals go around, but it is still hard for him to do it by himself.

Here is our slugger - or slugger to be. He's very protective of that ball! We all played a little baseball and Matthew pretended to be running the bases. We kidded him that he hits the baseball just like he plays hockey and golf! (with the bat on the ground!)

I love this picture of Matthew and his daddy! They make a great pair. Matthew likes to copy everything his dad does! Two sports fans!  :)

By the way, check out my March 28 post! That was only four weeks ago. We had about six inches of snow the night before! Only four weeks later - what a change! That is why I love Michigan and the change of seasons.