Anybody Can Make a New Ending

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning,
but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”- M. Robinson

I came across this quote today and loved it. So often, people despair because of the way things started. But, the beginning is not the end! Start anew with whatever it is that you should do better!

And now, I shall hustle off to the kitchen to make a better ending to the day. Not that the day started badly... actually, it started quite splendidly with me waking up half an hour before my alarm clock. :) I got spend some extra time reading and meditating on the Sermon on the Mount, and for a change, I managed to stick to my to-do list today and check off an awful lot of things that needed to be done.
But now it's time to make a feast for Noah's 19th birthday! I'm the only person home at the moment, so I'd better hurry to get the cake baked and turned into a big bowl of caramel trifle and get the hamburgers cooking!

Everyday Gratitude

Laurel's got me started!

I'm grateful for so many things.

But on this chilly, rainy night I'm grateful for brothers washing dishes...

for piping hot banana bread made by little sisters...

for little children running through the dark, rainy night howling with delight...

for little girls who do not have a mother but come to visit and sleep in my bed...

for the dryer humming nearby...

for a starry-eyed sister on the phone with her Love....

for finding a 20 week baby's heartbeat, when I feared it gone today....

for the friends who are interceding across the country for a situation that
only God can save and fix...

for the sweet card in the mail...

for my mother's gentleness and forgiveness...

for fellow midwives who are too busy to help, but hug me and tell me they understand....

for HOPE... that God is good, no matter what He does with my life.

The Way to Love Anything

“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.”
-G.K. Chesterton

On Loving

"Happiness comes more from loving than being loved;
and often when our affection seems wounded
it is only our vanity bleeding.
To love, and to be hurt often, and to love again --
this is the brave and happy life."
-J.E. Buckrose

Weak, Despised and Foolish Things

When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency to say, 'What wonderfully astute wisdom they had! How perfectly they understood all that God wanted!'
The astute mind is behind the the Mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom, when we should give credit to the Divine guidance of God through childlike people who were foolish enough to trust God's wisdom and the supernatural equipment of God."
- Oswald Chambers

Thou, O Christ,
Who wert tempted in all points
Like as we are, yet without sin,
Make us strong to overcome
The desire to be wise
And to be reputed wise
By others as ignorant as ourselves.
We turn from our wisdom
As well as from our folly
And flee to Thee,
The Wisdom of God
And the Power of God.
Amen.
- A.W. Tozer

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent....Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
....For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness:
....For ye see your calling, brethern, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence."
I Corinthians 1: 18-20, 22, 23, 26-29