Anointed

Approximately 10 minutes before I was to walk down the aisle to marry my husband, my bridesmaids presented me with 3 gifts. At the time, I thought all three gifts were perfectly useless, but accepted them graciously and prepared myself to join my husband.

Boy, was I wrong...my bridesmaids obviously knew a whole lot more than I did.

The first gift was a small frying pan....because the way to a heart is through his stomach. Yeah, it's true. It's 10 years later, and I know it to be completely true. I REALLY needed that frying pan, because little did I know on the day of my wedding, just how many meals I was going to burn as a young bride.

The second gift was a journal. My first thought that I would be too busy in my marital bliss to write in it! Wrong again! I wrote down alot of feelings of frustration and poured out my heart to God because I had no idea what I was doing half the time...halfway across the country, setting up house, new friends, new church, everything was so different!

And the third gift, well, I really need to thank my bridesmaids again and again for this one. It was a small bottle of anointing oil. I have really used this one special little gift. Every single time we move to a new location, I pull out this special bottle, anoint my new home on the door posts, and ask for God's blessings upon our years in it. No, there is nothing magical in the oil at all. We would probably use plain old vegetable oil if I didn't have this little bottle of anointing oil. It's a symbolic declaration asking God to keep our home sacred, set apart, and dedicated to His service. To some, this may seem like a silly gesture, but to me, it's everything. I cannot bear to raise my family or run my home apart from God.
Today, I brought out the little bottle again, and anointed the door posts once more and asked for God's favor in selling our home. I am believing in faith that our house will sell, according to His will. My job is to sit back, wait, and not get in the way of His will. Easier said than done, no? But at least now, since I know that God is in this, and I have asked Him to be in this, it will be done.

And I am putting my little bottle away, to be brought out again before we step foot into our new home.

My favorite place...

One of my favorite things about being a mom is nursing. Nursing forces any busy woman to sit down and enjoy her baby, which is personally what I think God intended. Normally the baby and I sit to feed in the kitchen, because it's really the heart of my home...right in the middle of all of the chaos that goes on during a given day.

But my most favorite place to slip away to "get away from it all" happens to be in the baby's room. She and I go in there whenever we get the chance to, just to enjoy being together. I am surrounded by all of my favorite things in there.

First of all, there is this really old and squeaky recliner. It belonged to my Great-Grandmother, whom the baby is named after. I like to imagine how she would sit and rock in that recliner, many many miles of rocking and praying. And that although she never got a chance to hold my wee little one in her arms, that somehow she is smiling down on us sitting together in that chair. To the left of that ratty recliner, I have an old table that belonged to another grandmother. She kept it in her living room. I can still remember with fondness, the hours I spent in that living room playing cards and sewing and working puzzles with her. She is smiling down on the baby and I too. I keep my favorite coffee mug, a Bible, and various other paperback books on that table, available for my reading pleasure whenever I get the chance. To the right of the chair, sunlight streams through the window into the room, just so, it makes you feel like it's sole purpose is to shine just for you.

The view from this chair is, in my opinion, what makes my favorite place the most special of all. Across the room is the doorway, and when closed (for the ultimate quiet time experience!) it reveals a veritable tapestry of drawings, each crayoned by my older children. You can barely see the door for all of the dozens of drawings! Most of the pictures are drawings of their family members...people that they love and adore.

It is here in my favorite place...on the comfy old recliner, next to a worn table, holding my sleeping baby, that I look at each of those drawings and begin to pray. I thank God for each and every person in those drawings, my family, and I ask for Him to bless them. I thank Him for blessing me beyond measure with everything that my heart has ever desired, according to His Will. I thank Him for His steadfast love, His faithfulness, and His amazing grace.

It is here in my favorite place, that I am filled with what I need to make it through the day. It is here, that I pour out my heart to God, and in it's place receive an exact measure of love in return to pour out to others. It is here that I get my inspiration to do what I do. Thank you God for my favorite place.