the Cross

The Cross by Max Lucado

The cross. Can you turn any direction without seeing one? Perched atop a chapel. Carved into a graveyard headstone. Engraved in a ring or suspended on a chain. The cross is the universal symbol of Christianity. An odd choice, don't you think? Strange that a tool of torture would come to embody a movement of hope. The symbols of other faiths are more upbeat: the six-pointed star of David, the crescent moon of Islam, a lotus blossom for Buddhism. Yet a cross for Christianity? An instrument of execution?

Would you wear a tiny electric chair around your neck? Suspend a gold-plated hangman's noose on the wall? Would you print a picture of a firing squad on a business card? Yet we do so with the cross. Many even make the sign of the cross as they pray. Would we make the sign of, say, a guillotine? Instead of the triangular touch on the forehead and shoulders, how about a karate chop on the palm? Doesn't quite have the same feel, does it?

Why is the cross the symbol of our faith? To find the answer look no farther than the cross itself. Its design couldn't be simpler. One beam horizontal--the other vertical. One reaches out--like God's love. The other reaches up--as does God's holiness. One represents the width of his love; the other reflects the height of his holiness. The cross is the intersection. The cross is where God forgave his children without lowering his standards.

How could he do this? In a sentence: God put our sin on his Son and punished it there.
"God put on him the wrong who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God" (2 Cor. 5:21 MSG).

Mom2Mom & More

I was looking for a stain glass piece to add to the doorway

to the girl's playhouse in the basement.

Not a fancy piece mind you.

So I went to Layman's Antique mall in Newton

and came out with this! Didn't seem like an antique but I knew the girls would just love this!

I had to get it!

I LOVE going to antique stores.

I get warm fuzzies in there, looking at all the toys I used to play with or books I read as a child. Sometimes I come away with great finds too. Like this doll house above.

When I was a little girl I had a doll house made of tin.

All the rooms had plastic furniture and I played with it for hours!!

I come across these in antique stores.

Again - warm fuzzies!

Here is what Sophie liked about the house.

Tuesday night and this morning we had our

last Mom2Mom of the year.

It has been such a blessing to me!

The speaker this month was Della Loewen.

She spoke on true submission.

She shared how Satan distorts the truth about that.

He wants us to think it is awful.

It is not being subservient. It is not being a door mat.

It is a divine calling to show honor and respect to our husbands.

Respecting his judgment. Not tearing him down.

It is a position we take under him to find rest and covering.

Just as Christ submitted to the Father

we also submit to our husband's leadership.

Della was very honest in her struggles

and I know she would love to talk to anyone

about it if you have questions.

Bobby Friesen took us out to the lobby

to do worship choreography - ok, dance.

Dancing to the Lord.

After giving a few lessons, the girls began the dance.

It was just beautiful and very worshipful!

"Let them praise His name with dancing..." Psalm 149:3


There were give-aways of beautiful flowers.

We also honored Marilyn Reimer.
She has served as the Mom2Mom Coordinator for a long time.
She has been WONDERFUL!
Next year, Carolyn Dewey will be taking the reigns.
The Mom2Mom team is really awesome!!
If you have never come, I hope you do next year!

Sweet Ike and his mommy.

Today was a beautiful spring day. Jill, Adam and the girls
came over for pictures and to walk along the lake.



"The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth;

the time of the singing of birds has come..."

Song of Solomon 2:11,12

Reunion

My granddaughter, Emeri Graber, would like to announce that she will become a big sister sometime in November! Her Mommy, Staci, is not feeling well. Not only does she have the typical nausea, but she contracted mono also. Pray for strength for her. We are all soooo excited and wondering if we'll have granddaughter #4 or grandson #1.
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Back in the fall of 2003, our young married small group consisted of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy (aka Tony and Angela Estes), Cinnamon Life and regular Life cereal (Joel and Kendall Smith), and Samson and Delilah (Allen and I). We enjoyed being together until spring 2005 when Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann moved to Lebanon, Oregon. After the Estes went to Oregon, the Jordans, McClenahans, Collin and Andrea Siebert and Marc and Sarah Friesen joined the Smiths and us. Now they all are in various groups of their own. We still like to hang out with these young "kids"!

Tony and Angela decided to come for a visit this past weekend so we had a great reunion along with some new additions.

Kendall and sweet Lily

Tony, Angela and Emma

Oliver loves to hang around.

I took the Estes to the zoo on Saturday. Emma's first zoo experience!

We had to take the regular zoo picture everyone has been showing on their blogs.

The lion was up very close. Emma did NOT want to get any closer!

I put my nose right up to the

glass and quite frankly looked

right into his eyeballs. I about

freaked and thought he would

pounce at me!

Taking pictures for our blogs.

Al and Lily

So when Oliver got on his rocking horse like this, Kendall said, "Oliver, wouldn't you like to come down?" and Joel said, "Oliver, wouldn't you like to rock?" Ha!

It was a good time to catch up on one another's lives. We watched the basketball games and also played Imaginiff, one of our favorite games. Thanks for the visit Tony and Angela and Emma!

* * * * * * * * *

Today I was preparing supper. Jill and the girls had come over for supper while Adam had to go to choir practice. The tv in the kitchen was on and Hannah was intently watching this one commercial. She turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, do you know what Reclass is?" (Reclast, a bone density pill that Al says costs $1500 - you take one a year) Jill didn't understand. "Reading class?" "No. Reclass. It's for women who are swimming. It helps them swim. Maybe you should take some." The commercial obviously showed a lady with strong bones who was swimming.

* * * * * * * * * *

Are you following the NCAA bracket challenge? Our family has this ugly trophy that we pass around to the winner each year. The winner has to proudly place the trophy in a visible spot. This year our son is doing really well. Josh is 1,744th in the nation. With around 3.7 million people playing, that puts him 99.95% ahead of everyone! Needless to say, he will have to put that trophy on the mantel he is building for his fireplace!

Preschool and Adoption

This morning, Jill taught Kindermusik classes and so while Sophie and Jill were at that, Hannah was at my home. We had Nana's Preschool. We were ready for Day 6 of creation. After the story, Hannah wanted a snack. I was out of animal crackers, which would have been the perfect theme snack, and she wanted popcorn. Popcorn reminded her of sheep and also snow bears (polar bears).

After the popcorn had popped, she wanted some melted butter. While I went to put some butter in the microwave, she got ahold of the popcorn salt and dumped the entire contents into the popcorn. Needless to say, it was way too salty to eat!! Here is the bottom of the bowl.

We made some more popcorn. Salt is good, but too much is not good at all. Did you know that in Bible times, salt was used as money, as part of the salary? Our word "salary" comes from the Roman word "salarium" - allowance of salt. Salt kept meat from spoiling (a good thing if you don't have refrigeration). In the acidic Middle East salt acted as a fertilizer. It causes thirst. On the negative side, when an army defeated a town, they would dump lots of salt on the land around it. That made the land infertile for 10 years!

Jesus said "You are the salt of the earth". As we live for Christ, may we help prevent evil (as salt prevents decay). May we bring healing and refresh others, and give people a thirst for more of the Word!

After snack, we went downstairs and got out all the stuffed animals for a zoo. Here is Hannah at the herpatorium...

at the lion's cage...

with the elephants...

at the bird sanctuary....

Oh, did any of you see that piece on the news last night where this guy rescued 8 baby owls? He said he had to feed them 50 mice a day!!! And they showed them eating those critters. Gross!

FYI, in college at Hutch JUCO, Al used to have to feed baby mice to Oscar (one of those HUGE flat fish). I could not watch!!

Hannah's preschool work. We talked about dinosaurs. I know the world teaches that these giants lived way before man, but if you believe the Bible, that can't be. Animals were made on the same day as man. And even if you happen to be one of those who believe in theistic evolution, God says that death did not happen until sin entered the world, so Adam and Eve had to live during the time of dinosaurs.

Lunch time. Theme lunch.

Here is a picture of Sophie in her cute little hippo crocs. I got these at Dillons. Hannah wanted a pair too but they were only for toddlers.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This afternoon, I went to the court house to see Mark and Anbeth Anderson adopt little Payton. As nursery director I was there when Payton first arrived at the Anderson home. It is official now. Payton is now Payton Grace Anderson. Very tearful and touching time. Remembering the day we adopted Mindy. Very sweet. So many analogies of God's love for us as He chooses to adopt us into His family.

Congratulations Anderson family!!

Trip to Arkansas

Here is a picture of our Thursday morning Bible study. Sarah Weber and I help lead the "not so" Young Marrieds small group leader wives. We are studying Beth Moore's study of the book of Daniel. Quite challenging right now but we plug on. We love to eat breakfast together, chat, encourage one another and of course, pray for each other and for the community life groups they are in.

We are at the point in Daniel, where we are talking prophecy. Of course there is much debate about the interpretation. Scholars disagree. But really, it is not for us to understand it completely. He is God, not us. We must trust Him and believe that He has His purposes and they will be fulfilled. Who among us can truly understand precisely what God is doing or why. But He is in control and if we know Him, we know all we need to know.

On Friday morning, Al and I packed up our bags and headed out for Fayetteville, Arkansas to see our son and his family. The storm was nipping at our heels as we left. You can see the ice beginning to form on our car. Luckily we stayed pretty much ahead of the storm and by the time we returned on Sunday evening, most of the snow was melted.

When we got to Josh and Staci's, Al helped Josh with his to-do list. Josh was tiling his laundry room so Al watched and learned how to do that for when we tackle our basement bathroom.

The door wasn't closing correctly so they worked on that and also put in blinds in Josh's art room.

Emeri likes to make "happy face"s. She wants us to make them with her food on her tray. That's ok if it is Cheerios, but when it is baby food green beans or yogurt....

Staci felt pretty sick while we were there. She might have mono, but it could be some other virus too. She works part-time as a pediatric nurse practicioner so is high risk for any junk all the little kiddos bring in to the office. So we let her rest and we fixed food, did laundry, watched Emeri, etc. Get well soon Staci!!

We love playing with Emeri! Emeri's name, by the way, is from using Al's mom's middle name, (Kathern Marie), Staci's middle name (Staci Marie) and her mother's too (Lisa Marie). But they decided not to go with Marie but a variation of it. Emeri's middle name is Kate so her name is like Al's mom's name backwards. She would have loved it and felt so honored. She died of cancer when Josh was about 10 years old.

Josh is the worship pastor at New Heights Fellowship. They meet at the Boys and Girls Club and are planning on building a facility at some point. Josh used to be one of the worship guys at Fellowship Bible but many people, including Josh, are now here. This is sort of a plant of that church. Doug Stucky's brother and family attend here (for those of you from Grace who know them).

It was good to get away for awhile. Lots of catch up to do - laundry, clean house, Bible study, nursery work for next Sunday, blogging, playing with Sophia and Hannah... Wish Emeri was closer!

Playdough Fun and Dreams

While Jill went to teach her baby Kindermusik class this morning, the girls and I had some fun with Playdough. I got a new Playdough ice-cream maker machine at Target last week so we made ice-cream cones and cupcakes. Sophia is just learning that Playdough is not to eat - sort of.

Maybe they are some future Dairy Queen workers? By the way, Sarah, you had a wonderful post about community life groups. Really good!! Well, on Friday night I had a terrible dream. A nightmare!! It was about Jill and Adam's community life group. For some reason, part of what they did as a group was to sacrifice themselves one at a time to be killed for the good of the community. Is that horrible or what?? I can't recall who it was, but one of them was being killed while I watched. They were using electric drills and screwdrivers and such to slowly kill this person. And they were ok with it. They didn't find it disturbing or wrong!!! I was trying to tell them it was murder and trying to stop it, but to no avail.

Frankly, I have had a few very vivid and horrid dreams and I have decided it is due to some medication I have taken at night. I have decided to take it in the morning. Al says it shouldn't have that affect, but I don't agree with the pharmacist on this one.

The odd thing is, on Sunday night a few of us got together to do some Sunday School planning and Jess tells us that Joel had a dream Saturday night where he was punching the air. He said he was dreaming that someone was killing him with screwdrivers and he was trying to fight them! How weird is this????

You're my friend

Today Jill and I went to Dillons to shop. Hannah pushed her little cart and followed me around, while Sophia wanted to sit in the cart. She would turn around and pick up the frozen corn, or bag of chips - whatever and want to just chew on it. She is getting some real teethers that are hurting.



Hannah decided to come with me to go pick up some more mulch that I needed. With winds 40-50, it was quite a chore driving the pickup! We had the windows down and were just screaming with delight at the wind! We had to roll up the windows as some sand came blasting in. Hannah's eyes began to water some and she said she thought her daddy should become an eye dentist so he could fix it.



Then she said something that melted this grandma's heart. "Nana, you're my friend." Isn't that soooo sweet? Somehow the conversation got to talking about allergies. I am allergic to brocolli and my stomach cramps and I throw up (not a pretty thought, sorry) so although it is one of my favorite veggies, I can't have it.



Hannah told me, "I'm allergic to a kind of pea. One time, I ate them and my tummy hurt. But my mommy read me a Berenstain Bear book and then I felt better. You know, Nana, maybe sometime when you accidently eat brocolli you should read a Berenstain Bear book and you would feel better."