God's Little Tests

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." James 1:2-4

I recently heard an interesting analogy: God controls what is at hand (I Peter 1:5,6); God knows our trials, and God knows the happy ending.  Because of Christ's resurrection, the Christian is as secure as HE is alive!

Our heavenly Father is the perfect Teacher and every so often the very best teachers tell us to "pull out a piece of paper and a pencil and we are going to have a little test". They do this to see if we have been studying. In God's case, He already knows. The tests of the Christian life are more to prove to ourselves whether we have been studying.

As I sit reading my Bible, enjoying my 4 oz cup of peppermint tea, I look forward to having a hysterectomy today. It's a little test that I had suspected for the past few days but found out about yesterday. As we spend time with our Lord reading, hearing and speaking about the Word of God daily, those are the times when we are studying for our personal tests. What a blessing that all the promises of God are given to us and remain in our hearts to draw from during testing times.

Thank you to anyone of you who might pray for this particular circumstance today in the recovery during weeks to come.

Soon I'll decide what other 4 ounces of clear liquid I want to drink before the 12:30 bell rings...I suspect it will be peppermint tea. It tasted so good!

Thanks for stopping by the hill. I hope you have a blessed day.

God's Mercies are New Every Morning

A fresh snow on an early May morning? Yes, there was here! Thankfully I only READ about it on Syd's note. He wrote, "It was snowing this morning when I left for work, so be careful going over the mountain." That was at 4:00 a.m. By 5:30 there was just a trace of it. It was 36 out though - brr!
Thankfully my pretty 'Wife's Day' arrangement seems to have withstood it.

Syd knows how I LOVE Gerbera daisys...three plants in this one

In addition to this, Syd picked out the most beautiful hanging petunia plants for our Mom's. I'm sorry I didn't take a photo. They were REALLY full, much like this photo from last  year's which I'd put in the stump (though this year's were even fuller). We delivered those on Saturday.

We had a wonderful Lord's Day at church. Later that evening Gary and I (with the rest of the 'Hill Family') took Mom out for pizza then ice cream. Yes, our local Whippi Dip has opened. There was a long line of people getting ice cream last night, though it was so chilly we needed sweatshirts on! It was comical.

Our most recent addition to the family is little Titus James Rhodes (Machias and Diana's). This was him last weekend when Diana brought him up to meet us.

Titus at 6 weeks

Saying "hi" to Great Grammy

Cooing at Auntie Velora and Gram

I hope you're enjoying this Spring day (and that no one is snowed in). The new greens through the woods and hills are so beautiful. I'm thankful too for God's Word and for His mercies which are 'new every morning'. He blessed me through the Scriptures this morning and I hope that you have been blessed in this way also.  I am reminded of the peace WITH God that I have through knowing Jesus as my Savior and for the peace OF God that the Lord gives when we come to Him with our petitions, in thanksgiving. He is always faithful to us, as it says "...great is thy faithfulness!"

I'm leaving you with photos of a subject that never gets old...Mom! As I loaded these pictures above, I was noticing how many we have of Mom with her children, grandchildren and great grands too. Here are just a few:

with great granddaughter, Megan

...and granddaughter, Velora

here she is with granddaughter, Bobbi Jo

...and granddaughter, Loken

a rare photo of daughter-in-law, Denita (she's hard to catch on camera)

here's Mom with grandson, Dustin and Bethany

Have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by Darling Hill!