More Prayers Needed

Acts 1:8
"But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." 

We want to thank all of you who have prayed for Mom. We would appreciate prayer for her and for those in the family who know the Lord Jesus as our Savior. There have been some setbacks in Mom's health and there have been opportunities to witness for Jesus Christ.

Some recent pictures:

Listening to the Bible readings on-line

Ruger was so happy to see her

"Grammy, wake up! I'm here!"

At this time Mom is experiencing a serious infection, for which she is hospitalized. Please continue to pray for health, for her comfort, peace and for the Lord's leading. The family needs guidance as to what the next step is when and if she is able to leave the hospital. We appreciate all the calls and surely the prayers! 

Some beautiful pictures from this lovely Fall:

A picture I took on my way to work one morning

This is a photo Syd took while on his mail route

The apples on the Hill were BOUNTIFUL this year!

The A's came to pick apples with us this year. Here they are on Grammy's prayer rock

 ...and we celebrated our 35th anniversary that day! Praise the Lord!

Happy Birthday, Honey!

“For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this 

cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his 

wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 

This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

Ephesians 5:30-32

Happy Birthday to YOU, Happy Birthday to YOUUUUU, Happy Birthday to SYDney! 

Happy Birthday to YOUUUUU!

It's not a cake, but it's his favorite - GRITS!

I had bought Syd some hot salsa made with tomatillos. He had it in his favorite breakfast this morning - his Grits! Much healthier than cake too.

I am thankful for the wonderful man that God sent into my life 35 years ago. 

Happy 57th birthday, to my Honey!

An update on Mom:

Yesterday I was pleased to see the physical therapists at the hospital and they were doing some therapy! Please pray that Mom can focus and that she'll have the "umph" to endure therapy and eventually lend much strength to it. This has taken a whole lot out of her, of course. She is still not able to use her right side and still not speaking. We are thankful for those of you who have expressed that you are praying and will continue to. We are waiting on the Lord to show us the next step.

God's Strength Made Perfect in our Weakness

"My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong." II Cor. 12:9,10

That is typed out by me for confirmation, not because we have learned the lesson fully, but because we want to "reckon" God's Word and promises to be so!

Please pray for Mom; for her spiritual and physical comfort and needs to be met. Please pray for the family and church family; for wisdom in decisions to be made and for God to make the believers to grow in Christ, and unbelieving to come to faith in His Son. Already there has been a strong testimony left to many involved since this most recent stroke on Saturday morning.

God's Word and promises are true. His love is unfailing!

We enjoyed coffee on the porch on Friday

Mom's littlest visitor, on Saturday

So Faithful!

He abides faithful!

I am thankful for the promises of God in His Word. He brings those things into our lives that will cause us to grow. We serve such a loving, blessed, wise God. I hope that you are encouraged today that no matter what you are going through, God is faithful and His love sustains you through it. His grace is sustaining me and our family at this time.

I am thankful for my husband, for dear family members and for church family and Christian friends' encouragement and help day by day. Syd and I have special friends who call on the phone to share prayer requests and who we can encourage (and they especially encourage us) in the Lord. We have other special ones who come alongside to physically help us in trials and troubles. Thank you; thank the Lord!

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." I Cor. 10:13

I am thankful that He reminded me of this verse all week (it was hidden in my heart years ago) to remind me that my/our trial is not unique. It is given for a reason and He sustains us in it and will bring us out!  What a personal God we serve!

Neither, Nor

"For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor principalities,

 nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any

 other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in

 Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 8:38, 39

...that's a lot of "nor"s! More than anything, I want to be "persuaded", truly persuaded of this. I am persuaded in my brain, but sometimes my heart forgets. No matter our failings, a Christian can be sure that our Lord God loves, loves, loves us. 

Blessings are surely had in putting God's Word to memory. I am thankful for children and teens in our church who we can memorize with. I am finding that a teen's mind is so much keener than mine these days. No excuses though. We are to hide God's Word in our hearts "that I might not sin against thee".

It is also a "persuader", as we reckon the Word to be true!

We have been through many things with Mom these past two weeks. Those of you who are "pray"ers ~you know who you are (:  ~we would appreciate much prayer for her. These days I have been more and more thankful for her as she goes through struggles and praises the Lord regularly. It is truly a blessing to spend time with Mom. She teaches me daily. Now she is struggling with health problems that she's never experienced. She is trusting the Lord. We, as family members, are learning to do so too.

The tomatoes are on the vines here. Many of you are probably enjoying their fruit already. Ours are still green, but we're looking forward to picking soon. 

Happy Summer to you all!

A Personal Moment

I have not posted in so long! I miss it, but things get so busy. The little (and huge) blessings come along and I miss recording them. Today's was just too sweet not to post about.

You know, when you're praying to the Lord and Satan tries to get his little "digs" in, trying to disrupt and cause you to sin? This morning I was thinking of a conversation I had with someone yesterday. As I prayed about it, I said, "Thank you, Lord, for this little cabin that you've given us. It's nothing grand, in fact there are SO many little things that are inconveniences...." THAT'S when Satan stepped in and tried to make me discontent. The verses that came to mind were I Timothy 6:6 and 8..."But godliness with contentment is great gain"..."And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content." I quoted them to the Lord as I prayed.

If any of you read the little devotional, Feature, today, you'll know the section of Scripture that was on today's agenda...I Timothy 6:6-11! As I opened my Bible, there it was! The Lord is so good to us always. It's these personal times that amaze us, isn't it? I love Him.

Thank you for stopping by the hill today. I would not have blamed you if you'd given up on visiting Darling Hill. We have not had much time, and not a lot of happenings to blog about, but the Lord is always the best topic of conversation - and He is always someone we can exalt and promote on the Hill. Take care, friends!

Giving Thanks

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” I Thess. 5:18

This morning I start a job that I had not sought, but one that is obvious that the Lord wants me to do. It involves moving from my "beloved" (my favorite, at least) Post office to one 7 miles away. We have prayed for the Lord's will, and not our own, to be done. He has made the answer clear and now it is time to continue to thank Him for answer to prayer... to thank Him this morning, and to continue to thank Him throughout the days and weeks ahead. He reminded me today, through time in the Scriptures, that through thanksgiving is the only way that I can be used in the place where He has put me. It is amazing how many reminders we need, over and over; and how easily we forget the lessons that we thought He had taught us!

This morning God led me to the Mountain View Bible Church website, after visiting it last evening. When it was time to listen to a morning message, God seemed to lead me back there. Pastor Pelletier was preaching on contentment, from Philippians 4. He had asked his mother to open the service by giving a short testimony. Many years ago, when the children were young, her husband had committed suicide. She shared that one morning as she sat on her bed she quoted the above verse; one which her husband had shared with her only weeks previous, after attending a Christian seminar. As she sat there she prayed, "Lord, I thank you for this situation. I don't like it, but I thank you for it." I thank the Lord for her testimony, through such sad and adverse circumstances. What a loving, great and personal God we serve!

I know that (as well as the rest of the message Pastor Pelletier preached) this is one thing that the Lord wanted me to hear today. I hope that if you are experiencing a situation that is difficult, distasteful or simply trying on your patience today, that God will give you the grace to give thanks for even that very thing. He promises to bless obedient children. Christians have a loving Father and the power of God's Spirit gives us strength to obey.

Step by step, step by step, I will follow Jesus; all the day, all the way, keeping step with Jesus.

I hope that you all have a wonderful day. It is a rainy one here. How green and lush everything is. This rain does remind me to pray for the people out in Texas who are underwater and in dire circumstances today.

Thank you for stopping by the Hill.