life. faithful.

 Dear God, I know You were there at the founding of our nation. The founding fathers weren't perfect by any means, but they did their best to consult You at every step. They wanted to please You, to create a nation that would serve as Your light to the world. For generations, that was the case. Our nation sat as a beacon on the hill, a light in the dark, salt to preserve and help heal a broken world. We have been seen by the rest of the world as a Christian nation, and for the majority of the life of our nation, that's what we've tried to be. As a nation, we claimed Your promises for ourselves--we claimed the covenant. Like the founding fathers, we weren't perfect. We made wrong choices. We promoted attitudes and actions that went against Your plan, even when we knew better. We started moving further from Your plan, pushing You aside. We demanded that people should abandon their faith when they entered the public square--insisting that freedom of religion meant freedom ...

There's a verse in 1 Peter that I hadn't really noticed before. It's funny how that keeps happening to me...books and chapters I've read many times, on pages with underlining or notes, but all of a sudden I read a verse that I've somehow missed. This time it was while we were studying at church Sunday morning: "For the time for judgment has come, and it is beginning with the household of God. If it is starting with us, what will happen to those who have rejected God’s good news?" (1 Peter 4:17) I've been listening to Pastor Allen Jackson a lot lately. I highly recommend that you do the same, but I'll warn you first--he's probably going to step on your toes. One thing he has been pointing out a lot lately? We as professed Christians can't blame the decay in our nation on "them". Our nation is in free-fall because we--those who claim to be followers of Jesus--have failed. We have let a nation founded on biblical truth and biblical...

 My oldest daughter is an artist. She has a sketchbook with her at pretty much all times, and she has the kind of skill that is unimaginable to me. She studies the techniques of others all the time, and right now she's teaching herself animation. Her goal is to one day make children's television programs, shows that parents will know are safe for their kids and teach traditional values. She's graduating next month, so she's being asked all the time what her plans are for college. I've listened to her tell people many times, and it makes me sad. I finally asked her to do me a favor the other day: "Please stop apologizing when you tell people what you're going to study." I think it caught her a little off guard, but her response? It was something along the lines of, "But Mom, I'm going to be an art major . That's who all the jokes are about." I asked her what I thought of at the time: "Are you making the decision that you think God...

 Right off the bat, I have to admit that this title is taken directly from Pop yesterday morning at church. I've been wanting to write about Thanksgiving, but I just couldn't quite wrap my mind around how to get started. When he started our discussion yesterday morning, though, the reminder to celebrate holy days while the world is celebrating holidays struck me. We all know that the holidays have been turned into something they were never intended to be. Christmas has been commercialized to the point that it is barely recognizable. What was intended as the "Mass of Christ" to commemorate and celebrate the birth of Yeshua Hamashiach ("Jesus the Anointed One") has become very little more than a time of getting more stuff. It starts on November 1st, and from that day until the 25th it seems like little more than a competition to show who can make it the biggest and best--the most lights, the most presents, the biggest and jolliest Santa, the most reindeer, the...

We've got a lot going on in our life right now (things I'll go into in more detail later), big changes that are setting our path for the future. And as always seems to be the case, we've got stuff piling up. The last few days have been trying for our family--capped by my niece getting injured in a freak accident with a barn door. I went to bed last night quite simply worn down. My mind was racing with a hundred different things and I really can't tell you how many times I woke up through the night. But then came the morning. One of the things that had gotten piled on was minor, especially in the face of everything else, but it definitely felt like a big deal. Our dryer simply stopped working yesterday. No light inside, no attempt to start when I pushed the button (no matter the setting), no breaker tripped--just nothing. Not a huge thing in the grand scheme of things, but a sizable frustration and inconvenience when it was the proverbial "straw that broke the...

"A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth. It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure." ~Ecclesiastes 7: 1-4 I'm just a couple days away from making one of the hardest trips of my life, traveling back home to quite possibly say goodbye to both my grandfathers. Papaw has had a hard fight for a long time now, battling COPD and emphysema for every breath. Grandpa's fight has been more recent and less obvious, but he now fights against the cancer in his esophagus just to be able to swallow his liquid diet. They have both always been amazing, strong men, and it makes my heart hurt to see their bodies turning on them. I'm broken ...

Blessed. It means made holy in one context. Another definition is happy. It brings up thoughts of safety, security, peace, and prosperity. After all, it's easy to be happy when life is wonderful. What about when things are all going wrong, when t feels like the whole world has turned against you? Are you blessed then, when everything is crumbling against you?  As Jesus was traveling throughout Galilee, those were the people being brought to Him: people racked with pain, the sick, the demon-possessed, the paralyzed, those suffering from seizures. They weren't people living the easy life. Looking out over all the people gathered below Him, Jesus listed those He called blessed: ~the poor in spirit ~those who mourn ~the meek ~those who hunger & thirst for righteousness ~the merciful ~the pure in heart ~the peacemakers ~those who are persecuted because of righteousness ~the people who are insulted, persecuted, and have evil things said against them because of...

I have big news--I'm an aunt! I am beyond excited to introduce you to Avery, my baby sister's new precious little girl. Today's post is for her... ***** My sweet girl, Welcome to the world, little one! You have been prayed for and loved from the moment you were first knit together, and you should know that you have a ton of people who will never stop praying for you! You've been born into two families that will probably drive you crazy at times, but they are two families who will love you unconditionally until the end of time. Sweet Avery, this world you've been born into is a bizarre one. It is full of mysteries and miracles, but it is also full of heartaches and fears. Life has the ability to lift you high above the clouds one minute and then knock you into the dirt the next. I know your momma, though, and I know what sort of stuff you're made of--so I know you'll be able to face whatever is thrown your way. And things will be thrown at you, b...

Snow is something quite incredible. In the midst of all that white, there is a serenity I've never felt anywhere else.  Even with people around, you can be still--because the snow is still. It makes everything quiet. Pure.  It covers everything, even the painful gashes. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18) "wash me, and I will be whiter than snow" (Psalm 51:7)

Look at us--we thought we knew what we were doing, that we knew what love was. I know nobody could've told me then, but a 19 year old really doesn't know anything!  ...not that I know anything now, mind you. But then, maybe that's the difference between then and now. Now, 10 years in, I realize how little I really know. So instead of a post on how much I've learned in 10 years of marriage, how about something different? I present: What I don't know I don't know how... ...one person can so quickly learn to push your every button--and sometimes delight in doing so. ...you can know so much about one person and yet at times feel like you know nothing. ...you can feel like another person is part of you--inside your head and under your skin and in your blood. ....something as abstract as love can be strong and concrete enough to stand against anything. ...one person believing in you can make you try to accomplish what would otherwise seem impossible...

Nine years ago today, I was in the middle of all this:   I would say it was a typical August day in northwest Arkansas, but according to weather underground it was a much cooler than normal 75-degree day. Evil doesn't rest, though, and tragedy strikes even in the midst of joy and beauty. Around 7,000 miles away on the other side of the world, my brother was killed. Look over here if you want to read that story, because this one takes a little different turn. Fast forward a few weeks, to when the shock was starting to wear off. My brother was gone, and I was mad. Not at the war or at the man who killed him--war brings death as part of its natural order, and the man who shot my brother was, to me anyway, like him in the fact that he was a soldier--albeit the enemy--fighting for his beliefs. I wasn't mad at God, not really. Pop was. He had made a promise that he would never talk to God again if He ever took one of us kids, and for a while that was the case....

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value." ~Albert Einstein One of the definitions of success is, "the gaining of fame or prosperity." Value has a lot of definitions, but there are 2 that stand out to me: 1~ "utility or merit" 2~ "a principle, standard, or quality considered worthwhile or desirable" The world, it seems, holds success high above value. Too often people--and probably men especially--are judged on how famous they are or how much money they have managed to accumulate. By those standards, Pop wouldn't rate very highly. His name isn't known around the world; there aren't thousands of people who would recognize his picture. His bank account has never been one of those at risk o not being covered by the FDIC--the paycheck flows back out to pay the bills pretty quickly. By the world's standards, he probably wouldn't be considered a success. But a man of value? That's a v...

We had a dedication service Sunday at church, and one of the things the parents of the babies being dedicated that Mother's Day morning were asked to do was pick out a verse for their kids. That made me think about the verses I would have picked for my kids. Honestly, if I had been asked to choose verses for them when they were tiny I don't know what I would have come up with. Babies are amazing miracles, but you don't really know them until they get a little older and start developing all the quirks that make somebody unique. Now, though, with my babies 6 and almost 4, I'm starting to get a good idea of the little people they are. And now I think I have a better grasp on the verses I would choose for each of them. First there's Raiden. My sweet, bossy, artsy, moody, insightful, cuddly, girly, sensitive, loving, growing up too fast little girl. She loves music and is constantly making up songs. Because of her, the kids go to sleep with their CD player on e...

**This post is part of the weekly link up over at the Faith Barista . The topic for today is, quite simply, "Jesus." One of the bloggers I read was talking about being challenged by another fellow blogger to answer one simple yet profound question: How does Jesus see you? Here's her beautiful answer to that question--you should hop over and take a look! The question immediately caught my attention, basically reaching out to grab me, shake me, and say, "I'm meant for you!" So here I am, my mind rolling over all the crazy thoughts popping up. What's easy to tell you ("easy" is used a bit loosely here!) is how I would see my if I were sitting in Jesus's seat next to the Father and looking down here. What jumps to my mind first are all the flaws: my temper overly sensitive unforgiving definitely not Susie Homemaker impatient a procrastinator never exercises untrusting ...the list could go on, but that's probably enough (I w...

So, school is crazy right now and I have so much physics I should be doing. I have a Modern Physics test  at 8:30 in the morning tomorrow, Quantum Mechanics and Classical Mechanics homework due Friday, a Classical Mechanics test I'll start Friday, Modern homework due next Tuesday... In true Mandy-style, then, I'm procrastinating. I realized it has been quite a while since I posted pictures of the most beautiful kids in the world, so I figured it must be time for picture overload!   A while back we took a trip up to Cabela's to show the kids where Nathan works. As you can see from the picture above, Raiden was her usual girly self and Conan was super excited to be going... oh wait, half of that statement may have been a bit sarcastic...   Once there, they were both pretty excited to see the giant grizzlies fighting over the antlers. So above we have the "before" Halloween picture. I was escorting Snow White and Batman this year. Below is the aft...