Eyes on Jesus

The past month has been crazy busy.  There have also been lots of attacks from the evil one on our family....  Guess we must be headed in the right direction!!

While I am reading through the Bible this year chronologically I was missing the New Testament...  okay, I am a dork.  So I decided to play some Holy Hopscotch.  (For those who are unfamiliar with this - it is simply reading random passages with no plan....  not recommended as you will miss so much!).

In Matthew 14, there is the story of Jesus walking on the water during a extremely windy times (a storm??).  As I have been meditating on this it occurred to me Jesus did NOT calm the storm.  He reached out His hand to Peter and said, "Come." 

Peter then was able to choose to obey or disobey.  When Peter choose obedience, he was able to walk toward Jesus. 

But Peter took his eyes off of Jesus in the middle of the storm (how often do I do the same thing??)

Then Peter cries out "JESUS!!"  (yep, I do that too!!)

As He always will - Jesus reached out His hand and caught Peter.  There is a part of me that wonders if standing there on the water - Jesus, knowing Peter's fear and wanting to comfort him, gave Peter a great big hug....

When they were back in the boat then the winds died down.  Did they die down because Peter felt safe and knew where his strength was?  Did they die down because Peter was obedient?   Did they die down because every storm runs out of rain?  Storms will end and, at some point, another one will come along.

God NEVER promised us this life would be easy.  He does promise us to walk beside us and there amazing rewards spending eternity with Him.

God is great and He is on the throne.

Time with Forrest

 

Well, we promised pictures of Forrest.  We had so much fun while we had him.  But, he does have A LOT of energy!!!  On Friday we went with David, Sarah and Grace to the RV show.  It was so cute how Forrest kept reaching for Grace wanting to give her kisses.  We hope they will be good friends as well as cousins!!

It was funny how some of the sales people thought they were siblings..... they are pretty opposite in looks - Forrest is blond, blue eyed and fair; Grace is dark, brown eyes with an olive complexion.

 Besides the RV show (and Cracker Barrel for dinner) the only place we went was church - where Forrest charmed everyone.  We did discover that he loves to eat bananas with Papaw!!

At home he enjoyed pulling books off the shelves, dumping his toys onto the floor and playing with Tank.  Pretty sure Tank was glad to see him leave!!

We loved watching him walk around in his jammies - looks like he has bee hanging with Uncle Jay with the sagging!!

We were chatting last night how crazy it is to feel so much love for these grandchildren.   We want to love on them, protect them, laugh with them...

God has truly blessed us.  He is so amazing!!

Forrest

We have had Forrest since Wednesday evening.  We are soooooooooo tired!!  I don't remember one year olds being so much work!!!  But then we were 20 years younger.....

Yesterday we went with David, Sarah and Grace to the RV show.   It was fun to watch Forrest and Grace interact.  Forrest kept wanting to give her kisses.

At some point we will get some pictures - but for now, just trying to keep up!!

God has blessed us with beautiful, intelligent grandchildren.  God is so good.

 Though we normally like to avoid camping on holiday weekends - due to everyone's work schedule we decided to head out for the First Annual Wuerfel Memorial Day Weekend.

Brian and David headed up Wednesday mid-afternoon to ensure we would get a good camping spot.  Sarah, Grace and I went up on Thursday after Sarah got off work.

Brian and David found a marvelous spot in campground 9354.  We were extremely secluded.  In fact, no one ever heard the screams while we were playing corn hole!!

Thursday Brian and David fished - they caught fish and had a great time.


On Friday we weren't sure when Jay and Megan were coming up so we just bummed around, then decided to head over to Woods Canyon Lake.  There were quite a few people and the fish appeared to be sleeping....

Jay and Megan arrived about dinner time. We had a nice evening just sitting around the propane campfire.


On Saturday we headed over to Bear Canyon Lake for more fishing.  As usual - no fish.  We should probably remember that since we have NEVER caught fish there!!

After lunch we headed to the edge of the rim to take pictures then over to Gentry Lookout and Black Canyon Lake. 

The great thing - fishing was decent.  So decent that we ended up there again on Sunday.  David, Jay and Brian had a blast - between them they caught ten fish. 

We went back to camp.  For dinner we had some of the fish and made pizza.  We then played Phase 10 until we were too cold to continue!!

On Monday we headed home.  This was by far one of the best camping trips we have ever had.  It is really cool to hang out with your children.

God is very good!!

Grace's First Trip up North

David's birthday was last weekend and he wanted to go up north.  So we packed a lunch and the five of us - David, Sarah and Grace; Brian and myself piled into the truck. 

Grace was very excited to be going fishing and exploring...  at two months old as long as you are fed and changed life should be good!! 

Brian and David fished Lower Lake Mary for a couple of hours - they caught four but gave them to someone.

After a picnic lunch we decided to go exploring.....  We headed down a road we had been before.  We came to a rapidly running wash, since we weren't sure we were headed the right direction, we turned around to find another road.  This was good for a while....

We were driving along and the road sort of dissolved.  Not to fear - David and Brian examined the situation and found a way to get us through.  All is good (ominous music....)

We round a corner and find it pretty much flooded.  Another examination and determination we could make it through staying to the left.  Praise God!!  The GPS tells us we are less than half a mile from the connecting road.

Over a hill and the worst has happened - no road, in fact it appears to be a pond in the road.  Once again David and Brian get out.  This time they are taking much longer.  David throws a rock into the middle and, yep, it is pretty deep.  Meanwhile Sarah and I are discussing the possibility of being rescued and flown out by a helicopter....

Brian then delivers the news - you have to get out of the vehicle.  Sarah bundles Grace up and we get out.  Now, do we watch or close our eyes??  Of course we watched!!  With David guiding him, Brian maneuvers through the rocks, water and mud, then guns it spraying mud everywhere.  But he is safe on the other side!! 

Being the gentlemen they are they came and helped us walk through.  To celebrate we stopped at Sonic in Camp Verde where David performed a Happy Dance!!

So Grace's First Adventure will not be forgotten soon. 

Praise God for intelligent men and vanilla coke!!

God is amazingly good!!

Christians Shot Their Wounded.

This afternoon Brian and David played in a whiffle ball tournament for the Children's Ministry.  I sort of forced them into it.  Because I am old and fat and the sight of me running would send everyone into hysterics - I decided not to play.  I was asked to umpire.

Never again.  As an umpire folks were yelling at me, questioning calls, not setting a good example for their children.  When my duties were done I watched Brian and David play.

Their team had a runner coming into home - David picked up the base for her to tag.  There was no play - it was simply a funny gesture.  He was told he was being ejected for "Unsportsmanlike conduct".  Really??  In a fun tournament? 

There were people calling each other cheaters, making rude comments, playing cut throat ball, getting really angry.  Where was the love of Jesus?

The devil scored a BIG time victory.  It seems stuff that happens within the church is nastier than worldly things.  Instead of encouraging one another in love - it was all ME FIRST, I WANT TO WIN.

Over the years we have been part of a couple of different churches.  It is the same in all of them. 

We want people to come to Jesus - what is the motivation when we, who profess to love Jesus, shoot our wounded?

God is good - I am so thankful He loves us in spite of our actions.

He is about to do mighty and glorious things.

Grace and Forrest

This has been a couple of weeks in the works but who would have thought we would get busier once our children were gone?

Grace finally arrived on February 2, 2013 after two days of labor for Sarah.  She was in the hospital for four days.  Thank you Jesus she is home and doing quite well.  Mom and Dad are pretty tired though!!

When Grace was two weeks old she met her cousin Forrest.  Forrest was with us overnight because Kara was in a wedding. 

Neither of them were being cooperative about taking a picture together.  Forrest was much more interested in crawling after the dog and Grace wanted to be held.

We love this picture - Grace seems to be saying "Please, please don't let him touch me!!  Boys have cooties!!".  While Forrest doesn't understand why she doesn't want to play with him.  We can't wait to watch them grow up and see where there relationship goes.

We have definitely decided that being grandparents is a whole lot of fun.  It is also so amazing to watch our children be parents.  They are doing a great job.

God just keeps blessing us.  God is so good.