~*~His Precious Gems~*~

I couldn't wait for this week to be over. I knew from the get go that it would be a doozy for me. *Remember, I like things calm and unchaotic!


Monday morning, we arose sleepily. It's always hard to start the week after such a busy weekend. I woke up early and started on some much needed cleaning, getting Emily to help too. Rebecca started in right away with her school but barely got anything done before we had to rush off to the Y for the gym/swim class. They are outside during gym time doing soccer drills and that makes Emily much happier than doing basketball. After swimming lessons, we went to the gym for their gymnastics class. Rushing out of there after class, we left to meet up with friends for dinner at guess where? Chik-fil-a of course. We had revival this week and didn't want to miss a night no matter how busy we were.


Guy Roberts was the speaker this time and he did an absolute wonderful job preaching straight to the soul. He was here back in Oct. 2006 when we first visited Calvary. We went on a Sunday night and didn't know it was revival time for them. It was the best sermon we could have had at the time! He preached from 1 Thess. 5:21 "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." A crucial point made was, just because a man stands up in the pulpit and preaches from the Word doesn't necessarily make him right. Look into the scriptures for yourself and prove that what he said came directly from the Word of God. Jay and I looked at each other in wonder. How many times, especially in recent times had we heard, "Close your Bible and trust me"? We ended up returning that Monday and Tues. night as well. Another thing that blew my mind was that Tues. night was Halloween. Both Jay and I were struggling over the fact that we were at a church, an Independent Fundamental Baptist mind you, that promoted and celebrated that day. The Pastor from Calvary made just a simple little statement about Halloween but had such an impact on us and gave us this deep respect for him and his beliefs. It wasn't long before God made it abundantly clear that we had to get out of the sin from the other church and go to the place He wanted us to serve Him at.


So, yeah, Pastor Roberts will always be a favorite preacher of mine. Like my Preacher, the depth of God's Word that he shares with us still blows me away. The hand of God is on both preachers in a way that I have rarely seen with my eyes.


Tuesday was a busy one for me. I had to give Emily and Rebecca the day off because I was babysitting Ashley, Brysen and Breanna. With 5 under the age of 8, I knew it would be a day of play. Thankfully the weather was nice enough that we were able to spend most of the day outside. It ended nicely with a powerful sermon to revive my soul.


We had a great time at the "Pond Safari" class on Wednesday. (Slideshow in previous post) It was educational for the girls and they loved it. After class, I needed to run by Costco so my friend and I decided to have lunch there as well. We haven't spent hardly any time together in the past few years but talk almost regularly. I love having a friend that you can go months without talking to just because life gets so crazy and when you do, there isn't any walls or distance put up. I don't have to wonder if I offended her or if she's avoiding me because we have missed each others phone messages. She's honestly, the greatest friend I have ever had! Anyway, we had lunch together while our 4 daughters sat at their table and talked and giggled. After shopping for a few necessities, Rebecca, Emily and I came home to get showers and ready for some more good preaching.


Wed. night was my favorite one. Guy Roberts preached from Psalm 19:7-14 "7The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
8The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
9The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
10More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
11Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.
12Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
13Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
14Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer."


Oh how precious the Bible is. We have the Words spoken from God. We have everything to know His will for our life, every answer yet we don't realize how how precious and how sweet It really is. If we are in the Word daily, we can be warned from sin- not that we won't ever sin- but be warned by the Holy Spirit before we get the point of needing to confess those sins. It was really driven home about how we know more about a certain t.v. show or about a series of books (like from Karen Kingsbury) that we do about the Word of God. I know I don't spend entirely enough time in the Word but was really convicted of that Wed. night.


Now on to Thursday. Did you realize that I would throw ALL of this info in about our week? LOL It really wasn't a bad week. I was mostly dreading Friday though. Brysen came in late Thursday because it was kindergarten registration day for the public schools. I can't share with you the relief I have that we don't have to send our children to school. I won't put on my "homeschool advocate hat" right now though (as you think Thank God!). Anyway, Brysen being late in getting here, set us out of wack. We had co-op at 11 at someone's house and I didn't want the girls to miss it. They would be introduced to all sorts of musical instruments and coming from a music challenged family, they needed to go. Thankfully, Laura was willing to go out of her way to pick up the girls and take them to co-op so they wouldn't miss it. After Brysen arrived, we headed over that way. We got there in time for me to relax with the other moms while the children played outside (for 30 mins.) and then turn around and go home.
After Brysen left, Jay and I took Rebecca to soccer practice and played around with Emily. She did several laps around the soccer fields ands wore herself out. I was amazed at her stamina. Wish I could run like that!
The girls went to Grandma's house for a sleep over after practice. They had a blast with her while Jay and I went to Red Lobster for a late dinner. We split a meal and had some great one-on -one time. It was a nice date night for us!
Friday, I woke up late and it was wonderful. We have very thick drapes in our room and they don't let the sunlight in. Usually, Jay opens them in the morning so that I'll get up but this morning, he left them closed and even closed the bathroom door (the bathroom has a sky light and window so it's very bright in the mornings) making it extra dark for me. I spent the day cleaning, taking out winter clothes and replacing them with spring/ summer clothes, and relaxing a bit. The girls got to see their great grandparents and then their grandma took them to Maymont. They had a blast.
I met them at the science museum afterward for a live sky show they present to the public once a month. They turn the Imax theater into the sky and show the constellations and where certain things are located in the sky. Our friends met us there and while waiting for it to get dark, we went to guess where-- Chick-fil-a !!!- for dinner before going back to the museum. Once it was dark enough, the museum had several people with mega telescopes set up on the front lawn for the public to use. The moon was amazing and we were able to see 2 planets. Mars really wasn't much. It looked like a little orange dot but Saturn was my favorite. Although very small, you could clearly see the rings and on some telescopes, the moons. Saturn has many, many moons, Titan being the largest (second largest moon in the solar system) was the most visible. On some of the more powerful telescopes, we were able to see 2 of it's moons, one was said to be hiding behind the other.
It was an incredible day for the girls and they are sacked out in bed now. Sounds good so I think I'll go see what Jay is up to. Probably watching one of the many shows recorded on WDW. We're going through Disney withdrawal!