He is Greater.....John 3:30 says He must become greater, I must become less"

 Just one more January day left for 2021.  Have you ever paused just long enough over a day to think through that?  Today is a day I will never see again, never repeat and never skip.  It is 24 hours long, no more and no less.  Tomorrow is the last January day for year 2021.  It will probably look like other Sundays for us, meaning church, then lunch, then napping/playing/take dogs for a walk/watching sports on tv.....and a good meal with my parents and kids in the evening, using all the dishes and most of the silverware so that it can all run through the dishwasher overnight and I can start Monday with clean dishes.  It is my expectation that tomorrow will look that way, but not necessarily what will happen....and that's ok.   Precious and I have chosen to consider the idea of confidence for 2021.  Martin Luther once said, "Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times."  Isn't that

 Parenting.  Wow it's hard work.  Some people get by with easier kids for less years and don't get what I'm handing out...but for the rest of us.....it's so hard.  It's every day hard and enjoy the moments when its not hard....It's what am I doing hard and Oh please, Lord, help me hard.  Much of the time I mess up and get it wrong and have to apologize....once in awhile I get it right.  It's just hard work. There are very few thank-yous....and so many demands....and it is really hard to measure if the work of the day is making things better or worse.   I had joined a group online to try to read through the bible in a year because, well, why not, right?  So I read on Jan 1 and then not on Jan 2 because of the wedding and I have basically been behind ever since.  Today I spent some time in Genesis and Psalms and Matthew and my take away is that the Lord is my shield that protects me....and is calling me to bear good fruit.  It occurs to me that both lessons ap

 Last week saturday was the big day!  It's hard to believe it has been a week already!  I am beginning to wonder if it was all a dream, or if it really happened.....but I have been to the newlywed's apartment a few times to watch them open gifts, drop off some food staples, etc. and it definitely happened on January 2.  Wow.  Wow, wow, wow!  I was so proud of us.  We did a good job marrying them off and I am beyond grateful for my tribe.   Josiah was so handsome and proud and capable.  He was mad at me that I didn't seat him at the head table with the rest of the bridal party.  I assumed he would want to sit with us so we could help him with food but after hanging with the big guys all day in their suits he was mortified that I wanted him back at the table with mama at the end of the night.  He decided to sit at the aunt/uncle table right behind us just to prove his point and not sit with me.  (suited me just fine because then I had a table of grownups to share the receptio

 A week ago we began the process of uniting our oldest daughter with her new husband.   A week ago we sat at the church for dress rehearsal and I cried.  A lot.  Then we went and had a lovely meal and I looked around the room and saw all of their people, gathered together, breaking bread and laughing and smiling and preparing to bear witness to a wedding.   On the way home from the wonderful rehearsal meal, our extra-kredit began a meltdown that indicated he would be unable to participate in all the wedding day stuff.  Because God is my helper and friend and interceder I was able to hear what he was saying.....please, mom, just find somewhere else for me to go tomorrow.  He didn't want Claire to "move away" and he didn't want to go to a friend while we did family photos and he was definitely done with all the extended family and noise and lack of routine....not to mention all his own stuff around holidays and trauma and being separated from his family.....and so I mad