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

Proverbs 31:15....."She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls."  I have food on the brain today.  (well......every day).  A friend on social media posted a request for meal ideas for her family, feeling stuck in a rut......and I made a list of some of my family's favorites for her......and then someone else asked for a recipe so I took a photo of it from my food-stained church cookbook with my smart phone, tagged her in it and posted it.  I am so techy savy!  (not) As the seasons change, so does my taste for foods and what sounds good to me.....what is in season.....what makes my family happy.  When I am able to serve a meal that is pleasing to prepare, and gets rave reviews from my family.......I feel like I have done a good job in my home and  in my proverbs 31 biblical challenge.  This doesn't happen ever day.  Some days, like today, I pop some frozen processed ju...

Ingredients:  1/4 cup brown sugar, packed, 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce, 2 tsp sesame oil, 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp ground ginger, 1 tbsp. veg oil, 3 cloves garlic, minced, 1 lb ground beef, 2 green onions, thinly sliced, 1/4 tsp sesame seeds.  Directions:  in a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, red pepper flakes and ginger.  Heat veg oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add ground beef and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks.  Drain excess fat.  Stir in soy sauce mixture and green onions until well combined, allowing to simmer until heated through, about 2 minutes.  Serve immediately, garnished with green onion and sesame seeds, if desired.  Serve with white rice and green salad.  This is one of Isaac's favorites *and also Grace who was here las...

Today Isaac and I had "spoil me Sunday".  If you are new to the blog, this is a date out with one of my kids on a Sunday.  We leave from church and go out for lunch at a place the child chooses and we shop.  We get whatever is on their needs list and a few of their wants too, because it is a spoil me day....for them as much as for me.  I get one on one time with each child separately, to focus on what they need, and more importantly who they are.  Isaac needed church clothes and pants.  He has grown several inches since last winter and before the days get any colder he needed a shopping day.  While I understand that Sunday should be a day of rest, I must confess that taking one of my children out of town alone, and leaving the rest home with dad makes for a fairly relaxing Sunday for me.  Also, we do family and household projects on Saturdays and the week days are not an option with teens.  That leaves Sundays.  Sometimes we can talk ...

In a handful of days, Roger and I will celebrate our anniversary.  Our 20th wedding anniversary.  This, friends, is a big, big deal.  As a young girl, I didn't expect to marry or have children.  God planted a longing in my heart in my mid-20s to have a husband and children.....and so I began to pray.  My prayers were answered and on September 21, 1996, I became a wife.  Often I heard that the first year of marriage was the hardest but we didn't experience that at all.  We had so much fun!  We worked hard, travelled, bought antiques and practical furniture.....we spoiled each other for Christmas and birthdays...... We were warned about a "7 year itch" where married people sometimes wander away from their vows and commitment to each other.  7 years into our marriage we had 3 children and needed each other desperately.....and loved the home and family we were creating......and didn't want to look else where or itch anything.  Here we...

This sweet boy......my baby.  Last year when this photo was taken, he was still in diapers and more baby than big boy.  This year, he is 3 going on 4 years old.  He is such a big boy now.  Tonight he didn't want to go to sleep.  Eventually he agreed to climb up on my lap and snuggle in.  He turned this way and that way.....and eventually we found a comfortable place on my lap for him to settle in......and he drifted off to sweet baby sleep.  His legs almost reach down to my feet.  His head is up in my neck.  He is big now.  I love the little boy he is growing to be.  He is kind and sweet and silly.  At KinderMusik class this week, I got to see that he is also a leader and he is confident.  Even when other little boys were scared and sad he let me comfort them and gave me a thumbs up that  was fine.  Gosh I love him.  Gosh I'm proud of him.  He is growing to be the person God wants him to be.....and h...

Many years ago, I had a conversation with someone who was behaving very, very badly.  We were discussing whether this person would change, could change.  This was a person who was able to function pretty well in the world.  My response to the person was that if and when I saw them being kind, generous and good, I would know that they had changed.  I believe that the Holy Spirit is capable of a transforming work in all of us and it is evidenced by acts that are kind, generous and good. Living in this world is hard.  There are the demands to comform to worldly standards of beauty, success, acceptance.  There is the tyranny of time and being controlled by time.  Appointments.  Schedules.  The balance of saving time, wasting time, cherishing time.......Living in this world means fearing pain and death, facing mortality.  Feeling weak and fragile.  Selfish, even.  Be kind.  Be generous.  Be good.  For me, an...

There are days, weeks, months, even seasons, where we have nothing more but to ride the waves.  There are sometimes factors that are beyond our control.  Issues that transcend our influence.  Experiences we are involved in but only as we move along.....and these are the times we are called to ride the waves.    One of my children is having this experience today.  Feeling helpless, frustrated and overwhelmed....and there are no answers or counsel or rescue.....all I could do was to tell this child in not so many words.....to ride the waves.  This child doesn't know that it will work.  That on the other end of the moving will be rest....and resolution.....but it will come.....after a ride on the waves.  The waves do what they do, right?  They do what they must.....they roll in over and over and over....and at a certain time of day they roll back out again....with or without a human on a surf board.  If we choose to climb upon a ...

Oh this girl.....and her hair.  This was last year.....and she has already changed so much but this hair has not.  During the fall/winter/spring we do braids with extensions and that works well because she and I don't fight about it.  I don't try to spray it or condition it or style it....she doesn't try to run away.  Summer we let the hair go so that she can just be who she is without the hair issues.  I wish I could have it that way always but her hair doesn't cooperate...... In a few days, I have to face one of my worst fears.  We have an appointment at a hair salon in Sioux City to do her hair.  Professionally.  So far we have been able to use an African student at our local college but she has graduated and moved on and so I need to find another stylest.  You guys.....this is so scary for me.  When we adopted Precious, we travelled to North Carolina to bring her home.  I was most afraid of the women in the hair salons th...

I took this photo at our Kredit Family Reunion last summer in Lyndon, Wa. at the bible camp that hosted our reunion.  There was a beautiful garden and path to walk and pray and enjoy.  On this day I was praying and walking.....praising God for the blessings and protection we had experienced, and asking for more of the same for the second half of the trip.  Those two chairs......were intentionally placed.  It is almost as if God set them there Himself and said something like this...... ."Come.  come and sit with me awhile.  Enjoy the beauty of my created world and listen to the silence of the Earth.  Let me show you all of the wonderful things I have made and tell you secrets about each one.  The Father has secrets about every created thing....even you.  Come.  Come and sit with me awhile.  Hear the whisper of my Gospel in the wind and the birds and the sun.  See redemption in the plants.  Smell the beauty of the flow...

Three times today......THREE TIMES TODAY......I was a part of a conversation with a woman who shared that they were starting or considering or finishing a process to become licensed as a foster parent.  Three times.  To-day.  Three different women, mind you.  My heart is simply broken and undone because it is so clear to me that the heart of God is for this right now.  Our nation desperately needs quality families to step up and be ready to open their homes for children.  Desperately. I am partly jealous.  I want to be on this journey, too.  It is not my assignment right now.  We have 5 children who are growing and learning and thriving and we need to invest all of our energy and time in them.  For now.  We have no space.  We love our home and there is really no such thing in our price bracket as a home with more than 5 bedrooms......and for now, they are all full......so we cannot add to our family.  (Collective sigh o...