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

I did a thing today.  Claire and I went to serve at The Gospel Mission in Sioux City, Iowa.  She had an assignment to do for her social work class that focused on spending time with a vulnerable population.  She had hoped to do this assignment in Haiti over spring break but the political unrest in Haiti prevented her trip.  She chose to spend her time at home instead and found many, many purposeful things to do.  Gosh I am so proud of that kid.  She can be efficient, serious, humble, moral, whimsical, simple and honest.....and brave.....all in one day.  The amount of time I was able to spend with her this past week and a half is obscene.  I shouldn't get to have that much time now that she is 19 and doesn't live here anymore.   I am very grateful.  We arrived at 9am at the facility and spent about 2 hours putting second hand clothing on hangers, buttoning and zipping and straightening garments.  And we talked and we tal...

It is March 4 and we have umpteen inches of snow on the ground in Iowa.  I say "umpteen" because with the wind its hard to tell how much is there but it is a lot.  More than most years, in fact.  This morning it was minus 7 degrees.....and I couldn't find Josiah's boots before school.  I spent about 10 minutes and worked up a (hot flash) sweat trying to find the snow pants and boots and gloves and hats and facemasks after the weekend....only to learn from my children that all the recesses were inside today because it was too cold to play outside.  I am grateful that they didn't have to play outside today.....everyone is sneezing and has a scratchy throat because winter is wearing on us......the cold, the wind, the wet snow tracking everywhere.....we are growing weary of the winter in Iowa.  I tried to have 2 separate conversations with strangers today as I was out and about and both were like this...."It's just so cold"   "yeah, I don't t...