Happy Memorial Day!

America The Beautiful
MATERNA


Author: Katharine Lee Bates, 1859-1929

Musician: Samuel A. Ward, 1847-1903

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

The fact that Memorial Day was designed to honor our fallen heroes and to comfort the mothers and widow and daughters and brethren of those fallen.
I am interested that the first line of this song points to the sky. Seeming to say, look up, dear grieving women. We live in a country of beautiful skies, mountains and plains. Take your eyes off the grave, dear grieving ones, look at the country that they died to save.

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thorough-fare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And ev'ry gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,

Lord we have broken our alabaster cities on Your feet, to fight for a land of freedom and honor to Your Word. By lending our loved ones into the fight for freedom, we have believed that You will maintain our freedoms and help us to be and keep the children's eyes on Christ and Him crucified. See our sacrifices and see the honor of the things that we have poured upon You. Help us not to grieve as those who have no hope.
Bless our sacrifice and preserve our hopes in You, Amen!

Loading my consciences with the knowledge of the True God!

Ignorance is not bliss, with regards to God. The devil, himself comforts us that we don't need to know that much about God, because He is everywhere. The more that we know God the more comforts and the more blessing that He is in our sufferings. The more that we know Him, the less we love ourselves. Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs are filling our souls with the knowledge of God, so that we are prepared in our hearts and minds to see Him.
Prepare my heart to see You in Glory, is our daily prayer. Moses said teach us Lord to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Satisfy us daily with Your mercies, that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days.
God blessed our elders with wisdom and direction and every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights in whom is no shadow of turning.
The closer that we get to the pearly Gate, the more the devil taunts us with our unconscionable acts. The devil reminds us, our children remind us and every point is played back for us to look at, as if on the television. Watching the television is not a salve for this. Owning and confessing and repentance for these things are the blessing. I thank You Lord, that You have directed my way. I am sorry that so much of my past has been self-serving. I pray that You will cleanse my conscience so that I can see Your wise hand of direction upon my life and commit my spirit to You as I aim my soul for Glory. The Love of God yearns for Him daily and thanks Him for the comforts and blessings that we enjoy. Hugs and kisses, family loves and the things that we have here are multiplied infinitely when we close our eyes to see Him. Lord, I commit my spirit to You, and we close our eyes to sleep to wake in the bosom of our Father!

I love being a wife and a mother.

I am grateful for the help that I have these days with older children in the house with me. But, I love seeing the wind of God's love shining in the varied relationships in our house. As my elder daughters provoke a more mutual relationship and my teenagers provoke a more harried mental acumen, I am challenged to seek God for grace and help to keep up with the physical and emotional demands of my chosen ministry.
Their souls and bodies are my most important calling, although, I am not able to juggle these callings as well as I'd like. My love for God is expressed in my love for them. My mother used to call it Eucharist, to bring a meal to an ailing husband. Seeing God's calling in the everyday duties, make them solemn.

Jesus cares and redesigns the condition of women in the world.

In every society, the condition of women has been disparaged. Care and consideration for the labors and condition of women is something that is only the fruit of Grace. Jesus showed people that God did not create women as an afterthought. God did not intend for the battle of male and female to continue. He has respect and a purpose for womanhood and femininity. The wicked condition of the children of Israel, in the book of Judges, when they cut that poor woman into parts. It seems like a story of a people who have no scruples at all. Jesus, through the scriptures, intends to uplift and correct the male and female condition. In Christ we are putting the pieces back together. He has saved us out of the condition of disrespect of His purposes for our lives and for the cultural specifications of both. We must respect the viewpoints of male and female, if we would reflect the God who created us thusly. We must love oneanother and defer to one another in governing and in community. We are the reflection of God's mind and purpose in this world. Male and female, created He them.
God, you created me, a woman and I am Yours, help me to see the wonder of Your purposes for me in this world.

Only Jesus, can do helpless sinners good!

Jay Adams, Christian Living in the Home, said "A Christian Home is where sinners agree to forgive eachother and live in loving forgiving commitment with one another." Who could live without that? Who doesn't need the forgiveness of God, to live in community with oneanother. Usually, love covers a multitude of sins, but, every once in a while there is a love explosion, or an anger explosion.
I am living in the fallout of my recent anger explosion. I have too much to do and to little energy to do it. I have too much to buy and too little money to buy it for supplies and I just exploded all over my ever beloved.
Jesus forgives me and sends my sins into the sea of forgetfulness, but my beloved will live with the scars of my tyrade for the rest of time. I out leashed. I am not usually an OLD YELLER. But...
Putting the pieces back together and living in comradery, if not community will be difficult as we work through our angered season. Out of sync!

Proverbs 13 and 14

What is a Fontbonne?
Proverbs 13:14 The law of the wise is a fountain of life, To turn one away from the snares of death
Proverbs 14:27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, To turn one away from the snares of death.

I thought that I had made a mistake this morning. I read this yesterday, I said to myself when I got to verse 27 in Proverbs 14. I do get confused with the days of the week and yesterday, I almost wore jeans to work, because I thought it was Friday. So, I went back to read yesterday's Proverb chapter, as is my habit. There it was, so similar a verse and so very dear to my heart as my Alma Mater. What is a fountain of life? What is a Fontbonne? The law of the wise, is. The fear of the Lord is. Turn us away from the snares of death.
God bless the good fountain in my soul and the souls of those who share my Alma(soul) Mater(mother). Make us true to the fear of the Lord and the law of the wise, in Jesus. Amen.

Happy Mother's Day to the mothers in my life!

Examples and happy people who love and give to their children, make me grateful. Thank you to every woman who has given me a reason to continue in my life's choice and ministry. The people who contribute love and life, by assisting with love, in our growing our large and energetic family. Thank you women, for all that you do. I am watching you.

America the Beautiful~~~Kathy Lee Bates.

Oh Beautiful for patriot's dream, That sees beyond the years.Thine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears--America, America God shed His grace on thee...And crown Thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

What a beautiful expression of the exaltation of our nation, in growth and life, in spite of the sad providences that loom. She was obviously writing in the shadow of the horrors of the civil war. Though tears are flowing in every family in the nation, yet, God has still prospered and allowed the Industrial Revolution to grow our people and our cities.
Bless and anoint our nation to remember You. Bless the words of our mouth to come to fruition, Crowning good, with brotherhood...