Here is the excerpt

We can learn a very valuable lesson from Edith Schaeffer. Hear her thoughts about a life of serving others from a chapter entitled "The Lost Art of Serving..." reflecting the essence of Matthew 25:40 on serving unto Jesus.

How do I regard my having to run upstairs with tea, or having served breakfast in bed, or having continued for years to do this kind of thing for a diversity of people, as well as for my husband and children? How do I look at it? Do I feel like a martyr? Let me tell you exactly how I see it.

First, I say silently to the Lord....: "Thank You that there is a practical way to serve You tea [or breakfast in bed, or whatever it is I am doing for someone]. There would be no other way of bringing You food, or doing some special thing for You. Thank You for making it so clear that as we do things that are truly in the realm of giving of ourselves in service to others, we are really doing it for You."

It's sobering to realize that all you and I do is not done only for people, but for our Savior. Serving people is a primary way for us to serve our Lord. Our ultimate motivation, as Colossians 3:23 reminds us, is "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men".

This entire post was found on page 157 of the book A Women's Walk With God by Elizabeth George.

Lovin' the rain

Not often will I or can I say that I am lovin' the rain, but today I am! It is not too bad outside right now. It is raining and it is cold, but it is NOT SNOWING!!! It feels wonderful to have it rain, when the alternative is snow. One more example of perspective!
My diet is going great. I love Weight Watchers! You can choose whatever you want to eat. Each food item is worth a certain amount of points, there are some that are even worth zero points! Some of my favorite things that I have eaten so far.......homemade chocolate chip cookies, cheese filled ravioli, water, bran flakes, and string cheese sticks!! This is making me hungry. I better go eat something. I will stress that at the point level that I am at right now, I actually don't need all the points, but real soon I will be dropping a level and then things will get TOUGH!!!

Some pictures of us traveling

This was one of our travel days down to North Carolina. See all the wonderful room. No car seats. Lots of room to roam and sleep!

This was our travel day home. Now the space in this rental van was much smaller than the bus, but we all thought that we had TONS of room compared to our van at home. PERSPECTIVE!!

My hut burned down today!!

I had a really rough day today. I read this email that my mom sent me and it put things into perspective for me. Enjoy.
The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions. One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief and anger. He cried out, 'God! How could you do this to me?'
Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him!
'How did you know I was here?' asked the weary man of his rescuers.
'We saw your smoke signal,' they replied.
The Moral of This Story: It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering. Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.

What a travel day

Let me start out this post by just saying that I never imagined that these past three weeks could go so well! I left here begging God to change my circumstances and returned home sure that I can trust Him and thank Him in whatever circumstances I am in. I remember before we went, I kept saying that this time away would be anything but a vacation. I was so wrong. God knew exactly what we needed and He gave it to us. I have come home refreshed and very challenged to become who God wants me to be.

Okay, now on to our travel day. If you remember, we didn't drive down to Rocky Mount. The Week's family rented us a van to get home in. They expected to be able to just rent a van in Rocky Mount, but in order for us to take the van just one way, it had to be rented from the Raleigh Airport. So Jeff packed the Week's van with all our tons of luggage. We left Rocky Mount a little before 8:00. We got to the car rental place in Raleigh just after 9:00. It was raining hard by this time. We were all praying that the rain would stop so that we could transfer all our luggage without getting everything and everyone wet. We were assigned our van and the rain stopped! We were praising the Lord for His perfect timing. Jeff pulled the rental over to the Week's van and the loading began. 15 minutes later we were ready to drive away. We said our good byes and closed the doors. Jeff started the van, let me rephrase that, Jeff TRIED to start the van. He kept trying, but the thing just wouldn't start. Someone from the office came out and tried...nope wouldn't start for him either. Now what were we going to do? Well, they just "happen" to have just one other van there that we could fit into. It was an 8 passenger Toyota Sienna, nicer than the first one. The children were very excited, because it had more room to stretch out in. My dream van all the way. There was only one thing wrong with the van....it hadn't been cleaned out from the last person! Oh well. We needed the van, so we hurried and started cleaning it as best as we could. The people in the office felt so sorry for us that they knocked off a 1/3 of the rental fee. We were so excited to see all that God was doing. We were also excited that God allowed this all to take place right in the parking lot!! We could have broken down on our way home! Once we finished cleaning out the new van, Jeff packed a van for the third time that morning. By 10:00 we were pulling out and heading home. The van was SO comfortable that we really enjoyed riding home. It was one of our best travel days ever. The children were exhausted, so in the comfort of it all they SLEPT most of the time!!! The weather was everything imaginable. Jeff drove us through sunshine, rain, sleet, snow, wind and perfect darkness. None of the bad weather lasted very long at all. It was so neat to drive through storms and then drive right out of them. We arrived home at 1:00 am. The children were all in bed by 2:30. I have no idea what time they woke up, because Jeff and I left at 7:45 to return the rental. When we arrived home they were watching a movie and having a great time by themselves. At that point in the morning I became VERY overwhelmed. The house was a MESS and I had no idea where to begin. So in my typical "tackle the problem fashion" I went back to bed!!! It was so nice to be back in my own bed again. I stayed there for the next few hours. When I awoke....the mess was still there, but I was feeling much better prepared to tackle it. It took us the rest of the day, but it is back to normal once again. Now my next thing to tackle is school tomorrow morning. I can do it, I CAN do it, I CAN DO it, I CAN DO IT!!!

We leave in the morning

I can't believe that we are heading home tomorrow. I am trusting my husband that this is best for us. I want to stay here for forever, but duty calls us home. I thought it would be kind of fun to make a list of all the things that I will miss here.

• our friends
• SPACE!! Yes, you read that right. There is SO much more space here in this house with 17 people than there is at home with just the 7 of us!
• Not having to cook or clean. I have helped out around here as much as they would let me, but it wasn't very much!!
• My husband!! No, he is not staying, but he will be going back to work as soon as we get home.
• chocolate M&M's, ice cream, cookies and anything else sweet!
• not having to teach the children school (Jeff did it while we were here!)
• adult conversation.....ANYTIME
• eating out
• our bat cave (Jeff and I slept on the lower, full size bunk bed. We draped blankets around us for privacy and darkness. I will miss it very much!)
• not having to pay for anything (The Week's family spoiled us ROTTEN!!!)
• services each night
• being busy, but not too busy
• warm house with NO mold
• big bathroom
• lots of warm, fuzzy blankets
• children around every corner.......oops I don't have to miss that one. We have that at home too!!
• NO SNOW
• not having to drive very far to get anywhere! For instance, the grocery store is only about three minutes away, compared to home where I shop almost a full 1/2 hour away from the house.
• pizza
• sunshine
• a quiet place to just read
• a HUGE mirror in the bathroom......I really hate that mirror, but I need it!!!
• not to have to think about what everyone is going to eat

Can you understand now why I don't want to go back home to reality!!!? I must though, so I will do it with the right attitude. Thank you that I have a home to go to, Lord! Maybe this list of things I won't miss, will get me in the right mood!

• a dryer that takes three hours to dry a load
• ironing clothes for the service each night
• not being able to walk around in my PJ's
• the noise level of 13 very excited, loud children
• sharing our bedroom with three children (it really wasn't that bad though)
• not being able to drive anywhere (the vehicles were too big for me to drive!!)
• eating out (I must have gained five pounds while we have been here!)
• having to put Joel in nursery every night (He screamed for a little while every night!)
• not having much alone time with Jeff

I am done with my lists for now. We leave at 8:00 in the morning. We are going to try to make it all the way home in one day. It will probably be a 17 hour trip, depending on weather. So we will definitely make it home sometime Wednesday! You should hear from me again sometime later this week.

I was wrong!

I don't think that Joel is ready to give up his morning nap. He fell asleep in his highchair after breakfast this morning. Tomorrow we will go back to two naps!

Well our sleepover went great. We no sooner got the Mann's home and there were 3 Maines children here to play. They stayed the afternoon and for supper. I was forced to give them back sometime around 8 o'clock lastnight. We all had a lot of fun. They are going to spend the night Tuesday thru Wednesday. I can't wait until they get here!

We have had no extra children in our house today, but I am going crazy!! I swear that I have cleaned this house 3 times today and it doesn't look like I have touched it. Joel is an EXPERT at making this house messy. He pulls things out of where they belong and drags them around the house until he finds something new to play with. He NEVER puts anything away. I spend my day picking up after him. He will learn soon enough to put things away, I realize that this is just a phase, but today it is really bothering me! Probably hormones or something related to it.

Jeff just asked me to come up with a list of possible people that we could have raise our children in case we both die. How do you decide such a thing. Who could handle raising five extra children? At the moment, I am at a loss for possible people. The couple would have to be young enough to have the energy required to take care of my crew. They would have to be very special for us to trust them with our greatest treasures. They would have to love my children! As overwhelmed as I feel today, just thinking about choosing someone to raise my children makes me realize how much I love my role as their mommy!! I am so blessed! Thanks Lord for the new perspective, I needed it!!