Family Life - March & April

I should post about March and April before it is time to publish May and June! The last several months have been full of much activity, travel, and work. In mid-March, I began a 10-week, online course in Biblical Counseling, I continued traveling frequently to my grandmother's to progress the cleaning out, Emma, Stephen and the kids came for a visit early in April, and we began working on preparing our home for a remodel, and more. 

They were full months and there were times when I was quite overwhelmed with the needs at hand, but as I think back on them, I trust God's timing. He did not put any pressure upon me that His grace did not accompany. If I had decided to hold off taking the online course when I did (God's fingerprints were all over the decision), I would certainly not have taken it until next year, if at all, and I would have missed all that the Lord had for me and taught me in it. It was taxing, working through lectures and assignments alongside the many other pressing needs of the weeks, but it called forth a need in me to call out to the Helper, my Strength, and Guide. 

So, whatever it is that you are facing today, dear sisters, whatever hurdles He has lovingly placed in front of you, remember that they are too big for you and that God does give us more than we can handle, but you have a Father, Who will carry you and offers help. The hurdles are not to daunt us or cause us to doubt, but they are encouragements to cast ourselves upon the Lord, remember what we know to be true about His character, and rest our faith in that. I love the quote by Charles Spurgeon, "I have learned to kiss the wave that slams me into the Rock of Ages." Be encouraged, be upheld by Him.

One of the many joys of spring is the chance to get more walks in 
on the farm.

All of us girls enjoyed carrying Caleb around while Emma,
Stephen and the boys were visiting. Auntie life is a blast!

It was precious to see how much James loves being with Dad.

Snapping a picture with Caden before he headed back to college
for the spring semester.

Puss-Puss gifted(?) us with 6 kittens!. 

The Skelton family are faithful cattle customers, but also some
very dear family friends. It is always a happy day when they
come to the farm. The rest of the family was off in separate 
places, but we snapped a quick picture with Denise. 

For Mom's birthday, we took off to the park for whiffle ball and
volleyball.

Taking a load of cleaned and sorted house items to our storage container. 

Guess How Much I Love You?

 

    Little children's books can be such treasures, can't they? So many baby books are full of sweet innocence and pure happiness. I have several titles that I would be happy to add to my collection of "hopefully needed someday", but there is one that stands out strongly. "Guess How Much I Love You" is a delightful baby book. Big Nut Brown Hare is putting Little Nut Brown Hare to bed and junior asks a childlike question, "Guess how much I love you?". Big Nut Brown Hare responds that there is no way he could guess the correct answer to that and then Little Nut Brown Hare, instead of going on to bed, begins a series of attempts from Little Nut Brown Hare to show the size of his love for his father. However, Big Nut Brown Hair always can outdo him. 

    Recently, I was struggling through a moment of feeling discouraged. I think it was related to feeling single, but it may have been just an overall feeling of being overwhelmed with life. I was walking back to our girl's room for few moments of (hopefully) undisturbed quiet and as I headed down the hallway in that direction, the sweet voice of love covered my heart with these words, "Guess how much I love you". If I was not already on the verge of crying, I certainly was then. Tears filled my eyes as the comfort of the Holy Spirit's question spread a soothing balm over my hurting heart. 

    I could not guess. It would be impossible. No measurement is even close to being able to describe or compare to the love that God has for me...for you. John 15:13 says, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." No man has love like Jesus has loved. No one can or will ever be able to come near comparing to the depth of that love. Earthly love is precious. I anticipate the man and marriage the Lord will bless me with. I pray for the children that the Lord may, in His kindness, entrust to me. I am grateful for the friendships I am gifted with and sharpened by. In all areas of earthly relationships though, they are simple, beautiful, pictures of Himself. They are pieces of His character, Who He is; they are representations of His love. And just like Little Nut Brown Hare, I can, and should, attempt to show my Heavenly Father just how much I love Him, but I will always fall short of the purity of His love for me, He will always outdo me, and for that I am thankful.

    "Guess how much I love you?" has become a sort of anthem for me lately. It is my reminder that I am covered with a love that cannot ever fail and is better than any love that this earth filled with broken people can offer.  

"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword...Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:33-35, 37-39

Spring Devotional - His Fulness

"Mine eyes fail with looking upward." Isaiah 38:14

"Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed: but Thou, O Lord, how long?" Psalm 6:2-3

"My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest." Psalm 55:4-6

And I answered and said,

"...of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." John 1:16

"For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Colossians 2:9

"For it pleased the Father that in Him (Jesus) should all fulness dwell..." Colossians 1:19

"And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Ephesians 3:19

"And (God) hath put all things under His (Jesus) feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." Ephesians 1:22-23

Because of WHO He is, I can KNOW what I have. 

For once I was empty, but now I am filled. And not with vain things to profit nothing and satisfy not, but with the fullness of Christ have I received and been filled with, being that I am IN CHRIST! Oh, glorious truth! May I walk my day, conscious of what fullness and grace I have received from my Lord. 

Today, I am filled with all the fullness of God, according to my sonship in the Father, and according to the grace bestowed upon me. 

Family Life - January & February

 Hello to all my readers! I apologize to all of you for my recent neglect of this corner of my world. How is it that we are already facing the latter half of March?!? Where have the weeks gone? I hope they have been sweet and productive weeks though, and I am sure that many of you agree with me when I say that I am excited to welcome a beautiful spring! Spring is my favorite season (closely followed by fall) and it is lovely every year. Isn't it wonderful the Lord created His children to continually enjoy the beauty of new life? We never get weary of seeing trees bud at the beginning of each spring, hearing birds chirping, the warmth of the sunshine, new grass shooting up, and in my world, baby calves testing out their legs and racing each other around the fields. What a loving Lord we have Who left us, even in the sin-stricken world, such beauty in creation and allowed us to experience the utmost joy in observing the sweetness of spring. Who is so amazing as our God (Psalm 77:13)?

Here is a glimpse of what the tail end of winter looked like in the Smith home and on Heritage Family Farm...

Isn't she a sweet Peach?

An amazing, faithful farm crew doing evening chores.

In mid-January, a winter storm hit pretty hard. Temperatures dropped
after rain moved through and we received more inches  
of snow than was predicted. Thankful for the safety for the cattle
and crew we, once again, received from the Lord.  

As difficult as winter storms are, they are also some really sweet
memory-making times. Here Olivia, Hope, a friend, and I are,
all bundled up and preparing to bag feed to take out to the individual
fields of cattle to give them an extra boost during the frigid temperatures. 

Emma was due with Baby #2 on January 27th, but Baby was in no
hurry to make his appearance and postponed his arrival until almost
2 weeks after his expected date! Mom and I ended up going down several
days before he arrived to give a hand with James' care and allow Emma to 
get some extra rest before the birth.

I am working on polishing my photography skills and took advantage
of an available model.

Baby #2's arrival went so much faster than James' birth. Emma began
contractions and worked to keep them active throughout the rest
of the day. They left for the birthing center around midnight (I 
followed as soon as care had arrived to stay with James) and Baby Caleb
arrived right at 6am!

I reveled in the joy of caring for James.

Right after returning home from North Carolina, I took off again
to help my cousin represent a ministry at a church event. My cousin
recently stepped into the role as executive director of Speak for the Unborn, 
a pro-life ministry intent on equipping churches and individuals to clearly 
present the gospel to those of a pro-choice mindset as well as those who 
are contemplating an abortion.

That is a summary in pictures. Other parts of the month I spent cleaning out my grandmother's house as we are preparing to sell it. It can be a challenge as I tackle the large task of sorting, organizing, distributing, and removing, and it is also a bitter realization at times as I take apart the house where so many memories originate. There is something uniquely special about a grandparent's house, is there not? Many changes in our family in the last several months, but I am thankful for a Father Who does not change and Who has promised,

"The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works." Psalm 145:17

Family Life - November & December

If I do not post about November and December soon, I will have to add January to it, and mixing years does not bode well for my strong organizational (I won't say OCD) side! =) Both months were full. There were good days of farm work, laughter, traveling, and holiday celebrations. There were also some emotional moments as we continued to grieve the loss of Aunt Karen, went through the first holidays without her, and I began to clean out and pack up Grandma's house in preparation to sell. And yet, is God still good? Yes. Is He still bigger? Yes. Nothing changes that and never will. 

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or prosecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword...Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35, 37-39)

In November, Caden was making a trip down to North Carolina, and 
I took advantage of the free transportation and visited with Emma, Stephen,
and James for a few days. Love this little guy so much! 

While out there, I took some family maternity pictures for them.

The face says it all! After throwing a fit in a store, James and Aunt Madeline
retreated to the car to allow his momma to finish shopping. 

Hope, Leah, and Joel doing some work in the tractor. There is nothing 
like working together to bond siblings!

Mom, Ella, and I flew to Kansas to visit Grandma the week before Christmas.

We took Grandma to Walmart to pick out supplies for her gifts to her
caretakers.

We worked on addressing Grandma's Christmas cards to send out...

...and played lots of games.

While in Kansas, I was able to slip off to meet up with my dear friend
and her family for a few hours. I have such a precious friend in Emily,
she faithfully supports, loves, prays, and cheers me on in this season of life. 

Even amid this season of heightened emotion in the loss of Aunt Karen,
we still had a wonderful Christmas celebration with our cousins. 
We got an Airbnb and all of us "kids" spent the night together, played
games, watched a movie, and had a big pancake breakfast.

So, we said farewell to 2023 and greeted 2024. 
May it be a year of glory to the Lord.

Not As The World Giveth

Two summers ago, while I was coming to the end of a several-day stint working for a local ice cream store at the Kentucky State Fair, I began to sense my heart becoming desirous of the popularity and the allurement of the world I had watched swirl around me all week. I watched blond beauties pass by in their worldly and sexy clothing. I saw official people walk around, dressed in monogrammed shirts and business attire, looking very put-together and professional. Then I looked at myself in the mirror, dressed in a denim skirt and a t-shirt with my hair pulled back, and contrasted the differences. I found my heart lacking contentment in the Lord and my flesh longing for the “peace” that comes from the exposure of the body to gain attention, the affection of a boyfriend, and being popular with others to receive affirmation.

Then it hit me.

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27

When it is all sifted down, social popularity, sexually enticing beauty, the wealth that is manifested in dollars and cents, that is all the peace the world has to offer and it is all as a mist that passes away when the sun rises. There is nothing trustworthy, nothing eternal, nothing that holds hope. What is it that we have with the peace of Christ? Eternal security in Jesus, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, fellowship with other believers in the Spirit, rest in the sovereignty of God, acceptance in the Beloved, and the list goes on and on. So would I trade all that and more to be viewed as sexy, to be popular among “the right people”? No indeed! The peace of Christ is the better part. It shall not be taken from me or you (Luke 10:42). Let us dwell in that peace, refusing self-pity absolutely and asking the Lord to enrich our hearts with the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7). That promise is tangible and active, and offered to each of us. Grasp it with both hands and delight in the peace of Jesus Christ.

“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.” Isaiah 26:3