Jesus, I my cross have taken

1. Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee.
Destitute, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my all shall be.
Perish every fond ambition,
All I’ve sought or hoped or known.
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are still my own.

2. Let the world despise and leave me,
They have left my Savior, too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me;
Thou art not, like them, untrue.
O while Thou dost smile upon me,
God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate and friends disown me,
Show Thy face and all is bright.

3. Man may trouble and distress me,
’Twill but drive me to Thy breast.
Life with trials hard may press me;
Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me
While Thy love is left to me;
Oh, ’twere not in joy to charm me,
Were that joy unmixed with Thee.

4. Go, then, earthly fame and treasure,
Come disaster, scorn and pain
In Thy service, pain is pleasure,
With Thy favor, loss is gain
I have called Thee Abba Father,
I have stayed my heart on Thee
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather;
All must work for good to me.

5. Soul, then know thy full salvation
Rise o’er sin and fear and care
Joy to find in every station,
Something still to do or bear.
Think what Spirit dwells within thee,
Think what Father’s smiles are thine,
Think that Jesus died to win thee,
Child of heaven, canst thou repine.

6. Haste thee on from grace to glory,
Armed by faith, and winged by prayer.
Heaven’s eternal days before thee,
God’s own hand shall guide us there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission,
Soon shall pass thy pilgrim days,
Hope shall change to glad fruition,
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

Water, water, everywhere!

That Awkward Stage?

We all go thru it so here's my proof! 

Big day!!

And She's 2!!

How can our crazy baby already be so old? But it's true! She is!! 

A little cheese and a big surprise!!

Our papa brought us an awesome house warming gift!! We love it and Him!!

Defining Suffering and the Cross

The cross is not adversity, nor the harshness of fate, but suffering coming solely from our commitment to Jesus Christ. The suffering of the cross is not fortuitous, but necessary. The cross is not the suffering tied to natural existence, but the suffering tied to being Christians. The cross is never simply a matter of suffering, but a matter of suffering and rejection, and even , strictly speaking, rejection for the sake of Jesus Christ, not for the sake of some other arbitrary behavior or confession. A form of Christian life that no longer took discipleship seriously, that made of the gospel merely a belief in cheap consolation, and for the rest did not really distinguish between natural existence and Christian existence--such a form of life had to understand the cross merely as ones daily trouble, as the distress and anxiety of our natural life. Here is is forgotten that the cross always simultaneously means rejection, and the disgrace of suffering is part of the cross. Being expelled, despised, abandoned by people in ones suffering, as we have find in the unending lament of the psalmists, is an essential feature of suffering of the cross, yet one no longer comprehensible to a form of Christian life unable to distinguish between bourgeois (middle class) and Christian existence. The cross means suffering with Christ, it means the suffering of Christ. Only that particular commitment to Christ occurring in discipleship stands seriously under the cross.

...the first suffering of Christ we must experience is the call sundering our ties to this world. This is the death of the old human being in the encounter with Jesus Christ. Whoever enters discipleship enters Jesus death, and puts his or her life into death; this has been so from the beginning. The cross is not the horrible end of a pious, happy life, but stands rather at the beginning of community with Jesus Christ. Every call of Christ leads to death. Whether like the first disciples we leave home and occupation in order to follow him, or whether with Luther we leave the monastery to enter a secular profession, in either case, the one death awaits a, namely death in Jesus Christ, the dying away of our old form of human being in Jesus call. ....because only as one who has died to his own will can he follow Jesus, because Jesus commandment always means that we must die with all our wishes and all our desires and because we cannot want our an death--for all these reasons, Jesus Christ in his word must be our death and our life. Christ's call, or baptism, means placing the Christian into daily struggle against sin and the devil. Hence every new day, with its temptations through flesh and the world, brings new sufferings of Jesus Christ upon his disciples. The wounds that are stuck here, and the scars every Christian receives from this struggle, are living signs of the community of the cross with Jesus.

-Bonhoeffer 

(Readings Matt 8:21-38 will help with understanding this passage)

Pic doodles!!

Needed this reminder today!

So we must not grow tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we do not grow weary. Gal 6:9

After my first baby turned 9 and so many other things in a day to day life like ours, I gave this verse to my husband to encourage a friend--only to discover that I needed this verse today too! I need to remember that no matter the situation or the odds, do not grow weary in doing good! We will reap in his perfect time either in this world or the next! SUCH a great reminder!! I needed this reassurance today and am thankful for the needs of another who brought my spiritual microscope into focus on this once again!!

Our #1 is 9!