"Think on these things..."

 Six weeks ago the mother of one of Evelyn's best school friends suffered multiple strokes while going for a run. We prayed she would survive that first week, and she did. When I went to see her at Johns Hopkins Hospital, I'd forgotten about the enormous statue of Christ in the main lobby, and was overwhelmed with the sense of God's loving care, concern, and compassion as His children face the many struggles of this fallen world.

My friend came out of her coma, stabilized, was taken off all life support, and moved to a rehab facility where she is now running a daily marathon of therapies. We pray every day for her return of speech, communication, and mobility, and for the endurance of her family as they surround her with love. 

She and her husband have two children. Their little boy is in kindergarten. It is almost unfathomable to me that a 41 year old fit, healthy, calm, conscientious woman would suffer multiple strokes and have to face this mountain of recovery while her husband and young children live daily in her absence.

But it happened, and I have been awed by how, in the midst of this dark experience, her family and friends have shown remarkable determination to be positive, focused forward, and filled with hope and joy. I have been humbled by it. They have chosen, whether conscious of Philippians 4 or not, to focus on the things that are not only true, but are right, pure, praiseworthy, admirable, and excellent...to think on these things. 

They are dwelling not on the cold, hard, hibernating earth, but on the sky and its promise of sun. It may be true that circumstances have us frozen, immobilized, in pain , frustration, or sorrow. But it is excellent, praiseworthy, pure, right, and admirable to dwell instead on the coming of spring, the truth that the world does reawaken, time does heal, and progress happens every day, if only in the smallest drip of thaw.

I learned that my friend practiced meditation and yoga, and daily, deliberately chose to be positive. It has reminded me of all the times in Scripture we are encouraged to meditate, and I have renewed my commitment to it--to emptying my mind so that God's truth and words can fill it slowly, peacefully, warmly, and entirely. It is not easy! My mind fills ridiculously quickly with so many other random thoughts, and the practice of emptying my mind is far harder than the meditation itself.

This morning I dwelt on God's provision of beauty, and on Jesus' words in John 8:12, "I am the Light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life." Darkness comes in many forms: insecurity, fear, anger, dread, self-hatred, guilt, jealousy, self-righteousness, self-consciousness, bitterness...But following Jesus walks us "out of the darkness and into His marvelous light." (I Peter 2:9) His marvelous light...into His marvelous light. What beauty in those words!

Join me in prayer for my friend as she recovers, for her husband, children, and family as they face this unforeseen bend in their lives' journeys.

"I will meditate on Your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways." (Psalm 119:15)

"You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." (Is. 26:3)

 "I will remember Your wonders of old. I will ponder all Your work, and meditate on Your mighty deeds." (Psalm 77:12)

Christmas Memories

I was looking through our almost-organized photos on the computer and came across this candid gem from Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Blackman's. It totally makes me smile. :)

Tonight Amelia told me that she's almost a third-grader. Wow. That's crazy. 

Haircuts and Hats

We needed to straighten out Mommy's home-made winter haircuts at a salon. Much better. :)

However, it didn't take Evelyn even 24 hours to decide that her long, side-swept bangs were annoying, and she took matters into her own hands the night the cousins slept over. (Fortunately no one else was inspired to take scissors to their own heads.) Isn't this an adorable picture of them? And Evelyn still looks quite cute in her now-shorter (but less irritating) bangs.

And baseball season has begun! During last week's game Evelyn was playing shortstop, grabbed a ground ball and threw to first for an out. Nice. And both girls had hits. Double nice. And their league is so sweet--after each practice and game, all the players and parents gather in a circle, hold hands, and pray. Triple nice.

Little Cabin in Berkeley Springs

And here are the springs--one of the highlights of our Easter trip was the number of times the girls could dip their feet (or as much of themselves as possible) into this (slightly) warm water. George Washington used to come for dips here, too.

And here's the under-the-porch patio of the Little Cabin, where the giant checkerboard reigned supreme. I found it immensely satisfying that playing checkers, dipping feet in natural springs, and reading Harry Potter aloud before the fire were go-to activities for us while we were here.

So do you think I lived a bit of my Laura Ingalls dream or what?? The place was built in the 1870's. Sigh!

Of course, back then they'd have had no time to use a screened-in porch. That was added later, along with the bathroom, running water, and modern kitchenette. 

It was Easter. We brought the eggs the girls had dyed earlier in the week with the cousins. 

My parents gave us this awesome chocolate egg. When you opened it, there was...more chocolate. How cool is that??

One day we went to the state park, where you could play Pac-Man for free in the basement. So lost in time.

And speaking of lost in time, I didn't know any of these existed anymore! Leave it to WV. The girls could have spun for hours on it, grinding loads of state park dirt into their pants as they got dragged around.

Our Easter Sunday egg hunt was so much fun.

Afterward we went into town and attended a lovely Easter service. Worship is a good thing. A very good thing.

More checkers. 

Dining al fresco on the porch. This would be directly over the checkerboard. :)

No, it was NOT that warm. However, if you're going to get wet anyway, it's better to do it in a bathing suit. They LOVED these springs.

How nice being together enjoying the simple things in life--really enjoying them.

"Let family worship be short, savory, simple, plain, tender, heavenly." (Richard Cecil)