Wisdom

"It is amazing how many people let life happen to them rather than asking God for wisdom in their decisions. He promises to give you wisdom and knowledge for everything you do. When you make a decision knowing that it is based on the wisdom of God, joy and peace cannot help but follow."

--Don Clowers

Bar of Steel

"A bar of steel worth $5, 

when wrought into horseshoes, is worth $10.

If made into needles, it is worth $350;

if into penknife blades, it is worth $32,000;

if into springs for watches it is worth $250,000.

What a drilling the poor bar must undergo to be worth this! But the more it is manipulated, the more it is hammered, and passed through the fire, and beaten and pounded and polished, the greater the value.

May this parable help us to be silent, still, and long-suffering. Those who suffer most are capable of yielding most; and it is through pain that God is getting the most out of us, for His glory and the blessing of others."

--Selected 

(from Streams in the Desert, Oct. 24)

Being Refined

 "The crucible is for silver, 

and the furnace is for gold, 

and the LORD tests hearts."  

Proverbs 17:3 

This has been an October like never before! As I continue working at the Orchard for their busy season, Sam and I have enjoyed breaking many records:

--480lbs of fudge made in a single week 

(doubled last year's record)

--nearly 80 batches of donuts in a week 

(between 4500-5000 donuts)

--more work hours than I care to tell...but we beat Tyler's record, and that's all that mattered. ;)

Now record-making is fun...but it sure is tiring! And when you're tired and working an often stressful job...natural cheerfulness and strength wear very very thin. Our prayers were (and are still!) for His endurance, strength, patience, and peace in the middle of what certainly does NOT naturally produce those things! And He has proved Himself faithful over and over.

But it got me thinking.

It's so easy to believe that the attitudes of our hearts are caused by the circumstances we're in. Or that "I wouldn't be this way if ______"

However, as I thought about it...

Circumstances don't produce attitudes--they only reveal what is already deep inside the heart. 

"...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." 

Matt. 12:34

It can be so easy to blame things like

sickness,

a hard job,

lack of sleep,

unfairness in other people,

hormones,

the weather.

And YES these things contribute. But not to the forming or creation of the bad attitude. Only to the revealing of it. There are already issues--deeper issues than a rainy day--that result in poor responses to the less-than-perfect circumstances. As the verse above says, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks," and what comes out in trying moments is often

impatience,

anger,

whining,

complaints,

arguments,

self pity.

How quickly I need to recognize that these responses (even if I only feel them in my heart and never express them) aren't the only thing that needs repenting of. Usually there is either pride or selfishness at the root. Bad attitudes never come from "nowhere" and aren't excusable in any way. For if I have been given everything in Christ, and have the power that raised Christ from the dead available to me in the day-to-day, there just aren't any excuses left.

It's not that you'll never be tempted...

or never feel depressed...

or never have physical issues...

or never be discouraged...

It's that you have the ability in Christ to respond in godly ways to those feelings, whether you take hold of it or not.

 

There's something really beautiful about all this though.

 "My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights."

Proverbs 3:11-12

  Our Father loves us far too much to allow the sin in our hearts to remain buried. He sends us the hard circumstances which cause the more deeply entrenched sin to surface--sin we wouldn't even realize the depths of if it weren't stirred up--that we might recognize it, repent of it, and root it out as we run to Him for forgiveness and cleansing.

"And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'"  

Zechariah 13:9

So these "hard places" are part of Christ's love for us, desiring that we should be more holy and Christ-like at the deepest levels; levels that often take some hard-core affliction to get to. 

Don't be afraid of it.

Let it do its work!

Oh, to be so deeply formed by Christ that the sharpest pain and the deepest anguish bring forth worship and praise to the One who so lovingly ordained it. To have such perfect trust and faith in His love and providence.

"But He knows the way that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come out as gold. My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept His way and have not turned aside." 

Job 23:10-11 

And oh to be so deeply formed by Christ that I can live and act and speak faithfully in the day-to-day trials and rubs, singing out His praise even when my shoulders ache, or hurtful things are said, or everyone around me has a "drag-you-down" attitude.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me"

Psalm 51:10

No Mistakes

"Let us remember this as we look forward to the days yet to come: We know not what our days may be - bright or dark, many or few - but we know that we are in the hands of Him who does all things well. He will not err in any of His dealings with us. He will take away and give - He will move and He will settle - with perfect wisdom, at the right time, in the right way. The great Shepherd of the sheep makes no mistakes. He leads every lamb of His flock by the right way to the city of habitation."

--J. C. Ryle 

The Consequences of Sin

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Museum of the Appalachia

 Wonderful stop on the way home!

The Museum of the Appalachia in Tennessee.

Checking out the one-room cabin of a feller who only needed his bed, his fiddle, and his bean pot.

 Oh yes...chickens.

 Mom and I could've spent HOURS in this building...

my little siblings and ever-patient father could not.

 Now THAT could hold some CHILI!!

 The pea-cows, as Selah called them.

 I can't remember who's cabin this was...but can you imagine living there in the winter? You can see right through it!!!

 Trying out the schoolhouse benches.

 Hilltop Christian Academy quite filled up the Big Tater Valley School House.

 Makes one kind of nostalgic, even if one doesn't have long-term roots in TN or KY...or the USA for that matter! Interesting how that happens. :) When a lot of this history was happening in our country (e.g. the Civil War)...our family wasn't even IN the country yet!! But I suppose it sort of becomes an adopted history! And I sure am proud of those tough pioneers who braved the hardships of life on the Appalachian frontiers (and beyond!) They were definitely a huge part in what made the United States what it would become!

 And that's the end.

The Smokies V

 Just a few more pictures from our trip last month. :)

 Lovin' that Selah face (below.)

:D

My dear and precious family. 

:)

The Smokies IV

 Which way to go?

Most of these trails were actually closed due to flood and storm damage. I reckon the pioneers didn't have chainsaws to clear trees?

 Mama and Carrie enjoying the drizzly day. 

Fun when you don't actually have to live and work in it. ;)

 The coolest invention.

No pun intended.

A little house is built over an icy stream running down a hill.

A log is hollowed out to funnel the water into a trough inside the little structure.

Things like milk could be set into the icy trough of water to be kept cool!

And another thin, hollowed-out log drains the water out the other side.

CLEVER!

A wonderful old mill.

And another great use of water. :)

 Carrie pondering deep thoughts.