The other day my husband was sharing with me how he feels the church is God's girlfriend and preachers are his messengers to His girlfriend. And he said he's always tried to imagine how God would feel if the messenger He sends would somehow try to steal the love and admiration his girlfriend should feel for Him away and have her instead admire him (the messenger) the way she should be admiring and worshiping God her engaged lover. What frustration must God feel when this happens.

The church is the most important thing God has on this earth. With all of its struggles and weaknesses we should love it. It's members should not feel threatened by it's pastor...They should instead have the confidence that if their pastor sees something in their lives that he will come and lovingly deal with the issue face to face, not neglecting the issue, but seeing his member through thick and thin, sticking with them until victory is won.

 God must be the head. We must worship Him and Him alone. He is jealous and rightly so. We must please Him. And try with everything in us to get along with others but God must be first.

 Holiness is not a feeling- it is the end product of obedience.

Purity is not a gift- It is the result of repentance and a serious pursuit of God.

My butterfly daughter with a butterfly on our front porch that liked her hand cream.

Some pictures of Ryan's quilt. The pattern is called Superman's Quilt and it is all out of flannel as my dear son preferreth flannel and fuzzies. Special thanks to Mom (who works at Verna's Fabrics in PA) who donated the material. and my sister Joan who is teaching me the most efficient way to cut out quilt pieces.

For anyone who wonders how the studies are going... Great! We are in Summer classes with Chemistry, Dosage calculations, and EMT and CPR training

Enjoying it and learning a lot. Chemistry twiiiists and Streeaaches my brain and finally my brain gives up and swallows the information. 

Spring, weddings, and Flowers

My azaleas

My hanging planter with a stubborn wood wren's nest. I evicted it after I put this little wren's nest up but since it is a wood wren it rejected my offer and just tirelessly made another nest in the hanging planter in the the middle of the flowers.

cat boredom

Some of the sisters from our Bible study and youth

The roses at Luis Guinter Botanical gardens

Kevin and Crystal Yoder

Love..

Brandon Eicher

Table decorations

Miriam mother of the groom

Heidi and someone I don't know

Monica and Kaylene

Travis and Preston 

Williein his new shirt

If you look closely you will see John the father of the groom and his mother Fannie

Mom and Dad and Beth with her faithful camera

Ryan

Spring in Virginia

MY mockingbird. We have a relationship. I love him because he brightens my mornings. I don't think he's afraid of me.

Greetings to every body in the xanga world

Is there anything more lovely than spring? Yes! People.

Dave Peight came to visit and left happy memories

Christy Davis also came and we miss her bright sunshiny humor

Caleb thanks for stopping in! Your visit was way too short

Gerry

Beth's BD party and happy surprises.

Darwin came for his Birthday

I Like!

Lacey and Beth at the Waynesboro Church

Sunday School at Waynesboro- Chris holding the rowdy little Carlitos

John having Children's Sunday School at Waynesboro

Hold him Chris! :)

We enjoy our visits to Waynesboro. Once a month Oakhill Mennonite is reaching out to this church who needs some support and help. They have their church house right in town and reach out to the town's people. Children come and some hispanic children come too. 

Recently God has really been delivering me from certain fears I had... not knowing I had them... Fear never brings good results. Life is much more enjoyable without it. Love flows better without it.

    For instance when we meet someone who is not like we are, who has a completely different way of seeing things are we terrified they are going to corrupt us? and reject them? or are we relaxing in the knowlege that God is our keeper and that we can love this person even if they have some concepts and beliefs that are incorrect. Loving people influences change. Most rebellious people know they are wrong. Rejection seldom helps.

I hate lawlessness. I love God's laws because all of them are for our good. But I am growing in God's bigness and mercy and grace. Sin hurts everybody remotely close to it and it always brings negative consequences. I want to do my part in loving everyone as I want to be loved, forgiving everyone as I want to be forgiven and spending time with people when they need me.    

Snowed In

Winter Wonder Land!

I realize you northerners are maybe tired of snow but we are not... since this is the second time this year we got precipitation in the form of snow... but serious snow!

I had to dig out the bird feeders so they could eat.

This is Willie's first real snow. Through the night Ryan and Willie went out to make a snow man. If I would have had any decent pictures I would have chosen them. They had a lot of fun. I see I have to focus on training them how to dress in cold weather. One thing at a time.