Praise You God with my Whole ♥

I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. Psalm 86: 12

for:~

• Answered prayer for my husband – his spots are healing, and his pain relief seems to be working this time. Praise You, heavenly Father that You have heard the prayers of Your people and that you have been swift to respond. Your Word says that You will never leave us nor forsake us, and God never lies.

• Our children, who have been a tower of strength through the difficult times – milking, feeding animals, doing dishes, cooking, ironing and generally helping whenever help is needed, but especially for the hugs and words of encouragement and affirmation that mean more than anyone could ever know.

• Friends – blogging friends , internet friends and real-life friends who are true prayer warriors, picking up the challenge and being prepared to pray for my husband – from the bottom of my ♥, I thank you all.

• A good hospital and doctors in our local area – this is so important at times like this.

• Our church – praise God that our church building will be going ahead – thank you Lord, once again, for answered prayer.

• Our home – warm, comfortable beds; food on the table, protection from the elements, fresh goat’s milk and a place where we can say that we truly feel close to God, as He brought us here.

• The ability to be able to homeschool - In Germany it is illegal to homeschool, and Sweden seeks to introduce a law stating that homeschooling will only be allowed under “exceptional circumstances”. Please pray that God will work with the authorities to block this law, and that Swedish homeschoolers will have the ability to be able to homeschool openly. I pray that God will open the eyes of the authorities to the benefits of homeschooling. Praise God that we, in Australia, have the freedom to be able to homeschool openly!

Feed My Sheep

A holy man spoke with the Lord about heaven and hell. The Lord said to the holy man, “Come, and I will show you hell.”

They entered a room where there was a large table, and a group of people sat around a huge pot of stew. Everyone was famished, desperate and starving. The stew made the holy man’s mouth water. Each person held a spoon that reached the pot, but each spoon had a handle so much longer than their own arms that it could not be used to get the stew into their own mouths. The suffering was terrible, and everyone sitting around the table were thin and sickly.

“Come, and now I will show you heaven,” the Lord said after a while. They entered another room, identical to the first — the pot of stew, the group of people, the same long-handled spoons. But there everyone was happy and well-nourished. “I don’t understand,” said the holy man. “Why are they happy here when they were miserable in the other room and everything looked the same?”

The Lord smiled, “Ah, it is simple,” he said. “Here they have learned to feed each other.”

The greedy think only of themselves.

When Jesus died on the cross, He was thinking of you!

Remember that I will always share my spoon with you.

Quick Update on My Husband’s Health

Today has been one of those days – firstly I went to see the physio and found out that I have a bulging disc in my spine, so at least I have a reason for the pain that I am suffering as a result of my fall down the cellar steps. Then we went shopping, during which time my husband retreated to the car, saying that he wasn’t feeling well. Afterwards we travelled home, and we had lunch when we arrived home, but my husband didn’t want any lunch – now, if you know my husband, you will also know that he doesn’t ever say no to food, especially lunch, no matter how sick he is. In fact, the sicker that he is, the more he eats – usually!

He just went to bed, saying that he was feeling cold – mind you, the temperature here has been in the mid-30′s, so that started ringing alarm bells. Then he said that he didn’t remember the journey home, so I phoned the doctor’s rooms and they told me to take him into the hospital. We saw the doctor, and she thinks that he is having withdrawal symptoms from the Fentanyl patches, which he had for the pain in his knee. He had to stop them, as he had a severe allergic response to them, coming out with HUGE spots all over his body, and they were increasing at an alarming rate. The hospital have kept him in for observation overnight, and hopefully he can come home tomorrow.

Please keep my husband in your prayers, as he is the earthly mainstay of our home. Our children have helped with most of the housework today, the ironing and milking of the goats, too, and I praise God that they have learned well, but I do so miss my husband – even if it is only for one night. He really needs to find some pain relief that works and that he is not allergic to, so any of you prayer warriors out there, please be praying for him – I know that I will be.

Oh, and please forgive me if I don’t get to visit your blogs for a short time – things here are pretty hectic at the moment, so hopefully, my friends, I shall see you all soon – God willing.

Crafty Cards

Yesterday my daughter and I made another crafty card – this time for our friend, Gwenda, in Tumby Bay, as her favourite colours are purple and shades of purple. Although the butterflies don’t look like it, they are actually a deep, rich purple.

Making cards is so easy, especially with double-sided tape and all of the card accessories that can be obtained cheaply from Spotlight and Cheap-as-Chips, which are discount stores in Australia. We started out with the shades of purple that we were going to use, and checked the adornments that we were adding before we made them permanent. Initially we were going to have a dragonfly on the cover, but it wouldn’t travel well through the post, so it was back to the drawing board.

Eventually we came up with this simple but elegant design for our card. The rhinestones don’t really show up that well in the photo, but they look glittery and sparkly in real life and add a little pizzazz to the card. Our favourite card verses come from here, and Michelle has written a verse for every occasion that you can think of – there are also inspirationals, devotionals for men, women and children; Bible stories and poetry pages. Hers is a wonderful site to explore if you have a few spare hours!

What about you? Do you like making cards, or perhaps you have another craft that you’re particularly interested in?

A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24

Praise You God…

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4: 8

• ...for you are mighty to save, you keep us sheltered beneath your everlasting arms, and you carry us when the going becomes too tough for us to go it alone. I praise you that your love for us is boundless.
  

• …that you have strengthened us during the past week – knowing that you are there for us makes life so much easier.

• …for my husband who has been a tower of strength, even with his worn-out knee. He has cut firewood and been teaching our son how to milk the goats.

• …for patient goats, who will stand still (with enough oats!) while my son perfects his technique in milking them.

• …for my daughter, who has done more than her fair share of cooking and helping out around our home.

• …for friends – blogging friends, internet friends and IRL friends who make life much more valuable simply by their presence in it. The comments that you leave on my blog make me feel loved. ♥

• …for support organisations, such as the HSLDA and ROHUS - May their work be blessed by our Almighty God, as they seek to return Dominic Johannson to the loving arms of his parents, and as they seek to stop the implementation of draconian homeschooling laws in Sweden.

• …for granted travelling mercies during the last week. Even when we had a flat tyre, it was able to be repaired, and we are having light truck tyres put onto the car this week in an attempt to prevent further punctures.

Thank you, Jennifer for hosting Praise each week. Care to participate in this Meme, please visit Jennifer, and don’t forget to leave a comment – she loves visitors.