The book is called The Pilgrim’s Progress,  From This World to That Which Is To Come. Price 24.99  Reading together with your children of any and all ages: Priceless.

Edited by C.J. Lovik   Author by John Bunyan  Illustrations by Mike Wimmer

On the back of the book it reads:  Written in the form of a highly imaginative allegory.  The Pilgrim’s Progress tells the unforgettable story of Christian and the extreme, soul-threatening dangers he encounters on his journey to the Celestial City.  But it is also much more than an allegory: in a sense, it is both the personal story of Bunyan and the universal story of anyone who undertakes the same eternal pilgrimage.  The result is a masterpiece of literature as well as spiritual truth-a book that one time was loved and read in nearly every home in England and North America, a book that has endured as a classic for more than three centuries.

A wise woman who biblically mentors me nearby where I live here in God’s country reminded me of an important truth one evening as we were enjoying a beautiful Italian dinner she prepared for my best friend and I.  She quietly but profoundly said, “Just Be”.  See I struggle with doing and thinking and feeling way too much.  It’s what I like to think of as my curse and blessing.  Being a very passionate deep person can have its unique benefits such as sincerely feeling what others are going through so much that I can cry with them or being angry or even laugh through their  feelings.  A vessel of God’s human touch filled with compassion and joy for whomever I am chatting with can only be because of God. I can tend to over analyze things which can send me down rabbit trails of emotions not so pleasing to my Father in heaven as He implores for me to cast all my cares on Him for He cares so much for me.  He can handle it as where I in my own strength cannot. So in His gracious kindness He beckons out to me often, “Oh my daughter, bring to me all your cares and the cares of the world you carry on your shoulders.  My shoulders were meant to carry the heavy load but you were meant only to bring them to me as a mail messenger”.  Today I will bask in the gentle reminder of “Just Be”.  Just be right where I am at, in this moment. And put my trust in God that He’s got everything under control.

Here is a poem/prayer I wrote last June 25 of 2011 that expresses the process.

Lay all your questions in the burn pile

Instead cuddle up with me awhile.

Abandon all your fears

Shed off all your tears.

For I am here~

I shall surely love you no doubt

My arms are opened wide

like an ocean’s outstretched tide.

Only Believe. Only Believe. Only Believe.

For in that moment

you give it all away,

In that moment

you choose to obey.

I will pick up all the pain and in its place freedom will sustain.

Rehearse the truth and what’s good to know

My arms are here for you and I will never let you go.

Some days are just better than others!  I home-school three of my four children presently.  They are in grades 5th, 7th, and 9th. My oldest son is almost twenty-three and is working while heading back to finish his college degree in Business. We are using SOS, which stands for Switched On Schoolhouse curriculum as well as we are enrolled in a local charter school.  This charter school allows us to choose our own curriculum as well as have a teacher come once a week per student to work with them filling in the gaps and testing to see where they are in their academic levels. We were blessed to have two amazing, kind, helpful, and Christian (ES) Educational Specialists picked out for us. It is also really beneficial to be enrolled in Logos (charter school) for the financial aid, although our curriculum isn’t paid for because it is Sectarian we are given money towards P.E. such as my daughter takes horse lessons, my youngest son takes karate and my middle son does weight training at Snap Fitness all paid for with our allotment money.  Activities are paid directly to teacher or facility.  Each grade receives a certain amount to be used on such things as books, music lessons, or physical activities.  Our days are filled with four to five hours of schoolwork per student as well as household chores, pet duties and social activities.  We share a youth group of about 18 kids that meet in our home once a month as well as my friend having it in her home. This is all just the basic information.  After almost five years of making this a part of our family experience we each have memories to share.  The biggest one is shared consistently in the daily life of being together more than the average family shares in hours together we can count on either laughing until were crying or crying until were laughing!!  I hope you enjoy the stories of the moments we hold near our hearts in our home-schooling moments.

PLEASE READ & PRAY THIS IN WITH ME TODAY!!!

I beseech you my dear friends and family to join with me this morning with Paul in…Philippians 3:10 For my determined purpose is that I may know Him (that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly), and that I may in that same way come to know the power out flowing from His resurrection(which it exerts over believers), and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed (in spirit into His likeness even to His death, (in the hope)….

VS.11 That if possible I may attain to the (spiritual and moral) resurrection (that lifts me) out from among the dead (even while in the body).  Can I get an amen??

Carie by the waterfall

His Waterfall of love is…

Refreshing
Renewing
Relaxing
Refining
Refilling
Rejoicing.

Refreshing~ Have you ever sat next to a waterfall, or a gushing creek-bed filled with awesome amounts of rain-ingested majesty on a hot summer day?  After you have poured needed time into a garden or tending of your yard and have worked up a sweat?  You may find your tired and weary bones leading you to that cool spot in your backyard oasis near a waterfall pond.  As you place your fire hot soul propped up by a rock or nestled into a bench the coolness of the water every so often sprays off the fall and onto you.  Just a sprinkle or two but it causes you to dip your hands in and draw water onto your arms and neck.  Awe… the refreshing relief of being too warm and how the simple touch of the water refreshes your body for the rest of the day.  So like God’s love for us is refreshing.  His love is constantly flowing and touching us in the areas that need relief from life’s journey.  A little bit of heaven here on earth is the love that God refreshes us with within our daily lives.  Either in our home schooling time with our children or in the tasks of housekeeping, maybe its at our job site or ministry opportunity but without a shadow of doubt God pours out his love in us every single moment of our lives.  It’s when we stop, sit a while and draw into him like sitting by a waterfall and drawing the coolness and awesomeness of the refreshing water into our weary body that supernaturally refreshes our thinking, feelings, and physical being for the next stepping stone in our lives.

Renewing~ Like the maintenance of a waterfall pond or creek-bed to flow significantly and with ease so we God’s precious chosen children also need his hands-on infusions by the Holy Spirit to pour into us the necessary ingredients for our lives.  To keep my water garden behaving its best takes some interesting additives.  For example to provide my water garden with the healthy balance it needs to thrive, I must check out the ph and see what is going on in there.  From the outside it may appear that everything is working alright but to truly know your pond is to know when things are out of whack.  The flat rock where the water parades over may start to gunk up and be barricaded with algae preventing the water from flowing naturally and at its full potential.  The main retaining area that holds the water until it travels back up the hillside and pushes back out the top rock may be low and slow.  So what do I do just sit there and hope it works its issue out or wish things would change or even pray and ask God to help my water do better?…No. I responsibly and with upmost courage put my frogpants on, dip my ph test strip in the water and check it against the chart for the proper reading of my ponds needs. Then I give the pond what it needs to function at its best, because after all I do want to enjoy this amazing gift in my backyard don’t I? It may need more barley or salt or a chemical to kill off the phosphates that create the algae to grow wildly.  Whatever it needs I’m more than willing to adjust and take the time to create and sustain the health and beauty of my chosen water feature.  God is above and beyond desiring to cultivate a renewing in our souls.  It may take some time to work out the adjustments that we each individually need to be our best and what he intended for us to be and as we let him by our just sitting near his feet and crying out to God like the raging water fall, I will have a faithful maker and creator renew my very own unbalanced unhealthy heart, body and soul.  God’s renewing love flows in us like medicine, reaching into the nooks and crannies of our hidden sins and algae taken over hurt, where we are off and need renewing God in his awesomeness soothes and makes clean and capable each willing child flow with His Spirit to be renewed each day moment by moment until we are not perfect but balanced and flowing.  The renewing love he pours into us we naturally pour into those around us.

Relaxing~  Oh the joys of grabbing a towel and iced lemonade perhaps your favorite book or magazine and nestling into a comfortable spot near the sounds of water falling over a tall splash into another bowl of water and over and over it creates in ongoing splendor of peace.  After investing in the renewing process of creating a healthy balanced water garden comes the rich rewards of enjoying the pleasant payoff.  Some days all through-out the year, season after season, you find yourself drawn to drowning out the noises of life calling you.  So you surrender to the never ending phone calls, chores and to-do’s or you secretly slip away to the most relaxing spot you can spy…next to the relaxing love of God.  I don’t know about you my friend but I need to relax in God’s presence a lot.  I am an on the go girl with lot’s to do and get done every single day and although there are days my feet do not want to hit the ground running after another day of fun filled life events I do know the inevitable that I must.  Otherwise who would get all that stuff done?!  And yet during the hustle and bustle of what God has called me to I also hear his voice calling me to come sit with him.  Not the traditional disappointed angry uptight very disturbed white bearded eyes staring me down dad image of God but the complete opposite.  A big strong dependable loving with arms open wide grinning from ear to ear expecting me to be all that He made me to be so He’s not thrown under the bus freaked out by my realness huggable approachable cool daddy in Heaven.  That voice beckons me to the cross where I see my sins dealt with and the amazing sacrifice he chose to offer me that would set me free forever. That voice that soothes away my fears and encourages my soul to carry on and hold his hand.  That voice that touches me in only the places that He can. God’s truly amazing sacrificial cleansing and relaxing love beckons you too.  As often as you hear his voice wherever you are take that moment as a present from God to be in his presence to be relaxed in his love.  To be still and stop doing, thinking, worrying, figuring things out, hurting, or whatever it is that has you unrelaxed and see his love there available for you to enjoy.  God’s love truly is all that we need and he knows just how to give the perfect love that we need.  It may be in a people hug or word of encouragement in the flesh, you know His words spoken just for us by a person.  He comes to us in many forms.  His love flows in the breeze on a hot summer day or in the cooing of a dove outside your window, it may come in the hug of a child or a meal shared with a loved one, the list can go on and on so wrap yourself up in his love wherever you are.  God is the relaxing love for the weary soul or the jubilant joyful soul, he is the love that sustains us and lifts the heavy burdens we carry on our own in the backpacks of our journey.  As you learn to relax in his love you will just relax and let go and really get that He is God and that He loves you in the most amazing flowing all-knowing ways.

Refining~ Oh the woes of the bittersweet site of my waterfall after a long treacherous winter.  Bitter because it looks so dead.  Algae floating and dangling over my slate rock where it once had flowing water cascading over in a sheer glass formation.  Sweet because the water was still flowing enough to hear the soothing sounds that bring peace to my soul.  Just like I must take my rake and scrape out the green clogging yuck that’s holding back the full effect of motion and ambiance so must God from season to season graciously scrape away the gunk in my soul when things aren’t flowing as they must for full life inside of me. There are some good things to having some algae in my pond for instance it creates a nice botanical balance for the fish whom live in there and my dog who occasionally dives in to cool off.  It’s almost magical how soft her fur becomes the more often she dips in than not.  The algae like things in my life aren’t all evil like I need to be in the world just not be like the world the Bible declares.  I am going to have slime on me from time to time whether it’s slime I’ve chosen to douse myself with or if others have displaced their slime onto me.  God takes what satan means for evil and turns it for the good.  I can either approach the refining of my pond and my life filled with algae and other debris with a grumbling or with a hope of what’s to come. God desires to make me better so I can have greater excellence, be higher in quality; more useful; more highly skilled ; healthier than before so He leads me into His refiner’s fire where I can have burned away from me things that are not good for me.  Now this is not a literal burning but a metaphorical burning away.  There is a song we used to sing a lot at my church called Purify My Heart and it goes like this…Purify my heart, let me be as gold and precious silver, Purify my heart let me be as gold, pure gold.  Refiner’s fire,  my heart’s one desire,  is to be holy set apart for you Lord…I choose to be holy set apart for you my Master,  ready to do your will. When we sing this and pray for His refining fire we will walk through the process of removing impurities. God is faithful to take good care of us. Another awesome worship song is Empty Me.  The words are:  Holy Fire burn away my desire for anything, that is not of you but is of me, I want more of you and less of me. Empty me, empty me, yeah, won’t you fill me with you, with you, yeah. (Repeats)  I know it’s a stretch for some to envision the word picture of my algae-infested pond with our lives but please humor me.

Refilling~ Right before the moment I can finally sit back and chillax by  favorite place in the warmer seasons,  my water garden,  I must check the water level and more times than not I have to get the hose pulled over and dunked into the basin to refill it.  The sun’s heat has this tendency to evaporate the water out! Kind of like with me some days are just tougher and it literally causes me to sweat.  Tough moments with our family business or home schooling challenges or it could even be mustering up enough strength to just get up and get going from a migraine or sore back. But the show must go on and so I choose to go to God for refilling.  Refilling of His Holy Spirit to fall afresh on me and revive my soul.  I want to sing daily It Is Well With My Soul but tragically am unable to in my own power. Ever heard of going one week without God makes one weak?  It’s so true!  Personally I cannot go one moment without inviting in and drawing close to the Creator of the Universe for guidance for each day moment by moment. Realistically me being human and full of human-kindness I don’t always go to God first. Undoubtedly though I sadly suffer the consequence of doing it,  it being whatever I’m dealing with at the moment, in my own strength and get completely worn out and burnt out.  My life is what I like to call a learning process and I am truly a work in progress as God’s child.  I don’t ever have it all together but I press on toward the prize the upward calling of my Lord Jesus Christ.  When I call on His name, Jesus, to cover me…He does!  God has never ever let me down.  Oh sure there is plenty of things I don’t like or get or agree with but share the same relationship with my kids.  There is plenty they don’t get or agree with or like that I do or say but we’ve established that God made me their mother and that I love them and they are on a need to know basis like I am with God.  When they need to know something I’ll let them know meanwhile their job is to trust. I would like to add that they never have to trust me if I am not asking them to do something that disagrees with God’s nature or His word.  So how do I get refilled daily you might ask.  I talk with my main squeeze, God.  Yes God is Holy and amazing and awesome in all of His majestic wonder but to me personally He is also my Father, friend, Savior and Counselor. So with utmost respect I see him as my main squeeze.  The One I can lean on, trust in, go to, gleam from and know with all my heart that He’s holding me, has my back, covers me in His righteousness and desires to lead me through my journey here on earth. As I talk with him daily quietly and not in motion you know being still like sitting I open my bible and talk things over with him.  I also go to church not just because it works into my schedule but because God tells me not to forsake the assembling with my brothers and sisters in the Lord.  At church I am hearing the word of God instructed to me for my everyday life and I am able to fellowship in a oneness with my spiritually family.  It fills me up!  Then I am able to pour into my children, my marriage, my home, my friendships and ministries.  Being in God’s word, the bible, fills me up with hope, wisdom, encouragement and freedom.  All of which I need daily to sustain and be.  When I take my car to the gas station to get more gas I get a kick out of saying, “fill me up please”.  My tank is empty and I am not going anywhere fast on an empty tank so I must get more gas.  My life’s tank emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically can get depleted and I must get filled up if I am to get anywhere. Some people choose to get filled up on alcohol, drugs, entertainment, work/money, well all kinds of things but I’ve witnessed and experienced personally that it’s just not satisfying. To be completely emptied of me and fully filled with God is where I am able to love, grow, and really live.  So today ponder, get it POND, where am I filling up?  God is so happy to fill you up…he is just waiting for you to come into His presence and say, “fill me up”.

Rejoicing~ No matter the weather, or even how my water garden looks year round there is a constant rejoicing in me just to hear the sound of flowing water.  That is what my soul desires and depends on wholeheartedly daily…the continuous faithful soothing sound of God’s voice speaking to me in my inmost being. Rejoicing is to be full of joy.  Joy is deeper than happiness.  It’s the anchor to the soul, my soul. Following after our Savior’s example, we do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Wow now that put’s a whole new look on the word joy. Another way of living out the word joy is from what my pastor taught during bible study one evening.  Each letter represents a word, J= Jesus, O= Others and Y= Yourself. The bible teaches us so much about joy, real joy, the kind that is genuine and long lasting not temporary and conditional.  Real joy is knowing by faith deep inside of your soul that God is alive and his spirit lives inside of you.  That he has carved the way for you to live forever with him in heaven.  That all your sins were paid for on the cross with his blood and that same blood heals and protects and frees us from our enemy.  When we truly get to the end of ourselves and see that our purpose is found in Christ alone we find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow…joy.  Joy is the constant flow of God pouring through us! His spirit washing through and splashing us with everything we need just because He can. When I’m sitting next to my water garden and dipping my toes in the cool water with my eyes gazed on the water falling over the rocks my heart is rejoicing!  I can sip that glass of iced tea and laugh when my dog jumps in and splashes water everywhere with a deep sense of joy AND I can kneel next to the jagged rocks and lean way over to scoop up the debris of leaves and algae while my back is aching wishing it would just stay perfect BUT either moment I choose to rejoice in the good and the bad, the laughter and the sad knowing that with me is my heavenly dad.  For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.-Zephaniah 3:17