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We took out early one morning last week for a field trip. The children have been studying birds and we'd hoped that the place we planned on hiking that day would have lots of birds to look at. My boys have been carrying around this scavenger hunt paper for a couple of weeks now - one where you have to check off the different things you find or see concerning birds.
Well, they weren't getting too far with it so we decided to drive to a place we enjoy hiking. Getting up early and heading out I was sure we'd find birds at least in the morning... but no. We did not see birds!
But we did have a wonderful hike with some wonderful family. The weather was perfect. We hiked about 3.5 miles. We saw a little bit of fall color, something we don't get much of around here, and I still have some sore shoulders from carrying babies.
My sister who has Downs came for our hike - she seemed to really love it and kept up, or rather we kept up with her!
We had some sports drinks left over from football season. Itty has been waiting her turn to have one of these all season long ~ so I let her take one on our hike.
Scott and my parents helped out with taking Baby when I would get tired carrying both. Baby loved hiking!
I had the boys carry my camera a lot of the hike since I had the babies. Some pictures they took:
We had a nice picnic mid-afternoon ~ My sister's and my kiddos after lunch:
(Many of our children are very close in age - my sister's youngest son, just a bit older than my youngest son - and her youngest daughter just a bit older than my youngest daughter. Some proud, sweet big brothers!)
Our Baby, down in some leaves after our hike. I think she loves nature like the rest of us.
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"...they did not remember the abundance of His steadfast love... they soon forgot His works ... they had a wanton craving ... " Ps. 106
It's a rainy looking Sunday morning and though I'd rather be with Robert at church this morning, I have a sick son who needs to be in bed resting. So he is. I'm tempted to work because after weekends, there is more than enough to work on. Particularly laundry. But I know my need to be quiet and rest is much greater then the need to clean.
Beyond the hiking adventures, schooling, last weekend of football, rodeo, etc. . . Interesting past week.
No pretending ~ times when I did not remember the abundance of His steadfast love for me.
I sure wish it were ALWAYS in the forefront of my mind. It's crazy often how much I forget what He has done in the past, second guessing the next moment. I think I forget God's works pretty easily when I have set my affections or expectations on the goodness of man.
Truth is, there is no goodness in man, absent of God present within. "For there is none righteous, no not one..."
Of course there's not! Then why do I want there to be? Why is it that the human-ness of mankind can get me down?
How often my heart does not truly believe what my mind claims to be true.
One thing became more aware to me this week - I have a craving that is there that I am not even always in tune with. A craving to be understood. A craving for others to not mis-read me, mis-judge me. Course, who doesn't want this. But I guess something becomes a craving when it touches something deep inside, when it draws upon pain, the past - - when misunderstanding of who I am takes place though...
I wonder - and who am I after all? It's always a good stop to check motives, but do I know my own heart? Do I know my motives? And can others, who claim to know my motives, really know my motives?
And why do we claim to know others hearts and motives?
And why does it hurt when they claim to know my motives when I don't believe those are my motives at all?
Oh, if life's questions were all packaged up perfectly for me. - where I could type in my question about my own heart on google and then bam, what my heart is REALLY like and is motivated out of would come flashing back at me on the screen.
And why do I even care? Why do I care about my motives and my heart?
Because I do believe there is a God. I do believe He knows my heart and my motives. I do believe that going to heaven is not based on what my head knows but what the well-springs of my heart are. I believe that the outward package of a person can be spankin' perfect and the inside of the package is black.
While at the property last week, Shelton went geode hunting. He loves to collect rocks. He has since he learned to walk. He is my complete nature freak and I love that about him. Geodes are typically round, or somewhat round. They are not 'hard' rocks - they can be opened up - inside is the cool part... or the not so cool part.
All geodes that Shelton finds look basically the same on the outside. They are grayish roundish rocks - different sizes, but nevertheless, each one much like the other.
But the inside is a whole different story. When you crack the geode open you can find one of two things: either a layer of beautiful crystals and neat mineral matter that resembles all sorts of cool things (we sit around and study and marvel at the little beauty in our hands), or you find a layer of brownish mineral matter that resembles hard poop.
There is no way to know what is on the inside, from our human eyes, unless you crack the geode open by inflicting great pressure. (i.e. hammer, or throwing it hard against another rock, or take it to someone who has a rock cutter.)
I was sitting on the picnic table and Shelton approached me with two geodes in each hand, "Mom, geodes are like people..." He stated matter-fact.
He continued, "...They look the same on the outside. But then on the inside it's different. One is truly beautiful and the other is rotten. You only know the truth about the geode when it's hit really hard by the hammer... then it cracks and you see if there are crystals or just those minerals that look like poop."
Out of the mouth of young ones.
He went on...
"All the years I've been collecting geodes and cracking them open to find crystals, Mom, it always reminds me of people."
I sat there that tired afternoon, and marveled at what he said. I found myself looking over his cracked geodes carefully and studying them with him, listening to him tell me about each little thing and what he thought, all the while keeping in mind what he had just likened the geodes to. My heart felt searching.
I don't think it was by accident that he went geode hunting that day, or that he came up to me just kind of randomly, saying what he said to me. Sometimes God speaks to me in the most unexpected ways.
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I am very grateful for the steadfast love of the Lord. I do think I am like a geode. I do think it takes pressure for me to see what I am truly made up of on the inside. The hammering, the cutting, the throwing against a rock! Then the geode opens up, never to be a whole geode again. It's broken. On the inside, in the motives part of me, are crystals forming and mineral matter that is beautiful? Or is it rotting minerals that look like, ya know...
This craving that I have had for others to not mis-understand me...
It's life: I'll be misunderstood.
In fact, it's one of the many things that "cracks my geode" to show me what is inside of me. The "for real" me.
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When I find out that the outside geode of someone fooled me into thinking the inside was crystals, can I still love that person? What if someone's geode is never "cracked" and the inside is never known, at least down here on this earth? What if someone is intent of cracking me to make sure there is ONLY crystals on the inside?
There was only ONE who looked just like the rest of us humans that was all crystals, all perfection on the inside. His name is Jesus Christ. People misunderstood him, judged His motives wrongly -- but his craving in life wasn't to be understood, he didn't give second (or first) thought to what others thought. He knew he was pure on the inside, and he was.
When he was cracked open -- and he was through great pain and hardship, he bore our sins on the cross -- there was shining beautiful crystals like none other. It was shining bright with the abundance of His steadfast love.
That wows me. That's something to crave.
a. ann~
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| | Posted 11/8/2009 5:10 PM - 754 Views - 52 eProps - 36 comments
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@Ariadone -
Hebrews 4:14-16 (New International Version)
Jesus the Great High Priest
14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens,[a] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.