Last weekend as I was babysitting my grandson, we were all snuggled down on the couch watching a movie, Toy Story, eating popcorn and trying to settle in for bedtime. My grandson says to me, “you know, Grandma Stout, I love you”. I replied, “you know David, I love you too! You are my favorite grandson!” David says to me “You know, Grandma, we love each other all the time, don’t we grandma?” Yes David, we do, we surely do!!
“Grandma, do you have muscles?”
My grandson often asks me, “Grandma, do you have muscles?”, I reply “not really”. He responds with “Where are they?” I say “They are hiding!”
So lately, he asks me to carry him (he’s over 40 pounds), and he tells me “Grandma, I’m having you carry me so your muscles won’t hide!”
I guess he has it all figured out about how to keep Grandma strong. It seems like the Lord likes our spiritual muscles strong too! By exercising faith, His love, His patience, all the fruits of the spirit. The Bible says to “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, that we might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”. Eph. 6:10-11
“Grandma, are you brave?”
Recently my grandson asked me “Grandma are you brave?”. Then he said, I’m brave, I’m very brave” (remember he’s 3 years old)……… Of course, I answered him that I was brave – even though there are some hills and valleys in life that I am quite cowardly in wanting to even go through, although the Lord takes my hand and helps me walk through them, step by step.
Deuteronomy 31:6-8 tells us -
Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their forefathers to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance.”
I believe the Lord wants us to take Him at His word, just like he told Joshua “Be strong and courageous”….I’m reminded that the Bible says “Out of the mouths of babes” – or is that grandchildren?? Yes, I’m brave!!
Cousins…Cousins…
Cousins – these are pictures of my daughter and her cousin, Pam, the picture on the left is a current picture, and the picture on the right they were both about 4 years old (a few years ago)……..Pam is my older brother’s daughter. Isn’t it funny that they are standing the same way as they did all those years ago in as they are in the current picture??
We thank the Lord for our precious family, and know that the Lord has given us children and grandchildren to be loved, cared for, and surrendered to Him…………..
With hearts aburst we brought them here…
To be loved beyond reason,
To be cared for at any cost, and
To be surrendered with open hand to Him who gave.
From hearts adream they issued…
To honor our young home with the mere fact that they are here
To embody the wordless awesomeness of the divine mystery of life’s increase, and
To endow us with a happy, human, internal orchestral rhapsody
that heretofore simply could not exist.
Through hearts inflamed we yearn for them…
To mature in a home of God’s imparting,
To seek out God because of human example, & To produce in others more than they found in us…..
