seeking HIS face...

i spent the day following where The Holy Spirit led and am utterly overwhelmed at the blessing i received by being obedient to that leading. i am ever undeserving but ever awash with gratitude because God doesn't care that i am wretched little me. HE loves me, saves me, waits for me, runs to me when i seek him and longs to hear me anyway. WHY do i forget that i have immediate access to my creator at anytime about anything? WHY do i not seek HIS face more? LORD have mercy, but this world is distracting and HOW i long for the things of it to grow dim so that I can focus on HIS voice. Such drenching peace comes when i do. i praise HIS holy name that he has chosen to make Himself known to me.

Devotions of Peace...

From Jesus Calling by Sarah Young...

Seek my face, and you will find not only My Presence but also
My Peace. To receive My Peace, you must change
your grasping, controlling stance to one of openness
and trust. The only thing you can grasp without
damaging your soul is My hand. Ask My Spirit
within you to order your day and control your
thoughts, for the mind controlled
by the Spirit is Life and Peace.

You can have as much of Me and My Peace
as you want, through thousands of correct
choices each day. The most persistent choice you face
is whether to trust me or to worry. You will never run
out of things to worry about, but you can choose
to trust me no matter what. I am an ever-present
help in trouble. Trust Me, though the earth give
way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.

Romans 8:6, Psalm 46:1-2

The Birdhouse Beckons

dedicated to Megan...

outside my kitchen window,
in the blowing snow
a birdhouse dances warmly
setting souls aglow.

eagerly she dances
despite the creak and strain
testifying to anyone
while ignoring all her pain.

she is God's little birdhouse
belonging just to him
beckoning spring and glory
for all who hope in HIM.

Pray HARD...please.

I'm so angry. She just had her birthday. Her hair is growing back.
She's looking so healthy again. GOD, I HATE CANCER!
please, pray for this devastated family. Pray for the healing
of this little girl. Pray that this latest scan is wrong.
It's too much, Dear Jesus...it's too much.
I've had a heart full of burden to pray for her since
she was diagnosed at five. Please join me!
She needs all the prayer she can get.
Her father, Aaron, is a pastor. Their family is a living,
breathing testimony of solid faith in Jesus Christ
and they are suffering so much. My heart breaks.

PRAY...

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world
and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when
the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground,
and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:12

Make a memory...

Dear God, I know I've been complaining A LOT lately about all
the things that I have to do. You know I've been wishing for a
pause button for my life, a chance to just...slow...down.

I understand that very often you hear me thinking about
how I want to freeze every...little...moment with my kids and I
want to remember...OH, GOD, how I want to remember
every...little...thing. It flies by...our life...before I can even blink.

I'm scared...scared I won't make enough memories to remember.
-Scared I won't have played enough, laughed enough, loved enough...

Then, I think, "I must do MORE."
Bake more cookies, make more crafts
(okay some crafts...they are boys afterall),
tickle more, talk more, play more, read more...
more, mORe, MORE.
I do this until all MY expectations for my own mothering
are teetering, dangerously, above me
and begin to topple...crumbling in.

OVERWHELMED.

I am forever behind...behind on things I love like
cooking, blogging and writing...behind on things I don't love
like laundry, cleaning and repairing...behind on things
that drive me crazy like my recent attempt at
some graduate work that's, sadly, just plain necessary.

I'm tired, God...tired of running and chasing and catching up
but you know that. I know I need to back away from life.
You KNOW I need to back away from life and concentrate on
things that matter like prayer and studying your word and
making moments with my kids...

SO, today, the world is actually freezing, right as I type.
Mother nature is hitting the pause button,
pretty dang HARD, across 30 some odd states.

Lord, please be with us all, keep people safe and
help ME use this...time...wisely.

One of my sweet mother's favorite sayings is,
"Make a memory." Help me, God, to do
just that. I want to make a memory with those
two little boys you've let me borrow and with you,
Holy Father...I want to spend some time with you.
Help me use this deep freeze to thaw out my mind and soul
and give it back to you. My heart is all yours.

Amen.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind."
Matthew 22:37

Schantz Christmas Greetings 2009

Please click the card just below

to experience our Christmas message to you!

Prayer Request

Dear Stellan,
Everyone is praying for you, literally, people ALL
over the country. Hang in there, baby. Keep
that precious, utterly UNIQUE, little heart pumping
until the doctors can figure out what to do.
FIGHT baby...

GOD please show yourself to this family...again...some more...
they need you right now, TODAY! PLEASE help the doctors
find something that will work to pull Stellan through this!

Join with us in praying for Stellan.
Find out more by clicking here.

Chemo Starts Today

Three weeks ago it was summer, and swimming
and sticky ice-cream, and sunsets and moving into
a new house and a little, curly blonde-headed girl
beggin' for a dog. TODAY they're waging
the battle of their lives and chemo begins.

Can you please keep or start praying for Kate and her family?
Check out http://www.prayforkate.com

GO NOW, kiss your healthy babies who are,
blessedly, at home enjoying summer probably with
their bed-heads watching cartoons wanting breakfast
like mine. I am SO thankful. My HEART aches.

It should be a law somewhere in the universe
that kids CAN'T get sick. CANCER should leave children alone.

You HEAR me GOD? GOOOODDDDDD!
MAKE IT GO AWAY! please...

Watching Him Break...

Church, worship...two of many words that mean different
things to different people depending on who they are, what
they've experienced and who they know God to be.

This weekend for me, worship happened
at the very end of everything when I noticed
the couple I was sitting behind,
an infinitely kind couple that I know
a little and respect profoundly.

They are well educated, well read, have formidable resumes
in their respective professions, have raised an outstanding family,
serve God faithfully, contribute to their communities.
They are in a word, exemplary.

Of the couple, SHE has cancer AGAIN.
Please bear with me, I know this has been a theme of late.
CANCER...it's dark. It's depressing. It's a demon.

I feel like I'm in the eye of a storm, safe and protected.
I don't have cancer nor does anyone in my intimate circle
of friends and family. BUT...

All around me, on every side, lately, I see someone
raging in this battle. I'm tired of seeing people
suffer from this disease. Lives are being decimated
and families are left mangled in the aftermath.
I don't understand but I know I HATE it.

SO...sitting behind this amazing couple on Sunday,
I watch as she struggles to stand, struggles to sit.
The struggle is not obvious. She looks radiant, in fact.
But, her movements are very slow, full of intention.
She moves like someone experiencing strong,
consistent pain. STILL she is RADIANT to me.
He is there. She is radiant to him too. He assists.
He loves SILENTLY with his unfaltering proximity.
They worship. Standing and sitting, singing
when appropriate...just like everyone in the room.

Then during the Jeremy Riddle song posted below
following a sermon about how God desires us
to be authentic with him, to rejoice and praise
but also to LAMENT and cry out...

This well-educated, composed, profoundly respectable man
standing next to his very ill wife...HE CRACKS.

It wasn't obvious. You had to have been paying attention.
It wasn't ugly. It wasn't anything I expected.
It was BEAUTIFUL.
And like the picture of broken glass above,
he was suddenly shot through with light...Holy Light.
He raised his hands in the most genuine expression
of praise that I've seen in a long time and
with his strong shoulders quaking,
He LAMENTED before God.
He COMPLETELY surrendered it...
the struggle they're fighting, the demon-beast
cancer, the burden they daily bear.
I think, He even surrendered her.

I was blessed to WATCH GOD take
that ugly, revolting, black, thick, life-stealing
burden that cancer has placed on them
COMPLETELY off of and away from that man.

Then, right there in that moment, that seemed to contain
all moments, my own worship FULLY bloomed
and I found myself briefly applauding
the exquisite act of faith and submission,
that I am so grateful to have borne witness to,
and God, HIMself.

Words never rang more true...
Sweetly Broken, Wholly Surrendered.
It's what I want to be.

Music Monday

Sweetly Broken Video

Little Light

Look at all the angels watching you
They’re singing songs that we have never heard
Their voices ring like bells over the mountains
Oh, if only we could hear their words
God is near, little girl.

Your eyes are brilliant, deep sky blue.
Your quiet wisdom is an evening song.
The angels must be breathless at your beauty
Like the world catches its breath before the dawn.
God is near, little one.

And Jesus bends to hear you breathe;
His tender hands are holding you tonight.
His heart is ravished when you look at Him,
and oh, the endless mercy in His eyes;
God is here, little light.

Dear Jesus please...

give her HOPE
help her FIGHT
bring back her SMILE
make all the cancer go away

to learn more about how to pray for Kate
click here.

For Elyse...

Closer To Love from Mat Kearney on Vimeo.

Reflections Out of My Kitchen Window...

Lots of thoughts today...hmmmnnn...

I spend a good deal of my time
standing in my kitchen at the sink with wet hands either
washing potatoes, produce, preparing food or cleaning up as
I imagine nearly all of the women in my family have,
at some point, before me.

Often, in the course of these normal, everyday activities
my thoughts wander as my hands perform a familiar task and
I usually end up gazing out of my kitchen window as AGAIN I imagine
nearly all of the women in my family have done before me.

In these moments...I feel profoundly connected to the women
of my family...women who I never had the opportunity to
meet or who I knew only as a child. I imagine them
standing at the sinks in the homes that they made making
meals, cleaning up, gazing out of their kitchen windows AND
I miss them. HOW is that possible? Women I barely knew
but whose love and care of their families in other times and places
has powerfully influenced the love and care and
quality of my own life and family.

I MISS them...my heart aches and I wish way down
to the depths of me that I could talk to them...KNOW them.
I would love to spend some time working
at the sink, elbow to elbow,
with my grandmothers and listen to them talk
about ANYTHING and for hours, please.

I feel compelled to name these women who on the surface,
seemed to live simple, nondescript lives because they
were "only" mothers or farmer's wives or factory workers but
who in reality were, very likely, so much more
(I know I am). SO, they were named
Hannah, Elizabeth, Nora, Lula, Cledaus, Florence, Olive, and Betty.

I want to know, firsthand, what their favorite flowers were.
I want to hear their jokes. I want to sing in church beside them.
I want to ask them things when I'm worried about my children.
I want to hear all of their stories about when they were
young and when they were old and everything in between.

Just another thing that makes waiting on heaven so hard, I suppose.

ANYWAYS...gosh, did you really read all of that? Thanks.
So, the thought was, "Man, I miss my grandmas..."
as I'm making this soup.


Homemade chicken noodle...yum.
AND (this is the point by the way)
in the simple act of preparing a meal and
longing for my grandmothers
on a beautiful Sunday morning before church...I find that
Holy God is present with me and we're working
elbow to elbow at the sink.
I felt surprised. I smiled, big. HIS presence humbled
me and I was thankful.
SO, I worshiped, right there in my bare feet.
I love that...being snuck up on by God.
I don't recall making soup with HIM before.

My mother has taught me to pray and ask God to
bless the work of my hands and I must say
yesterday morning, HE did...


After church, the soup was good and as I've pondered
all these "kitchen window" thoughts that have been
rumbling around in my head this last day or two,
I realize a couple of things.

First, God is ALWAYS present...ALWAYS
(it was even in the sermon that day,
HE was making a point with me, you see).
God will find you in the most unexpected places...
even if you're not looking but especially when you are.

Second, missing my grandparents and wanting to
know more of them is the very essence of why I blog.
I'm intentionally leaving something of myself
for my children and grandchildren.
Call it what you will...oral history, autobiographical, journaling.
Legacy? Perhaps...

At any rate, those that are growing and
who are to come, will know more of me because I do this.
(Hopefully, they will know I love them like crazy cakes
and that I prayed for them.)

Because I do this,
when they miss me, long for me...
a tangible part of me will be there and they can wrap
up warm and cozy in
my words and stories and pictures.

BUT mostly, in spite of my effort to ease
any potential loneliness for them, I want to leave my own
experience of the unshakable truth that we are NEVER alone.
Almighty God holds us in his hand ALL THE TIME
even when you're bare foot in your kitchen
daydreaming out the window making soup.

How's that for a story? I think it's a humdinger!

Soul Food

They're bringing GLORY to GOD in the midst of their suffering!

If you need an AMAZING BLESSING today,
if your soul is hungry and you need to hear
how God is moving in the lives of HIS people,
check this out...and join with us as
we lift The McCraken Family up in prayer.

Oh, How HE Loves Q (SusieQ)
Oh, how HE loves you and me...

http://www.ohhowhelovesq.blogspot.com

PRAY

This beautiful lady in the middle
of her beautiful daughters is
Susie McCracken and she
is fighting cancer.
Today, Susie had surgery
to remove a tumor from her
brain and next they have to
go after the spots on her liver.
We love this lady and we want
to ask everyone that we know to
PRAY
Pray for her and her family's peace
and strength and comfort and healing.
Pray that they feel acutely the fact they
they are being held in God's own hand.
Please friends...pray with us. Thank you.

Blessed Baptism

We had a great family focused weekend
with a Saturday night stay at
a local indoor water park.

Just the four of us together
for some dedicated fun time.

Ready to swim! Don't lose your admission bracelet!

ELECTRONIC BANKING Monopoly.
IT HAS CREDIT CARDS...whoa...

Our BEAUTIFUL boy as he begins
his journey of building his life
on the rock of Jesus Christ.

So Blessed!

Eli and Pastor Rennick...aren't they just handsome.


Eli and Pastor Samme Rousopoulos, his children's pastor.


Eli and Miss Mandy, one of the youth pastors.


Eli and one of the pretty youth girls,
Samantha, who just happens to be his cousin
Ashley's BEST friend.



Okay...what my heart feels when I look at these
next pictures and when I remember
those few moments on that day...

No words can really express the depth of
that kind of complete joy!

Holy is the Lord God Almighty...

How profoundly thankful I am
to be this child's mother...that God saw
fit to bestow on me such a gift, I am humbled.

I am honored to have played a part in his birth
into this world and am AWED to have witnessed
his birth into the spirit.

Mere words...honest words
but they don't even come close
to all my eyes saw and the
memories that filled my heart as I watched
him declare his salvation to the world
as Jesus did.

If you ever had a hand on our child,
ever said a prayer for him,
sang a song about Jesus to him,
taught him a Sunday School Lesson or a virtue,
if you took his baby hand and patted a bible,
provided him a Christian model,
loved him or cared for him,
or shown Jesus to him in anyway...

We thank you. Our joy is yours as well
and is only complete when we share it with you.

God is so good. He is FAITHFUL!