Getting ready for Hannah's Birthday

Spent some time today getting ready for Hannah's 11 birthday. It will be on Tuesday the 24th but family day is Sunday. She wants fancy finger foods. I think that it is so funny. When I asked her specifically what she wanted to eat she descibed foods that you would have at a tea party. She may be turning 11 but she still thinks that she is the princess she thought she was at 4. I love that she thinks that way. The menu, peanut butter and jelly and turkey and provolone cheese sandwiches cut into triangles and with the crusts cut off, petite quiches, pigs in the blanket, veggies and dip, a Publix cake, and Potato Salad that I have asked my mother to bring because I don't make potato salad. And one other thing that I am adding to the menu as a surprise, chocolate fondue with fruit and marshmellows. It does sound like a tea party, right? I keep looking at Hannah to see if I can tell that she is going to be 11. She doesn't look like it most days, and yet some days, I think that she is much older than that. What really hurts is there are times when I look into her eyes and I see so much, there is no longer the tender eyes of a small child looking to me for all the answers of life, she is trying so hard to figure out so much on her own. I didn't think that would happen until so much later in life, or at least a little closer to the teen years.

I look forward to the next year with Hannah to see what new things that she discovers, what the Lord will offer her, how she will grow up to be the lovely Princess of the King of Kings.

I love you, Hannah!! You truly are just as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside.

Are you really Jesus' Disciple?

John 8:21-32

Jesus said in verse 31-32 "if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

In the passage, Jesus is talking to the Jews, that they do not know him or they would be able to recognize him as the Son. How do you recognize the Son? Foremost, you stay in his Word, have relationship with him by reading his Word. Jesus says that he doesn't do anything of his own authority but speaks only what the Father has taught him. So to know the Father and the Son, you have to be immersed in the Word. Inside the Word you will find encouragement for your day, your situation, and your life. Inside the Word you will also find hope; hope for things to come, hope for healing, or hope for a new beginning. Inside the Word you will find peace, a peace that you cannot explain. By remaining in the Word, Jesus will teach you the truth and you can be set free from those things that are wearing you down. Reach into the Word, find truth, freedom and really be Jesus' disciple.