Author Archives: Becky Pliego

About Becky Pliego

I am grateful because God, in His grace, called me out of darkness and into his admirable light. When I did not look for Him, He found me. When I was in a pit of sin, He rescued me. I am not walking this road alone, my family is always with me, and we love Him, because He loved us first.

An Old Building -Framing Light-

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Yesterday we went to visit an old convent (from the 1500’s), which has been turned into a Museum.
The building is just beautiful, the ceilings are high and the corridors long and numerous. You can still visit the old kitchen and the bathroom, which was used more as a place of healing than personal cleaning, (it actually has only one bathtub) the nuns would take baths with infussions to heal their diseases.

The windows are deep wide, all framing light.

I love to see how Light finds its way through Darkness, it pierces it. 

Darkness is always overcome by Light.

Light leads our eyes into something else. Our eyes, once that have known light, do not want to steer the darkness. We long for Light.

But I loved darkness, that is what the Bible says, and He saw me and when I did not call Him; He brought life to the dungeon, and pit where I was.

I was so trapped in sin that I could not reach Him, but He remembered my condition, He remembered that I am made of dust, that I was born sinful, and He came, and reached me and took me out of darkness into His admirable light.

The prision of sin and condemnation were broken; there was a way out.

Light always conqueres and pierces Darkness.

“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
  (2 Corinthians 4:5-6 ESV)

“…at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” ( Ephesians 5:7-10)

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” (1 John 1:4-6)

Thank you, Pilgrim Mommy, for the hymn verse:

“Long my imprisoned spirit lay,

Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.”

Beauty Framed

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This door caught my eye, “who is the woman of the house who put that beautiful yellow wreath on her door?”

I want to meet her, and say, “thank you for making beautiful what otherwise would go unnoticed.”

We frame the life the Lord has chosen for us, with our attitudes; am I going to complain or smile and pick up some yellow wild flowers  and make a wreath to hang on the door?

We don’t choose the frame in which our life happens, that belongs to the Lord, but He demands from us to hang a beautiful attitude on it.

A prayer, a smile, a hug, a kiss.

May you find wild yellow flowers today.

The photo-play prompt was given by my friend Claire

Teaching Them What We Almost Forgot

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I still remember so vividly those days when we would hold their tiny hands to help them take their first steps; or how I used to take those little hands in mine, to show them how to properly hold the pencil; The days in which we invested hours to teach them how to ride a bike without training wheels or try a new pair of skates have passed by.

We have taught them how to read, to write, to be polite at the table, to speak different languages, to love books, to read their Bibles, to say “thank you” and “please”; to love and obey Mom and Dad; to live with open hands; to take a plane; to use wisely their time on their computer, to live happy, to set the table, to bake and cook; to drive and swim…

But, we almost forgot to teach them how to pray. 

We taught them, since they were little infants, that they should pray, we would lead them into prayer, and they would see that prayer was indeed part of our family. But we just realized we had never set apart a special time to teach them how to pray.

One disciple asked the Master, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He knew that certain things do not “just” happen, they most be learned.  And someone needs to teach them.

A barber, in a cool spring in the 1530’s asked Martin Luther to teach him how to pray, he answered him writing a short treatise entitled “A Simple Way to Pray; for a Good Friend“

This is another reminder on how we fail as parents every day and yet God’s grace comes and lifts us up, and helps us to keep up with the race.

How are we teaching our children to pray?

At the family table.

We bring our Bibles, and read the Lord’s Prayer together every day; we make it ours and pray over it, we meditate on its words, we talk about its meaning, and then we pray.

Several books will be our companions this summer, and we have started with these:

I will post the new titles as soon as they arrive in the mail and we start studying them.

A Simple Way to Pray

Praying the Lord’s Prayer, by J.I Packer

When You  Pray: Making the Lord’s Prayer Your Own

A Method For Prayer: Freedom in the Face of God

A Diary of Private Prayer

A prayer guide that has been a great blessing to me, is the one Valerie put together a while ago. 





We took time in December to ponder and study the Incarnation, we waited during the Advent season, and then we celebrated the God-Man in the Manger  We did not want to miss the opportunity to study the Atonement, and we placed a cross where the Christmas tree was; we celebrated the risen Christ, and studied what this means; but, on how to pray, we almost forgot to teach them that.

We think we are teaching them, yet we are just learning.

Gratitude Monday -Borrowed Words-

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Words are a gift from God. Words have roots and meanings, words heal or bring death, words are powerful, and yet, sometimes, seem to be weak. 
Through words we have walked into covenants, with words we have started our families; a simple “yes” turned my life into somehing beautiful. 
Words are like a stair, one by one we climb steps until we find the exact one, the one we are looking for to reach that place we long to go.
Today, my gratitude list today (# 581- 599) is with borrowed words, words that I found in my prayer corner, words that seem to say what I could not say better. Words with a meaning, words, that I have made my own, words that I have prayed:

“Now unto thee, O heavenly Father, be all praise and glory that by day Thou dost richly fill my life with various blessings:

A home to share, kindred love, and friends to cherish;
A place to fill and a work to do;
A green world to live in, blue skies above me, and pure air to breathe;
Healthy exercise and simple pleasures;
My race’s long history to remember and its great men to follow;
Good books to read and many arts and crafts to delight in;
So much that is worth knowing and the skill and science to know it;
Those high thoughts that sometimes fill my mind and come I not know whence;
Many happy days, and that inward calm that Thou givest me in days of gloom;
The peace, passing understanding, that comes from thine indwelling in my soul;
The faith that looks through death and the hope of a larger life beyond the grave.

I thank Thee, O Lord God, that though with liberal hand Thou hast at all times showered Thy blessings upon our human kind, yet in Jesus Christ Thou hast done greater things for us than ever didst before;

Making home sweeter and friends dearer;
Turning sorrow into gladness and pain into the soul’s victory;
Robbing death its sting;
Robbing sin its power;
Making peace more peaceful and and joy more joyful and
   faith and hope more secure. Amen”

*Words borrowed from A Diary of Private Prayer, by John Baillie.

About my Move

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Thank you, dear Friends, for coming to this new place.

It is almost a year since I started this adventure, blogging about my daily life under His sun, and I still remember the day I wrote about rejoicing on our daily tasks, my very first post, and as I look back, I smile and whisper “Thank you, Lord”  He has been teaching me day by day to do that, to rejoice in the ordinary, rejoice in the routine, love the simplicity of a morning breakfast, and the mess while doing a big home school project.

I have learned while journaling about my life, that moments which seem to be simple and insignificant are indeed what make up my whole life, in a moment they have been transformed into the woman that I am now;  I have learned also, that situations in my daily life really matter because it is there where I must fight my sinful flesh.

Grace has sustained me, and I am grateful.

I want to thank each one of you who have been walking along with me. You all are precious friends, and sisters in Christ.

Thank you!

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Now, you might be wondering why I moved my blog from WordPress to Blogger, well the reasons are basically three:
1. Blogger has new and free templates which are wider, and give more room for larger pictures. This I love!
2. Blogger does not have stats. Those stats are so dangerous for my sinful nature! More than once I fell trapped by them!
3. I really, really like the gadget named LinkWithin and I was never able to use it in WordPress. 
What about the Blog at WordPress?
It will remain there; I will be reading it often, after all, that is one of the main reasons I started blogging. But you too are more than welcome to walk through its pages and archives. Ponder through my words but please, keep always in mind that my words may fail, while God’s Word never; it will always be true and firm forever and ever!

Now, I hope you like this new look, and keep following my journey under the sun by His grace.

Note: If you know how to import a blog from WordPress to Blogger, please let me know 🙂 Thank you!

Sunday’s Psalm -Psalm 103-

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Psalm 103: 17-18 says,

“But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.”

What a precious promise! What a joy to read this and know that is God’s inspired Word speaking to us.
I love what John Calvin (1) has to say regarding these verses;

“By taking our children’s children into His care, He shows how precious to Him is our Salvation”

He is the God of the Covenant and  He wisely rules over us, making us able, through Christ’s Saving Grace, to “respond to His calling with faith and prayer to the Covenant of Grace”.

But we must remember, He expects us to remember. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy and remember to do His commandments. Calvin says,

“Many are quick to talk about God’s laws, but their feet are slow and their hands are heavy when it comes to the reality of spiritual service”

So, today, I found myself pondering about this, it seems so simple…remember…and even to do so, I need Him, I cannot do it myself. I forget; and being forgetful will not lead me to a godly life under the covenant.

Let us remember this day His commandments.

Let us rejoice in them.

Let us rejoice in the Lord of the Covenant, who delights to take care of our children’s children!

 

(1) Commentary on The Psalms John Calvin.Abridged by David C. Searle.
Psalm's Book image from here.