Category Archives: Daily Life

Food: A Gift from Above

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A feast to the eyes,  a joy to share, a good gift from Above: Food.

Isn’t it amazing all that happens around food?  It is wonderful to consider all the goodness that comes when we feast together around the table and share God’s goodness, God’s bounty, His mercy to us as we come together and share a meal.

I want to give thanks today to my God for our family and for all our friends (old and new) who have opened their homes, their kitchen to us; for each family that has welcomed ours around their table. Thank you!

 

Coffee and fruit, and blueberry coffee cake; zucchini bread early in the morning and fresh hand picked cherries, burgers and  ice-cream and homemade pizzas. My mom’s best dishes,  and my sister’s best pic-nic food. All good, all a gift, each one a joy to share!

 

And we bow our heads each time, and hold hands and give thanks to our God who gives, and gives, and gives… because there is simply no other way to fully enjoy a meal but with a grateful heart. We give thanks to Him three times a day around the table not because of an empty custom, but because our hearts overflow with thanksgiving. Every meal is a gift, and every meal reminds us that one day, we will feast around a table in Heaven with Him and with all the saints who have gone before us.

Next time you look for a new recipe and prepare a dish for your family, for your friends; next time you set the table, do it with a joyful heart, remembering that every time we come to the table, we come to feast, to celebrate God’s goodness and His never-ending mercies toward us; let us do it pretty, delicious, and joyfully.

Let us bow down, hold hands, give thanks and feast!

 

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An Address to God before a Meal.

O Lord our God, in thee we live, and move, and have our being, and from thee receive all supports and comforts of our being: Thou spreadest our table and fillest our cup and comfortest us with the gifts of thy bounty from day to day. We own our dependence upon thee and our obligations to thee, pardon our sins we pray thee; sanctify thy good creatures to our use, and give us grace to receive them soberly and thankfully, and to eat and drink not to ourselves, but to thy glory, through Jesus Christ our blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

An Address to God after a Meal.

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with his benefits and gives us all things richly to enjoy, though we serve him but poorly. O Lord, we thank thee for present refreshments in the use of thy good creatures, and for thy love to our souls in Jesus Christ, which sweetens all. We pray thee pardon our sins, go on to do us good, provide for the poor that are destitute of daily food, fit us for thy whole will, and be our God and guide and portion for ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

From Matthew Henry’s A Method for Prayer

May your home be a place for feasting!

Becky

All pictures in this post were taken by my daughter.

Interrupting this Temporal Silence

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Dear friends,

Many of you know that our family has been traveling for the last two weeks and will still be away for the next two; we have been visiting old friends, making new ones, hugging long and crying even more. We  also left our oldest son in College; and now my girls and I are visiting my sister and her family. A gift from above indeed!

My pictures are still in my camera, but I promise to share some with you soon. I am sure you will love them.

I am not sure when I will be back to posting regularly (maybe not so soon!), but meanwhile I hope you are enjoying the last weeks of your summer and that no matter where you are now, you may see His wonderful Hand at work in your life.

I thought you might be blessed by this wonderful hymn sung at the NSA Convocation 2011

Coram Deo

Becky

Blogging About Your Kids

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From what we live with our children day by day we learn so many things, so many lessons that could not be learned in another different way. However, I have seen that many women like to share too much on their blogs (or Facebook) about these lessons in a very “specific and detailed” way; and I am sure it is neither wise nor God-honoring to be sharing every one of our children’s faults and mistakes, and the way we react to each one of them, just to “bless others with our experience”.

Maybe your son is 10 yo; and he doesn’t even read your blog right now; maybe if you ask him, he will say that he doesn’t really care if you write about *that* specific situation between you and him. BUT, he will grow, and he will read, and the most probable thing is that he will not be happy with what he’ll see on your blog. Be careful.

This doesn’t mean that you are being a hypocrite; it means that you are being prudent and wise. We all agree (I hope!), that it would not be correct to sit on a coffee shop with your friends to talk about the latest “terrible things” your children have done, and how mad you got, and how you managed to control your temper. Why then, we don’t feel uncomfortable when we read these stories? Or when some of us decide to write them?

“When words are many, transgression is not lacking,
but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.
The tongue of the righteous is choice silver;
the heart of the wicked is of little worth.”
Proverbs 10:18-20

You and I are not perfect, our families are not perfect; we all know that,  and even though it is OK to write about the lessons we learn in our daily life; and about the grace we have found in those difficult day-to-day circumstances, we must be very wise and prudent, because we don’t  want to share unnecessary details that others might find “encouraging”, but at the end will harm our children’s heart.

“Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets,
but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.”
Proverbs 11: 13

The easiest way to relate to this is to think… “What if my husband had a blog, and he decided that he would write about those words I said to him last night, and the way he lost his patience with me and how the Lord helped us through?” Yes, I am sure you would not enjoy that. Let us think on what we write about our children. Our children are more important than our readers; and we need to remember that must keep certain, many things under our roof, covered because we love them so much.

Happy blogging!

Becky

A Birthday Meditation

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“How great has been the mercy of my God to me… I trace his goodness from my birth to the present moment.

I was born in a land where the gospel can be preached—when I might have been born in heathen darkness.

I was instructed to read God’s holy word—when I might have been left like others, in nature’s ignorance.

I was preserved in Christ Jesus during the years of my unregeneracy, when many who were born about the time I was, have been cut down and consigned to the grave.

I was called by the sovereign grace of a covenant God, when running post-haste to eternal destruction!

I was taught by the Holy Spirit my sinful state, the value of my soul, the need of a Savior, the way of escape, and the freeness of salvation.

I was given a saving interest in Christ, and feel love to his dear name, and obtained a knowledge of his saving work.

I was kept by his mighty power in the midst of temptations, persecutions and snares, to publish the glad tidings of salvation.

I was sent to proclaim to poor sinners round the danger they are in, the glorious salvation of the cross, and Jehovah’s boundless love. Blessed with many seals to my ministry in different parts of the land, and with repeated testimonies of the power of the word in the hearts of the people of God.

I was preserved from my depraved heart, the various errors that lead multitudes astray, and the opposition of all my foes.

I was supplied with every temporal mercy, gospel privilege, and promised blessing.

I was brought through innumerable trials, difficulties and distresses, to the glory of Jehovah’s grace.

I was spared, notwithstanding my hardness, rebellion and backslidings, until I am forty years of age.

I appear before God this morning—willing, heartily willing, to be, to do, to suffer whatever he sees proper, so that I may but be kept from sin, and dishonoring his dear name and gospel.

When I reflect upon WHAT I WAS, how circumstanced, and situated, and view the way the Lord has led me, what he has done for me, and what he has done by me—I am astonished! O, that I did but feel humbled, grateful and thankful—as I desire to be filled with love to God, zeal for God, and concern to glorify God. I want to be entirely devoted to him, body, soul, and spirit, that my all may be for him and not for another. When I consider my coldness, carelessness, and ingratitude, I cannot but wonder that the Lord has not long ago disowned me! But blessed be his holy name,

“Whom once he loves—he never leaves.
But loves him to the end!”

He changes not—therefore I am not consumed.

O my soul, lay low before the Lord under a sense of your manifold infirmities and follies, and seek grace from Jesus to live holy, righteously, and usefully in this present evil world.

Gracious Lord, grant unto your servant light to see your will, power to do your pleasure, love to follow you wherever you go, and an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of my Lord and Savior. O give me an increasing love to souls, success in your work, and growth in grace, that my own personal concerns be not neglected! O make me like my Savior in spirit, temper and conduct!

See, gracious God, I do afresh on this my birthday, surrender myself entirely to you to be your servant, to be used as you please, and to be led where you will! O grant that I may serve you with a son’s heart, a bride’s affection, and a servant’s submission! Lord, take me, and enable me to remember evermore that I am yours! May I leave myself and all my concerns in your hands, and go about your business. O save me from every snare, from every foe, and from my wretched self! Get glory in me, by me, and through me—for Jesus Christ’s sake! Amen.

 

*edited from the words of James Smith (1849)

Becky

>Two Giveaways. Two Books. Two facebook Pages.

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I wish I would be here today

Isn’t this an amazing shot? I wish I could be there even now! I love Katie Lloyd ‘s Photography, she is very talented and I just love all the prints on her shop. You have seen her art featured here several times (and will still see it in the future), and I wish you to know that I have her permission to do so. Thanks Katie!

Our Friday looks pretty ordinary, with the exception that we are not eating home, but are planning to eat in a Mexican taco place that my children and their friends (our two hosts from the USA) really enjoy. And for those of you who doesn’t know, we live in Mexico, so when I say a Mexican restaurant please, forget about the stereotype you have in mind. I am talking about great food here.

I still have to finish ordering the books for the new school year, and cleaning our school room. Let’s see how much I can do today.  I really want to do this hanging book display for our little girl’s books; I just wished my mom were not in Canada, so she could help me! (Yes, I know it is easy, at least it looks easy, but I must admit that the needle, the sawing machine and things like that are not my friends. I love projets that involve fabric and glue. Sorry to disappoint you.)

Tutorial here

Well, now to the exciting part of this post: We (Diane @Theology for Girls and I) are hosting a fun giveaway on The Doctrines in the Kitchen Facebook page in which I am giving away one of my favorite books:

Read description at Monergism Books

and on the new Theology for Girls Facebook Page, Diane is giving away another excellent commentary, that has blessed my soul (actually the one I have, was a gift from her!). Plus, you will be excited to know that the book will be signed by Robert Bucknell (who happens to be Diane’s husband), the artist of the Spurgeon portrait on the cover.

Read more of the book here

OK, now the crazy part. How to enter? You must *Like* BOTH pages on Facebook and leave a comment under the one giveaway that interests you, saying that you would like to enter this giveaway. You can be interested in both, so feel free to leave a comment on both!

All this is fun, but I know that some of my faithful readers, friends, do not have a Facebook account, and I don’t feel it is fair to leave you out; so IF YOU DON’T HAVE A FB ACCOUNT, you can still enter the giveaway of The Commentary on Esther and Ruth. Just leave a comment on this post saying that you will like to enter, and I will gladly throw your name in the hat.

Winners will be announced next Friday, July 15.

Well, believe it or not I have not had coffee this morning so I will treat myself with some.

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky

>An Open Letter to my Friend Diana -and to all who are considering homeschooling-

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My Dearest Diana,

I wish we could have time to sit and talk for hours over a cup of tea, about our homeschooling experiences. But, since a vast ocean separates us, you’ll have to drink a cup of tea at 5:00 o’clock whilst I drink a cup of strong coffee in the morning.

You mentioned to me in a comment yesterday, when I wrote about how we homeschool not because we are stronger, that you would love to hear more about our experiences of home-schooling;  so I thought I would share some of our journey here, in the form of an open letter, because maybe, just maybe, there is someone else out there, who would like to hear about it too.

Yesterday I said that,  “I have learned some grace, and today I don’t dare to speak against those who send their children to schools (either Christians or not), because as I see my children walking in the ways of the Lord I can not say that it is because “we have done all things right” that they are godly. No, we know that it is because it has pleased God to give our children a heart for Him. It is grace, all grace.” So, why in the world did we choose to homeschool our children? Why I love to encourage my friends to do it? 

The answer is this: The reward of doing it is too great to let it go.

I will never trade all the wonderful moments that my children and I have lived together, all the moments reading on the couch, all the projects, and paintings; all the discoveries, the authors we have met together. The laughter, their “I did it!” look. A hug and a kiss when the multiplication tables are not easy to memorize, the words of forgiveness spoken, the tears and kisses. All growing side by side.

Our oldest son is leaving for college this summer, you know that, and as you can imagine my heart is heavy with the thought of it; however I just look behind and smile at all the memories we have built together; I am so happy and grateful that I have been there for him, with him, close to him all these past years. I have not wasted the minutes with him. What we have now is a strong relationship, and I give thanks to my God for it.

My dear Diana, we have chosen this journey, because we want to be there, not only to create beautiful memories, but because we want to teach them what a public school can’t, and that it is that God, His Word, reigns supremely over all subjects. I remember the time when Isabel and I were reading the Iliad, and read the moment when Helen leaves her husband; she was so surprised; and even though she is tender in age, we talked about how dreadful sin can be. I perfectly remembered whispering thanks to God. In a public school, she might have read the same story, even from a better story teller that me, but to the many questions she had,  I had the Word of God ready to bring her to God’s worldview.

Private Christian Schools (real Christian schools and not only nominal) are a great option too for many families who can’t homeschool. We have decided, as you may recall, to enroll our oldest children  in an Online School, which has proved to be a huge blessing to us. We don’t have in our country the option of co-ops, so for us this has been the perfect option.  The teachers are godly and the academics are rigorous, two things that we value. And of course, we also value the wonderful friendships that the Lord has brought to our lives through it; from our little one to my husband, we all love our friends in that wonderful community.

Now, homeschooling is not a “piece of cake” it involves hard work and lots of prayer. When people ask me what is the hardest thing about homeschooling; I always say: “Dealing with my flesh everyday” And it is true! If I lose my temper, it is not because they are not giving me the correct answer, it is simply because I am not exercising patience. So, yes, this journey has helped me grow in the Word, and has helped me see many areas of my life that need to be changed, many sins that need to be mortified. But at the same time, it has helped me see, as I wrote yesterday, that when I am weak He is always strong.

So, Diana, this is why I love homeschooling, and the reason why I would do it over and over again. I like this saying that I have, “Deciding to start homeschooling is tough, but thinking about quitting is impossible.” And maybe, after all this,  you are asking, “Becky, what does your children say?” Well, they say they want to do it with their own children as well. That, my friend, is a great reward, don’t you think?

My dear friend, it is my prayer that you and your husband will be led to the best option for your family; one that will bring Him glory.

Love you dearly,

Becky