> The Christmas lights started to shine this weekend in our home; we bought our tree and brought it home with joy,  beautiful music filled our place as we turned on the first Christmas lights. The story is ready to be unfold, to be read again, to be lived every day. Isn’t  wonderful how we stop to celebrate the Incarnation of our Lord? Isn’t is wonderful to turn on the first Christmas lights only to be reminded that Light overcame darkness? Isn’t is wonderful to stop and meditate on the greatest miracles of all: God made man?

For this I am grateful today:

949. My friend Ann and her willingness to serve.

950. A baby’s heart beat.

951. Orchids and a beautiful friend taking the time to teach us about the wonders of these flowers.

952. Tropical flowers, a miracle indeed.

953. Birds, beautiful creatures, reminding us of His faithfulness.

954. A Medieval feast.

955. A Christmas tree, and the first lights shining in our home.

956. A beautiful family willing to celebrate.

957. The Jesse Tree

958. Advent Readings

959. A prayer about the Advent Arms of God

960. The privilege of having the Holy Supper

961. The  Word of God. Hearing Him speak to me through the Holy Scriptures.

962. The privilege of coming to God in prayer.

963. Light overcoming darkness.

964. The Epistle of Romans

965. The mystery of the marriage bed.

966. Being a Mom.

967. This wonderful word:  “Yes”

968. Learning to say “No”

969. A grateful heart.

970. Friends at Rebecca Writes, raising our voices together this month to celebrate and proclaim His goodness.

971. A recipe from my friend Terri, thank you!

972. A brand new week ahead.

973. Mel, a beautiful young lady!  (see her pictures here)

974. You. – You-

Let us extol His name together for His mercies are new every morning!

 The A is for Advent – Z is for Zeal posts series will continue tomorrow.

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My daughter’s eye captured this… I love her!

Borrowing my friend Persis’ words, I must say that even though I grew up a Christian,  “I have been doctrinally undernourished most of my life”, it was 7 years (almost 8) ago that the Lord brought us to understand the Doctrines of Grace and since then, we have been devouring the Word of God and theological books. What I learned in the past I learned it so well, that changing all that wrong information has taken a great big deal of time and study.

Now, my family speaks English as our second language, and we are grateful for that and for the fact that we have been able to buy books online and have them shipped to Mexico to nourish our souls. But I want you to imagine for a minute what it is for many people in the Spanish speaking countries, who are starting to be nourished  with sound doctrine and are not  able to find easily good books in Spanish. Think of your five favorite theological books in English, the most probable thing is that they don’t have them all published in Spanish…yet.

We have big Christian bookstores, but I guess you can imagine what kind of books they sell, all those books that preach any thing but the gospel. However, I am grateful for one ministry, one beautiful ministry, that is working hard to get more and more good books, that teach sound doctrine translated into Spanish and published.

I am grateful for them, and I want to invite you to prayerfully consider donating to their ministry (Disclaimer: My family is NOT involved in this ministry, I am not doing this for personal reasons at all) Their books are not sold expensive, I have seen that they try to keep the prices as low as possible, but that is not easy, as you can imagine.

I am so grateful for having all these book options in English, but there are many, many brothers and sisters in the Spanish speaking countries that are “doctrinally undernourished” and maybe, we can help a little bit so they can have more good literature in Spanish.

Faro de Gracia

My gratitude list goes on, only because He is who He is!

911. Being able to read English.

912. My husband willingness to buy all these books for our family.

913. Faro de Gracia

914. A Kindle to read more…

915. The Word nourishing my soul.

916. Laughter at the family table.

917. Our camera

918. My daughter resting her head on my chest.

919. Kisses in the morning.

920. Little one excited about spending the night with Grandma and Grandpa.

921. Our oldest son, his love for books.

922. A model of a virus, a time to make memories.

923. Visiting the park and buying a carnivorous plant.

924. Huge “leaves-cake”

935. Eating out.

936. A date with my Beloved.

937. The song of the birds.

938. Four dogs that make our children’s lives so happy.

939. Silence.

940. Noise

941. Dreams.

942. Tears.

943. Contentment.

944. Tea with my daughter.

945. Yellow and Blue.

946. New music on the piano.

947. Holding hands.

948. Being able to breath today.

May your journey this week be one of gratitude.

Under His sun and by His Grace,

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Watercolor on Arches. Yes I painted it!

Monday is here, we open the windows and let the sun shine in. The books, the classes, and the chores are awaiting us. We start happily. Who won’t start with a wide smile after a beautiful and restful Lord’s Day?

So here we are, ready to start our weekly dance, let the music start!

And the first notes lead me to sing a gratitude song to my Lord. Thomas Watson raises the baton and I can almost hear him ask me today:

“How may we know whether we are rightly thankful?

Answer 1: We are rightly thankful—when we are careful to register God’s mercies: “David appointed certain of the Levites to record, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel” (1 Chron. 16:4)…. Mercies are jewels that should be locked up. A child of God keeps two books always by him: one to write his sins in—so that he may be humble; the other to write his mercies in—so that he may be thankful.

Answer 2: We are rightly thankful—when our hearts are the chief instrument in the music of praise: “I will praise the Lord with my whole heart” (Psalm 111:1).

Answer 3: We are rightly thankful—when the favors which we receive, endear our love to God the more. David’s miraculous preservation from death drew forth his love to God: “I love the Lord” (Psalm 116:1). It is one thing to love our mercies; it is another thing to love the Lord. Many love their deliverance, but not their deliverer. God is to be loved more than his mercies.

Answer 4: We are rightly thankful when, in giving our praise to God, we see no worthiness from ourselves: “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies you have showed unto your servant” (Gen. 32:10)…

Answer 5: We are rightly thankful—when we put God’s mercy to good use. We repay God’s blessings—with service… We do not bury our talents—but use them for God’s glory. This is to put our mercies to good use. A gracious heart is like a piece of good ground that, having received the seed of mercy, produces a crop of obedience.

Answer 6: We are rightly thankful—when we can have our hearts more enlarged for spiritual mercies—than for temporal mercies: “Blessed be God, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings” (Eph. 1:3). A godly man blesses God more for a fruitful heart—than a full crop. He is more thankful for Christ—than for a kingdom. 

 Answer 7: We are rightly thankful—when mercy is a spur to duty. It causes a spirit of activity for God. Mercy is not like the sun to the fire, to dull it—but like oil to the wheel, to make it run faster. David wisely argues from mercy to duty: “You have delivered my soul from death. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 116:8,9).

Answer 8: We are rightly thankful—when we motivate others to this angelic work of praise. David does not only wish to bless God himself—but calls upon others to do so: “Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.” (Psalm 117:1).

Answer 9: We are rightly thankful—when we not only speak God’s praise—but live his praise. It is called an expression of gratitude. We give thanks when we live thanks. Such as are mirrors of mercy should be patterns of piety. “Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness” (Obad. 17).

 Answer 10: We are rightly thankful—when we propagate God’s praises to posterity. We tell our children what God has done for us: in such a need he supplied us; from such a sickness he raised us up; in such a temptation he helped us. “O God, our fathers have told us, what work you did in their days, in the times of old” (Psalm 44:1). By transmitting our experiences to our children, God’s name is eternalized, and his mercies will bring forth a plentiful crop of praise when we are gone.”

And the list goes on, and my heart sings to God, from whom all blessings flow…

901. A restful Lord’s Day.

902. Books that nourish my soul.

903. Father and daughter playing guitar.

904. Father and little daughter making paper-crowns.

905. His kiss on my lips.

906. Conversations at night.

907. Mud pies.

908. Brother and sister playing together.

909. My oldest son, always willing to help me with a happy heart.

910. Mondays.

Let us raise our voices today and praise the Almighty God, in whose hands our lives are!

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We fold our hands, bow our heads and give thanks to our Father in Heaven. She is seven and loves to be close to me; I love to hold her and cuddle up to read our Bible.

When night comes, I see a lamp on in my sons’ bedroom; I peek inside and find them reading their Bible. My young lady keeps a journal, with prayers and thanks.

These are gifts that I treasure. These are gifts that comes from God. My husband and I have been obedient in teaching our children the Word; we have talked to them when they rise, when they lay down, when we walk and when we sit at the table, however, it is not because of us that our children are walking in the Truth. It is a gift that comes from God. I would say that it is in spite of us, that our children are walking in light.

My gratitude list goes on, and today I am grateful for these…

873. My children reading the Bible and praying on their own.

874. A little one holding my hand to pray.

875. A precious little girl reciting several passages from the Scripture.

876.  A homeschool curriculum that requires my children to read “The Holiness of God”, by Sproul

877. Books written for children that not only teach “Bible stories”, but deep truths, grounded in sound doctrine.

878. Surprising my daughter and taking her early in the morning to Starbucks.

879. My husband’s embrace. I will never stop thanking God for this!

888. A beautiful surprise!

889. Warm clothes.

890. Orange scones and coffee on a cold morning.

891. Treasures unwrapped in Philippians.

892. My beautiful daughter learning how to make buttons for our blogs 🙂

893. The moon.

894. Nights.

895. Fingers dancing over the piano keys, filling my heart with joy and my eyes with tears.

896. Learning to persevere in prayer.

897. Filling pages on my journal.

898. Reminding my soul not to worry about tomorrow.

899. God’s promises for His own.

900. Seasons of life. (The painting at the beginning of this post is one I painted in one  of the seasons of my life, where I spent my days playing with pigments and water))