dance with me

Thank you for healing me;
I was dying beneath my shame
But You brought me to life again, and I will sing:
Thank you for freeing me
I was dead to the truth of You,
But my healing was in Your wounds, and now I sing:
Thank you for healing me.

Though outwardly I may waste away,
On the inside I´ll be more alive every day.
As I walk through times of pain and grief
There´s a deeper truth inside of me...
You have placed Your life inside of me.

both ian and i have been feeling unwell over the past few days/weeks. god has been teaching us much but at times have grown weary and discouraged. tonight was a night that i would be alone with ian, without his brother here working and helping with transfers and the like. i didn't work all day, not feeling well enough, and i found myself feeling anxious about being alone to care for ian - evenings that i typically look forward to with much anticipation. 

but god has met us, and met this very tiny request of meeting our needs just on this night, which is a speck of our lifetime. ian has made me laugh, made our roommate jen laugh, forgotten her name which made us laugh really hard, and he has cared for me. we took a walk. we watched a movie. and just after i had hung up the phone, he told me he wanted to dance with me. and on pandora was a song that i had been searching for all week, and it was a perfect moment. a perfect moment because ian was showing god to me, loving me, asking me to dance with him, caring for me. and we were dancing to words of healing, and mercy, and life. this is my husband who, two years ago, could not sit up in bed by himself. his dad, and i, and his caregiver had to hold him for strength. and now, even though his arms and legs are tired, he's pursuing a dance with his wife. 

i am so grateful to the lord for my husband, and for these moments of sweetness and fellowship with the lord. i'm reminded each day that we are most clearly met when we are most weak.

thank you, always

i&l

...bless the lord, oh my soul...

unlike us

"forever god is faithful. Forever god is strong"

Unlike us, god is forever faithful. His word given to us cannot be false nor can it prove unfaithful. Unlike our feelings. And unlike our relationships, where we constantly fail, sin, and forget to love through mercy.

Also unlike us, god is strong - a strength too big for our minds to know. And in sickness or sadness or mental unrest or loss, we see our weakness stark against a great and strong god. And we may be called to wait in weakness, sometimes until heaven, but we are called to wait resting on a faithful and strong god.

god please help us to rest.

Thank you for praying

I&L

I'm grateful that I'm waking up next to my best friend on my 27th birthday. Im grateful that i was born on my dads 30th birthday. I'm grateful for two incredible parents, and the two more that marriage brought me. I'm thankful for my 10 siblings and their five children. I'm grateful that even when we don't feel well, god remains unchanged.

Above all, I'm grateful that Jesus died to grant me life, and that no matter what 27 brings, "the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed I have a beautiful inheritance."

Love
Larissa

I know that we just recently quoted spurgeon, but this one is good too. And it's just a few sentences:

If god should always rock us in the cradle of prosperity...and no bitter drops in the wine of this life...we would dream that we were standing - and stand we should but it would be upon a pinnacle; like the man asleep on the mast, each moment we would be in jeopardy...continued worldly prosperity is a fiery trial.

Afflictions though they seem severe in mercy oft are sent.

- c spurgeon

he who would glorify his god must set his account upon meeting with many trials. no man can be illustrious before the lord unless his conflicts be many. if then, yours be a much-tried path, rejoice in it, because you will the better show forth the all-sufficient grace of god. as for his failing you, never dream of it - hate the thought. the god who has been sufficient until now should be trusted to the end.

- charles spurgeon