DELIGHT!!

Delight yourself in the Lord;

and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

What does it mean to delight in the Lord? What does it look like to delight in the Lord? What does it feel like to you...and to Him?

The dictionary says: to thrive in, thrilled, to please, to give joy, reap.

From our women's bible study this week (Cynthia Heald: Becoming a Woman of Prayer) I learned: To delight is to REVERE, MEDITATE UPON, be HAPPY TO DO GOD's WILL, HAVE THE WORD IN MY HEART, HAVE AN APPETITE TO STUDY THE WORD, and being ONE WHO IS CALLED BY GOD.

Matthew Henry wrote: What is the desire of the heart of a good (wo)man?

It is this, to know, and love, and live to God, to please him and to be pleased in him.

This past Monday Patti's daughter and family came over for a barbecue...One handsome husband, and four little ones under 7. It was nice to be around little ones who are so well-behaved and I watched them play all day without whining or fighting. Jacob and Michael had some adventures up on the hill in the trees for hours..coming and going. Owen, 8 months, let us do tricks for him to make him laugh. He is so dang sweet with the best duck hair ever! Clara is three and she is who I want to share about with regard to DELIGHT.

Clara loves her Pa 'best.' (GrandPa) He taught her that at a very early age...Who do you like best, Clara? PA is her only answer. She obviously does adore him. She delights in him..and I must say he in her as well.

They spent about an hour in the hammock....making faces, she holding her Pa's face, talking with him, saying she loved him, best even!! They chatted back and forth and we heard much laughter and saw the joy! She was totally in tune to him and no one else. She was looking at him and no one else. She was totally focused on him. It's really hard to explain without a video or even a picture of the two of them in the hammock, but when I did my bible study lesson on Monday I was reminded that I had seen DELIGHT between Clara and Pa.

I shared that with the ladies at the bible study on Tuesday morning..it really brought tears to my eyes. Oh, that I would delight in the Lord the way little Clara was with her Pa. A good lesson--up close and personal. May it be so.

Whom have I in heaven but You?

and I have no delight or desire on earth beside You.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the rock

and firm strength of my heart, and my portion forever

Psalm 73:25-26

Pa & Clara in quieter times...

The Queen of England & Other Fans of mine...

Repost from August 2008--taking me a bit longer to do today's blog than I thot...so enjoy this one in the meantime. :) Thanks

Yes, my friend the Queen of England in a wonderful pose that she reserves only for her best friends! She writes to me quite often but for someone of her influence and stature, she somehow ends up in my SPAM folder!!!!! You would think she might have a technology servant who could somehow find a way to get right into my genuine email. I've written her to let her know I really appreciate her emails and have put her into my best buddy list.

Why the fellow in the UK can't get to my acceptable email recipients is beyond me as well; I am very open to cashing in on the lotteries I have won and would be happy to travel to England to negotiate with the attorneys for big businessmen who need my help by setting up an account here in the US. Best deal ever! They promise people will begin to send me large checks and all I have to do is deposit them, take my percentage cut, and then send the rest of the money back to the UK!

At 65 years of age I am receiving many opportunities to get my degree on line. I think I want to be a neurologist and hope they send me the online link soon so I can get my M.D. degree within 18 months! I have no interest in becoming a forensic specialist or a bookkeeper at this late date. I need to garner funds quickly and am pretty sure Kaiser Permanente would hire me with my 18-month degree in a fast minute!You can imagine my glee when my SPAM mail shocked me with the information that i could lose 6 inches in my thighs in just a week! Let me buy a gross of that as I have more than six inches to lose! And to think they haven't teamed up with the people who say I can trim my tummy in only one month if I would just buy their product with a 30-day money back guarantee!

Bank of America, Wells Fargo all want me to call them immediately because there are problems with my accounts!!! I dont bank at either bank!!! Wait, maybe that is the problem!

These scams must be working or we would not receive them daily, right? People are bilked everyday; we need to warn them! Some people are just getting started on the Internet and have no idea that people are out to scam them. Early on in terms of computer savvy, one friend told me this: "I got locked up in a box with someone I didn't know and I couldn't get out." (This was an IM on AOL). Today that friend locked in the IM Box can perform a function on comast email that alludes me to this day...cut and paste! She has come a long way!

I'm a sucker for things to buy at 3 am which appear on TV, however ...

“Laughter is the closest thing to

the grace of God”

Karl Barth ** Swiss Theologian

Happy 4th of July - My family were immigrants!

Granddaughter and daughter of immigrants in 1920 and 1926, settling in Ohio and San Francisco. My mother and her parents came from Scotland. My father was born in Philadelphia but his parents immigrated from Poland and Ireland.

These are all pictures of my Dad's family....great grandparents, grandparents, parents, and brothers and sisters....as young kids and all grown up. They all could play the harmonica! There were six children...John, Francis (Barney/my dad), Eileen, Maureen, Dorothy and Mike.

I can't believe I don't have any pictures of my mother's side of the family on my computer and all my photos are in storage so I can't add any but they were a fine looking bunch from Scotland. My grandfather came over first in 1920 to San Francisco and almost went back to Scotland due to the lack of jobs and while there was some government assistance available he would have no part of it being the proud independent man he was. My grandmother heard he was coming back to Scotland and wrote him immediately and told him she was on her way. She got her papers, all the legal things needed, and packed up her house and the four children, Hugh, Bill, James and Sarah (my mother), ages 14 to six.

She even packed up her set of china which was a huge 12 piece place setting with rather grand vegetable bowls. It is white with blue and gold around the edges. My mother used it for years and I have it now. My Aunt Mary gave me a darling little vase that was my Grandmother's also.

I asked all four (mother and uncles) to write their memories down for me and I typed them up and added some graphics including their immigration papers, the family shortbread mold, and other assorted memorabelia. I gave them each a copy for Christmas that year and they loved it! It is one of my treasures too.

If my memory serves me right, I have 33 cousins. We were all living in the Bay Area during my youth and had quite a nice life, seeing each other quite often. I have great memories of all the family time spent.

I am so glad that they immigrated to America!

I love my heritage as well!

God Bless America

This is a great song for the 4th of July

by Billy Madden & Vinnie Rhodes.

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydSNAEnurto&feature=related

When in Transition...raw fish, buffalo burgers and who knows else is ahead!?

I'm having so much fun in California, as you well know from my postings on Facebook and here in my blog.

I'm moving to another friend's home on the 4th of July. I've been in a beautiful situation at Kim's (she makes the best ever cupcakes!!) with my own upper floor but the bedroom just gets too hot for me! Even with the air on it doesn't seem to want to cool off this room enough for this ole gal.

Patti and Mike graciously offered their home to me so I would stay in California longer. I was told I had to eat with them and enjoy plain Midwestern cooking! Okay!! Then Patti said: You will love buffalo burgers. EXCUSE ME? I know that is Idaho food..and I never tried it, but this is NOT plain old Midwestern food either! I guess I will...Patti can be persuasive.

Speaking of plain...years ago Patti and I were up in the Wine Country and stopped in for lunch. I ordered the tuna..so she did too. HOWEVER, she thot it was a tunafish sandwich, and it was a raw tuna totally California cuisine...Patti ate her salad. LOL Maybe thats' what I'll have to do if the buffalo burger doesn't tickle my palate.

Patti is my real-in-person funniest friend ever. On line its Martha; they both think so fast with a quick witty comeback you can't help laughing. Its a gift for sure! One day they can amuse me for all eternity while we hang out on the clouds. I bet Patti and Martha will bond over not liking raw tuna too!!!!!

I'll be celebrating my transition

on the 4th of July!

God Bless America and all my friends.

I am blessed.