The July Tea Party

I gave you the message from our tea party in the last post. If you haven't read it, please go to the previous post. In essence, that is why I have tea parties.

I must say, the granddaughters love tea parties! They even help me with the themes. We planned to have a red, white and blue party, but for the life of me I couldn't get it to work with my house. So I borrowed my daughter's blue. Everything she has is blue; she has loved it since she was a wee one. I have nothing blue in my entire house, except a little blue mixed with pink and yellow in a nursery room. So instead of red I added yellow to pull in the yellow in the room.

Enough of my decorating scheme. Let's have a party!

You can't have a party without a mess first!

The rain certainly didn't deter some girls from being excited about a tea party. Come to think of it, I think they may have been more excited about the rain!


One can't have a tea party without tea


And food must be mixed in there somewhere


Add a pretty table or two


And some girls in the mix


Voila! A tea party

My goal is to train these young girls to be strong, godly and capable women. The parties have a goal in mind, much more than just to grow pristine primping girls who do nothing but sit around and have parties and go shopping all the time. Someday my prayer for them is that they will be the women of Titus 2:3-4. As an older woman in their lives, I am to train them to "love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled."

Do you have tea parties at home? I encourage you to have a theme, a goal in mind, when you go to so much effort. I know it will be worth it in the long haul!

I'm linking to:
Blue Monday
http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/2010/07/blue-monday-blue-candy-review.html
A Stroll Thru Life
http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/2010/07/22nd-table-top-tuesday-clock-finials.html

Are You a Good Girl?

Today is the day for my monthly tea party with the granddaughters. One morning as I was walking I felt the tugging of the Lord to share the gospel message with them today. They are 3 to 14 years old, so I knew that it had to be a simple message that they could understand clearly.

The relevance of the gospel message is centered around the fact that we are NOT basically good people who have made a few mistakes. No, in essence we are sinners. Sin has separated us from Holy God and driven us away from Him. We are condemned to an eternity of punishment unless there is intervention in our lives. But how do I help these precious and beautiful little girls to understand that they are not deserving of God's heaven in their own right?

The answer, I believe, lies in the law of God. So today we are going to go to the 10 commandments, found in Exodus 20.

1. Has anything or anyone other than the God of the universe, the Creator, been first in your life? (You shall have no other gods before me)

2. Do you serve the idol of possessions, money, beauty, etc?
[toys, popularity....] (You shall not make for yourself any graven images)

3. Do you ever use God's name as a curse word or use it lightly?
["Oh, _________] (You shall not take God's name in vain)

4. Do you honor God's day? (Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy) [Did you know that now God considers every day as holy?]

5. Is there a time in your life when you did not honor your parents? [disobeyed, showed disrespect, failed to give them credit for being your providers...] (Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long)

6. Have you ever hated anyone? (You shall not murder) [1 John 3:15 says, "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."]

7. Have you ever had lustful thoughts? (You shall not commit adultery) [Matthew 5:28 says, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart."]

8. Have you ever stolen anything, even something very small? Your bosses' time? (You shall not steal.)

9. Have you ever told a lie? (You shall not bear false witness) [Even the smallest of lies is a sin against a Perfect God]

10. Do you lustfully desire anything that God has not chosen to provide? (You shall not covet)

Our party is over now, and we went through the commandments. I encouraged them to think about these things, to make sure that they have given their lives to Jesus as their LORD and Savior. Lord means "Boss," the One we are to obey. The gospel message is that Jesus died, was buried and rose again so that all who believe in Him may spend eternity with Him.

"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. " Romans 10:9-10

That was our lesson for the month. It would behoove us all to periodically examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith. Is Jesus "Boss" in your life?

I am linking this post to:
Never Growing Old
http://nevergrowingold.blogspot.com/2010/07/follow-friday-40-and-over_09.html

The Girl Creative
http://thegirlcreative.blogspot.com/
New Friend Fridays

The Trendy Treehouse
http://thetrendytreehouse.blogspot.com/
New Friend Fridays

Toddler Awesome
Friendly Friday Follow
http://toddlerawesome.blogspot.com/2010/07/friendly-friday-follow-week-8.html

For a deserving couple

Do you know a couple that just really deserves special recognition? Such a couple attends our local church, and for their 50th wedding anniversary we gave them a special party. I suppose that any couple who stays married in our times for 50 years deserves a celebration, but this one especially does.

Bud and Nancy spent many years working with youth as summer missionaries all over the world. They have had a great influence in my daughter's life as well as mine. Their home is always open to anyone who needs a bed. Our son-in-law lived with them for 6 months. They give themselves continually to the elderly (even though they themselves are no spring chickens!), and still go to Haiti almost yearly to help at an orphanage. Thank you, Bud and Nancy, for your wonderful example. You are two of my role models, and I love you.

I want to be like you when I grow up!

I'm linking to:
A Stroll Through Life
http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/2010/07/20th-table-top-tuesday-treasures-from.html

Good, True and Beautiful
http://www.goodtrueandbeautiful.com/category/just-for-the-joy-of-it/

Beauty in creation

Somehow I managed to delete what I had done for my post. These were some pictures I had deleted from the original post, and in my morning "unwakefulness" I managed to post these instead. I'm sorry to lose all the lovely pictures on the post from our cruise, and they were mostly pink and RED!

I am linked to
http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/2010/07/77-outdoor-wednesday-78.html
and
Rednesday Wednesday
http://suelovescherries.blogspot.com/2010/07/rednesday-express-yourself.html

We Plow the Fields and Scatter the Seed

We plow the fields, and scatter the good seed on the land,
but it is fed and watered by God's almighty hand; he sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain, the breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain.

He only is the Maker of all things near and far; he paints the wayside flower, he lights the evening star; the winds and waves obey him, by him the birds are fed; much more to us, his children, he gives our daily bread.

We thank thee, then, O Father, for all things bright and good, the seed time and the harvest, our life, our health, and food; no gifts have we to offer, for all thy love imparts, and, what thou most desirest, our humble, thankful hearts.

Refrain:
All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above, then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all his love.

Words: Matthias Claudius, 1782; trans. Jane Montgomery Campbell, 1861

For better or for worse

A granddaughter dancing with a new friend at a wedding

Tonight we will be attending a wedding between one of the young ladies at our church and a young man that she met in college. Weddings are wonderful events, beautiful celebrations of the love between a man and a woman. "Till death do us part," "For better or for worse," "In sickness and in health," "For richer or for poorer." Familiar words spoken oh-so-sincerely in the heat of romance. Unfortunately today more of these fairytale marriages end in divorce than not.
As for this particular couple, godly parents and a loving church family will hold their feet to the fire and encourage them as they set off on a life-long covenant with God and one another.

Yesterday I sat at the table with four young women and listened to their thoughts about "divorce recovery." I was saddened to think that there is a felt need for divorce recovery classes within the church. I fear that this has happened because the church has failed somehow when there are as many or more divorces among Christians as there are among those who do not claim the name of Christ. My prayer is that the church will once again strongly teach men to love their wives as Christ loved the church, to the point of being willing to die for them. And may they teach wives to respect and submit to their husbands, committing themselves to that holy contract of marriage for life. And may they hold them accountable to their vows.

A gift for a special person

Tomorrow is our Kevin's 18th birthday. As far as I know, he has never had a party celebrating his birthday, and tonight he will! His friends from church will be here around 7 o'clock. We wanted it to be a surprise,and my daughter emailed all his friends separately, but he found out.I guess he had to. Today he went to Memphis to help someone move.He is our wonderful helper and sweet gentleman. He is also an athlete.He won 3 tournaments at camp last week, as well as the flagfor his team. We are proud of you, Kevin!

As I thought about what my husband and I wanted to give him, this idea popped into my head. I chose a 16x24 canvas, wrote his name,its meaning, and an appropriate Scripture verse on it. Voila! A transformation from white to black and white, with a few splatters of red.


It is important to me that gifts be something with meaning for the individual. Hopefully this will at all times be a great reminder for Kevin that God allowed him a name--"kind, friendly and handsome"--that he should joyfully live up to. So far he's done a great job!

Philippians 4:8 is a wonderful verse for all of us to use as a guide
for our thought life.
Do you have a special verse for your life?

Happy, happy birthday, Kevin!

I'm linking this post to:
Transformation Thursday
http://www.theshabbychiccottage.net/