A Great Weekend

I spent this weekend with 100 of my dearest lady friends (ha!) at a conference at our church. The topic of the conference was "Loving Well." I want to share with you a passage from Scripture that spoke...no, rather YELLED to me. It was one of the last passages the speaker (Beth Moore via video) touched on. The focus of this particular session was "Loving the Stranger." Considering what we are about to do with our lives, this passage should be our headlight. It is from Isaiah 58, verses 7-11.

Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.'
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
And if you give yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness
And your gloom will become like midday.
And the Lord will continually guide you,
And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
And give strength to your bones;
And you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.

It is our desire that God would bless our ministry- that we would be like a watered garden! I love that analogy. Here in the desert we see a lot of dried up, dead flowers. Lindsay asked for a flower garden for her 9th birthday, and we named it her Abby Garden. We even put in a sweet fountain that has two little fairies pouring water over flowers. Lindsay is very faithful to tend to her garden. However, it is always so sad when the flowers dry up in the scorching heat and the rose buds give way to empty branches. How thankful are we that with God our hearts cannot dry up like that summer's garden! Instead, He fills us up like that "spring of water whose waters do not fail!"


Lindsay in her Abby Garden. She's all fancy because she had a dance recital that day!