Awake, my soul!

Awake, harp and lyre!

I will awaken the dawn.

I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations;

I will sing of you among the peoples.

For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;

Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;

Let your glory be over all the earth.

Psalm 56:8-11

When I am afraid,

I will trust in You.

Psalm 56:3

I’ve been slowly progressing with the Book of Hosea.  The first post from Chapter two is here if you’re interested.

And now verse 7b:

“Then she will think,

‘I might as well return to my husband,

For I was better off with him than I am now.'”

I think it’s interesting this allegory and the Story of the Prodigal Son both take a similar turn at this point.  Looking around, they both realize what they thought would bring them happiness has actually bankrupted them.

It was bankrupting Israel.

Because God is good, He has to punish sin.  Trust me when I tell you the next several chapters go into punishment in fuller detail.  Today, though, we’re gonna skip to a glittering moment of hope.

Listen to our Bridegroom:

“But then I will win her back once again.

I will lead her into the desert

And speak tenderly to her there.

I will return her vineyards to her

And transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope.”

Man, I love these verses.

God has could demand His people to come back.  He could only chasten like in verse 9 – 13. But instead He woos her.  He doesn’t just accept her back…He welcomes her.

I’m not sure when I first hear the concept of making sure we don’t compare God’s character with the most noble human character we can conceive.

But it helps me sort out some internal struggles.

The reason it’s hard to believe that with Him performance doesn’t earn love is because in certain situations or relationships, performance does earn “love.”

But it just doesn’t with Him.

The reason I have to fight within my heart to not try to earn my way back into good standing with Him when I’ve messed up is because that can be a very necessary thing to do in a work place or other human environments.

But it’s all filthy rags to Him.

We have a God Who is completely Other.

His entire character is Beauty.

If we are His, there is absolutely nothing that can separate us from His Love.

He can take our Valley of Trouble and turn it into Hope’s Gate.

—————————————————-

Edited to add:

My heart got heavy after I published this, and I don’t want to take that lightly.  Because I lean toward blaming others instead of taking full responsibility for my own sin, I want to make sure and say almost every Valley of Trouble I’ve been in has been one I’ve put myself in. 

God will never let me off the hook in not completely confessing my sins and taking full responsibility. 


Plus, if the above had been written by someone I know, I would question if our relationship was one they were talking about.  So I want to make sure and say I had no one in particular in mind when writing and it didn’t come from conscious bitterness.  I do not want to place burdens on others, but share how only He is worthy of our worship.


I am blessed.  He loves me too much to flatter me.  Thank goodness.

I call to God,

And the LORD saves me.

Evening, morning and noon

I cry out in distress,

And he hears my voice…

Cast your cares on the LORD

And He will sustain you…

Psalm 55:16, 17, 22

We survived.

Three separate Christmases is a lot.  We are ridiculously blessed.  But I never need to eat another sugar cookie again.

Caden challenged us to a snow ball fight yesterday afternoon.  It was one of the most fun things I’ve done in a long time.  Five grown adults and two kids nailing each other (or totally missing) in the GG’s front yard.  There were three pairs of gloves between all of us, which meant at any one point someone was nearing hypothermia.  Or claiming such.

I love my family.  I love the God Who came for us.  I love that our little family has a whole ‘nother week together.

I am grateful for this life I never deserved.

How was your Christmas?

Making a batch of these Crockpot Cinnamon Almonds.

One more batch of this Peppermint Popcorn.

Writing two more Sharpie Mugs and baking them all.

And basically loving a day at home.

We head to family after brunch tomorrow, but today is about us, friends, church family and gift giving!

The Mighty One, God, the LORD,

Speaks and summons the earth

From the rising of the sun

To the place where it sets…

‘I have no need of a bull from your stall

Or of goats from your pens,

For every animal of the forest is mine,

And the cattle on a thousand hills.

I know every bird in the mountains,

And the creatures of the field are mine.’

Psalm 50:1, 9-11

Within Your temple, O God,

We meditate on Your unfailing love.

Psalm 48:9

Last week Caden’s class went to see The Nutcracker.  He loved it (score!).  So Caleb was so happy with himself when he found this book at the library the other day:

It is absolutely as creepy as it looks.

My husband’s students were extremely generous with the gift cards this year.  Date Nights here we come!

The following is our Christmas Bucket List for the next few days:

French Toast and Hot Chocolate for dinner

Camp out as a family under the Christmas Tree Twinkle Lights in the basement

Make Neighbor treats

Watch Christmas with the Kranks

Make Candy Cane Milkshakes

Make a Lego Nativity scene

Christmas Music Dance Partay

Are you doing anything fun??

Happy Christmas Break!!