Love in Action Journey

What a week it has been! My sweet little princess had to have her tonsils and adanoids removed this week. I am always amazed at how resilient little ones are!!! I know there is a lesson in there for me ;) They just bounce back so fast!! Thank you to my friends who prayed - she is doing so well! And in her own words, she is so glad that the doctor "took her snore out" ;) (and so is her big sister who can finally sleep peacefully in the same room!!! hee hee).

I haven't posted for a little while. It's been a full start to the year. After we got back from our holiday in Johannesburg with all my family, my mom came to stay for 9 days. What a sweet time. My girls got their "Lala" all to themselves - ok - they had to try share with my time with her too ;) She is now landed safe and sound back in the U.S. and I miss her. But it is a "good" missing, because I know that she is right where God has placed her and she has an important role to play where she is.  After special times like we just shared, I realise how blessed I am to have such a special family where the love goes so deep. God continues to whisper to my heart to be more mindful of the these "moments of delight", joy and laughter ... than to harp on more heavy matters that can clutter our thinking. So in celebrating the joy of my family, I am posting a pic of all of us together from our holiday in December / January.   My mom and granny in the middl...

This morning I read a post from e-Lisa over at Extravagant Grace   which spoke straight to my mommy heart. She shared about being a mother and home-maker who fulfills her calling overshadowed by God's contagious joy. It is so worth the read. As a mommy of 2 sweet girls ... so often when I finally get into bed and replay the events of the day, I wish I had handled situations with more joy and ease! When I read e-Lisa's post this morning, I was reminded of that little verse that says "The joy of the Lord is your strength". The key to this amazing joy will always be found in our times with our precious Jesus. Psalm 16:11 is my encouragement for today ... "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Tapping into His beautiful, approachable presence throughout the day leaves us with the wisdom that we need for each moment raising our treasures and gives us all the unspeakable, overflowing...

Something that you may not know about me is that I absolutely LOVE collecting Bibles. I have so many different translations. I realise what a privilege that is for us South Africans. There are places around the world where they are strictly forbidden. I can hardly wrap my brain around that!! Two years ago I sat in a lounge with a couple from China who are pastors of the underground church. All I could do was weep as they shared of the persecuction taking place of Christians standing up for their faith. The amazing thing they shared was that the more oppression and persecution - the greater the amount of people surrendering their hearts to Christ! Wow!! I have to remind myself not to take our openly shared / celebrated faith for granted. I remember them sharing how they smuggle chapters of the Bible in at a time, tear sections of the Bible out and share it amongst the hungry believers! How many of our Bibles are dusty?! I am totally preaching to myself today. Back to my beginning ... at...

My family and I got away to Johannesburg for Christmas and New Years to spend time with my wonderful family. We all squashed into my sisters house and had such a blast! Our girls are similar ages so they just played from morning till pass out time :) My mom is also out from the US so it was so awesome all being together again. We played scrabble, went out to movies (saw Avatar in 3D -WOW!), lazed around the pool, went out for coffee and ate so much delicious food! Over and above that, we laughed and touched hearts and caught up for all the days we had been apart. The funniest moment for me was all of us trying out my sisters new Christmas pressie - WII fit. You start by doing their assessment where they rate your fitness and age you. Everyone had a HUGE laugh when I, the youngest amongst the family was rated the oldest!!!!! 43 = 11 year older than my age!! Oh my word - seriously back to gym for me now that I am home!!! ha ha ... I'm still wondering if everyone was la...