Less Sleep, Much Less Sleep

Parenting is the hardest job on earth. To do a half-way decent job, self has to die away.

Early nights to sleep are bygone days. Early mornings must happen. I cry out to my Master for the strength to keep going.

Our older three arrows are very close in age. They are almost young people. They want to spend time with the aged ones in the house each night. This I treasure.

As my lover and I lay our heads down on the place of rest, our eyes demand closure, but we know, we must seek the One who gives endurance and strength for each day. We read this as our minds want to shut down.

We pray to our Almighty Father that He would make our arrows straight and strong, able to fly through the air hitting the bulls eye of pleasure in God.

We pray for perseverance and purity.

We thank God for the work He has done in our lives and beg Him to do the same in our children.

Casting Our Cares

Today, God has encouraged me with this.

Our Gracious Master knows what we need when we need it.

Kay Arthur said, "When we fail to trust God, we reject His power."

Cast your cares on Him today, friend. He wants your load. He wants you to rest in Him.

What the Meek Do and Are

Kay Arthur elaborates on what a meek spirit looks like in this way:

Looking at Psalm 37, this is what the meek do and are:

1. They trust God. v.3,5 They trust Him instead of being fretful.

2. They do good. v.3, 27 They do not pay back evil for evil.

3. They dwell. v.3 Lots of people react by leaving their situation either physically or emotionally.

4. They delight in the Lord. v.4 Their focus is on the Lord, not themselves.

5. They commit their way to the Lord. v.5 They trust that He's in charge.

6. They rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. v.7,9,and 34 They are will to allow the Lord to bring to pass what He wants to bring to pass in His perfect timing.

7. They take refuge in Him. v.40

8. While the meek wait patiently, they cease from anger and forsake wrath. v.8

9. Finally, the meek look to the future, with eternity stamped upon their eyes.
v.9,11, and 34

-As Silver Refined, by Kay Arthur, chapter five

Let me encourage you to read this Psalm and meditate on how Christ desires for us to respond while in the crucible. It sure is hot, but we have assurance we won't be singed.

Facing the Stress with Meekness

According to Kay Arthur, in her book, As Silver Refined, the key to facing stress is meekness.

"Meekness is the key to acting versus reacting when disappointments come. Since meekness is the key to a right response in trials, God is at work to build meekness into our innermost beings. And the way He works meekness into our characters is through disappointments and trials. Meekness is born in stress, in trials, in affliction, in conflict....in difficulties. Meekness is born in situations that humble you. This meekness that God so highly values in your life will show itself -prove itself- in oppression and pressure and disappointment. See this in what God allowed His chosen and beloved people to go through---and why:"

Deuteronomy 8:2,3

"And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbles you and lets you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that HE might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD."

Bread of Life, make me hunger for nothing but you. I know I can fill this body with many things that I think will sustain me, and yet I always come back to nothing but You, God. I always am confident of this in the dark valleys. Make me content there...

Disappointment= His Appointment

Disappointment --- His appointment;
change one letter, then I see
that the thwarting of my purpose
is God's better choice for me.
His appointment must be blessing
though it may come in disguise;
for the end, from the beginning,
open to His vision lies.
Disappointment --- His appointment.
Whose? The Lord who loves me best,
understands and knows me fully,
who my faith and love would test.
For like loving earthly parents
He rejoices when He knows
that His child accepts unquestioned
all that from His wisdom flows.
Disappointment --- His appointment;
not good things will He withhold.
From denials oft we gather
treasures of His love untold.
Well He knows each broken purpose
leads to a fuller, deeper trust,
and the end of all His dealings
proves our God is wise and Just.
Disappointment --- His appointment;
Lord I take it then as such,
like clay in the hands of the potter
yielding wholly to His touch.
My life's plan is all His molding
not one single choice be mine.
Let me answer unrepining,
Father, not my will, but Thine.
-taken from As Silver Refined, by Kay Arthur, pg. 30-31

Father, this is my prayer. I know disappointment can lead to discouragement, which can lead to depression. Help me to believe these truths will all my heart.

Learning to Embrace Life's Disappointments

I am reading a book by Kay Arthur right now. As Silver Refined is an excellent read for those going through any trial. I will be posting excerpts and quotes to encourage us and help remind us all of the power behind these trials as well as the reason that Christ brings us through those dark times.

"Inside a small, walled courtyard under and blue and blazing sky, there stands a refiner of metals. In his hands, gnarled with age, he is rolling and fingering a lump of ore. He watches the sun play on the streaks and veins of lead and other minerals running through this bit of rock chiseled from the bowels of the earth.

His experienced eye knows that, intermingled within this ore, there is silver. He lays the ore on his worktable then builds his fire with care and the wisdom of years. Soon the flames are rising in the pit situated against the courtyard's stone wall. At the worktable he picks up his hammer and begins crushing the lump into small pieces. He pauses occasionally to stare at the fire, as if in study. From time to time he places more fuel upon the already-blazing coals and works his bellows until the flames are in a frenzy.

When the fire is right, he gathers the hammered bits of ore from the place of their crushing and lays them in a small, sturdy container of tempered pottery---his crucible. He places the crucible in the fire and sits down beside it. A long day is before him, and this is where he will stay for as long as the metal is subject to the flames. Silver is too precious to be forsaken in the furnace, too valuable to be ruined through inattention.

Carefully he watches the fire. It must be maintained at exactly the right temperature for the right duration of time to accomplish its purpose. Slowly ore softens. The silver, with its greater density and lower melting point, liquefies first, hissing and bubbling oxygen is released. The still-solid impurities rise to the top of the molten metal. This is the dross, and the refiner skims it off.

Now he adds bits of charcoal inside the crucible. He knows this will enhance the sheen of the silver. The carbon of the charcoal will keep the refined metal from reabsorbing oxygen from the air, which would only dull its finish.

He tends the fire, adds more fuel, and applies more air from the bellows. Amid the relentless heat surrounding the crucible, more dull impurities, newly revealed, rise to the surface of the mixture. Again the refiner carefully skims away the murky, smudgy metal floating at the top of the crucible. Gazing down upon the molten surface, the refiner sees at best but a dim reflection of himself.

The refiner works and watches and waits. The heat and its effect continue. More impurities rise to the surface, and again he skims them off. He never leaves the crucible unattended, never steps away from the fire he has formed to do its work. The finished product he cherishes demands this process. Only his guided and guarded refinement will yield the promised and precious metal.

And he is not yet satisfied.

He lets the fire cool. Eventually he sets the crucible aside.

Then once again he builds up the fire, and the process begins all over. This time the skilled refiner makes the fire hotter. Within the crucible, new impurities are released, brought to the surface, exposed for what they are, and then skimmed off.

Finally, his leathery face breaks into a smile, for now as he gazes into the liquid silver his reflection is apparent--not yet sharp, but more distinct than before.

More hours pass as he perseveres in his anxious and delicate work.

And then.....once more he bends over the crucible, and this time he catches his breath. There it is! In the silver he sees what he has waited for so patiently: a clear image of himself, distinct and sharp.

Delight banishes his frown. His task is done. The impurities gone. The silver is refined.

He has his treasure.

He has "choice" silver, the most lustrous of all metals, beautiful and highly valued. It's as pale and shining as the wings of a dove, as brilliant and splendid as the moon, worthy to become a coin or trumpet or ornament, worthy to grace the king's table or to reflect sunlight in a crown upon his head.

The refiner has taken what was impure and made it pure.

He has taken what was dull and made it beautiful.

Potential value has become actual value.

And the fire--guarded, guided, relentless fire--made the difference. The fire allowed ordinary ore from the earth to be transformed into treasure.

All under the refiner's watchful care, for all the while he never left it unattended."

----pgs.1-3

I love The Silversmith.