a devotional thought

Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. {Psalm 23:6}


But why "follow" me? Why not "go before"? Because some of my enemies are in the rear; they attack me from behind. There are foes in my yesterdays which can give me fatal wounds. They can stab me in the back! If I could only get away from the past! Its guilt dogs my steps. Its sins are ever at my heels. I have turned my face toward the Lord, but my yesterdays pursue me like a relentless hound! So I have an enemy in the rear.

But, blessed be His name, my mighty God is in the rear as well as my foe. "Goodness and mercy shall follow me!" No hound can break through that defense. Between me and my guilt there is the infinite love of the Lord. The loving Lord will not permit my past to destroy my soul. I may sorrow for my past, but my very sorrow shall be a minister of moral and spiritual health. My Lord is Lord of the past as well as of the morrow, and so today "I will trust and not be afraid."

{J. H. Jowett, from My Daily Meditation}

A Day in Sandwich

Today Mom and I went with another mom and daughter from church to a little town called Sandwich. We visited 4 antique shops. It took us a while as there were TONS of things to look through! I mainly looked through all the books I could find, but I did take a few pictures of things I liked. :) This pic was taken in a room full of country-ish fabric. I love all the plaid and brown and red.
Love all the blue stuff!
So many books! So little time! (And money...)
Here are the books that I ended up taking home with me. I shall list them simply because I'm excited about them. :) Here's the list: St. George for England (Henty), Self-Raised (Southworth), The Trail of the Serpent (Southworth), Tennyson's Poems, Pollyanna Grows Up (Porter), Tommy and Grizel (Barrie), Daily Food for Christians, Daddy Long Legs (Webster), Mother (Norris), Seven Last Things (Scofield), and Prince Tip-Top (Bouvet). All of them are the pretty, antique kind with the nice dusty smell and pretty scrolling writing in the covers from people long ago. I just love it. :) Anyway, not sure if I'll blog again before Christmas, so Merry Christmas, friends!

May it be my prayer...

As I was reading my devotional book, Streams in the Desert 2, this morning, I came across this challenging and beautiful poem. I wanted to share it with you. :)

Lord, help me to live from day to day

In such a self-forgetful way,

That even when I kneel to pray,

My prayer shall be for OTHERS.

Help me in all the work I do

To ever be sincere and true,

And know that all I'd do for you,

Must needs be done for OTHERS.

Let "Self" be crucified and slain,

And buried deep; and all in vain

May efforts be to rise again,

Unless to live for OTHERS.

And when my work on earth is done,

And my new work in Heaven's begun,

May I forget the crown I've won,

While thinking still of OTHERS.

Others, Lord, yes others

Let this my motto be.

Help me to live for others,

That I may live like Thee.

{Charles D. Meigs}

It Happened Again.

As soon as I saw this picture on Pinterest, I knew it was an immediate "must-have, must-make" pin. :P For weeks I've been saying, "I have to make these!" and never got around to it. (People ate my pretzels, we had 21 people in our house over Thanksgiving, etc. Email me for the complete excuses list. :P) This morning I realized I wasn't busy and didn't have anything pressing to do, so I decided to bake. (I'm trying to make this a habit.)

These cookies are SO. GOOD. I will say though that you have to like the salty/sweet combo. As a Take 5 fan, I've always loved it; especially pretzels with chocolate. The three main tasty things in these are pretzels, peanut butter chips, and milk chocolate chips. I think the recipe does a good job with proportions. Nothing sticks out too much.

Happy December, by the way.