I remember so clearly when Jen and I gave Maisie solid food for the first time. Avocado. She’s always been skinny, so we were trying to fatten her up…and it’s a good first food for babies if you didn’t know. The look on her face was hilarious and she didn’t really know what to do, but she learned…thankfully.
Then she moved on to wanting to feed herself. We would give her bits of banana which she would smash up in her hands and smear all over her face. As one who previously didn’t like to touch others’ food this took a bit getting used to. But now I find myself liking the yogurt off of my fingers after wiping it from her face.
She caught on pretty quick to the fact that we used a utensil to put most foods into her mouth…even at 13 months she has some control issues (like her dad) and she wants to hold the little plastic spoon or fork herself. This gets really interesting when we let her attempt this with yogurt. Last night we were sitting down to eat and she had her little plastic fork in hand and sure enough…she poked one her little raviolis and put it in her mouth.
As I was watching all of this the past few months I got to thinking about how God watches us grow up…When we learn to take steps of faith, or when we make right decisions of faithfulness…I wonder if God is as excited about this stuff as I am about Maisie stuffing raviolis in her mouth with fork? Even when Maisie smears yogurt on her face with the spoon I get excited about her putting two and two together…I can’t help but believe that God loves even the smallest trusting steps, even ones that end up a mess. There is something that happens on a deeper growth level when…When we put belief (two) and behavior (two) together…
We got into Portland early Wednesday morning…1:30am to be precise. As Jen made mention on her blog, we are staying in a great apartment in some friends’ basement. This place is almost twice as big as our apartment was in Paris! It’s so great to have a place that we can call our own for a bit. It’s not that we weren’t enjoying where we were, it’s just that we had forgotten how nice it is to have a place where it’s just us.
The thing about this place that’s taking some getting used to is the fact that it’s out in the country. It’s a welcomed change from suburbia and city life. We like variety. But the thing that’s hard for me is that we are a ways away from where we want to be…the city. Tonight we met up with our long-time friend Jamie for dinner and it was the first time that we’ve actually been into the city. I really love Portland so it’s hard to be here, yet not be here. I’m looking forward to figuring out what our next season of life and ministry will be like…and I’m hoping that being close to the city will be a part of it. But for now, I am enjoying drinking my morning coffee looking over the fields and farms.
This is all I have energy for after 13 hours of traveling with a one year old:
no snow on the road…amazing
no 20 mph wind gusts…phew
no car problems at all…hondas rock
no close encounters with other drivers…well there was one, but no biggie.
thanks for your prayers…good night
Jen and I are having a dilema. We’ve planned on driving up to Portland for the last few days now, but our plans always seem to get pushed back for some reason or another. We’re packed (almost) and ready to go for tomorrow morning, but there is a pretty good sized snow storm in the pass that we’d have to go through. I don’t mind driving in bad conditions, but we’re a bit concerned about the other drivers on the road, because it’s always somebody else who is the dangerous driver, right?
In some way this feels like a metaphor for life. We have a journey to make, and we know the conditions will be rough. We think we can we can handle it, but we are afraid that some of our fellow sojourners are more detrimental to our journey than we are. (I am sitting here wondering which direction to go with this)…
Taking away the driving idea…which is why I started this post…I think I struggle with trusting people. To be honest, I have been hurt, confused, and betrayed (all unintentionally) by others on my journey and sometimes it just makes me want to quit. I know that I: a) am self-deceived; b) am limited in my perception, and c) have high expectations of others…(which may be linked to being self-deceived)…So this whole relationship with others on the journey thing is hard, and messy. Because at the same time that I think that anonymity and autonomy are the safest way for me to go, I know that full-spectrum of Jesus’ love is perfected in communion with others…who are also messy, self-deceived, and have high expectations of me.
So do we get in the car and try to make it through the potential dangers ahead…or try to wait out the storm and hope for clearer skies tomorrow?
France really is weird…or is it that everyone else is weird and France is normal? No…France is a place all to itself.
Check out this link: Amazon Ordered to End Free Delivery on Books in France
Apparently Amazon was too unFrench so the French government had to step in. It is now illegal for Amazon.com (Amazon.fr) to provide free shipping. Apparently Amazon.com was offering too good of prices for France. They were competing a little bit too much and this had to be stopped. So the government had to kick Amazon in the shin to give the others a leg up. Allez France! The world is changing and it’s ok for companies to compete without the governments help.
Maybe there’s more to it, but this is crazy.
I downloaded a program called Statcounter the other day. It keeps count of how many people visit my site and whatnot…
So tonight, I proudly told Jen that I’ve been having nearly 60 visits a day. She looks at me with a smile and says,
“And that’s a lot for you?”
I laughed, knowing that she has quite a few more visits a day than me…and, thanks to Statcounter, I also know that most of my visits are links from her page to mine. I was hanging out with some friends the other night and I asked one of our friends to go look at something on my page. Guess what she did…she went to http://allmyish.typepad.com and then scrolled down to the link to my blog to even find my page…no more needs to be said. Jen rules the blogwaves in the Powell house.
Today there have been two separate attacks on Christian facilities and people today in Colorado. I don’t really know how I’m processing all of this…just praying for our brothers and sisters who are experiencing loss.
2 Killed at YWAM Training Center
Shooting at Colorado Church
It will be interesting to see how the Church in the US will respond to this type of persecution.
Books. I love them. I only went to four years of college (and even then, I didn’t read) so I am always trying to read to pretend like I’m smart…or at least let the stack of books next to my bed make me appear smart…wait…why would anybody see a stack of books next to my bed?
Anyway…
I’ve added a link up at the top called ‘Bookstore’…And it is…you guessed it! A link to a little bookstore. Amazon.com has this cool thing where people can attach mini-stores to their sites, so I did it. I’ve put a bunch of stuff on there that I like and that I would want others to enjoy reading. So…if you do happen to buy something through my little link, I get a little somethin’ somethin’. Which I would probably reinvest in more books to stack next to my bed for everybody to see.
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