Just Playing Around

Well, I'm still playing with pictures. This is a picture of my oldest granddaughter, Jamie, and her fiance, Ofir. They've been an "item" for about 4+ years. I had my grandson's pic on this page too but it disappeared. Not sure where it went. I could have tried to put Mike on again but I decided to let it go for tonight.

Today I baked cookies for the baking contest at the fair next week. I baked a batch yesterday too but they were baked too long and turned into real crispy jawbreakers. These I made today are chewy the way they should be. The downer is that as I stooped and reached into the refrigerator to fetch a cube of real butter, I twisted when I shouldn't have and set my back off again. I just got over a session with my back. I hope this doesn't become a habit. I think, if I can get out of bed in the morning and walk and move carefully for the next couple of days I'll be okay. Pray for me, please. I don't want anything to interfere with my plans for next week. Kathleen and I and a couple other women are going to go to the fair next week on the 14th to see if our knitting pieces won any ribbons. And you know of course that we'll have to eat some junk food while we're there. And I can't go to the fair and not buy cotton candy!! Then I will go back that evening for the Miss Calaveras County pageant. My youngest granddaughter, Kayla, (I sent a pic of her dancing a day or two ago) is running for Miss Calaveras again so of course gramma has to cheer her on. She should have won last year I think but she placed second runner-up after winning the talent portion of the contest. I really want her to win this year.

I did my study in Proverbs today and it was selected verses on discipline. Something really came to my mind as I studied and I meant to remember it so I could share it with you but it seems to have slipped my mind. But we all know about discipline, don't we? It's something that we shun like the plague. But discipline is good and good for us if given in the correct way and that would be with lots of love and absolutely no anger. We need to "train up" our children and not "spare the rod" but we need to understand that this type of correction isn't in anger or in any way intended to harm anyone. I think it's like a grapevine. I was raised on a farm in Caruthers which is about 20 miles south of Fresno (California) and we had vineyards. Every year the vines had to be pruned and tied to the wire. At first it was done with difficulty. The vine never wanted to be changed (disciplined) and so we had to use gentle pressure to wrap it around the wire and then we used twist ties to hold them in place. The purpose was not to hurt the vine. We were "training" the vine to grow down the wires for support for when the new growth appeared and the heavy fruit began to pull down on the vine. This was discipline for the vine. Done for all the right reasons that would make the vine the best vine it could be. Well our children are like that vine and sometimes we need to use discipline with them to train them up to be what is best for them. But it's never done in anger. Only love.

My son is grown now with grown children of his own so how do these verses apply to me? They apply to me in that I am a child of God. And as my good Father, He disciplines me. He wraps me around the wire, so to speak, and ties me up there with the very Word of God because He loves me. For no other reason. He just loves me. And He knows what's right and He always DOES what's right. So whenever I go through a season of trouble ~ discipline ~ I must recognize the fact that God is disciplining me out of love and never anger. He is doing what is necessary to "train me up" into the person He knows I can be. He is the Vinedresser. He knows what's best for each and every vine. What is right for me may not be right for you. But our heavenly Father loves us with a perfect love and He will do all that is necessary to conform us into the image of His Son. Jesus is the perfect Son and in that sense the Father even disciplined Him, not in the sense that Jesus did anything wrong. But only in the sense that His Father knew what was best for His Son. Scripture tells us that Jesus learned obedience from the things He suffered (Heb 5:8). It's the same with us. Discipline is training. And we learn obedience from the things we suffer and endure here in this life. Jesus never sinned. His obedience was solely that of training. You and I, though, are sinners and sometimes the discipline we receive is well earned from our behavior or attitude. We deserve the discipline. But even so, it is never done with anger. Our discipline is always to make us into the image of Christ. To refine us and remove impurities from us so that we might serve our Creator and worship Him alone. When we are disciplined we are loved. That is why we are supposed to be joyful in trials. Because we are being trained into being all we were meant to be. And we can rejoice in these trials because all discipline comes with deep, perfect love. It is important for us to fully understand that God is not being mean. He desires the very best for us and because He loves us perfectly He disciplines us for our own good and for His glory and honor. He disciplines us because He loves us with perfect love. How could a righteous and just God do otherwise?