“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

― C.S. Lewis, Weight of Glory and Other Addresses

Home for the holidays
Soon.
Olive the children

"No longer will they call you Deserted, 
       or name your land Desolate. 
       But you will be called Hephzibah..."  
Isaiah 62:4


 Hephzibah means 'the LORD will delight in you'

Elisabeth Elliot's "The comfort of discipline"

http://tnfarmgirl.blogspot.com/2008/01/elisabeth-elliot-on-obedient-children_27.html

A Soldier's Christmas

Thomas Sowell QOD

This is not just another election and Barack Obama is not just another president whose policies we may not like. With all of President Obama's broken promises, glib demagoguery and cynical political moves, one promise he has kept all too well. That was his boast on the eve of the 2008 election: "We are going to change the United States of America."

Many Americans are already saying that they can hardly recognize the country they grew up in. We have already started down the path that has led Western European nations to the brink of financial disaster.

Thomas Sowell, Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Celebrating Hanukkah with Aaron Nadler

Background story

Hanukkah Menorah with David's star

Hanukkah celebrates the re-dedication of the Temple after the successful Jewish revolt against the Seleucidmonarchy. The Jews found only enough ritually pure olive oil to light the menorah for one day, but the supply lasted eight days until a new supply could be obtained. In celebration of this miracle, the Hanukkah menorah has eight branches for eight candles or oil lamps.

]Lighting

The Hanukkah menorah has a ninth branch for an auxiliary candle, the shamash. The shamash is used to light the other candles. The holder for the shamash candle is distinguished in some way from the other eight, which must sit at the same height. Traditionally, the shamash is placed higher than the others, and often in the center, with four of the other candles on each side.

Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can't see it. So quietly submit to be painted---i.e., keep fulfilling all the obvious duties of your station (you really know quite well enough what they are!), asking forgiveness for each failure and then leaving it alone. You are in the right way. Walk---don't keep on looking at it.   C. S. Lewis

                                                          

All I want for Christmas

Champagne taste on a beer budget

History lesson

Non-leftists cherish the American value of liberty over the left-wing value of socioeconomic equality.

"...how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing."  

Matthew 23:37

The fascinating thing about God's full world, is that only men rebel.  10,000 species of birds, millions of  ocean creatures, and 1,250,000 animal varieties  walk the earth.  All of them know and obey.  

Never does a female tanager ask why the male is screaming with color and they are plain.  Never does a male wish to lie with a male.  Nature knows.  And obeys.  They question not their role.  Rejoicing that their Creator feeds and cloths them.

Only man rebels.  For awhile.  And then, no more.   

Is this the dearest thing ever?

Merry Mary Christmas,
Dallas and Jane.
Thank you for living the
Redeemed Life
Luke 1:38

Dr. & Mrs. Willard send joyous Christmas greetings to you all.

May the Prince of Peace quiet your hearts in the midst of the many holiday activities and remind you of the true gift of Christmas:
"Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!" (Phil 2:6-8)

Challenge of the century

Have a good ride.
Write if you get work.

Chihuly look-a-like

Isn't she lovely on the left?
Thanx to Corinney for the Denver
glass-blown gift.
"It just screamed your name," C said.
Sure does, Corinney.  Thank you!

Broncos win! Again!

Thou hast made His face to shine on thee,
Mr. T!

Giving glory where Glory is due

Love while you can

Inspire:  to fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence.

My Daddy inspires me:

Daddy knew he had a damaged ticker.  With his lousy compromised heart, Louis Crawford Houser, was not going to live to a ripe old age.  40 something at the most.  But never mind, my Dad was going to grab the gusto while he drew breath.  Both he and my courageous Mother - Margaret Rose Brown Houser - chose to close ranks in Holy Matrimony.  The two became one flesh, begetting my brother - Donald Louis - and me - Caren Lee.  They were never so thrilled to have children.  Mother knew that she would very likely raise Donny and me by herself.  Daddy was not going to live to a ripe old age.  Nevertheless, Sacrificial Charity trumped fear.  My existence is a testimony to their courage and devotion to one another.   

An Attitude of Gratitude inspires me. 

 Margaret Dunning in the picture above stinkin' inspires me.  All three inspire me: 101-year-old Margaret Dunning, my Mama and Dad with their devotion to each other and their children make me want to live to a ripe old age.  Glorifying the Savior, the Source of Every Breath.  Living with the backdrop of God-focused Gratitude.  These folks knew where they were going.  Every breath here, a gift.  With an eye on Eternity.  Inspiring.

Prayer to the God of my life

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/automobiles/packard-81-is-a-youngster-to-its-driver.html?_r=1

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/07/08/automobiles/collectibles/100000000895665/two-classics-one-car.html  (video)

Margaret Dunning of Plymouth, Mich., is 101 and her Packard 740 roadster is 81.
The video above lit a Prayer Fire within me:
"Dear LORD, maker of Heaven and earth,
If long life is your purpose,
may I follow the example of Margaret Dunning.
To live beyond myself
with an Attitude of Gratitude.
Amen and so be it."

Time of my life

Pyre, pyre
hair on fire

Rocky's rack of lamb

Rocky's first homemade Smoker,
from ice to fire.
An old refrigerator transformed.
Pooch perched on the roof
keeps watch.

Realizing that Curiosity could kill the cat, I nevertheless wandered over to kitty-corner neighbor, Rocky.
Turns out it was the lamb, not the cat.

Rocky made these useless-as-the-tits-on-a
boar-hog 250 gallon condemned propane
tanks into a Smoking Inferno.

See that tiny cellophane wrapped mutton
on the grill below?  Rocky let me taste the
smoked delicacy marinated in
pineapple juice gel.
Delicious!
And no, it did not taste like
chicken.

Rocky volunteered to hover over 60 lbs
(or was it 600 lbs?)
of lamb for the Lamb Ranchers
Association of SD.
(or was it Lamb Chops Unlimited?)
Mercy, sure thankful Danielley has her
Dad's attention-to-detail.
Keeps her from getting fired.

It was when I was happiest that I longed most...The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing...to find the place where all the beauty came from. 

C. S. Lewis 

the Quirky Hood

Crummy through-the-window picture but blow it up.  
That's Rocky's dog
on the roof  overlooking his big as New Jersey smoker.
Rocky's having a block bash tonight.
Ignoring the 28 degree weather.


Wouldn't you love to live here?
I sure do

Is there a washboard in the house?

Hope for the next generation of out-of-the-box thinkers

Founding principles vs. "total transformation"

QOW

"One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them." Thomas Sowell

Spending money like a drunken sailor

 Minimal, this hiking footwear!  Hoping that scampering around the golf course will not be tiresome and borderline painful with these Bad Girl Vibrams.  So far ~ LOVE THEM!!

The question burning in all of our bosoms is: "What has transpired that this Wild Spending is justified?Warranted?   Condoned?  Compensation - 2500 smax - from the run-over-care-in-the-dat-gum-crosswalk incident.   

Can't a small fry - that looks for all the world like a bumble bee in heat - simply climb aboard the Gary Fisher and savor a simple ride around the lake without being knocked asunder?  Not too much to ask, eh?!  

But perched in one of my 7 new chairs, safe and of sound mind, all is well.  

BRAVO Christmas Edition

4Square's Christmas BRAVO show
raised funds for adoptive parents.
I laughed my bloomin' head off.
Bryon the Noem Man, Darren Zander,
Shannon Arnold and Darren's gorgeous Sis, Kate Olson.
"Fabulous Dahlings!!"

Hypocrisy of the week (HOW)

As Michelle Bachmann took the stage on "Late Show with Jimmy Fallon," the house band played "Lyin' Ass B----."  Gracious yet clueless, Ms. Bachmann had no idea.  Can you imagine Nancy P. waltzing in on the notes of that refrain?  Or First Lady, Michelle Obama?

It is the Inferno of Duplicity - aka, two-faced lying hypocrisy - that chaps my end zone.    

Why good folks appear on these mind-numbingly banal shows eludes me.  These entertainment venues are not fueled by people of good will.  Do not, Michelle, let them punch your dance card.  
There is never an excuse for unkindness.  And yes, I am preaching to myself cuz, goodness knows, I have returned tit-for-tat.  Please forgive

Prager University: Key to Happiness and Goodness

Blast from the memorable past

"Reality is what you run into when you are wrong."  Dallas Willard
http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=66

Why young Americans can't think morally

The Dennis Prager Show  (double click for article)

"The most important project of your life is the development of your character in Christlikeness."  Professor Dallas Willard

With that reality in mind, there is nothing more depressing than the toilet bowl spiral of the next generation's moral compass.  Robert and I endeavored  - albeit, imperfectly - to shape our children into Good People.  Citizens with rock solid character.  Robert described it, "Character to handle the current."  The current being social pressure, the latest trends and garden variety temptation.  "What one does when only God is watching" is a good litmus.  But, God save us, the landscape is currently riddled with folks boldly in the light of day flaunting morally reprehensible behavior.  What is touted in the public arena and next door makes my hair curl.  

'Before Christ' history found Israel sans king, therefore "Everyone  did what seemed right in their own eyes." (Judges 21:25)  Dennis Prager modernizes the 'do your own thing' idea: "Morality was once revealed, inherited and shared, but now it's thought of as something that emerges in the privacy of your own heart."  But there is, in fact, a King of kings and Lord of lords.  We've just forgotten.  King Jesus calls the shots.  Ultimately.  So, let us become like King Jesus in word and deed.  

Dennis Prager's commentary reflects the outcome of America's collective amnesia.     

God help us to remember the most important project of our lives.

Articulate, wise, insightful article

Thomas Sowell

QOD

We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. C. S. Lewis 

Righteous governance

President Abraham Lincoln christened the  first Thanksgiving, in the year of our LORD, 1863:   

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request and fully concurring in the view of the Senate, I do, by this proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer." 

Eye-opening

Islam Was Not for Me

circa, 1947

All that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy. C. S. Lewis 

Gathering wood for the family

Anyone mildly concerned about Morgan J's wielding of
The Ax?
No, because Gabers is on the case.
Safety Specialist that he is.
Love This!

Red and yellow, black and white, All are precious in His sight

http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5359

Has anyone else been rocked back on their heels when tacitly accused of being judgmental or intolerant?  Do you find yourself intimidated or back-peddling?  Gregory Koukl - Stand to Reason radio host - throws the illogic of political correctness on its ear.  I could not have said it better myself, although goodness knows, I wrestle with this tolerant/intolerant see-saw.  How to express the folly is the challenge.  Mr. Koukl gets the job done in my opinion and, reader beware, if you disagree with either Gregory or me, you are an intolerant son-of-a-gun.

Frankly, some ideas are better than others.  And some are even deadly.  Is it charitable to tolerate ideas, beliefs, practices, and behavior that skid the highway to destruction?  I'd rather "speak the truth in love" and save a soul than bask in the faux sunshine of pc approval.  Maybe it's best to not tolerate that which will  kill, steal or destroy.  When the dust settles, perhaps the person who does not tolerate falsehoods is the most loving.  

Sometimes there are no words

What we think, Matters.


"Our beliefs arise from who we are and we become what we believe, a process which, according to our choices, can either resemble a spiral staircase heavenward or a flushing toilet. To him who has, more will be given, and from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away."  Andrew Klavan

Gary Wolfram article: Economics 101 and a lesson in Gratitude

http://paracom.paramountcommunication.com/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=10397715068&ch=CC1A2DFBDAF1020BB57EA3460E9B1F21&h=a0be9985a03dc31dac57c18721c5b4f3&ei=sR2TqFTNV

Precious snowflakes clueless ingratitude

The coat of festive color

November sunset

Off the deck

Such a great catch

Sometimes I marvel over what a terrific catch I'd be:  Decorating holds no fascination so no one would be risking life and limb dangling from the roof on Christmas eve.  And shopping is an anathema.  
But then Joy reminds me, "You don't cook either, mom"  True.