Happy Father's Day -the gift of gratitude

   Col 3:15 "Now may the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you were also called in one body, and be thankful."  The peace of God rules, bringing unity of mind and purpose through an overflow of thanks.  When centered on what we are grateful for, those things that make us one and knit us together, we have pace in our relationships.  As a people, we so often focus on the negatives; just watch the news....We se all the little annoyances, nurse our interpersonal wounds, cry out for our own rights and afeel keenly when our expectations aren't met.  We may often feel under -appreciated for all the things we do that go unnoticed, unappreciated.  All these things can break peace and unity, filling us with strife, leaving us wondering what we had in common in the first place.  The road to redemption?  Interpersonal peace and unity?  It's paved with gratitude. 
    Today I want to express thankfulness for the dads in my life.  Just as we moms are often under-appreciated, so are they. First, to my husband... Thank you for your faithfulness, your passion, the fun and laughter you bring to our home, the commitment you have to providing for us, the diligence you put into your work.  Thank you for being the primary trash man, yard maintenance and clean up crew, and for picking up the pieces and managing the household when I'm not around.  Thank you for loving my family and always seeing the value/importance of being there for them.  Thank you for all of the Craigslist and Facebook marketplace runs that extend your day, add in a bit of craziness and leave you running from place to place to meet up with people.  Thank you for being resourceful and for working hard to make our house beautiful.  Thank you for showing our children with your life what it looks like to serve others and make a difference in our community.
 



  To my dad who now walks where anges tread and beholds the glory of the One and Only seated on the throne that is grace: thank you for teaching my construction, for being a good provider and demonstrating the good of hard work.  Thank you for not running out for good when there are times that it would have seemed the easier road.  Thank you for your passion in discipleship and mentoring families.  Thank you for all the times you listened when I talked and gave good advice.  Thank you for opening up your heart to me and becoming not just my dad but my friend.  Thank you for the beds you made me, the playhouses, and the remodeling of my kitchen.  Thank you for showing me what it looks like to grow in Christ, to fail but get up again, leaning hard on the grace and mercy of God. 
   To Jeremiah, who gazes on the Father of Light and delights in his presence, you never got to be an earthly father, through childbearing but you were a father to many - especially to your students. You were intentional in love, service and discipleship and showed the world what it looks like to lay down your life for the sake of the Kingdom and its King.  You had compassion, saw needs and sought to fill them.  Gave yourself with intention to your calling and made the world around you a better place.










  To my brothers: Matt, thank you for your devotion to your family, for giving attention to details and doing your work with excellence.  Thank you for the time and expertise you've given to others.  You've become a Jack of so many trades and grown much in wisdom.  Thank you for filling our lives with good music and the many sacrifices and services you have made/given to your wife in promoting the gifts God has given her as well.  Thank you for the times you would run on Hatcher Pass with me at Sunrise.  Thank you for the guidance you've given me on work projects.  Thank you for your sense of humor.

    Caleb, thank you for your tenderness and gentleness.  Thank you for your many examples of service and self-sacrifice to your own family and to all of us.  You've given many of us the gift of your time, your labor and skillfulness, and your presence.  Thank you for playing games with us, playing with the kids, demonstrating hard work.  Thank you for not being afraid of a job big or small and for helpiug give me a kitchen!  Thank you for your heart to do right and love God deeply.  Thank you for being a peace maker and being a man of faithfulness and dedication.  You don't run off when times get tough and you wait for God's direction rather then pushing for what's easier or convenient.
   Thanks to all the other dad's out there who have blessed me, my husband and my family.  Thank you Bill for being a man of faithfulness, a gentle spirit and a generous man who love a family and children who were not your own and who has consistently loved and been there for your own son through many hard times.  Thank you for being a rock of strength and intention, faithfully, quietly being there, working hard, seeking God and sharing your wisdom. 





Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways;
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper rev’rence, praise.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee,
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity,
Interpreted by love!

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small Voice of calm.

In simple trust like theirs who heard
Beside the Syrian sea
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word,
Rise up and follow Thee.
Story behind the hymn

Song Cathedral style

Peace...because of who He is

  Do not be anxious about anything.  Ha!  Can you imagine?  Not ever being anxious for ANYTHING?  It's for real.  No joke.  When we come to joy in Him and the realization deep down in the soul - permanently that He is near and that He is good and that He is for us, and that He is ALMIGHTY Creator of all the ends of the earth for whom NOTHING is too difficult....then, really, what do we have to be anxious about anyway?  Supreme joy is ours in Him and He hears our prayers. When we cry out to Him, when we lay before Him our needs, our anguish, our future, our families, our relationships, our desires and hopes, He hears.  In Psalms David says: "Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath.  We can even thank Him in advance of our eyes seeing the fulfillment because we really can have that much confidence, peace in His goodness and sovereignty. If you really lay it all out there and realize to Whom you are speaking and how much He loves you, then laying it all down there at the seat of Mercy, the place from which proceeded by simple words the world and planets that immediately danced in orbit at His command...if He is for us, who or what circumstance can move or shake us or cause us to fear?  Why tremble before lesser things when He stands behind us and goes before us?  This becomes God's gift of peace that doesn't make sense to all the world but is like a sentry hemming us in, not to cage us but to set us free from the anxiety that would bind us up.  Peace that reminds us who we are and more Who's we are.  It quiets our hearts and stills the questions in our minds, the racing, the what-ifs. 

  And as we grow in faith, as we see and walk in what's Real and not the fake, fearful imagination of our own hearts or even the pain of what could be, what was, what is right now, anxiety loses it's power.  We become fully His, surrendered.  He can bring in a thousand interruptions to our day and we begin to see them not as interruptions but as the day He has given, the interactions He desires for us, which may look very different from our own agenda.  He can even bring in loss, cloud our vision of the future, allow family or friends to turn against us, and if He is for us, upholding us, weeping with us, we can know that this too will turn out for His glory and our good.
  This path, this unshakeable faith, this peace sets our minds free from ruminating on all the what-ifs and what could be or should be and allows us to think on what is true, what right now, right here is lovely, worthy of honor and awe, of sitting up and taking notice and then declaring it to an onlooking world.  It centers us on what is pure rather than tainted by self-interest. And with God as judge and adjudicator of what is, we know it will be just and right.  Do you see something of excellence?  Put your focus there, dwell on that. It takes practice.  It takes walking it out one baby step at a time, one faith-step at a time, coming into agreement with what is rather than what could be and embracing it.  Then, no question, peace will be the banner under which you live, the shoes that give surety to your step, the sweet gentleness that passes from your lips.

Phil 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness,  gentleness, moderation, considerateness, be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned[e] and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

He leadeth me! O blessed thought,
O words with heav’nly comfort fraught;
Whate’er I do, where’er I be,
Still ’tis Christ’s hand that leadeth me.
  He leadeth me! He leadeth me!
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful follower I would be,
  For by His hand He leadeth me.
2
Sometimes ’mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,
By waters still, o’er troubled sea,
Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me.
3
Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine,
Nor ever murmur or repine;
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since it is Thou that leadest me.
4
And when my task on earth is done,
When, by Thy grace, the vict’ry’s won,
E’en death’s cold wave I will not flee,
Since Thou in triumph leadest me.
Story behind the hymn
Hymn: Dated but good