In heavenly love abiding

In heavenly love abiding, no change my heart shall fear.
And safe in such confiding, for nothing changes here.
The storm may roar without me, my heart may low be laid,
But God is round about me, and can I be dismayed?

Wherever He may guide me, no want shall turn me back.
My Shepherd is beside me, and nothing can I lack.
His wisdom ever waking, His sight is never dim.
He knows the way He’s taking, and I will walk with Him.

Green pastures are before me, which yet I have not seen.
Bright skies will soon be over me, where darkest clouds have been.
My hope I cannot measure, my path to life is free.
My Savior has my treasure, and He will walk with me.

-Anna Waring

Tuesday links

Some of you may have heard about Sam Johnson's(R, TX) speech last Friday about the fuss over President Bush's much heralded "Surge". Here is the You tube video of that speech and I strongly encourage you to go watch it. It's good to know that some of the politicians that we, the American people, elected, are honorable.

I had the chance to read through the Modesty survey today, and I found it to be very encouraging, especially when you consider how many men were involved- there actually are godly men out there! The men answered many thoughtful questions with clear and sometimes humorous responses(about perfume:"not a stumbling block. Merely unnecessary unless you haven't taken a shower in several days" and on modesty in general:"If you don't want to attract a dog don't dress like a sirloin. Modesty comes from the inside and shows through on the outside."). I hope you all have been over to the Rebelution to read the survey!

A milblog for you to read:
"My desert Adventure"
I particularly like this post

She hasn't had a chance to post about it yet, but Jen is going to post on an important new development in the life of us two girls: a different car. Our good old 1986 squeaky leaky rusty purple car is being replaced with a much younger(1993) reliable, staid and much less cool looking model. Change comes hard; you served us well, purple car, during our formative teenage years. Farewell!

Oh, the pain, the horror,

the
drama.

Did I get a limb blown off? No.
Did I undergo surgery? No.
I had a tetanus shot.
It's been at least ten years since I've had a shot of any kind and now Mom insists I get one last jab from a stone faced nurse and then she's not paying for any more. Fine with me. Call me a wimp and you'd be right. My arm hurts!

For Valentine's Day:
The Rebelution has its much anticipated modesty survey on the web; last I checked it was down from an overload of visits but keep checking back. It's so encouraging that there are so many Christian men out there that are taking part in this survey.

The Smith family of Georgia recently welcomed a new baby into their family and they have produced a documentary about the home birth and how it blessed them. The part that touched me most was when during her 39 hour labor, the mother-to-be turned to her mother and cried, "How much longer?" and her mother encouraged her that, just like when she used to ask "Is there a husband for me out there? How much longer do I have to wait?" that the baby would come in God's timing.

What??!?!?

I just got through deleting 1103 spam comments. I've gotten spam comments before, but no more than about five a week. Why I got 1103 today, I don't know. If I accidentally deleted your real comment, which I doubt, just post it again. Hopefully this is a one time thing- if not, I'm getting word verification. How annoying!

Enough of this weather!

When I got up this morning(not on time, by the way) everything outside was covered with a thin but crusty layer of ice. Various members of our family are sick right now, the house smells like garlic, bleh, and I really don't want to get sick, so I agreed to go in to the business today until 3pm when I have a babysitting job(twin girls, really cute). So off I drove. As I began to slowly descend down a hill into town, guess what happened.
Brake swish brake skid swish brake plunk.

Down I slid towards the ditch, thankfully missing a nearby truck and thankfully not going into the steep ditch because it was full of snow that stopped me. If I had come a minute later, I would have crashed into the (very new looking)truck.
Thankfully, we don't have airbags in our (very old) car, so there was no possibility of them going off, and I was going slow so there was no whiplash or anything.
Thankfully, the driver of the truck gave me a ride to the business so I didn't have to walk. (I know, don't ride with strangers. But this is in Oakland! He turned out to be the husband of one of our customers)
Bill and Larry(yes, those are their real names) pulled the car out for me a few hours later and overall no damage was done. I'm very thankful to God for keeping me safe. With five drivers in the family we have had hardly any car accidents. And I will be even more thankful if I don't get the flu from my family!

IF

If I had more money, I'd buy stuff like this:
Outside the wire, a documentary by a former Marine about "the Iraq War you won't see on the evening news- From a dust-up with Al Qaida outside Abu Ghriab, to a night raid on the home
of an insurgent leader, you will see what the Marines saw and hear the story in their own words of why they joined, volunteered for the deployment, why they fight and what it is like to go outside the wire and into combat."
I didn't see anywhere if or what it is rated, so I can't say if this is adults only or a child safe documentary.
Facing the giants: you know it's a good movie if it has football in it and yet I still recommend it. And I highly recommend this movie. Jen and I had the opportunity to see it in theaters last October(we even paid more than $5 to do so) and found it to be well made, God honoring, and very moving. I almost cried, and Dad did cry, both of which are strong indicators of the strength of this movie.

When the news anchors report on the days deaths in Iraq all you hear is "yet another soldier died today, on what may be the bloodiest day in the history of the Iraq war. Senators are calling on President Bush to withdraw blah blah blah...."
They don't care a fig about the soldier or his family, to them it's just a number and a tool to criticize our leadership. I suggest you read this story.

Is anybody else tired of all this global warming? It's gotten so bad that we are running low on wood for our only heater, our wood stove. So we are going to have to cut back on how much wood we use every day and that means a colder house. Even though it hasn't gotten above 15 F for who knows how long, I know it is much colder in other parts of the country and I am very grateful for what heat we have.

Greetings, all

I have not been posting as much as I would like to. It seems like nothing is happening in my life worth posting about, and I have been too lazy to come up with a somewhat intelligent commentary on the various noteworthy events happening around the world. Hopefully I can cough something up by Thursday, so check back then.