Friends & Family November 2022

Happy Thanksgiving dear friends and family!

As I’m typing this I’m smelling one of my favorite candles. Every year I splurge on at least one of these candles … this one is spiced pumpkin from Anthropologie.

I’m also cold today. My office is in my laundry room and my “desk” is below a window which faces west, and on windy cold days like today the cold comes through the window. Winter is already here. At least for this week and next.

Over the last month I’ve been working hard on my project for my seminary class—a poem summarizing the Bible. I shared two pieces of it earlier this month and now I’m wishing I’d waited because it’s a lot better. I went back and fine-tuned it all. I’ve added a short section from the New Testament half at the end of this letter. 

I’ve also been working hard at the farm again. This time the project has been getting the cabinets repainted—the first time since my dad built them in the late 1980s, and getting new countertops made. God provided a cabinet maker who works with his grandfather down the road in a really tiny town called Ouachita. They are as good as any here in Little Rock and a whole lot cheaper. Justin made me countertops out of solid maple which we lightly stained to match my grandfather’s butcher block which he used for cutting meat in the store where he worked till he was in his 90s.

As Dennis and I talked while we were there last weekend I remembered a dream I’d had … not a literal one, but a desire to restore an old house ages ago when I was very young. When we moved to Little Rock with our two toddlers we almost bought an old fixer-upper with tall ceilings, a grand staircase and beautiful wood work detailing. It was like the old house in the film It’s a Wonderful Life that Mary loved and George thought was a rotten old place. And if you know the story that house became part of their story as Mary loved it back to life.

Forty-five years later it seems God is giving me the opportunity to restore an old vintage house. The ceilings are high in the two oldest rooms but the old house is only one story and certainly not grand like in my old dreams. Still it’s been soul nourishing to imitate God in rescuing, restoring, and resurrecting this failing structure and giving it new life.

I’m also working, but much more slowly than I’d like, on my book about disappointment with God. I keep discovering more I want to say and stories I want to tell and I’m not getting enough time to do more than make notes on where these ideas might work. But God knows and I’ll keep blocking off chunks of time as I can. By the way, we will launch a short video series on a portion of this content from a women’s retreat I did last March with a free download study guide.

Speaking of books, I wanted to make sure you know of another new one that is now available. This one is much shorter and was created as a devotional book for adults or a family devotion for those of you who have kids in middle elementary school and older. It’s called Tales of the Resistance and was inspired by Hebrews 12:1,4. Verse one talks about the great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, which the author wrote about in the previous chapter but which also includes the many who have lived between then and today. Verse four talks about resisting sin and evil, which is the focus of what all those faithful witnesses who are in the grandstands watching us did while on earth.

In this book, I tell five stories about people who have resisted sin in different and dramatic ways. We can learn much from them and God intends that we should. I hope you’ll make a donation to Ever Thine Home, which will cover the cost of the book and extra for the continuation of our ministry, so that you and or your children can benefit from these heroes of the faith.

As this week marks the big launch of the Christmas season, I also want to mention that we have created a specific list of needs for our ministry that we hope many of you will think are important and will want to contribute to next week on Giving Tuesday. Christmas is about giving, as we learn in John 3:16, and growing and strengthening the Kingdom is central to our calling as followers of Christ. We’ll be sending a few emails with more details and I hope you’ll be watching for them.

Our Thanksgiving will be quite small this year compared to our usual 30-40 people. Just our daughter Ashley and her family and the two of us. But she does bring seven boys with her (this year includes a new daughter-in-law and a foster daughter too) so it’s never a quiet gathering. It will be fun to focus on just a few of our kids and grands. We really are looking forward to that this year.

I’ll have photos to post on social media if you follow me on Instagram.

Hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend focused on expressing hearts of gratitude for all God has given and not focusing on all that is wrong with the world and our families. One day He will make all that right.

Today He has tasked us with thanksgiving and trusting Him who reigns over all!

Ever His,

Barbara

Here is the short excerpt from my Story of Scripture class project. This comes near the end before Revelation. Enjoy!

Summation

This grand Story’s theme: a daring rescue
Author, lead character, is the hero
Writes Himself in, the sacrificial lamb
How Jesus, sweet Jesus, it’s all for Him.

My Immanuel: dwells fully within.
He, Chief Cornerstone. We, living stones, win
as the Spirit gives us His nature divine.
How Jesus keeps morphing me to His design.  

Wise Jesus: the radiance of God’s glory.   
Our High Priest, the star of every story
Better than old Moses or the angels
How He pleads for me because He’s able.

Pure Jesus: tempted in all things as we
His death from the enemy set me free.
Like His brethren in all things. From His throne
Jesus gives help to me by faith alone. 

Good Jesus: perfect through sufferings. Prevailed  
as anchor of steadfast hope within the veil;
able to save forever those who draw near
How once for all, Jesus’ own blood cleansed from fear.

Jesus, my Jesus:  Offspring of David
Jesus, my Jesus: First born not created. 
Jesus, my Jesus: the Bright Morning Star. 
Jesus, my Jesus: Mighty God You are!