A song and a blessing

sat in the kitchen this afternoon, with my mom and dad {aka nanny and papa} while my oldest first played the four songs he is leading in church tomorrow...but on the guitar...for them.

then...he got his keyboard out and played one of papa's favorite songs.   I only thought to tape it when we were on the last verse.

i just sat there, with my eyes overflowing and my heart beating hard....so many memories of my hearing my dad sing this song...at church, when I was young, at nursing homes as he shared with the elderly, and now, he and momma, in their sweet, wonderful, full of age voices...joined in with my 14 year old just starting life son.


a hymn that binds the hearts of generations....

"and i'll cherish the old rugged cross,
when my trophies at last i lay down
i will cling to the old rugged cross
and exchange it one day for a crown."

Yes, Lord, so bet it.   With the generation above me, the generation below me...and the generations I yet do not know in our family.

what a blessing today...thank you.

His love floods!

you know...i had been feeling off-kilter a bit.  so busy i was distant....falling again into the mud-puddle of imagined disapproval {failed performance}...envisoning the splatterings of shame and grit of dust....long dried from too long of only a snippet here, and a snippet there of any God speak....

thinking...when I get time, when I catch up, when the kids are back in school...then i will have time to draw close...

abba did not want to wait on me. :)

he decided to draw clse to me in the middle of my busyness to remind me that it is not how well or good or consisten or much I love God.....

It is how much HE loves ME.y

God used this sweet man to bring me near.  to remind me  what real love is.   This is the love I see in my momma and papa.   This is the love I want to see in my sons for their wives one day.    This is the love I want my daughters to experience.   this is the love of God for me.

the real deal.




(The song is Beautiful Exchange by Hillsong)