Wednesday, July 16, 2008

E~ W~ W~ , Virtual Baby Shower, & Birthdays...



Each Wednesday, I will be sharing a verse or words to a song that minister to me!


If you'd like to join in on "Encouraging Words Wednesday", let me know and I will gladly provide your link on my post!
First, I would like to THANK the sweet and talented Pearl, for making this beautiful graphic for my new weekly post! Didn't she do a wonderful job!?!


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"Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus"


I was blessed to be brought up in a Christian home, and was in church most Sunday's from the time I was an infant! But on the downside, you sometimes start to take things for granted. For instance, beautiful old hymns sung week after week. Going through the motions and the songs, without much thought to what you are really singing, glazing over the true meaning and power of the words. Maybe I am the only one guilty of this! :)


One such song is "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus." I can't begin to estimate the times I've sung that song. Enough that I no longer need the hymnal for the words. About a week before David's accident, we sang this song, and this time it seemed to bury itself deep in my thoughts. The distant words seeped from my inner being over the next few days..."Turn your eyes upon Jesus..." This came at an unanticipated busy time in my life, and I was feeling terribly overwhelmed and stressed. After David's accident, these words took on an even greater meaning....


Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
V.1 ~ O Soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There's a light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free.
Chorus ~ Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
~~~
In the midst of all of our troubles and worries, this sweet hymn, written by Helen H. Lemmel, in 1918, reminds us that we need only to turn and cast our eyes on Jesus. All the things that are causing our weariness will grow strangely dim, they really won't seem that important anymore. And just how important is what we value as much? I imagine looking towards that Cross, with blinders such of a horse. Not very poetic, but effective nonetheless. I pause to think of all the things that keep me personally, from focusing on Jesus. Some distractions that I am guilty of falling prey to, seem like worthwhile priorities, but are they really? When I fail to keep my eyes cast upwards, awareness of my troubles grow and multiply in magnitude. As this hymn bellows in my mind, I imagine Jesus, gently tilting my chin upward to Him, and saying look here to Me, dear child! And the words of the verse from Hebrews 12:2, take on an even greater meaning...."Let us fix our eyes on Jesus."
Other Related References ~ Matthew 6:33, Isaiah 45:22, & Colossians 3: 1-3.


I hope you received a blessing and encouragement from this old hymn, as I did!
If you'd like to read more Wednesday devotionals, go on over to Jan & Tom's Place for "Come to Jesus" Wednesday. (see my sidebar for link)

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A dear blogger friend, Heather, from Hopscotch & Hydrangeas, is expecting her third child, a precious baby girl!

Since it is customary to throw the Mommy~to~be a Baby Shower in the last month of her pregnancy, I thought it would fun to host a Virtual Online Baby Shower for Heather and baby Cali!

You are invited to join me in celebrating this wondrous occasion.

To participate, please prepare a "baby shower post" dedicated to Heather and Cali, on Friday, July 25th.

You all are so very creative, let your imagination run wild! "smiles"

Some Ideas for your Post: Pictures of baby gifts, (our virtual presents to Heather & Cali); Words of encouragement, wisdom, and well wishes; Pretty baby girl graphics. And for you party~planning savvy gals, you might post baby shower decorations, eats and drinks...and tasty shower recipes!

Please leave me a comment by Wednesday, July 23rd, if you plan to participate. Your post will need to be up and running by Friday, the 25th. I will post all links to the participating blogs on mine! As this will be a "progressive party," I encourage you to visit each other and partake in all the festivities!

You are welcome to use the graphic above and transfer it to your sidebar!

Please help me spread the word!

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July Birthdays

Two very special women in my life have birthdays this month. My late maternal grandmother B. and my mom.

My grandmother B. would have been 95 today. She passed away 2 1/2 years ago on Valentines Day!

Below is a picture of my grandmother and mom at my wedding....



My grandmother is the baby girl in this picture. She later had a step-baby brother, who is the only one of them living.


Grandma with her brood, and a few extras. Mama was the youngest of seven, and wasn 't born at the time of this picture...


Ashley and David with Grandma at her 90th Birthday...


Mom and Grandma...

At the chance Mom might see my blog, I will not tell you her age, but her Birthday is the 22nd of July. Here she is on her 1st Birthday!

And this little cutie below, is my best friend and love of my life, Kevin! His birthday was on the 2nd. His birthday was on the same day as David's surgery, so we unfortunately did not do a lot of celebrating this year!

Happy late Birthday, I love you!


Don't forget to come back tomorrow and I will resume my tour of the Lake House!

Thank you for all of your kind comments, so far! A lot of effort and sweat went into this project! :) ~Rhonda

19 comments:

onlymehere said...

Rhonda, I loved this post! I think we all need words of encouragment and to time it half-way into the week is a wonderful idea. I try not to be a Sunday Saint but to live my religion all week long. We get so busy sometimes it's easy to lose momentum by Wednesday so I thank you for this and reminding me of what matters most.

I love the idea of a virtual shower too! We have tons of people coming bz of our July 24th pioneer day celebration so I don't dare commit to doing a blog myself until it's a little closer and I see what's going on. I look forward to tomorrow also for more lakehouse views! I'm curious to see if there are any monograms or animal prints bz I know you like them (now that I posted that I hope it was you and not someone else, LOL)! Happy birthday to all!

Gone said...

Hi Rhonda,

Thanks for stopping by...I've come to check out your Wednesday Devotional. It's wonderful!!!

I'm afraid I will not be able to participate in the Baby Shower, I seem to have over-extended myself for the rest of the week...both in RL (real life) and VL (virtual life)...LOL!! But thanks for the invitation - and I will keep Heather and baby, Cali in my prayers!

~Blessings,
Jan

Anonymous said...

Morning, Rhonda! Oh, I would love to participate in the virtual baby shower for Heather! This is so sweet of you! I'd love to make a special post for this day, so count me in.

I love the song you've featured here and when things are reeling in my life, I have to remind myself to turn my eyes back upon Jesus! You're a blessing!

Oh, how sweet to see all the pictures of your dear Grandmother and mothr. I can see you have found memories.
Be a sweetie,
Shelia :)

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness... Im so sorry Rhonda. I have missed you and Im sorry.... You have been nothing but sweet... I have tried to keep up with so much and I find myself chasing my tail.. please forgive me. I have some catching up to do! I need to go and check out your lake house...((hugs))... Many sniles you way... Susie H~

Anonymous said...

Okay, gotcha. A virtual baby shower for Heather (who I call Cinderella!). Count me in!
Brenda@ The Brenda Blog

Pearl said...

Hi Rhonda... This is such a beautiful post! Thanks very much for your kind, sweet words towards me... bless your heart ~hugggs~ I believe that this new Encouraging Words venture of yours will be a true blessing to so many... and before long, I am betting it will grow and take on a life of its own!!

Your Bible passages today were so moving and arrived at such a perfect time. And the Hymn for today... Ohhh my! It just made me smile so much... this was one of my Mom's favorites! I can remember countless times, as a child, looking over at her during church and seeing her eyes glisteing with tears as she sang her favorite hymns. I wondered why singing made her sad and I asked her about it one Sunday afternoon. That is how I learned about the meaning of "Happy Tears".

Your birthday tribute to your loved ones is simply precious! I really enjoying looking at family albumns and hearing all about the faces that I see. How sweet that you have so many nice photos to look back on. Your Grandmother was a beautiful woman and surely she had to have some amazing stories to tell during her life! And to have gone home to our Father on Valentine's Day... precious, just so precious and now bringing a whole new level of love to that holiday for you! And, your Mom is sooooo pretty! I loved the photo of her on her 1st birthday... Cute!! Such a blessing that she is still with you all. Your photo of Kevin in his lil sailor suit is way tooooo cute!! I am so happy that you have each other... it is a joy to know you've found "The One", isn't it? ~smiles~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EVERYONE!!

Rhonda... I do not know your friend, Heather, but if you and she do not mind having a stranger at the Baby Shower, I would love to attend and bring something. It sounds like it will be such a fun party to participate in! And, I loved the sweet Pink graphics you used... your talents are endless, my friend!! God bless...

~hugs 'n love~

Pearl

Unknown said...

Rhonda, I love this post! I needed to read this hymn today, thank you so much! It gave me butterflies.

You are so sweet to throw these virtual parties! What a beautiful idea!

Hugs,
Amy

Ribbonwood Cottage said...

Rhonda, great idea! You have a lovely blog and great things to offer. The song is one of my favorites. I will be back to read more of course. I'm not sure how to do the baby shower but would love to be a part next Wednesday. I will start preparing now something special for Heather. Bless you.
Debbie@ ribbonwoodcottage.blogspot.com

Heather said...

I still can not believe that you would do such a sweet thing for me! Thank You!!
Oh that hymn........ it brought tears streaming down my face....I closed my eyes and could hear my old congregation singing it. Beautiful, and much needed today! I like this Weds idea!!
Happy Birthday to ALL of your loved ones!!! The pictures were fantastic!
On to the next post! (I have been falling behind lately- how does that happen? LOL!!)
-Heather :)

Unknown said...

That is very sweet of you to do that for Heather. I'll try to come up with something!

I enjoyed your post==they hymn ...all the pictures~

Blogger said...

That is so nice to have a birthday post! I love the pics, too!

Of course I am so happy you added me to your list and I added you, too:) Thanks! That made my day!

Thanks for the nice words about my bedroom and my son's. I appreciate that so much, you are so sweet! :)

I can't wait to see your rooms! And now with you on my list, I can see the updates as the roll right in!

Take care :)
Bella
PS: I soooo need a cool name for my blog, lol! I should have a contest!

Gone said...

Hi again Rhonda,

I wanted to let you know that I've "Tagged" you for 5 Things I Love Most...check my blog post today for details. Have fun!

~Blessings,
Jan

Picket said...

Hey Scooter..absolutely beautiful post girl! I love the idea of encouraging words..we all need them at one time or another and that is so sweet about the baby shower for Heather! I don't know how to do to much on the computer and I sure don't know about virtual things..I feel like a dufus sometimes with this computer! lol Hope you have had a great day sweetie and that all is well for you and yours!

Vanessa Greenway said...

What a wonderful post! XO VAnessa

Unknown said...

Lots going on!

By the way, your new blog design is really pretty - I like it!

Liz Harrell said...

Hi Rhonda! Thanks for the advice yesterday on my pink bathroom... I really appreciate it. Nice to meet you! :) You've got a beautiful family!

Heidi said...

HI Rhonda, We are walking out the door to Andrew's doctor's appointment, but I just read you last couple blogs!!...as usual just love what you have to say!!....& that Lake house!!!...make up one of those guest rooms! I'm coming for a visit soon! :)...Just wanted to let you know that I would LOVE to be part of your friend's baby shower!...I can't wait!!! Do you know her personally?..if so, would you e-mail me her address, so I can send off one of my pieces from my etsy shop, babypeople for her?...Just let me know when you have a minute!!! So looking forward to it!!!....have a lovely day!.....Heidi XO
P.S. How is David doing?

Nikki via The Scarlett Rose Garden said...

What a wonderful family post! Happy Birthday y'all!

I'll be there for the shower! Can't wait!
Nikki

Marie said...

What a sweet post!!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you...but sign me up! I'd love to be part of Heather's baby shower!