Invisible Blessings

This was the Elisabeth Elliot newsletter for today.. I thought I would share it here :) I love reading articles by Elisabeth Elliot, and have many of her books. I especially love it when the daily newsletter seems to pertain to what we are going through at the time. Right now for our family, it has been learning to wait, and persist faithfully with what God has given us.. and wait even more faithfully and patiently (hard lesson indeed!) for what His plans and purposes for us are.

Invisible Blessings

"Being very much of the earth--earthy--we always want tangible, visible things--proofs, demonstrations, something to latch onto. If we always had them, of course, faith would be "struck blind." When Jesus hung on a cross, the challenge was flung at Him: Come down! He stayed nailed, not so that spectators would be satisfied (that miracle, his coming down, would have been a great crowd-pleaser), but that the world might be saved.

Many of our prayers are directed toward the quick and easy solution. Long-suffering is sometimes the only means by which the greater glory of God will be served, and this is, for the moment, invisible. We must persist in faith. God has a splendid purpose. Believe in order to see it."

"Our troubles are slight and short-lived, and their outcome an eternal glory which outweighs them far. Meanwhile our eyes are fixed, not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are unseen" (2 Cor 4:17, 18 NEB).

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None of us like long-suffering. Even though our family is going through a difficult season of waiting, I consider us to be very blessed. There are so many people suffering far more than we are. Let us always press on, and ask only for enough 'daily bread' for the day God has given us! He always has a good purpose!

Many blessings, ~*~Jessica~*~

In Heaven

We are back this week, still a little on the tired side but thankful.

Last week, our baby gained entrance to heaven, the place we all long for. He or she was was due Nov.9th. I can accept this from God even though there is sadness all around. This is our third baby we look forward to one day seeing. These babies will have no sadness, no world to deal with, no pain or suffering; they are safe and protected, so we are thankful.

Many of our friends know this already and thank you so much for your kind notes of comfort.

We hope everyone enjoyed their Easter and with likeness of mind we can rejoice because He is Risen!

Blessings, Theresa

Busy Week!

Time for a little update on what we have been busy working over the last couple of weeks. For starters, we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the spring issue! We had some good projects and articles for this issue and after all of that hard work, we can't wait to have it here in magazine form. A few other fun things cooking for this week too :)

We are very busy getting ready for the April conference this Friday and Saturday for the Joyous-Homemaking and The Wise Guy seminars. We are very excited about this! The breadmaking seminar we did last week was a lot of fun and I think this one is going to be even more so! For the Joyous-Homemaking seminar on Friday, Mom and I are doing basic soapmaking and simple embroidery to teach your daughters. We also have a wonderful guest speaker joining us, Mrs. Jennie Chancey of Sense and Sensibility Patterns. Mrs. Chancey is going to be doing a how-to session on her new apron pattern, the Girls' Edwardian apron! It's going to be a fun seminar and I'm looking forward to it :)

Saturday is The Wise Guy seminars! Want to learn how to change the oil in your car? :) If you are joining us this weekend, we look forward to meeting you there!

While we are in the midst of getting ready for the conferences, I am going to be tweaking our blog up a bit! The design and graphics need a little freshening up :) I am also adding a page for graphics our readers may use if they wish to link to us, plus all the details for the new giveaway we are going to be doing on a monthly basis! Keeping it a secret until I announce it..

Many blessings to you and your family,

~*~Jessica~*~