Heart Reflections Live

Saturday, November 07, 2009

All Is Well

Well, they had a good team of Doctors on at the hospital, who didn't muck around with Max's heart condition. He was cardio-inverted pretty much straight away- fixed him first zap!- and I spoke to him in the ER over the phone just under 2 hours after it happened. He's resting now,awaiting discharge.

Thank the Lord for HIs mercy and Grace- YET AGAIN!!- and thankyou for praying.

If you've never read any of my posts about Max's heart conditions: He has tricuspet artesia, pulmonary stenosis and transposition of the great vessells. He has NEVER had heart surgery, takes no medication at this point except for 1/2 an aspirin per day and fish oil capsules, and for the last nearly 8 years has had several episodes a year of rapid AF attacks, the only treatment being for him cardio-inversions, as medications such as amiodorone alone won't put him back in normal rhythm. There's a good chance he is the oldest living person on Earth with these conditions. He horrifies his doctors by visiting developing countries to preach, ends up in hospitals, and lives to tell the tale, bringing much glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we praise for each extra day we have with our walking miracle!

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posted by Father's Grace Ministries at 7:18 AM 0 comments

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST!!!!

Please pray for Max, again! Just 9 days ago I sent my hubby off in the ambulance with a life threatening AF situation ( due to his 3 rare heart defects), and now he is on the way to hospital by ambulance again. Please lift him up before The Lord Jesus in prayer. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED THIS CLOSE TOGETHER BEFORE! W hatever the cause, please pray... Will let you know more in a couple of hours.

Thankyou
Claire

JESUS IS LORD

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posted by Father's Grace Ministries at 5:39 AM 0 comments

Friday, October 30, 2009

Life and Light Bookshop




For those who live in South East Queensland, I would like to recommend a new-to-us Christian bookstore.

Life and Light Bookshop is situated at 4 Tin Can Bay Road, Gympie, Queensland. I discovered them online http://www.australianchristianbrotherhood.org/ while searching for Rod and Staff products online, in particularly the Little Jewel books, which came highly recommended from some homeschooling families in the U.S.

To my knowledge, this is the only supplier for these products in Australia. They are printed by the Anabaptists in America.

We ordered 4 books online Wednesday morning, to see if we liked them, and they didn't dissappoint- arriving in our mailbox, today to much excitement from our girls. We'll definately be ordering more product from them in the future. Why not visit their website for a look? Click on bookstore. Their free Christian magazines are good reading too.

I am always happy to recommend Christian businesses or ministries that operate with integrity.
posted by Father's Grace Ministries at 8:10 PM 0 comments

Praise The Lord!

Yes, my hubby has survived his 30th cardio-inversion! I spoke to him by phone about 4.30am. ER was fairly quiet and he was treated straight away. He should be coming home by taxi soon. Thankyou for your prayers. I got bits of sweet sleep between the babies waking. ( Hubby went into AF on his baby night shift-LOL!) The children are sleeping, the sun is shining. My heart is thankful and bursting with praise to The Lord of Heaven and Earth!!!!

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posted by Father's Grace Ministries at 7:07 AM 0 comments

Max's 30th Cardio-inversion.

It's 2.20 am here. Would you please pray for my dear husband Max, who is currently heading for the hospital by ambulance for what will be his 30th cardio-inversion. We have God's peace with us, but are fully aware of the risks, and therefore covet your prayers.

P ray that God will graciously bring him through again. Will let you know how it goes.

Thankyou ,Claire
posted by Father's Grace Ministries at 2:20 AM 0 comments

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Moments,,,



Life is made up of moments...

Am I hungrily savouring the simple beauty in each and every one of them? OR are they being lost and WASTED under the stress of the tryanny of the urgent?

There is beauty in EVERY moment! I want my HEART to learn to capture it! I want the heart of a CHILD like my own children who not only see the raindrop on the leaf, but see the extreme , transient beauty of it, and CELEBRATE it, as a gift from the Saviour, The Creator... before discovering the next one!

We don't need manufactured excitement in our lives, what some call drudgery is really service to the KING OF KINGS!!! I want to revel in this more and more...even when I'm scraping poop off a nappy. To live life with the same joy and hunger my children have... not wasting my moments with stress and distraction.... LIVING IN THE MOMENT... not wishing myself out of it!

EVERY moment we are making a memory for our children... are we singing hymns and rejoicing as we work or sighing and grumbling about the work they make, instead of the joy they are in just being? (GULP!!!!) I am over 40 now, and have discovered that the more children you have, the faster childhood and MOMENTS go, even when you homeschool, and create an atmosphere where childhood is cherished and not programmed by the dictates of popular culture.

I often wish I could freeze frame my childrens' faces in my mind's eye, but if they could do the same with me, would they remember a happy rejoicing Mama, or a grumpy one mostly- maybe I'm not game to ask ... yet...

There is to be no division between the secular and sacred in our Christian walk. I pray my children will notice that I seek to glorify the Lord moment by moment, and that they will grow desiring the same... Some days I think I learn more from them, than they do from me!

When my children and others look me in the eyes, I pray they will see a whole person, not fractured by care or worry or stress, sparkling with the joy of the Lord, as I live out the rest of my life savouring and celebrating the moments!

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posted by Father's Grace Ministries at 6:23 AM 0 comments

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Vintage Pyrex, Vintage Books and Family Fun



What a great couple of weeks we've had. We've just come to the end of 2 weeks school holidays- back to homeschool tomorrow- and we've been spending some of the holidays bargain hunting! FUN! FUN! FUN!

Apart from church and family visits, and occasionally a Christian Playgroup, I don't get out of the house much, so these family days were relished. On Wednesday, we drove from our hilltop home out to the coast for our semi-regular visits to our Koorong Christian bookstore. I was thrilled when Zara found a double Donut Man DVD set we didn't have. They are a refreshing option to many of the much more commercial stuff available for kids these days.

We also visited 2 of the huge Lifeline Secondhand Warehouses at the coast, where my darling hubby found me some vintage pyrex!!! I decided last year to start collecting this to use so that eventually we can eliminate the plastic we have in our kitchen. He found me a large casserole dish with a glass lid, in the English pattern pictured above, and a lovely smaller glass baking dish with a lid in clear glass with a slight green tinge to it. I've saved a website called "Pyrex Love" which helps identify most of the common patterns. I really love some of the pastel aquas and pinks from the 50's and 60's, as well as some of the yellow and olive green designs from the 60's and 70s. We just happen to have an olive green and yellow retro kitchen in our current rental which I love. I never collect things just for the sake of having them, I'm hoping to track down pyrex in different sizes for reheating leftovers and baby food, and food storage in general. The more I find out about the toxins in plastic, the keener I am to find alternatives. This is a fun, cheap way to do so.

We also got some great 2ndhand clothes for our boys who are now 10 months, and enormous! My hubby found some lovely pants and collared shirts for them, as well as a lovely handknit cardigan- I love traditional children's c;othes! It's even better when they're as cheap as chips! I'm blessed to have a hubby who loves to bargain hunt.

We scored some more vintage children's books, and I managed to find a few more classics off my list- Pollyanna, Coral Island by R.M. Ballantyne, and My Side of the Mountain. I also found The God of All Comfort by Hannah Whitall Smith, and an A W Tozer classic- all for next to nothing.

The best part of the day however, was just going out together as a family, having wellbehaved children, and babies that travelled particularly well that day. A day we all enjoyed. I don't mind that fact that I don't get out of the house much as a homeschool mum, but it makes the times I do more appreciated and really exciting. We are truly blessed.

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posted by Father's Grace Ministries at 5:57 PM 0 comments

Monday, September 14, 2009

Vintage Housewives and the Turning of Time



Do you ever feel like you were born in the wrong era? I do from time to time, but I also have complete confidence in the same God of The Bible, who said to Queen Esther, "...who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"


In this day and age where sin is blatant, as well as rampant , and culture has become ugly and dumbed down with it, God needs people like us to bring a change where we are and to beautify the corners we live in.


This may sound trite to some, when millions of poor children are starving overseas- a fact NOT ignored in our home- but the point I'd like to make is this : THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN, and if you enjoy studying history, you will see this and realize that things usually go in cycles- it did with the children of Israel in The Old testament, and still does today.


Here is an example of what I mean by cycles. This chart is taken from the book "Boomers, Xers and Other Strangers" by Dr Rick and Kathy Hicks and is recommended by Focus on the Family.


"History shows that the average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations passed through 10 stages:

-From bondage to spiritual faith

-From spiritual faith to great courage

-From great courage to liberty

-From liberty to abundance

-From abundance to selfishness

-From selfishness to complacency

-From complacency to apathy

-From apathy to moral decay

-From moral decay to dependence

-From dependence back to bondage.

Take a look at that list...Those who were not raised with traditional moral standards, and who question whether there are any absolute truths to live by (as we will see is true of the younger generations today), may not think we are as far along in the process as members of our older generations would. But if there is any truth to this theory, our future could be in jeopardy."
The world at large is showing in places that it LONGS for a change back to the "good-ole-days". I found an article on the internet about "Time Warp Housewives"- women so dismayed by our modern culture, that they CHOOSE to "live" in the past. Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1042702/Time-Warp-Wives-Meet-women-really-live-past.html
I found it an interesting read. I noticed a couple of interesting things. Firstly 2 out of 3 of the featured women were in a traditional marriage (positive statistics for these times). Also, sadly, None had children. One said that she didn't want to bring any into the world because of the violence etc. I don't deny we live in perilous times, but this is where our faith kicks in and holds us strong. Children are a gift from God, and we firmly believe that if we raise them right, God will use the next generation to change the world, as they serve Him.
Being a bit of a vintage Mama, myself, though not as extreme as the ladies in the linked article, I was amazed at how much vintage stuff and blogs came up on google- some were Christian, some not. The desire for simpler times seems to be universal. My hubby had the morning news program on the other week, and it was said that 50's bathing suits are coming back into vogue, as people are getting sick of showing so much skin, and want to be prettier.
Yes, it's the year 2009- not 1949- but I'm very happy to be raising our children with some of the best resources the past has to offer. The morals were better and more in line with our Judeo-Christian ethics, and the reading material and music was not dumbed down as much as it is today- What a sharp decline has taken place in our manners and general culture in the last 40 years. My husband, who was born in 1964 often says that in the Australian Censes that year, 84% of Australians claimed to be Christian, now sadly it's 6%!
Things are changing. Austalian News Show 60Minutes recently did a program on "Housewife Superstars", showing amazement over the number of 20 and 30 somethings, who choose to stay home and look after hubby and children, while he brings home the bacon. Change is in the air. Feminism is finally being seen in its true warped colours.
While serving Jesus remains my number 1 priority, I enjoy "Being vintage": doing things the old-fashioned way, so that our children know that the best things don't come from a drive-through, baking cakes and cookies, hanging out the laundry when it's fine, using cloth nappies and glass baby bottles, wearing dresses or skirts most of the time like my Grandmothers did, learning to crochet again, reading vintage books with our children,collecting and wearing vintage aprons, using our teapot and cups and saucers, eating off my Grandmothers china, listening to our hymns, classical and other oldtime music, watching old, old movies, and collecting vintage TV shows on DVD for clean family viewing( We have most of the" Little House on the Prairie" episodes and I'm thinking of hunting down some "Andy Griffith" "Donna Reed" and "Father Knows Best".) A much better investment than pay TV don't you think?
It's time for revival... We can't really go back to The Good Ole Days, God needs to change the hearts of men. Change is in the air... Let's pray...and see our nation turn.


posted by Father's Grace Ministries at 6:29 AM 0 comments

Monday, August 31, 2009

The World of Baby Boys



We are delighting in our baby boys day by day watching them grow and learn, despite me having to pack all the girls' homeschool stuff into plastic tubs, after some paper work was joyfully torn and nearly eaten! They are getting into everything- crawling fast, pulling themselves up, and even attempting to take tiny steps, while holding onto things, and they're not quite 10 months yet...

We are just as committed in raising our little princes to walk in godliness, as we are with our little girls, and maintaining a happy, old-fashioned home in which to do so. I've been inspired afresh with my Christian parenting, imperfect as it is, through Mrs June Fuentes latest series on her blog- A Wise Woman Builds her House- The link is on my sidebar, and also a few articles back.

I've been meditating lately on this scripture with regard to all our children: Psalm 144:12 "That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similtude of a palace;" I'd read this many times before with regard to our daughters, but not since having our sons. Grown up in their youth, refers to the age of 12 upwards having a maturity in their lives and outlook. We do not want our sons to become rebellious video-game playing Peter Pans in their youth who never want to grow up and take responsibility! We want them to become noble, strong youth, Like Daniel and his 3 friends in the Bible, who were so different from those around them. We want to instill such a love for the Scriptures that men such as these become their heroes and Not Superman, Spiderman etc- We don't do superheroes at our house!- this is not meant to condemn any one else who does, but we have to lead our little family in the way God directs for us :-)

Has anyone else noticed how hard it is to find nice traditional boyswear in the shops? We don't embrace the current trend to dress even babies as rock stars-YUCK! Let our children be children, I say! If anyone knows of any Aussie stores or online stores that stock nice traditional boyswear that doesn't cost the earth, please let me know! I'm still new to the world of little boys, you know! It's so easy to find beautiful dresses for girls at thrift stores, but so hard to find nice things for boys...

Books for boys have also been in my thoughts lately. We have heaps of vintage Little Golden books that have boy stories in, as do our old Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories, but what of Good classics for when they're older? Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson, I believe we have, I'm keeping an eye out for originals by R.M. Ballantyne- I believe my Dad may have some of these-, and we have heaps of Christian bios of such heroes as Spurgeon, Bunyan, George Muller and the like, but I'm open to suggestions for other good classics for boys. We try to buy our books original and unabridged, and good morals are always a must- ideas please????

I'm so excited about raising boys!

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posted by Father's Grace Ministries at 6:41 AM 0 comments

Monday, August 03, 2009

This Is The Life I Love...

- Early morning... the sun is rising... I gaze out through our dining room window and glass sunroom beyond, over the green hills and valleys, all the way to the few white skyscrapers that say "the Beach" and the vast Pacific Ocean beyond... the sun becomes a huge red beautiful ball... very soon I have to close the curtains else the winter sun will make the room too bright for our babes...

- The noise of the kettle... the promise of a nice hot milky coffee ... my fuel for the day...

- The sound of the computer warming up... the feel of leather as my Bible is opened, leaves gently turning... the best food for spirit and soul... Prayer... communing with the One who made us and died for us..

- The smiles and cuddles from our little men as they wake melt my heart... No matter what sort of night we've had with them, I remember how God's mercies are new EVERY MORNING towards us, and their sweet smiles never fail to confirm this truth to my heart...

-The sharp, scent of our homegrown herbs, as I cut them for my hubby's omelette... The aroma is all the richer, knowing they are from our garden...

- The hymns and Christian media that bless our family during the day helping keep our focus on Jesus...

- The cuddles and giggles as our girls get up... The joy of hearing them read to me daily... Trying to be intentional with them throughout our busy day... the priveledge of homeschooling and all it encompasses...

-The beauty of glass... the glass bottles that feed our babies... the glass of flowers from our garden on the table... the glass of herbs on the bench...

- the fresh scent and soft sensation of clean cloth nappies to wrap our babies bottoms in... baby feet to kiss at nappy change time...or any time...

- the birds that sing... the colours of the day and seasons as they change here around our hilltop home... we feel closer to Heaven here...

-the rich, beautiful sunsets... peaceful dusk...the beauty of quiet night after a busy day...

This is the life I love...

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posted by Father's Grace Ministries at 6:31 AM 1 comments