The Sauder Family

Prayers...

2012-01-26T13:52:00.000-08:00

We would ask you to join us in prayer for Kevin's cousin Derek and his precious family.

You can read their story here: http: www.lrsauder.blogspot.com

Thankfulness...

2012-01-24T05:01:00.000-08:00

I got a new necklace and I love wearing it! I'm wearing it regardless of fashion or matching these days.

My necklace is a birds nest. It represents the cover of this book.

Why do I want to wear a bird's nest around my neck?

I am fighting for joy... I am battling my mind for a thankful spirit.

I have read this book, "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp multiple times. Her writing messes with my mind. I forget grace. I forget thankfulness. I like how D.L. Moody says it, We need to remember grace daily, because, "we're leaky."

I not just leaky, I'm a sieve... I remember, I forget, I remember, I forget. I fight my mind during the day. I'm all pent up and frustrated and then I remember.

I've actually written a post on this same book and idea last year. And I forget.

In her book, Ms. Voskamp challenges her readers to live in grace daily by living thanks all day. Her challenge is to record a list of all the ways you've seen God's grace in the minutia of your day.

I've tried my 1000 gift list, way back in 2008 and made it to maybe 200... I forget.

But, I'm washing my soul in His grace. I am fighting to remember grace for His glory and my joy.

I love my new necklace! I wear and wash my soul in His grace...

"The Lord is my Helper..." Hebrews 13:6- Quoted by Paul from Psalms 118:6

New eating trends...

2012-01-23T14:46:00.000-08:00

...Maybe it was eating that entire pan of chocolate brownies at the county 4-H fair, or perhaps consuming so many hot dogs and corn dogs during college, or maybe it's been handed to me in my genetic make-up, I don't really know...

After years and years of struggling through random digestive issues, cramping, unexplained pain, dizzy spells, light headedness and random fainting spells, I am done trying on my own.

I have had more tests, pokes, prods and answered more questions in the last month in regards to my health since the time of my birth.

I really am a bad patient. I don't communicate what is going on in my body well and have lived with certain pain and yucky for so long that I have convinced myself it is normal.

The next 6 weeks of my life are mapped out with the Comprehensive Elimination Diet. I'm in new territory. Its a new trend of meal planning. And I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying consuming "cardboard" paper rice crackers and the white gray rice milk. I'm enjoying my new chocolate, apple butter and can't wait for the white tiliapia that will be the steak at our table tonight. I'm enjoying the benefits of not feeling well by of reaching my pre-Abby and Andrew weight. I'm enjoying pain free sleep.

The last couple of days have been spent exploring baking recipes that are gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, egg free, and nut free. Here's to my new eating trend for the next six weeks: Lemon Poppyseed Muffins.

You Never Marry the Right Person...

2012-01-11T04:37:00.000-08:00

This was a great article that was posted in Relevant Magazine. I love the perspective and completely agree!

You Never Marry the Right Person

Timothy Keller

Thursday, 05 January 2012

How our culture misunderstands compatibility.

In generations past, there was far less talk about “compatibility” and finding the ideal soul-mate. Today we are looking for someone who accepts us as we are and fulfills our desires, and this creates an unrealistic set of expectations that frustrates both the searchers and the searched for.

In John Tierney’s classic humor article “Picky, Picky, Picky” he tries nobly to get us to laugh at the impossible situation our culture has put us in. He recounts many of the reasons his single friends told him they had given up on their recent relationships:

“She mispronounced ‘Goethe.’”
“How could I take him seriously after seeing The Road Less Traveled on his bookshelf?”
“If she would just lose seven pounds.”
“Sure, he’s a partner, but it’s not a big firm. And he wears those short black socks.”
“Well, it started out great ... beautiful face, great body, nice smile. Everything was going fine—until she turned around.” He paused ominously and shook his head. ”... She had dirty elbows.”

In other words, some people in our culture want too much out of a marriage partner. They do not see marriage as two flawed people coming together to create a space of stability, love and consolation, a “haven in a heartless world,” as Christopher Lasch describes it. Rather, they are looking for someone who will accept them as they are, complement their abilities and fulfill their sexual and emotional desires. This will indeed require a woman who is “a novelist/astronaut with a background in fashion modeling,” and the equivalent in a man. A marriage based not on self-denial but on self-fulfillment will require a low- or no-maintenance partner who meets your needs while making almost no claims on you. Simply put—today people are asking far too much in the marriage partner.

You never marry the right person

The Bible explains why the quest for compatibility seems to be so impossible. As a pastor I have spoken to thousands of couples, some working on marriage-seeking, some working on marriage-sustaining and some working on marriage-saving. I’ve heard them say over and over, “Love shouldn’t be this hard, it should come naturally.” In response I always say something like: “Why believe that? Would someone who wants to play professional baseball say, ‘It shouldn’t be so hard to hit a fastball’? Would someone who wants to write the greatest American novel of her generation say, ‘It shouldn’t be hard to create believable characters and compelling narrative’?” The understandable retort is: “But this is not baseball or literature. This is love. Love should just come naturally if two people are compatible, if they are truly soul-mates. “

The Christian answer to this is that no two people are compatible. Duke University Ethics professor Stanley Hauerwas has famously made this point:

Destructive to marriage is the self-fulfillment ethic that assumes marriage and the family are primarily institutions of personal fulfillment, necessary for us to become "whole" and happy. The assumption is that there is someone just right for us to marry and that if we look closely enough we will find the right person. This moral assumption overlooks a crucial aspect to marriage. It fails to appreciate the fact that we always marry the wrong person.

We never know whom we marry; we just think we do. Or even if we first marry the right person, just give it a while and he or she will change. For marriage, being [the enormous thing it is] means we are not the same person after we have entered it. The primary challenge of marriage is learning how to love and care for the stranger to whom you find yourself married.

Hauerwas gives us the first reason that no two people are compatible for marriage, namely, that marriage profoundly changes us. But there is another reason. Any two people who enter into marriage are spiritually broken by sin, which among other things means to be self-centered—living life incurvatus in se. As author Denis de Rougemont said, “Why should neurotic, selfish, immature people suddenly become angels when they fall in love ... ?” That is why a good marriage is more painfully hard to achieve than athletic or artistic prowess. Raw, natural talent does not enable you to play baseball as a pro or write great literature without enduring discipline and enormous work. Why would it be easy to live lovingly and well with another human being in light of what is profoundly wrong within our human nature? Indeed, many people who have mastered athletics and art have failed miserably at marriage. So the biblical doctrine of sin explains why marriage—more than anything else that is good and important in this fallen world—is so painful and hard.

No false choices

The reason that marriage is so painful and yet wonderful is because it is a reflection of the Gospel, which is painful and wonderful at once. The Gospel is—we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared to believe, and at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. This is the only kind of relationship that will really transform us. Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it. God’s saving love in Christ, however, is marked by both radical truthfulness about who we are and yet also radical, unconditional commitment to us. The merciful commitment strengthens us to see the truth about ourselves and repent. The conviction and repentance moves us to cling to and rest in God’s mercy and grace.

The hard times of marriage drive us to experience more of this transforming love of God. But a good marriage will also be a place where we experience more of this kind of transforming love at a human level.

Excerpt from THE MEANING OF MARRIAGE © 2011 by Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller. Published by Dutton, A Member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Excerpted with permission from the publisher. All Rights Reserved.

The Year of 2012, a Year of Still...

2012-01-07T15:09:00.001-08:00

I love this time. A fresh year, stretched out...

I have named the year of 2012 the year of stillness. A year of settling, of resting my soul in the Lord regardless of what comes my way. My verse: "Be still and know that I am God..."Psalm 46:10

I am a go-er, a do-er kind of girl. A Martha. A “get-er-done” kind of girl. Stillness, I don't know much of.

Its a different for me to think about meditating on a single portion of scripture for more than a day, to chew on a passage of scripture for a couple of weeks instead of reading my Bible through in a year, to re-read a book, to purpose to not schedule much on the calendar, to soak my soul, to talk less. I'm thinking about occasionally wearing scotch tape on my lips.

Its new for me to think about stillness in the moments when life is crazy and too much is on the calendar, and I've simply had it with my husband and children.

Stillness in the pressure? Its new to think about developing an inner calm...

This issue of stillness, of waiting on the Lord, began after reading a series of books this summer that were quite simply amazing reads and messed with my head. The reading frenzy started with Crazy Love, and Forgotten God by Francis Chan, Radical, and Radical Together by David Platt and I concluded the summer with Don’t Waste Your Life, by John Piper.

Simply reading the title, "Don't Waste Your Life" motivates me to want to get going.

My practical take away from each of these motivating reads in this season of my life, is to simply be. As I live each day being, that's when I do.

Thrist and Drought...

2012-01-06T04:28:00.000-08:00

Thirst and Drought

Posted: 06 Jan 2012 12:01 AM PST

“There is a thirst for happiness in the soul of man, but there is a drought in all things but in God.”

— Edward Griffin
"Christ, A Refuge From The Tempest"

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year...

2012-01-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

Christmas was full of sweet, sweet blessings, savoring Jesus and His joy, unspeakable joy!...

Cousins...

Abby's dream... to ride a horse.

Godly heritage...

Whose the best shot?

Cousins again...

Making cookies...

My favorite... Christmas morning! Our kiddo's got up at 4:00!!!

The glory of Christ...

2011-12-22T05:06:00.001-08:00

If we regularly beheld the glory of Christ

Posted: 22 Dec 2011 12:01 AM PST

“If we regularly beheld the glory of Christ our Christian walk with God would become more sweet and pleasant, our spiritual light and strength would grow daily stronger and our lives would more gloriously represent the glory of Christ. Death would be most welcome to us.”

— John Owen
The Glory of Christ
(Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 1994), 21