Summer in the Vineyard

Here in the vineyard of my Lord,

I love to live and labor. 

And be obedient to my God 

until my dying hour. 

I love to see the lilies grow,

and view them all a-standing

 in the right in the place while here below,

just as the Lord commanded.

This song sums up the feelings I've had this past summer. It's one of my favorites.

Many of you know this already, but church is a big part of my life.

Our church is simple, we try to follow as closely to the Bible as possible.  The weekly assembly of Christians at that old wooden building just on the edge of Hinton ...the gathering together of people you care for, people who have the same essential beliefs as you, people who look at the world more or less the same way you do.

It means so much to me.

(Free internet pictures are great!)

I love to see lilies grow---all of them, young and old, maybe at different stages in their Christian maturity. But standing in the right place, worshiping God as he designed, never-mind what has been in their past or what is going on in their life.

It's interesting, I've heard jokes about "being the preacher's kid" and all that...but I think it gives me insight that no one else has. Insight into the importance of truth...and I'm so thankful. So extremely grateful that the Lord has seen fit to put me into a place in life that I can learn and grow and see things from this point of view.

Church is one of the few places that I feel completely safe and loved. And not just my local church, Rocky Fork. I have felt many of the same feelings at the churches we have visited over the years---there's a connection, a brotherly love in all those places, even though I don't know half of them. Being with others who share important beliefs and desire to worship the Lord warms my heart.

I mentioned in the last post how my summers have taken on a whole new light; and this is how. Our summers are filled with traveling to church meetings, some only an hour or two away, some nine or ten. Dad's an Elder, and when other sister churches invite him to preach for him, we normally go. We pack up half of our stuff in order to stay at someone's house, worship with them on the weekend, and drive back home in time to meet with our local church. It's amazing. I love it.

We've been to eleven states in all, I think. I have so many friends, old and young, all over the place. My closest friends (besides my siblings) are those in the faith, as well as my mentors, and quite possibly my future husband. :) The only down side to it all is having to say goodbye...

We oft-times meet both night and day,

a faithful band of soldiers.

We read, we sing, we preach and pray,

and find the Lord most precious.

But while we sing this song of love,

our hearts are deeply wounded...

Perhaps we all may meet no more, 

Here as a congregation.

This song is so bitter-sweet, and it practically reads my mind. I love singing it with my church family, both local and abroad.

But if on earth we meet no more,

we hope to meet in heaven.

Where congregations never break up, 

but dwell in sweet communion.

Where all the ransomed church of God 

shall meet no more to sever, 

With not a sorrow, sin, nor tear

But shout His praise forever. 

It is a blessing to know the Lord and his truth, because he first loved us.  We should never forget that.

Thoughtfully,
Lindsey

Looking Back A Little

Okay, you guys, summer is great. I'm sure you already know that. But my summers, in particular, have taken on a whole new light. I'll tell you more about that in the next post, but for now here's some pictures.

Sisters :)

Jonas with walkie-talkie

"Agent 5, this is Agent One-Year-Old. Break left."

(The story behind those last two pictures happened a week or two ago There was an air balloon event not far from here and they were flying right by our house. One guy came really close and shouted down to Dad, asking if he could land in our field. Dad shouted back yes. Very cool! None of us have been so close to one before.)

I've been enjoying life lately. Of course, there's great days and okay days and not-so-good days, but for the most part, I've been very thankful and happy. God is so good.

This year, like every year, has been busy with church meetings, school work, house & outdoor work,  and family fun. 2017 has also featured some life lessons and new experiences and a vision for the future.  It's exciting, yet a little scary, to think about what life could look like in a few years and can be overwhelming to think about the list of things I need to accomplish before then.

(I have like five posts in my head, but, like my stories, can't seem to find the time or the will to actually write them all down.)

See you next post!

~Lindsey

The Fire Within

(Author's note: Here's a post that I worked on a long time ago but never finished. At the moment I am typing up another post about more of my recent thoughts, but in the meantime here's this. Sorry for being absent for so long, but hey, my summer was great!)

Originally written: March 2017

I was thinking some deep thoughts about fire the other day...probably brought on by the campfire we had a few weeks ago. It was a lot of fun, of course, to crowd around it and snack on s'mores, shivering whenever the cold wind blew...but we always had to be careful to not get too close or else we'd be burned.

That thought set me thinking about other kinds of fire. Do you have a passion? A wish for the future? A hobby? A particular book or movie that you really like? I do, and most of the time those are good things have. But at this point I have learned that those kind of things can burn us just as much as a physical, roaring flame.

I spoke about chapters in life a few blog posts ago. I have named some of my chapters, including the one which I am about to relate. It is titled "The Fiction Obsession".

You see, about three or four years ago, I had a serious problem with writing. I've always loved to make up stories, and I still do, but at this particular episode in life, it had consumed me.

The story that I was writing at the time was all I ever thought about. I was always in a different world, always having conversations going on in my head, always rushing through the day so I could write. It messed with my schoolwork, my chores, and my family life. When I wasn't writing, I was reading a fiction book or wishing for a good movie. (Granted, our movie selection is rather small even with filtering.) 

 I'm sorry to say that I wasted a whole summer doing this. While my family spent the evenings outside, watering our gardens or playing ball, I was inside sitting at a computer, my fingers getting sore from typing.

And what do you know? In the end, I grew frustrated with discontentment and restlessness, and blaming it on the story's dullness, I trashed it. Just like the millions of others.

What I wouldn't give to have all that time back. (Not the story back...it was actually awful.) Think of it---a whole summer of learning, of growing, of loving! It was all my fault---all because I let a hobby, an ultimately useless thing, become too important. My parents had warned me of this, but I had completely pushed away their advice. 

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Annnnnd then they put me on a fiction fast. Both reading it and writing it. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy about that at the time. But guess what, it helped! 

Of course, over the years I have had to work on not falling back into it again, and learning what times are the right times to enjoy my hobbies. But for the most part, I've gotten much better at it. 

That's why you've got to involve your parents in your life, I've learned. Even if they do something you don't really like, it can really help you in the long run and give you perspective when you're older.

God wants us to have a plan for the future (Proverbs 28:19), and not waste our time in the present. It's a hard thing to balance sometimes, because we're also not suppose to always be thinking about what happens tomorrow. There's a "happy medium" as my Dad says, and it's our job---each one of us individually---to find it.  And making sure our true fire within is the Lord, guiding us in all we do.   

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