Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Memorial Day Pics

Here are some pics of the kids from Memorial Day...






Every Memorial Day I take the kids to the local cemetery in Harrisburg to honor those veterans that have passed. I buy several items from the dollar store (usually american flags, but this year it was patriotic crosses) that each of the kids use to honor a veteran that they choose and they say "Thank you for serving our country". You may see on the headstones that not all the veterans we honored were ones that were lost while serving our country, as Memorial Day is supposed to be. It's a little difficult conveying that to the kids at this point, so we honor all veterans and I clarify. Next year I'm going to find a cemetery dedicated to those lost while serving and make sure that the kids understand all the more what Memorial Day is for. See below for a reminder...


May we never have to know the pain of truly loosing a loved one like this. May we always be grateful for those that are willing to serve at all cost and their families that are praying for them to return home safely.


God Bless America! Thank God for the United States Soldier!

Love, The Weems Gang

Monday, May 26, 2008

Memorial Day

Please take time today to honor a fallen hero!

Here's a little excerpt from wikipedia about what MEMORIAL DAY is for:

Memorial Day is a United States Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (in 2008 on May 26). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who perished while in military service to their country. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War, it was expanded after World War I to include casualties of any war or military action.

Please don't let today pass without setting aside time for a veteran that has passed while serving our country. There's is a sacrifice that I cannot fathom and am truly humbled by.

God Bless the USA!

I'll post pictures of the kids from today later....

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Drifting away again...

No, not in Margaritaville... From God.

Drifting away again from God.

When in the world will I learn? Live and dwell in Him.

It's simple. Truly, simple.

Seek and you will find. I'm not sure where that is in the bible, but EVERYONE says it. Trouble is, we repeat a lot of things that are derived from the bible, but we have no idea the context under which it was said or the level with which God has intended us to apply it to our lives.

When I'm zeroed in on God's word, life is gravy. It makes sense. It's much simpler and clearer. My decisions seem to be few, my path smooth, and the fruits of my labor seem to be more abundant than the effort I exerted.

Why? It's elementary. It's like color-by-numbers, but on a spiritual level. Nobody questions why their color-by-numbers picture turned out well. They were given specific and direct instruction on how and what to color the individual pieces of the picture... of course it should turn out well, right? Sure. So, why is it that we are given color-by-numbers instructions for how to live our lives and we insist on trying to be some sort of renegade colorer? Then we have the audacity to be dissatisfied and bewildered when the end result of our defiant coloring ends up looking like a piece of artwork in which Salvidor Dali crashed into Van Gogh in a dark alley with neons and human waste. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's ugly and it certainly is not 'art'.

I started this by saying that I'm drifting away from God, AGAIN. I'm not angry with Him, not dissatisfied (other than with myself), not feeling abandoned by Him or any other level of contempt. Quite the contrary. Life was going great, it was WONDERFUL! To God be the glory! I was reading a daily email bible study, and had actually added another one and was up to two. I was reading in my bible. I was listening to thought provoking and uplifting podcasts that were speaking volumes to me. I was SEEKING God and He was ALL OVER THE PLACE! I couldn't do a THING without hearing Him, seeing Him, feeling Him. It was amazing.

Well, what happened?

Me. Yep, Me. In my 'I can take care of this' way, I started focusing more on my 'To Do' list and my schedules and didn't make Him the priority that I was making Him. Life got busy and I stopped taking the time to pay attention to Him. I stopped making Him the priority that He should be. See, that's the cool thing that I think often gets overlooked about our relationship with God... We say it SHOULD be this and it SHOULD be that. To say 'should' implies that we have an option for doing otherwise. We have a choice. It's up to us. Our relationship with God is up to us. That choice just so happens to be an unfortuante aspect of it as well, because more consuming of a reality than most, our relationship with God isn't what it SHOULD be. Translate that as we don't consistently and intentionally choose Him in our lives.

Why should He get my first thought of the day, why should He be my top priority above all else, why, why, why? What I've seen in my life is that God wants to bless us and bless our efforts. But, He can't bless what we don't do or even attempt. Bottom line is that if I want to enjoy the peace He gives, I must seek Him in my life through His words and instructions. He doesn't give me complicated instructions like E=mc 2 (that's squared). His instructions are simple and straight forward... just like color all #2's royal blue and all #3's candy apple red. He takes all the guess work out and what I'm left with is an identifiable piece of art that I can sit back and enjoy. That piece of art is called 'my life in Him'.

I type all of this to myself with the hoovering question, "Jenny, Will you choose Him tomorrow?" Only God knows. I pray that I do... I miss His familiar and safe scent in my life.

All my love to you and yours...