The Days of Your Youth...

Scott and Joshua had a wonderful time at the All the King's Men retreat. Joshua made a new friend while there. There was another boy that was eight years old and he and Joshua hit it off well. Joshua even taught him how to play chess.

The rest of the children and I had a good time at our Keepers' meeting. There were fun games for the kids. One of the games that the girls played with the other children were musical chairs with a twist. The difference was that one of the chairs was a bucket of ice. Just like with a normal game of musical chairs one chair would be taken out each time. The only difference was the bucket of ice remained. Ruth chose to be out rather than to sit in a bucket of ice, which was the only chair available. Hannah however had the funniest grin on her face when she sat in the bucket of ice. Thankfully she didn't get too wet and she dried quickly. My camera ran out of batteries though, or I would have gotten a picture of it. I had tons of old batteries in my camera case but none of them had enough battery to even turn the camera on. So I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of the kids at the meeting.

I did take this picture today though. One of the things we did this past Friday was to borrow my Dad's truck and trailer. We have some wood that we are planning to load up and haul it off back to Henderson. We are planning to possibly build a storage shed on my Dad's property with it.

We've been doing a little spring cleaning. I realize that it is just about Summer but I guess I procrastinated a little bit. We have too much stuff or at least not enough space. Both can go hand in hand. So we have been trying to go through some of our things and figure out what we don't need, what we need to store, and what would be good to keep. I have already made one list of things to pick back up that we have already put into storage. It's funny what you miss, when you realize it's not around.

Today, I have a soar throat. I think I've been a little behind on my sleep. Scott complained of his throat feeling poorly on Sunday and Monday. But today his throat seems to be doing better. So I'm hoping that mine will feel better after a couple of days as well. I'm going to try to get to bed at a good time tonight. I say this and it is already 11 p.m. :)

I think I will end this blog with a devotional I gave to my family the other night. We each take turns giving devotionals. It was taken from Ecclesiastes 11:9 - 12:1. Sometimes a chapter breaks in the middle of a thought. Here is the passage:

Ecc 11:9-10
(9) Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these [things] God will bring thee into judgment.
(10) Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth [are] vanity.
Ecc 12:1
(1) Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

You see the preacher of Ecclesiastes telling young people what most of them want to hear, follow your heart, do what feels right, what looks right to you. What kind of a preacher is this? But then he hits them with "But know thou that for all these things God will bring you into judgment." So have fun but remember that judgment is coming. Then he tells them what they should do "remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity." Then he tells them "remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them." When you look back on your life will you see your life filled with doing God's will, or will you regret your past and wish you had done more while you were young? It's not to late to change. No matter your past you can start making a difference right now... the younger the better.