God's Beautiful Promise

:11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all
flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither
shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
:12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make
between me and you and every living creature that is
with you, for perpetual generations:
:13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token
of a covenant between me and the earth.
:14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth,
that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
:15 And I shall remember my covenant, which is between
me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters
shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
:16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it,
that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God
and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

Genesis 9:11-16

The other day we had a very hard storm come through and drench the farm. Daddy, Anika and I happened to all be out there, and had to wait out the storm in the house. We were pretty upset, because there is hay on the ground that needed to be baled the next day, that will probably be ruined now. Hay that gets wet, gets moldy and is then bad for sheep. :(

But then after the 10 minutes of rain was over we went outside and saw a beautiful sight. Just to the east of the farm was a very vivid rainbow. It was not even an eighth of a mile away. We could see the bottoms on both ends.

It was a beautiful reminder that God still cares. That he has remembered his promise that he made with the world so long ago. He will never wipe out the earth with a flood. Though rains come, and the hay is wet, his promise still holds.

I am so glad to have a God who makes and keeps his covenant promises. And remembers them in such a beautiful way.

June

(Boring name, I know) I am the worst blogger on earth. Sorry peoples.

So, if a picture is worth a thousand words, may I give you several?

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The month started with the 3 of us girls driving with a friend to Nebraska for our friend Natalie's graduation. That was a lot of fun!

Katrina apparently thinks I need to get married, so she made a significant other for me to bring home. His name is Sebastian Octavius. His work ethic was rather low, as evidenced by his couch potato belly, so Daddy told him No, and he was deflated.

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My sheep have been lambing this month. So far we have 12 ewes, and 10 rams! Only 3 have died, and 2 ewes are bottle lambs. I praise God for such a healthy lambing season.
One very sad thing though, is that my bottle lamb from February, Naomi died. :( Daddy said she probably over ate on the fresh grass.

On the 20th we went to Kramer's Auction in Sioux Falls and sold a bunch of rabbits, goats and sheep. That was a rather pathetic day. We got not even half of what we were told to expect for the whethers. And the rabbits weren't even the cardboard of the boxes they were in. So we were quite disappointed.

And the last big harrah of the month was Bible Camp!
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Camp is held at the Beautiful Richmond Lake Youth Camp grounds near Aberdeen, SD

All of us kids have gone for many years. This was my second year as a counselor.

Brother Dave Young has been one of the speakers for 3 years now. He's GREAT!

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Every evening there is a funny skit before the service. The first one ended with an emergency room visit. "Leonardo" cut his hand on the door window when he was leaving at the end. That was Not part of the script.
And every afternoon we had sports. Kickball, T Rex Tag, Tube Tug, Spokewheel, Big Ball, etc.
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At Midnight Madness we had pop drinking races, donut eating races, and of course the scary person under the table race. (I was the person under the table this year, and as such got cool whip thrown at me by another counselor, "Jimmy"........)

And Pastor Neil, the Camp Director is so much fun. We all love him.
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After our traditional "Cooks Parade" we had them gather for a picture. They are awesome.

And Anika was one of the Camp Champs this year!
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I love Camp.

~Remember~

And Moses said unto the people,
Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt,
out of the house of bondage;
for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place:
Ex 13:3

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Ex 20:8

But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God:
for [it is] he that giveth thee power to get wealth,
that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto
thy fathers, as [it is] this day.
Duet 8:18

Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations:
ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
Duet 32:7

Remember his marvellous works that he hath done,
his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;
1Chr 16:12

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD:
and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
Ps. 22:27

I will remember the works of the LORD:
surely I will remember thy wonders of old.
Ps. 77:11

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;
Eccl 12:1

Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth,
and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Eze 16:60

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,
and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 8:12

The word "Remember" is used 148 times in the KJV Bible. We are charged to remember the past. Our heritage, our mistakes, our commands, and our protectors. God remembers his people, and is always ready to help them, if they will but remember him. But he also promises to forget our sins when we repent and call to him. We have so much to remember and be thankful for this day, and every day of our lives.

okay, I'm back

Sorry I didn't write for a month. Nothing interesting has happened. Well, actually they did, just not something I'd take time to write. So I'll list them. :)
1. I began working at a daycare in Sioux Falls.
2. Went to an AWESOME Bright Lights Conference.
3. Dear friends are leaving. :(
4. Lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks :) :)
5. Figured out an arrangement of Jesus, I Am Resting.
6. Went to a State 4-H Leaders Meeting with Mommy.
7. Started teaching the second year of 4-H Dog Obedience class in McCook County.
8. Really miss my Melissa who is gone for 2 weeks. :(

And now I am out of time. I have to leave for work, but maybe tonight I can elaborate on my list. :)

Happy Birthday Nathaniel!!!

Hey everybody, can you believe my "little" brother is 15 today!?!?! WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!!

My he has grown up so much in the last year. And I don't just mean in height. He has matured, and become such a wonderful friend. I do admit he has his days, but then so do I.

This young man has so many accomplishments, people should be clamoring for his autograph. He has loaded an entire field of square hay bales onto a rack by himself. (driving, lifting and stacking) He has built some pretty genius make-things-easier-on-people gadgets, and done tons of work on our house. He bakes cookies, with them NEVER getting burnt. He helps his technology illiterate sisters, a lot. He has several younger friends at church who look up to him, and again, I'm not just talking about height. He is wonderful at organizing games to play within a group. He learned to ski this winter, and made it all the way down the big hill. Next year he'll do it without falling to stop. (lol!) And he makes some totally trump all LEGO houses.

Oh, and did I mention that he is strong enough to carry any of his "big" sisters around? Yeah, this guy I'm telling you about is amazing. And he is my brother. I love him. And that's all there is to it.

Waiting for Spring

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I am not a winter person. I would rather have it be scorching hot with lots of humidity than to be cold. Call me weird, but hey, I grew up in Phoenix, AZ and to us cold was 50 degrees. Having been in a warm country for 2 weeks in February, and getting a sunburn was a nice break from the sub zero temps we had lately. But it made me long for spring even more. Everytime people say its supposed to be cold, or snowy I just remind them that April is on its way, and anything we get now will be gone very soon. YAY!!!!! I love spring!

My favorite part of early spring is seeing and hearing black birds in the trees. On the farm all summer long we'd have huge flocks of birds in the trees. They'd sit and sing, and then all at once they would fly to another tree. The rush of their wings is one of my favorite sounds in nature. And to have them come in March and begin their summer long visit brings me hope that it will be warm soon.

The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the singing of birds is come,
and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
Song of Solomon 2:12

And he changeth the times and the seasons:
he removeth kings,
and setteth up kings:
he giveth wisdom unto the wise,
and knowledge to them that know understanding:
Deuteronomy 2:21

Then I will give you rain in due season,
and the land shall yield her increase,
and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
Leviticus 26:4

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How Ye Ought To Answer

Colossians 4:5-6
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without,
redeeming the time.
Let your speech be alway with grace,
seasoned with salt,
that you may know how ye ought to answer every man.

A few weeks ago I heard these verses read, and they really stuck with me. I read them over and over, pondering them each time. And the parts of "redeeming the time" and "that you may know how ye ought to answer every man" really jump out. I have found myself in so many situations where the conversation is about something I feel strongly about, yet it goes beyond my ability to converse intelligently quite soon. Abortion, modesty, creation, God and the Bible in general, for example. All are things I think I know so much about, yet when I'm talking with somebody about it, I realize I know hardly anything. And then here are these verses that tell us to know how to answer people. There is another verse that says something similar.

1 Peter 3:15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts:
and be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh you a reason
of the hope that is in you
with meekness and fear:

"Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh of you" Well, I'm usually not ready, because I don't have an answer. I never thought through WHY I believed what I did.

2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.

We can interpret this verse to mean to study the Word of God, but we also need to study the world around us. So we know the Truth, inside and out, by seeing what is truth (God's Word) and what is false (the world).

Specifically I am challenged to study the issues of my day, that I view from God's stand point. But to give an intelligent argument I need to know the other side, so I can counter it with the Truth. But I also need to speak with grace. Not condemning someone for their belief, but in Christ's Love sharing the truth. In so doing I am redeeming the time for God's Kingdom.