Mercy

This prayer from John Piper's book "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ" hit home today...

O Father, how we need mercy. We sin every day. We fall short of your command to love you with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. We are lukewarm in our affections. All our motives, even at their best, are mixed. We are anxious about tomorrow. We get angry too quickly. We desire what ought not to be desired. We get irritated at the very attitudes of others that we ourselves displayed five minutes before. If you do not show mercy to us, we are undone.
O God, let us see the mercy of Christ and savor it for what it is. Grant us power to comprehend his love. Incline us to read and ponder the stories and mercy of Jesus in the Gospels. Let us so admire what we he did that we imitate him. But let it be much more than external imitation. Let it come from the heart where we have been broken for our sin and where we have come to cherish mercy and live by mercy and hope in mercy and long for mercy. Make the mercy of Jesus the greatest beauty of the Savior in our eyes. Let us behold, and beholding, become like him. And bend this taste for mercy outward so that we show it. Make it so much a part of us that it is who we are. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

the last week- hyphenated

-cleaning office- organizing office- picking berries- loving grandparents- feeling the love of grandparents- good chats with new Chinese roommate- shooting hoops- reading curriculum- sighing at curriculum- reconnecting- feeling nostalgic at Canada Games- answered prayer- Andrew in my ear- chocolate- excited for what is to come- admiring young Canadian tennis players - late nights- reading curriculum- my very own office- my friend that is my mom- missing second base and softball- a new challenge- a sleepover- early birthday ear piercings with Autumn- overwhelmed- Walmart- late night laughs with an old friend- Regina is the best- fat photo developing bills- brainstorming- ahh, sports are fun- oreo cheesecake- birdie smashing- the best Sunday nap ever- actually mostly being smashed by birdies- rediscovering best friends- Andrew in my ear again- hopeful- thankful.

#68 has come and gone

Berry picking. Classic!

Horseshoe champion.

I intended to post these last week...but here are my fabulous grandparents, on the day of their 68th wedding anniversary. Beat that!

Home sweet home!

We made it...finally back in Regina and it feels good! I'm sick of suitcases! Just got home a couple hours ago. I managed to make it to Calgary after a somewhat adventurous trip from YK in a 1970 Royal Monaco which suffered from a severely porous oil pan, thus requiring new litres of oil and sludge every two hours or so. Good times. Sweet wheels for sure- everytime we rolled into a gas station we'd get a compliment: "You've definitely got the longest car in town!" A beautiful boat it was! Anyway, I made it to Calgary safely and thankful for the ride...
On Sunday afternoon I went to a beautiful, unique wedding and saw witness to the beginning of Kori and Lisa Jones' marriage.

I spent some time driving the streets of Calgary with farmer Hub and his wife and my cousin Natasha, who lost their wheels in Medicine Hat- it was fun to spend time with them and their new little baby. We spent Monday with the coolest nieces and nephews in Canada- flew (well, okay, we spent more time untangling- thanks Deista!), played pirates and Princess Rapunzel, and went on a double date to BP's with Karlie and Laurel, and then ran through the sprinkler, read stories, played cars and enjoyed supper with Aiden, Sydney and Steve and Bec. It was a really good day- it was so much fun to see everyone again.







On Tuesday we explored the Canmore area via mountain biking. It was fun, though I'm mostly a pansy- Jeremy could attest to this easily. He approaches things a little differently and figures that there isn't really any enjoyment in doing things if there is no risk of getting hurt. The flip over the handlebars going downhill thing just isn't my style! Sheeeesh, what a guy. I also had to periodically ding the bell on my bike because I was really paranoid after the "Warning: Bear in Area" sign. That had me a little on edge. :) Thanks to my very efficient bell ringing skills, we did not get eaten by any bears in Canmore. Phew. Anyway, that was fun and my butt is feeling the effects of the ride today. After bike riding we went to Lake Louise. What a beautiful spot- we took a solid hike up to a lake and teahouse fairly close to the peak of one of the mountains. It was nice to be a tourist in Canada- I really noticed the differences between how China and Canada operate in terms of tourism and environmental protection...it was refreshing! No massive park fees, nobody dragging me away begging me to buy plastic glaciers, grizzly bears or pretty postcards, no sickly animals confined in cement jails, and thousands less people!
Today we stopped by for lunch with Malcolm, Suzanne and sweet Madalyn, and then headed down the number one highway for home. That's the story for tonight...I just created a monster list of things to do in the next month, yikes! First things first, it's time for sleep.