Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you, Lord, for everything,
For coming down to die for me,
For giving me my family and friends,
And for giving me eyes so I can see.

Thank you for the soaring mountains,
And for the rivers and the fountains.
Thank you, thank you, for your love,
That showers me from above!

Thank you for this beautiful home!
For the big buildings with their domes!
Thank you for flowers and pictures!
And for cookies made from strange mixtures!

Thank you for for the shimmering snow!
And for chocolate chip cookie dough!
And for rings and necklaces and even shoes!
And for my siblings, who all those things lose!

And Thank you most of all,
For sending us your son,
So that we might be saved,
And may for eternity run!

Mandy

Conquering Enemies (Sort Of)

"Die, evil enemies!" I say as I attack the clothe once more with the iron. "The thing about enemies is, they always seem to have more hiding someplace," I continued, talking to myself (well, for the first few minutes, then I decided this was a great scene that I should promptly add to one of my books. I mean, who doesn't want to read about a girl who attacks wrinkled and plays their evil enemies? Obviously, you do because here you are, doing so!)

Sadly, as I was saying at the time (and now, too, evidently) enemies always have more hiding someplace. I was too right. More and more and MORE just kept coming! Who knew we had so many curtains?

(Mom is saying as she listens to me write this, "But they look so pretty now that they're ironed!" I'm not so sure.)

Another thing I've noticed about curtains. They fade in rather cool patterns. Like, we have a Geni in a bottle (with smoke coming out the top and everything!) and a mushroom and all kinds of stuff! How did it come about that I noticed these things? When sitting on a coach, ill, one notices things like that.

Well, that's pretty much all for now! Mandy, signing off!

Justice and Mercy

Justice: The maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments.

I was reading a book tonight and the character asked, "How can God have mercy and justice in equal parts?" And as I thought about it, I couldn't put the answer into words. I thought I had to do a bunch of research and find verses and everything but I decided to step back and pray on it.

And I learned something from it. I'd known the answer all along.

I've never thought much on it, I just trusted God. He said He was just and merciful and I believed Him. I didn't need proff. I got it, I understood it...but it didn't connect once I tried to touch it.

And I let myself go too big. I was trying to make it too complicated. And then Mom said something wonderful, "Sometimes the best answer is the simplest one."

It clicked. The simplest, truest answer. God deals justly to those who don't believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. He is merciful to those who believe He lived, died and rose again to save us and have accepted Him. It is that simple.

But sometimes we forget that God isn't trying to confuse us but is always whispering the simple, sweet answers in our ears.

Mercy: Compassionate treatment, especially of those under one’s power.

Will you find justice or mercy? I've found mercy.

Mandy

My Eight Year Old Trip

My Aunt Miriam has always taken the double cousins, me included, on an Eight Year Old Trip. We are paired with the double cousin our age and taken on a several day trip to where ever she feels like! And at eight, this is awesome!

So Andrew and I packed us and all our stuff into the backseat of her car and we were off! Immediately we came up with what to play. Spies! The cars behind us were the enemy giving pursuit! The seat bucks were radios! The windows were high-tech computer screens! The armrests were levers that should never be pulled but under the worst circumstances (which, of course, happened every few minutes!) We had the time of our lives shooting at enemies, pretending to fly, and whatever else we could think of that was loud and awesome!

Sadly, Aunt Miriam got what you called enough. She suggested we listen to a book on tape called Soup. We wilted. Who wanted to listen to Soup instead of using rocket launchers to blow up the enemy? National security was on the line, you know! But we did listen to Soup. It was a good book on tape and we colored in our coloring books.

Eventually, we made it to Denver where we meet our other aunt that always goes with us on Eight Year Old Trips. We were to stay at Aunt Vonda's (which was also totally cool and had all kinds of things for international spies!)

I can't remember everything we did and in what order but I remember a lot. We went to the zoo, a place where we ate with chop sticks, a butterfly garden where we held a tarantula!!! Cool! And we went to a place where we got dressed up in old-fashioned clothes and got our picture taken (after we played we were pioneers while our Aunt's got dressed). We went to Build-A-Bear and got bears (mine was called Princess) and a gift shop type thing.

But I think we had the most fun in the car where we automatically changed into spies with awesome gadgets. Who needed more?

It's one of my fondest memories. I hope you enjoyed it!

Mandy