Grace AND Truth AND time

 The ideas for this post come directly from a book I am reading called Changes That Heal:  Four Practical Steps to a Healthier, Happier You by Dr. Henry Cloud.  

The first section of this book explained very clearly that God is grace AND truth, and how desperately we all need both.

Dr. Cloud called truth without grace "judgment".  If we just have truth, we feel like we and everyone else must live the truth perfectly. We find ourselves judging ourselves and others harshly for not being able to do everything we know as truth.

On the other hand, grace without truth is described as "license".  If we have only grace, we can do whatever we want.  This might sound good, but the consequences of this are just as bad as living in judgment.  Living this way, without truth as a guide is like trying to navigate the Amazon Jungle without help, and without knowledge of what is dangerous and what isn't.

To illustrate this principle Dr. Cloud tells the story of the woman taken in adultery and how Christ used both grace and truth.  With grace he loved the woman even as an adulterer.  With truth, he recognized her sin, and lovingly instructed her to sin no more.  

And Time?  This is what God gives us to become more like Him.  We do this when we access His grace and His truth.  But whether time does us any good or not is determined by how willing we are to share our true selves with God and with others.  Bringing our true, real, selves into God's light allows us to feel His grace.  His love for us no matter what happens.  It also allows us to be open to His truth so that we can make progress, and become better.

It is easy to overbalance on the side of truth or grace.  But growth comes from recognizing both.  I need to have grace towards myself when I make mistakes, and continue to reach for truth.  I need to have grace towards others always, because only when given grace will any of us feel the desire or ability to change.

Extreme Creepy Closet Makeover

 

This was after I had cleaned out half of the closet!

This past weekend I had a chance to go on a little trip to help clean out a creepy closet so that it didn't have to be avoided.  This is my kind of project!  Hard to make worse, and no matter how much improvement it seems like a lot!  I had looked inside the closet before, so I had some idea what to expect, but once I emptied it out I did find a couple of surprises.

The first surprise (besides the good surprise that the floor of the closet was in decent shape) was that you could see light coming into the house.

The second surprise was that when I moved the cabinet door that was propped up against the left side of the closet floor, I found this.  Not a great surprise!  When I knelt down I could see all along the foundation of the house and light came in a good way down into that gap too.

So, a trip to the Ace hardware was in order where I got some nifty expanding foam, some paint and a couple of shelves.  The end result certainly isn't perfect, but light no longer comes in from outside, and the spiders and webs have been disposed of.

Not bad considering I had about five hours or so to get the job done.  It's not perfect by any means, but at least there won't be as many worries that creatures will climb in and haunt the closet!

Dancing With Connor

Before Dan turned 14, Connor got married to Amanda!  They got married Friday August 28th at 2:00 p.m.  I haven't posted about it because I took exactly 0 pictures.  The photographer took so many I felt like I could just enjoy all of the moments.  The wedding itself was at the Payson Temple and, thanks to Covid, only 8 people were able to come support the groom with another 8 coming to support the bride.  This meant that Connor's Grandpa Christensen wasn't able to come and that made us sad -- but other than that it was a happy event and lots of pictures were taken with more people afterwards.  Grandpa Christensen was even in some, but not as many as he should have been because I forgot to tell him he was supposed to come!  Double sad!  We haven't gotten pictures back yet, but Kayli took a few pictures towards the end of the reception that was held later that evening.  

The first dance was Connor and me.  I had a good five minute warning, but who needs a warning to dance with their handsome boy while lots of people stare?  I just focused on Connor.  I enjoyed dancing with him.  He chose the song written by Michael Buble' for his son called Forever Now.  I'm glad Connor gave me the opportunity to spend time dancing with him at his reception!

This is a picture of one of the tables.  Amanda danced with her Dad after I danced with Connor -- but I don't have any pictures.

Finally, Amanda and Connor danced.  They cut the cake next and were very civilized and respectful while feeding it to one another.  Then we lit sparklers and they ran to their car while people driving by honked.  It was a beautiful day and we hope it will remembered by Connor and Amanda with happiness forever.

Dan's Happy Birthday

 My "baby" turned 14 on the 29th of August.  It turned out to be a pretty good birthday for him.

Kayli made Dan some ginger cookies and Dan and I made peach sorbet.  He got to blow out some trick candles.

Then he got to blow out his trick candles again and again!

I took this picture of him wearing his new shirt.  His hands are covering some of the letters.  It says ANIMATION.  Dan loves animating things on the computer.

This is a bench for his art desk.  Honestly.  His art desk is mostly used as a catch all for stuff, but I refinished this bench for him and I think it turned out pretty cool!

This is a picture Dan took of most of his other presents.  It was a good present year for Dan.

Dan's favorite gift was probably the gift of an adventure.  He wanted to ride a horse!  Thankfully we know nice people who own horses and who gave Dan the chance to ride one.  This is our friend Dave (also our builder) who is leading Dan.

This is Kayli, Derek and Jake headed to the zip line that they went on even on this windy evening.  We also visited some pigs and horses and cows and saw the chickens.

Dave was trying to teach Dan how to saddle a horse.  Dave rode the dark brown horse and Dan rode the other one and we can't remember their names!  Kayli rode the light colored horse too.  Dave told Dan and Kayli both that "next time"...

Dan wondered if Dave was going to call and have them come again.  I think probably we will call and see if we can go again.

Dan is a smart boy with a good heart.  He loves to tell people about the things he is interested in, which unfortunately, often go right over our heads.  He loves animals and enjoys communicating with cousins and friends when he can.  We love him and hope he has a happy year to go with his happy birthday!