Ron and I completed our first Christian Counseling and Education Foundation Course: The Dynamics of Biblical Change!  This was the foundational, prerequisite course we were required to take in order to pursue a certificate in their counseling program.

We will take the summer off and continue again in the fall.  What a great experience! It was fun to take the class together - it provided rich material for great conversations and reflection - both on a personal and ministry level.

My favorite thing: as we were learning, God brought people into our lives who were facing some of the issues we were covering in the class lectures and extra reading assignments. We were able to turn right around and invest in others what we were gleaning.

Three Days of Wonderful.

Stayed here.

Dined.

Swam.

Gazed.

Biked.

Drove.

Anger

Best article on Anger that I've read:  The Constructive Displeasure of Mercy from the Journal of Biblical Counseling.

The Gift of Remembering.

Another kindness God has provided in this course is a biblical grid or lens to evaluate and analyze our past experiences - especially the last four very difficult and painful years that we experienced with our church and my health-validating the things we knew about God-his sovereignty and his purposes in our trials and suffering. 

We've been able to go back over the past few years, review and recount what was happening and trace God's hand in and on our lives - and see all the ways he was working, training, molding, discipling and changing us. Sometimes, in the middle of a trial, it's so hard to see beyond the pain and difficulty and we can be tempted to lose heart. Sometimes, it takes all your energy to just survive. 

Being able to think deeply and write about our experiences and see God's providential work in our circumstances has really been a gift to us. Ron is also taking the class and it is providing hours of wonderful conversation between us as we remember and rejoice in all that God did and is doing!

While the last four years were excruciatingly difficult - we can say with all honesty- we can count it all joy and are grateful for what God has done- and continues to do- in our hearts through that season. 

New Season

In the second week of January, I began my first course in the CCEF School of Biblical Counseling: Dynamics of Biblical Change.  I've been thinking about what to do with my time, now that most of the kids are gone and we're looking at an "empty nest" in the near future.  I had attended a CCEF conference last fall and started the process of investigating the possibility of enrolling. It's a big undertaking for me - so I've been a little hunkered down lately - immersing myself in studying. While it has been stretching, (I'm taking it for credit - so I'm doing all the reading, homework and writing papers) it also has been so very rewarding!

The unique thing about this program is that it's not just cold academics- the material we are working with is profound, rich and vibrant. We're studying resounding and redeeming truths that cut to the core of who we are and offer real answers to real problems.

The unexpected gift of this course has been the personal benefits of interacting with the topics (suffering, sin, anger, etc) and doing the heart-work ourselves and thereby being trained- "qualified" -to comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

Happy New Year!

Christmas is over. We had an unusual holiday - we packed up and headed over to AZ and had some time with the whole family Christmas Night. We attended a lovely Christmas Eve Service at the Gilbert Church where Zach played piano.  I think it was the first Christmas in 30 years that we weren't in our own home hosting the festivities. Although it was different, it was so good to be able to be together celebrating with our ever expanding family - new husbands (sons-in-laws) and new grand-babies: Parker and Chloe.

After Christmas, we drove to Lakeside, AZ - just outside of ShowLow.  We, and several other families, shared a cabin and guest house prettily situated on a quiet lake.  We had a wonderful time just hanging out, reading, talking, knitting, playing cards, bowling, going out for a movie, being with family and holding Parker.

Our New Year's Gift was a beautiful snowfall- six inches of fluffy white that covered the trees and turned our scenery into Narnia. Magical!  What a beautiful way to start the New Year!

It was so good to have an extended time to just do nothing - relax and get recharged. We drove back through Payson - what a beautiful drive through mountains and snow covered pine trees! We will definitely plan some more family vacations in Payson in the coming years.