**Siesta Celebration is January 20-21, 2012**
Hey, Sweet Things!
Finally, August 1st! I’m always so glad to see it come so that it can GO. But it’s not just the end of a long, hot summer for everybody. It’s also the last couple of weeks of summer vacation. Those of you with school-age children will soon find yourself back in carpool lines and going over spelling words. In just a couple of weeks, Jackson will start kindergarten and will catch our whole family by surprise even though we’ve known it was coming for five and a half years. We just cannot fathom it. We have a picture framed in our bedroom that I see everyday with Keith and I cuddling him between us when he was just a few hours old, and we brand-spanking-new grandparents are kissing over his head. Something was reborn in that couple of 25+ years that day. Our interests have always tended to be different and were getting increasingly so, but, that cold February afternoon in Dallas, Texas, we somersaulted right back into one another and tumbled into a well of love with a seven pound man-child.
Keith and I got to have Jackson and Annabeth Friday night while Curtis and Amanda went to dinner and a movie. They’d been gone for 10 days to Wyoming and, even though we’d seen them at a Mexican food restaurant the day they got home, we’d not had them to ourselves yet. We made a date right away. They delight us to no end and cause us to laugh until our sides split. Don’t get the idea there’s no work involved but investments don’t get better than this one. We have real, live conversation over dinner these days and, when you’re grandparents, not a single word gets wasted on you. All of it’s solid gold. Jackson told us at the dinner table Friday night while stuffing a piece of warm French bread into his mouth that butter is his “temptutation.” And, sure enough, it was dripping off of his chin and looked so good that we all shared that same temptutation and gave right on in to it.
We have an empty room in our house right now because we wanted Melissa and Colin to have her bedroom furniture and it’s turned into the perfect playroom. Nothing like an empty room to fire up the imagination. Jackson and I built an obstacle course Friday night that ended with a dizzying spin in my swiveling desk chair. It was so much fun. Amanda and Curtis walked through the door at 10:15 and we were all four still up in the kitchen, Paw Paw popping popcorn on the stove. It’s so good to have the Jones’s home. Melissa and Colin have been out of town for a week, too, and I can hardly wait to get my hands on them. They’re flying home from California this very moment. Most of the time they were out of cell phone range so we’ll have plenty to catch up on.
On to the business at hand! Our year is flying by! It’s time to check in with our fifteenth verses for our Siesta Scripture Memory Team. For some reason I’ve seen the word “gentleness” turn up a number of times in my Scripture reading lately so I’ve decided to choose a memory verse that makes especially important use of it. Here goes:
Beth, Houston. “Brothers and sisters, if a person is discovered in some sin, you who are spiritual restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness. Pay close attention to yourselves, so that you are not tempted too.” Galatians 6:1 The NET Bible
Restoration is one of the most powerful, intentional works of the Cross of Christ. Let’s never refuse anyone his or her right to be restored. Here’s to a little gentleness in a harsh world. Everyone could use some.
Stay in the Word, Siestas! You are so loved here!
Galatians 6:1 The NET Bible
Brothers and sisters, if a person is discovered in some sin, you who are spiritual restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness. Pay close attention to yourselves, so that you are not tempted too.
Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galations 6:2 NIV
Susan, Tucson. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Galations 6:9
Meg, Columbus, Ohio: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Gal. 6:9 NIV
Allie, Sulphur- Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 NKJV
Juliana, Dahlgren IL But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. Malachi 4:2
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” – Philippians 2:3-4 (NIV)
Kari Schmitt, Camariilo, CA: Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7 NIV
Anne
Squamish BC
She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
Proverbs 31:25-26
Sandi H., Holt, MO: “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.” Psalm 9:10 (NIV)
Barb Lakeland, FL “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22 NIV
Clinton, TN
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
2 Cor 12:9a (NIV)
Marsha, Lees Summit, MO
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of MY hands; your walls are continually before Me. Isaiah 49:16 NKJ
Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2Tim 2:22 NIV)
Angela
Lexington, KY
Heather, Lansing-
But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil; he will erase their memory from the earth.
Psalm 34:15 (NLT)
Pam, Liberty: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7: 14 Amplified Bible.
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 (NAS)
Goiânia, Goiás, Brasil
“Though the LORD is on high, He looks upon the lowly, but the proud He knows from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life; You stretch out Your hand against the anger of my foes, with Your right hand You save me.
The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me; Your love, O LORD, endures forever — do not abandon the works of Your hands.”
~ Psalm 138:6-8 (NIV)
The Lord gives strength to his people
the Lord blesses his people with peace.
Psalms 29:11 niv
Katharine Jonesboro, Arkansas
John 4: 35-36 NIV “Do you not say, ‘4 more months and then harvest?’ I tell you, OPEN YOUR EYES and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper may be glad together.”
Stephanie, Oscar, LA (July 15-31)
“I’ll make the country a place of peace–you’ll be able to go to sleep at night without fear.” Leviticus 26:6 The Message
(Aug 1) “When you go to war against your enemy… do not recoil in fear of them; God, your God, who brought you up out of Egypt is with you.” Deuteronomy 20:1 The Message
Andrea, Houston
Romans 15:5-6 NIV
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Cortni/Coden,AL/Galatians 6:9 “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” KJV
Melanie, Groesbeck, TX
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,” Colossians 3:23 NIV
Is there anything too hard for the Lord? Gen 18:14 NKJV
Heather, Austin, Gal 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery.” NET
Brandy Fox, Siloam Springs, AR
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21 NIV
Bridget in Phoenix Ephesians 4:30-32 (ESV)
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Kelli, Indianapolis:
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
Hebrews 11:8 NIV
Susan, Charleston, SC
“Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of rememberance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.”
Malachi 3:16 (NIV)
I just joined this group and know I can’t join you for the Siesta Scripture Party, but I am excited to be part of this group!
Pamela Sue ~ Palm Bay, Florida 🙂
“I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
Psalm 34:1 NASB
Natalie, Houston
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
(Philippians 1:6 ESV)
Amy 7634, SF Bay Area, CA:
“No weapon forged against you will prevail,
and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.”
Isaiah 54:17a (NIV)
He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,
but with kings on the throne he sets them forever,
and they are exalted. Job 36:7 NIV
Beckie, Washington, DC: “Let all that you do be done with love.” -1 Corinthians 16:14 (NKJV)
Katie, Gig Harbor WA
But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -by grace you have been saved- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:4-7 ESV
Anne Marie, Woburn, MA:
You’re all I want in heaven!
You’re all I want on earth!
When my skin sags and my bones get brittle,
GOD is rock-firm and faithful.
Psalm 73:25-26 (MSG)
Deuteronomy 6:5. Contemporary English Version
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 NLT
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord
and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
and they never stop producing fruit.
Paulette
Elmer, La
Amy from Lakeland, Florida Proverbs 25:28 MSG A person without self-control is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out.
Psalm 119:114 NIV
You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.
Blessings
Kelli in Colorado
Ginny, Georgia
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Colossians 3:15 NKJV
Natalie, Indialantic FL
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Proverbs 31:30 NIV
Shelly, Portland,OR
“In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 2:5 (NCV)
Donna, Norman, OK
2 Corinthians 4:17 NLT
“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long.
Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them
and will last forever!”
Addie, Sulphur- Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 NKJV
Cindy, Summerville, SC
Matthew 5:16 (NIV)
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Sharron Kay, Possum Kingdom Lake, TX
Romans 12:11 “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” NIV
Dayna~Ontario,Calif.
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24,25
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (NIV)