This is the day...

My sweet Elizabeth! Photo by Molly Viglione, 2012

I just want to share some of the verses and thoughts on my heart this morning. E goes in for surgery today!

This passage is most precious to me; it reminds me of what I'm truly here for. And God spoke it to my heart gently last night as I was praying over E - because I think He wants me to remember that this is not so much about E's broken body, but how He is touching other lives through our story and His undeniable faithfulness to our family:

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God! [1 Corinthians 2:1-5]

I also love the Psalms. And this one sums up what is going on in my heart. God, here are my troubles and my wearied mother's heart, but more than my troubles I choose to focus on You and Your unfailing faithfulness & power! 

And I said, “This is my anguish;
but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High!!!”
I will remember the works of the Lord;
surely I will remember Your wonders of old.
I will also meditate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds!!
Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary;
who is so great a God as our God?!
You are the God who does wonders;
You have declared Your strength among the peoples!
You have with Your arm redeemed Your people...!
[Psalm 77:10-15]

And the verses that have been on my lips and mind moment by moment the last couple of days:

You will keep him in perfect peace,

whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You!
Trust in the Lord forever,
for in YAH, the Lord, is everlasting strength!!
[Isaiah 26:3-4]

At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes! Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!! Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls! For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” [Matthew 11:25-30]

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you!! [1 Thessalonians 5:16-18]

O God, may people see less of us and more of You in the coming days. Please, no matter what happens, move in our hearts to point to You and what You've accomplished. Christmas is coming - a time to remember the glory of Your birth - make it so that we might be a testimony to Your purpose for being born: the redemption of a broken and weak humanity, that we might bring You glory and enjoy You forever!!

Overwhelming this morning by the goodness of God,

for His glory!

~Lisha

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A Very Hunter Update

...And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen! [John 21:25]


I feel like this verse is more than adequate to sum up what has been going on in our home and hearts over the past year. If I listed all that Jesus has done, you'd be reading this for a long, long time! And though I want to share all He's done, I know you have other things to do and other blogs to be reading and Facebooks to be checking, and I have a home that needs cleaning and a puzzle that needs putting together - so I'll cover the highlights.


Highlight #1: The Bible House is still open. Oh, friends, that the Bible House has not closed again is purely by the staying hand of the Lord and His blessing!! The inventory is still small, because we find that certain companies and indivduals (like our landlord) would appreciate that we continue to pay them what we owe - thus, no splurging on massive amounts of Bibles, books, music, etc for the store yet. We pray and hope that some day the Lord will provide for those things, but for now about 80-85% of the business we do is still from special orders and church groups, so having a large inventory isn't necessary. I cannot explain to you how thrilling it is to be used of God in this way - to be running a Bible bookstore right smack in the middle of downtown Jaffrey - when really Will and I have no business running a business. We have no business degrees, financial training, or anything that would qualify us to do this, except that God has asked us to do it. It may not be a success the way you define success, but we know that God is being glorified because we are walking in obedience to His calling on our lives!! And that is 'success' enough for us!


Highlight #2: Elizabeth is doing much better. As many of you remember, Elizabeth was hospitalized for about a week up at the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD), because of some lifelong digestive troubles that got grossly out of control. I'll spare you the details if you haven't already heard them, but since we came home we have been so thankful that the Lord has been healing her slowly and surely. We've been taking her to see Dr. Josh at Jaffrey Chiropractic and we have been very pleased with the results that we've seen from good chiropractic care! So good, in fact, that Hannah has also started seeing Dr. Josh - she loves being adjusted, and we've seen major progress in her movement since she started going. This ties into...


Highlight #3: Hannah has the same struggles as Elizabeth did when she was younger. Low, low muscle tone and hyperflexibility mean that Hannah (at 10 months) has not rolled over yet, nor can she bear any weight on her legs. We praise the Lord that we have already walked this road with Elizabeth. The doctors at Dartmouth had prepared us to expect that Elizabeth might never walk or speak - and look at the work the Lord has done in her! So, whatever the outcome with our sweet Hannah - we know that the God who created her did it perfectly [see Psalm 139:13-14] and His purposes will be accomplished through her whether she ever walks or not [see Romans 8:28]. But we are very hopeful that Hannah, like her sister, will be fully mobile and talkative in a relatively short period of time!


Highlight #4: We have been without a van since April. The week before Elizabeth's trip to the ER that ended up in her being transferred to CHaD, our van sputtered out completely after a few months' time of almost-being-dead. And since we didn't have the money to a)have it towed, b)have it fixed, or c)fill the tank with gas anyway, it's been sitting there for the last five months. The Lord has been mighty and gracious to provide transportation to and from the grocery store and to do laundry about once every two weeks. Running errands, play dates, and other side trips have not been able to happen. And, if I may be so bold - spiritually speaking this is one of the best things that has ever happened to me (and consquently, my family). God has taught me how to love being home - really BEING home instead of being a 'stay at home mom' who is outside of her home more often than not. [Read my post Busy, busy, busy to get a glimpse into the work the Lord's been doing in my heart over the past 5 months!] I've gotten used to not having a way to get around whenever I want, and now that I've adapted, the Lord has seen fit to send the money and resources to fix our van. We received an amount of money recently equivalent to the garage's estimate of what it's going to take to fix the van. The garage called tonight, and as long as I can pay to register the van (pray with me! We don't have the money!) soon, the van is done and just waiting for us to pick it up! 


Highlight #5: Elizabeth and Abby start kindergarten very soon! At home! Yay! The theme for this year's curriculum for History/Geography/Reading is Intro to the World: Cultures. Science is an experiment-based introduction to biology, earth science, & physics. Bible stories, Memory Verses and the Firm Foundations weekly study make up the faith curriculum! Sonlight's Language Arts focuses on learning to read, and we use Alpha Omega's LIFEPAC Math program - which you can order through the Bible House!


There are many, many more great things which He has done. Our marriage, which has been rocky over these past many months, is being renewed and restored by a God who is about the business of binding up broken hearts. We are seeing the fruit of His Holy Spirit grow in our sweet children as they come to terms with their own sin and process the message of the gospel. He brings people into our home who need the love and hope of Jesus Christ poured into their hearts - and He has been pleased to let us be the hands, feet, and words of a Savior who rescues to the uttermost they that come to Him in faith!! He has miraculously provided for each of our needs in our most desperate hours (like when we can't afford toilet paper - toilet paper! Have you ever taken that for granted!? - and a friend shows up with a bag full of the stuff on your doorstep when you're down to the last roll!!). God has supplied toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, paper towels, soap, diapers, wipes, and iced coffees [ok. That last one isn't a necessity...] in direct answer to prayer when we lacked the money for them. And although He has not provided all of the money to pay off all of our bills yet, we know it's because He doesn't recognize "cell phones" and "car insurance" as needs. But He has not once left us without food or clothing or shelter. He has not ever failed us. And we are so thankful to be His and to be daily dying to self to see Jesus Christ magnified as the Lord of our hearts and home!


Friend - oh, friend! Trust Him in all things. Following Him to the ruin of life as you know it is exciting and beautiful. And it is of eternal worth. 


All for His glory and honor!
Lisha :)

wonderful weakness

But I will sing of Your power;
Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; 
For You have been my defense 
And refuge in the day of my trouble.
To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises;
For God is my defense, 
My God of mercy.
[Psalm 59:16-17]

I am so weak right now: physically weak because of the blood loss that I experienced and everything associated with that and emotionally weak from a heart that is still broken and trying to process and understand what has happened in the wake of the miscarriage. It has been a wonder to me that my friends have mentioned my strength this week. I need to tell you, friends, that my strength does not come from a strong heart, a strong body, or even a strong faith; my strength comes from God alone.

If I was strong enough to carry myself in any capacity through this trial, why then would I need to cry out to God at all? There is none stronger than God; and for all of the Mr. Universes and Mrs. Strongwoman competitions, there is none who even comes remotely close to Him in strength and power. The Bible makes it clear that He spoke everything you see and feel (and everything you don't see and feel!) into existence. Spoke. As in, He said, "Let there be light!" and light just appeared. "Let there be trees! Mountains! The Marianas Trench! All of dry land! Fish! Duck-billed platypusses! Bacteria! Diplodocuses!" ...and they existed. He has more strength in His voice than you or I could ever hope to have in our bodies. He fashioned man out of some dust and woman out of one of the man's ribs. He is the same God who was strong enough to bear the weight of all of the sin ever on His shoulders and carried it to Calvary and He is the same God who was strong enough to overcome Death. And He is the same God who will rend the clouds and return to destroy Satan.

Why would I want my strength to come from myself, when I could find my strength in Him??? I am not strong in any means of the word. Any faith I have, He has given to me, so it's not my strong faith to begin with. It's His. 

I thank you all for the encouragement. Please, please don't mistake me; I have appreciated and been encouraged in my faith by your comments and I am so blessed to know that you realize that my God is all that I have and everything that I have. But I don't want to take the credit for being strong, when truly my strength comes from God Almighty! And I am so grateful for that. I don't have to be strong; I just need to be willing to rely fully on the strength of the God with whom all things are possible!!