Regret Nothing

"But this I know: you will regret nothing when you look back, except lack of faith or fortitude or love.

You will never regret having thrown all to the winds in order to follow your Master and Lord.

Nothing will seem too much to have done or suffered, when, in the end, we see Him and the marks of His wounds;

nothing will ever seem enough.

Even the weariness of deferred hope will be forgotten, in the joy that is not of earth. . .

I shall not fear difficulties for you, for I know "it is the very work of grace to transform difficulties into opportunities."
But I shall ask that the greater the difficulty, the more abundant the supply of love may be."

--Amy Carmichael

Amen, Amen, again I say Amen!

I read this passage about a month ago and it dug straight into my heart, causing my soul to scream in inaudible, gut-wrenching words, "Hallelujah, yes, yes yes!"

"nothing will ever be enough."

I may suffer.
Things may not go as I think is best.
I may sacrifice, again, and again, and again.
My good, God-given desires may not come to fruition.
I may lose the people that I love more than anything in the world, by death. By distance. By sin.
I may suffer great physical pain.
I may live in complete discomfort.
I may live fearing for my physical life, daily.
I may feel as though I have a deep, dark hole in my soul and live in emotional pain.

And none of it will ever, ever be enough.
None of it will compare with what He has done for me.

When I read that passage, I just imagined myself kneeling before God himself, Christ himself, in all his glory and splendor and majesty.
Kneeling because my knees have given out.
Kneeling in awe.
And not glory, splendor, and majesty in a far off Queen-of-England-sort-of-way but the glory, splendor, and majesty that my soul will be encapsulated by simply by being in His presence.

The splendor that comes from feeling completely known and at home.
At home.
Having the hole inside me that has cried, since I was a little girl, "to go home," quenched.
Completely loved and adored.
Basking in splendor and majesty.

And then I imagine thinking to myself. . .laughing to myself, actually. . . ."Ha! That was nothing! That life I lived--nothing! I want to give more and more and more!"

So I will keep striving
for more.

JuJu is going crAAzy!!

It's official--I've reached a new stage of life.

The stage where you start to go crazy about kitchen utensils, appliances, and gadgets.

The stage where you can't leave the kitchen area of Bed, Bath, and Beyond, even when the kids are complaining.

The stage where it is literally like Christmas day when you bring home your salad spinner and test it out.

The stage where Aiden cries out several times, during this Christmas-day-experience, "Juju is going crazy!!"

Because it is true--Juju IS going crazy. About a salad spinner with a built in grater and mandolin chopper. And an olive oil mister to top it off.

If you know me, you know how many salads I eat.
And not just any salad, but huge, colorful, time-consuming-to-make salads.
So this was a big day.

AND, the plans are to be getting fresh lettuce right off the farm most of the time now, so this salad spinner is NEEDED without a doubt.
So this was a big day.

When the kids started to say, while at Bed Bath and Beyond, "Ahh Juju is looking at EVERYthing. When are we going to leave???"
I had flashbacks to my childhood with my mother.

What has happened?


The fun gadgets. =)
In process.
The finished work of art.
oh and this is the other stuff Juju was going crazy about!
We made home made cleaners, shampoo, conditioner, face wash!
Next is home made stock, yoghurt, whey, soaking nuts!
Its just beginning!

8 year old Innoncence

We were driving to dance the other day and, out of no where, Aiden decided to break the silence with:

"Why didn't Bush just ask were the weapons were?"


10 second pause.

for Juju to figure out what the heck he's talking about.

Ah yes, the Iraq war that I had just tried to teach the kids about earlier in the day.
The war that I really do not know many details about.
The war that I am not a very big supporter of and never have been.
Off-the-cuff lessons by Juju for 8 year olds are always the best. =)

Once I figured out that Aiden was thinking about the conversation we had had 4 hours earlier and was so innocently and rationally wondering, "If Bush wanted to get rid of the weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein had, why didn't he just ask where they were?". . . .once I realized this, I said naturally answered, "They did ask, Aiden, but Hussein kept saying he didn't have any. . . .but Bush was convinced that he did have them, but he was hiding them. . . so we had to go look for them."

"Oh ok."

Done.

For now.

Then, the best part was a few minutes later. . .

We passed an apartment complex that is one of those new, rich-college student apartments. Its the one that has that big pool right off of 2818. . . Well there were tons of college kids out there in their bathing suits, standing around the pool. And there was a big tent.

Obviously some pool party that a radio station was putting on or something for a bunch of college kids to stand around and mingle in their bathing suits.

I commented out loud, "Wow, look at all those people! They must be having a party."

Aiden: "Yeah maybe, but no body is in the pool. They are all standing around it. . . maybe they are doing a baptism. "

Of course. Yes. Maybe that's exactly what they were doing, Young Innocent Little Child Whom I Love So Dearly!

I love that when he sees a bunch of people standing around a pool, his mind automatically goes to a baptism.

I love that when he thinks about countries fighting one another, he thinks such simple, rational thoughts.