By amy_import on December 7, 2005
This morning I went out to jog at the usual time: 6:00 am. I wear
contacts during the day but this early in the morning I just wear my
glasses. It was raining just a little when I started out, but not
enough to dissuade me. It did however cause me to see something in a
whole different way. When a car came towards me, the headlights were
magnified by all the raindrops on my glasses and nearly blinded me! The
two street lights out here and a few of the house lights were also
distracting and not useful, I was better off running in the dark. The
only time a light was helpful was when a car came up behind me.
This reminded me of the verse in Isaiah: And thine ears shall here a
word behind thee saying, this is the way, walk ye in it. Only in this
case it was a light from behind that showed me where to run. I thought
even further that we don’t run to the light of Jesus, he is right
there, telling us where to go; he is a lamp unto our feet and a light
unto our path. When walking toward the light you can’t see the path, I
could have swerved off of my course and fallen by the wayside or
gotten in the path of the oncoming car!
As I came to the halfway point something else came to mind; it seems
useless to run out to a point and then right back over all the ground
you just traveled, a circle would be so much better, I would feel more
accomplished. Sometimes it seems in our Christian life that we have to
go back over the same stuff we’ve already covered and we feel useless.
But why do I run? It’s for the benefits my body receives, not to
particularly go somewhere. God gives us a journey and cares not so much
where we go, but what work is being done in our life as the result.
Now, I run a long time so my mind has time to come up with lot’s of
stuff, so having started I kept looking for parallels. The rain
was harder by now and my wind pants were sticking to my legs
and the rain was soaking through my sweatshirt. Boy, I couldn’t wait to
get back inside where it was warm and dry – aha! The life journey is
not always enjoyable, but it makes the destination much more
desirable. It also occurred to me that I didn’t run all day, just for a
little while out of each day and then I could rest and recuperate all
day long to be ready to go out again. We don’t always have to be
running and going through a really tough time, God gives us time to
recover and get ready to go again.
Finally, as I near the end of my run, I notice that the sky is getting
lighter. It’s almost as if I start out in total blind faith, hardly
able to see the next step in front of me. But the longer I run, the
more I am able to see because the light of God’s presence is there all
around me revealing more and more. The path doesn’t get easier –
there’s still hills and potholes – but I am more confident because of
what has been revealed to me through the light of His presence.
Posted in testifyhim
By amy_import on December 6, 2005
Dad started a discussion at breakfast yesterday morning about Sunday’s
sermon. Due to the nature and delivery of the message, the discussion
continued between my mom, Stacie, Lori and I long after dad left for
work – a total of four and a half hours! So much for my good intentions
about schoolwork. The topic was again discussed at supper with two
other young men from church. I spent another two hours this morning
perusing Romans 14 and related passages.
Dad is encouraging us to be like the Bereans and search out the truth
in scripture. So far I have formed the opinion that Paul is only
addressing convictions in relation to religious practices or
traditions. Now I’m looking into how and when we should correct an
erring brother, and how to determine when that brother is indeed erring.
Posted in testifyhim
By amy_import on December 1, 2005
God provides in amazing ways. He provides in ways we are not looking
for and at times we don’t expect. In His provision He also takes into
account the things that bring us pleasure.
I have a job. It’s just a little side thing that will earn Christmas
money and pocket cash, but it is so wonderfully orchestrated to my
tastes and abilities it’s makes me want to laugh with joy. I am getting
paid to ride a horse!
I had been home less than 24 hours when this came up. Some friends of
ours had brought their horses to church that Sunday and we went riding
down the road and stopped to talk to a lady who was also riding. As the
conversation progressed she ended up offering me a job to work her
horse and hone it’s training for show.
We had to sell our horses when we left for Verity, but God has given that part of my life back, isn’t He the best!
Posted in testifyhim
By amy_import on November 29, 2005
Well I’m back in the land flowing with milk and honey – which mixed together makes ice cream, right? 
Life has been pretty good and Blue Bell has figured rather prominently,
but I shouldn’t be surprised, it’s a way of life with the Jonesies.
The first night home we were blessed with a large selection of Blue
Bell, including our favorites; Birthday Cake, and Cookies and Cream,
plus two new flavors Cinnamon and Chocolate Decadence – which closely
rivals Birthday Cake in ranking.
Birthday cake however remains the best. (Stacie seems a bit worried about letting me loose with the whole tub of ice cream)
Connor – the nephew – has been properly started out as a true Jones
(tradition starts early around here) He of course is started out with
the real deal, only the best for our favorite kid
Katie (the other Jones sister) has been properly raised and knows the
essence of southern hospitality; Blue Bell even features in a tea party
that she prepared for us. Ah, how good it is to be home.
Now if this is so important to me, think how much more I love the
heavenly Father that gives it all to me. He should be integrated into
our lives as much and even more than Blue Bell ice cream. Do we eagerly
look forward to large doses 🙂 Do we see the wonderful “flavors” of His
character, do we introduce Him to the younger generations at an early
age? Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man that
trusteth in Him!
Posted in testifyhim
By amy_import on November 24, 2005
I have been sending out a mass email of our adventures at Verity to a number of family and friends ever since we first started school there. Well, I did an email survey right before we left Flint asking how many people had prayed specifically for us while we were there at school. My mass email list contains 61 addresses and at this point I have received replies of 38 people that have prayed for us. I want to thank them for taking us before the Lord, and I will gladly give testimony to the power of prayer. Many times things happened, tests were passed, days went well and I knew that it was because of so many others who took the time to be a part of our college endeavor. So thank you for caring and thank you God for hearing and answering, I am so glad that I am your child.
On another note, we celebrate Thanksgiving in a whole different way down here in Texas.
This is yesterday. These are Texas “sandmen” a carry over from my experience in MI.
Katie poses with a more traditional sand castle.
Brian is trying to finish the Ziggurat that some of the others started.
Brian also made this compass/sundial design. So you see, all that snow sculpting was a carry over from practice we have every year at the beach. Snow just works a whole lot different so we had a learning curve when we first got to Flint.
One other neat thing that happened was a large school of fish got trapped between the shore and a sand bar and we splashed around for half an hour trying to catch some. Finally giving up we walked over to a fisherman to inquire as to the species and after informing us that they were white fish (I guess as opposed to red fish) he proceeded to catch and give us five of them. So thank you to this nice Canadian who took it upon himself to please the whim of two girls.
God is so good, praise His name all you people! Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted in testifyhim
