Our Country's Birthday and some Scripture from my Reading Last Week

My parents cut the many yummy desserts that we had at our party.
We made a bunch of pies and others also brought some super yummy desserts.

I had meant to post on Sunday, then Monday and so on... here I'm finally getting this written on Friday. Oh well - such is life!

I want to share with you some of the verses that I appreciated in my reading last week and then also a bunch of pictures from our Independence day party.

 A scripture that caused me to worship God more was: "As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever." 1 Chronicles 28:9 The realization that God truly cares about what is on our heart and He knows everything and every motive behind what we do is something that should make us pause and think and also worship. He wants us to know Him.

 This verse also ties in with my reflection on our country. We have a country that was founded on Godly principles. Men and Women sought to know God's will and to follow His leading as the Constitution was written and our country was formed. Certainly the weren't perfect people but study on many of them will show that they generally respected and honored God. We have a country now though that has for the most part forsaken God. As a whole our country allows and promotes the killing of babies. Our country encourages the Homosexual lifestyle that God very clearly says is wrong. The leadership in our country has ceased to believe in absolute truth. Our public schools teach a doctrine that is apposed to God and the Bible. I am so thankful for those who still stand strong for the truth and for our Constitution and other founding documents that honor our Creator but I do realize that over all our country has forsaken God. 

The table was rather over flowing with food.
You can see our party schedule and our guestbook at the table on the right.

  Independence day is a holiday that I have loved but does now leave me feeling somewhat torn. I continue to celebrate our roots and the freedoms that we do still have and I pray with sorrow but in hope and faith for our country and the direction it is headed.

  We did invite quite a few friends over to celebrate our country's birthday with us. We are so blessed to have wonderful friends and family.

Thinking of our blessings reminds me of a verse that touched me this past week in my reading: "But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You." 1 Chronicles 29:14

We have so very much. Why are we so blessed? Everything has come from God and to Him I give thanks!

Supper was a pretty easy thing to pull off as Ken grilled Hamburgers, Brats and Hotdogs. I had made potato salad, baked beans and pies ahead of time and our guests also brought a side dish (chips, salads, desserts, fruit, etc) to share. We had far more than enough! We also made Mint Iced Tea and Lemonade.

Before supper my Dad prayed for our meal and also took time to pray for our country. Our country needs a lot of prayer right now. Are you praying? That reminds me of another verse that was in my reading last week: "If my people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 That was true for the Isrealites. I believe it will also hold true for us. If we want healing then we need to turn to God. This is a call to action: Pray for our Country and her people. Let's go beyond that and pray that people everywhere will humble themselves and pray and seek God's forgiveness!

Some of the excitement of the evening came from rescuing a baby bunny from Kitchi (our dog). Kitchi has been good at finding rabbits nests this Spring. He had this one in his mouth but hadn't really harmed it. The kids got it away from him and Megan and her cousin Jaten gave him a good scolding.

My sister-in-law Holly is great at any animal rescues that are needed (Baby goats that need extra attention, baby pigs, turtles, chicks, you name it) and so she volunteered to care for this baby too. They went to work at feeding it right away. I believe it is named either Romeo or Juliet.

Megan and Ephraim (my nephew) were happy party attendees. You might notice that Megan's face looks a little different. She was dealing with allergies for a couple of days and her face got rather swollen. Poor girl!

   Our party schedule included Supper, Float decorating (getting people that came to decorate our canoes and a Johnboat), A Parade, a Canoe Race and Music with a little bit of visiting and horseshoes thrown in.

Here are some of the floats in the process of getting decorated.

Some riders for the floats getting ready.

Molly Bea, Katy and crew (Katy's little girl) had a float decorated with pinwheels and balloons.

Aaron and Kitchi had a boat with sparklers, flags and a couple of balloons. Unfortunately the sparklers wouldn't stay lit.

 A passing boat really enjoyed our little (disorganized) parade.

Unfortunately these two pictures are rather blurry but they show some of the shape and detail put into some of the floats.

Mara dressed up in a gown and they had flower wreaths for their hair and Keren paddled while Mara played her Ocarina. Megan and Jaten waved at the audience.

Truett and I had a float decorated with balloons. It could have been much fancier but the balloons kept popping on me and I ran out of time. We had made balloon hats too (after much popping) but mine ended up to small and blew away mid parade.

We had judges for our parade. A couple of our neighbors (who came to the party too) Dennis and Merle were in charge of judging. We had some truffles for the winning float which was done by the Kliensasser family.

After the parade we had a canoe race.

Here they were getting lined up. Mara's canoe with herself and Megan in it were the only females that participated.

Here come JJ and Jonathan in for the win!

The fastest canoe is my blue canoe - the Bonnie Mae. Because it is the fastest we decided it needed a handicap. After going canoeing one evening last week with Ken and Kitchi in that canoe I decided that Kitchi would make a perfect handicap. That canoe is already tippy and with Kitchi in it it becomes even more so. He loves to go from side to side and doesn't like to sit down. In the middle of the race he decided to more from his position in the middle to a better vantage point in the front so he had to climb over Aaron to do so. Aaron and Peter took that canoe figuring that Kitchi would be no big deal but they found out differently. Even with Kitchi they did come in second.

We had requested that people bring along musical instruments if they had them. We played and sang some patriotic songs and a few hymns. It was fun.

I am so thankful for music!

My love of music made me find 2 Chronicles 5:12 -14 pretty interesting in my reading. It says: "And all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and Kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres, standing east of the alter, and twenty priests blowing trumpets in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the Lord saying, He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting, then the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God."

May our music always glorify God as well!

We completed our day by going into town and sitting on the edge of the lake and watching the fireworks display. It was a fun day.

Did you have a fun 4th of July? What did you do?