The Davidson Den: Counting On... (195-218)

#195 A Gift Bent

Busy with the business of learning.

#196 A Gift Broken

Because of brokenness, walls are now protected from bangs and bumps.

#197 A Gift Beautiful

Enough said.

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Three Gifts in the Kitchen:

#198 Carmelized onions.

#199 Little helping hands.

#200 Fatty, nourishing foods.

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Three Gifts Loud:

#201 Boys celebrating birthdays.

#202 Boys experiencing speed.

#203 A boy and his guitar.

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Three Gifts Carved:

#204 Gifted silver finding its way out of its box.

#205 Names left behind.

#206 A symbol handed down, signifying so much more.

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Three Gifts in Christ:

#207 Grace that is greater than all my sins.

#208 New mercies.

#209 My righteousness.

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Three Gifts Read:

#210 "Hush, Jane! you think too much of the love of human beings; you are too impulsive, too vehement; the sovereign hand that created your frame, and put life into it, has provided you with other resources than your feeble self, or than creatures feeble as you. Besides this earth, and besides the race of men, there is an invisible world and a kingdom of spirits: that world is round us, for it is everywhere; and those spirits watch us, for they are commissioned to guard us; and if we were dying in pain and shame, if scorn smote us on all sides, and hatred crushed us, angels see our tortures, recognize our innocence (if innocent we be...), and God waits only the separation of spirit from flesh to crown us with a full reward. Why, then, should we ever sink overwhelmed with distress, when life is so soon over, and death is so certain an entrance to happiness--to glory?"

--Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

#211 "It took me seventeen years to realize I couldn't parent on my own. It was not a great spiritual insight, just a realistic observation. If I didn't pray deliberately and reflectively for members of my family by name every morning, they'd kill one another. I was incapable of getting inside their hearts. I was desperate. But even more, I couldn't change my self-confident heart. My prayer journal reflects both my inability to change my kids and my inability to change my self-confidence. That's why I need grace even to pray. (...) It didn't take me long to realize I did my best parenting by prayer. I began to speak less to the kids and more to God. It was actually quite relaxing."

--A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, Paul Miller

#212 "For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" --Esther 4:14

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#213 A Gift in Wind