"The Watered Lilies"

"The Watered Lilies"

The Master stood in His garden,

Among the lilies fair,

Which His own right hand had planted,

And trained with tenderest care.

He looked at their snowy blossoms,

And marked with observant eye

That the flowers were sadly drooping,

For their leaves were parched and dry.

"My lilies need to be watered ,"

The heavenly Master said;

"Wherein shall I draw it for them,

And raise each drooping head?"

Close to his feet on the pathway, 

Empty, and frail, and small,

An earthen vessel was lying,

Which seemed no use at all;

But when the master saw, and raised it

From the dust in which it lay,

And smiled, as He gently whispered,

"This shall do My work today:

"It is but an earthen vessel,

But it lay so close to Me;

It is small, but it is empty-

That is all it needs to be."

So to the fountain He took it,

And filled it full to the brim;

How glad was the earthen vessel

To be of some use to Him!

He poured forth the living water

Over His lilies fair,

Until the vessel was empty,

And again He filled it there.

He watered the drooping lilies 

Until they revived again;

And the Master saw with pleasure

That His labor had not been in vain.

His own hand had drawn the water

Which refreshed the thirsty flowers;

But he used the earthen vessel

To convey the living showers.

And to itself it whispered,

As He laid it aside once more,

"Still will I lie in His pathway,

Just where I did before.

"Close would I keep to the Master,

Empty would I remain,

And perhaps some day He may use me

To water His flowers again."

-Unknown

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!

What do you think when you think of valentine's day? 

Red hearts? chocolate? the candy on sale the day after? Love? 

The word love is used so much now a'days, that we've almost forgotten what it really means. A man might tell his wife that he loves her, and a few minutes later tell his friend that he loves his new motorcycle. Or that he loves donuts. So, I was reading some of the 'love' verses in the bible, and decided to post them, because I think it's good for us to read these every so often. And the songs at the end always convict me to have a more loving attitude towards the people God brings into my life.

I hope you enjoy this, and hope you had a blessed day!!!!! 

Because of Christ,

EstherGrace

♥ ♥ ♥

 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.

 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

 We love him, because he first loved us.

 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

1 John 4:4-21

He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. -1 John 4:8

 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
   Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
   For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
   Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

-Romans 8:35-39,13:8, 10

 And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

 Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

-Exodus 21:5-6

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

- 1 John 2:15, 3:1

  Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.

  Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

-Leviticus 19:17-18

Let brotherly love continue.

-Hebrews 13:1

  For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:

 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

-Deuteronomy 7:6-8

     And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

    That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

    For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

    For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

-John 3: 14-17

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

-Galatians 2:20

 I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

-Psalms 116:1-2

The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:

-Psalms 146:8

For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

-Proverbs 3:12

He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

-Proverbs 17:9,17

  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

   Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

   That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

-Galatians 5:22-23, 25-26

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

-Revelation 1:5, 12:11

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

~1 Corinthians 13

Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. 

    -Jude 1:2

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

-John 15:12

"Biblical Love is:  An act of the will, accompanied my emotion, that leads to action on behalf of it's object." -Voddie Baucham

    For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

    How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

   And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

-Romans 10:13-15

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My Captain

Out of the light that dazzles me,

Bright as the sun from pole to pole,

I thank the God I know to be

For Christ the conqueror of my soul.

Since His the sway of circumstance,

I would not wince or cry aloud.

Under that rule which men call chance

My head with joy is humbly bowed.

Beyond this place of sin and tears

That life with Him! And His the aid,

Despite the menace of the years,

Keeps, and shall keep me, unafraid.

I have no fear, though strait the gate,

He cleared from punishment the scroll.

Christ is the Master of my fate,

Christ is the Captain of my soul.

                      - Dorothea Day

Outwitted

He drew a circle that shut me out-

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But Love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle that took him in!

-Edwin Markham

The Stewart Cemetery Association Yearly Meeting

This post is definitely a "Welcome to Life at the Hales" sort of post.... :)

One of our little 'quirks' is that Daddy is the President of the Stewart Cemetery Association, which is a little graveyard about two miles up the road from us. We meet once a year and have a business meeting on the grounds with a potluck lunch afterwards!

It sounds boring, but it's actually really neat!

The older folks tell stories from years gone by....who married who, and what good food their mothers cooked! :)

Daddy opening the meeting

Mr. Wayne Stewart giving the devotional. It was one of his great-great-grandfathers that originally dedicated the land for the cemetery...the oldest known grave in Hunt County!!!

Mr. Truman Beesinger telling his family history in this area...he thinks he had the most relatives/ancestors burried here!

Mr. Mike Massey giving the Secretary/Treasurer's report

Still miss him!!!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

And Uncle Roma and Aunt Reba!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Took this picture with Deb and Jon S. in mind....there are several graves of Confederate Veterans!!! :)

Every year I walk around and look at the graves and ponder what these peoples lives might have been like, doing the math to see how old they lived to be, were they Christians, I wonder?

The oldest grave in the whole cemetery is actually unmarked, but it belongs to young child, that died not long after they settled this area...the poor Mother...what was she like? was she my age? they married young, back then......?

I have heard that 'Mother' is one of the sweeetest names on earth.....

This isn't the Mother of the oldest grave, but this gravestone has always intrigued me. She only lived 25 years, yet she was a Mother to someone........... ♥

And so, I shall close with a poem that is simply titled:

Motherhood

Mary, the Christ long slain, passed silently,

Following the children joyously astir

Under the cedrus and the olive tre,

Pausing to let their laughter float to her-

Each voice an echo of a voice more dear,

She saw a little Christ in every face.

Then came another woman gliding near

To watch the tender life which filled the place.

And Mary sought the woman's hand and spoke:

"I know thee not, yet know thy memory tossed

With all a thousand dreams their eyes evoke

Who bring to thee a child beloved and lost.

"I, too, have rocked my little One.

And He was fair!

Oh, fairer than the fairest sun,

And, like its rays through amber spun,

His sun-bright hair.

Still I can see it shine and shine."

"Even so," the woman said, "was mine."

"His ways were ever darling ways"-

And Mary smiled-

"So soft, so clinging! Glad relays

Of love were all His precious days.

My little Child!

My vanished star! My music fled!"

"Even so was mine," the woman said.

And Mary whispered: "Tell me, thou,

Of thine." And she:

"Oh, mine was rosy as a bough

Blooming with roses, sent, somehow,

To bloom for me!

His balmy fingers left a thrill

Deep in my breast that warms me still."

Then she gazed down some wilder, darker hour,

And said, when Mary questioned, knowing not:

"Who art thou, mother of so sweet a flower?" -

"I'm the mother of Iscariot."

♥ ♥ ♥

Love......

"I had a tiny box, a precious box

Of human love--my spikenard of great price;

I kept it close within my heart of hearts,

And scarce would lift the lid lest it should waste

Its perfume on the air. One day a strange
Deep sorrow came with crushing weight, and fell
Upon my costly treasure, sweet and rare,
And broke the box to atoms. All my heart
Rose in dismay and sorrow at this waste,

But as I mourned, behold a miracle
Of grace Divine. My human love was changed
To Heaven's own, and poured in healing streams
On other broken hearts, while soft and clear

A voice above me whispered, "Child of Mine,
With comfort wherewith thou art comforted,
From this time forth, go comfort others,
And thou shalt know blest fellowship with Me,
Whose broken heart of love hath healed the world."

"Unknown"