The Pearl of Great Price

I read a book last week that was apparently a big seller called The Shack. It is considered religious fiction and the premise is one man's experience with God. I would never recommend anyone actually read this book because of all the false doctrine presented in it, but I did glean one gem out of it, so to speak- a pearl.

In the New Testament Jesus tells a parable of the Pearl of Great price. (Matthew 13:45-46)

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly
pearls: Who, When he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all
that he had, and bought it."

I had always thought the pearl was of such great price because of what the merchant was willing to give for it, i.e. he sold all that he had to buy this precious stone. Indicating that we should be able give all that we have in order to have the gospel in our lives. I never considered it before from the perspective of the oyster.




"Pearls, The only precious stone made by pain, suffering, and- finally- death."

Yes, we should be willing to give all that we posses in order to more fully follow Christ, but let us not remember that our sacrifice can never compare to the sacrifice He made to give us that pearl.

Facelift

So I've been feeling ambitious. My mom had a bunch of old (30+ years) Asian looking furniture that she got second hand when we were little. I told Zach that when mom sales the house and we move we are only taking this furniture if we can redo it. "Deal" On to step #2, get it done this summer while Zach is home and I'm not yet large with child.

After knocking off all the Asian wood trim, sanding, priming, spackling, two coats of paint and new holes/hardware later its finally finished. With the help of a self-made home improvement expert (Angie Davis) some wonderful babysitters, and Supportive Sam (Zach) the project is done. Of course instead of the 2 days you think the clothes are going to be all over the floor turned into a week, but hey, whats done is done right? Yeah! I have new furniture.

Just in time too, Zach leaves for Jerusalem tomorrow for 8 days. I have much more sympathy for all those wives who have ever sent their husbands off to war or off on a mission to stay home and hold down the fort. I don't know who had it worse, the husbands or the wives.

Kindness Quilt

So a few weeks ago we checked out a book from the library for Gabe called the Kindness Quilt. Its a sweet story about a class that is assigned to draw pictures of something that they did that was kind or that someone did for them. "Kindness is..." One little girl makes a type of colleague of multiple acts which she calls her kindness quilt. The teacher is inspired to put all the pictures up on to the small bulletin board, then it grows to the big bulletin board then it spills over onto the entire hallway as kindness spreads throughout the school. I don't know if it is the pregnancy hormones or my general sappiness (perhaps a little of both) but stuff like this makes me tear up all the time.

At any rate, this was the kindness quilt our family started for family home evening. Don't worry if you can't really see the pictures, they are pretty bad, but here are the descriptions: Kindness is...

Gabe sharing a toy with his friend Nathan
Grandma teaching someone to play the organ
A friend returning a book for Zach to Chapel Hill so he doesn't have to make the trip
Doing work for the dead at the temple
Visiting great grandma in the nursing home
A friend babysitting the boys
Making a card for Aunt Becky who was in the hospital

Here's our kindness quilt- how would you finish that sentence?