CHRISTEPHI

" The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever " (Isaiah 40:8, NLT). We are assured that the words God has spoken and caused to be bound together in the volume we call the Bible will never cease to exist. That is not true, however, of a single printed volume of Scripture. Paper-and-ink Bibles can undergo some pretty serious abuse in their service to us. In college, I carried my Bible everywhere I went. At first I had the thick teen devotional Bible I had used all through junior high and high school, but I soon set it aside in favor of a much slimmer volume that didn't take up as much space or weigh as much. I hadn't owned it very long when disaster struck. The reusable water bottle I also carried everywhere I went had the lid screwed on crookedly and when I tossed it in my backpack with everything else, it slowly leaked until the entire contents of my bag were soaked through! I was so upset that my nice new Bible was al...

Late last year, just before we got inundated with birthdays and weddings and holidays (and an illegal camera placed on our property by the police, but that's a story for another day!), Miss M decided she needed a new skirt.  Since the madness hadn't started yet, I let her pick out some fabric and sew herself a skirt! She picked a pretty paisley baby wale corduroy my mom gave her and a simple gathered-rectangle type of skirt with an elastic waistband. This was really the first time I let her use my machine on her own.  She was very cautious about the needle...so much so that she sometimes forgot to guide the fabric, so focused was she on keeping her hands out of the way.  But she soon got the hang of it! Her favorite part was using the iron to press the elastic casing and lower hem.  No pictures of that part 'cause my assistance was much needed. She cut, pinned, stitched, and pressed all by herself!  I was there the whole time to ...