Ensign: Worth Every Prayer And Praise

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 27 December 2013

I [heart] you so much Dad!

I pray for my Dad David all of the time.

I Love you so much you ar all I need in my Life fore now!!! have a fun birth day in Dec. elventh See you Later Dad

I got this card – and I've kept her spellings intact – from my daughter Sarah when the family and I were at our church's Christmas Eve service this past Tuesday, and I really needed it. I especially need the prayers, for so often I lose sight – this surprises you? – of God and His plan for my life, or at least it feels like I do.

Shy at home, yet not in school –

That's what Sarah thinks she

Used to look forward to, from

Victory bringing in the

Wenceslasian new year

Xither and yon, to those too

Young to remember! Did we

Zone out when we too were six?

Abide not, nightmares. For them

Both out children, wonder waits!

That's a poem I wrote the first day of this year in my journal, titled “A Poem About What's Behind Curtain Number Two”, and looking back on that, I think it fits this year. Well, now our son Jeffrey is six and Sarah our daughter's seven, and as I'm writing this letter to cover what was important to us this year and not sending it by post but through email, I am trying to remember what's important.

“I wrote it down in the diary so I don't have to remember.” Thank you, Dr. Jones; in my case, in the journal that as of this year I've kept half my life (really?) is not always helpful. For to quote Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade yet again, there is more to the diary than just the map. With Martha and I keeping our current jobs as well as my wife adding some shifts at a local McDonald's to her working repertoire, we have also gotten to double-digits on our wedding anniversary. As of July 12 we've been married to each other for ten years!

Martha still sings and bowls, I still teach Sunday school and we both pursue with the help of our friends our own business (I don't want to be accused of advertising here, so for more details please private message me) and certainly we have learned to pay attention to what our kids – Sarah who started second grade and Jeffrey who started first this fall at Longfellow – are saying. They're both four feet nine inches tall as I write this, and it's a fight to not regard them as older than they are.

Just like it's a fight for ME to be an adult sometimes, yet I've been told by some of the older men at church – I turned forty-two this year – that now I am one. Gee, having the kids a few years ago gave me a clue; but seriously, the more your faith (or at least my faith, for although we have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, how we come to them is up to us) is challenged, the more I'm finding it in everything I do and say. Still not perfect, but worth the journey. And worth every prayer and praise I can give, to me and to you.

Love,

David, Martha, Sarah, and Jeffrey

P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address book, and I hope to be an encourager to action too! If you find that I'm not or you want me to get lost, just let me know -- thank you!

Thank You, Lord, that we can come to you in prayer and that You provide for all our needs, even when we don't know what they are. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence there and around the world.

Thank You, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service, both here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You. I pray that we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.