A Letter to My Readers

Psalms 103:13-17  Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.  But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him...

Dear readers,

First of all, let me say that I really appreciate all of you who regularly, or semi-regularly, come to read this blog.  I appreciate those who just drop in at random and don't come back, but it's the return readers that keep this blog going and remind me that I need to keep striving to produce useful content.

The Lord has seen fit to allow us to go through some trials this year that are making a fair amount of stress.

- My husband's family is facing an impending death after having lost a family member last year unexpectedly.  Thankfully, the dear one who is standing with her feet on the edge of eternity is born again, but it is still sad to watch the process of death and the grief of the family.

- I'm having a health-related issue that may or may not have a serious cause, but various tests will more than likely be involved.  Also some of my "usual" health issues have been flaring up of late, including the SAD, and my husband has had some struggles as well.

- Our winter has been abnormally warm and dry - this may not be a serious problem, but some of us have really missed the break from the warm weather that we usually get, and lack of rain is always bothersome here.  (We actually had a "red flag" warning one day this month - that means high fire danger, for those who don't know.)

- Then too, some of my family who have been living here for a couple years are moving back "from whence they came."  (This is not my parents or my brother and sister-in-law whom I mention from time to time.  Thankfully, they are all staying here.)

- There are also two other big changes going on - one will affect our neighborhood, and one will affect our church.

There are also some extra projects as well as the usual ones and, of course, some things that I am not free to mention here as well.

Obviously, we'd appreciate prayer if you feel so led.

All this to say, I am trying to schedule some blog posts ahead so that I can take a break from blogging for awhile.  I don't know what all will be happening in the next weeks or months, but I think it would be a good idea to pare down the extras for awhile and focus on the things that are immediately important in my little world.  I hope you will understand if you make a comment and it isn't answered right away, or if you find the blog posts are not as frequent, or if you miss me from the link-up parties (which I may or may not do).  You will also more than likely be seeing more "re-runs" from the early days of the blog.

Besides taking a break from blogging, I am hoping to reevaluate some things and hopefully determine what are the most important aspects of this blog and The Home Maker's Corner. Sometimes it is hard to determine which are the important things that the Lord wants me to be addressing and what I should leave to others who are already writing on those topics.

It's kind of curious to me because I'd been thinking recently how life has been fairly good in a lot of ways of late, but I felt like I hadn't been leaning on the Lord as much as I should.  And, now all of the sudden there are all these things; more than one of them came up quite unexpectedly.  In different ways they all are pushing me toward the Lord, which is where I want to be.

Psalms 25:17-18  The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses. Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.  

Psalms 119:49-50  Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.

Thanks again for your faithful readership.  I trust I will be back to "regular operations" as soon as it is possible.  :-)

Because Jesus loves you,
Mary Stephens

P.S.  I'm hoping to introduce some new and fun things later this year, Lord willing.  :-)