(Baby Jude sleeping peacefully) (Our tools and retrieved items) **********************************************

I just got back from visiting my sister. We had a great time celebrating her birthday and I got acquainted with my greatnephews again, ages 2 & 4. I even helped retrieve a wide array of objects that the two-year old had stashed in the VCR without the knowledge or consent of any adult (Aren't two years olds good at that??). We got the unit working again, but really had fun pulling batteries, an allen wrench, plastic toys and paper from the VCR as well as the stuck video tape :) It's amazing what two country girls armed with a few screwdrivers, a flashlight, a pair of pliers, and a nailpuller can do!! I'm sure God must do that very thing with us....He come's along and helps us pull out all the unnecessary paraphernalia to get things working again.

I also got to visit with another greatnephew. (Okay. For those of you who know me, he's the grandson of my double cousin. Southern families are very complicated!) At nine weeks old baby Jude is a little doll. I almost got the baby bug!! Gasp! Quick! Somebody lend me a baby for a few days. That will cure me.

But one never goes on vacation from God. The message Sunday morning was a confirmation of what God has been speaking in me. Pastor Mike a couple of Tuesdays ago taught from Psalm 23 "He restoreth my soul." God moves beyond time and works to restore us to our original state -- not just our previous fallen state. But if we allow him to work in brokenness, the restored state will be better than our previous state. That's a thirty-minute message in about sixty seconds. Sunday morning Pastor Shawn preached from Haggai "The latter will be greater than the first." The older Israelites were crying that the restored temple did not reach the glory of the first. God directs them to rejoice. It is His work and when He is there, the latter will be greater than the rest. He does not measure in physical grandeur or size, but in His Presence and our yieldedness and worship.

God was there in Mexico, encouraging me to rest in His Peace. God was there in Missouri encouraging me to give my brokenness, my failures, my faults to Him. He will make my latter greater than the past!! And he can do the same for you!