And Can it Be?

"And can it be that I should gain
An int'rest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me?"

Very often, those words play in my head of the hymn "And Can it Be?" that Charles Wesley wrote long ago. It's one of my favorites, and I thought I would research and write up a small history of the hymn. 

"And Can it be?" was inspired by his own conversion that took place on May 21st, 1738. Charles had grown up in a Christian home and was even ordained as a priest of the Church of England in September 1735. In May of 1738, along with his brother John Wesley, Charles was in England. He had been sick and was still recovering when he stayed in the home of some people named Morivan. Strongly, he was affected by the testimonies of his hosts and others. His journal entry from May 21st writes "I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ...I saw that by faith I stood, by the continual support of faith...I went to bed still sensible of my own weakness...yet confident of Christ's protection." Only three days later, his brother John had a similar experience. Charles went on to write over 6,500 hymns. Among some are "Jesus, Lover of my Soul", "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing", "Christ the Lord is Risen Today", and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing."

Little Blessings left in my Room

 It seems that every time I clean my room I find a bunch of things that don’t belong to me. Things like a tennis ball, a piece of wood, a playing card, and always some sort of lego and at least one nerf bullet.

Today’s world views children as some sort of burden. Something that ties you down, keep you from having fun. But God’s word tells a different message. “Behold children are a blessing from the Lord.” Psalm 127:3

Is it a blessing to have all these things in my room?

Something that the Lord has been teaching me lately through my parents and some recent podcasts is that our emotions and reactions are our choice.

In the psalms David many times commands himself what to do. He even tells his heart to bless the Lord. Psalm 103

Something my mom has said many times to me and my sibling when feel tested and tempted to sin is, “God’s grace is enough.” She has repeated it many times and it’s true. God’s grace is enough to make the right decision. He gives us the Holy Spirit to overcome. And when we ask God to change our hearts, he will. But it starts with us.

I used to get mad when I found things in my room but God has changed my heart. Even more just by writing this post.

Now when I see these toys, random piece of wood, and playing card all brought by my brothers, I see how much they love me. They are always coming into my room to tell me something, show me something, and sometimes just to hang with me. Sometimes they’ll peak through the door and shoot me with a nerf bullet because that’s the way they show love. They love me enough to do all that and they sometimes leave things behind.

I feel so loved and so grateful for my brothers. They may sometimes make messes, they may sometimes be loud, but God has blessed me so much with them. They love me so much and I love them too.

Just watching the kids...

 I feel like a mom.

I’m watching the kids for bit so I just made myself coffee, been cleaning the house, and most importantly, making sure nobody dies. Then I snuck off to the bathroom and just within moments, I heard a small child calling my name loudly.

I smiled. I can’t wait to be a mom. It‘ll be so much fun!

Cheesecake

 Cheesecake topped with chocolate sauce and raspberries!

My Wedding Date...

Me and my wedding date... just kidding. It's just my big, little brother.

My mom got these pictures of us from the wedding last night. I've always wanted a big brother and from these pictures you can see that God has now given me one in my little brother. John Wesley, thanks for always making me laugh! I can't wait for all my other "big" brothers to grow up! 😉

Homemade cranberry jam! 🍯🍓🍇🍞

 

Cranberry jam recipe:

1 cup fresh cranberries

3 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup water

4 tablespoons orange juice

¼ teaspoon orange zest

⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Place all of the ingredients in a 1-quart saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.

Reduce heat to a simmer; stirring occasionally, continue cooking until the cranberries are tender and pop open, about 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and cool before transferring to a jar or bowl.

Lemon cookies

 Lemon cookies! 🍋 

I topped them with some cream cheese icing 😋 

If I make them again I’ll try to get a better picture and post the recipe.

When Hope Calls Christmas part 2

          Hello everyone,

Welcome to part two of my thoughts on the When Hope Calls Christmas special! I had a lot of fun with part one and hope you all enjoyed it. Let’s dive in to part two!

         

          Just a heads up, like in part one, this post might be a big spoiler if you haven’t seen the When Hope Calls Christmas special.

Thing I’m going to talk about in this post:

1. Abigail and Cody arriving in Brookfield

2. Jack talking to Abigail

3. Ronnie Stewart

4. The orphans

1. Abigail and Cody arriving in Brookfield

          I love Abigail Stanton and Cody. I have missed their characters and it was so refreshing to see them come to Brookfield. I love seeing her relationship with Cody as I feel we didn’t get to see enough of that relationship in When Calls the Heart. Abigail is such a mother figure not only to her son Cody but also to others.

          In one part of the Christmas special she encourages Gabriel, after asking for her advice, to tell Lillian how he feels. I really love the scene and it's fun to see Abigail connecting with another Mountie after being very close with Jack in the past.

          She helps Lillian with the orphanage as Grace is not around to help and has such a sweet relationship with the orphans. Cody also seems to have fun playing and talking to the orphans. One part though, she encourages one of the orphans to have “faith which can lead to joy.“ But faith in what? Faith in God leads to joy.  I see that in a lot of movies. People just say, "Have faith," but faith must be rooted in something. I wish they would put more Christian lines and comments in the show like they had in the early seasons of When Calls the Heart.

         There were no hints of a love interest in Brookfield for Abigail. We know that her character has had many romance stories and has also suffered the loss of her husband and son in the past. We do though see her mail a letter to Henry Gowan. This is interesting because he has just left Hope Valley in season eight of When Calls the Heart. She tells the mail women that it is very important that the letter arrives at its destination. We did though see some romance between Abigail and Henry in season five of When Calls the Heart right before she made her sudden leave midseason. I’m interested to see what all of this leads to.

          I’m not sure if Abigail and Cody will be staying in Brookfield but I would love to see them in future episodes and seasons.

2. Jack Talking to Abigail

          I have mixed feeling about this scene. I get it, they wanted Daniel Lissing to be apart of the Christmas Special, but Jack is dead which makes that difficult. I did get a bit emotional though, watching the scene. Jack was the only real reason I watched When Calls the Heart. I never cared much for Elizabeth’s character even from the beginning. He tells Abigail to tell Elizabeth that he’s proud of her and the way she’s raising little Jack. Lori Locklyne did very well in this scene and you could really see the emotion in her face. It was also nice to get a proper “Goodbye” from Jack and get a reminder of him and how much we loved his character.

3. Ronnie Stewart 

           Ronnie Stewart has really grown on me throughout season one and the Christmas special. In the Christmas special he has a white beard and I really hope he keeps it through season two. He is still trying to grow his hotel and make a name for himself. Although, he’s a bit of an odd character I think that’s what I like about him. In the Christmas special we really see the kind warmhearted side of him as he buys gifts for the orphans instead of buying a new car for himself. I have thought of what a romantic relationship would look like for Ronnie. Right now though, I do not see anyone in Brookfield as a prospect for him. Still, I am looking forward to what the future holds for him.

4. The orphans

          I love the orphans. They are all so sweet and well behaved. Some have left from season one but also some new ones have come. All of the children who play them are wonderful actors and actresses and seem to have great personalities. I especially like Virginia. She seems super sweet and spunky. In the future I think it would be neat to see some of them grow up, get married, and live in Brookfield with their own family.

          In a part of the Christmas special the children believe that Mr. Stewart is Santa Claus. I thought this was a really cute idea. 

          The children end up writing letters to him and leaving them on his desk. I would like to get to know each child individually more in season two. Get to know their back stories, their wants, likes, and dislikes. I can’t wait to see what season two has in store for them!

Well, that concludes part two of my When Hope Calls Christmas post. Thank you for reading and I would love to have conversations with you all about the show, in the common section! Let me know if there is a topic from When Hope Calls that I should do a post on.

Until next time, 

Beth