Monday, January 30, 2017

A resolution

Today I ran across this reminder in the introduction to J. C. Ryle's book entitled Holiness:

Worldly people sometimes complain with reason that “religious” persons, so-called, are not so amiable, and unselfish, and good-natured, as others who make no profession of religion. Yet sanctification, in its place and proportion, is quite as important as justification. Sound Protestant and evangelical doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life. It is worse than useless: it does positive harm. It is despised by keen-sighted and shrewd men of the world, as an unreal and hollow thing, and brings religion into contempt.
Perhaps in the current political climate I need to spend less time on social media and more time working on the wretched hypocrisy of my own soul.  I see the enemy, and sometimes it is me.

So, here, Gentle Reader, is my resolution to make the remainder of 2017 a year to continue to work to improve my own soul, my own tone of discourse, my own consistency.  May God continue to strengthen my sanctification, and may I cooperate with Him.   May I be, as a former pastor once encouraged, as tough on myself as I can be, and as generous with others as possible.  And may I do it for the glory of my Savior. Want to join me?
  

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Recent projects

Apparently, I did not get photos of all my Christmas projects, or even good photos of the ones I did take, but here are the recently completed projects I managed to snap photos of:


This is one of 5 totes I made as gifts.  This one included a zippered bag.
And I made several sets of microwave cozies: you place your glass bowls in them, stick them in the microwave, and then have built-in potholders.  They did double duty as centerpieces filled with ornaments, and take-home gifts for those who came to Christmas dinner.


I completed a lap-sized quilt for my brother, but obviously this photo was taken before I had put on the binding.  I was pleased with how it turned out, but don't have a decent photo of the whole thing :-(


And here are the ornaments I made for this year.  The grands got sheep and the nieces got the quilted ones.  Their names and the year are on the back.

Not pictured are the pillow beds I made for the littles, the little stuffed animal pillows with babies I made for the grands, and the flannel rice bags I made for the grands.  I did a terrible picture-taking job this Christmas!!  Now I am working on Valentine's Day and birthday projects, a baby quilt for church, and considering trying to pull out and finish a quilt for my own bed... 

Thursday, January 12, 2017