// Excerpt from ‘Fling Aside your Fears’//

Following is an excerpt from Frances J. Roberts’ devotional, Come Away, My Beloved. Such good, solid truth. Hardly has there been a day that I’ve picked it up, that I haven’t been encouraged by his presentation of scripture and picture of my Bridegroom. 

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Lo, I have sought you, following you upon the hills and pursuing you through the barren wastes.

Yea, I have called after you, but you have not heard. You know in your heart that you would find Me, and you have set out in your haste to seek for Me, but you have looked for Me in vain.

You have scanned the horizon from day to day, until your eyes fail you from searching, as the traveler seeks in vain for a spring in the desert, and finding none languishes for water and faints in the heat.

Lo, as Hagar of old, your tears have blinded your eyes while in the meantime I have revealed My glory and made My provisions apparent to the child (Gen. 21:17)

 For it is written, ‘Except you become like a little child, you shall not enter in’ (Luke 18:17)

For My ways are hidden from those who seek Me in impatience, and the eyes which seek Me in human wisdom shall never find Me. For I am found of them that seek Me in utter simplicity and in candid honesty. 

Rebuke Me not, neither complain that I have left you alone. Lo, I am at your side, but your fretfulness has raised an iron curtain between. 

For when you are utterly finished and exhausted in your struggling; when you have come to an end in all your striving; when you are ready to desert your intellectual pursuit, and when you have cast yourself upon Me as a babe upon its mother’s breast; then shall you surely know that I have been constantly at your very side; that I have never deserted you.

Yea, My Love for you is of such nature and intensity that it would be impossible that you could ever escape. My thoughts, or that My longing after you could ever waver. 

Cast aside your questionings.Fling aside your fears. For surely My arms are already outstretched to receive you. Only believe.  

For in the moment that you relinquish all - in that same moment you will know release. 

For you will be set free of yourself and held captive by My love. 

 My arms will gather you, and I will never let you go!

‘Fling Aside your Fears’ entry, Come Away My Beloved (Francis J. Roberts)

// Happy One Year of Marriage, Will + Kate!//

I have the best boyfriend in the entire world. There are many reasons for this (probably upwards of a billion, at least). I will only address one of them now.

…Just after we’ve hung up from FaceTime…

Scott: Babe. I forgot tell you. Do you know what today is?

Stefanie: (Racking brain, hoping I haven’t forgotten an anniversary) No. Should I?

Scott: It’s Kate and William’s first wedding anniversary!

So lucky I have a bf who cares about the little things that make my heart happy, no matter how frivolous they are!

// Extraordinary Love//

War and an ocean may have separated them at one time, but Ed and Jackie’s love was an unstoppable force, only growing stronger as the years progressed. They met as young teenagers and forged an extraordinary love that lasted through a lifetime.

At sixteen, Ed began dating a girl who happened to be Jackie’s friend. Jackie, then fourteen, asked her friend to find her a date so the four of them could double. However, the moment that Ed and Jackie saw each other, it was love at first sight, and the original arrangement of double dating was forgotten.

Ed and Jackie began dating shortly thereafter and were later married. They recently celebrated 61 years of marriage and love this past June. Throughout their life together the two of them have been inseparable – from golf outings to hairdresser appointments, morning walks and grocery shopping – they did everything and went everywhere together.

Even when Ed cut the grass on the riding mower, Jackie would walk between the front and the back windows to watch him. She’d catch his eye, smile and wave, her entire face lighting up at the sight of him. And every time, Ed smiled and happily waved back at the wife he adored.

Everyday they shared kisses and hugs. Not a day passed without Jackie looking up from her word puzzle and saying, “Ed, I love you so much – you are my whole life. I love you more than anything!”