In His Image

This morning as I was traveling to Fosston to drop off some machines, I was listening to some of my favorite songs and one of them was by Michael Card entitled, Basin and the Towel.  One phrase really stood out to me this time though, “one will kneel, and one will yield.  Our Savior servant must show them how, through the will of the water and the tenderness of the towel.”

It started me thinking.  A few months ago, my good friend Keith, told me, “Japheth, you are a really hard person to be a blessing too.  You almost never want to accept the gift or help from a brother.”  It made me wonder, why?  Why do I find it so hard to accept the kindness of others?  Why do I always have to be the giver and not the receiver?

This weekend we have communion again and since we still practice the Biblical ordinance of feet washing, I thought of the dialogue between our Lord and Peter.  Jesus didn’t rebuke Peter because he had been going too far in his service to the brotherhood.  No, Jesus didn’t even infer that.  Jesus simply stated that if Peter was unwilling to accept the gift of service to, Jesus said that he could have no part with him.  Then Peter went all out and wanted everything but Jesus balanced him out on that issue as well.

It just made me think that maybe I am the one in Peter’s shoes more than I thought.  I often have too much pride to “receive help from ‘that person,’” and thus I have missed a real blessing meant for me from God.  It also is a warning that once again, God cannot stand pride between His children and He even went so far as to state that if I am unwilling to humble myself in the brotherhood and accept the help that He has sent for me, my pride will keep me out of God’s kingdom.
Just some thoughts.

Otherwise, my life has been made up of too things, work and family!  When I am not at home eating or playing with the children, I am at the store working on sewing machines.  If you remember, I was so concerned when I started if I would have enough sewing machine repairs to pay for the place.  The words in Malachi ring in my ears, “see if I am able to open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that there is not room enough to receive it.”  I have been SWAMPED with work!!  This past week I had sewing machines sitting on the floor because my shelves were too full to hold all of them!  I was hoping for 8-10 sewing machines a week, I have been getting 12-16!

It makes a man feel pretty small to feel the trust that God places in you who has failed Him so many times!  I am grateful and humbled that so many people trust me and have given of their hard earned dough to have me work on their machines!  Truly, God does not give us what we deserve; He instead has blessed us beyond belief!!

We praise the Lord that He saw fit to bless us with another son. After weeks of unrest in the fact of not knowing when we were due and several false starts of labor, today was a God-send!

was born at 3:17 am on April 5th, 2006.
He weighed in at 9 lbs even, and was 20 3/8″ long.

The labor was hard to get started but once Aimee’s water broke at 2:05 am, things kicked in high gear and Jaden was born 72 minutes later. Both Aimee and Jaden are doing very well. Aimee had no complications and is recovering quickly. Truly God answered our prayers for safety and as quick a birth as possible.

Thank YOU for all the prayers you have offered up for us the last week or so. We have felt them and feel very blessed by all the friends we have out there.

Now it is 5:21 and I have not slept yet so since Aimee and the little one are sleeping, I shall try to get a few winks in before I have to get up with the rest of the children.

Yesterday I had my friend Jason, came up to me and said;

“Japheth, I never heard if your new little one is a little boy or a little girl?” (he had not seen us for two weeks since the previous week we had been home from church thinking we were going to have the baby.)

(Me) “Well, it would have to be one or the other I supposed, eh?”

“Yes Japheth, that is how it works! So… (about this time my wife, who he has not seen yet this morning, walks past us, still looking like she has imbibed too much on the watermelon patch. He looks down and sees her) OH….”

The poor fellow! He got red and started stammering around and if I hadn’t felt sorry for him, it would have been quite hilarious!

The new store is up and running and I have been busier than I thought possible! I have been getting at least 5-6 customers a day with some days as many as 15! Thanks to a dear brother who gave us the needed money to mail flyers to 930 sewers in the area, I have been getting quite a few machines in for servicing. I have been so blessed by the Lord and my close friends that I feel that this store is hardly mine, but God’s since he is the one who prompted all these hearts and so bountifully provided everything that was needed.

This picture is of the out side of the building where I have two offices inside. I currently lease about 180 square feet and am using every square inch of it!! However, the main business, Search Resources, may not be staying there much longer and then I would have first dibs on their space (almost 500 square feet) and the bigger sign you see out front. For the time though, I am very content with the space I have and am grateful to the Lord for His leading in getting me there. (see previous post for that saga)

No baby yet though we rechecked all our dates and figures and the EDD could be as late as April 6. So we still wait!!