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Faithful in the Middle of the Storm (a Farewell)

October 26, 2016 by Esther Filbrun · 4 Comments

There are some things in life you could never see coming. Some things that you know could—will—come eventually, but ones you never expect until you’re much older. Wiser. More able to cope, or at least accept. But death is no respecter of persons, whether old or young. I just never thought it would come so soon.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016. 1:00 pm.

The date and time are stamped in my memory forever. That was when we found out that my oldest brother—only sixteen months younger than me—was dead. And more than that, that he appeared to have taken his own life.

Snippets of the day remain, pieces of memory that typify the day our family was turned upside down.

Good vs. Great (and Why I Don’t Like War Room)

September 29, 2016 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

I read great books all the time. Sometimes, it almost feels repetitive to say “this is such a great book!” because I’ve said it literally a hundred-plus times before. But the truth is—there are lots of great books out there. Yes, there are a lot of “good” ones, too. Ones that aren’t really great, but are still good and still teachable.

Often, I ponder the difference between these books. What makes one book just good and another really great? Do I judge a book as great simply because it had an adventure-filled storyline, or is it something deeper?

Case in point: Just recently, my family and I got to watch War Room for the first time. If you’ve followed Christian news at all for the last year or so, I’m sure you’ve heard of this new movie from the Kendrick brothers. Having watched and appreciated the four previous movies, I figured this would be another great one as well. Well…I came away feeling less than impressed. The overall theme of the movie? Yes, that’s great. But the movie itself? Good, at best. Now, that isn’t the opinion of everyone in my family—praise God for different people with different strengths who can appreciate things I can’t so much!—but for me, I was disappointed to some extent.

He Will Be There for You

September 21, 2016 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

This is a mantra I’ve been chanting to myself over the past week or so. Things don’t always go as planned, and when disappointments arise I find myself asking “what, Lord? What do you want me to do in this situation? Was I assuming something wrong all along? What’s Your plan for my life—what should I be doing right now?”

This coming weekend, our homeschool group is holding their annual concert. It’s a time for families and individuals to share something—a piece of music they’ve learned, a short skit, a poem, or something along those lines. It’s a fun event, often going on for an hour and a half or more.

Jesus Never Fails

August 18, 2016 by Esther Filbrun · 3 Comments

Several weeks ago, I remember sitting on my bed one morning crying out to the Lord for wisdom. A big decision lay in front of me, either choice likely to change my future. The unrest in my heart was tremendous, and all I could pray was “Lord, which way do I take?” I remember hearing a bird singing outside—one of those beautiful short melodies—and remember the disappointed feeling that washed over me as I realized I couldn’t enjoy it in that moment. I love God’s nature, I do, but at that moment the darkness was so deep that I couldn’t appreciate it the way I would have liked to.

Can you relate? I’m sure you probably can. And while situations like that aren’t fun, they’re also often a great way for the Lord to draw us closer to Him. That time was an intense time of Bible study and prayer for me, and He proved Himself faithful once again. Praise the Lord!

Photo Challenge Finale (days 6 and 7), Snow, and This Week’s Plans

August 7, 2016 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

Whew! Busy, busy times. Between a full-on weekend last weekend (often not to bed until 11 or so), getting sick for the good part of last week, and a few other things that needed to be done, I decided to take a break. I’m sure I needed it, but in many ways I always hate taking breaks because it’s often really hard to get started again.

However, this time it hasn’t been that bad to get back in the groove. Yes, I did miss posting the last two posts of the photo challenge, even though I did take pictures each of those days. I finally have time today to get this post up—yay!

New Calf! (Photo Challenge day 5)

July 28, 2016 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

Today, finally, the event we’ve all been waiting for happened: Our cow had her calf. Phew! Can’t wait for the real milk to come in in about three days, and hopefully it’ll taste good—the milk at the end off her last lactation had a bitter note to it. Of course, in the convening three days we may try making colostrum Yorkshire pudding (which is delicious!), or that baked custard with cardamom in it that Mom discovered the second-to-last time the cow calved. For tonight, though, Mama and calf are staying together, and Mr. Calf has figured out pretty quickly where the yummy stuff to fill his tummy comes from!

All of us were out there to see the calf born. Thankfully, Chessie didn’t seem to mind too much, and it provided a great “science-in-action” demonstration! I’ll spare you the pictures of the birth. 🙂