Witty Wednesdays [3]

Please be sure to view the post below this to see more pictures of our new house. I know I just posted yesterday, but I want to be consistent with "Witty Wednesdays" as well.

Today (or tonight, rather) features John Adams.

All quotes are taken from "America's God and Country".


John Adams

--- "Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.

      The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our people in a greater Measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty."

---"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

---"As no truth is more clearly taught in the Volume Of Inspiration, nor any more fully demonstrated by the experience of all ages, than that a deep sense and a due acknowledgment of the growing providence of a Supreme Being and of the accountableness of men to Him as the searcher of hearts and righteous distributor of rewards and punishments are conducive equally to the happiness of individuals and to the well-being of communities....

      I have thought proper to recommend, and I hereby recommend accordingly, that Thursday, the twenty-fifth day of April next, be observed throughout the United States of America as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer;

      that the citizens on that day abstain, as far as may be, from their secular occupation, and devote the time to the sacred duties of religion, in public and in private;

      that they call to mind out numerous offenses against the most high God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore his pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to his righteous requisitions in time to come; that He would interpose to arrest the progress of that impiety and licentiousness in principle and practice so offensive to Himself and so ruinous to mankind;

      that He would make us deeply sensible that 'righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people' (Proverbs 14:34)."

---"Have you ever found in history, one single example of a Nation thoroughly corrupted that was afterwards restored to virtue?....And without virtue, there can be no political liberty....Will you tell me how to prevent riches from becoming the effects of temperance and industry?

     Will you tell me how to prevent luxury from producing effeminacy, intoxication, extravagance, vice and folly?....I believe no effort in favour of virtue is lost..."

Once again, please leave your favorite quotes (from anyone, not just a U.S. founding father) in the comments section. And don't forget to view the new post below.



It's Spring!

Spring is such a wonderful season for declaring God's glory. I went outside today and took some snapshots of the beautiful flowers and greenery.

My very favorite tree.

It is almost 15 feet in circumference!

The deep green of the forsythias is so rich against the red barns.

The peaches are just starting to grow.

One of five peach trees. The Lord has provided us with fruit at our new home.

Beautiful purple vinca

We have several different kinds of azalea bushes

Baby pears

We have three pear trees

 I also recently planted Liberty and Granny Smith apple trees

Three apple trees were already here

Apple blossoms are so pretty

Some are white and some are pink

What we call "helicopter" seeds

Bunches of little white flowers

A caterpillar nest. When I was younger I collected thousands of caterpillars each year.

Blackberry bushes. We have quite a few of these

Our wonderful red barns

A very well-pruned dogwood tree

I am not sure what kind of bush this is, but it is gorgeous

At long last, here is a promised picture of our new home

This is probably my favorite shot

My mom found this tiny nest on the ground. Perhaps it is a hummingbird's nest

I cut the grass in the field today

I hope you enjoyed these little snippets of our new land. For us, these things are so very precious and new. God is so awesome! As Psalm 66:1-4 says,

"Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:
Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious.
Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name."

Witty Wednesdays [2]

Once again, all quotes are taken from "America's God and Country". Although not all of the quotes are specifically Christian, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in our nation's religious history.

















George Washington

--- In reference to the French and Indian War, Washington wrote, "But by the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me!"

---"I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them."

---"May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivering the Hebrews from their Egyptian Oppressors planted them in the promised land - whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent Nation - still continue to water them with the dews of Heaven and to make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah."

---George Washington's Monday morning prayer, "O eternal and everlasting God, I presume to present myself this morning before Thy Divine Majesty, beseeching Thee to accept of my humble and hearty thanks....Direct my thoughts, words and work, wash away my sins in the immaculate Blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by Thy Holy Spirit....Daily frame me more and more into the likeness of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, that living in Thy fear, and dying in Thy favor, I may in Thy appointed time attain the resurrection of the just unto eternal life. Bless my family, friends and kindred, and unite us all in praising and glorifying Thee in all our works."

---"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."

Please leave your favorite founding fathers sayings in the comments section below. If you live in a different country, please submit quotes from your favorite man in history, national leader, or missionary. Once I get enough quotes from my readers, I will have a Wednesday especially dedicated to submitted quotes! If you would like your name under the quote ("submitted by ________"), then please sign your submissions. I can't wait to hear from y'all!

Introducing: Witty Wednesdays!

Notice: Henceforth on Wednesdays I will be choosing one founding father of our wonderful nation to quote. These quotes are so very insightful and inspiring, that these Wednesdays shall be called "Witty Wednesdays".


All quotes are from "America's God and Country: Encyclopedia of Quotations" by William J. Federer.



To inaugurate this special day, I will start with Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790).

Benjamin Franklin

Many people who desire to forget our Christian past argue that Benjamin Franklin was a deist. Nothing could be farther from the truth. These are some of my favorite sayings from Franklin.

----"I can only show my gratitude for these mercies from God, by a readiness to help His other children and my brethren. For I do not think that thanks and compliments, though repeated weekly, can discharge our real obligations to each other, and much less those to our Creator. You will see in this my notion of good works, that I am far from expecting to merit heaven by them. By heaven we understand a state of happiness, infinite in degree, and eternal in duration. I can do nothing to deserve such rewards....Even the mixed, imperfect pleasures we enjoy in this world, are rather from God's goodness than our merit; how much more such happiness of heaven. For my part I have not the vanity to think I deserve it...but content myself in submitting to the will and disposal of that God who made me, who has hitherto preserved and blessed me, and in whose fatherly goodness I may well confide, that he will never make me miserable; and that even the afflictions I may at any time suffer shall tend to my benefit."

----"I never doubted the existence of the Deity, that he made the world, and governed it by His Providence."

----"Let no pleasure tempt thee, no profit allure thee, no ambition corrupt thee, no example sway thee, no persuasion move thee to do anything which thou knowest to be evil; so thou shalt live jollily, for a good conscience is a continual Christmas.

----My very favorite: During the Constitutional Convention, Franklin stood and made this speech, "In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understanding?

    In the beginning of the Contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection. -Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor.

    To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have now we forgotten that powerful Friend? or do we imagine we no longer need his assistance?

    I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?

   We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that 'except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.' I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a bye word down to future ages.

   And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

   I therefore beg leave to move - that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service."

All I can say when I read these profound speeches is "Wow"!

Please leave your favorite founding fathers sayings in the comments section below. Once I get enough quotes from my readers, I will have a Wednesday especially dedicated to submitted quotes! If you would like your name under the quote ("submitted by ________"), then please sign your submissions. I can't wait to hear from y'all!

Come back next week to hear from George Washington!

Baby Chicks!

Last Monday we received our very first baby chicks!

Ever since I was very little I have wanted to raise chickens and live on a farm. Now my dream is coming true. God is so very good! If all continues to go well, we will have ten laying hens and plenty of eggs for family and friends. The breed we chose is called the White Leghorn.

Isn't this rooster such a ham? lol!

They are a ton of work, but the Lord has been faithful to use this experience as a teaching opportunity. Through what seems like almost constant care of the chicks, I have been learning more self-discipline. It is hard to be consistent in changing out the bedding, water, and food, as they seem to make messes constantly. However, through it all, I have learned to be self-disciplined, which could prove a very useful asset it the future (and at present, too). What a blessing it is that big things come in small (and sometimes really cute) packages. 

Enjoy the photos of the chicks below. When I took these pictures, the chicks were about three days old. Now they are almost two weeks old. They are still really cute, though!

I will be posting about the progress on our "Back to Eden" project garden soon!