Poppy is lying in my yard baiting the dog in next doors back yard. (A yorkshire terrier from what I could see!) But when it comes out and sees her lying there, (its yard is just the other side of the greenery she is facing) it goes frantic, and pop comes fleeing in, for protection to me! She never lays there, not until she found doing so could wind this dog up!

In these times where passions seem to rule our hearts in decisions such as these, and we have the matching divorce statistics to show how we often go the wrong way about choosing our life partner, or spouse, I thought this may be helpful to some of my readers.

Therefore, said the Puritans, in choosing a spouse one should look, not necessarily for one whom one does love, here and now, in Rogers’ heart-pitched sense (such a person, if found, might still not be a suitable candidate for a life partnership), but for one whom one can love with steady affection on a permanent basis. Loving actions of all sorts, including physical mating, will ripen and deepen this affection, and lead to a warmth of conjugal love.

How should a character estimate be made? The wise way to form an opinion about possible partners is to find out their reputation, watch how they act in company, how they dress and talk, and note whom they select as friends. (‘The report, the looks, the speech, the apparel, and the companions … are like the pulses that show whether we be well or ill’—Henry Smith.27 ‘Choose such a companion for thy life as hath chosen company like thee before’—Robert Cleaver.28) For a realistic assessment, couples wondering about matrimony need ‘to see each other eating and walking, working and playing, talking and laughing and chiding too; or else it may be, the one shall have with the other lesse than he or she looked for, or more than they wished for.’29 Other things being equal, partners should be of similar age, social position, wealth, and intellectual ability, and should have secured their parents’ goodwill towards the match. Also, they should be able to see that an affectional bond is growing between them, based on the conviction that God has given them to each other to glorify him by their mutual love and service. The good sense of all this is obvious, and calls for no comment save that this careful, prayerful blending of human and divine wisdom, seeking the will of God through discernment of personal and circumstantial fitness in all its relevant forms, was the mark of Puritan decision-making in all matters of importance across the board. Packer, J. I. (1994). A quest for godliness : The Puritan vision of the Christian life (268). Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books.

The Lamentation of a sinner M.

O Lord turn not away thy face,
from him that lieth prostrate,
Lamenting fore his sinful life,
before thy mercy gate,
which gate thou openest wide to those,
that do lament their sin,
Shut not that gate against me Lord,
but let me enter in.
And call me not to mine accounts,
How I have lived here:
For then I know right well, O Lord,
How wise I shall appear:
I need not to confess my life,
I am sure thou canst tell:
What I have been, and what I am,
I know thou knowest it well,
O Lord thou knowest what things be past,
And eke the things that be.
Thou knowest also what is to come,
Nothing is hid form thee:
Before the heavens and the earth were made
Thou knewest what things were then:
As all things else that hath been since,
Among the Sons of men.

And can the things that I have done,
Be hidden form thee then?
Nay nay thou knowest them all, O Lord,
Where they were done and when.
Wherefore with tears I come to thee,
To beg and to entreat:
Even as the Child that hath done evil,
And feareth to be beat.
So come I to thy mercy gate
Where mercy doth abound,
Requiring mercy for my sin,
To heal my deadly wound.
O Lord, I need not to repeat,
What I do beg or crave:
Thou know’st , O Lord, before I ask,
The thing that I would have.
Mercy good Lord, mercy I ask,
This is the total sum:
For mercy Lord is all my suite,
Lord let thy mercy come. [From the Genevan Psalter]

How every sentence of this passage are the cries within my own soul so often. Those who know me better than most,  and know a little of what I endure in this illness while alone continuously,  have heard these cries often in various forms.  It can be hard to see light when we feel smothered by darkness.  It can be hard to find light at all in the grave.  But its there, even if not visible to us. ( 2 Cor 5:7 )

Rating: When the atheistical world began to insult and question the truth of Scripture promises, and ask us, Where now is your God? Where is your long-looked for glory? Where is the promise of your Lord’s coming? Oh how seasonable then to convince these unbelievers, to silence these scoffers, to comfort the dejected, waiting believer, will the appearing of our Lord be! We are oft grudging now that we have not a greater share of comforts; that our deliverances are not more speedy and eminent; that the world prospers more than we; that our prayers are not presently answered; not considering that our portion is kept to a fitter season; that these are not always winter fruits, but when summer comes we shall have a harvest. We grudge that we do not find Canaan in the wilderness, or cities of rest in Noah’s Ark, and the songs of Sion in a strange land; that we have not a harbour in the main ocean, or find not our home in the middle way, and are not crowned in the midst of the fight, and have not our rest in the heat of the day, and have not our inheritance before we are at age, and have not heaven before we leave the earth: and would not this all be very unseasonable? [Richard Baxter]

For perhaps non-regular readers of my blog, my cat has diabetes, but up until less than a year ago, even though she is 13 she had never been loved or belonged to anyone proper. Survived on scrounging what she could off my neighbours till I moved here last year. But I am always throwing more of her food away than I actually get down her, as she’s not in the best of health with diabetes and the affects of it, but, she has gone from being Miss gimme whatever you can, to Miss Picky! Sometimes, whatever you offer her, she wants something else! But eventually we normally find something she will take!