The Wedding Dress....Worthless or Priceless?

The story starts many years prior and only one of the ladies gathered at the meeting knew the story, at least in part, of the wedding dress before us that hung limply from the ceiling. With tears in her eyes, she listened as the portion of the story fresh from Saturday was recited, by her friend, and the Bible Study leader.

The church had a garage sale on Saturday, to raise funds for a missions project in Guatemala. The Pastor has asked for good, usable products to be donated for the cause. One of the ladies, aforementioned, had a new wedding dress that had been in her possession for a number of years hanging in her closet. She brought it to the sale with the instruction of 'get what you think it is worth'. Deb, one of the organizers, and the leader of our study, took the dress and noticed the $699.99 price tag dangling from under the arm area. "What is this dress worth?" was the question that burned in her mind, "What is the value that needs to be placed on the dress?" She placed a sign of "$100.00 Never Been Worn" on the wedding dress and hung it proudly up for all to see. As the sale went on, a 13- year old girl asked her father to purchase it for her. Upon inspection there was a small amount of dirt from perhaps trying the dress on, or just time in the closet, over the years. The man said "The only way I will take the dress is if the two zero's were removed" The dress had now been de-valued all the way to a $1.00.  Deb stood resolved, "No, she could not let that beautiful dress go for a dollar". Due to the discovery of the small amount of dirt on the dress, another lady there scratched off the "Never Been Worn" and waited to see if there would be a reasonable offer for the dress-- but by the end of the days sale, the beautiful white wedding dress still hung in its original spot. Deb brought the dress lovingly home, and placed it in her house. The question plagued her "What is the value of the dress?" and that is what brings us to today.

A small group ladies from the study gathered at Deb's house to read Chapter 7 of the summers Bible Study, of 'Chosen & Cherished', a book we had been studying about the tradition of the Jewish wedding and the intimate intertwining of God's love for His bride. How appropriate to see the wedding garment hanging from the ceiling, but we all wanted to know why, and who did it belong to? The other leader of the study, with tears in her eyes, would only reveal that it belonged to a girl who had been many times abused, first by her father then by other men and had a few years ago purchased the dress to get married, then ran off and aborted the unborn child she was carrying. When the past of the dress was revealed, another opinion came in that it would be deception to sell the dress without revealing the past that the dress held.

We all sat speechless around the gown, feeling the weight of the pain this girl would have gone through. The joy of picking out the dress, the hopes she would have had as she twirled around in the lightweight taffeta and chiffon, looking at herself from every angle. The pearls and the detail showed she, with great care, chose a beautiful wedding dress for herself, obviously with desires for a wonderful new start. The story stops there, as far as the details of the girl, her dress and her future, as we know it--but it was where we all stopped to value the dress from our point of view.

The dress was just material valued by some down to a dollar. The real value was the heartbeat behind the dress--the girl. Why did this dress come to us at this time, such an appropriate time as we were studying the tradition of the wedding garment and the depth of what it really means. The dress had some wear, some dirt just from time--but isn't that like us all. We start out fresh and filled with dreams, and over time we get worn down, abused, and people value us by what they see on the outside--the smudges and the cracks. We soon have a de-valued price of our worth and even feel we are being "deceptive" as we try to cover the pain of our past to others.

After listening, talking and deciding among the group we found the value of the dress not the important factor, but the value behind the dress.......priceless, because it served as a reminder that there are people (including this girl--name withheld) that we can do the most valuable thing for--pray. No one is too far God's grip, too past His love and forgiveness. He can take His original creation and remove the soil and stain this world has left and make something beautiful and unique.

Don't let people put a value on your worth--because to God who created you.........you are priceless.

Half way thru January.....

Well, life has been very relaxing in January thus far. The snow was gentle and pleasant this year, not the overload we had last year, lasting from November to April. We hope to get a number of jobs done this year on the house....the roof, the siding replaced with Hardie Board...in addition to finishing the right side of our fence, making my Rose Garden a very safe place indeed from our night time visitors. So far we have had numerous deer, a flock of turkeys and a very persistent female elk that view our back yard as their home. Fortuneatly it is in the far back, away from my precious roses!

I am looking forward to 2010...praying for the best and hoping for Peace.......

Happy New Year 2010......

Well it has been an interesting year.....God has blessed us with health, a home in the country and peace in our hearts. Mom and dad got to live near us for 11 months this year which was a wonderful experience and now they have a lovely new home (although it has and con't to have its challenges!....). The goal is for mom and dad to get everything that needs fixing on their house to get done and to move up to Creston and we cover that in prayer and God's protection.




The 2009 year seen Michael & I working on a garden which was a 50% success, not bad for novices! It also seen us fill in the garage for the shop and decorate the house in my new French motif. The winter lasted till April and we really had no spring, but we still managed to build our deck and one fence. They are very well done and I am happy to say 100% success. My rose garden too, seen the planting of 17 roses all put in late fall, along the side fence and rock front bed in front of the deck. We also had a wonderful year in respect to our fruit trees. Our apples we are still using (just made 2 apple pies for New Years Day dinner) and our raspberries and blueberries were the best we had ever had. I think the biggest surprise was our little plum tree--planted on the other side of the garden and really it looked so small and non-descript, but it produced the sweetest, nicest plums that I was able to make lovely desserts with, as well as eating!



I think one of my biggest pleasures was having the time to cook. I made dishes I had never attempted such as cabbage rolls and a turkey (made once before 16 years ago!). All in all it was a good year. My parents were a blessing to have living so close, as well we hope to find them a home here permanently next year.

 

Christmas Day 2009

It was a beautiful, wonderful, magical Christmas in Leavenworth, Wa. We had sleigh rides, a candle-light Christmas Eve service and living naivety at the Nazarene Church. It was a old-fashion Christmas of yesterday, and we were blessed to experience it. We had Christmas Dinner at JJ Hills Restaurant in Leavenworth

Christmas Buffet Menu

Start with crisp vegetables to dip into our house made ranch dressing and
enjoy fresh baked breads with sweet dairy butter.

Add a salad of delightful baby greens
topped with our secret recipe dressings or
warm your pallet with a puree of pumpkin and squash soup.

For the main course
our special traditional roast turkey or
spectacular glazed Black Forest ham or
marinated slow roasted prime rib of beef au jus
carved to your request and accompanied by
baked Idaho Russet potatoes,
savory walnut sage stuffing,
glazed harvest sweet potatoes,
cranberry sauce, creamy horseradish sauce,
roasted garlic creamy whipped potatoes with our
traditional recipe giblet gravy and
sweet winter squash.

Visit the specialty dessert display select from the chefs specialty
pumpkin custard pie with sweet Devonshire cream,
decadent chocolate silk pie,
J. J. Hills famous chocolate peanut butter pie,
creamy cheesecake and
more tantalizing selections.

Coffee and tea service, soda, or milk.

Pricing per person:
Adults: 26.95
Children six to ten 15.95, three to five 9.95, two and under are free
State sales tax and gratuity not included.

 

Well it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

 Leavenworth, Wa

Can you believe it is almost Christmas 2009! I can hardly believe this year has flown by this fast--and I am glad in many ways, as it has been a tough one! Mom and dad are now settled nicely back in Maple Ridge, the house is lovely--however they are now getting involved in a legal battle to get the rightful roof & garage replaced. I pray that God will overshadow their efforts and 2010 will be an adventure and blessing!

I am looking forward to spending Christmas in Leavenworth,Wa with mom and dad--and I pray we have an enjoyable Christmas to make up for the mother of all bad Christmas' last year! Nothing says disaster like a house fire 3 days after Christmas, and a huge phone fight for Michael on Christmas day with his family. It has been several years of not enjoying Christmas' due to family competition and fighting.

This year I pray God will bless us with a lovely, quiet, peaceful year.

Hello World....

Well October has been quite a busy month. I haven't had a chance to write much at all. I finally got the fence painted, the roses planted the Walnuts started falling and we had probably 1,000 on the tree this year verses a few dozen after the squirrels raided it while we were moving in. The first main snowfall of the year occurred Monday and I started to panic! So much to do--still need to plant my 8 Climbing roses, all along the newly painted fence line. I also was hoping to get the garage finished with Hardi Plank and Smart Trim before the winter sets in--we will see! November is moving month-- mom and dad back to Maple Ridge in their newly re-built home and finally maybe...we can finally relax...augh, what a two years this has been....... 

More New Roses for the Rose Garden......

Well 8 more roses are on their way into the Rose Garden Front Bed--David Austin "Bonica", 5 Climbing Rose~Climbing Peace (3), Climbing Rhonda (2), and 2 Flowering Carpet Roses--one in white and one in pink. Bella!

I also got the fence stained & painted--so I can plant the climbers in front of the trellis fence~I can hardly wait till next June when they start to bloom!