ByGrace

Wes and I are attending Spiritual Leadership Conference in Lancaster, CA, this week. In my absence, I'm re-posting some past entries. I hope you'll enjoy this one, in which I highlight the always-present differences between my husband and me.  From June 12, 2009: There's a huge difference between men and women, in case you didn't already know that. Wes and I are always finding those differences, many times at inopportune moments. The latest was Monday night, just as our guests were arriving for Andrew's party. I had made punch, a punch that requires orange sherbet to be added at the last moment, so that there are pretty little creamy orange balls of sherbet floating on top of the punch. But I had forgotten to take the sherbet out a few minutes ahead of time to soften, so it was still hard. I struggled with it for a couple of minutes, and then my honey came to my rescue. Would I like him to help? Sure! He can whip anything into shape! Wes ...

Wes and I are attending Spiritual Leadership Conference in Lancaster, CA, this week, so I'm reposting some blog entries that are favorites of mine. This one concerns helping our children turn out well. This is an ongoing discussion for most of us parents, and I had someone just a couple of weeks ago ask how we raised our children to ensure they would do well. As you'll see in this post, there are no guarantees, but I hope this brings you some encouragement as you raise your children! And if they're already grown, these are some good things to remember. From July 24, 2008: In our Thursday night Bible studies, we've been going through the book of Genesis. We've seen the best and the worst among the people God called His own. One of our men mentioned tonight that he is really enjoying this study because it makes the Bible characters that we always thought of as saints (figuratively speaking) become human to us. Which they were. Tonight we studied chapter 3...

Wishing you and your family  Peace Joy and Blessings on this Christmas Day! The Hutchens Family Wes, Susan, Sam, Andrew, & Beth

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. I do miss my American Thanksgiving! It's been several years since we've celebrated this holiday in addition to Canadian Thanksgiving, but this year, we're traveling a few hours to visit friends who are also Americans living in Canada, and we're going to "be American" for a day. I'm looking forward to having turkey and all the trimmings; I'm even taking some good ol' southern cornbread dressing for our friends to try! I'm sure there will be lots of good fellowship, laughter, giving of thanks, and maybe even a few tears as we remember God's goodness to us. But even in the midst of the actual giving thanks, sitting at the table or praying before the meal, I've realized in the past that I've come to the table with words of thanks on my lips, but no attitude of thanksgiving in my heart. This year, to prepare my heart for true thanksgiving, I made an acrostic of the word THANKS to remin...

This is Andrew’s last segment about his trip to Japan. You can read the other two segments here and here. This last one is long, but if you’ve read the first two, I’m sure you’ll want to read this one. It’s about the days spent in the tsunami disaster area. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most people I have talked to want to know most about this part of the trip, but in some ways it seems like the part of the trip about which the least can be said. The amount of destruction is incredible. It is not something that you can adequately describe, and you realize that as you are driving past it, but it does not really put you in the mood for taking pictures. You begin seeing damaged buildings, boats, and cars before you can even see the water. Piles of debris are everywhere you look. From clothing and toys to tires and splintered wood. After four months even the areas that were least impacted look like war zones. By the water we saw a six-story apartment building, compl...

Here is the second installment of the story of Andrew’s trip to Japan. The first entry can be found here . This entry is light-hearted, recounting his trip north to the tsunami area. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tuesday morning we went down to the Harris’ house for breakfast before taking off, and at my place was half of a grapefruit, among other things - including apple juice. I ate everything on my plate and then turned my attention to the grapefruit, my very first grapefruit. I watched as 6-year-old Josiah took a half-spoon-half-saw looking utensil and with surprising ease dug out slice after slice of grapefruit. I dug my saw into the grapefruit and all I got was grapefruit juice all over myself. I worked and worked on it and after a while I had eaten quite a bit of grapefruit, was wearing quite a bit of grapefruit, and still had quite a bit of grapefruit to be dug out. Since the table was being cleared I decided it was time to give up and proudly announced that...

Andrew is safely back home in Lancaster. He slept 16 hours the first night back! He texted me last night and said he’d written about his trip, if I’d like to post it on my blog. I’d planned to ask if he’d do that for me, so it was nice that he thought of it before I even asked. This is a little long, and I’ve included a few of his pictures pertaining to this portion of his trip, but I hope you’ll take the time to read it. There will be more to come, as this only covers his flight and first two days in Japan. I think you’ll enjoy it. He writes just as he speaks, so I think you’re really “meeting” Andrew through his words! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am not sure exactly where to start talking about a trip so packed with awesome . There is so much to tell, but I do not want to bore you. Let me first say “ thank you ” to all of those that invested their money into this trip. Without your help it would not have been possible. I could not be more literal and honest ...

Antique Dealer There's a huge difference between men and women, in case you didn't already know that. Wes and I are always finding those differences, many times at inopportune moments. The latest was Monday night, just as our guests were arriving for Andrew's party. I had made punch, a punch that requires orange sherbet to be added at the last moment, so that there are pretty little creamy orange balls of sherbet floating on top of the punch. But I had forgotten to take the sherbet out a few minutes ahead of time to soften, so it was still hard. I struggled with it for a couple of minutes, and then my honey came to my rescue. Would I like him to help? Sure! He can whip anything into shape! Wes fought with the sherbet and ice cream scoop for a couple of minutes, and then he did what any sane, reasonable man would do with stubborn sherbet: he ripped the paper container apart and plopped that whole blob of creamy goodness right into the punch! And then he opened the o...

Last week, I saw an interview with an author who has written a book about training our husbands. Like you would an animal. Seriously! The book is entitled, “ What Shamu Taught Me About Marriage: Lessons From Animals and Their Trainers ,” by New York Times journalist Amy Sutherland. I’ll spare you my esteemed opinion (I’m sure you can imagine, though), and just give you a few things the Bible says about the treatment we give our husbands. After all, we are not to conform to the teaching of this world, but be “transformed, by the renewing of your mind . . .” (Romans 12:2), and to “put off the old man . . . and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” (Ephesians 4:22,23) These Scriptures are not necessarily related only to the husband, but if we’re to treat others in general in a certain fashion, I would think we should treat our husbands at least as well! We’ll start with the obvious commands to wives: 1. Wives are to submit to and reverence their husbands – Ephesians 5:22, Colo...