Making the Most of Every Opportunity

Another Repost: How I learned about Squanto!!! As Jimmy and I were reading through  our favorite Thanksgiving book , he asked how Squanto knew English. I had no clue. He clearly thinks through things at a deeper level than I do. So I looked online and  Justin Taylor  (a blog I highly recommend) did know!  He recommended a  biography of Squanto  written by Eric Metaxas. Did you know that Squanto was sold into slavery to a Spanish Monk? Or that Squanto was a professing Christian (I never heard that in school)? Or how it took 10 years, but God used an Englishman to help Squanto come back (hence his knowledge of the English language) to his homeland only to find that his entire tribe had died?  His story is such an incredible example of how God is always present in our lives and there is such good, even in hardship and trials, as HE draws us to Himself and uses us to impact others to His glory.  Squanto genuinely loved and cared for the pilgrims and...

Just a repost from last year as a reminder of a fun tradition we have as we set our hearts in thankfulness towards God this month: Here are some pictures of our  "Thankful Tree". This fun and easy tradition carries through the entire month of November. We know many families who do it, but we adapted it from a  family we used to work under (thanks Jeff and Lisa Highfield). It’s a paper tree on wall decorated with paper leaves (Jimmy helped cut this year). We write a specific thing we are thankful for on each leaf. Every morning we lift our hands and say “Praise the Lord for…” and share one leaf to add to the tree. We also include a few of them in our Jacobson Journal prayer letter sent to our supporters.  Everyone who visits our house during the month gets to participate. It's fun to see what everyone is thankful for. And really neat as a Mom to watch Jimmy write his own and get excited to praise God for who He is and how He provides. These pictures were from the...

As Jimmy and I were reading through our favorite Thanksgiving book , he asked how Squanto knew English. I had no clue. He clearly thinks through things at a deeper level than I do. So I looked online and Justin Taylor  (a blog I highly recommend) did know!  He recommended a biography of Squanto written by Eric Metaxas. Did you know that Squanto was sold into slavery to a Spanish Monk? Or that Squanto was a professing Christian (I never heard that in school)? Or how it took 10 years, but God used an Englishman to help Squanto come back (hence his knowledge of the English language) to his homeland only to find that his entire tribe had died? His story is such an incredible example of how God is always present in our lives and there is such good, even in hardship and trials, as HE draws us to Himself and uses us to impact others to His glory. Squanto genuinely loved and cared for the pilgrims and we’re so thankful to know more about him! Our Thanksgiving books:  1) ...

Just a repost from last year as a reminder of a fun tradition we have as we set our hearts in thankfulness towards God this month: Here are some pictures of our  "Thankful Tree". This fun and easy tradition carries through the entire month of November. We know many families who do it, but we adapted it from a  family we used to work under (thanks Jeff and Lisa Highfield). It’s a paper tree on wall decorated with paper leaves (Jimmy helped cut this year). We write a specific thing we are thankful for on each leaf. Every morning we lift our hands and say “Praise the Lord for…” and share one leaf to add to the tree. We also include a few of them in our Jacobson Journal prayer letter sent to our supporters.  Everyone who visits our house during the month gets to participate. It's fun to see what everyone is thankful for. And really neat as a Mom to watch Jimmy write his own and get excited to praise God for who He is and how He provides. These pictures were from the...