December Moments

 December was full for us, as it was for most of you!  It is now January 17, and I am finally attempting to blog some highlights from last month!  Here we are having fun as a family of 6 for Emily's first swim!

A tiny disclaimer to ask your forgiveness for my lull in blogging (and thanks to you who have been checking if I have put up anything new!)--I DID try a handful of times to post, and the internet was slow, or the picture wouldn't load, or I couldn't even sign on to blogger.  My excuses, yes, I know, but truly it can be a defeating thing for me to plan on blogging and then have some internet delay.

ALSO I did post some albums on my facebook page of these events, so if you want to see more go see Jessica's Facebook album.

Here we are visiting the Japanese Tunnels from 1942 with our friends.

Our first family of 6 mini-vacation to Eden--we were thankful to have 2 nights at a mountain cabin near our city.  (Mountain does not mean snow--it just means getting higher than sea level for a cooler breeze!).

The Becker guys are ready to go on the big zipline!  Even Luke was a brave little guy.

Love the Philippines!  Cool trees, fun to climb.  Thanks, Lord, for time in Your creation!

Fun to fish for lunch!  Each boy caught a fish, and then they cooked it for us to eat!

We did other fun things like ride horses, go on the ziplines, I rode the sky-cycle, and Nate took the boys hiking and swimming while I napped with Emily.  See the album on Facebook for more.

4 Becker Kids all piled up.  Fun!  Elijah-5; Malachi-4; Luke-2; Emily--6 months.

Finally, on January 6 Emily turned 6 months!  Elijah wanted to be the first one to feed her "real food".  Fun brothers!  What a precious little doll.

Let us stay connected this 2014!  Thanks for your prayers for our family and for your friendship.

Best Book Read in 2013

"Future Grace" by John Piper was the most helpful book I read all year.  It gave me keys to the power of God to conquer sin in my life and to make me more like Christ.  It helped me to understand my faith and the motivation for obedience.  It made me hungry for God and His Word.

I spent 3 months digesting it page-by-page, though with 31 chapters you could read it in a month one chapter at a time.  Watch this 2 minute video from the author, and then put it on the top of your reading list for 2014!

Top 10 Quotes:

• Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it holds out some promise of happiness.  (Loc 282)

• The faith that justifies also sanctifies. (Loc 567)

• Let us make war, not with other people, but with our own unbelief. (Loc 1307)

• The commandments of God are not negligible because we are under grace. They are doable because we are under grace. (Loc 2918)

• Loving your enemy doesn’t earn you the reward of heaven. Treasuring the reward of heaven empowers you to love your enemy. (Loc 3046)

• The way to fight sin in our lives is to battle our bent toward unbelief. (Loc 4083)

• If you hold a grudge, you doubt the judge (Loc 4899)

• The test of whether our faith is the kind of faith that justifies is whether it is the kind of faith that sanctifies. (Loc 6025)

• The faith that delivers from hell delivers from lust. (Loc 6031)

• Salvation is owned by faith. Salvation is shown by deeds. (Loc 6601)