The Lost Ruby

Just how harmful is a little white lie? In The Lost Ruby Adolphus von Wildberg learns that even the smallest of lies can hurt those we love more than we know.

In this story Adolphus is given charge of his uncle's most precious jewels and trinkets, including his cross of honor embedded with a brilliant ruby in the center. The country is at war and the retired general, Marshal von Haniburg, fears the approaching enemy may plunder his possessions. Adolphus is told to hide the treasures. He an old Hubert, the forest ranger, are the only ones who know the location of the hidden treasure. Some time later, on the occasion of his birthday, Marshal von Hainburg decided to dress in full uniform and wear his cross of honor. As the cross is brought to him one look is all it takes to realize that the stone in the middle is no longer the original precious ruby. Who could have taken it and what lies have been told to cover this deed?

This story rang true for me as I realized that in our current society white lies are told as frequently as the truth and no one thinks much about ti. We don't take the time to think of those we may be harming. About the character of others we may be damaging. It was a good reminder to me that a lie is a lie no matter how small.

You can purchase your own copy of The Lost Ruby or many other character-building, biblically based stories at www.lamplighterpublishing.com
I will be receiving a free copy of this book in exchange for this review.

New Blessings

We've been enjoying watching our mama goats kid over the past few days. The goats were kind enough to kid while we were home and we only missed watching one but got to witness wet, newborn, wobbly kids. The whole process has reminded us of how God works with his creation and they know just what to do, most of the time. Today was a little different but brought on another blessing. Our goat Valerie kidded today. She has been a pain lately and has been pushing the other four babies around. We had just finished up chores when the kids told me they thought Valerie was going to kid. Daniel and I stayed to make sure everything was ok. This brought the opportunity for me to watch Daniel be very loving and gentle with a brand new baby goat. Valerie had a little girl, Vivian, but didn't want to have anything to do with her. Daniel went right to the baby, cleared her airway then ran in the house for old towels to dry her off. He stayed out there with her until she was dry and fuzzy and up running around. When he realized Valerie wasn't going to let her new baby nurse he took her to one of the other mama goats and worked with Vivian until she figured out what to do and had a nice full belly.

It was such a blessing to me to watch him intereact in such a gentle and loving way. He is our "miracle baby" and Dan and I have said since he was born that God has something very special in mind for Daniel. I can't wait to see what that will be but hope in my anticipation I'm not missing what it already is!

Getting Started

As I play around with this blog, trying to figure out what I am doing, my three month old baby is in the swing crying telling me she would rather I be holding her than typing with two hands. My three year old is running around without pants because he "accidentally" wet his pants - again. My older kids are watching me, more interested in what I am doing than in cleaning the kitchen. And, my garden is waiting for me to come and finish planting the lettuce. I suppose those are all the reasons I figured I never had time for something like this. I guess I've come to the point where I figure I will just take a few minutes for myself since all that will still be waiting for me when I am done. So, we'll see how this goes! Who knows, maybe it will inspire a couple of my kids to start writing more!