Southern Sunday Fav, A Hymn and A Wreath

Join Chari at Happy to Design for Sunday favorites and Charlotte and Ginger at Blogger Spirit for Spiritual Sunday and Red Writing for Twelve Weeks of Christmas. Enjoy your Sunday!

First, the favorite past post from May 26, 2009:

Sunday Favorite

They are growing so fast!

Spiritual Sunday

Seeing those pictures again, made me think of the old hymn, His Eye is On the Sparrow. This beautiful hymn has an interesting story. Here is the story from CyberHymnal.

Early in the spring of 1905, my hus­band and I were so­journ­ing in El­mi­ra, New York. We con­tract­ed a deep friend­ship for a cou­ple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Doo­lit­tle—true saints of God. Mrs. Doo­lit­tle had been bed­rid­den for nigh twen­ty years. Her hus­band was an in­cur­a­ble crip­ple who had to pro­pel him­self to and from his bus­i­ness in a wheel chair. De­spite their af­flict­ions, they lived hap­py Christ­ian lives, bring­ing in­spir­a­tion and com­fort to all who knew them. One day while we were vi­sit­ing with the Doo­lit­tles, my hus­band com­ment­ed on their bright hope­ful­ness and asked them for the se­cret of it. Mrs. Doo­lit­tle’s re­ply was sim­ple: “His eye is on the spar­row, and I know He watch­es me.” The beau­ty of this sim­ple ex­press­ion of bound­less faith gripped the hearts and fired the imag­in­a­tion of Dr. Mar­tin and me. The hymn “His Eye Is on the Spar­row” was the out­come of that ex­per­i­ence.

Civilla Martin

And the words to that beautiful Hymn:

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Refrain

I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

“Let not your heart be troubled,” His tender word I hear,
And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Refrain

Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,
When songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Refrain

What a beautiful story and a wonderful hymn!

Twelve Weeks of Christmas

Wreaths!

Also today, I’m joining Red Writing for the first time for the Twelve Weeks of Christmas. This week, she is celebrating wreaths. When I saw this, one of my first thoughts was about the great pinecone wreaths that my sister, Tammy makes.

I think that this is the perfect excuse to take a nice walk in the woods (or your backyard) to gather some pinecones! Here are instructions for making this kind of wreath from Martha Stewart.

Happy Sunday!

Today’s Lagniappe: Banana Split Pie

Step 1:
2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
1 stick melted butter
Mix and pat into 9″ x 13″ pan

Step 2:
1 stick melted butter
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
Mix well and spread on crumb crust

Step 3:
1 small instant vanilla pudding (mixed by pkg. directions)
Spread on top of Step 2.

Top with sliced bananas, 1 can crushed pineapple, drained, then spread 1 8
oz. Cool Whip on top. You can drizzle with chocolate syrup, sprinkle with
coconut and chopped maraschino cherries, nuts.

Early in the spring of 1905, my hus­band and I were so­journ­ing in El­mi­ra, New York. We con­tract­ed a deep friend­ship for a cou­ple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Doo­lit­tle—true saints of God. Mrs. Doo­lit­tle had been bed­rid­den for nigh twen­ty years. Her hus­band was an in­cur­a­ble crip­ple who had to pro­pel him­self to and from his bus­i­ness in a wheel chair. De­spite their af­flict­ions, they lived hap­py Christ­ian lives, bring­ing in­spir­a­tion and com­fort to all who knew them. One day while we were vi­sit­ing with the Doo­lit­tles, my hus­band com­ment­ed on their bright hope­ful­ness and asked them for the se­cret of it. Mrs. Doo­lit­tle’s re­ply was sim­ple: “His eye is on the spar­row, and I know He watch­es me.” The beau­ty of this sim­ple ex­press­ion of bound­less faith gripped the hearts and fired the imag­in­a­tion of Dr. Mar­tin and me. The hymn “His Eye Is on the Spar­row” was the out­come of that ex­per­i­ence.

Civilla Martin