Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Never Grow Up-Taylor Swift
I came across this song last night right after posting Feeling Thankful. This song made me think of our three children. I do love them so much, and there are times I wish they wouldn't grow up!:-)
I know this is not God's plan though. They will all three grow up. They will all three leave our home one day, and this is a good thing. I guess it was another reminder to continue to pray for their lives, and to take every opportunity to teach them about the Lord. Because they will leave one day, and I want them to be solid in their relationship with the Lord!
P.S. I will definitely not be dropping them off at the movie when they are 14:-)
Monday, February 21, 2011
Feeling Thankful......
As I turned 28 yesterday, I was amazed at all God has blessed me with! God has saved me from my sins so that I can spend eternity with Him in heaven. He has blessed me with the most wonderful man, Jordan, as my husband. He has given me three wonderful children: Jack, Luke, and Claire.
He has given me an amazing extended family. A family who loves the Lord. A family who cares about the things that will count for eternity. A family who is wonderful, loving, and best of all, fun to be around.
He has given me an awesome church home. A church that teaches from the Bible, even when it's not popular. A church that loves children, and strives to teach them the love of Jesus and their need for a Savior. A church that cares about its members, and builds into the lives of each one. I love our church, and I am so thankful for the leadership!
He has given me wonderful friendships. Friendships of all kinds. Close friends. Neighbor friends. Friends to pray for. Friends who listen. Friends who I have the opportunity to share the love of Christ with. And friends to simply enjoy and have a good time with.
God is so good to those who love Him. This doesn't mean that my life is perfect, or that things always turn out how I would have chosen; but, it does mean that as long as I am living at the center of God's will, He will guide me through the good and the bad. I know that I have a Savior who cares about all the details of my life. And for this I am so thankful.
It is my prayer that I will spend each day honoring the Lord. I want to bring Him glory. I want our family to bring honor to His name.
Thank you, Lord, for the life You have blessed me with!
"As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away." Psalm 90:10
"I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works,And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand when I awake, I am still with You." Psalm 139:14-18
"Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." James 4:13-14
"Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry." Colossians 3:1-5
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
It's that time of year again.....
PLAYGROUND TIME!
Our children absolutely love going to the playground. The other day we walked to the one located behind our neighborhood.
Jack and Luke immediately walked over to the woods, found two big sticks, and began making all kinds of marks and holes in the playground mulch. I'm not sure if I should have let them, but no one else was there, and they were having a blast.
Claire loved the slide. She would climb up as far as she could, then she would let herself go, laughing all the way!
Jack and Luke eventually put the sticks down and began a game of hide and go seek. This was hilarious to watch because Luke never really hid in a good spot, for which Jack would get a little frazzled. They still had fun.
I am so glad that the nice weather is making it's way to Atlanta!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Charlotte Mason
I have been reading some of her books again, and I have, specifically, been reading about Habit Taining for children under four.
Here are her thoughts:
1) Realize that your child will not simply grow out of his faults.
"What you would have the man become, that you must train the child to be."
2) Your child can learn many good habits by being surrounded with them in your home.
"The child's most fixed and dominant habits are those which the mother takes no pains about, but which the child picks up for himself through his close observation of all that is said and done, felt and thought, in his home."
3) Good habits will give you smooth and easy days now and eqip your child well for the future.
4)Determine which habits you want to instill in your child.
"Parents should take pains to have their own thoughts clear as to the manner of virtues they want their children to develop."
5)Intentionally teach adn train your child in each good character trait that you want to become a habit, using good examples, Scriptures verses, and reinforecement.
6) Identify any bad habit in your child and determine to set up the opposite good habit in its place.
"A child has an odious custom, so constant, that it is his quality, will be his character, if you let him alone; he is spiteful, he is sly, he is sullen. No one is to blame for it; it was born in him."
7) See taht your child does the new good habit as much as possible for at least a month.
"Let the month of treatment be a deliciously happy month to him, he living all the time in the sunshine of his mother's smaile. Let him not be left to himself to meditate or carry out ugly pranks. Let him feel himself always under a watchful, loving, and approving eye. Keep him occupied, well amused."
8) Devote yourself to the correction of a bad habit as you would to nursing a sick child.
9) Keep a diary to help you oversee your child's progress in character and good habits.
"Every mother should keep a diary in which to note the successive phases of her child's physical, mental, and moral growth, with particular attention to the moral...."
10) Depend on the Lord's help and pray for your child during habit training.
"Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain..."
11) One good habit you might want to instill would be to teach your two-year-old to put away his toys.
12) You can also practice good manners by role-playing with your child.
13) Train your child to be habitually truthful.
"It is more important to cultivate the habit of truth than to deal with the accident of lying."
14) Teach your child to unselfishly give, share, and serve. This habit will deter a mind-set of "It's not fair" later in life.
Here are her thoughts:
1) Realize that your child will not simply grow out of his faults.
"What you would have the man become, that you must train the child to be."
2) Your child can learn many good habits by being surrounded with them in your home.
"The child's most fixed and dominant habits are those which the mother takes no pains about, but which the child picks up for himself through his close observation of all that is said and done, felt and thought, in his home."
3) Good habits will give you smooth and easy days now and eqip your child well for the future.
4)Determine which habits you want to instill in your child.
"Parents should take pains to have their own thoughts clear as to the manner of virtues they want their children to develop."
5)Intentionally teach adn train your child in each good character trait that you want to become a habit, using good examples, Scriptures verses, and reinforecement.
6) Identify any bad habit in your child and determine to set up the opposite good habit in its place.
"A child has an odious custom, so constant, that it is his quality, will be his character, if you let him alone; he is spiteful, he is sly, he is sullen. No one is to blame for it; it was born in him."
7) See taht your child does the new good habit as much as possible for at least a month.
"Let the month of treatment be a deliciously happy month to him, he living all the time in the sunshine of his mother's smaile. Let him not be left to himself to meditate or carry out ugly pranks. Let him feel himself always under a watchful, loving, and approving eye. Keep him occupied, well amused."
8) Devote yourself to the correction of a bad habit as you would to nursing a sick child.
9) Keep a diary to help you oversee your child's progress in character and good habits.
"Every mother should keep a diary in which to note the successive phases of her child's physical, mental, and moral growth, with particular attention to the moral...."
10) Depend on the Lord's help and pray for your child during habit training.
"Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain..."
11) One good habit you might want to instill would be to teach your two-year-old to put away his toys.
12) You can also practice good manners by role-playing with your child.
13) Train your child to be habitually truthful.
"It is more important to cultivate the habit of truth than to deal with the accident of lying."
14) Teach your child to unselfishly give, share, and serve. This habit will deter a mind-set of "It's not fair" later in life.
Keep Watch with Me
I have been reading through the One Year Bible, and a few days ago I came to the passage in Matthew when Jesus entered the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. Jesus was deeply grieved that His hour had come. It wasn't that He was unwilling to die for the sins of the world, it was that He was overwhelmed with grief at what was about to take place.
Jesus was so burdened that He took His disciples, entered the Garden, and asked them to stay, keep watching, and praying until He came back. Jesus went before our Heavenly Father, poured out His heart, and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will."
My eyes welled up with tears as I read this passage. It grieved my heart that our Savior was so broken. It grieved my heart knowing that it should have been me on that cross, not our sinless Savior. And it grieved my heart knowing that even though Christ paid the ultimate price for me, I still continue to sin. There are still times that I choose my way over His way.
This was not the first time I have read this passage. In fact, I have read it numerous times. I always hone in on Jesus' prayer. But this time it was different.
After I read the prayer of Jesus several times, my eyes came to a stop when I read the part about the disciples falling asleep. Jesus had asked them to watch, and to be prayerful, yet they couldn't even stay awake. And not only did Jesus ask them once, but three times!
It hit me. I am a lot like the disciples sometimes. There are times when I need to be watching, praying, and staying alert. There are times when I know God is asking more of me, but I seem to have an excuse. I really was convicted by this.
The passage goes on to say, "Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
This was Jesus' response to the disciples after finding them asleep for the first time. But obviously it didn't have much of an impact because He came back two more times to find them sleeping.
I need to be watching and praying so that I do not enter into temptation. Because it will happen. Whenever I make an excuse for not spending time with the Lord, I have a bad spot in my day. And sometimes my entire day is ruined by things that I say or do. Things that I say and do when I am not walking in the Spirit. And I am not walking in the Spirit when I choose "something" else over spending time with ourLord.
I need time with the Lord. I need it even more now that I am a wife and mother. I can't afford to not spend time with the Lord!
And even though this year has been going well so far (in terms of spending time with the Lord each day), I don't want there to come a day when I am not "watching" and "praying" and I am vulnerable to fall into temptation.
I want to be sold out to the Lord. I want my life to count for eternity. Won't you join me?
A few other passages I read after reading the above:
1 Peter 5:8&9
"Be of sober spirit,be on the alert Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world."
Galatians 5:16
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh."
Romans 5 & 6
1 Corinthians 10:12-13
"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it."
Jesus was so burdened that He took His disciples, entered the Garden, and asked them to stay, keep watching, and praying until He came back. Jesus went before our Heavenly Father, poured out His heart, and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will."
My eyes welled up with tears as I read this passage. It grieved my heart that our Savior was so broken. It grieved my heart knowing that it should have been me on that cross, not our sinless Savior. And it grieved my heart knowing that even though Christ paid the ultimate price for me, I still continue to sin. There are still times that I choose my way over His way.
This was not the first time I have read this passage. In fact, I have read it numerous times. I always hone in on Jesus' prayer. But this time it was different.
After I read the prayer of Jesus several times, my eyes came to a stop when I read the part about the disciples falling asleep. Jesus had asked them to watch, and to be prayerful, yet they couldn't even stay awake. And not only did Jesus ask them once, but three times!
It hit me. I am a lot like the disciples sometimes. There are times when I need to be watching, praying, and staying alert. There are times when I know God is asking more of me, but I seem to have an excuse. I really was convicted by this.
The passage goes on to say, "Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
This was Jesus' response to the disciples after finding them asleep for the first time. But obviously it didn't have much of an impact because He came back two more times to find them sleeping.
I need to be watching and praying so that I do not enter into temptation. Because it will happen. Whenever I make an excuse for not spending time with the Lord, I have a bad spot in my day. And sometimes my entire day is ruined by things that I say or do. Things that I say and do when I am not walking in the Spirit. And I am not walking in the Spirit when I choose "something" else over spending time with ourLord.
I need time with the Lord. I need it even more now that I am a wife and mother. I can't afford to not spend time with the Lord!
And even though this year has been going well so far (in terms of spending time with the Lord each day), I don't want there to come a day when I am not "watching" and "praying" and I am vulnerable to fall into temptation.
I want to be sold out to the Lord. I want my life to count for eternity. Won't you join me?
A few other passages I read after reading the above:
1 Peter 5:8&9
"Be of sober spirit,be on the alert Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world."
Galatians 5:16
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh."
Romans 5 & 6
1 Corinthians 10:12-13
"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it."
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Chocolate Valentine Cookies
The boys are with their grandparents for the weekend. I am planning to have the dough all ready when they return, so we can cut out some adorable Valentine cookies. I will need to get the stencils and heart shaped cookie cutters, but I have everything else.
I am excited!
Check this out for the recipe.
Happy baking!
I am excited!
Check this out for the recipe.
Happy baking!
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