Another Lesson My Kids Taught Me

The other day I was doing something in the kitchen and Sam was playing on the kitchen floor. He said "Look at this Mommy." I said "okay", but then carried on with what I was doing. A couple seconds later I heard: "No Mommy... look at me with your face!". It was one of those moments when time slows down and a light bulb comes on (and I'm pretty sure that the light bulb's name is the Holy Spirit). I realized that my kids aren't the the only ones who need me to "look at them with my face". My husband, my friends, my family, God... Multi-tasking is a great skill, but not in relationships... In my relationships I need to be 100% present.

The next random phrase that popped into my head was "Bare foot and pregnant in the kitchen" (and I can tie these thoughts together, so stick with me). I began to wonder if perhaps that phrase was penned by a woman and means something entirely different than our culture would say it means... I wonder if some mom said it when they had a moment, similar to mine, and realized that this journey of motherhood, from start to finish, is "holy ground".

It often seems like what I'm going through with my kids is a mirror image of what I'm going through in my Spiritual journey.

I love how God wastes absolutely nothing to teach us to be more like Him!

New Addition?

Occasionally I hear a verse and I wonder if it is brand new to the Bible 'cause surely I would have found it by now if it had always been there! That just happened to me recently; the reason it sounded so new was because I heard it in the Amplified Version.

"The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds feet and will make me to walk [not stand in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!"
Habakkuk 3:19

Where has that been for the last 35 years?!... I could have used it multiple times! I love it so much and you can't know how many times I've had to remind myself "The Lord is my personal bravery" in the last week. If you know me, you know that I'm lacking in the bravery department so this thought has been powerful!

Special thanks to Beth Moore for making me aware of this verse. Are you starting to wonder if I just might be a fan of hers?

Taking his advise.

Hubby just informed me that my blog was boring... actually what he REALLY said was "You need more pictures. Pictures draw more people." Not sure when he became an expert on blogging, but I aim to please... so Hubby, this is for you:

We were on holidays last week. This is Sam enjoying McBride's brand new playgound equipment. I tried it too... very fun! (And... I'm very thankful that no one took a picture!!)

Maarti playing in the back of Jeremy's "new to us" trailer. It was given to us. The funny thing about "free" things like this is that they are never really free. It hasn't even been ours for a whole week yet and already we have had to throw money at it.

I was trying to get a picture of the kids standing still, looking at me and smiling. This is the best I could do. FRUSTRATION!!!

I Encourage You...

I do not consider myself a deep thinker, but occasionally I have a thought that will just not leave me alone. Does that happen to anyone else? Do you ever have thoughts that just go around in your head for hours at a time? Sometimes even days?
Here is what is in my brain today:
Have you ever thought about the word "encourage"? It means "to infuse with courage". As I thought about the definition I wondered: "when did we start defining it as 'to tell someone to have a happy day?' ". Don't you like the first definition better? Don't you want to be that kind of an encourager... I do. And I want it for myself too... I'm desperate for it actually.
So now I'm wondering what it would look like... to "infuse with courage".
I'm still pondering it... any practical ideas?

Brotherly Love

I was in the kitchen making lunch and I had to open the oven door. Maarti was standing next to me and I'm nervous about opening the oven with her there so I decided the easiest way to get her away from the heat was to send her on a mission. "Maarti... go give your brother a kiss". As soon as I said it a voice from the livingroom said "I don't need a kiss right now; thank you though." So much for my great idea!

Isn't it amazing...

that one so small, and so cute, is so efficient at completely destroying the house in a matter of minutes?! She's a pro at emptying things... today it was her dresser drawers, the toy box, a bag full of diapers and the garbage. The other amazing thing is that, even on days like today, I'm totally crazy about her.

Sermon Illustration

Confession: Quiet, shy me has a dream to one day preach! Where that comes from I'm not sure since public speaking is terrifying. My brother is a pastor and I occasionally live vicariously through him. I have called him countless times with sermon ideas. Sometimes he even uses them.
If I ever get the chance to preach I certainly have a good line up of sermon illustrations thanks to the kids. For instance:
I'm a big Beth Moore fan and over the summer have been going through "Believing God". In it she drills home the "Five Statements of Faith":
1. God is who He says He is.
2. God can do What he says He can do.
3. I am who God says I am.
4. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
5. God's Word is alive and active in me.
and then you end it by saying "I'm believing God!"
Anyway... since Sam has such a sharp memory I decided to teach it to him as well. I say the first part and then he finishes off each statement. We do it everyday so he knows it well. One day I guess he was feeling silly and when we got to #4 I said "I can do..." and he finished by saying "it by myself!". I laughed at him, but I as I thought about it more I realized that sadly that is often my truth. I have it so easy sometimes that I often don't invite God to be a part of my daily life and I certainly don't access the power that is available to me. As Beth Moore would say "We need our reality to merge with our theology." I wonder what that would look like... if we lived like we really did believe what we say we believe?