My Provider

My Lord is ever providing me with answers, encouragement, and peace. Let me share a verse with you that has encouraged me today. 2 Peter 1:3-4 says, 'His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.' WOW! I'll tell ya' what, WOW! These verses were underlined in my bible, but not yet memorized and I came across them today. They spoke directly to the frustration I was feeling over my ever present battle over sin in my heart and stabbed the devil's attacker through his main argument. Through Christ we have everything we need. I am equipped as a child of God with amazing resources to fight all that rusts my heart and corrupts my mind. Not only that, but I am able to participate in his divine nature and be free of the filth of this world! Victory is possible! Not only possible, but imminent! Yes, it seems like 'basic' Christianity, but when I'm in the thick of the battle it's the perfect weapon. In this life God never seems to give us a spotlight to see the entire mine field, but he has given us a gently glowing lamp to light each step we take in him. This was my lamp light today, what a blessing!

A Simple Thanks

Thank you to wonderful little frozen washcloths. Lillian appreciates them too.

The sin that creeps

I feel weary. The Lord has richly blessed me beyond anything I could have imagined and yet I feel to tired of being on this planet. I'm weary of the sin that creeps. There are days when the battle against sin, in so many forms, rages in my heart and mind, leaving me exhausted in body and spirit. It continually brings me back to the verse (the exact reference escapes me at the moment, and since my husband is sleeping soundly beside me and will not be happy if I move about too much, it will remain as such.) that says we need to continually put on the full armor of God so that we may stand. There have been days in the last few weeks where I have felt wounded by sin. It was those days where I didn't appropriately apply my armor, and left myself open to vicious, albeit subtle attacks that seem to take me out at the shins (which by the way, seems to be much worse than the knees.). In all this I think one of the deadliest tricks the devil has laid at my door is that it isn't possible for me to be all that I want to be. It's these times that I need to remember that I believe that God is who He says He is, and in that, what He says is Truth. I can do all things THROUGH Christ who strengthens me. He is the Provider of that much needed strength, self-control, selflessness, gentleness, and patience that I find myself deeply lacking. He is the Provider. Period.

My mind is exposed...

Let me be completely honest. I have recently finished the book 'feminine appeal' by Carolyn Mahaney and have just begun 'Shepherding a Child's Heart' by Tedd Tripp. That's not the part I wanted to be honest about. In what I have read in these two books I have been 'slapped' many many times. Have you ever had a God-directed realization in an area that called for complete change of heart, if not action? I had seven of those moments as I read through Mahaney's Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother and am so very, very thankful that she was gutsy enough to challenge the popular view of a woman's role in the home. Whenever we, as Christian's, get sidetracked by life we have only to return to the absolute truth of scripture to be renewed, re-focused, and challenged. 'Feminine Appeal' has challenged me in mountainously huge ways...is mountainously a word?
I just began 'Shepherding a Child's Heart' and have been not as much challenged but encouraged by Tripp's Godly view of my role as a parent. It's very easy to succumb to the delicious (and seemingly easy) parenting methods available in our culture, but again, scriptural truth must prevail. We are accountable to God for how we raise our precious children. My baby girl is almost ten months old. I know in the blink of an eye she will be a year old, then a teen, then off to college and maybe someday married. It is my fervent prayer that God will bless Paul and I with the wisdom to glorify Him in our parenting and through our family unit.
I encourage you to read one, or both, of these challenging books. If you have read them, I'd love for you to share what you learned from them. I am currently trying to apply all the wisdom these authors have shared to my own heart, and life. I'll keep you updated on the progress...

Sharing is Caring

The past few months I have tried to begin laying the foundation in Lilli's heart for sharing. We 'practice' sharing cookies, drinks, and toys and she has become very generous with those around her. Today I realized just how generous. I also realized her idea of 'sharing' needed some clarification. She was sitting in her high chair enjoying apple bits when Logan came past and caught her attention. Lillian was unfortunate in getting Logan's attention despite many grunts and vocalizations that I call 'barking', seeing as how she mostly saves them for when she addresses the dogs. Then she learned a basic truth in the animal kingdom: 'food gets attention'. You can only imagine what she did. She held out apple bits over the side of the high chair and within seconds Logan was licking her hand and wiggling all over, as she has been known to do. This delighted Lillian and Logan received an earful of squeals (which produced more wiggles on Logan's part) and a few accidental kicks as Lillian's excitement radiated down to her toes. Sharing had never been more fun!

The Weary Find Rest...

I've just spent the past hour journaling my recent activities over the last month. Gardening, laying brick, exercise, cleaning, cooking, dog training, etc. were all topics being covered in a very pessimistic way. After re-reading the work I realized I sounded like a giant whiny baby who had lost the joy of living. This is not so. I love waking up and going into Lillian's room and getting her 'I'm so happy to see you' smiles. I love feeling and seeing her new teeth break through and add dimensions of cute-ness to her smile that I couldn't have imagined. I love when she reaches for me and the giant crocodile tears subside. One of my favorite parts of the week is to plan menus for the month and then execute my shopping list in an efficient time frame and discovering I've spent under budget. I enjoy the wonderful feel of hard labor as I toil in the dirt digging and laying brick. While I don't enjoy shoveling top soil over the fence into the new garden space, I'm eager to work the new dirt and plant my raspberry bushes, eggplant, butternut squash and cantaloupe. I don't enjoy vacuuming almost daily to maintain a winning forum over the hair and dirt that three dogs, one husband, and my gardening shoes can track into the house, but I love taking care of my home. I have even learned to find enjoyment in the mounds of laundry that we over blessed Americans seem to create.

The truth is, my life is busy. I find much work to be done in my home, almost constant, and I am learning to find blessing in my work. But this is biblical, is it not? We are to learn to be busy at home. This means do the dishes, clean the clothes, bathe the baby, cook dinner, exercise myself and the dogs, etc. Yes, my life is busy. But even more than simply 'busy', my life is blessed with work, the ability to accomplish the tasks set before me, and enough joy to see me through the days when all I see is the work and none of the blessing.