Time to Settle

We are in our "new" home. We are still sorting through boxes trying to find our socks, but we're here. Here's the view from our back door...

If anyone knows how to take care of plants, come on over! We have an abundance of beautiful plants that desperately need a green thumb. The good news is that the kids are enjoying life in their new back yard. We are even shopping for a swing set. We are so thankful to be in a home with room for our family, and I will update again soon!

A New Home

I apologize again for taking so long to write. My husband went on a mission trip out of the country, we celebrated an anniversary, and we closed on our new home this week! God has allowed us to buy our first home, and we are so thankful for the opportunity to purchase a home in this difficult economy. I have so many things to thank God for...

Thank you for a husband who loves our family dearly and loves Jesus more.

Thank you for two beautiful, healthy children.

Thank you that my husband has a job that provides for our family.

Thank you for a new home with room for kids to grow and run. Thank you for a yard (that needs lots of work) where our kids can play outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Thank you for times in life where it's easy to see the blessings you pour out on our family.

There is so much excitement surrounding our new home. The kitchen needs work, but it is our kitchen. Everything in the yard is overgrown, and half the plants are dead, but it is our little yard to tend. And yet, I remember a song that our daughter sings from one of her videos:

"In my Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you."

Our new house is exciting because it is our first home, but nothing can compare with what God has in store for those that know Him. Sometimes we are so content with the earthly blessings that we forget how glorious and rich are the eternal blessings of God! Our homes and yards and material possessions are opportunities for us to be stewards, but the home that God is preparing for us should fill our hearts with eager anticipation for what is to come!

Lord, please help us to care for the things you have placed in our hands but to set our hearts on things above.

To Train a Child

It is so easy to react to your child's behavior. I often find myself saying the same things all day long: "Stop doing that! Don't do that! Stop hitting your brother! Stay away from there!" It is easy to react to disobedience and to get frustrated if that's all I do all day! It is not so easy to train a child. When we train for an event - a sporting event, a job, etc. - we undergo intense, proactive exercise to learn something new. We train our bodies to do something they have not done before. We train our minds to learn a new concept. And when we "train up a child in the way he should go," we teach them something new. Our children do not know how to obey us, and they definitely do not know what it means to glorify our Father. Our job is to train their minds and hearts to understand a foreign concept, to do something they've never done before. When a runner trains for a marathon, running becomes easier and easier as the training continues. When you are trained for a new job, the task becomes easier as you continue to practice. Let us all remember that we are to discipline and train our children for Godliness.

Lord, help us to persevere through the difficult task of training our children. When they grow old, give them the strength to not grow weary but to run the Christian race more quickly and richly every day.

Sorry for the delay!

I apologize for the lack of posts! We are moving next month, and we covet your prayers during the home-buying process. Thank you for reading and for being patient with me!

I Work at Home

It is not the cultural norm to aspire to the profession of Wife and Mother. Our world tells us to "take care of yourself. Learn to provide for yourself so your husband doesn't have to. Be independent, and if you want to stay at home while your kids are young, it's permissible to put your career on hold for that. But hurry up and get them involved in school so you can either enjoy the day without them or return to your important career." This culture has even labeled those whose sole job is to care for their family as "stay-at-home moms," implying that our families are keeping us from getting out and doing something else.

But God...

Older women...are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

-Titus 2:3-5

God has given us clear instruction to work at home, not simply to stay at home. We are to work hard to care for our families - first to help our husbands, then to nurture our children. This profession is not for the weak but for the strong, the hard worker, the diligent. So often our culture (but most prominently our own sin) causes us to stay and not to work, or to work hard only at things outside the home. The curse of Eve cries, "You can do what your husband does, and probably better! You can work and provide for yourself! Someone else can do the menial tasks of housekeeping or cooking or childcare; you are better suited for grander things!" But let us remember the urgency of our role as wives and mothers. Working at home is not for the infant or preschool years; working at home is our task. It is our job. As God may gift us to work in the church or work at anything outside the home, our primary task is to keep our home in a manner that honors God so we are able to love our husbands and care for our children.

Lord, please give us the wisdom to choose to work hard at home, whatever the demands on our lives. As your Scripture reminds us, help us to keep our home, not for the sake of our career or status or popularity, but for the sake of your Word.

It's MINE!

How many times do mothers of toddlers hear the phrase, "it's mine"? From birth, our children want to acquire and keep everything for themselves. Toys, food, mommy and daddy...the list goes on. My daughter can be perfectly content playing with one toy, but the second her brother touches a different toy, she yanks it out of his hand and piles all of her toys on the couch where he can't reach them. Nevermind the "one toy at a time" rule, she just doesn't want her brother using her toys. And I wish I could say the selfishness diminishes with age. But when someone uses something of mine, I am always nervous that it may get ruined. Our toys are only more expensive as we age, but the selfishness is ever-present.

As we were heading home from church on Easter morning, we were reviewing what we learned about Christ and the resurrection. Our daughter says, "Jesus died on the cross and they hammered his boo-boos." What a sweet insight into our daughter's mind! Then we asked her if she knew why Jesus died on the cross. My husband explained, "He died to take away our sin!" Our daughter's eyes got really big, and she got irritated and said, "I DON'T WANT HIM TO TAKE IT AWAY! NO!" As if to say, "It's MINE!" Oh, if she only knew how accurate that statement was! Even in salvation, our hearts don't really want Jesus to take away our sin! We love our things. We love our own desires. Our hearts are set on our own sin, and we really don't want Jesus to take it away! But God, so rich in mercy, gave us a heart set on Himself and paid the debt for our sin even though our hearts wanted to cling to it. Thanks be to God for His gracious salvation!

Lord, give me a heart that is content in giving everything away. And give me the endurance and wisdom to teach my children to lose everything so they may find Jesus. Let their new cry be, "He is mine!"

Never ask them "Why?"

My daughter is what Dobson would call the Strong-Willed Child. I could have written the book. From birth, she has fought to have her way, and sometimes quite violently! Even as a baby, if she thought things were going one way but the "routine" changed, she screamed until you gave her what whe wanted, what she expected. At 3, she is still that way, and in increasing measure! If she hears that we're going to the Zoo, she will talk about the Zoo NONSTOP until we actually go. And she will remind us over and over that we told her we could go to the Zoo. But she also gets extremely defiant if she thought we were doing something but it never happened. She even negotiates, "well, after we finish this, then we can do it, right?" She has her plans, and she will see them through! Nothing hinders this little girl.

I know that children are depraved and born with a sin nature, but sometimes you still look at them and think, "where in the world did this come from?!" Or worse yet, you ask, "Why are you throwing this fit? Why did you do that?" Until one day when I was doing laundry and trying to pay bills and my children kept "interrupting" me. I could feel the blood start to boil because I wanted to do something specific, and someone else was hindering my plans. I do not handle change well. I want my schedule to rule the day, and my flesh takes over when my schedule is interrupted. My daughter is just like me. Adam passed his sin to all generations, to me, and to my daughter. But God calls us to be patient, long-suffering, kind, joyful, to "count others more significant than ourselves." It is so easy - and so sinful - to let our desires rule in our hearts. I don't think I need to ask why my daughter does anything; I need to wonder how I can point her to Christ.

Lord, take my own sin from my heart so my daughter will have the opportunity to see Christ in me.