What I love about being a mother

1. What it teaches me about God
2. What it teaches me about myself
3. What it reveals about my husband
4. Consistency--bedtime rituals
5. Uninhibited prayers
6. Homeschooling
7. New accomplishments
8. The sincerist of apologies
9. Bluntness
10. Daily shocking moments
11. Moments of pure pride
12. Sharing Jesus among unaltered faith
13. Being humbled
14. Board games and movie nights
15. Being reminded by my child that God is slow to anger :)
16. AHA! moments in the kids
17. Being reminded of what really matters
18. Being reminded that I fail, and I really need God
19. Seeing myself as my parents saw me....so scary!
20. Understanding sacrifice

Thank you Lord for lending me a couple of jewels that I may sparkle in the dark. May our family be a light on hill that shines bright for you.

This is for Jessica

The past 2 weeks, I guess, have been nutritionally suicidal. Is that a strong statement or what? But, seriously.....From about November 07 to mid August 08 we have been on a health revolution which has included the consumption of fresh carrot juice every morning, lots of raw veggies and fruits over lunch and as snacks, and then a low fat, low dairy, low meat, high beans and veggies dinner. Last night I sent my body in to shock as I sat down to my lovely dining table and ingested a frozen microwavable meal along side the rest of my family who also shared in the same thing. Yes, Jessica, I said we all had frozen microwavable meals. Don't stroke out my friend. We all fall short!!! I have a full bag of carrots in my fridge that have had no attention given to them. I have 3 pineapples that have not seen my blender in the week that I've had them. I have spinach that will see the trash before it sees my mouth. And so on, etc. Moving sent me into a whirlwind. And I hate the way I feel right now. So......I've got to get back on track. By the way, my kids loved the frozen meals. Cody has already picked out his choice for lunch today. Ughh!!!!!!! Somebody save us out of this pit! I'm cracking myself up by the way.

Movin' On Up!!

Today was Promotion Sunday. All of the youth and children's grades moved up to the next level for the upcoming year. I was sooo excited. If you have followed my post from the beginning, you know how I love my 6th graders. Well, now they are 7th graders, and they are still awesome. I love being with them. They are funny and each of them are crazy to some to degree. Some, and you know who you are, are completely insane! But, I love them more and more as time goes by. This year I'm looking forward to the following things:

Teaching them and seeing them grow
Wednesday night worship and fellowship
Deep discussions about their fears and their relationship with God
Seeing them in their real life situations--on the ball field, in the band, in the pool, in the chorus (and everywhere else life takes them)
Getting to know their families
Laughing with them
Stalking them-Just Kidding!
Lock ins and Disciple Now weekends
Summer Camps
Doing missions
Learning from them
Being challenged by them
Praying over them
Worshipping with them

I'm so privileged to be with these guys during this time in their lives. They amaze me!! I love you each. Yeah fellows, that means you too!

Holly: Your hair WILL come down!
TJ: Have another party....Give a girl a second chance! :)

The place we are calling "home"

Some of you have wondered about our new place. So, here are some pics. Sorry about the mess. We haven't completely gotten everything in order, plus we have started school. It looks a little in disray, but we are enjoying having a home again. We don't feel like renters anymore. It is wonderful!! My favorite part: the front porch swing

An Incredible Choice

Do you know the story? I mean the whole story? You know, the one about that guy who had no earthly biological father. The one who's mom was a virgin when he was born. The one who never messed up. Was never selfish or prideful, presumptuous or intolerant. The one who came to save the world, but was hated by it. The one who lived a life like no other, but was then crucified by the ones He served. I know you know about Jesus and the things that I've already said. But do you know what happen before all that? Before, He ever got here?
The scriptures describe an even more incredible part of the story: the choice. This blows my mind. I'm gonna try to enlighten you with some amazing truths that you may not have noticed before. Bear with me and my ignorance of the mystery of the gospel.
Here we go...
John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

Okay, let's stop there. Notice 1st that we are talking about the specific time frame of the beginning of time. Notice 2nd that the Word is capitalized, a name, and is referenced as He/Him. Jesus!! Jesus didn't begin to exist at birth. He existed from the very start, lived in heaven with His Father and took part of the creation of the world.

Now here's where it gets really good!
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Let's step away for a second. Imagine a place where the temperature is always right. There is no darkness, ever. There is always music, always peace, always love and acceptance. There is no fear, NO FEAR! There is no conflict, no pain, no sorrow, no harboring of wrongs suffered, no time to compete with, no hurt feelings, no illness of any kind, no sin. NONE

Would you ever want to leave?

Now imagine a place full of hatred and hardships. A place of constant uncertainty, fear. A place of pain, instability, constraints. A place where life is disrespected and people are at war. A place where goodness competes with evil and evil often wins.

I know I make our world sound terrible, but I believe that from heaven's viewpoint, this is what is seen.

Now which place would you choose?

Jesus made a choice, an incredible one. He left the only perfect place in existence to come and dwell with us on the most imperfect place. And what's really something is that it's not the place that is the problem, it's the people. He became one of us, flesh, to live among us and to save us.
An imperfect people who needed a perfect sacrifice.

Do you realize the amount of love it takes to make that kind of choice. Do you realize that love is for you, my friend? You are loved. Do you believe that in your heart? Do you believe in who Jesus is and what He did?

I'll leave you with this:
Romans 10:9-10 If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.