I loved this prayer from our study of "Cat and Dog Theology" in community group last night and thought I'd share it with you:
Lord, we do not live for ourselves, we live for Your greatest glory.
Bless us with all things or give us nothing.
Honor us before others or bring us low.
Put us to doing or appoint us to suffer.
Give us work or keep us unemployed.
Send us overseas or keep us home.
Shatter any dream that is not yours.
We freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal.
All we ask is that we delight in Your glory!
I'll tell you what. Pray a prayer like that and get ready to see God work. I remember doing that about 5 years ago and look where we ended up :)!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
A funny memory...
I was just remembering a time a few years ago when Evan was little and I was teaching him to say thank you for each gift after he received it NO MATTER WHAT! I had learned this the hard way with Clayton. Being a new mom it never occurred to me that I would need to train him to respond with thankfulness to each of his gifts. Imagine my horror one year when after one gift he yelled "I DON'T LIKE THIS!" and after seeing a gift Evan had received he yelled "HE ALREADY HAS THAT!" Needless to say that was taken care of by the time his birthday arrived! So back to my story....Evan is little and we are "practicing" responding to our gifts. It goes something like this:
ME: "No matter what gifts you get, what do you say?"
Evan: "Thank you"
ME: "What if you don't like it? What do you say?"
Evan: "Thank you"
ME: "What if you already have it? What do you say?"
Evan: "Thank you"
ME: "What if it is pink barbie undewear? What do you say?"
Evan: Sits for a long time and you can see him processing this. After awhile he responds with a smile "No thank you!"
I still laugh when I think about that!
I share that with you to also tell you that I am reading a fantastic book called Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Even we need to "train" ourselves to respond in gratitude to God for each and ever gift NO MATTER WHAT! I highly recommend it!
ME: "No matter what gifts you get, what do you say?"
Evan: "Thank you"
ME: "What if you don't like it? What do you say?"
Evan: "Thank you"
ME: "What if you already have it? What do you say?"
Evan: "Thank you"
ME: "What if it is pink barbie undewear? What do you say?"
Evan: Sits for a long time and you can see him processing this. After awhile he responds with a smile "No thank you!"
I still laugh when I think about that!
I share that with you to also tell you that I am reading a fantastic book called Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Even we need to "train" ourselves to respond in gratitude to God for each and ever gift NO MATTER WHAT! I highly recommend it!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
A Piece of My Heart
Is there something that God has given you a heart for unlike anything else? A particular cause or group of people that you can stand behind with every fiber in your being. For some it is breast cancer, or the homeless, or animals. For me it's people with special needs. When I was a child my neighbor gave birth to a beautiful girl with cerebral palsy. Before I was even old enough to babysit I would go over there and keep an eye on that sweet girl while her mom took a nap after a long day of work and eventually I started babysitting her. So started my journey. When I was in 6th grade I volunteered over the summer at a preschool that had many children with various special needs. At 16 my first job was as a camp counselor. I was so excited to spend the summer with my friend who also got the job. At orientation they mentioned that they needed counselors for their special needs camp. That's all I needed to hear and I volunteered to transfer to that camp. What amazing experiences I had that summer! When it was time for consideration for colleges there was no question that I would pursue special education. I'd never considered anything else (except maybe deaf education but close enough). During college I held various jobs, one of which was at a home where three mentally disabled girls lived, and the organization I worked for provided round the clock care for them. Unfortunately it wasn't the best place to work but certainly not because of the girls. I eventually needed to leave because of the way some things were handled but still learned a TON!
OK I really got blabbing there but all of this is to say that I've discovered a ministry that I want to share with you that reflects my heart. Reece's Rainbow is a ministry that helps find families for Down Syndrome children(primarily..but also other children with disabilities) in orphanages overseas. In these countries children with disabilities are considered worthless. They are put in orphanages until they are about 4 at which time they are moved to institutions. After that point they can no longer be adopted. Many die with the first year, most by age 10. I get choked up just typing this....that is a piece of my heart and it kills me. I've prayed and prayed and God hasn't clearly told me that there is a way for us to adopt one of these children so I'm telling you about it so that you can see what God tells you ;). The sweet baby on the right is Sophia and she is a Reece's Rainbow child.
But you know, as I type this I realize that the United States isn't always much better. Did you know that there is about a 92% abortion rate in pregnancies with Down Syndrome children? Appalling isn't a word strong enough for that statistic. Oh Lord, that you would give me the privilege of doing something about this for your glory, would be an honor!
OK I really got blabbing there but all of this is to say that I've discovered a ministry that I want to share with you that reflects my heart. Reece's Rainbow is a ministry that helps find families for Down Syndrome children(primarily..but also other children with disabilities) in orphanages overseas. In these countries children with disabilities are considered worthless. They are put in orphanages until they are about 4 at which time they are moved to institutions. After that point they can no longer be adopted. Many die with the first year, most by age 10. I get choked up just typing this....that is a piece of my heart and it kills me. I've prayed and prayed and God hasn't clearly told me that there is a way for us to adopt one of these children so I'm telling you about it so that you can see what God tells you ;). The sweet baby on the right is Sophia and she is a Reece's Rainbow child.
But you know, as I type this I realize that the United States isn't always much better. Did you know that there is about a 92% abortion rate in pregnancies with Down Syndrome children? Appalling isn't a word strong enough for that statistic. Oh Lord, that you would give me the privilege of doing something about this for your glory, would be an honor!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
A Quick Trip
Between homeschooling, ministry responsibilities, BSF responsibilities, etc. I have been incredibly busy lately. That's why it was so nice to take a small break for Thanksgiving and head out of town to do something fun as a family. We recently learned that there is a museum in Houston hosting a traveling exhibit on the Chronicles of Narnia. Evan is my little Narnia fanatic so we immediately started planning how we could see it. With all of our responsibilities we decided that Thanksgiving would be best since everything would be cancelled for a few days anyway. I have some second cousins who live in a suburb of Houston so I gave them a call and asked if we could stay with them and spend the holiday with their family. They were thrilled so it was all set. We left Wednesday and traveled for a good part of the day. Thursday we had Thanksgiving with cousins, and many other family and friends. Friday we spent the day at 2 museums and could have easily spend the whole weekend there seeing the many fantastic museums but money and time restricted us to 2. We traveled home on Saturday to be back in time for church on Sunday.
The museums we saw were both the Museum of Natural Science but one was in Houston and one was in Sugarland which is about 1/2 an hour away. The Narnia exhibit was fantastic! At the beginning a wardrobe opened and you felt like you were walking into Narnia with "snow" falling and everything. They had tons of actual costumes from both movies, the White Witch's sleigh, the crowns of the kings and queens of Narnia, tons of information on how the strange animals and creatures were made, and much more. Unfortunately they did not allow photography which really disappointed us! The other museum had a fantastic dinosaur exhibit. Both of my boys love dinosaurs but especially Evan so it was really a great treat when a paleontologist saw us looking at one of the dinosaurs and came to talk to us, answering tons of questions and telling us about their most current discoveries and digs.
Another fun thing we did is went down to the Gulf of Mexico to see the beach and the water. It was rather chilly that night but it didn't stop Evan from rolling up his pants and running in the water! He ended up soaked but absolutely loved it. The rest of us thought he was crazy! Here are just a few pictures from our trip.
At the entrance to the Narnia exhibit...the only picture we could get!
Dinosaurs!
Our family with my cousin Sidney at the beach
Evan in the water and Clayton finding shells
Look how wet Evan got! So much for rolling up his pants!
The museums we saw were both the Museum of Natural Science but one was in Houston and one was in Sugarland which is about 1/2 an hour away. The Narnia exhibit was fantastic! At the beginning a wardrobe opened and you felt like you were walking into Narnia with "snow" falling and everything. They had tons of actual costumes from both movies, the White Witch's sleigh, the crowns of the kings and queens of Narnia, tons of information on how the strange animals and creatures were made, and much more. Unfortunately they did not allow photography which really disappointed us! The other museum had a fantastic dinosaur exhibit. Both of my boys love dinosaurs but especially Evan so it was really a great treat when a paleontologist saw us looking at one of the dinosaurs and came to talk to us, answering tons of questions and telling us about their most current discoveries and digs.
Another fun thing we did is went down to the Gulf of Mexico to see the beach and the water. It was rather chilly that night but it didn't stop Evan from rolling up his pants and running in the water! He ended up soaked but absolutely loved it. The rest of us thought he was crazy! Here are just a few pictures from our trip.
At the entrance to the Narnia exhibit...the only picture we could get!
Dinosaurs!
Our family with my cousin Sidney at the beach
Evan in the water and Clayton finding shells
Look how wet Evan got! So much for rolling up his pants!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Halloween
I've had such a great time checking out all of the blogs and facebook pages to see everyone's kiddos! We had a wonderful time last night! Surprisingly not as many houses were giving out candy this year and we figure it is a combination of the recession and the Razorback football game. More likely the Razorback football game! That just meant we had to walk farther which was no big deal since it was good exercise and a nice night. We loved having Larry's parents here and the kids had a blast. No one really knew what either of my kids were. People guessed that Evan was a pirate or a knight and one person knew who Prince Caspian was once Evan told them. People kept asking Clayton why he wasn't wearing a costume so he'd have to explain it, but once we got home and he was giving out candy there were kids who came to the door that knew exactly what he was trying to accomplish! One funny story.....Evan got his costume for his birthday back in July. He has been very careful with it, especially the sword. It is not the most sturdy thing in the world so he has treated it with great care, and even hidden it when kids come over to keep it from being broken. Last night about 1/2 an hour before the sun went down he was playing outside with it and broke it! We couldn't believe it. Luckily with dad and Pa-Pa around there isn't much that can't be fixed so we performed emergency surgery and the sword is now stronger than ever!
6 bags of huge bags from Sam's and we used it all!
Prince Caspian
Bakugan Brawler - notice the Bakugan on his shoulder and the ones clipped to his pants
Acting out the part!
Doing sugrery on the sword
Evan's loot
Clayton's loot
6 bags of huge bags from Sam's and we used it all!
Prince Caspian
Bakugan Brawler - notice the Bakugan on his shoulder and the ones clipped to his pants
Acting out the part!
Doing sugrery on the sword
Evan's loot
Clayton's loot
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Pumpkin Time
Last night was pumpkin carving time in our house! Everyone at our house has a job. The boys decide on the pumpkin design and help with various tasks, I dig out the guts in the pumpkin (a job I rather enjoy :), and Larry does the carving. This year the boys each got a small pumpkin along with our large one and got to design and carve their own pumpkin...with a safety knife, of course!
Sonic the Hedgehog!
Clayton's creaton
Evan's creation
This year Larry's parents are coming in town for Halloween and we are going to stay in our neighborhood. We've done something different every year that we have been here, and this is the first time we will be staying home. Our neighborhood is awesome to trick or treat in. It is literally flooded with kids. In fact I've seen multiple 15 passenger vans from other neighborhoods unload in ours. There are some lower income neighborhoods not to far from us, and we live in a very large neighborhood, so I guess we are the trick or treat spot, which I think is great! It's like the old days when the streets were filled with kids, unlike many neighborhoods now where maybe 10 kids are out. Evan is going to be Prince Caspian and Clayton, who is quickly growing out of the desire to dress up, is going to be a Bakugan brawler. If you don't know what that is you aren't alone but I don't have to buy anything for his "costume", which is really just his regular clothes, so I am thrilled. I'll post pictures after Halloween.
Sonic the Hedgehog!
Clayton's creaton
Evan's creation
This year Larry's parents are coming in town for Halloween and we are going to stay in our neighborhood. We've done something different every year that we have been here, and this is the first time we will be staying home. Our neighborhood is awesome to trick or treat in. It is literally flooded with kids. In fact I've seen multiple 15 passenger vans from other neighborhoods unload in ours. There are some lower income neighborhoods not to far from us, and we live in a very large neighborhood, so I guess we are the trick or treat spot, which I think is great! It's like the old days when the streets were filled with kids, unlike many neighborhoods now where maybe 10 kids are out. Evan is going to be Prince Caspian and Clayton, who is quickly growing out of the desire to dress up, is going to be a Bakugan brawler. If you don't know what that is you aren't alone but I don't have to buy anything for his "costume", which is really just his regular clothes, so I am thrilled. I'll post pictures after Halloween.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
This blew my mind....
I recently found the blog of an organization called The ABBA Fund which helps provide financial solutions for adoption. Here is some staggering information that I found there:
My best guess is that 40-50 million orphans worldwide are adoptable or would be best cared for through adoption. Ideally that means adoption locally/indigenously first and then adoption internationally.
As for Christians, according to Mission Frontiers, globally there are:
Christian Believers — 800 million who have been born again into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Other Christians — 1.37 billion who consider themselves Christians because they come from a Christian culture.
Culturally near non-Christians — 1.8 billion are not yet Christians but live in a people where a viable, indigenous church movement has been established.
Therefore, if roughly 6% of the born again Christians in the world adopted we could care for all the adoptable orphans in the world (I have heard 7% used and that might be true as well).
Not 80%, not 60%, not 30%, but 6%. Ponder that, it will probably blow your mind as well.
My best guess is that 40-50 million orphans worldwide are adoptable or would be best cared for through adoption. Ideally that means adoption locally/indigenously first and then adoption internationally.
As for Christians, according to Mission Frontiers, globally there are:
Christian Believers — 800 million who have been born again into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Other Christians — 1.37 billion who consider themselves Christians because they come from a Christian culture.
Culturally near non-Christians — 1.8 billion are not yet Christians but live in a people where a viable, indigenous church movement has been established.
Therefore, if roughly 6% of the born again Christians in the world adopted we could care for all the adoptable orphans in the world (I have heard 7% used and that might be true as well).
Not 80%, not 60%, not 30%, but 6%. Ponder that, it will probably blow your mind as well.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Relax
Homeschooling is a wonderful sanctification tool! Each year I learn something new about myself and God refines me through the process of educating my children. This year's lesson is RELAX! I started the year in mid August with a goal of being done by the end of May. We LOVE summer and LOVE the chance to set our books aside for 2 1/2 months to have fun. We are often fried by the end of the year and desperately need this break. I sat down in August with my calendar and figured in holidays, vacations, FamilyLife staff meetings (which are no school days), added in a few for illness and other unexpected absences and I was ready to go! Pretty early on I realized that I was going to be in trouble. Various things were popping up that I didn't plan in my yearly schedule. We are not talking about a day at the park, but things like field trip opportunities, or things where I was needed by someone and couldn't school that day. I started to freak out and then came up with this brilliant idea....we can school on Saturday to make up for the day we missed! I did that once and realized it was a big mistake. As you can imagine, my children were less than cooperative. Then the final straw came when Clayton and Larry got sick for an entire week! I fretted over what I would do....I know, cut my 2 week Christmas vacation to 1, or get rid of spring break! Then after everyone was well again we started school and had an absolutely wonderful week. The break had been good for everyone and my children were engaged and ready to start again. That's when God said to me "RELAX! Why are you so hung up on being done by the end of May? Enjoy the process!" At that moment I completely changed my outlook. If I would calm down a bit and take breaks as needed during the year maybe I won't feel the intense need to be done by the end of May. I've decided that the end of May is my cutoff for full weeks of school. After that we will do maybe 1 or 2 days a week or a small amount each day until we can wrap it up. I'm also not getting hung up on finishing EVERYTHING! Some good friends recently told me that most public school teacher's don't finish every book by the end of the year. After May we will focus on those subjects that are most important or that the boys need extra work in and let anything else go. I'm already feeling better about this school year and I'm thankful for the constant refining from the Lord!
On another homeschooling note, we are doing some extra fun school lately. On November 13 we are going to a children's symphony created for school groups. We signed up as a homeschool group and got a fantastic packet of information that included a CD of the pieces being played, along with information about the composer and the inspiration for each piece. We had a great time studying each piece of music and listening for the sounds of storms, etc in them! The boys are very excited for their first symphony. I've also decided to do a small unit on the Reformation in preparation for October 31st, Reformation Day! I found a great website for kids at www.reformationkidz.com where they have information about reformers such as John Calvin, Martin Luther, etc., along with activities about each of them. I also found some videos on Netflix about some of them and hope to get some books at the library. We've found this to be great fun and hope that it will help in my new goal to RELAX!
On another homeschooling note, we are doing some extra fun school lately. On November 13 we are going to a children's symphony created for school groups. We signed up as a homeschool group and got a fantastic packet of information that included a CD of the pieces being played, along with information about the composer and the inspiration for each piece. We had a great time studying each piece of music and listening for the sounds of storms, etc in them! The boys are very excited for their first symphony. I've also decided to do a small unit on the Reformation in preparation for October 31st, Reformation Day! I found a great website for kids at www.reformationkidz.com where they have information about reformers such as John Calvin, Martin Luther, etc., along with activities about each of them. I also found some videos on Netflix about some of them and hope to get some books at the library. We've found this to be great fun and hope that it will help in my new goal to RELAX!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Pictionary laughs.....
Last night we decided to play pictionary. We don't own the game so we just got a list of words, some paper and pencils, and split into teams to play. Clayton and I were on a team and Larry and Evan were on a team. The rules were that you had 1 minute to draw your word, if your teammate did not answer in the minute the other team had a chance to guess and earn your point. So I was drawing Spongebob and Clayton was guessing. Now I'll admit that I'm not the best artist in the world, and my kids don't watch Spongebob but they certinaly know who he is. So I'm drawing what I consider to be a decent Spongebob....square with kind of bumpy edges, big eyes, a mouth, "holes" drawn on him, feet, arms....and Clayton is yelling things like "a cracker!". What cracker do you know with eyes and feet? So Larry and I are laughing because at this point Larry has figured it out. At the same time Evan is jumping up and down yelling "I know, I know!" He is counting down the seconds until Clayton's time is up and when the timer ends he is SOOOOOO excited to yell the answer out and he says "CINNAMON TOAST CRUNCH!!!!!!!" Larry and I were rolling on the floor laughing. My guy looked just like the cinnamon toast crunch men from the commercials! Later Clayton told me that I draw a better cinnamon toast crunch than Spongebob! I don't have a scanner to show you the picture of my Spongebob but here is an idea of what my guy looked like:
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Val's Wedding
Last weekend, after 8 years with Philip, my sister in law, Valerie, got married! It was a beautiful ceremony and a fun reception! She was supposed to get married at sunset but with a cloudy night and a delay in the wedding she ended up getting married in the dark. Oh well, she didn't care, she was just thrilled to be married! After a very busy weekend we drove home with a sick Clayton and by the time we got home we also had a sick Larry. They both still have fevers and coughs. Clayton went to the doctor yesterday and it is just a virus. Larry is going today. This is by far the worst part of this time of year!
Here are some pictures from the wedding:
Here are some pictures from the wedding:
Saturday, September 12, 2009
I Don't NEED a House
The message below was sent to me through FamilyLife in December of '08. I've kept it tucked away in my inbox because I was so blown away by the truths in it. It is written by Ney Bailey. Ney has been on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ for more than 46 years! She has written an incredible book called Faith is Not a Feeling , another piece of her writing that had a profound impact on me. Today I found myself searching through the stuff in my inbox to see if any of it needed to go. When I came across this I thought it would be wonderful to share with you and appropriate for the times that we live in now. Enjoy :)
I’ll never forget the time I invited Elisabeth Elliot to come speak to our women who were ministering in Eastern Europe when the Iron Curtain was still up and the countries were closed. The conference was in September, and 75 of us were meeting near Vienna in a classroom with tiered seating and desks. I was seated by Elisabeth during a break when an obviously anxious young woman came and stood in front of her. With a voice full of angst and stress she began to explain her situation to Elisabeth:
Woman: “My husband and I moved here from the states with our two children in January, and we have looked and looked and looked for a house to live in and after all these months we have been unable to find anything! We have been forced to live with first one family for a few months….and now we have been with yet another family for several months. School is about to start again, and we still haven’t found a house!”
Elisabeth (calmly): “You must not need a house”
That was the last response the young woman expected Elisabeth to have after her elaborate explanation of desperately needing a house and not finding one. I, too, was initially a bit taken aback by Elisabeth’s words.
Woman (astonished, mouth open, quizzically): “I must not need a house?”
Elisabeth (authoritatively): “You must not need a house… ‘MY God shall supply ALL YOUR NEEDS according to His riches in Christ Jesus’ (emphasis Elisabeth’s). If you needed a house, you would have a house.”
Woman (stunned): “I don’t have a house because I don’t need a house?” “I don’t have a house because I don’t need a house…I don’t have a house because I don’t need a
house…” (I was seeing her change before my very eyes as she repeated these unbelievable words…convincing herself and coming to the truth of Elisabeth’s words as she repeated them over and over.) “Wait till I tell my husband we don’t have a house because we don’t NEED a house! I’m going to go phone him right now!”
She had come to Elisabeth full of anxiety and puzzlement. She walked away in awe of the truth of what she had heard and received into her heart.
When I saw the woman again a couple years later I asked her about that incident. She said not long after the encounter with Elisabeth they found a wonderful house. But she realized in retrospect that God had used the time of not having a house and living in the homes of others to acclimate her and her family to a new culture. Those families had become some of their dearest friends and are to this day. God had known what they needed the most.
Chuck Swindoll writes: “God’s plans are beyond our understanding and too deep to explain. Perhaps God doesn’t explain Himself because knowing and understanding His way may not help us all that much. Stop and ask yourself: Does knowing why really help? Is the pain removed by knowing the cause? Ours is a world filled with devastating catastrophes.”
This includes terrorism, political turmoil and the recent financial ‘earthquakes’ affecting us all.
Chuck continues: “What bothers us is that He doesn’t act as we think He ought to act. He doesn’t do what our earthly dads would have done in similar circumstances. While I’m at it, where was He when His own Son was crucified? To the surprise of many, He was there all the time working out His divine plan for our salvation. As the process was running its course, Jesus’ own disciples didn’t get it—they were the most disillusioned people on the planet. Do you remember what they were thinking? They were wondering how in the world they could have believed in a hoax. From their perspective, their Master’s death didn’t make any sense."
Near the end of the book of Job, after all of the losses and calamities that devastated Job’s life, “do you know what Job finally sees? Job sees God, and that is enough. He doesn’t see answers. He is to the place where he doesn’t need answers. He has gotten a glimpse of the Almighty, and that is sufficient.” 1
Job trusts God with his life—all that He is and all that he has and doesn’t have.
As the difficult year of 2008 comes to an end, may we be like my friend who began to trust God without the house she thought she needed and may we be like Job who trusted God with His losses. May we not be ungrateful for what we don’t have…but may we have His grace to be thankful for what we do have.
And may we remember that God’s love for us “is in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen."2
1. Chuck Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives, p. 279, W Publishing Group,©2005.
2. J.B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English, Geoffrey Bles Publisher, p 361, ©1959.
I’ll never forget the time I invited Elisabeth Elliot to come speak to our women who were ministering in Eastern Europe when the Iron Curtain was still up and the countries were closed. The conference was in September, and 75 of us were meeting near Vienna in a classroom with tiered seating and desks. I was seated by Elisabeth during a break when an obviously anxious young woman came and stood in front of her. With a voice full of angst and stress she began to explain her situation to Elisabeth:
Woman: “My husband and I moved here from the states with our two children in January, and we have looked and looked and looked for a house to live in and after all these months we have been unable to find anything! We have been forced to live with first one family for a few months….and now we have been with yet another family for several months. School is about to start again, and we still haven’t found a house!”
Elisabeth (calmly): “You must not need a house”
That was the last response the young woman expected Elisabeth to have after her elaborate explanation of desperately needing a house and not finding one. I, too, was initially a bit taken aback by Elisabeth’s words.
Woman (astonished, mouth open, quizzically): “I must not need a house?”
Elisabeth (authoritatively): “You must not need a house… ‘MY God shall supply ALL YOUR NEEDS according to His riches in Christ Jesus’ (emphasis Elisabeth’s). If you needed a house, you would have a house.”
Woman (stunned): “I don’t have a house because I don’t need a house?” “I don’t have a house because I don’t need a house…I don’t have a house because I don’t need a
house…” (I was seeing her change before my very eyes as she repeated these unbelievable words…convincing herself and coming to the truth of Elisabeth’s words as she repeated them over and over.) “Wait till I tell my husband we don’t have a house because we don’t NEED a house! I’m going to go phone him right now!”
She had come to Elisabeth full of anxiety and puzzlement. She walked away in awe of the truth of what she had heard and received into her heart.
When I saw the woman again a couple years later I asked her about that incident. She said not long after the encounter with Elisabeth they found a wonderful house. But she realized in retrospect that God had used the time of not having a house and living in the homes of others to acclimate her and her family to a new culture. Those families had become some of their dearest friends and are to this day. God had known what they needed the most.
Chuck Swindoll writes: “God’s plans are beyond our understanding and too deep to explain. Perhaps God doesn’t explain Himself because knowing and understanding His way may not help us all that much. Stop and ask yourself: Does knowing why really help? Is the pain removed by knowing the cause? Ours is a world filled with devastating catastrophes.”
This includes terrorism, political turmoil and the recent financial ‘earthquakes’ affecting us all.
Chuck continues: “What bothers us is that He doesn’t act as we think He ought to act. He doesn’t do what our earthly dads would have done in similar circumstances. While I’m at it, where was He when His own Son was crucified? To the surprise of many, He was there all the time working out His divine plan for our salvation. As the process was running its course, Jesus’ own disciples didn’t get it—they were the most disillusioned people on the planet. Do you remember what they were thinking? They were wondering how in the world they could have believed in a hoax. From their perspective, their Master’s death didn’t make any sense."
Near the end of the book of Job, after all of the losses and calamities that devastated Job’s life, “do you know what Job finally sees? Job sees God, and that is enough. He doesn’t see answers. He is to the place where he doesn’t need answers. He has gotten a glimpse of the Almighty, and that is sufficient.” 1
Job trusts God with his life—all that He is and all that he has and doesn’t have.
As the difficult year of 2008 comes to an end, may we be like my friend who began to trust God without the house she thought she needed and may we be like Job who trusted God with His losses. May we not be ungrateful for what we don’t have…but may we have His grace to be thankful for what we do have.
And may we remember that God’s love for us “is in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen."2
1. Chuck Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives, p. 279, W Publishing Group,©2005.
2. J.B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English, Geoffrey Bles Publisher, p 361, ©1959.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Going Homemade Crazy....
After reviewing our budget recently we discovered that we are consistently going over our grocery/household items (cleaners, etc.) budget. It's not like we are getting a bunch of stuff we don't need, there just isn't enough money in that category but there is no other place to take it from. So....we decided that the only option is to find ways to cut our costs in that area. We have researched tons of options for groceries....grocery game, angel food, etc. and just haven't figured out yet the best one for us. That is still a work in process. However, we have had some great success with cleaners. A dear friend of mine started sending me e-mails with all kinds of suggestions on how to save money and one suggested a homemade laundry detergent. I was familiar with this mostly because I love 18 Kids and Counting and knew that the Duggars make their own laundry soap. Come to find out many of my friends do as well. As I shared this, someone else told me how to make homemade dish detergent, and just today I learned how to make a homemade toilet bowl cleaner! I haven't tried the laundry detergent yet but plan to soon, the dish detergent and the toilet bowl cleaner worked great! I've also used homemade window cleaner in the past and will be starting to do that again as well. I'll put the recipes at the bottom for anyone interested.
Another thing that I have done recently is purchase a package of kitchen cloths. We use tons of paper towels and the cloths were $5 for about 8 of them. We are hoping that this will greatly reduce the amount of paper towels we use. I never liked using cloths because it seemed germy to me but with 8 of them I can replace the cloth daily and still reduce my paper towel use and save money. Any other great suggestions out there? I'm listening....
Laundry Detergent
½ c. washing soda (sodium carbonate)
½ c. borax
1/3 bar of Fels-Naptha soap, grated
Heat 3 pts of water and add grated soap. Stir until melted then add soda and borax. Stir until dissolved and remove from heat. In a 2 gal. pail, pour 1 qt. hot water, then soap mixture. Top off the pail with cold water. Use ½ cup per load. Stir before using.
Dish detergent
1 Tbsp Borax (I use a heaping T)
1 Tbsp washing soda (again, heaping)
vinegar in the rinse thingy where the jet dry goes
Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Open up the bowl, sprinkle baking soda all around the inside, pour vinegar in and it will all start bubbling like crazy. Scrub, scrub, scrub and it's all clean!
Window Cleaner
I used this recipe:
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 gallon warm water
But I'm going to try this recipe next:
2 cups water
3 TBS vinegar
1/2 tsp dish detergent (liquid)
Another thing that I have done recently is purchase a package of kitchen cloths. We use tons of paper towels and the cloths were $5 for about 8 of them. We are hoping that this will greatly reduce the amount of paper towels we use. I never liked using cloths because it seemed germy to me but with 8 of them I can replace the cloth daily and still reduce my paper towel use and save money. Any other great suggestions out there? I'm listening....
Laundry Detergent
½ c. washing soda (sodium carbonate)
½ c. borax
1/3 bar of Fels-Naptha soap, grated
Heat 3 pts of water and add grated soap. Stir until melted then add soda and borax. Stir until dissolved and remove from heat. In a 2 gal. pail, pour 1 qt. hot water, then soap mixture. Top off the pail with cold water. Use ½ cup per load. Stir before using.
Dish detergent
1 Tbsp Borax (I use a heaping T)
1 Tbsp washing soda (again, heaping)
vinegar in the rinse thingy where the jet dry goes
Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Open up the bowl, sprinkle baking soda all around the inside, pour vinegar in and it will all start bubbling like crazy. Scrub, scrub, scrub and it's all clean!
Window Cleaner
I used this recipe:
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 gallon warm water
But I'm going to try this recipe next:
2 cups water
3 TBS vinegar
1/2 tsp dish detergent (liquid)
Friday, August 14, 2009
Moving on....
OK on goes the blog.....Today is Friday and Monday we start school! It has been such a fun summer. We have spent day after day hanging out at the pool, celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, babies, etc., took a 2 1/2 week trip home, had friends and family visit us here, and overall just relaxed and made the most of our summer!
Here are the boys at their birthday party with some of their buddies
My family at my cousin's wedding
The kids and their friends on top of Pinnacle Mountain
The Tull family during their visit to Little Rock!
This year the boys will be using the same curriclum that we used last year. Clayton will be in 5th grade and Evan will be in 2nd grade. They will take art classes and science classes outside of our home. Evan also began violin and loves it, and Larry is teaching Clayton to play bass.
Larry and I aren't missing out on our chance to learn more this year either. Larry will begin a year of classes offered by FamilyLife called the Institute of Biblical Studies. His first class will be Principles of Inductive Bible Study. This will be the first time since high school that Larry has taken a class that involves actual study and testing! I think he is nervous but this is a wonderful opportunity that FamilyLife offers us to take classes from seminary professors that we can use to earn a certificate in Biblical studies.
In mid September I will start BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) again and will be leading a small group. I'm nervous and excited. We will study John, and if it is 1/2 as good as the study of the life of Moses that we did last year, I am in for a great year.
So off I go to the last weekend of freedom which will start with a date night tonight :)!
Here are the boys at their birthday party with some of their buddies
My family at my cousin's wedding
The kids and their friends on top of Pinnacle Mountain
The Tull family during their visit to Little Rock!
This year the boys will be using the same curriclum that we used last year. Clayton will be in 5th grade and Evan will be in 2nd grade. They will take art classes and science classes outside of our home. Evan also began violin and loves it, and Larry is teaching Clayton to play bass.
Larry and I aren't missing out on our chance to learn more this year either. Larry will begin a year of classes offered by FamilyLife called the Institute of Biblical Studies. His first class will be Principles of Inductive Bible Study. This will be the first time since high school that Larry has taken a class that involves actual study and testing! I think he is nervous but this is a wonderful opportunity that FamilyLife offers us to take classes from seminary professors that we can use to earn a certificate in Biblical studies.
In mid September I will start BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) again and will be leading a small group. I'm nervous and excited. We will study John, and if it is 1/2 as good as the study of the life of Moses that we did last year, I am in for a great year.
So off I go to the last weekend of freedom which will start with a date night tonight :)!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
To blog or not to blog....
So....here is my question of the day. Is it worth continuing with this blog? I feel lately like I post something on here and then just go to facebook and post the same exact thing. I also know that most of the people who comment on here are also on Facebook. I'm not opposed to posting on both if it is a useful way to spend my time. I'm wondering if there is anyone out there reading this, whether on facebook or not, who can give me a reason to keep blogging.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Evan's 7th birthday!
We just got back from St. Louis so it's time for some blog updates! We had a wonderful time visiting with famiy and friends as well as attending my couisn's wedding. A highlight of our visit was getting to celebrate Evan's birthday "back home"! His morning started with presents and then we headed to the zoo which was his choice for his birthday, mainly because they have a new exhibit that allows you to pet stingrays! We had tons of fun at the zoo visiting our favorite exhibits that we haven't seen in a couple of years. Evan got to pick a restaurant for dinner (O'Charley's) and a treat for dessert (Fritz's). Then to top off the day Larry's dad, who has his pilot's license, took me, Evan, and Clayton up for a sunset flight in his plane. Evan got the front seat since he was the birthday boy! Here are some pictures from his special day!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
CELEBRATE!
Yesterday was Clayton's 10th birthday! Double digits! Just a few days before his birthday we found out that his best buddy Devin and his family would be staying at our house for 2 nights and then leaving for Omaha on the morning of his birthday. About the same time I found out that Larry's whole family was considering coming to Little Rock to surprise Clayton on his birthday. I told them it would be a great encouragement to him since he would probably be sad.
My mother in law came up a day early. When she rang the doorbell we sent Clayton to answer it. He opened the door and saw presents and balloons sitting on the porch. When he walked outside to get them my mother in law jumped out and said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" He was very surprised! The next morning Devin left and it was quick so he seemed to handle it OK. The rest of us set about to clean the house and prepare for 4 more visitors without Clayton knowing. Around lunch time Larry said he needed to run an errand and ran to pick up his dad, sister (Val), her fiance (Philip), and Philip's daughter (Val's step daughter) Kennedie at the airport. When they all came through the door Clayton was shocked! When the shock wore off we all had a great time catching up, playing out side, and making a big dinner. After dinner we went to Clayton's choice for his birthday treat, Maggie Moos! Then we all headed back home and decided to go swimming. My boys were thrilled to get to swim until the sun went down and the lights came on at the pool! That night Clayton said that it was one of his best birthdays ever and that at the beginning of the day he thought it would be just another normal day. Boy did we change that!
Clayton's new shirt!
Maggie Moos!
Val, Philip and Kennedie
SWIMMING! A great way to end a birthday!
Today we shift from celebrating our sweet 10 year old to celebrating Larry. What a blessing he is to me and the boys. We all absolutely adore him! He is an amazing father and husband and it is a joy to honor him today!
My mother in law came up a day early. When she rang the doorbell we sent Clayton to answer it. He opened the door and saw presents and balloons sitting on the porch. When he walked outside to get them my mother in law jumped out and said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" He was very surprised! The next morning Devin left and it was quick so he seemed to handle it OK. The rest of us set about to clean the house and prepare for 4 more visitors without Clayton knowing. Around lunch time Larry said he needed to run an errand and ran to pick up his dad, sister (Val), her fiance (Philip), and Philip's daughter (Val's step daughter) Kennedie at the airport. When they all came through the door Clayton was shocked! When the shock wore off we all had a great time catching up, playing out side, and making a big dinner. After dinner we went to Clayton's choice for his birthday treat, Maggie Moos! Then we all headed back home and decided to go swimming. My boys were thrilled to get to swim until the sun went down and the lights came on at the pool! That night Clayton said that it was one of his best birthdays ever and that at the beginning of the day he thought it would be just another normal day. Boy did we change that!
Clayton's new shirt!
Maggie Moos!
Val, Philip and Kennedie
SWIMMING! A great way to end a birthday!
Today we shift from celebrating our sweet 10 year old to celebrating Larry. What a blessing he is to me and the boys. We all absolutely adore him! He is an amazing father and husband and it is a joy to honor him today!
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