My special sister

I am blessed by my big sister. She is THE most thoughtful and tender hearted person I know. 

I have this note placed on the inside of one of my kitchen cabinets to remind me of her. She left this note in the guest bedroom after she came to visit earlier this year. 

This post is dedicated to her. You are beautiful, smart, loving, and kind. Thank you for being so real, and a beautiful extension of God's hand!!!

Not only are you an English major, poet, and mom, you are my best friend and I love you SO much! 

Masterpiece

This morning our devotions spoke of how God has made us His masterpieces. He has formed us in His image, all unique. God did His very best when He made us. Now He wants us to do our very best for Him. So what does that mean? How can we do our best for God? Maybe we can be helpful in doing our chores? How about expressing kind words? What about a loving act of service for someone else to bless their life? 

We can remember this and praise God when we pray and thank Him for making us the way we are. We can also daily ask Him to help us do the best we can. 

"We are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." Ephesians 2:10

Ouch!

Big brother stepped on toy. Ouch! That hurts! If you're a parent, I'm sure you've been there! Some of those toys have sharp angles/edges. As my dad would always say whenever we had an owie like this, "Darnit toy!!! (or whatever the object is), Dooooonnnnnnnn'tttt do that!!!". I think he did/said that so the focus would then be on that toy/object and not the owie. 

Dr. Mama to the rescue! While it's not a major injury and it's going a little beyond on my part to wrap it, it's fun to play pretend and give him lots of love and attention. I'm blessed to be able to stay at home right now and take care of these minor owies. My degree as Dr. Mom  comes from the best training in the world, the Bible. It has a prescription for everything; from headaches & heartaches, and simple owies on the foot, it's my go to mommy (woman, friend, wife, parent, disciple) guide!  

I took full advantage of the owie and saw the  many practical lessons in this! As a mom, I get so excited over these natural teachable moments when they happen!!! You can't plan this kind of learning & that's what makes it so special. 

1) When we don't pick up our toys after we're done playing with them we may accidentally step on them and hurt ourselves.

2) Mommy & Daddy loves you and will always be here to help you if you have an owie. 

3) God is our ultimate healer and we can come to Him anytime and bring our requests to him no matter if it's a hurt foot or help changing our attitude or help with a decision, the examples there could go on and on!  

4) When someone is hurt it's nice to stop what you're doing and go over and ask them if they are okay and if they need help. (While this may seem obviously, if I said this at any point in our day it wouldn't stick as much as I believe it will now as I lead by example and stop what I'm doing to purposefully take care of him and love on him and share this tender moment with him.) 

JUST a stay at home mom

My eyes are noticing a lot of people these days that are stay at home moms AND _______. Stay at home moms AND successful paid bloggers. Stay at home moms AND fitness professionals thriving in their home business. Stay at home moms AND homeschooling 5 other children. Stay at home mom AND worship leader. Stay at home mom AND________.

I was pointed to this broadcast http://www.focusonthefamily.com/radio.aspx?ID=%7BBAF84D51-4E4B-48B5-A73E-057AF3B26058%7D

In which I stayed up tonight, well now 12:51am... I guess it's the morning... to listen to. I got some really good points but still feel this tug inside me like I want to do more! I want to be a mom AND....!!! 

In all honesty, ever since the beginning of 2013 I have felt the Spirit say, "Be content where I have you." I go back and forth, trusting and then asking God for more. Every time I come back to ask for more God has told me the same thing, "Be content where I have you." Rats!!! So I walk around the mountain again, and make sure God hasn't changed His mind and logically try to argue with myself, well God does tell us in the Bible to ask and let our requests be made known to the Lord.... So umm... Lord, how about now??? I know my Heavenly Father loves me and gently reminds me, "Be content with where I have you."  

Tonight I'm back at the mountain. Getting back to this broadcast I just listened to. There were some really good takeaways in Erin's interview. My heart still just felt like well she talks about investing in her family and such and have that kingdom vision, but as the program stated she has a blog, so there we go! She has something else she's accomplished! Which lead me to check out her blog. So I google her name. Erin Davis. I click on a link that brings me to this. http://www.erindavis.org/putting-an-end-to-spiritual-envy/

I read through the title and thought two things. My first thought was, this is exactly what I'm going through!!! And then as I read on and felt the conviction set in, my flesh started to say Hey! This is not what I came here to read! I came here to see all the many roles she has to compare myself with her and say, wow not only do I not have a blog, but I also don't have x, y, and z. (I can't tell you what x, y, and z are because I refuse to let myself look at her page with a comparison attitude and a selfish heart. 

So for tonight, I praise God I'm not alone. I know many other moms and women struggle with this and I know when I let The Lord lead, then will I find my peace and my "stay at home mom AND ______" role. I praise God for his patience in this journey. I see here tonight that my heart is not where it needs to be and I am thankful that God doesn't give me what I want when I want it because He knows what's best for me more than I do, and so ultimately I want what He wants for my life. 

On a side note I feel Him preparing me to not be so moved by my feelings or circumstances around me and as I go through different scenarios in life, they are like little mini-tests of trust and faith. And I don't feel like God gives me a pass or fail grade at the end. I don't think there really is an end. I hope to never arrive because I want to always need Jesus and although I know that in my head, it doesn't come so naturally to my heart. Jesus laid down His life for me and I must do the same for Him, I need to not be so dependent on me, rather lean on, press in, get intimate with my Heavenly Father & keep my eyes focused on Him. 

Apple stamp

Decorating our letter of the day, today it's J. We have to top of the jelly fish and the "J" is the bottom. We will add tentacles with some ribbon that can dangle and move after the paint dries. 

So far we have colored our animal letter of the day with crayons or markers, but today we broke out the paint. We added in apples to make the paint part a little different than just regular finger painting. We don't own any stamps, so I took a couple apples that were going bad & we cut open an apple and sliced it a few different ways. 

The stamping with apples didn't last long. 

"Icky sticky" 

Learning    IS   f-u-n!!! 

Cracks and Lacks

Did you know there are many things you can't do? 

You're probably laughing, thinking ugh, yeah Becky, thanks for reminding me! Well, I remind you to let you in on a secret!....

Would it shock you to know that I think there are a few things God can't do either? Don't get me wrong, let's go to the scriptures!!! 

See!!! Isn't that awesome!!! I somehow feel a little closer to God after reading that he can't do a few things too, and you know what? He can't do all those thins because He is Holy & perfect. And I believe He has called us to be set apart, but by no means does He call us to be perfect. He does call us to live for Him and to call upon Him where we lack. So it's not an excuse to slack to recognize we are imperfect, rather where we are imperfect God fills in those cracks and gets the glory!  

So be encouraged today that God called you. He loves you. He will never let you go. He won't abandon you. He IS perfect. He IS Holy. He will make a way. There's nothing He CAN'T do! 

Discourage vs Encourage

This morning my babes and I were learning about how we can become discouraged in this world. 

Discouragement can come when playing with each other, becoming frustrated with ourselves or our situation and hopes for the future.

But Jesus has come so that we may be encouragement and hope in this life. 

Specifically we read through Psalm 42. We talked about how the man that wrote it was discouraged and how the devil sometimes tries to steal our joy. Kind of like the Shape Bandit steals shapes from Umicity or Swiper likes to take things from Dora and her friends. 

I took it a step further and opened my study Bible where the boys and I read when discouragement overwhelms us, first we should examine our thought life. If we have been thinking negative, self defeating thoughts, then it's no wonder we get discouraged. Think discouraging thoughts and become discouraged. Think condemning thoughts and you will be condemned, and so on. But why not change your thinking and be set free!! There's an example in there I read that I have been looking for something  to start my day and have it have an affirming, positive, authoritative, applicable prayer statement to set my mind. If you have an suggestions you've either come across or put together yourself, I'd love to hear them!!! You can either email me or leave it in the comments below! Onto the prayer from my study Bible. 

"Well, things are going a little slowly, but, thank God, I am making some progress. I am sure glad I'm on the right path that will lead me to freedom. I had a rough day yesterday. I chose wrong thinking. Father, forgive me, and help me to keep on keeping on. I made a mistake, but at least that is one mistake I won't have to make again. This is a new day. You love me, Lord. Your mercy is new every morning. I refuse to be discouraged. I refuse to be condemned. Father, the Bible says that you do not condemn me. You sent Jesus to die for me. I'll be fine --Today will be a great day! I ask You to help me chooseright thoughts today."

I already feel a lift in my spirit after that, how about you? I love the power of Jesus's name! I praise God His mercies are new every morning and we get second, third, fourth, fifth, and many times over to grow in Christ everyday. He sees our heart and knows our thoughts, may those thoughts be solely and completely fixed on Him. 

Struggles for you? For me?

Ever wonder what God is trying to teach you through something? Some days are harder for each of us depending on sleep, the kids mood, our other relationship, illness, our own hang ups, etc. Yet, in the midst of everything God is still there. Have you been at that cross roads where you feel like you can't possibly take anymore? What do you say to yourself? What's your internal dialogue? I can't do this? I'm sick an tired of living this way? Something has to change? 

Do you ever talk to God about it? Seriously pour out your wharf to him and ask Him what his purpose is? Is it for you? Is it beyond you? Is it something you need to give up? Something you need to change? Something you need to believe? 

Where is God trying to work but you won't let Him in? As you sit and ponder these thoughts my heart is with you and I join you in prayer seeking the Lord for HIS will for our lives and that His plan would unfold and we will be open and accepting to it.