Monday, December 14, 2009
the new toy
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Lee's birthday party 1-3
Friday, November 6, 2009
it is so nice when we are clear minded and self-controlled because it is then we are able to pray and love, and that love allows us to help others sin be covered and even stopped in some cases. if eli is consumed with anger and jealousy he will not be clear minded and will lose himself to those emotions which will be seen in a lack of self-control. but if he is clear minded he is able to choose to pay attention to lee's needs and wants and as a result she will spend less time throwing fits, less time sinning- because that is all a fit is- giving full vent to your anger. (verse 8) if eli chooses to be hospitable in his 3 year old way- turning on the light for her- and he does it without complainging he is bringing glory to God through his obedience to the word of God. (verse 9) if he uses his gift of height to reach the light for her he is administering God's grace to her. (verse 10) if eli chooses to speak to her softly and says only things that he knows God would say, and serves Lee like he knows Jesus would serve Lee, Eli a 3 year old can bring praise to God. and eli does know what words God would say and what ways Jesus serves because he reads his bible everyday with me. This is what makes life amazing, watching my children walk in truth. unfortunatly it is also what makes life so hard, watching my children reject the truth when they chose sin- like right now as i type they are fighting over a matchbox car, apparently the red one with the t-top is the best and neither is willing to sacrifice for the other so screaming and fighting errupts, so now it's back to an open bible to see what God has to say about sacrifice and sharing.
hopefully when they are all grown up i will have learned half as much as i have taught them through the Word of God. my prayer is this blog encourages you as you raise your children for the Lord by working in your heart first and then allowing you to pass what you learn to them, or if you don't have children to take these lessons into your own heart and be changed by the word of God. Please write me how you are using his word in your lives so that i may be encouraged also. to God be the glory!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
achan's door
but the lesson we walked away from this with was mainly about the"door". you see during the long story part, Achan had opportunity after opportunity to come clean, but he didn't. that is the same as Achan standing outside a door that has a sign on it stating, "come on in with your sin and you'll come out sin free, forgiven and changed forever by a gracious God". For any number of reasons Achan chose to not walk through that door. we came up with maybe he liked his stuff more than he liked the idea of being forgiven but not having his stuff anymore, or maybe he thought the sign on the door was a trick or a lie. but whatever his reasons he died in his sin and never walked through the perverbial door.
what does this have to do with our lives?
1. for me i realize I've been through the door, i've been saved. but what i forget sometimes is that as i load down my back with everyday sin i can unload that inside the door too. salvation is a one time deal but sin dumping is an everyday activity. when i don't dump my sin it gets heavier and heavier. this is what we see in the "hypocrites" in the church- you know how everyone says "the church is full of' hypocrites so why'd i wanna join that group?" that leads to point 2...
2. a friend of mine asked me once, "why would i want to be a christian i know a bunch and i know they cry themselves to sleep everynight empty just like the rest of the world only they have to get up on sunday and pretend they don't." what my friend saw was a bunch of christians heavy laden with sin the've not confessed, sin they haven't walked through the door with. they are just like the world. but i told my friend, "don't judge my God for his followers not following His directions. God has told us His burden is light. none of us should walk around hunched over we should all be dancing."
3. we have another group to look at in relation to the door... they are like kids lighting bags of poop on fire, ringing the door bell and running away. these are those of us, who before understanding salvation see the door, see the sign and want to test it but not commit to it, maybe even say a prayer in hopes it'll get us out of going to hell. so we drop our sin near the door, ring the bell and wait to see what happens. when noone answers the bell, we assume noone is home to see our flaming poop, therefore the sign on the door was indeed a lie. but this is not the case, the sign is true the sign is Jesus-" I am the way the truth and the life..." we just aren't reading it right- we need to go in the door.
4. this brings us the last group, my favourite group, a group i pray i am a part of now and as long as i breath... while the kid is sitting dejected watching his poop bag burn out a girl with a small bag (sin of the last minute, day, hour or whatever) walks through the door, the door closes then reopens. she emerges. she is now empty handed and dancing. she shines like a light in the world and the poop by her feet is of no concern to her it is just darkness. the kid who put the poop there is astonished and decides to pick up his bag and go through, having seen the door work he knows it's not a lie and he knows what's on the other side is way better than his bag of poop. he goes through, comes back out and he is dancing and smiling. the girl tells him, now don't forget where this door is, come back to it every time you sin and you can have this joy over and over. he asks her if he can go with her to her house so she can tell him more, she points a foot away to a house and says, "this is where i live. He told me to abide in Him and He'd abide in me, so i built my house as close to the door as i could. when you're ready, me and my friend can help you build here too.
this my friends is true christianity! i am so glad i heard that sermon. i am so glad i was able to talk it through with my friend. i am so glad the door is there and it is real. and i am praying i will keep my bag very small by going to Him in prayer everytime and never letting it get to the point where i am so heavy i can't walk. i have been there and He has forgiven me and i am here to walk with my head held high giving glory to God.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
room for 3 on my lap
All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. hebrews 12:11
"You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up." deut. 11:18-19
it is so nice to be able to say, "what does /god's word say about______" rather than just saying (or yelling) stop fighting, no yelling, cut that out.
Thank You God for giving me the instuction to teach them about You. everything is about you oh, Lord! may these 3 children grow up to love You, may they be lights in this dark world, behaving differently beacuse they hold themselves to Your standards and chose to live in your safe boudaries.
Friday, September 25, 2009
old 2 me kids in my new 2 me truck
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
an "ah ha!" moment
i want david to understand me because i want God to understand me. and God does understand me and david doesn't and so i get mad at david for not being God- how dumb. i mean they write this kind of stuff in most every woman's bible study-"don't expect your man to be God, he's not" and "God is our Husband and He is the One we are to be fulfilled by" and don't look to your husband for things only God can do". "your husband and you are a picture of Christ and the church and so it's what God wants your marriage to look like" when i love and submit to my husand i am acting like Jesus wants the church to be and when david leads and is willing to sacrifice and even lay down his life for me he looks like Jesus. this is from Ephesians 5:22-33
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
but i just got it for myself, at least in this area. stop expecting your husband to be omniscient, katrina, and to understand you like God understands you, instead worship God for how awesome He is that He can do what no man can do. instead of complaing to david that he doesn't understand you, pray to God and thank Him that He can. replace the bad thinking with the good thinking (put off/put on). God is my husband, and He is a perect husband. David is my husband, but he is not God, so he's not perfect but i do have to say that by God's grace and power in David's life i do have a pretty-good-imperfect-husband who i can go to the throne of grace with in prayer and know that we are both understood by our God who "knows what we have need of before we ask" and who "knows the heart of man". God is good!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
he'll be an engineer yet!
so here's my little engineer. he did this almost entirely on his own while i supervised lee's antics. i wondered "what is that quiet boy doing, it can't be good" but it was! aside from the knot i made on the "busket", he engineered this on his own. including "tying" the hemp rope to the garage door and between the first and second video he is doing course correction because in case you can't hear him, he says, " if i hit andy's car that would be a sin". way to look out for other's stuff while embarking on a scientific breakthrough o.c.e.a (or however that acronym is spelled) would be proud, i know Jesus is pleased, but i'm not sure if davinci would care. the last video is me trying to get him to repeat what he said while not being video taped-figures, all the good stuff is when the camera is off. but the jist is- i told him maybe he should push the busket back to the starting line ya know since it has wheels and all... his response- "but then i will step on the rope and that is not safe, it will cause me to fall down and hurt myself"- seriously those were his words. who talks like this? not "it'll trip me", but a diatribe instead, oh and of course he acted it out as well in slow motion as he described why my pushing idea was ludicrous and his carrying method was far superior.
the school of knights is in full swing
occasionaly i will ask the boy a rediculous question and he will respond with are you serious, to which i promptly say of course i'm serious. at which point he astoutly says alive serious? or dead serious? i always reply alive serious who wants to be dead?
here are some pics and videos of our fearless knight.