Ladies, Ladies…All the Ladies!!

1.  I was cleaning the toilet in the boys’ bathroom one day when Will said, “Mommy, you should get a toilet wand…it will last for 24 flushes.”

2.  Chris was helping the kids brush their teeth last night and Will asked, ” Daddy what kind of toothpaste is this?  Oh, Crest is #1 recommended to protect your teeth for 10 nights.”

3.  Your children begin using phrases like…”let’s swing by and get…”  or when asking them what they would like for dinner your 2 yr old responds with “pick up Zaxbys”.

4.  When you say that you actually ARE going to pick up food and what food would you like, they begin naming restaurants.  However, I say… oh guys it MUST have a drive thru… then they are able to list all the restaurants with drive thrus… and Josh, having an “ahh, haa” moment, finger pointing to the sky exclaims, “and STAWBUCKS has a drive thru!!!!!!”  this is very sad.

5.  The children refer to Coffee as coffee… but a frappucino to them is called a “coffee soda”.  Why I asked?  “Because it has a straw, mommy!!”  (duh!)

6.  Josh counts in Spanish.

7. Will wanted to show Chris this building that he had made and parking lot with all of his cars.  Chris said, “Hey that’s cool!”  Will said, “That’s Walmart, Daddy.”

8.  The boys are CONSTANTLY checking their email on their toy computers.

Well… it’s tuesday… and I already feel like I’ve been through an entire week….my brain is fried….I’m exhausted… my back is aching….I’m just sort of “done”…. I really have a lot that I want to write… but where is the time to think?  WHEN is the time to think?  Presently I hear screaming from upstairs… Will has a friend over today…I’m assuming that it is happy screams…

ok..just in….I ran upstairs… it wasn’t happy screams…Will had taken his friend’s lasso that he brought with him (note to self…lasso probably isn’t a child proof toy)…and had Josh attached to the bed. All is well…no strangulations. 

Anyway… being that it is crazy right now… and I sort of want to scream.. “HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO WRITE ABOUT JESUS WITH ALL THIS RUCKUS!!!!”  ….I’ll just write this… it sort of sums up how this week is going…. I know that in my little “purpose” blog I was writing about how there are few accolades in “mommyhood”…..well I stand corrected…today I was bestowed a compliment… and here is how it played out.

It was quiet upstairs and I heard a little discussion…

“Will, is everything ok?  Where’s Sam?”

“Mommy…sshhhhh…I’m giving him his privacy.”

“I’m pooping” Sam yells from the bathroom. “I need someone to wipe me!!!!!”

Will responds…….”OOO!!  My mom can do THAT, Sam… She’s really good at wiping!!!  MOMMEEEEEE….. SAM NEEDS YOU!!!!!!”

Ah, there you have it ladies…I feel so encouraged today… I’m good at wiping butts.  I’ve always wanted that skill… I mean, I remember as a little girl lying in my bed at night and thinking… “Oh, Lord… if only I could be good at wiping bottoms….if it be your Will….”

ok, I know… that sounded a little disrespectful…all joking aside… it made me laugh… and I’m thankful for that today!  Life can be SOOO funny at times and children really can be so entertaining.  ok…I’m outta here…hopefully one day I’ll write something that will encourage you more than saying all of you are good at wiping bottoms…although… I think I’m probably the best……according to my son!

   We are having a great Sunday.  Church was GREAT for me and I have a lot on my heart that I know the Lord is wanting to teach me this week… so I have a LOT that I am going to want to write about.  Anyhoo.. my sweet friend Sarah sent these pictures to me.  We had her, her husband–Michael, and their little daughter, Phoebe, over for dinner on Friday night for a cook-out.  These come to you courtesy of Michael Thomas…(thanks for practicing your talents in photography on my kids!!!!)

     —-Chris didn’t want me to include this pic…but first of all…I had to…I mean..is this not my sweet husband in his element?  But all joking aside… I love it because if you look a little closer you will notice we have a little daddy’s girl on our hands. 

   –I can’t stand this shirt that Will insists on wearing….oh, well… I promised him that if he would wear something nice for school pictures, then I would let him wear whatever he wanted…so he’s been wearing this for the past three days.  Praise the Lord he didn’t wear this to church this morning.  :) 

Well, I really have nothing much to write about today… but I had some time so I wanted to give a shout out to my peeps… :)  jk!  We had a pretty good week… really uneventful… the boys just finished their last week of swimming lessons… Josh was devastated…Will, on the other hand…who always HATED the idea of getting ready and going but LOVED it while he was there said this after I told him on Thursday that today was the last swimming lesson…..

“Oh mommy, Thank you, I’ve ALWAYS wanted to take no swimming lessons.”

All month I’ve been telling him that this is an opportunity to take swimming lessons and a gift.  Can he not remember crying like a baby on the edge of the pool last year at a birthday party when all the other kids were swimming and he had to have his “floaties”….I suppose he didn’t.  Anyway… so I had “opportunity” on the brain today… and it reminds me of my very first song I ever wrote…it’s called “Opportunity”….you know… some of the things that we hate… some of the things that we see as trials…as tribulations… later we realize..they were all opportunities for Christ to grow us.

                opportunity–jenny pruitt 

I will delight in the opportunity

for you to mold me, to shape and sculpt me

increase my faith in times I fear you’ve left this place

no I will not frown in discouragement

thy will be done, oh Lord

I trust your plans for me

for I know your love will hold me should this hurt prolong

for when I am weak… then I’m strong

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength

so I will not worry about what tomorrow brings

I’ll set my heart and mind on the more important things

on your love and what that means to me

remind me, Lord, that you are here through it all

and when I am weak, then I’m strong

but if this mountain is too high to climb…I’ll just climb into your arms

’cause I know your love will hold me should this hurt prolong

for when I am weak,

yes, even though I’m weak

I am strong

…………so I will delight in the opportunity……..

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Therfore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, indifficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong. “  2 Corinthians 12:9-10

whew!  It’s been a crazy week.  I haven’t been able to write since Sunday!  Monday was difficult.. and yesterday Chris was off so I wanted to have a family day.  Last night we all ate supper outside..it was SOOO beautiful.  The kids just played after dinner in the backyard..running around and laughing… Chris and I were literally belly laughing at some of the things they were doing.  Josh is Chris IN EVERY WAY…and he’s hilarious! So anyway…here I am this morning.  I only have a few minutes…then again do I ever have more than a few minutes (I need to stop saying that)….but the Lord has been teaching me a lot in these past few days and one particular scripture has been in the forefront of my mind….

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.  The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers, you are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:7-9)

If I’m going to be honest, I’d have to say this has truly been one of the most difficult years for me.  I am thankful for all that the Lord has given me here in Birmingham, but it’s still not home….it’s still hard being away from family… it’s still lonely at times.  I was reading one morning and came across this passage… and I can’t get the visual image of us as “God’s field” out of my mind…..and I can’t help but focus on the meaning of purpose.  Afterall… isn’t that what we want? Don’t things seem more bearable if there is a greater purpose involved?  I mean…when I’m disciplining my children ALL DAY LONG….when we don’t really do anything but build blocks or ride big wheels…when we just watch movies… I want purpose in those things… things that are taking all of my time.. yet seem to bare no immediate fruit.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we sort of “clocked in” each morning and someone came to our house and said..”hey… good mommy… you are so wise the way you explained that… or WOW!  you are so creative… how did you come up with that?  … you know… ever thought about that?  Wouldn’t that bring some purpose?  Wouldn’t that lighten the load? A “Patted Back” for me ALWAYS lightens my load.  :) 

And there is the issue of the hard times….couldn’t we endure to storm knowing the purpose in it and the reason behind such trials?  Isn’t that part of the struggle…God where have I gone wrong?  Where have I missed your guidance?  So I’m dwelling on purpose today… and what I’m realizing is that our purpose is His purpose.  We are His field as Paul writes in Corinthians. 

My grandfather was a farmer.  We LOVED to go and spend a weekend out on the farm.  There were SO MANY fields… some plowed in little rows… some bursting forth with grain… and as always the field beside my grandparents house was their vegetable garden full of a bounty of  delicious..”good for you” food. But neither field was offered a choice in what they would be used for.  Neither field was given the option in which season they would labor.  Neither field had any say in the way their rows were plowed… or the type of fertilizer used… or how they would be watered.  Nor would any field be able to hold on to their hard earned fruit….for at any moment, the farmer could come and harvest.  They had one simple role–to learn to grow with what they were watered and fed.  And the farmer had one simple role… to water and feed what needed to be grown in every necessary way to yield THE BEST crop. The field that sits dormant for an entire year may not find a purpose in that…but the farmer knows that sometimes fields need a break from planting… to rebuild the soil.  The field glorifying in its ‘amber waves of grain’ must soon be shred to be of use for others. 

So today I’m finding my answers to all of my “why” questions. And those answers rest in the fact that I’m a dirty field for my Lord–to be tilled, plowed, watered, planted, and harvested… in any and every season.   My purpose is His purpose…and in that ….I see the greater purpose in all I do—one season at a time. ( that’s all this little field can handle!)

Be encouraged my sweet friends!  This is encouraging to me.  The seasons come and go…they are ever-changing… Christ is ever building in us and making us more like himself…..Rest in this today.  And be who He needs you to be in THIS season—-be a mom, be a wife, or a mentor, or a friend, or a teacher, or a care-giver, or a comforter, or a listener, or a prayer warrior….or just a trusting servant of the King—THERE IS PURPOSE!

With this in mind, I pray “that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith…….so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (2Thessalonians 1:11-12)

Bless you all!