Ladies, Ladies…All the Ladies!!

“But what about you?” he asked.  “Who do you say I am?”  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Matthew 16:15-16

I heard an excellent speaker at bible study this morning.  I really left convicted, yet overjoyed.  One thing she said really hit home with me.  It went something like this, “How you respond to the struggles and sufferings in life is often determined by your theology.”  And I just couldn’t stop thinking about that.  What do I believe?  What do YOU believe?  How do you respond when life hurls its share of disappointments and uncertainties your way?  Are you fearful?  Are you worried?  Do you feel abandoned?  When we begin to embrace such emotions, we believe Satan’s lies.  If we truly believe that Christ is the Son of the living God-that He died for our sins and is able to make us holy and blameless before Him-words like fear, worry, abandonment, and shame should not be in our vocabulary.  When we react in these ways, what are we saying about what we truly believe?  

As it is stated in 1 Peter 4:12-13, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”  Dear friends, do not be surprised when life gets hard.  It will!  It is!  But those in Christ have a renewed strength… those is Christ will run and not grow weary.  Will we suffer? Yes!  Will things be hard? Yes!  What makes the believer of Jesus different from the unbeliever is NOT his circumstances, but his response to his circumstances.  Jesus truly is our peace and comfort and LONGS to be the Lord of our lives.  We must allow Him to be that.  We must believe that He is true to His word.  Before you begin to respond to difficult circumstances through resources of your own..…grasp for Christ!  He IS who he says he is.  Believe in Him.  Trust Him.  Place your faith in Him.  He is love and His love for you runs deeper than the oceans and higher than the heavens.  You can trust Him with your life.  He is the answer that Simon Peter gave-He IS the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Now I must ask, ”what about you?”  Jesus longs to know, “Who do you say I am?”  Live out what you believe. 

Emma Faye is finally pulling up on things.  I know, I know… this is something she should have been doing LONG before her 1st birthday… it’s taken me three times, but I’ve finally learned that children are going to do things when they are good and ready…OR my husband will just evaluate them and then we’ll take them to physical therapy.

As much as I am happy for this new milestone, I must say it is my least favorite.  I just cringe as I watch her fall …..bamming her chin on the coffee table… ramming her head against the edge of the crib… or just plain collapsing on the floor.  I hate these things, but I know they are going to happen… they do happen… and I race over to kiss her boo-boos and dry her tears.  It’s painful..yet there is something inside all of our children that compels them to continue the climb……perfect the skill.  What is that?

I have had a difficult day today.  I’ve been evaluating my parenting today… and Satan LOVES it when I do that.  Anytime I’m evaluating ANYTHING I do in my life… He loves it because time spent evaluating MY-self means less time focusing on MY- Savior. I wish amidst the downward spiral of self mutilation, I could see it for what it really is…Satan’s ploy to get me down and keep me down.  I was watching Emma Faye crawling around the room and suddenly saw myself crawling around in my walk of faith.  I dare say I’m walking at this point in my life.  Sometimes in those “mountaintop moments”  I’ve managed to stand holding the crib rails with all of my might… but more contemplating on My-self and my accomplishments… I tumble to the floor.  So today I feel like I’ve just busted my chin on the coffee table.  Today, I’d rather sit and cry and whine about my failures to stand than try to stand again……..yet something inside propels me…something compels me to try again…this is my walk with the Lord….or crawl, I should say.  I praise the Lord, He is that voice.  And that’s how I see grace.  Not the permission to continue sinning against our Lord… but HIS constant commission to try and pull up again.  His AIDING us in that.  Satan wants to tell us that we teach ourselves how to walk.  We accomplish these milestones on our own.  We raise our children on our own…We think we create their personalities by offering up multiple “opportunities” for them….or “exposures.”  When am I going to get it?  We are handed these PEOPLE.  Just because they are small…doesn’t mean they can’t think or feel…Like I said… Satan LOVES for me to waste away in my failures and BATHE in what I think are MY accomplishments….when anything good comes out of me OR my children…it is the LORD who is due the glory! 

This is where my heart has parked tonight.  I’m bruised…but I’m trying again….I’m reaching up…I’ve got one foot anchoring myself… almost there…nope… I fall….I try again.  My friends.. I’ve said this before–and I’ll say it again……God cares about the process, not the perfection.  Continue in Christ: in the good and the bad… in sickness and in health..in riches and in poverty.  I pray we will hear Him calling us out to continue….”Continue on, my child.”

“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. “ 

Philippians 3:12-14

oh my goodness… will my brain ever clear enough so I can write again something worthy up on this site.  My goodness.  There, I say it again.  I have no idea what the deal is. ….. Just don’t really have anything in particular going on.  I will say this, though… perhaps this may explain some things.  This morning I vaguely remember being awakened in the middle of the night when Chris got off of his shift.

Today at breakfast I probed…”honey, did you shake me or wake me up last night?  Was I snoring?”

“Oh, yeah…(chuckle, chuckle)…ummm… I thought you were dead.  I couldn’t hear anything… you were so quiet…I wanted to make sure you were alive.”

WHAT!  I tell you…things just ain’t right with me.  One night I’m snoring, the next I’m dead.  My goodness…. that’s really all that I can say.  I pray this week will be more enlightening.  :) 

I’m waiting up for Chris tonight…so he’ll know I’m still alive. 

“A joyful heart is good like medicine.” Proverbs 17:22

I really don’t know why I haven’t been able to write lately.  I’ve just been busy I suppose with “life.”  But I was reading yesterday morning and fell upon this verse.  I have been so sick lately… lots of colds… stomach bugs…..just a series of little ailments… anyway, this verse brought joy to MY heart.  I’m not saying that I’ve been sick because I’ve NOT been joyful… just saying that amidst my tiredness and fatigue… a joyful heart will bring me more comfort than Tylenol.  So that’s my little nugget for today.  I am praying for a joyful heart… I’m praying for a Christ-filled mind.  I hope all of you are having a GREAT Friday.  I am sitting alone in my kitchen right now.  Emma Faye is napping and Chris took the boys to this car race here in Alabama.  If Emma weren’t so young I would have probably taken her so I could join them.  Now, why would I want to join them, you ask?  Because I would love to see the boys’ faces when they see the race cars for the first time?  Umm.. no.  Because I LOVE NASCAR and any high speed vehicles?  ummm..no.  Because Patrick Dempsey is supposed to be driving one of his cars in the race?  Umm… yes!  Good answer!  Ok… I know.. I know…what can I say… I mean.. it would be nice to see him? right?  Although in my mind I really think that seeing Patrick Dempsey would be good like medicine… I must trust God in His word.. when he tells me that a “joyful heart” would be better.  ha!  Ok… I’m going to stop right now…one day..hopefully in the near future… I’ll post something on here that will be encouraging and ministering… right now I’m going to do the laundry….and I’m going to do it with a joyful heart.. .if it kills me!

Well… I’m finally able to relax.  I think the kids are in bed and exhausted enough to be asleep right now.. and it’s only 7:15 pm!!  Yes… it’s been a LONG day… battles right and left with my boys… I have a little screaming princess who already thinks the world revolves around her…and I just want some peace and quiet because I’m still trying to heal from this week’s ailment (it seems I’m sick every week…).   So I am very happy here at now 7:14 with no children to distract me from what I want to do… the house is totally silent…. it’s almost like my ears are ringing it’s so quiet.  AHHHH …. I LOVE IT!

so that’s all tonight.  I’m feeling better… tomorrow I will start back my weekly outings and bible studies.  Chris is home more this week.  I’m looking forward to it.  Anyway… I just wanted to leave you guys with this little article my sweet husband cut out for me from I guess one of his Pediatric magazines.  I thought it would bring a little encouragement and perhaps laughter to your day.  I found it funny that Chris cut something like this out after having kept all three of ours for three whole days completely by himself….anyway…enjoy.

“If a stay-at-home mom could be compensated in dollars rather than personal satisfaction and unconditional love, she’d rake in a nifty sum of nearly $117,000 a year.  That’s according to a pre-Mother’s Day study release Thursday by Salary.com, a Waltham, Mass. -based firm that studies workplace compensation.  The eighth annual survey calculated a mom’s market value by studying pay levels for 10 job titles with duties that a typical mom performs, ranging from housekeeper and day care center teacher to van driver, psychologist and chief executive officer.  One stay-at-home mom said the six-figure salary sounds a little low.”

Well, I’m going to enjoy my break… (notice I said break) see….I’m still on the clock… never know when a kid is going to need something during the middle of the night….we are on a constant “call” if you will….that’s a mommy ….24-7.  Then again..as I’ve asked before… would we want it any other way?