Child reads Scripture

The "delight" of today listening to my 5 year old read scripture!  They are precious in His Sight!

Giving Thanks

All of November, I have been thinking about what I am thankful for that day.  It has been a transforming experience. 

In past years, I had a desire to create a "Thanksgiving Tree" where all the members of my family could write what they are thankful for on paper leaves.  Then at the end of the season we could save them and each year look back at what we were thankful for during that season of our life.  Well, this year, it took shape and we accomplished the goal!  We all have been reminded of the blessings in our life and have become more thankful.   

 As for me, this exercise has shown me:

1. How my attitude can change toward everything going on in my life if I speak the things that I am thankful for rather than looking on the negative that may be going on around me or to me.
2. How much I have to be thankful for.

3. How it can change the mood in our home when we are focusing on our blessings.  

 While this was an outward expression to remind us of our blessings, it can and should be a daily pursuit.  Yes, I share what I'm thankful for in prayer by my self and with my family, and occasionally I journal about it, but what would happen if I wrote down what I was thankful for each day of my life?  I think it would make a big impact because there is just something that happens when we write things down; it allows us to look back on where we have been and it the process of writing helps us to remember things better. 

The following was the devotional thought from my A Heart at Rest devotional by Nancy Leigh De Moss from Revive our Hearts Ministries.

 

A grateful man or woman will be

a breath of fresh air in a world contaminated by

bitterness and discontentment.

Daily Encouragement (from scripture)

Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Col. 3:17)

Blessings to you and your family! 



When in doubt, Seek HIM out!

Many of us experience seasons of sadness and helplessness here in this life.  However, if you call the Lord your Lord and have received Jesus as your Savior, you can be assured of He faithfulness to provide for you in the darkness of the hour.

This afternoon, I was crying out to the Lord about issues in my life that have become weights to hold me down and that the enemy has used to discourage me.  I cried out with a deep sense of longing asking Him to help me.  I turned to Psalm 25 (because today is the 25th day of the month...so spirtual huh?), and there He was consoling me, teaching me, and loving me.  How awesome is our God!  Are you in need today?  When in doubt, seek Him out!

¹ In you, LORD my God,
   I put my trust.
 ² I trust in you;
   do not let me be put to shame,
   nor let my enemies triumph over me.
³ No one who hopes in you
   will ever be put to shame,
  but shame will come on those
   who are treacherous without cause.
 ⁴ Show me your ways, LORD,
   teach me your paths.
⁵ Guide me in your truth and teach me,
   for you are God my Savior,
   and my hope is in you all day long.
⁶ Remember, LORD, your great mercy and love,
   for they are from of old.
⁷ Do not remember the sins of my youth
   and my rebellious ways;
  according to your love remember me,
   for you, LORD, are good.
 ⁸ Good and upright is the LORD;
   therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
⁹ He guides the humble in what is right
   and teaches them his way.
¹⁰ All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
   toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.
¹¹ For the sake of your name, LORD,
   forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
 ¹² Who, then, are those who fear the LORD?
   He will instruct them in the ways they should choose.^[b]
13 They will spend their days in prosperity,
   and their descendants will inherit the land.
¹⁴ The LORD confides in those who fear him;
   he makes his covenant known to them.
¹⁵ My eyes are ever on the LORD,
   for only he will release my feet from the snare.
 ¹⁶ Turn to me and be gracious to me,
   for I am lonely and afflicted.
¹⁷ Relieve the troubles of my heart
   and free me from my anguish.
¹⁸ Look on my affliction and my distress
   and take away all my sins.
¹⁹ See how numerous are my enemies
   and how fiercely they hate me!
 ²⁰ Guard my life and rescue me;
   do not let me be put to shame,
   for I take refuge in you.
²¹ May integrity and uprightness protect me,
   because my hope, LORD,^[c] is in you.
 ²² Deliver Israel, O God,
   from all their troubles!

The joy in homeschooling

It is such a privilege to be able to teach my children at home.  Besides the “reasons” we homeschool, the best is that I get to actually see the joy when my child first learns how to do something. 

Yesterday, my 5 year old completed the first level in his Hooked on Phonics reading program.  To see how excited he was when he finished was a true “delight” to my heart!  He did it!  He pushed me to let him keep going on and he pushed himself and tried so very hard, and he did it!  I’m proud of him and excited that the more he learns to read, the closer he is to being able to read God’s Word on his own.  I think I just may bawl my eyes out when I hear him read his bible for the first time!

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."    

Proverbs 22:6

I will follow

About a week ago, I was listening to my 5 year old as he was building a train track in the play room.  I was trying to make out the words of what he was saying and here is what I heard:

Where you go I go
Where you stay I stay
Where you move I move
I will follow
Where you go I go
Where you serve I serve
I will follow

At first I didn't know what he was singing and then my 12 year old told me he thought it was from the CD's in the car.  Sure enough it was Chris Tomlin's song I will follow.  While the words weren't exact, it was so precious to hear him singing those words.  I told the Lord that I pray that will be the way of his life, that he will follow You.

Yesterday, as we were out running errands, I turned the song on and he and I were singing it really loud over and over in the car.  It was such a "delight" to see his face beaming, and hear his voice singing those words "I will follow" repeatedly.

Mom's day at preschool

The delight of my day was a sweet time in my 5 year olds preschool class.  It was "Mom's day at preschool" and we were invited to come and spend the first half of the day helping our children make a Father's Day gift for their Daddys.  It was so hard for me to just let him make the gift without my perfectionist, symmetrical obsession, but I managed to back off and let him do it.  The second part of the day was having a sweet brunch/tea with the other Moms.  I had a wonderful time fellowshipping with the other Moms in our class. It is the last official get together of the year for the Mom's.  It was a little bitter sweet.

The best part of the day was having my son smile from ear to ear as we played games, and sang songs.  I think it meant a lot to have his Mommy in class for the morning.  What a joy that the Lord has given to me, being able to stay home and raise our boys.  Even though challenges are overwhelming at times, days like this rejuvenate me and give me the boost to keep moving on and enjoying the journey. 

As the school year is coming to a close, I am sad that this stage of our life is ending and we are embarking on new endeavors.  Moving out of the preschool years with my little one and into the elementary years and starting our "official" homeschooling journey.  I also have a soon to be teenager who is moving into a new phase of his life, and experiencing new challenges and changes in his life.  I am so glad that I don't have to do this alone!  I have my husband and the Lord walking on this path with me, and I am learning to enjoy each stage of their lives.

How does your garden grow?

The word gardening can evoke different feelings for different people.  To me it was always a "bad" word, because I grew up having to pull weeds frequently in the yard and never learned how to grow a garden.  Another big one is that I abhor to get my hands dirty.  So when my husband expressed interest in getting a garden plot at the local "Community Garden" in our city, I didn't jump for joy.  However, things are beginning to change....

Earlier in the week, we went over to clear out the weeds that had grown in our plot and get it ready to plant some plants that a dear friend had given me several weeks ago.  That evening did not turn out to be such a great experience, but it was an opportunity for the Lord to work on my character once again.  I blew it, and did a lot of apologizing that evening for reactions to situations that occurred while we tended to the garden. However, it did help me to see areas in my life where I need to change.  It is always best if we can learn from our circumstances, take correction and change in order to line up with how our Creator desires us to live.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction"

Prov. 1:7

During this week, my husband tended to the garden each day, taking one of our sons over with him on occasion.  It was fun for our little guy to work with his Daddy.  At his tender age of 5, he is so curious and interested in anything new.  Gardening is a great opportunity for our son to grow and develop in an area that is really lost in our society today, where parents and kids are most often glued to electronic devises 24/7 rather than being out in nature or working hard to grow their own food.

So this morning was a wonderful time for us to go get some veggies to plant in our garden.  We all went to the nursery and picked out our favorite veggies and then went over to the garden to plant.  As we were planting, we had to work together and we all did our part.  I have to say my husband was so awesome at working with my 5 year old and allowing him to do the work too, my boys have one AWESOME Dad. 

When we came home, I had a much different perspective about "gardening".  Several thoughts came to me about what I found enjoyable:

• It was providing a chance for our family to be together.
• We are learning to work together with 4 different personalities, and desires.
• As a family, we are "learning" how to tend to a garden.
• Our sons are learning to do "work". 
• We are being given opportunity to meet other people in our community.
• We get to watch our plants grow and hopefully reap a harvest of yummy veggies.

Having a garden isn't as difficult as I had always thought it would be, but it takes TIME!  We have to make time to tend to our garden.  We need to pull ourselves away from the things that gobble away at our time; over scheduled lives, TV, Internet, etc...  How exciting to pull away from the crazy fast lane of life and slow down to enjoy something that can benefit us spiritually, emotionally,and physically. 

Hmmm...that sounds rather familiar.  This is also what we need to do to tend to our relationship with God.  We NEED to take time to nurture our relationship with the Lord, taking time away from what we feel are the pressures of this life, having that childlike curiosity we had as a baby christian and seek out the Lord and desire to learn and grow, and working on the one and only relationship that brings life...the fellowship with our Heavenly Father.

What an awesome lesson to learn this week, and I look forward to the harvest both in my garden and in my relationship with God.



Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is special to me, and is a time for me to remember the faithfulness of God!  I am so grateful to the Lord for giving me the desire of my heart, to be a Mom.  I didn't become a Mother in an easy or traditional way.  I waited, cried, doubted, prayed, waited and waited some more.  And after almost 10 years, the Lord fulfilled His promise to me and gave us a son.  I was now a Mom, what an amazing feeling! 

Our son was all that I had prayed for; a boy, a blood relative on the paternal side of my husbands family, and sensitive to the things of the Lord.  While the first two were obvious at the beginning, we have seen the last quality show itself at a young age and is continuing to grow. 

It is absolutely an amazing and overwhelming feeling to become a Mother, and such an awesome privilege.  He blessed us 6 1/2 years later with another boy who is also a true miracle of God. 

While being a Mother is challenging at times, it is such a blessing.  To have my little one smile from ear to ear and say "Happy Mother's Day" is such a sweet feeling, and a reminder that God is faithful to all His promises.

My first Mother's day was shortly after we brought our oldest son home.  This was the "Family Circus" cartoon in the newspaper on the morning of my first Mother's Day .

God is FAITHFUL!!! 

Psalm 37



Mommy, Mommy, I see rainbows!

My little 5 year old has be finding "rainbows" everywhere, basically in glass or water.  Yesterday, while we were in the car he starts yelling "Mommy Mommy I see rainbows".  I say to him "where?"  I was sceptical since it is in the 80 degrees outside and there hasn't been any rain in many days.

As I listened to him, I began thinking about rainbows.  When I see a rainbow or think about rainbows I always remember they are a sign from God that He keeps His promises.  I decided to look up the references to rainbow in the Bible.

A sign of God's covenant
¹² And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³ I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; ¹⁵ and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

What an awesome picture, the almighty, omnipotent, living God has made a covenant with all of us, and He has kept His promise to us. 

Some days can be tougher than others as we raise our children in this world.  We all experience difficulties, hardships, pain, suffering that leads us to exhaustion or questioning God.  However, we can stand firm and turn to Him and remember that He is always there for us.  So next time you see a rainbow, whether your life is sunny or rainy, you can say to your Abba Father "Daddy, Daddy I see rainbows" and remember that He keeps His promises to YOU!

A childs prayer

My son had a party in his pre-school class to celebrate the Resurrection.  As they prayed for the wonderful food put before them, the teacher led them in a sweet prayer.  (She is truly the best teacher my kids have ever had, because she truly exudes the love of Christ to the children) As they were praying, my little 5 year old prayed loud and boldly repeating the words of his teacher. 

What a "delight" this was to my heart to hear this child of mine speaking boldly in prayer.  For this is the child who barely spoke for the first 3 years of his life, it was unclear if he understood what was going on around him, and when he did speak, it wasn't easy to understand what he was trying to say.  So you can see why this was so special to me.

The icing on the cake was when the little boy sitting across from him said out loud to the teacher as he glanced at me " Teacher, he said Amen twice". 

I looked at him and said "Yes, he did".

My son was grinning from ear to ear and very proud that he was praying to "Jesus".

Children are never to young to truly understand who Jesus is and to come before Him in prayer and worship. 

But Jesus said,

“Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 19:14

 

Happy Helper

"David my sweet helper today!"

 He absolutely loves to help out around the house.  It was truly amazing to see him, at 5 years old, loosen and tighten the bolts on the bed we were moving around today.  Later, he put on his apron and helped his Daddy make chili for dinner tomorrow night, while I made our dinner for tonight.

It delights my heart to see him desire to help us and want to be involved with us in all we do. I hope that we will be able to see him maintain this desire as he grows older each year.  It is so important that our children learn to work, doing it with a good attitude and not expect to be served.

I remember the words of Jesus when he said in Mark 10:42-45:

"But Jesus called them to himself and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.

And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,

 and to give His life a ransom for many." 

Fun with phonics

This is actually a "delight" from my day yesterday that I wanted to share, because it might give some other homeschooling Mom encouragement to try something that is "out of the box". 

Yesterday, my 5 year old son came out with paper and his big box of foam letters he got from his Aunt Sandy a while ago.  Excitedly, I said to him "Are you going to make words with your stickers?" 

He stopped and looked at me and then smiled and said "O.K.". 

I replied "That sounds like so much fun!"

I proceeded to ask him what word he wanted to make, and he told me BAT.  So I sounded out each letter and he found it and put them in order on his page.  He was so excited, and I was surprised to see him come up with words I didn't know he even knew how to spell.  The last word that he came up with was BUN.  I asked him what a bun was.  He said "You know.. that you have with hot dogs".  I had to laugh, because he doesn't eat hot dog buns, because he can't have gluten, dairy or soy.  (I know I could buy him some or make them, but I don't because he is happy eating his hot dogs plain)

Learning can be fun and doesn't have to come from a book, especially at this precious age.  I have been so blessed lately to see how the Lord has given me ideas on the spur of the moment for a learning  experience.  I am a rule follower, and a "by the book" type of person, and I want to "make sure my child is learning what he is supposed to".   However, what I have noticed is that as I step back from "what I think school should be", and sometimes just work with my child on the spur of the moment with something he is interested in, it is more enjoyable for both of us and certainly less stressful.  I am making more of a point to "enjoy" teaching my kids, and I am!  Who says that putting foam stickers on a page is not as good as filling out a worksheet in a professional approved workbook, I think it just might be better. 

I do love crafts, and this son loves them too!  I can't wait to teach him more, who knows what we will be doing next! HAPPY HOMESCHOOLING!

Oh Mr. Sun...

I heard something utterly delightful this afternoon that truly blessed me!  While I was clearing the table of all the school books,computers, markers and clutter leftover from the school day, to get ready for my child to start setting the table, I hear the most beautiful music.  It was my sweet little 5 year old singing "Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun please shine down on me" as he sweetly sauntered around the house.  Oh, how that warmed my heart!

To some, this may not be a big deal, but if you knew where this boy was a year and four months ago (not talking, not able to communicate, had severe meltdowns, seizure episodes, just to name a few) you would be amazed and understand my delight at hearing him sing freely as he played.

When he saw how delighted I was, he kept singing it and laughing and we had a good old time singing about Mr. Sun.  It was so fun to be enjoying our silly time together and making memories.  Oh, how different that life can look when we stop and find joy in something, right where we are in our life. 

Rejoice!

"This is the day that the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it"

Psalm 118:24

I woke up not feeling well.  I must have caught a germ from my sweet son who has been sick this last week.  I could be depressed and discouraged because I missed seeing relatives from out of town.  However, I am choosing to rejoice because:

• I have another day with my family.
• I don't have a terminal illness.
• I have a loving husband.
• I have been given the joy of being a Mommy.
• Being a Mommy gives me the opportunity to snuggle my kids even when they are sick.
• I got to sing praise songs with my 5 year old today and dance around being silly.

Choosing to find "delight" in my day is turning out to be healing to my soul.  Have a blessed day!

Weeds and Winning

 

Today, I pulled weeds in the yard with my 5 year old.  The experience was full of spiritual analogies.  There was one that I thought was worth sharing. 

I started pulling weeds and I realized that it seemed so much harder since the last time I pulled them about 6 months ago.  (I know, I should pull them out more regularly)  As I continued to work, I realized that the ground was so much harder because we have not had much rain lately and I don't know how often the sprinklers are going on.  The lack of water created this hard soil and it was difficult to get the tools in under the weed so that I could get it out.  This required so much more muscle and the process was so much slower than the last time. 

As I continued pulling weeds, I kept thinking about how the weed represents sin or bad habits that hinder our walk.  Sometimes we allow the weed to grow for a long time and don't have the time to stop and pull out the weeds that have sprung up.  We may say "oh I know I really need to do that, but I'll do it tomorrow".  I thought about how the water represents a combination of the Holy Spirit and the Word, and how when we are not walking in the Spirit or reading the Word regularly, we are not getting watered enough and our hearts can become harder and harder and harder.  The more we put off pulling out these weeds and not getting watered, the weeds in our life become larger and the process of removing them is harder and takes more effort.

So this week I will be watering more so that I can remove the weeds that have grown and I'm sure when I get a closer look, I may see some  smaller weeds to pull out before they become large and are harder to get to the root so they can be removed.  Happy Weeding!

Winning....

Here is my son who won First Place in the Pinewood Derby Car Race that his Royal Ranger Troop participated in today.  He was so excited.  Way to go buddy!

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Phil. 4:13