Our family has had several blessings lately. We welcomed three new beautiful little baby boys within just a few weeks. My sisters and their husbands entered into the wonderful world of parenting. The ups and downs, the highs and lows, the worries and the wonders. I was reflecting on this at a recent family picnic. As my sister-in-law and I were washing dishes and cleaning dirty chins after chasing down our little ones, I told her that I thought we had it easy in comparison to the newbies. She laughed and agreed. We have been there. We have suffered sleepless nights and bottles and diapers but now our lives are different and those times seem so distant.
With summer here I find myself savoring the sweetness of the season. I am loving hanging with my boys. One of my big worries is that the time will go too fast. I want to enjoy each day and very opportunity. Parker and Carter still love each other and they like us! We can have dinners without electronics, watch the Pirates, and play backyard ball. I feel like it is such a special time in our life. It's not that life is perfect, it is just that I know that seasons change and circumstances do too. I don't have to look far back in our past to see tougher times. I can well remember the sleepless nights. I know what being tired is and how to survive on coffee and goldfish. I have prayed through shots, through surgery, through school days and beyond. I can remember waiting for test results and wishing they were wrong. I have watched cartoons with no point and actually enjoyed them because no thought was required. I have snuck away to cry in the laundry room because I am sometimes alone in there and I have learned to never close the door when peeing. We have struggled through the sadness, sickness, diagnosises, and so much more and I know that there will be difficult times to come. I realize also, though, that today is good and so I am going to run with it. I am going to live up this moment. I am going to make memories, ride bikes, play ball, and savor the season that we are in.
That is really what life is about. It is about realizing that time comes and goes. We control so very little but we can control our attitudes. I don't think that we will always understand why we go through the tough times but we can know that they won't last forever. We can trust in change, sometimes good and sometimes not, but always on the horizon. We can wake up each day thankful for whatever it brings and, at times, grateful that the day before is over. I want to enjoy the sweetness when it comes so that I am ready for the struggles. I want to savor each season for whatever it brings.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Monday, June 9, 2014
The Word
If you have read any of my blog, you will notice a few things about me, one of them is that I read a lot. I love to read and always have. My oldest, Parker, is just like me. We read anything we can find and we love to fall asleep reading. I can remember being little and hiding out beside the crack in the door and using the hallway night light to finish many books. One of the best gifts Ryan ever gave me was my kindle because it fits in my purse and has its own light so I can, literally, read whenever and wherever. I read fiction and non fiction, self-help and help-yourself books.Words on a page speak to me better than spoken words quite often. I have even been known to write notes to my husband when I have something important to say. I also have several letters stored away for my boys to hopefully enjoy someday. Reading is a very important part of who I am and how God speaks to me. The book that I have been reading again and again for years isn't on my kindle, it is my Bible. It is marked up inside and sports water and coffee stains. My recently retired one was missing a bit of Revelations and the cover was mostly off but it is by far the best read in history.
I started a post weeks ago about a scripture that spoke to me from John. It said that He must increase and I must decrease. I really enjoyed the verse and wanted use it to share with you all how very important the Word is in my life. For some reason though, that post sits unfinished. I felt somewhat disappointed in myself that I was unable to express the peace and hope and joy that I find in God's Word and then I read something this week that gave me a little more direction.
This week I was reading Deuteronomy about God's instructions to the Israelites and I saw the best little tidbit. Moses was giving guidelines for if they ever had a king and he said that the king would need to copy God's instructions for himself and then read it daily as long as he lived. Deuteronomy 17:20 says, "This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way." Regular reading, getting into God's word and eating up all He has for us will keep us from being proud. In other words, we will decrease, just like John tells us to. And anytime we decrease, He makes up the difference. It will also help us stay focused on what God wants from us. Keep us on the straight and narrow. I don't know about anyone else, but anytime God has some direction for me, I am up for hearing it. It doesn't always have to be the big things, it could just be for what to do today or how to pray for a friend. The Word of God is not absorbed through osmosis. I can have my Bible sitting on my nightstand but it only speaks to me when I open it and listen, and I have to say, I love listening to my heavenly Father. His words speak love, peace, joy and hope to me in new ways everyday. I have been reading them for years and I am certain that there will always be more for me to learn from it. I want it written on my heart and mind and carried out in my life more and more all the time, daily. I have often come to the Lord with questions and not once has He failed to shed some light through scripture. It is an instruction manual worth copying and reading not just for royalty, but for each of us.
Another insight I was blessed by recently was from Matthew 4:4 where Jesus said that man can not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. God's word has a way of shedding light on the blessings so I can see them more clearly. It also is able to take the hard in life and shape into loaves of love and life. I usually consume God's word before anything else, except maybe my coffee, and it is often the most fulfilling part of my diet. It fills me like nothing else and equips me for my day.
Reading will always be a passion of mine, something I enjoy and try to do as often as I can. My hope is that in reading God's word, it will become alive in me and He will be glorified. I pray that I will decrease as He exponentially increases all the time. It truly is my road map through life and my daily bread. I still feel like I am somewhat failing to convey the power of His words in my life but I hope you will at least be encouraged to dig into it for yourself. Time spent with the great I Am will only bless you and your world.
I started a post weeks ago about a scripture that spoke to me from John. It said that He must increase and I must decrease. I really enjoyed the verse and wanted use it to share with you all how very important the Word is in my life. For some reason though, that post sits unfinished. I felt somewhat disappointed in myself that I was unable to express the peace and hope and joy that I find in God's Word and then I read something this week that gave me a little more direction.
This week I was reading Deuteronomy about God's instructions to the Israelites and I saw the best little tidbit. Moses was giving guidelines for if they ever had a king and he said that the king would need to copy God's instructions for himself and then read it daily as long as he lived. Deuteronomy 17:20 says, "This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way." Regular reading, getting into God's word and eating up all He has for us will keep us from being proud. In other words, we will decrease, just like John tells us to. And anytime we decrease, He makes up the difference. It will also help us stay focused on what God wants from us. Keep us on the straight and narrow. I don't know about anyone else, but anytime God has some direction for me, I am up for hearing it. It doesn't always have to be the big things, it could just be for what to do today or how to pray for a friend. The Word of God is not absorbed through osmosis. I can have my Bible sitting on my nightstand but it only speaks to me when I open it and listen, and I have to say, I love listening to my heavenly Father. His words speak love, peace, joy and hope to me in new ways everyday. I have been reading them for years and I am certain that there will always be more for me to learn from it. I want it written on my heart and mind and carried out in my life more and more all the time, daily. I have often come to the Lord with questions and not once has He failed to shed some light through scripture. It is an instruction manual worth copying and reading not just for royalty, but for each of us.
Another insight I was blessed by recently was from Matthew 4:4 where Jesus said that man can not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. God's word has a way of shedding light on the blessings so I can see them more clearly. It also is able to take the hard in life and shape into loaves of love and life. I usually consume God's word before anything else, except maybe my coffee, and it is often the most fulfilling part of my diet. It fills me like nothing else and equips me for my day.
Reading will always be a passion of mine, something I enjoy and try to do as often as I can. My hope is that in reading God's word, it will become alive in me and He will be glorified. I pray that I will decrease as He exponentially increases all the time. It truly is my road map through life and my daily bread. I still feel like I am somewhat failing to convey the power of His words in my life but I hope you will at least be encouraged to dig into it for yourself. Time spent with the great I Am will only bless you and your world.
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