The Rock We Stand On

I had the opportunity to go with my husband to chaperone youth winter camp this year. This really was a treat since with so many little ones in our home currently (and in the past) I am usually the default in running the routine (that I have been privileged to invent). But this time since our crew was old enough, I got to spend the time with the youth girls.

While at camp we heard this worship song from the camp band.

“Your Kingdom Reigns” by Meredith Andrews

And I must tell you, I just love the Truth in this song.

My favorite is verse 2:

“By Your blood You have paid every debt

You are strong to save us

And by Your Word you will light every step

You are ever faithful!

Jesus, You are every faithful!”

Let’s take a moment to think through that. EVERY debt paid. That’s some serious strength! And while He never had to save us and it still utterly floors me that Christ would choose to save me… ME … without first even having a single utterance of commitment. See, He saved everyone that we would even have a chance to choose to receive His gift. And let me tell you what… I don’t think we can look at the depth of that grace in His gift and not be compelled to run to Him.

He could have just given us our consequence. The one we rightfully deserved.

Rachael and I had a conversation yesterday in the car. She was asking me to explain a familiar Scripture memory song playing from our CD. She’d heard it a bunch of times, even reciting the words along with it, that she finally began applying her mind to it. (What a life truth right there in itself – no wonder I need to repeat Scripture until it becomes more natural in my life!). We got to the topic of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross being a gift. “Let’s think about it this way… when Hannah does something wrong she receives a bad consequence, right? Like for example if she’s a bit older and hits another kid in the nursery. She gets a bad consequence. They may hit her back, she may have to go to time out, she may have lost a friend because they don’t want to be around her anymore… or if she was just told not to hit and she did it in defiance, maybe she gets a spanking after having a conversation about her disobedience.”

“So what if every time Hannah did something wrong instead of spanking her, we spanked you? Hannah hits someone, so you get a spanking. Hannah hits someone again, so you get the spanking again. Think that’s fair?”

“No!!!” Resounded from the back seat with a slight nervous giggle.

“Well Jesus said, ‘I’ll take the spanking!’ He decided to take the bad consequence. She deserved her own punishment. She made the bad choices. But Jesus took the spanking. He chose to. No one told Him to. No one made Him. He volunteered, or chose willingly to be spanked so Hannah wouldn’t have to be spanked. See, someone had to be spanked. The bad was done. The sin was done. The Bible says that the punishment for sin is death. Jesus took the death for us. But it wasn’t just that… Jesus took the death BEFORE Hannah ever even decided she wanted to be like Jesus. He chose the death to allow Hannah to have a choice to live like Jesus or to choose not to.”

“Wow.” There was silence as she pondered.

Wow, my heart agreed.

Our conversation ended there because we got to our destination and things moved forward. And while I’m sure I butchered explaining the depth of grace in so many ways, I just prayed…. again… for her acceptance of that grace. And I just prayed again for Him to continue to open my eyes to that very same grace.

I mean could you even imagine if we saw that Grace clearly? If we, Christians, took on a lifestyle of boldness from that Grace?

We’ve been praying for laborers to be sent to the Harvest, starting with our own household. We’ve been praying for reaping of the seeds planted by so many missionaries. We’ve been praying to be a part of the Kingdom work. To be open. To be alert. To see the work so we can run to the Harvest. It has changed our prayer life. I feel it changing my heart. Conforming my mind to the Lord. Less of me, more of Christ. That even one more would be added to His number…. that even one more would receive Grace…

Oh how His heart in me has reminded me in this song of the unbriddled power of God falling on His lost people if we would just go with such CONFIDENCE and ASSURANCE in the Truth of the Light. He WILL light our EVERY step. He does not send us alone. He does not send us empty-handed. He went behind us with the cross and goes before us with His Word to light our steps, to guide us. He will NEVER fail us. He will NEVER forsake us! He will NOT be shaken! If we would just take up His Word as our flashlight, guiding our steps to the lost, the lonely, the desolate and stand on HIM, not us… HIM, the Rock we stand on!

Take Him at His Word, church. Take Him at His Word, Christian. And non-Christian, see… oh please see how He is beyond Worthy to be taken at His Word.

His Kingdom Reigns. Not a corrupt kingdom. Not a corrupt, selfish king.

THE King who extended such incredible Grace. Such immeasurable Love like we have never seen before. Like we can’t even fully fathom…

HE is Life!

Let’s run and proclaim it to the darkness!

February 20, 2014 1

Opening our Hearts

When Hannah said “baby” and pointed to the ultrasound pictures revealing our Eden my Mommy-heart melted. We haven’t taught her that. She wasn’t copying her sisters. It came from her, which made it more special.

Rachael has also, on her own accord, added Eden (who was termed Baby4 before we knew her gender) to her prayer life. Today at lunch she prayed in the most heart-filled little tone, “Thank you, God, for giving us baby Eden to snuggle and love. We’re just so excited she is a girl and we get a new sister soon.”

God is answering our prayers and has begun to open all our hearts as we have prayed over our adjusting to the future newest addition coming in July. Only God creates a bond among sisters that is deep rooted… and just plain beautiful to watch take on a life of its own.

– Eden, baby, our arms are wide open and excited to pray over you as you take the last few months of growing in there.

– The greatest things are worth waiting and praying for.

– Thankful, grateful and blessed.

February 13, 2014 0

Announcing Eden

Oh my wonderful girls. That’s right!!! Announcing: EDEN ROSE. Due July 11, 2014 (though we’ll most likely meet her around July 4th). Our cup runneth over. We are blessed and thrilled beyond measure!!!!! – Adoring our clean sweep of little ladies. 😉

February 13, 2014 0

Continuing Right Along

I took the afternoon to finish Rachael’s Kindergarten lesson plans for the year. Yep, friends, for the YEAR.

I was thrilled to organize the remaining 18 lessons into 6 day bundles per lesson (dividing out each subject’s work and bundling them together by days). So pretty much now if I die someone can pick up my teacher book and teach Rachael the remainder of her Kindergarten year (P.S. No intent on dying, just happy to get this completed).

I also calculated out the days we have completed of school (I wasn’t tracking it before – oops) and have a game-plan for the remaining school year’s required days.

Just trying to get more organized here so I can

a). Not have to lesson plan each week.

b). make it a habit to track school days so…

c). I can have a written record should I need to prove the days we have homeschooled [With no idea where God will take us in the years after Matt graduates, I wanted to be prepared to meet other states’ stricter homeschooling requirements should we end up moving there.]

and d). Be more pro-active in planning fun things during our school year based upon future weeks’ themes.

It feels good to finally get a grasp on advanced forward panning for Rachael’s school year after just struggling to get into a regular school groove post-boys.

And it’s also been really exciting to make some changes in organization of educating multiple children in multiple grades, while balancing a baby on my hip (Hannah’s no longer taking morning naps).

I really like our new groove. And I’m excited and less stressed about the remaining school year.

Abi’s coming along quite well in her first year of preschool. She;s picking up things quite quickly thanks to being a byproduct of a homeschool listener. The alphabet and numbers are coming much more naturally to her and I’m excited at the increased fine motor skills in tracing and writing her own name.

And Rachael is really coming into her own in her Kindergarten schooling. It’s fun to watch her take confidence in developing the skills that began a looong (relatively) time ago when she first learned the alphabet. It’s also really neat to watch her manipulate her knowledge to apply it in different settings. And it’s downright fun to encourage her as she is beginning to read. Very…. very… slowly… she has begun sounding out words… one…. at…. a… time. And then her memory kicks in and she puts the words together into a sentence. It’s also fun to see her reading comprehension growing through a really fun workbook I picked up for a buck (Yay dollar store find!). She has enjoyed hearing the princess fairy tales and then learning to write sentences to answer the questions following the story.

I must say, I really enjoy homeschooling. And now that I’m more practically organized, I am enjoying it all the more.

I look forward to the wonder and excitement of the remainder of the school year. =)

February 10, 2014 0

All Trimmed Up

Yesterday I decided to trim Ms. Squirmy’s hair for the first time. She was starting to have a mullet of separation between the sides and the back (the greatest challenge for little girls growing in hair) so I figured a little trim could help even it out more. Then lay the challenge before me of how to get Ms. Busy semi-still. A buckle-in booster seat provided the perfect opportunity as well as a few highly loved toys, pacifier, and a little PBS.

Here’s a look at how long the back was prior to her cut.

Within 15 minutes, I put in some layers (since hair grows in layered anyway) and trimmed a total of an inch and a half off the back. But since she’s a squirmer, I trimmed it off in quarter of an inch segments so as not to make a drastic change that couldn’t be evened.

She was super squirmy post-cut so the pictures are the best I could do while letting her free.

Here’s her new cut, right at shoulder level.

Despite some being tucked behind her ear, this is the best pic I got of her newly evened out hair.

And since I’m still wanting the top to grow out instead of bangs, she’ll continue to sport her clips and pigtails.

And of course I saved some clippings for the baby book. 😉

I trimmed the older girls’ hair too. Rachael’s is unnoticeably different, but healthy. She continues to announce that she’s growing her hair out like Rapunzel.

Abi, on the other hand, was a celebration day. With this last trim, her sides are finally the same length as the back. Bravo little girl, it only took 3 years and no scary haircuts to even them out. 😉 She’s my “more bald” hair starter in life.

Here after an over-all trim, you can still see that the back is longer than the sides.

wet

dry

I decided to go back in and take an additional inch off the back to even it with the sides. So I cut a total of 2-2.5 inches off the back and just a tiny bit off the sides.

Here she’s looking down so it doesn’t quite touch her shoulders.

And with a section of her hair growing in wavy, I trimmed that section a little shorter to allow her under layer of curls to come through.

I’ll add a picture of the dry finished product a little later since she was napping directly after her trim and I forgot to get one before bedtime last night.

But I’m really happy with how all three of the girls’ trims turned out. Rachael’s – unnoticeable but healthy. Abi’s – Yay for even! And Hannah’s – more bobbed and less mullet. SCORE!

February 4, 2014 0

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