So what do you think? Heather at GoofyGirl designs put a little bit of fun in my blog! She's a super nice girl who will do a little something for your blog and it won't cost you an arm and a leg! Thank you, Heather!
Read more...I love that I get to be a stay-at-home-mom. I love that I can let my boys play for a while in their room after they wake up, like they are now. I can hear them giggling with each other on the monitor as I type this post, and I'm so glad for them and for myself that I don't have to interrupt that (I mentioned once to my friend, Mitch, that these are special times for my boys to bond, and he told me that boys don't have "special times". He insisted that I call them "manly moments". Whatever.) I love that in a few minutes I will go get them, and we will all eat breakfast together in our pajamas, because we are not in a hurry to go anywhere. I love that we will all eventually get dressed, but I can't be sure when and it doesn't matter. I love that we will spend our day reading books, putting puzzles together, crawling around on the floor, stacking blocks, and watching 'Max and Ruby'.
Something else I love about being a stay-at-home-mom is that it allows me to do other fun things that when I worked (outside the home), I could never do. Like Vacation Bible School. I love that every once in awhile, we get to break from our routine at home and spend a week doing something different. It's a nice break for me and it's fun for the boys. Last week we got to do just that.
I got the privilege of being a crew leader to five 4th graders as we took "A Wild Ride through God's Word". We spent the week singing songs, taking a trip back to Jericho (via our drama team), playing games, making crafts, eating very nutritious snacks (in case you're unfamiliar with VBS...that was sarcasm), and getting to know each other. On one particular day, when we were learning that "God is Strong!!!" (Wa-Hoo!), we had the kids sit with their crews and tell their leaders one thing they were having a hard time with that they needed God's strength to help them with. We were going to write them on index cards and then tape them to boxes stacked in the sanctuary. At the end of the day, the boxes were used to represent the walls of Jericho and God knocked them down, just like He could knock down the problems on those cards. As I expected, the first boy asked for prayer for his Tae Kwon Do class. It was more difficult than he thought it would be. Another little girl asked for prayer for her new daycare that she was having to spend the summer at. She didn't like it very much. These were the kind of prayer requests I anticipated from my 4th graders. It was the kind of "life is still pretty easy" stuff you would think a 10 year old would be worried about.
Then it was Johnny's turn (Johnny is not his real name). Johnny was a sweet boy with a good heart who had spent the whole week bouncing off the walls. I won't lie to you that he was my biggest challenge. Keeping him in line was a struggle. So when he blurted out his prayer request, it knocked the wind out of me: "My mom died. She had a sickness in her heart." The way he said it made me assume this was something that must have happened when he was much younger, but it happened just last November. On top of that, Johnny told me that his dad's new girlfriend is mean. The next little girl, Jane (again, not her real name) told me that her parents had been fighting really loudly at home and she was worried that they would split up. When I walked up to the stage in the sanctuary to tape our "brick" to the wall of Jericho, I saw other crews cards, written with things like "Dad drunk a lot, acting up all the time". I was truly moved and have been praying for these things ever since. And I will continue to.
While my boys and I sit in our home today, playing, eating and laughing, there are so many kids burdened with things way beyond their age. Some of it is out of any one's hands. Some of it is being put upon them by the adults in their lives. Either way, these children don't have the luxury of feeling secure the way my children do and I pray that their little hearts will be protected from the scars. It also makes me so grateful for what I am blessed with. My boys' mommy is right here, and their parents are very happy with each other. Those are things that I know I take for granted every day, and yet they are the things that those kids from VBS want most in the world.
Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of my children, and the blessing for a safe, secure and happy home for them. May my husband and I never take that for granted, and may we always be actively working on keeping it that way. Amen.
I have a few links that I need to share with you. They are a little overdue, but I've had other things going on. The first, and most exciting, link is to 5 Minutes for Mom, where they are GIVING AWAY A 37" FLAT PANEL TV and I would like to win it. So basically I am telling you about the contest, but would prefer you not enter. Because that decreases my odds of winning.
Also, the same nice people at 5 Minutes for Mom are adding me to their blogroll so that a few more people can come and visit my little blog, and in return, they have asked that I tell you about a couple of sites that you should go and visit. They are both very cute and have some really neat stuff! The first one is great for those of you who are nostalgic at heart. It's called Pedal Cars and Retro Collectibles and I'm looking forward to spending a little more time browsing through their stuff, myself. The next one is called A Rocking Horse to Love and just like it says, it has lots of rocking horses (and other rocking toys), plus lots and lots of other fun, interesting toys that you won't find on the shelf at Toys R Us. Go check them out....they have fun stuff to browse through even if you're not looking at the moment!
So go check out those sites and enter the drawing for the free TV if you must, but come back here soon because I have lots to blog about. I'm sure I'll be back to posting regularly again very soon!
Pride is the sin that I struggle with the most. When someone has paid me a compliment, I find myself replaying the conversation over and over again in my head afterwards. When I have had the occasion to share my faith with someone and see the fruit of that, I hear myself telling other people about it far too often. When I am overwhelmed by all that I "have to do", I'm secretly proud of myself for being such a "joiner" and a "do-er". While none of these things seems bad at the surface, the reality of them is like a cancer. I start looking for and expecting compliments when I do things. I start feeling superior to those who aren't as "generous" with their time (when maybe they are the one's whose priorities are more correct). I start taking glory for things that I said I was doing in the name of God.
The worst part of it is, I start believing that my self worth comes from those things, instead of from the One who created me. I start feeling "less than" when too much time has gone by between compliments or full calendars. I begin to believe that what makes me worthy of anything is the "stuff" that I do instead of the Savior that died for me. This eats away at my ability to reach out to people and love them the way Christ would have me love them. Since I am seeking my security externally, I am unable to care for and give to someone unless I am getting something from them in return.
This is a foothold in my heart that Satan is fully aware of and fully exploits. Please understand....I am not saying that "the devil made me do" anything, but to deny that he seeks to destroy us and any influence we have on the world for Jesus is to way underestimate him. I know that he likes to whisper in my ear "Kimberly, you are Suzy-Spiritual-on-a-Stick! Look at the list of things you have volunteered to do at the church! They should give you some sort of award!" And I start to believe him. It's ugly, and I'm ashamed of it.
So last week when I announced to the entire blogosphere my list of to-do's, like you needed to know about any of them....I was feeding my pride. Sure, I could rationalize it by telling myself that you needed to know why I wouldn't be blogging for awhile, but that would be a lie. I could have just said I was taking a break, or that I was busy. You didn't need to see my list. But I showed it to you.
Well, guess what? I got so sick I could hardly do any of it. I didn't make it to the final meetings before VBS, I had to cancel on my Sunday School class at the last minute (fortunately, I was able to reach my youth pastor at church and he bailed me out!), because I was just sure I would be better in time, and the bulletin board....it got done....but not by me. God reminded me that all of the things I had volunteered to do could be done by someone else. While He appreciates and wants my service, He doesn't need it. Especially if all I'm going to do with it is point to myself.
So I am hoping to continue to serve in all the ways I have been except one. I want to serve and be a servant. I no longer want to serve so that I can be served. This is my prayer.
Proverbs 16:17-19 (New Living Translation)
17 The path of the virtuous leads away from evil; whoever follows that path is safe.
18 Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.
19 Better to live humbly with the poor than to share plunder with the proud
Our calendar is always in a feast or famine situation. I don't know if it's my fault, for over-scheduling, or if things just happen cyclically and there is nothing to be done about it. The more people I talk to, the more I realize that their calendars look similar to mine....either little to do or too much to do. The next week and a half of my life is definitely a feast. I am volunteering with our church's VBS next week and have been spending this week putting together flyers and press releases (and doing all the laundry and recovering from Family Camp). My parents are the AWANA commanders at our church and have asked me to be in charge of the AWANA bulletin board this year. When I agreed I didn't realize that I would need to have it put together the week leading up to VBS. I also teach Jr. High girls Sunday School and have a lesson to put together. On top of that, it's grocery shopping weekend, the library books are due, and we are having friends over for a pool party on Sunday after church. Oh, and I have 2 small children to feed, bathe, play with and love on. My husband may also want some attention, too.
My point is that the blog will be quiet for awhile. It's so new that I hate to take a break from it...I don't want to lose the handful of readers that I have, but I've got to do it. I will be back! I'm having too much fun with this blog not to!
Have a great week!
Mark and I are part of a weekly Bible study that I have been a part of for over 10 years. It started out as a college/career/singles ministry at our church, but has evolved into something totally different. Most of us are now married with kids and we (mostly) all go to different churches. There are a group of core members that remain constant, but throughout the years we have had many friends come and go, whether it be that they have moved or just moved on. It has been an amazing family to be a part of and some of the best friends I will ever have in my life are because of the connection to this group.
I have had the privilege of praying for so many people through the years in this group. People I will never know or see this side of Heaven, but were a friend of a friend or something like that. This past weekend, though, the Lord blessed me (and many others) with the opportunity to see some of those prayers answered directly. A friend, who was a part of our Bible study for a season, had asked us on many occasions to pray for the salvation of his grown children. It broke his heart that they did not know Jesus and the only power he had was to petition the Lord and get as many people as he could to petition Him, also. So we did.
Time has passed and when I would see this friend at church I would remember his kids and wonder what had happened, if anything. Occasionally I would remember to pray, but didn't ever expect to know the outcome. Boy was I wrong.
This last Sunday, my friend's son and girlfriend were baptized at Family Camp in one of the most beautiful baptismal services I have ever seen.
The weather for our camping had been perfect all weekend. We had enjoyed sun, but not too much heat, and it was truly ideal. Sunday morning we woke up to rain. Lots and lots of rain. It had been planned that we would have a lakeside service that morning, which would include the baptisms. Since it was raining, there was much debate over what to do. No one would want to stand in the rain for an hour just to sing a few songs and hear a brief message, would they? But we didn't want to deny anyone the opportunity to get baptized if that's what they wanted to do. Finally it was decided that service would be canceled, but the baptisms would be performed as planned. Anyone who wanted to join them could, but it wasn't expected that many would.
I felt absolutely compelled to go, and not just because I love a baptism (some people cry at weddings....I cry at baptisms....nothing gets me sobbing like a public declaration of faith). I had prayed for this man with his father and felt so privileged to be able to celebrate this day. So along with a few others, I headed down to the lake. As we stood in the rain, waiting for the baptism to begin, a most amazing thing happened. EVERYONE came! Hundreds of people showed up in the pouring rain to celebrate with this brother and sister in Christ their day. The unity and support that was displayed by this crowd was so moving. This was probably the most unpolished, unglamourous baptisms I have ever seen, and yet it will go down in my memory, I'm sure, as the most remarkable.
After the baptisms were over, and I had gotten to weep as my friend hugged his saved, baptized son, a wonderful woman from our church stepped forward to lead us in a song. It was an older song that I didn't know, but it didn't matter. I was so blessed to hear the members of our group standing in the pouring rain, singing without drums, guitars or pianos, praising God for what had just occurred.
God is not required in our spiritual life to give us these moments. Even in the mundane we should be joyful to praise Him. That is why I am especially thankful for that experience. Thank you, Lord, for such a celebration.
That is his foot, ladies and gentlemen. The astounding part of this picture is that HE HAD BEEN WEARING SHOES!!! I have no idea how his feet got so dirty, but I promise you he loved every single minute of it. He also roasted marshmallows for the first time, which helped make the dirt stick better and taste better, so that made it all the more fun for him. Even after a trip to the camp showers with Daddy, there was still dirt stuck to places that it was just going to have to stay until we got home to a bathtub. He was all boy this weekend and it was great to watch (once I relaxed and finally just let him have fun).
The most memorable part of the weekend for me was something I am going to save for another post. It was one of the most beautiful moments I've ever experienced spiritually and just doesn't seem to fit in the same post as a picture of my son's dirty foot.
So we have officially done it....our first camping trip as a family. All in all I would consider it a success, with opportunities to learn from and not repeat next time. I have over 20 mosquito bites from my scalp to my ankle and everywhere in between that, every time they itch and I (try not to) scratch them, remind me of a fun weekend that I'm glad I had.
Read more...
This is such an amazing post. Please go and read it. It made my day. God is amazing!
*Not to draw attention away from the link, but that is the first time I have successfully done a link with HTML code that didn't look like a link, and instead looks like a sentence. I'm so proud of myself, it's ridiculous.
I have the greatest friends in the world. Seriously. I'll put mine up against yours in a contest any day. I'm sure your friends are great and all, but mine will win (and I'm not just saying that because some of them read this blog...Hi, guys!). I'm saying that because without even having read my blog post yesterday about how much I hate the heat, not one, but two of my girlfriends called to see if I wanted to bring my kids over to their air conditioned abodes. Can I tell you how much it means to be thought of? Unfortunately, despite their kind offers, my kids and I stayed home. Not because I'm crazy, but because the hottest, grumpiest part of the day is nap time, and 100 of my friends could invite me over and I would still have to bring the boys home for their naps (My friends are great and all, but for some reason they don't see the need to set up a bedroom for my kids at their house...go figure). So honestly, the packing up and slathering on sunscreen and getting in the super-hot car and driving to their house only to turn around far too shortly after that and unload and unpack and get the kids settled into their scorching rooms for nap time.....it's not the solution to my heat problems. The solution would be to have air conditioning, but we just spent that money fixing a car (don't know what I'm talking about? Scroll down a few posts). So the next best thing is my mom and dad!
A moment of silence for the amazing parents I have been blessed with. Amazing parents who have air conditioning!!!!
Today my kids and I are going to live at my parents house while they are at work. They DO have a bedroom set up at their house for my kids, so I can stay there for nap time and everything. I am giddy over this. Waking up in an already too hot house this morning was much less painful knowing that shortly I will be leaving it. Taking a shower seemed much less silly knowing that I wouldn't be sweating away in my own living room just a few moments later.
I am so thankful for my friends and my family. Even though we didn't take my friends up on their offers, the heat was much less imposing knowing that we had those kinds of friends. And the heat will LITERALLY be much less imposing today because I have those kinds of parents. The kind of parents who have air conditioning. Oh, yeah...and the kind of parents who are really generous and loving. That, too.
I am typing this post fairly early because in a few hours I will not have the energy to lift my fingers to type. Why? Because it is going to be over 100 degrees today and I don't have air conditioning. I know there are some of you out there who love the heat (including some very dear friends of mine) and to you I say....you are crazy. I hate the heat. HATE it. Yes, I used the H word....the very strong, very appropriate in this case, H word. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the sun. Up to about 82 degrees. Once it starts to drain the energy from me instead of inspiring me to be more energetic, I have no use for it. So as my way of venting my frustration against the heat, I am typing this post.
Top 7 Reasons I Hate the Heat:
1. You can't escape it. So for all of you who love the heat, I think you're selfish. I love the rain, but you don't see me forcing you to be in it, do you? I can enjoy the rain while you stay safely inside your warm home. Without A/C, I am forced to endure the heat so that you can enjoy it.
2. The sun can kill you. Unless you are the Wicked Witch of the West, the rain can't hurt you (I mean no disrespect to those enduring ugly amounts of rain in other parts of the country. That is a different animal entirely. I'm talking about average rain). The sun can give us sunburns, skin cancer and heat stroke. Enough said about that.
3. The sun drains you of energy. A nice sunny day can be such a boost to the spirit. But just a few degrees more can turn one into a slug. This is not helpful when you have a ten-month-old that can crawl at the speed of light and a two year old who can RUN!
4. Unless you have A/C, you don't dare turn on your oven in the summer. This significantly decreases the number of recipes I have to choose from while trying to come up with new, exciting things to cook for dinner.
5. Staying cool in the summer requires far too little clothing for my taste (and figure).
6. It takes me 20 minutes longer to go anywhere because I have to slather two wiggly-worms with copious amounts of sunscreen first.
7. The animals don't come out at the zoo.
So there! I can feel better about facing the heat today because I have sufficiently told it why it stinks. I lovingly dedicate this post to my friends Sandra and Mary, who are crazy "love the heat"-ers, and yet I love them anyway. May you enjoy the summer. Somebody has to.
I have the extreme blessing of being able to say that nearly all of my closest family are Christians. I was raised in a Christian home and have the wonderful knowledge that if just about any one of my family members were to pass away, my time apart from them would be only temporary. It is so comforting to have that confidence when facing things like my Grandma's cancer, which we are facing now. While I pray earnestly for her health and healing, I can rest assuredly that if God decides He's in a hurry to have her with Him in Heaven (and I wouldn't blame Him, she's really good company!), that I will see her again. The concept of permanently losing someone closely related to me is hard for me to imagine living with, and yet, I know that it's a burden some people carry everyday.
One of our dearest friends carries that burden. He is the ONLY male in his family who is a believer. He lives everyday knowing that if his dad (his dad!) were in a terrible car accident that day, not only would that end their relationship, but his dad would have entered an ugly eternity. That reality must be so hard to face. This friend is right now facing the eminent death of his grandfather. His unsaved grandfather. The point of this post is not to go into medical details, but he has a heart condition that is worsening daily to the point that he, at best, has months, but likely has weeks or days. I am not writing this post to ask you to pray for his healing. If God miraculously chooses to do that, then that would be wonderful. This gentleman, however, is 93-years-old, and if this doesn't end his life, something else will soon. So I am writing this post to ask you to pray for his salvation. Our friend and his wife are going to visit Grandpa this Saturday and are going to hope that facing the end of his life has ripened his heart for the gospel. I want to help them. I would love to see Heaven's gates stormed on behalf of this gentleman and see a miracle occur. So I'm asking everyone I know to say a prayer Saturday morning (and any other time you feel led to) for Grandpa. I'm not going to use names, because I don't want anyone to feel embarrased by this post, but God knows who you are praying about.
I also want to remind those of you like me, surrounded by a Christian family, that there are so many people out there who are bearing a burden like my friend. We need to be helping them carry that burden. We need to be actively praying for the salvation of anyone close to us, but our heart should be breaking for those with loved ones who don't yet have their names written in The Lambs Book of Life.
As we celebrate the 4th of July today with our BBQs and our Fireworks, we need to bow our heads and thank God that there are individuals like this in this country.....
We often hear this term: Freedom isn't Free. But, what does that really mean and if Freedom isn't Free, then what is the cost and who pays it? The cost is watching someone you love go away for a long period of time where there is little contact as they endure the rigors and hardships of training.The cost is watching someone you love serve for pay that doesn't always cover what it takes to live a standard of living most civilians enjoy and suffering a financial impact that can negatively alter a military family's prosperity for a lifetime.The cost is deployment to combat and the hardships of a soldier far from home while in a hostile place.The cost is a loved one leaving whole but coming home less than whole, physically, mentally or both. The cost is a a loved one who never returns from a mission and is never found.The cost is having to take another's life, even if they are the enemy, and living with that the rest of your life.The cost is watching a close friend die, maybe even holding them in your arms, help less to save them and living a life of remembering that moment and feeling guilty that it wasn't you who died instead of the close friend. The cost is a family waiting and watching 24 / 7, hoping and praying as they watch daily newscasts about our military personnel dying.The cost is a knock at the door no family wants but is a special privilege of sacrifice and if not borne by some, then who would bear it?The cost is family trees altered for all time to come.The cost is a lifetime of love.Freedom isn't Free and the cost is high.The Fourth of July is a special time to celebrate the freedoms we have, hard fought and won at a great cost. Well we all should enjoy this day, and every day we have to live free, for to do less would be to waste the high price paid that we might.
Robert Stokely
proudly remembering my son, SGT Mike Stokely
KIA 16 Aug 05
near Yusufiyah in the Triangle of Death south of BaghdadUS Army E Troop 108 CAV 48th BCT GAARNG
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