Do I HAVE To?

I am a little intolerant when my children whine, 

"Do I have to?"  

after I ask them to do something. 

A smile, a verbal acknowledgement 

and a prompt act of obedience is what I want to see.

Not a tantrum.

(Yea, it was posed.

Beka was laughing so hard,

she had to duck her head.)

It's a little convicting to realize

 sometimes 

I demand more of my children that I expect from myself.

At times, the household chores can make me a little cranky. 

I get tired of cleaning. 

I get tired of shopping. 

I really get tired of cooking. 

I get tired of reminding people to pick up after themselves.

I get tired of working so much and still never having a clean house.  

I get tired of being tired.

Sometimes the have to's of my life stetch endlessly upwards,

like a mountain range I can never conquer.

I want to stomp my feet and whine,

"Do I have to?"

 when another demand is placed on my list.

I have to remind myself that actually

I love my life. 

I do.  I really, really do. 

I always wanted to be happily married to a godly, intelligent, adorable man. 

I am. 

I always wanted to have six children. 

I do. 

I always wanted to stay home with my kids and homeschool them. 

I am and I do.

So what is is about my life that makes me cranky?

Only my attitude.

I need to change my  attitude because 

 don't really want to change my circumstances.

I need to be thankful for the mountains of dirty laundry,

cuz' that means kids are here.

I need to be thankful for the meals I am cooking, 

'cuz that means there is money to buy groceries for my family.

I need to be thankful for the messes,

because that means I am not living alone in my house.

I have the husband and the children I always wanted. 

Now, I just need the right attitude to take care of them.

I have to pay taxes,

I have to put gas in the tank, 

I have to wear a seatbelt.

But, I  get to take care of my family.

I get to feed them. 

I get to wash their laundry. 

I get to clean the house.

I get to  because I want to.

Psalms 113:9
He makes the barren woman to keep house,
and to be a joyful mother of children.
Praise  the LORD.

I am done blogging,

cuz' I gotta'

lotta'

stuff

I

get to

do today.

**********

linkin' up

cuz' I

get to

MM Meditation - God Didn't Move, We Did

The words to this Keith Green song

describe the occasional condition of our hearts.

My Eyes Are Dry

My eyes are dry

My faith is old

My heart is hard

My prayers are cold

And I know how I ought to be

Alive to You and dead to me

But what can be done

For an old heart like mine

Soften it up

With oil and wine

The oil is You, Your Spirit of love

Please wash me anew

With the wine of Your Blood

When we feel distant from the Lord,

we sometimes think He has moved.

He hasn't.

The following is in exerpt from a book I am reading,

"Some Secrets of Christian Living" by F.B. Meyer.
Published in 1953, the book is as relevant
 to believer's today as it was in his day.

Seek to know and confess

whatever has come between God and you.

You have lost the light of God's face, not because He has arbitrarily withdrawn it, but because your iniquities have come between you and your God, and your sins, like a cloud before the sun, have hid His face from you.

Do not spend time by looking at them as a whole, deal with them one by one.  In dealing with sin, we should imitate him in the definiteness and accuracy of His aim. 

Ask God to search you and show you what wicked way is in you. 

Marshal all your life before Him, as Joshua marshalled Israel, sift it through, tribe by tribe, family by family, household by household, man by man, until at last you find the Achan who has robbed you of the blessed smile of God.

Do not say:  Lord, I am a great sinner, I have done what I ought not, I have not done what I ought.  But sayd, Lord, I have sinned in this, and this, and that, and the other.  Call each rebel sin, by its right name, to receive sentence of death. 

Your heart is choked with sins; empty it out, as you would empty a box, by handing out first the articles that lie on the surface.  When you have removed them, you will see more underneath; hand them out also.  When these are removed, you will probably see some more.

Never rest till all are gone.

Confession is just this process of telling god the unvarnished story - the sad, sad story - of each accursed sin - how it began, how you sinfully permitted it to grow, how you have loved and followed it to your bitter cost.

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins,

he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I Love Love Letters

As soon as she could grasp a pencil or coloring crayon,

my youngest daughter, Rebekah,

began leaving me love notes.

Her five older siblings also went through this stage,

I just didn't feverishly hang onto almost every lovable scrap,

like I do now.

Knowing it is my last little one has made me

desperately obsessive.

I wish I had saved more from the other kids.

Why did I save school papers instead of love notes?

(And sometimes, during the teenage years,

it is good to have PROOF that they love you,

but I am not trying to scare you into

forbidding your children to age.)

She thinks I am beautiful.

Song of Solomon 6:4

"You are beautiful, O my love..."

She thinks about my love,

and it changes her countenance.

Her love does not change, although the seasons do.

from the hymn

-Great is Thy Faithfulness-

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.

I love the pictures she draws of me.

I always look skinny.

And, best of all,

I am always smiling.

Isn't she nice to not draw me yelling?

Unfortunately, she has seen my tonsils more than once.

Jeremiah 31:3

“ Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;

Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you."

I love hearts,

so she learned how to draw them

to give me a sea of love.

Her love to me is so constant

and so undeserved.

If I am upset,

she will come and hug me.

If I am crying,

she'll kiss away my tears.

She tells me every day

that she loves me.

She greets me in the morning with love,

and I cannot leave the house without her kisses.

How can one so young

so beautifully demonstrate the Lord's love for us?

This is not a daisy-petal pullin' kind of emotion -

He loves us,

He loves us,

He loves us.

 

I John 4:10

"This is love, not that we loved God,

but that He loved us

and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice

 for our sins."

He left us love notes ya' know -

66 of them.

He wrote 66 books that show how His everlasting love

 outpoured to redeem our souls

and bring us home to Heaven.

We would never leave a love letter unopened,

would we?

Mommy Craft Day

The Fall sunshine begged to kiss our faces.

The dancing leaves fluttered lightly,

like the Gingerbread man,

daring us to catch them if we can.

We just HAD to get outside.

It was supposed to be simple walk

through the neighborhood for

 three kids,

two moms

and one basket.

Our goals were simple.

 1. pick up leaves.

2. don't pick up dog-doo on your shoe

3. don't get hit by a car.

We didn't plan on teaching the kids

the difference between old, crumbly, yucky leaves,

and fresh, I-will-work-for-your-project leaves.

We didn't plan on teaching them

that just because the garage door is open,

doesn't mean the owners want you walking in.

Hey, it was filled with cases of candy and pop,

what do you expect?

We didn't plan on teaching them that two kids,

hanging on each side of the basket

and whirling around like a gyroscope

in the middle of the street,

probably wasn't the safest idea.

The craft was supposed to be simple.

1. places leaves under white paper

2. rub over them with a crayon.

Norah loves scissors.

Norah hasn't quite mastered the skill,

but found she cut better with her mouth open.

Norah crafted by cutting the leaves into little pieces.

Beka is the oldest, therefore,

finds crafting skills a little easier.

Beka likes to tell the other children what to do.

Avery chose the prettiest colors and scribbled the hardest.

Avery  almost spelled his name right.

After one page,

the kids disappeared to the backyard,

live in the forest,

go hunting for meat

and play Army.

Kelly-Across-the-Street and I enjoyed what ended up being

Mommy Craft Day.

We didn't plan on teaching the kids,

that leaving the Mommies alone to craft,

was really,

really,

really good therapy.

Gramma's Tangled Threads

The years hadn't been good to the bin of Grammas'

thread I inherited after she died.

My husband wondered

why I would even bother trying to untangle them.

I hadn't used them yet,

and they weren't any use in the current state.

Through years of neglect and poor storage,

her spools became tangled, mangled threads.

I don't use this type of thread often,

but I couldn't bear to part with the treasures.

We began by lightly pulling the mass apart.

We tried to follow one loose end to the beginning,

unwinding, unknotting and carefully rewinding.

It took a lot of time.

It took a lot of patience.

It took a lot of work.

When we were done,

the last few remnants I own of my Gramma's creative life,

were orderly and useful again.

There is such a relief to order,

to having tangled messes restored to usefulness.

Isn't this what the Lord does to our lives?

He carefully helps us untangle the messes we have made,

through ignorance,

through unbelief,

through sin,

through pride

and through self-will.

If we struggle, the knots binding us will become tighter.

If we surrender to His tender tugs and pulls,

He can unbind,

unknot,

untangle,

untwist

and

restore the tangled, mangled mess of our lives.

Then, the rescued threads of our lives,

can be woven into something

useful,

helpful,

and

beautiful.

Is there a tangled mess you are hiding in some corner of your heart?

He knit you together in your Mother's womb,

He certainly is capable of untangling the mess,

and re-knitting.

Just hold still in prayer,

cling to His Word,

and let Him begin tugging gently

on those stubborn knots,

one

at

a

time.

Wonka to the Rescue

My life can be pretty busy.

Well-meaning people  suggest I take things out of my life.

That always stumps me. 

I don't serve on any committees,

I don't get my hair or nails done,
rarely shop for anything other than groceries,

and it's not a sports season for anybody.

I don't work out, (you'd believe me if you saw my jelly-belly)

and  we order pizza more often than I care to admit.

But, I'm frequently told  to simplify my life.

Any takers for the three bathrooms that need to be cleaned? 

How about cooking the three meals a day?

OK.  No takers. 

I have to come up with another plan to simplify my life.

For the meals I'm gunna'

start buying Wonka gum. 

Remember his Three-Course Dinner Chewing Gum? 

I would LOVE to serve this for dinner every night. 

Much less shopping, no preparation, no cooking, no cleaning. 

We could sit around the dinner table, pop in our pieces of gum, chew and chat.

"Please pass the Tomato soup, roast beef and baked potato,

and blueberry pie and ice cream piece of gum."

"Oh, Wonka perfected that one, huh? 

Ya' sure ya' ain't gunna turn into a giant blueberry?"

"How did school go today, all my precious children?"

"Is there another steak, potato and salad piece left?"

"Father, how was work today?"

"Who took the last piece of pizza, breadsticks and Caesar salad gum?

I wanted it!"

Maybe, no more complaints about dinner. 

Maybe, no more fighting over whose turn it is for dishes. 

No more sweeping more food off the floor than appears to have been swallowed.

We've have time for rational, intellectual conversation every night in-between chomps.

Yea, I am totally going to buy Wonka gum.

Then, I'm gunna'

hire Alice to be my housekeeper. 

Ya' know, from The Brady Bunch. 

If she's not available, I'm gunna driving to Mayberry to hire Aunt Bea. 

I need someone who is starched and polished and has the laundry folded,

the house spotless and the meals on time, all the time.  

Every.

single.

day.

of.

my.

life.

Yea, so then for the Honey Do list,

even though my awesome honey actually crossed off a lot of thing this weekend,  

I'm gunna' hire MacGyver.

I'll just give the big M a box of paperclips, a hand full of pens

 and duct tape and put him to work. 

Oh, that's right, I'd have to dig all the pens out of the couch cushions,

under the beds and out of purses not being used,

so he'll have to work without the pens.

We'll start showering

with our clothes on to save on laundry. 

We might even throw the dirty coffee mugs in the tub to save time in the kitchen. 

We can give up eating, but I can't give up coffee.

I'll stop washing our sheets and towels,

what a waste of time, anyway. 

If I bought new once a year, it would cut down on shopping and laundry. 

I could go green and save some green.

 Then, if I wasn't cooking, cleaning and doing laundry,

I would have a lot of free time on my hands.

 I could start

getting my hair and nails done. 

 I could start working out

and

head up a coupla' committees.

But, it all starts with the gum.  I gotta' get some of that Wonka Gum!

Until the gum is on the market, I'll use the same motivation I always use when the necessary duties of everyday life just seem to pile up.

Galatians 6:9

And let us not grow weary while doing good,

for in due season we shall reap

 if we do not lose heart.

Philippians 2:14

Do everything without complaining

(to Mom, not the kids)

Since I can't chomp on Wonka gum,

I'm chomping on my tongue, to keep it from complaining. 

And, I am cooking, cleaning, laundering, schooling, gardening

 and mommying with a full heart and strength for the journey.

Thank you, Lord!

**********

I'm linking up with other moms to see how their handling their Monday. 

MM Meditation - Wanna' Be Blessed?

I love the 8th chapter of Proverbs. Reading the account of the Lord Jesus creating the world and enjoying the  presence of the Father, gives such insight to their intimate relationship before the Incarnation.  He gave up the presence of His Father to come to earth to die for us.

It never ceases to amaze me.

At the end of the chapter, we're admonished to do three simple things to be blessed by the Lord.

Proverbs 8:34

 Blessed is the man who hears me,

Watching daily at my gates,

Waiting at the posts of my doors.

HEAR -  In our time period, He does not speak audibly. Hebrews 1:12, tells us He used to speak to and through prophets, but in these last days, He only speaks to us through His Son.

John 1:1-4 tells us His Son is the Word.

We don't hear Him audibly, but if we are filling ourselves with the Word and allowing our hearts and minds to be transformed into His image, we will inwardly hear the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  It isn't a voice that is audible to the ear, but to the spirit of man, responding according to the Word vested in a believer's heart.


WATCHING: He asked His disciples to watch and wait, and they fell asleep.

Mark 14:38,

"Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

We are watching out for evil in the world. We are watching for traps and snares of the devil. We are watching to be sure our feet are on the right path.
The watching is combined with praying. We should be asking for direction, asking for help against the enemies, asking for strength against temptation and asking for guidance along the path.



WAITING- When we are expecting company, we like to hover by the front door and open it before they knock, greeting them with a hug and a welcome from loud, boisterous children. We expect them, so we are waiting.

The Lord needs us to wait in two ways, yet the waiting is the same.

We are waiting for His soon return.

We are waiting for His answers to our prayers.

He has a plan in both of these things, and He will execute it in His way, His timing. We understand His coming, and gladly leave those details to Him by faith. We don't always understand we need this same attitude for other waiting in our lives. We fret and worry, as if He won't answer and doesn't care. The weakness of our flesh and faith cause us to doubt Him.

Psalms 27:14

"Wait on the LORD; be of good courage,

and He shall strengthen your heart;

Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Sometimes, we like to leave our kids a list of things to do when we leave the house.

They know we're coming back and will check on their work.


And the blessing He promised?

Proverbs 8:30-31

Then I (Jesus) was beside Him as a master craftsman
And I was daily His delight...

And my delight was with the sons of men.

 
The Father delights in the Son, the Son delights in the sons of men.
 
What an amazing blessing for just three things....
hearing
watching and
waiting.