Perspective
While the rest of the world gets its panties in a wad over much more serious matters, my week can pretty much be explained pictures:
“Mommy? Will my forehead ever feel normal again?”
“Yes, darling, as soon as you stop running into things.”
Mama always told me that the laundry will wait. Well, it sure did, while we were laid out in our sick beds, but it morphed into a one-eyed monster with scary hairy appendages growing out of it. (If you were so bored and wondering what 3 days without doing laundry for me looks like, this is pretty much it.) The funniest thing about this photo is the basket, I think. I mean, what’s the use of a basket when it’s this bad?
“You spent how much of our money buying this phone on ebay?”
(He’s going to love me for posting that one)
This one requires explanation. You may recall that Shepherd has a severe degree of disdain for being on his back. I was busy putting the other kids down for naps this afternoon (which takes me about 10-15 minutes when I’m alone), and when I finally got up to our bonus room to see why Shepherd was wailing so, I discovered this. Pillows flung off the bed, sock kicked away, and little man screaming his adorable head off. 3 months old and already rolling over! At least he rolled out of the puddle of milk. Our kids have talent, I tell you. It’s because we home-school.
Well, little guy, you’re stuck in this family. But it’s not so bad, eh?
It’s all about the view, right?
Ever-Present Help
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. — Psalm 46:1
This passage is speaking in the context of persecution and war, but the statement is true for all children of God. He is our true refuge, our strength, and our great High Priest is very near in time of need. Just yesterday I sent out a few emails to my homeschool co-op group and my Bible study group explaining our family situation and why we will not be attending the groups for a few months. We just keep getting sick. Did I mention it was mono? I don’t think I did, but that is what we have in our family. It is supposedly “rare” for small children to catch it, but two of ours have in the last month. We are playing reluctant host to the rudest guest we’ve ever seen, and ready to kick him out of our house for good! 
Seriously it is amazing to read this verse this morning and nod “yes” to the promises of God in His Word. This morning I checked my email again to find several women in those groups asking if they could bring meals to us. That is huge when you have four little ones and a tired husband. I am thankful, and my heart is full to see how God fulfills His promises through the body of Christ. We are the hands, feet, arms, fingers, knees, and shoulders of Christ, and when part of the body is wounded and weak, the other parts pitch in to help. I am always, in my self-sufficient pride, reluctant to ask for help, but that is not how God wants His children to work with each other. I am glad I sent out those emails. We were created for community. Do you believe this? What do you need today? Remember that God is your refuge and has also provided an ever-present help in the form of your brothers and sisters in Christ.
Shepherd
loves you!
I can’t help but think of what I posted when Meredith was a few months old and how Shepherd is so similar to Steven and Meredith at this age! I don’t have a picture like this of Lydia at 2-3 months sitting up (the only ones are of her riding, nursing, crying, or sleeping), but isn’t this neat?!
And here they are today- just for fun! (minus Shepherd, who was napping)!!
Who Will Show us Some Good?
Tuesday morning a friend in my bible study discussion group made a comment about the promises of Psalm 4 in light of the distressing times in our economy. I let the balm of Scripture sink deep into my mind throughout the day and have been thinking about that passage ever since.
There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”
You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.
In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.– Psalm 4: 6-8
I remember in college I used to babysit for a couple with four small children (hmmm, sounds familiar!), and one evening, I don’t recall why, we were discussing their journey of faith through a period with very little finances. One of them said, “We used to sit down on Friday night and roll our pennies, and on Saturday we would go to the grocery store.” I looked around their home, and although it was not fancy, they had everything they wanted and more. They had an incredibly beautiful family, and I would have argued that they were some of the most influential people in my hometown. I thought to myself, “That’s amazing, but Lord, I don’t ever want to be rolling pennies!”
Fast-forward four years, and my husband and I found ourselves on the beans and rice diet. There were several months that we saw very little in our kitchen pantry and felt much stress on our couches. We had a young baby, bills, unforeseen emergency expenses, and we did not have the experience yet in our relationship to be good at managing our home together in this way. We were on a rocky boat, and we didn’t like it. Our pillows, however, always held our heads in sweet slumber, and it was truly because at the end of the day, we believed Psalm 4:8. In our frailty and immaturity, we had a firm anchor. We honestly believed in the God we could not see, and we trusted that His sovereign hand ruled over all things. He was taking care of us.
Several years later we find ourselves here, weeks before a presidential election, with four small children of our own, and we have the same hope that is anchored in the steady hand of God. God is not surprised by anything that comes down the pipe to us. He ordains every breath and step. We do not know what tomorrow will bring, but the Author and Perfecter of our faith answers the question, “Who will show us some good?” with a resounding I am.
Eric and I can look back over the last several years, and not one time has God failed to provide for us. It is amazing. People who don’t believe in God and don’t know Jesus cannot understand this! He truly takes care of His children, and many times he has a sense of humor about it. The “beans and rice phase,” for example (by the way, I still eat beans and rice all the time because they are just awesome)… anyway, some good friends (Carrie, you know who you are!) with the same amount of small children as us came by one evening during that time with steaks, saying, “We just wanted to bless you and come eat dinner.” That was one of the best memories of Christian fellowship in our home we can remember (plus, what could be more entertaining than me popping the potatoes in the microwave WITH the foil still on?)!
A few weeks after Shepherd was born a couple in our congregation mailed us a very large amount of money. The attached note conveyed that they knew from having four kids that it is not cheap to have a large family and that they hoped to bless us in gratitude for God’s grace working through us at the church. Just a few weeks later Steven was hospitalized, and later we smiled to see how God so perfectly and faithfully took care of those medical bills. That is just one story in one family in one city of one part of the world of the provision of God. What joy, more joy than grain and the best wine, there is to know the Lord.
He is amazing, and if we trust Him completely without wavering, we will be blessed to see how He will show us some good, no matter what. And ultimately, the good that we all are longing to see is the favor of God, his face shining on us, and that is freely, freely given in the person and work of Jesus the Messiah.
Entering His Rest
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’”
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”– Hebrews 4:1-4
I mentioned recently that I had been so encouraged at women’s Bible study at church, and one of the high points of Debi’s message that morning to us was such a comfort to me. Our study is the book of Hebrews. Tuesday we discussed the rest mentioned in chapters three and four, and at one point Debi spoke to us about learning from the unbelief of God’s children in Scripture. The unbelief in our hearts can range from not trusting God to provide something He has explicitly promised, not trusting that His will is best for us, not trusting that He can forgive, not trusting that He will sustain or that He is not enough, or just not trusting Him period. Ultimately these kinds of dormant unbelieving thoughts can reveal that we do not have faith in God at all. That is scary but so true, and I know there have been so many times (daily!) characterized by my unbelief that I would not want to discuss them.
Debi stopped and asked, “Why do you think this passage mentions God resting from His works?”
“Why did God rest from His works?”
Hmmm, wow, I really don’t think I had ever thought about that one very much. Why was it? Debi pondered with us several possibilities before saying to us, “It was not because He was tired and needed to rest. God rested because there was nothing else left to do.”
I’m not sure what Debi said for the next five minutes. My mind bounded off like a rabbit on a trail. I was thinking about my life at home with the kids and with my husband. I was thinking about all of my “Martha moments,” and how I, like most moms, feel the constant surge of urgent tasks that “just need to be done.” My mind proceeded to compare my heart with a heart of rest, and they were starting to seem very, very different.
I need more rest in my life. I need to be like Christ, who sat down at the right hand of God. I need to sit at the feet of Jesus and “just be.” I need to stop trying to be super mommy and super wife and realize that God is enough and He is in control. I believe, Lord; help my unbelief!
Pink for October
Did you wonder if Meredith did this???
I promise this is not to ward off any male readers of my blog! It is rather ironic, however, that the last post I wrote had two male commenters, which made me chuckle. I never have comments from the guys! Well, here I am the next day to blast you with some PINK! Ha! Ha! You don’t have to leave, I promise.
Needless to say things look a tad different around here. (If you don’t see it, please refresh your browser!) Did you know that all around the web, sites “go pink” for breast-cancer awareness this month? It’s called Pink for October. This is the third year PFO has been in existence. I didn’t participate last year because I redesigned my site the week before or something and didn’t want to go to the trouble to do it all over again just a few days later. Well, if you’d like to participate, here is a link to show you how to “go pink” and participate!
http://pinkforoctober.org/about/
If you use Blogger or something pretty basic and user-friendly and just want to change your site’s background color, all you need to do is go to your template file and edit your page background, or find a pretty pink template! Also make sure to get your site listed @ Pink for October (I was #178 – woohoo! Actually, there is absolutely no significance in that number – ha.)
Happy Pinking, and praise God for the healing, glory, and wonder he is doing in breast-cancer survivors, researchers, medical professionals, victims who have gone on to be with Him, and everyone else touched by this disease!
(* Natalie, I wanted to link to your PFO themes from 2007 for WP users, but did you take them down from your site? )
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