...whatsoever ye do...

My precious little girl this summer doing one of her favorite things, playing with our bunny "Angel Kisses"

"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
I Corinthians 10:31

Question: What is the chief end of man?
Answer: To glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.

*****************************************

I've been inspired down into the deepest part of my soul to glorify God in ALL I do. "Whether I eat, or drink, or whatsoever [I] do..." Even as a Christian, God is easily removed from my day, except I purpose that He be intricately weaved into absolutely everything.

I want to glorify God in the simple things, but also in the not-so-simple.

I want to glorify God as I go about my day by
serving my family,
doing laundry,
preparing a meal, or
being nice to the person who calls the wrong number, for the umpteenth time,
or who calls the right number, but is trying to market anything to me {sigh}.

I want to make my life one where I focus on all the blessings.
Sometimes these blessings, are what I think of blessings....
good.
Sometimes these blessings, are not what I think of blessings....
hard, painful, difficult, trying....

It is a blessing to be so needed by my husband, my children.
Even if it is in the middle of the night. Even when I'm physically exhausted.
It is a blessing when the money is tight, when a loved one is sick,
when my patience is really, really tried,
and I can't take it any more, because

"...the trial of [my] faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Whom having not seen, [I] love; in Whom, though now [I] see Him not, yet believing, [I] rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." I Peter 1:7-8

I've been richly inspired by my favorite blog Eyes of Wonder. Apart from God's Word, never before have I read such beauty through words. Its not her, but its her life fully devoted to God, and glorifying Him that inspires me so. But its not this alone, more specifically, its her last few posts that have connected some dots in my soul. Even more specifically, it is the amazing teaching at our church that I've sat under for the last year and a half. It is all this but more, that has, although times are in a sense harder today, made my perspective different. It is a focus that is on Christ and in "....learn[ing] of [Him]" (this is the KEY). I am learning that He is "meek and lowly in heart: and [I] shall find rest unto [my] soul. For [His] yoke is easy, and [His] burden is light." (Matthew 11:30). It is a sacrifice, that is true, but I'm learning that more than water and food, more than even sleep, I need to be immersed in Christ. This is done through daily Bible reading and prayer, and not by showing up at church once a week. It is simply that. Yes, it is being in Christ, moment by moment, every.single.day.of.my.life, that is important.

This has been a shift in thinking for me. As an American, even a Christian American, I often think that if we were financially stable, if we were in perfect health, if we were witty and popular and had many friends, than we would be happy. But as I read God's Word, over and over and over again, I am reminded that it is in fact the opposite of all these things where the righteous most often are, and are content and find joy. I'm doing nothing wrong (necessarily) if we struggle financially, if we or our loved ones are sick, if we are quiet and awkward, even if we are just struggling with being happy.

Christ was not popular and did not have many friends. Paul struggled his whole life with a "thorn in his flesh" (some have suggested it could have been migraines. After experiencing major headaches for the first half of this pregnancy, I have a new understanding of people who struggle with this). Job lost everything - his possessions (which I can cling so hard to), his loved ones (oh, I can't even imagine), everything. The list of Biblical examples goes on.

Next week in Sunday school, we will begin to learn from the book of I Samuel. Our teacher asked us to begin reading it. Can you imagine longing for a child so much, yet the Lord did not open your womb. Yes, there are many who know this pain today. Can you imagine how hard it would be that your husband's other wife kept getting pregnant, over and over again? Yet the Lord was faithful, and blessed Hannah with the birth of her son Samuel. Hannah promised to give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and she kept her promise. After Samuel was weaned, Hannah literally gave him to the Lord, by sending him to live with the priest Eli. What? I wouldn't be surprised if Hannah was hoping the Lord wouldn't take her literally and choose a different way. Yet through this journey, Hannah and Elkanah eventually had 5 more children! Referring back to Eyes of Wonder, Jewels reminded me in her recent post, that often the journey the Lord brings me on, is nothing I would ever chose to travel, yet once I am there, I can see His hand in it the whole time. Once I am there, I wouldn't change where I am, from where I was.

It is with all this mind, that I will be changing the "tone" of my blog. In it, I will still update on my family. But, as Jewels does, I hope to bring glory to God with a focus on the simple things, but also in everything.

So, I begin by sharing with you one of our favorite days from this summer. It was simple. The place wasn't too crowded because of that very reason. Nothing hugely entertaining when compared to today's standard of entertainment, but it was beautiful. This was one of the day trips we took during our most delightful vacation in August. The place was a fairy-tale themed children's park, one that hasn't been updated, ever :) Fun was had by us all!

One of my favorite pictures from this summer. Oh to capture the giggles of these boys (hubby included ;) ) Really look at the picture, and I bet you can hear their belly laughs! Can you hear it? I agree with our Pastor who said, "I don't think the gates of hell have ever heard the laugh of a child."
And after such a tiring day, some couldn't help but to fall into a slumber. What a full day for which we are thankful to God.

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28.

May we be as little children today. Innocent, and not overladen with the cares of this world. As our children do not worry about the next thing, knowing Mommy and Daddy will just take care of it, may we too not worry about tomorrow, knowing our Lord and our Father, will take that much more care of us, His children.

Finding His blessings in it all,

Jen

A Medical Update

...for my family that is.

Did I mention that while at O's 6 year checkup, his asthma was upgraded to moderate to severe? Yes, I believe I did. At his followup on Tuesday, his O2 stats were 100%! Praise the Lord! Can I say in his whole life, we have never seen 100%! The best I've seen was 98%, and I thought that was fine, what was I to know. I do know times we've brought him to Urgent Care, and it was 94%, they took him in before the others who were already waiting to be seen (ever want to get the evil eye? Yikes!). Anyway, next Friday we have a follow-up with his allergist and we'll figure out our course of action. Fall to Christmas is his toughest time of year. So if we can get through this year preventing as many attacks as we can, we'll be thankful to God! The past 4 years have been very tough for our son in this respect. This afternoon we may start his allergy shots, as I know that is one huge thing that in the long run will greatly improve both his asthma and allergies, and both his allergist and pediatrician want to do that for certain. But because he was on oral steroids up until this past Sunday, they may not want him to start yet. O is actually pretty "excited" about starting the shots (he'll receive 2/week - one for cats and one for dust mites), because the first day he starts he'll get a small Lego set. Then we have a chart, and every 4 times (1/month), he'll also get a small Lego set. Each week, however, his reward for getting the shots is getting to choose dinner that evening. I have a feeling we'll be having pancakes most Friday nights! Although, my boy loves Mexican and Chinese like I do, so with a little persuasion, I may be able to convince him some weeks ;)

For M (who I need to do a post on her badly, since her brothers have received so much attention with starting school and all), yesterday we had her 6 month eye exam and she's doing great! I'm not certain I've ever mentioned what we had to do for her. When she was about 6-9 months old, I noticed her left eye was "lazy". It would wander outward much of the time. At her 1 year well checkup, our pediatrician noticed it as well, and suggested we bring her to a pediatric opthamologist. After a little testing, they determined that she needed to wear a patch on her good eye for 10% of her waking hours so that she would use her bad eye more. Here is a picture from when she started wearing the patch:

We patched her for 6 months, and then for the following 6 months we reduced the time to half. Then for these past 6 months, we have done nothing as her eye was as good as it would get without surgery. 6 months ago, and yesterday, both her eyes wander equally. What this means is both her eyes are working together, and are at equal strength. I asked if there was anything we could do to help strengthen her eyes even more, so they don't wander at all, and the doctor said, just in her normal day-to-day life she will use them more and strengthen them, but this is probably where she will stay (or according to the text books, some times it does get a little worse). Her eyesight is 20/20, so she does not need glasses. What we may face though is surgery when she is 4 or 5 years old. I'm thankful this isn't a decision we need to make today. Basically its a matter of cosmetics. You do see her eye wander, that is true, but days will go by and I don't notice it at all! It is one of those things that we may need to make a decision for her now on her behalf that she would want to make if she was old enough. In other words, when she is a young woman, she may want her eye to be fixed and not wander at all, you know what I mean? So we have a few years, and as with O's asthma, I believe God can heal her little eye. Of course, there is a very large part of us that wants to think we can raise her to be content in how God made her, and that we can explain that we thought it would be best to not take any risks with eye surgery when a simple blink for her fixes it. The Lord will lead us.

Well, fall decorations never were put up the other day. Too much weeding and yard work to do first. We found out my son O is a terrific edger, and he is making our flower beds look so neat! He also LOVES manual labor, and I want to encourage it as much as possible. If we do much of the prep work now, next spring it will be easier on us as we will have a little girl to get to know :) I'd like to do as much now with the flower beds, so next spring, we can get a load of mulch delivered and put in some pretty flowers (or bribe my parents to do it with a meal or something :) I'm sure if I can't get them to do the planting, they too will like to hold that little girl while I do some gardening :) ) This weekend though, Daddy will pull down the fall decorations for us, and we'll start making it look more like fall around here!

Have a beautiful weekend and enjoy time with your family and worshipping our Lord on Sunday!

Teaching Your Kids About God In Public School

For a moment, I was actually fearful to do this today. Then it hit me - I can, and I WILL, do anything I can to still teach my children about God our Savior even while they are in public school. I think as Christians we have a lot of misinformation about our rights in the public school system. While I'm relatively new at this, and don't know all my rights (and yes I know, lack of rights), I DO know that I can do something. Before I had children, I used to work with a pregnancy center and we would go into public schools and teach about abstinence. Now, while we could not say that the Bible says that sex should be in marriage only, between one husband and one wife, we could say it is the best way. And, as a Christian, we should know that only God's way is the best way ;)

So, it will take some creativity on my part to teach my children about God while they are in school. I find its pretty easy to use examples from their learning and give it godly application, once they are home (and that is equally as important) - but today I will be thinking of ways I can bring God to their day, during their day, even while they are at school away from me. So this is what I came up with in a matter of 30 seconds this morning:

This summer while at Target, I found these cute little lunchbox notes. I've been putting little encouraging notes, like "have a great day" or "I'll be praying for you today" etc. But today, being "Red Day" (a singer by the name of Red Grammer will be performing for the children today and they were encouraged to wear red), I decided to give a little tidbit of a lesson in his lunchbox. Its nothing hugely creative, just a little reminder of the wonderful love of Jesus Christ. And really, Jesus dying on the cross and shedding his blood for me, for you, is what it is all about.

So, parents with children in public school, think with me. What are ways we can teach our children about God in public school? Leave a comment so we can all learn from eachother.

A little funny story to share with you. With school starting, we have become more serious and regular about having a time in the Word before bed. We've been reading from a children's Bible, and just decided the best place to start was the beginning in Genesis. So Monday evening, we came to the story about Jacob and Esau, and how Jacob was Rebekah's favorite, and Esau was Isaac's favorite; and how Jacob tricked Isaac into believing he was Esau to receive his father's blessing. So just for kicks, we asked the boys "who is Daddy's/Mommy's favorite" (assuming they would say no one, I mean we really think we give our love equally and have relayed this fact to them!), and O raised his hand and shouted "me!" And C, being our laid back, agrees with whatever his brother says, didn't even argue! Well that became a little mini-lesson right there! "No! You all are our favorites!"

I may bring my box of fall decorations out today (after I do some weeding - yikes!). This is my favorite time of year to decorate, and I'm guilty of doing fall and Christmas decorations very early. Because today is so beautiful out, and so fall-ish, me-thinks it will be a perfect day for that!

Have a wonderful fall day!