Crying Babies and Awesome Church

So, I never want to come across as fake. I want to be honest and talk about the wonderful....and the not so wonderful. I want people to know I am real. That my family and I do have struggles. Not every day is smiles, snuggles, and just warm happy feelings; some days are just plain rough! Sometimes it helps to know others have those rough days too and that you are not alone. Maybe that is one of the reasons God blesses us with “rough” days is so that we can in turn be a blessing to someone else in their rough days and be not just sympathetic, but empathetic. Either way, today was a rough day. Let me tell you a bit about my day.

Edification is a Great Opportunity to Praise God

Today I was extremely happy and proud of Levi. He can be such a helper sometimes and I feel bad because I don't know if I express to him how proud I am of him or when I do, if he understands it. It made me almost feel bad and sad because I want him to know how happy I am of him. Then, I got to thinking, instead of me being so concerned about him understanding how proud I am, I should be concerned about showing him that I am thankful to God for giving him the desires, the strength, and the heart to be such a helper. I need to give GOD the glory; even when it comes to my two-year-old. He can start to understand even early on.

What a great opportunity to start introducing my son to God and His glory and show him how we need to strive to glorify God each day and grow to be more and more Christlike. And when we do “good” things, it should make us happy, not because it makes God happy, but because GOD is sanctifying us and helping us to become more like Christ. When the Holy Spirit softens our hearts and gives us the desire to willingly and joyfully help like my little man does so often, we need to be so thankful and rejoice.

I am so thankful that God has once again taught me a lesson through my son. One of the things I know I need to work on is always pointing Levi (and Jahs) to Christ. When I discipline, I need to show him that he is in need of a savior. When I praise him, I need to show him that Christ was the only perfect Man but God gives us the grace to grow each day more like him and we should rejoice. When we are out for a walk, I should show him the wonderful things God created for us to enjoy. At meal times or whenever we pray, I need to pray a heartfelt prayer to God not just the memorized “habit” prayer.

Boy, having kids sure places a lot of responsibility, but I am ever so thankful for my little mission's field God has blessed me with. :) As my good friend and mentor Miss. Diana Parker always used to say, “God rocks!”

Have a wonderful day my friends!

God's Sovereignty and Mundane Days

The sovereignty of my God is an awesome thing. He is wholly in control.

Today was an emotionally draining day with Levi. He wasn’t bad necessarily, he was being a kid. I was tired and trying to accomplish a lot. I seemed to be telling him to leave stuff alone, put something back, be gentle to the cat, those aren’t yours to play with, or Levi, please come here all afternoon long. All the negative was discouraging me. Trying to come up with more positive, less draining ways to keep him out of stuff, I tried to have him play with certain things etc. I felt bad for him, but I was also getting frustrated and even more tired.
 I accomplished a lot of things. Things in the house got organized, his bedroom got cleaned, curtains were hung, our bedroom was completely rearranged, laundry was done, lunch and dinner were made, but one thing was not accomplished. I wanted to take Levi to the park. I wanted to walk down there for the exercise and then let him play outside in the fresh air together with me. Guess what got shoved aside on my to do list.
Yes, I am glad that I accomplished what I did and I am grateful that I was able to because honestly today is what I would consider a “bad pregnancy day” because of the cramping, aches, pains, and tiredness. But, what did I do to spend quality time with Levi? We did play together and we sang songs and such, but still the fact that the park got shoved aside bothered me. I read this article this evening and it really struck home. I had a frustrating day today and this evening isn’t going so hot either. I’m tired and emotional, but my God is still sovereign. He’s sovereign over the missed park, he’s sovereign over Levi exploring EVERYTHING today, He’s sovereign over the icky evening. He’s also sovereign over the good things. Levi informing me he had to go potty, a nice arranged bedroom that is decluttered. Clothes that are washed and put away. God is sovereign. This is a truth I need to embed deep in my heart. When I feel my heart and soul getting frustrated and worried or stressed, I need to remember God is sovereign and realize every situation is designed for me personally. God knew it would happen and is using it to grow me more Christ-like.
So, whether it is a tantrum or being bummed about missing the park, realize that God is sovereign and we can learn something from each situation. I need to manage my time better, lean on God, and thank Him for my amazing little man who sometimes wears me out physically even though he is shorter than my knees! :)

*By the way, this is a day later and we did make it to the park today. :)

Sleeping Theories and Book Reviews

I love to read, I always have, but I realize not everyone is like me. There are some who love to read, there are some who hate reading, and there are others who are indifferent. Regardless, if you are a parent of a child of any age, I would highly recommend the book "Healthy Sleep Habits for a Happy Baby" by Marc Weissbluth M.D. This book is absolutely amazing and how we got Levi into such a wonderful sleep habit. And, honestly, I think it has a lot to do with his disposition. I realize that personality is a big key, but one of the big points in this book is that if the child isn't getting enough sleep, they will get over tired and not be able to sleep nor function well. Then they get irritable and don't learn or adapt as well. 

Cloth Diapering....Do you Dare?!

Welcome to the June 2013 Natural Living Blog Carnival: A Natural Challenge. This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Natural Living Blog Carnival hosted by Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project through the Green Moms Network. This month, our members took 1-2 weeks to explore a natural practice that they had yet to try. Today, they're going to tell you about their experience! Hopefully, you'll find some inspiration to try something new on one or more of the posts.

—–

I have been cloth diapering for almost two years now, but only off and on. I received a bunch of cloth diapers as a baby shower gift and boy was it a blessing! I received them from a great friend who is a cloth diapering pro of three young boys (her latest is only 2 weeks old!). I started researching when I was pregnant with my first and couldn't wait to begin. After looking into it and receiving a lot of disposable diapers at my showers, we decided to use disposable diapers with the newborn until the poop firmed up a bit. Honestly I am glad we did.

Bringing Young Kids into the Service

I just read this article today and I want to say this is so true, and honestly I struggle with this.

What is TV Teaching Our Kids?

The girls I watch were sick a while back. Which meant I worked all day, which also meant the TV was on a lot. They watched kids shows, but the commercials are not so good for kids. First, they are either selling the kids something (almost everything these girls eat, I see commercials for everyday. Coincidence...I think not....) or influencing the kids in some way. One commercial was just for a shampoo and of course it made the woman seem like shampooing her hair was a sexual experience. John and I went to the store and we like to look at the "As seen on Tv" isle for fun. I knew that the girls had a lot of things that they had seen on commercials, but never realized just how much of their stuff was off of things they had seen on TV.

Our Cry

As many of you know, I am very against abortion. Maybe I will post another post later about the excuses people come up with that they hope will make abortion seem okay and even good. Until then, I want to just express how awful it is. If any of you have had an abortion, I cry with you. God is there. I am not judging you. We have all sinned and Christ died for our sins. That doesn't make abortion right and we need to cry out against it. Here are two videos I wanted to post about  abortion. They are both amazing and they are both worth watching and sharing. Check them out. John Piper's response to Obama and abortion

Holocaust of Modern America

I have so many things I want to write about. Maybe I should write a bunch of blog posts now and have them post so that the days I don’t write, there will be something there...?

Passing Children Through the Fire

Have you ever heard of Moloch? He was an ammonite god worshipped by the Cannanites and other groups of people. He was a god that parents sacrificed their children to. Now, if sacrificing kids doesn’t sound awful enough, let me explain HOW this was done. Children were placed on the idol’s outstretched arms and were burned to death, slowly.