When God Works in Your Children's Heart, It is oh So Sweet

Ah nap time. Boy it can be a joyful time, but it can also be a "sanctifying time."

My Momma Told Me There'd Be Days Like This

I post this not as a complaint, but because I sometimes see mom's posts about how good everything is and then feel like I'm doing something wrong when I have normal bad days.

Picking up Sticks Worthy of the Death Sentence?

So I am in the book of Numbers for my morning devotions. I won't lie, I struggle a little bit because it isn't the easiest to just apply to your every day life. But I know that every word is profitable and I should be thankful for even Leviticus and Numbers. :P

Anywho, that is beside the point. In my devotions the story of the guy who picked up sticks on the Sabbath and how everyone wasn't sure what to do about it so they inquired of God. God told them that he should be stoned to death. This really took me by surprise. Check out the passage:

Number 15:32-36

Penalty for Violating the Sabbath

32 Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. 33 And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. 34 They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him.

35 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” 36 So, as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.

 I mean I know that no work was to be done on the Sabbath but he just picked up sticks. This caused me to really ponder this a lot. It brought up a lot of questions for example, why was he stoned? Was it truly because he disobeyed regardless of his heart (like did he purposely rebel against God or was it an accident?)? Was it because he was purposefully rebelling and disregarding God? Was it do be an example? I don't know and I don't think Numbers tells us. But I think the "moral of the story" is the gravity of the seriousness of sin regardless. Sin is sin against a holy God. It is rebellion. It is spitting in His face saying that what He did on the cross for us didn't matter at all. As Christians we are free from the power of sin, yet we still do sin and will continue to until the day we die. If I learn anything from this confusing passage, it should be that my God is a holy God. A God that takes sin seriously and is a just God.

In what ways are we taking sin lightly today? Are we being deceitful or manipulative? Sin is serious. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit would come and keep our conscience open and ready to help us. 

Mundane Monday

I have not written a Mundane Monday post in FOREVER!!! It is way long over due. So as we all know, Monday's have this "stigma" that we have created and just allowed to influence us. But it doesn't have to.

Courageous, What Does it Mean?

As most of you are aware (as even I am and we don't own a TV....thanks Facebook for making sure we know what is going on in the world!), there are a lot of things going on in this world lately. First we have the Duggar "scandal" and I won't go into too much of my opinion on the matter because there are just so many sides to it and there have been many articles written by amazing theologians and pastors that do a way better job at explaining things than I ever could. I will say though that we are all sinners. Of course what he did was horrific and awful and I feel sickened for the poor victims. I do not have a "side" on which I stand.

Another Home in this Temporary HomeAfter

We moved to Pontiac in September 2014, but I never did a post about our temporary home on this temporary home. :) So here are some pictures from our latest place. :)

Our dining room and kitchen area when we just moved in and hadn't decorated yet. I was nervous about the carpet, but it hasn't been too much of an issue and I'd much rather vacuum than sweep actually. lol

Part of our living room.

More of the living room. I love our view of the woods. SO gorgeous!

Because we moved in the fall, here are my skimpy but I think cute fall decorations. :P

An "after" of our bedroom

Blurry picture, but here is the boys room. It looks much different now, but I think I am going to rearrange it to look like this again because I liked this set up. 

I LOVE our large closets!!

I have a laundry room now!!!

After decorating

I hope you enjoyed my virtual tour of our home. I absolutely love looking at pictures of people's homes so I thought I would share some of ours. :)

4 FREAKIN YEARS (husband hacked blog)

I wanted a chance to reflect myself…. and since I have no appropriate place to do this…. I hacked this blog.

Today it has been 4 years of marriage…. 4 FREAKIN YEARS! and you know, it doesn't seem like that long at all! Time really flies when you marry your best friend. As I think back and reflect on that, a few thoughts come to mind that I wanted to share.

First and foremost I can almost hear people saying “yeah it’s only been 4 years….” 

but what allows me to write with such confidence and put this out there is this, from the beginning Britt and I saw further than 4 years…we saw until the end of life (which for me happens when I am 103 and Britt and I are both doing something stupid, I am sure I talked her into). We did then we sure as heck do now! 

4 years is nothing compared to our lives, which we merged under complete understanding that there is no turning back…. better (Britt) or worse (me). It is that constant vision of truly knowing that a God based marriage carries through all…  

I would like to pause to say notice above what I have not said is it has been 4 years of marriage bliss…. a continual ongoing odling of each other… It has not been a cakewalk these last 1461 days, 7 hours, 3 minutes and 31 seconds… it has been a marriage, and that’s my understanding of what marriage is… work, for the betterment of the other and beyond that for the others watching and the glory of God.

OK…..Going back to my thoughts,

Another thought I have had is boy how time silences neigh-sayers….

A quick synopsis of our marriage (much broader and open content can be found on this blog site): Britt found out I had a thing for her on Thanksgiving Eve 2010. We had our first date Dec. 4th 2010. And we were married Feb 11th 2011… That’s fast most people would say. Again, 4 years later and I don’t hear them much if at all anymore….

I recall telling Britt wisdom I heard from a leader I look up to Holger Spiewak.

I said “Britt a big speaker told me once that those who care don’t matter… and those who matter don’t care” (This was in reference to an age difference he and his wife Lindsay who are still also happily married). I remember thinking at the time and having a  “yeah we’ll show them” attitude but as stated time passed... I have learned that we didn't have to show anyone anything and we've had nothing to prove yet our love and God's grace has been proved through us which is a blessing (and to be frank can feel like a curse since the most people seem to learn is from the pain we created). I no longer feel that urge to say see told ya and in fact feel a little arrogant and naive that I ever once thought that. There’s no need, in the end we have prevailed through God’s grace, it’s already a foregone conclusion….

Well dang that's all serious n stuff... Here’s some fun facts about something I tell everyone. We've been married for 4 years and Britt's been pregnant the whole time (another sign of a happy and healthy marriage ;).... or after sign…. you get the idea)

Anyway I thought it would be fun to look up and share the following

Out of our 4 years of marriage Britt has been pregnant:

Once During New Year

Once During Valentines Day

Once During Christmas Eve and Christmas

Twice During Halloween

Twice During Veterans Day

Twice During Halloween

Twice During Thanksgiving

And for THREE out of our FOUR Years Together Britt has been Pregnant on:

Easter

Mothers Day

Memorial Day

Fathers Day

Independence Day

Labor Day

That’s a lot of being pregnant at parades!

So now on to our wonderful evening! And how are we spending that evening you might ask? 

Unclogging a toilet…. together :) <3 span="">

-johnny