Friendship

Jesus,

Thank you that over the years you have blessed me with the friendship of other women. There are several women in my life that know so much about me and still choose to be my friend, alweays have a listening ear, reveal their hearts to me, share laughter and tears, impart parenting wisdom, pray for me and share simple moments of easy conversation. Lord, thank you for knitting our hearts together despite distance, time and circumstance.

Yesterday, I had an unexpected, delightful lunch with an old friend.

Don't know if I should blog this or not...

...so here goes...

Tonight the BOYS undressed and got ready to get in to the tub. Like most boys they found a hilarious game to entertain them while the water in the tub was filling up. They each found a Little People animal and proceeded to stick it between their cheeks (yes, I'm talking about the buttocks) and run up and down the hall laughing at each other. Immediately, in my most stern mommy voice I say, "No sticking toys in your private parts!!" Right after it came out of my mouth I had to turn my head so they didn't see me laughing. I'm thinking...did those words seriously just come out of my mouth? I'm still giggling as I write this!

Peace...

...doesn't the word just calm your heart and mind. Peace is so desirable and yet to often I am a part of creating an unpeaceful atmosphere. The verse that most readily comes to mind when I think about bringing peace into who I am and how I act is,

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:18

I love this verse because it reminds me that my attitude, the fruit of the Spirit in me, is not dependent on others. The blessing of peace is a issue between me and God and not dependent on whether or not someone else offers that same peace to me. Too often, if another person is nasty to me in tone, with words or actions my immediate response is to be defensive and give a little of that ugliness back. Praise God, He gives me a Spirit that will (if I let Him) shut my mouth, turn off my negative body language and seek peace instead of pride. (Psalm 34:14) God masterfully works through someone who pursues peace to calm down a situation and sometimes relationships can then grow and Christ is glorified.

This week my goal is to seek peace and pursue it, to God's glory!

Sorry to Hallie's future husband

Tonight Hallie says, "I want to dress like a grown up for bed. What should I wear?" I said, "You're looking at it babe" in my sexy navy blue sweat pants, red shirt from the 80's, big wooly slippers and my hair in a ponytail and headband. She comes back into my room a few minutes later with a big smile and says, "Mom look! I've even got my slippers on!" She was wearing an old pink t-shirt and pajama bottoms that were two sizes too small with fluffy pink slippers!

Patience

Well, you know that if this week is about patience for me then some "opportunities" to show patience are coming! You know, I am actually starting to look forward to the "opportunities." Why? Because I'm finding that even though the fruit of the Spirit is all about how we react to others and demonstrate God's love to others, God mercifully and lovingly blesses my heart when I act according to His design.

I can think back over this last week and regret for moments of impatience starts to hurt my heart. Fortunately, God forgives me as well as those I have lost patience with so I can move past those mistakes and ask the Spirit to pour out patience today and tomorrow and the next day until it becomes more and more natural for me.

I thought I would list some verses to meditate on and think about this week that will hopefully guide me in having an abundance of patience. They center around being easily angered and hot-tempered because that would seem to me to be the opposite of patience.

James 1:19-20 ¹⁹My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

Proverbs 29:11 ¹¹ A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.

1 Corinthians 13:4-5 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Proverbs 19:11 ¹¹ A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.

Proverbs 15:18 ¹⁸ A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel.

Ecclesiastes 7:8-9 The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. ⁹ Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

Colossians 3:12 ¹²Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Verses copied from www.biblegateway.com

Colorado Ski Trip

We had a great family vacation the last couple of days. Hallie and Jacob did a great job learning to ski on their own and Zac had fun sledding and swimming with all of us. When it was time to come home Zac was quick to say, "Mommy I want to go home to my room with stripes!" When we got out of the car for lunch Zac started stomping his feet and with a pout said, "No, mommy, no! I want to go home!" We explained that we were were just stopping for lunch but it sure made us feel good to know he loves home so much! Enjoy the pictures...

My confident kid

Ryan and I took Hallie and Jacob to the slopes two days ago. They did a wonderful job and joined us on some green slopes in the afternoon! Ski school brought on lots of tears and Jacob said, "This is sooooo boring" so we pulled them out of ski school and had my cousin and her fiance, who are ski instructors at Breckenridge, finish the lesson with mom and dad there to assist. That went over a lot better and they ended up with smiles on their faces at the end of the day. They are even going to join us today for more skiiing! I will post pictures when we return to Omaha.

The best quote from the first day of skiing happened when we were waiting to start ski school. Ryan told Jacob he needed to listen and be tough because he was the youngest kid in ski school. Jacob replied very matter-of-factly, "Yeah, but I can do everything dad."

I just love his confidence!

Happy Valentines Day

Hope you all know and experience Christ's love today!

Romans 5:8 "God demonstrates His love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us."

Kindness

So, this week is about kindness. Showing kindness to my husband, kids, family, friends, neighbors, strangers and enemies. This week is about letting kindness overflow in my life so that others see Jesus in me. My desire is to make acts of kindness a reflection of the thoughts of kindness and care that are swirling abound in me head. Let me explain...

This morning while getting ready at lifetime fitness I overhear a conversation between two women. They are bad mouthing another women and immediately my mind judged them and accused them. The Lord quickly reminded me that, "she who is without sin can cast the first stone." I'm sitting there making no eye contact, not offering any amount of kindness, not even in the form of a smile and I'm judging them for their gossip and judgement of another. Not exactly, bearing fruit of the Spirit.

My conclusion is that...1. Kindness is easy to give out to those that give it to us and much harder to give out to those we don't know or seem to like and...2. Genuine kindness starts in out mind, with our thoughts.

Jesus, renew my mind every day. Help me to think kind thoughts and let that genuine kindness pour out into my actions.

My Cell Phone Saga

It LIVES!!! I have put my cell phone through the ringer...Well, maybe not a ringer but it has been through the washing machine twice (including the spin cycle once) and it lived! Well, yesterday I thought it had finally met it's demise. I was running and when I got home realized it was not in my pocket.

Since my contract is not up until July it was going to cost me $100 to get the cheapest phone. Whatever?! I was pondering what to do and this morning I wake up to find an e-mail from one of the Daisy moms who had called my cell (thank goodness I volunteered to run this month's meetings) and a nice gentleman answered who had found my phone while running. She got his phone number and e-mailed it to me. Hopefully today I can connect with him.

The thought of losing all my phone numbers, being without a phone or spending $100 on a cheap phone was depressing but, alas, THE CELL PHONE LIVES ON!

Goodness...Zac's Readoption...Bathtime

GOODNESS...

I want to start off with this week's Spirit Challenge. This week I will be focusing on goodness. One of the great things I have discovered about focusing on only one of the fruits of the Spirit each week is that it makes remembering and practicing it easier as I move on to the next fruit. Repetition is a powerful reminder.

So what does goodness look like in my life...First of all, I am reminded of how many times God works beautifully good things out of what I would call a disaster. One specific example is church. Ryan and I went through a very difficult church experience which left us both feeling pretty let down, confused and hurt. The situation seemed to consume most of my thoughts for a period of time. As we moved on to another church I longed to belong, receive teaching into a heart that was a bit hardened and find close friends. Well, God delivered. He not only blessed us with healing, and a release of bitterness and fear but also revealed to us His purposes in working good out of bad.

Two friends have committed their lives to Christ and one is finally finding some meaning and purpose to church. Each of them have connected with some aspect of StoneBridge Christian Church that I dare say would not have happened at any other church. The timing, our level of involvement, the preaching, the quality of the music and worship has all been key to God accomplishing His purposes in our life and the lives of those that are lost.

This is just one example of many I can think of about God's goodness. I want the goodness in my life to look like His. My desire is to find ways to show goodness and create good out of tough and trying times this week.

ZAC'S READOPTION






Today our family went down to the Court House for Zac's Readoption. He officially became our son and was adopted into our family on April 22, 2008 in a Russian Court. Today, he was given all the American rights of a child that would have been born to us naturally. The most surprising thing we learned is that he can now run for president of the US someday! We can also work on getting him a US birth certificate, passport and SS#. It was quick but very special. It was also a joy to have his grandparents, sister and brother share in this day.

BATHTIME...
...was a disaster! The boys have been reminded over and over again to keep the water in the tub. When I heard loud splashing sounds coming from the tub a ran in to find both boys flooding the bathroom floor by dumping cups, full of water out of the tub! They were laughing and having the time of their lives. Well, the laughter quickly subsided and they didn't even fight me when I said they both lost their books tonight. The silver lining...the bathroom floor is clean!