Baseball with a Lesson

I love how much Aaron is enjoying playing baseball!

His coach is a CLASS ACT! He challenges the children to become better players, teaches them the skills they need to improve, and is their biggest cheerleader. I'm so thankful that Aaron has been able to work with this coach.

Once he teaches the children a skill, he expects them to perform that skill properly, and when they miss a ball 3 times in a row, he makes them run a lap! He teaches them to have excellent sportsmanship, to be disciplined ball players, to have good attitudes, to cheer their other teammates on, and to LOVE the game of baseball. We have been incredibly blessed to be on this team this Spring.

Last week during one of their games, the children on this team had to witness a terrible act of selfishness, pride, and loss of self control from an opposing team's coach and the umpire. My child was exposed to words that he'd never heard before(yes, the word that is culturally accepted to be the worst one) and the worst kind of poor sportsmanship that you can imagine. Unfortunately that display of poor sportsmanship by two grown adults ended in calling "GAME OVER", and the children were left wondering what in the world had happened ... and if it was something that they had done wrong!

I'm so sad that pride over an umpire's call became the most important thing on that ball field. I'm sad that my child had to witness the ugliness between those two people. Unfortunately, he had a front row seat since he was playing catcher when it all went down. However, I'm thankful that Aaron's coach is a man of integrity.

He pretty quickly pulled the children off of the field and put them in a huddle. He waited for the argument to be over and then put his team back on the field and ran a practice with them, so that they were able to keep playing baseball. After all, that's what they came to do. When he was done with practice, he put the boys back in a huddle and told them that he was going to explain what happened the best that he could. He told them that some adults made some bad decisions today. He told them that they(the children) did nothing wrong and that they played a great game and did well! He said that when bad things like this happen we can learn from it. We can learn that what the children saw today was poor sportsmanship and that we ought to never be poor sports. We should never act like that. He encouraged their confused little hearts and got them excited about their upcoming game.

I wish that Aaron had gotten to finish playing that game. (especially considering all the guests that came to see him play that day - special friends Brent, Amy, and Hannah - my Mom, Dad, and two nieces came all the way from VA) I wish that he didn't have to see two grown adults lose their self control and shout obscenities at one another. I wish that he didn't have to experience the disappointment of not being able to finish the game.
However, we live in a world full of imperfect people. So, we prayed together that night for the two men who lost it at the baseball game. We prayed for their hearts. Just as I am praying that my own heart be guarded from pride that can so easily overtake me, I pray that these men will come to care more about the little people on the field than themselves.
Isn't that just how it is with pride? We are all affected by it. We are all overcome by it at one time or another.
How can we guard ourselves from it?

Ironically, that very morning I was at a worship leader's summit at my church where my pastor was speaking on the topic of pride. It resounded with me on so many levels because pride is something that can so easily and stealthily sweep me off my feet.
These are some of the bullet points from Pastor Larry:
1. Meditate on Scripture that will cause us to walk in humility
2. Have a shepherd's heart - care more about the people we are leading than ourselves.
3.  Pray for the glory to be all God's and to be free from the fear of man.
4.  Pray that the Word would be exalted
5. Pray for the person of Christ to be exalted
6. Thank God for his unspeakable kindness

Those words of wisdom are a great start to humility in Christ. I will continually pray for this to be my own heart and attitude, and I will teach it to my children because they do and will continue to struggle with pride.

December in our home

December of '12 was a joyful time for us. It has taken many years for me to figure out how to "do" December in our family. It has been a genuine struggle for me. The questions that are constantly floating around in my head is: How do I be in this world - love the people around me - but not be of the world? How do I teach my children what really matters? How do I teach it without causing an heir of self righteousness about how we do things? It's taken me several years to figure out what works for us, but I think I finally have found peace with how to do December in our family. Instead of focusing on what we don't do. I want to focus on what we do. I am going to give a detailed description of what we do in the month of December. 

Every night after our evening meal, we sit down and read the scriptures together. We read through many of the prophecies that tell of the promised savior and we read the passages that give a detailed account of His birth. We also do a craft that corresponds with the scripture reading. When we are done with the craft ... we hang it on our advent banner.

I was able to be a little more sophisticated this year with our crafts and all four of the children had a great time making the crafts. I love that all 4 of the children were engaged and enjoyed our time reading through the scriptures.

We ended our time of Advent with a reading of Philippians 2, and then each child made a wooden cross to go in the middle of the banner. After all, the cross is why He came. On the very last day of our advent celebration, as I read the Philippians passage out loud I was overwhelmed with the knowledge of what Jesus had come to earth to do for us. Obviously this is not new information for me, but reading it out loud to my children after just having walked through the scriptures of God's plan for humanity - a plan that was given the first time just after Adam and Eve first sinned...I was just overcome by His mercy, grace, and love that Jesus displayed on the cross for me. I could barely get through the reading of this passage. Tears were freely flowing down my face as I tried to get the words of Philippians 2 out of my mouth clearly for these precious children to hear. I looked up as I finished reading the last verse of the passage and saw the most incredible sight. I saw my two oldest sons wiping tears from their face as well. The magnitude of what this promised Savior had done for us swept over us and brought tears of joy.
There is no greater joy than Jesus. You cannot manufacture true joy like that. There is no tradition that exists that can bring joy like Jesus can bring. There was a time when I wrestled with the idea of not putting up a tree or decorating the house, now I fully embrace the simplicity of it. (It didn't happen overnight, though! It was definitely a process)

Those are the moments that I treasure with my children.
After we read through each of the Advent readings, we give each of our children 3 gifts. We chose to do this for the symbolism of the 3 gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh brought to Jesus, and for the symbolism of Jesus being God's greatest gift to us.
As my children get older, this time of preparation for celebrating God's most precious gift to us who came as a humble servant becomes more and more special and meaningful. 

The lamb and the lion ... not only have we been given a Savior who died for us ... we've been given hope for what is to come when He returns. I'm so thankful for this truth!



I used a couple of different sources for our advent readings this year. I bought Truth in the Tinsel - an e-book. We did use a few ideas from that source. Although, I found it a bit too young for my older kiddos. It also didn't take us through the Old Testament as much as I prefer. I like for my children to see Jesus from the beginning and Truth in the Tinsel didn't provide enough of that. I love the format and the wonderful craft ideas, though!! I also used Ann Voskamp's A Jesus Advent Celebration. I used the power of google to get craft ideas for some of the readings that would be small enough and able to be pinned onto our banner.

I hope that reading about the way we do December will be an encouragement to you and mostly my hope and prayer is that God will be honored and the glory will be all His. 

Martin's Testimony

As promised, I am going to share Martin's Testimony. These are his words straight from his mouth. I only did the typing.

It started 3 years ago when I told my Mama and my Daddy that I wanted to be like Jesus. Everyday since then, I've been struggling with whether God existed or not. I wanted to believe it for myself and not because Mama and Daddy told me to believe it. I told Mama that if God would show me a miracle I would believe. 

On Wednesday, November 14, 2012, we were listening to the song Power of the Cross, in the car on the way to the church building. While we were listening to the song, I heard a voice in my head saying, "Believe it now, Believe it now!!!"I told Mama about it and she stopped the car and we prayed together. During those 3 years, I had no peace because I was struggling. Now that I have become a Christian, I finally have peace.

Mama told me later that day - that the day before I became a Christian, she had spent time praying over the song, Power of the Cross. She prayed that God would use it to move me and speak to me, so that I would become a believer. That's when I realized that God had given me my miracle.

Intellect vs. Heart Part Three

I mentioned that Martin said that he just knew that he could believe that God existed if God would give him a shout. I told him that in my experience, God has always spoken to me through His Word and through gentle whispers. He still insisted that he needed a shout. I am so thankful that we serve a God who is not limited to my experience. It wasn't but a couple days later that God gave me a shout.

The worship pastor at our church called me one Saturday night to ask me if I would sing lead on a song the next day in church to fill in for someone who was sick. I said that I'd be happy to do that. So, I put the children to bed and went to my room to practice the song. I sang through the song one time and then began to have a quiet time of prayer. I prayed that when I helped lead in worship the next day that it would be all about Him and not about me. I prayed that God would increase and that I would decrease. I finished my time of prayer and then began to practice the song for the next day. 2 minutes later, I was completely unable to sing a single note. My singing voice was gone. Strangely enough, I could still talk ... I just couldn't sing. Of course, my first thought was ... THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!! Clearly, though, God was trying to teach me something, so I calmly drank an entire glass of water and went to bed. At that point, I just needed to trust that God would restore my voice by the time that I needed it. (especially considering that I was already the back-up!)

The next morning my voice was still all out of sorts, but by the time I needed to sing in the first service my voice was fully restored. 

Was that God's way of sending Martin a shout? I shared the whole story with Martin and while he thought it was absolutely amazing ... his reply was, "That is pretty amazing, but I really want the shout to happen to me ... and that happened to you!"

Okay. I will not be discouraged!! God is faithful and will see us both through this process. I was humbled to see God's mighty hand working in my own life in the area of trusting Him. I knew that He was busy working on Martin's heart!

A few days later, I got all the music for the Thanksgiving service at our church and was listening to it and learning the songs that I didn't already know. The one new song in the set that I didn't know was called The Power of the Cross by Shelley Johnson. The song deals with the contrast of being in Christ and being without Christ. ("Once in darkness, now in light. Once bound, now free, once a sinner now a saint... That's the Power of the cross ... see the chains fall")

I read through the words one time and immediately started praying over the song. I prayed that God would use that song to move Martin ... that He would reveal Martin's great need for the Power of the Cross!

The very next day as we were driving down the road, I played the song for the children for the first time. We got about half way through the song when Martin said, "Mama, Mama I have voices in my head saying, BELIEVE NOW, BELIEVE NOW!!!"

I said, "Are you serious, Martin, because if you are serious, I will pull over right now!!"

He said, "Yes, I am serious!!"

So, I pulled over, put on my hazard lights, got Martin out of the van and we kneeled down on our knees in the Lowes Foods Parking Lot and he prayed that God would save him.

I am humbled. I am grateful. I am amazed at the AWESOME God that we serve. 

God wasn't only SHOUTING into Martin's life. He was SHOUTING into my life. Tomorrow, I will share Martin's testimony. He wrote it last week and the words are all his and from his perspective. His words are precious! 

All glory to God for his hand in our lives. He cares about the details of our lives. He doesn't always work in ways that are predictable. He can do far more than we can imagine. Martin has struggled for a long time, but now he is at perfect peace. He told me a couple days later that he finally has peace. 

God won Martin over for His kingdom and now I am praying that Martin will be an instrument in His hands.

Intellect vs. Heart Part Two

So, what now?

It started with subtle comments here and there from Martin. He would say things like, "Is there such a thing as someone who doesn't  believe in anything at all?" or "I just don't understand how God has no beginning." Philosophical questions challenging all that we have ever taught him started surfacing every single day. At first, I wondered if it was just an emotional reaction from him. Perhaps he was just trying to hurt me because he knows how deeply I desire to follow God and walk in His ways. There were times that I definitely think his mood was driving the rash and hurtful things he said. It didn't take long for me to realize, though, that he really was digging for deeper philosophical answers to the hard questions that I am not so sure that I've even taken the time to consider. 

I am not the deep philosophical thinker that my husband is. I accepted the truth of the gospel the very first time I heard it. I followed with a child-like faith and that child-like faith has remained intact until this very day. 

Martin has approached this entire issue with a desire to explore those deep philosophical questions and come up with some concrete answers that will satisfy the intellectual needs that he has. 

He has been frustrated to the point of tears over it. We had been having pretty deep conversations about it almost on a daily basis. There was a crazy battle going on inside of him. It was a battle between his intellectual desire for answers and his heart. He would tell me that there is a key to all of it and he just needed to find the key. He has also said that he just wished that God would send him a SHOUTING sign that He is really there. (I've had the opportunity to share with Martin many examples in my own life of God making himself known to me ... and that it never happened in a shouting way ... in my experience it almost always came as more of a whisper)

Rich and I are still stood by our guiding principle to not coerce him. He is a very intelligent boy. Every time he wanted to talk about it, we talked. I prayed for him constantly. Martin had a deep desire to see something concrete that would prove to him that there is a loving God out there somewhere, so my prayers for him were that God would reveal himself to Martin.

So, what did I do with a 10 year old child, who had been home schooled his entire life, that I have poured myself into, taught scriptures every day of his life, prayed for him every day since he was conceived ... when he started to question everything I'd ever taught him?

I REJOICED! I WEEPED! I PRAYED! And I GAVE THANKS that I had a child on my hands who thought so deeply and independently about such important issues. I RESTED in knowing that God had His hand on Martin. I ANTICIPATED the day when Martin would have worked out his salvation and have complete confidence that he is saved ... and he wouldn't have to rely on my memory of him being saved. 

I'd much rather he work these things out in a satisfactory way right now as a 10 year old in my home than as a 20 year old living away from me. As hard as this road was to walk at times, I hope that all of my children ask these hard questions, work them out in a way that brings them to a greater knowledge of who God is,  a deeper faith, and a stronger desire to follow and be obedient to a loving God.

To be continued...

Intellect vs. Heart Part One

I have not had much time for blogging lately. The older my children get the more time I seem to spend in the car taking them to and from band or to and from baseball practice. So, my time at home is spent schooling, cleaning, or cooking. (and with the gluten free needs in our home, I spend even more time in the kitchen than before ... and that's hard for anyone to believe!)

I have been dealing with an issue over the last few months, though, that I want to address. The topic is salvation. The person is Martin. About 3 years ago, Martin spent an entire day wrestling over salvation and God giving him a new heart. He spent the day asking questions and mulling over Jesus and His perfection and even started crying at one point telling me that he wished that he could be like Jesus ... because Jesus never sinned. He seemed to be so keenly aware of the sin in his life that he knew he wasn't able to obtain perfection and needed to be saved. So, that night before he went to bed, he prayed a beautiful prayer and asked God for a new heart. I wrote down every detail of that entire day, so that I could remember the beautiful innocence of it and the prayer that came out of his mouth when he asked for a new heart.

2 things:

1. Rich and I have made it our policy to flood our children with the truth of God's Word. 

2.We have a strict NO COERCING policy when it comes to salvation. So, we teach, but don't push or ask them if they want to be saved. We want them to come to us, and seek out salvation on their own. We have the same philosophy about Baptism. We want it to be their idea ... not something that we suggest.

That is exactly what happened that day. Martin kept seeking me out with many questions all throughout the day. I answered thoroughly and would move on to whatever else I was doing. He kept coming back and asking more. It seemed real and genuine and everything we had hoped it would be. 

I'll admit it. I am a skeptic when it comes to young children and salvation.  I was a young child of only 7 years old when I was saved, and I was saved after hearing the gospel for the very first time. I never doubted my own salvation. I knew that it was very real for a couple of reasons. I never forgot the moment that I made the decision, and from the moment that I was saved I became a new person. I immediately knew that my life was forever changed by God's mercy and grace. I knew that I should be reading my Bible and praying every day. And I did. I didn't have to be reminded or told to do those things. I wanted to do those things. At the time I was saved, we didn't go to church regularly and we were getting ready to move to Iceland. We didn't go to church while we lived in Iceland, but even without a church, I knew that I needed to have a relationship with a loving God. So, even though my own experience was as a young child, when it came to my own children I still remained skeptical. (my experience is that I can get my child to agree to just about anything I say to them ... which is another reason we have a no coercion policy!)

Back to Martin ... after Martin asked for a new heart ... nothing really changed. I didn't see real fruit in his life. I began to doubt whether or not his life had really changed. I doubted whether or not he really understood what salvation was all about. 

Fast forward to today ... 

Martin is now 10 years old and has no recollection of that day that he asked for a new heart.  I even let him read my detailed account of that day ... even the words he prayed ... and he has no memory of it whatsoever!

It is as if it never happened.

As a fairly intellectual 10 year old boy with no memory of what I thought was his salvation experience, he was struggling each and every day with deep philosophical questions on the existence of God. For the past 3 months we have been having exhausting philosophical conversations that sometimes felt as though they were leading nowhere. 

So, what do you when you have a child who is clearly seeking, exploring, and even disputing some of the truth that you have been speaking into his life?

To be continued...

Abiding in Christ

This is a topic I have been spending a lot of time thinking about.

John 15:1-4

15 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;^[a]and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.


This passage is incredibly inspiring to me. I have been reading this passage, meditating on it, and thinking about how it looks in my own life. At first glance, I am amazed that I have a Father that is the vinedresser! He takes away the branches that do not bear fruit. He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so that it may bear more! He loves me, He wants me to bear fruit, and is personally involved in my life! He has made me clean! So, what is my responsibility in all of this? It's simple, right? Abide in Me. 


What does that look like in my life? What does it look like to Abide in Him? For me, abiding in Christ is spending time in His Word and specifically praying the Scriptures. I have found that when I am not spending time in His Word, that I am clearly not bearing fruit. I am impatient, forever frustrated, lacking gentleness, faithfulness and self control. (and so on and so on)
When I am spending intentional time with the Lord, I am equipped to handle whatever comes my way. My children are far more likely to accept loving correction from me when I am bearing fruit. There is no question that my life is rich and rewarding, peaceful and joyful when I am abiding in Him. More importantly, though, my children have a living testimony in me of how to live a rich and rewarding, peaceful and joyful life.
It's so easy to allow life to become an overwhelming mess that is so out of control that there is little hope left. The answer to that is to abide in Him. It may seem overwhelming even to get back to that place of abiding if you've not been there in awhile.  God has made that easy for us by giving us the Bible, so that we have a clear life manuel to follow. We have the complete and perfect Word of God that gives us clear life instructions.

I recently asked my 7 year old and almost 10 year old an important question.
"In what area do you struggle with sin?"
Martin said, "self control!" (without hesitation)
Aaron said, "contentment!" (again without hesitation)
I was amazed at how quickly they were able to identify areas of struggle ... without any leading and suggesting from me!
So, I was able to give them specific scriptures to pray so that they can overcome that sin in their life and giving them instruction on how to abide in Christ. (so they know that the answers to any area of struggle is in Christ)

We will always be in a state of overcoming sin in our lives. Spending time with the Lord, praying, having true fellowship and accountability with other believers is what helps in the lifelong pursuit of abiding in Christ. (yes, telling other believers  about sin in your own life...telling others that you do not lead a perfect life ... that there are areas in your life that you need help with and prayer for) We need each other. My children need me to disciple them, teach them what it looks like to abide in Christ, and I need fellow believers to pray for, love, disciple, and experience community with on this journey of abiding in Christ.

In what areas do you struggle? How can I pray for you?

Sunday Inspiration

Psalm 51

(NKJV)

1 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.

4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight—That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice.

9 Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.

14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.

15 O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.

16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart- These, O God, You will not despise.

18 Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.

Sunday Inspiration

Proverbs 31:30

Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

I am overwhelmed at the words of Proverbs 31. I have many moments when I feel completely inadequate as a wife and a mom. I see clearly the areas that I need to improve and yet another day goes by and no improvement is made.

I hear my children grumble daily about this or that, and repeat myself by telling them "do everything without complaining". Then not five minutes later I catch myself grumbling about this or that. Hmmmm . . . do I ever need to wonder where they learn to complain?

I am humbled to now be raising a daughter. Somehow the stakes seem even higher now. I know they aren't really higher. But I do hope to raise my sweet girl to be a wife and a mother who serves her family with joy and delight . . .and without complaining! It's such a privilege and joy to be a mother, and I know that I cannot be thankful enough for all that God has given me.

Happy Mother's Day to all!! I wish you the best!

Sunday Inspiration

Serve your husband with joy. Spend some time this week trying to understand your husband on a deeper level. Look for ways to serve him and bless him. When things get stressful for him, figure out a way that you can help to ease his stress. Pray for him. Be thankful for him. Submit to him. Respect your husband and let him lead your family. Give him the respect he should be given just because God chose him as the leader of your family. Submit to him as the leader of your family. God will bless your obedience!

Don't spend even a second of your time worrying about how your husband treats you. Focus only on how you treat him. Treat him the way you want to be treated and do so with joy in your heart.

If you married him, he must be wonderful!!! Treat him like the wonderful man that he is!

And at the end of this week, do it again next week. :)