House Update

 Today they told me the mold is 90% gone.  I would have liked to hear 100% but we are getting closer.  They will be back on Monday to do the final scrub so that's good.  It amazes me how they can move everything around in your kitchen and then tell you it will all look normal again.  I am trying to not think about it because I can't picture it all put back together again quite yet.  I am grateful we are one day closer to a kitchen we can use.  Looks like that won't be for another week or so.

Sink gone

Sink found (I just wish they would have let me wash the dishes that are still in there before they covered and taped it!!!  We could have another mold situation just from our sink!)

Just Me and My Girl

 This weekend it has just been me and SJ.  Andrew headed up to Winter Camp with the youth group on Friday and we stayed back so the work on the house could continue.  Here's our love bug on Valentine's Day wearing a quilted heart her Nana made for her.  The rest of the pictures are me attempting to take a picture of SJ's 2 teeth that are coming in.  They are so cute and tiny but almost impossible to get a pic of.  In the end I was victorious!

There they are!!!

The Latest

 A lot has been going on lately.  My laptop has decided to stop working for a while.  It is good to have an Internet break but I really miss being able to use it.  Hopefully it will be fixed soon.  Grammy and Papa Jim came for a visit and helped us tackle the front and back yard.  Then we found water coming through our kitchen floor and soon discovered we have some leaky pipes and our home is under construction.  Andrew is headed off for Winter Camp with the Herd tomorrow and it is still to be decided if Sadie Jane and I will be going to.  It's been an interesting last couple of days!

 The good news is its snowing!

Me and My Valentine!!

2006

Happy Valentine's Day Kim! 

I loved you then and I love you more now! Your are such a benefit to my life.

Love,
Your Husband

Day #20 Walk in Integrity

"The righteous who walks in his integrity-blessed are his children after him!" Proverbs 20:7

What a challenging verse for any parent!  It seems simple-do the right thing, have integrity and your children will notice.  But it is harder than that!  Yes, that is the simple truth but I have to daily fight my sin to do the right thing, the thing that honors God.  The benefits outweigh the struggle though.  If we fight our flesh to try to do what is right and honoring to the Lord in all the big and little things, it will honor God and it will bless our children.  This is good for me to remember.  That is worth any suffering or hardship.  Lord, let me walk in righteousness and integrity today!

Day #19 Acceptable in Your Sight

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." Psalm 19:14

This is such a familiar verse but one that still stops me in my tracks every time.  It is such a great prayer to God and is the desire of my heart, but I often fail to pray this to the Lord and I know that what I say and my thoughts are often not pleasing to Him.  On my own I think sinful thoughts and just say things as they come to my mind without asking for wisdom.  This is definitely a verse I need to memorize (which is not a strength of mine but I need to work on it) so that it is my daily prayer.  I must remember though that He is my Rock and my Redeemer I can't please Him in my own efforts.  I must lean on His strength and ask Him to grow me in these areas as I pursue holiness.

Every month the women of our church come together for a night of fellowship and teaching of God's Word.  It is called Women's Connection.  Last night our pastor's wife, Terri, taught on Anna.  There were so many great things that she said about Anna and her life is truly such an example to me.  Here's a few of the things said about her:

-She whole heartedly gave herself to the Lord

-She knew the Scriptures

-She persevered to the end, by God's grace

Also, God was the lover of her soul and she was like a magnet drawing people to her Savior.  She finished well and is a great model of a godly woman.

Babies Make the Funniest Faces

I don't know where she learns this stuff from!  It must be from Andrew:)

Day #18 Dust and Ashes

"I who am but dust and ashes." Genesis 18:27

This is what Abraham says to the Lord when he keeps making requests to save Sodom.  He goes from asking the Lord to not destroy the city if He can find 50 righteous people to 10 righteous people.  He keeps asking and goes down in number each time.  Before he asks at one point is when he says he is but dust and ashes.  Andrew is teaching Genesis to the youth group right now and this was a passage he taught recently.  He explained that Abraham was saying he was but a man.  He came from dust and he will die and be ashes.  This is such a simple phrase but I love that he sees who he is before the Lord.  It shows him humility.  I think this is a great reminder for me to have this same mindset when I go before God and ask anything of Him.  It is so easy to believe that I deserve certain things but really when I look at who I am in the light of who God is I too am but dust and ashes.  I pray that God will humble me with this verse.

It seems like this 30 day challenge may take me more like 40 days!  It was a hard weekend to be in the Word and I failed to make it a priority.  But I am back at it again early this morning looking to God to provide strength and discipline in this area of my life. 

I have observed something lately in my own life and see it in the lives of many women.  We are constantly overwhelmed by life.  I want to think on this more but if any of you have thoughts about this let me know what you think.  Why do we so easily get overwhelmed?  What can we do about it? 

Super Bowl Sunday Just the 3 of Us

 We laid low today because Sadie has her 1st tooth coming in and I can't tell if she is getting sick or just teething.  Andrew has been sick the past few days so we decided not to try to invite ourselves over to anyones Super Bowl party:)  At first we didn't think we could get FOX with our antenna but with a few props and some maneuvering we got it!  It cracked us up to look at what we had to set up to get it to come in.  So weird!

Our snotty teething SJ-still cute if you ask me!

February is Here!

Day #17 Chariots of Iron

"For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong." Joshua 17:18

How would you feel about this command?  Yes, this land is yours but first drive out these people that are really strong and have chariots of iron-no thank you!!!  But the reality was this was the command that Joshua gave to the house of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh.  This seems like it should not be a big deal because they had been at war with many strong countries and the Lord allowed them to overtake all of them but still there had to be fear.

It reminds me of times in my life that what God wants me to do scares me or I become fearful.  I have no reason.  God has proven to be faithful, but yet I still fear.  I need to see God bigger than any "chariots of iron" in my own life and seek to follow Him and His will for me despite my fear.

So this week has again been challenging with being in the Word and getting up early but I am still trying!  It seems like because of our move my life is still not back to normal.  There are extra things to do in a day and I hope to not neglect the most important things due to this extra business.  I am also trying to give myself grace and know that some days I am just not going to get up early because I was up late working on something in the house or I am going to miss my time in the Word because of some unplanned events.  I know that each day is the Lord's and He will help me do what He has planned for me that day.  So I continue to build these disciplines in my life and look to Him for the strength because I know there is no way I can do it on my own!  

Day #16 For the Planner in Me

"The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord." Proverbs 16:1

"Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established." v.3

"The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." v.9

These are good verses for me to think about and remind myself as I easily like to plan and think I am in charge of everything.  God has shown me again and again that He is sovereign but I can still easily fool myself.  It is good to remember to plan, try to be wise, use my time in the best way I know how, but ultimately it is up to God and I need to continually surrender to His will for me daily.  This is the best way I can glorify Him and show that I completely trust what He has for me and I surrender and submit to His will.

Sunday Reflections

I have always wanted to be better at reviewing the sermon that I heard on Sunday during the week.  It is so easy to leave church thinking, that was a great one, and then by the next day forgetting what was even taught.  So, I thought I would try to post something I learned from the sermon each Sunday.  I hope this will help me remember and also help me to apply what I have learned so I am not just being a hearer of the Word but a doer.

Pastor Barry taught a great message on Romans 14:1-8 describing the weaker and stronger brother.  I really have never understood this passage as well as I do now. 

The People:
The weak in faith: Paul shows that he does not agree with them.  He disagrees but does not think they are in sin or being legalistic because this person thinks this is the best way to honor God.
The strong in faith: Understands the Lord is over all and gave us all things to use for the glory of God.  Warning-the strong can try to go as far as they can in their liberty without sinning.
(there's a balance)
The Practices:
For the strong: Accept the weak, don't despise them, don't try to change them and try to make them like you.
For the weak: Stop judging the stronger, questioning them.  Accept them as a vital part of the family of God.
For both the strong and weak: Be fully convinced in your own mind of your conviction.  Have a strong hold of how you are to please the Lord in your life. 
The Perspective:
1. God has accepted them (v.3): He has welcomed them and received them into His family.  Who am I to reject them?
2. God owns them (v.8): We are His possession.  We are the Lord's both the weak and the strong.  Who are you to judge the slave of another?
3. God will cause them to stand (v.4): This is the persevering grace of God.  He who began a good work in you will complete it.  Why be so bothered when God will bring us all to Him in the end?

*Main point*
Inseparable love should triumph irreconcilable differences.