Deuteronomy 32:
3-4, I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
how glorious is our God!
He is the Rock; his work is perfect.
Everything He does is just and fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong;
how just and upright He is!

15-18, But Israel soon became fat and unruly;
then they abandoned the God who made them;
they made the light of the Rock their salvation.
They stirred up His jealousy by worshipping foreign God's;
they offered sacrifices to demons, non-gods,
to gods they had not known before,
to gods only recently arrived,
to gods their ancestors had never feared.
You neglected the Rock who had fathered you;
you forgot the God who had given you birth.




These are strong words. As I read them today, I thought about how many times I have become 'fat and unruly' and forgotten God, waking up at the start of the day only to immediately rush into my thought life of what I need to do, who I need to call, who needs what, and where did I put-? and Oh,yeah, I MUST call about that one bill today
and on & on.

I am satisfied, I have- by the grace of God- enough to eat, a home to dwell in and to sleep safely in, my kids, my husband and I are well, and I get to believing that I can handle my own life, that God will be there when I need Him- if an emergency befalls us- right? Who can't relate to having been in that place, at one time or another?

We say we don't worship foreign God's because we don't have a Buddha or a Lotus statue on our porch but what about the god of the tyranny of time? Of money? Of 'getting it all done'?

Have you ever disobeyed God about what He wanted you to do one day because you knew that if you obeying Him would mean slowing down, and thus not getting done all the things you wanted to get done that day? I know that I have. I can immediately recall the time when I quieted that still voice inside that said "come home" because I really wanted the sense of accomplishment I got through working, on a job that I felt was "helping people." It had never occurred to me that helping & serving my own family was just as important, just as valuable, as helping & serving another family through my job. God did a work in my heart to show me that my serving my own family(being busy in my own home) was of #1 importance to him, and later on He showed me that I had been worshipping an idol of self: self-accomplishment. And thinking that serving my own family wasn't an accomplishment. I can think of other examples too, but most of it isn't big decisions like the one above~ it's all the daily decisions that add up over a lifetime. Will I submit each day to the Lord, turning to Him first, and foremost, or will I dive into self-sufficiency and selfishness and 'get done all of the things that I want to get done today'?

I am always amazed at how drastically God 'quiets things down' when I am faithful to seek Him for how my day will play out. He really has only a few, central expectations of me. Yes, there will be important things that need my attentions from time to time but the predominate 'feel' of my days, when left in God's hands, is serene, quiet, peaceful. Yes, busy with the kids, but- still time for peacefulness. Kind of drives me crazy on some days. I want to get up and Go, go, go and God says No, no, no! Lol He knows better than me, so, I just do what he says (most of the time)and His plan always works out well and shows itself to be the best. I just need to submit to His plans and reject my own. Not easy to do, but it gets easier with time and practice.

I'm not certain why I wrote about this today, when what I really wanted to do was yak about my sisters, but this is what i read today and this is how it spoke to me~ and I really felt that God wanted me to share these thoughts. I probably needed to be reminded!



Updates on the kiddos:

Grace can kiss now, and she loves to smush her face really hard into ours and say 'Muaaah!" when she's done; it's all very cute. But it kind of hurts. So we have to work on that. Ha ha! She is also big on trying to do somersaults now(copying her big 'bro Josh I suspect) and trying to push the cats around for rides in her little grocery cart. They are not willing participants.
Her favorite food is still spaghetti and she still doesn't like chocolate milk that much(wierd.) She is, of course, in the 90th percentile for both weight & height!

Joshy is eating up a storm so we suspect he must be g-r-o-w-i-n-g! We just went through his clothes again and had to bag up a lot of them for Goodwill. He is growing out of pants every few months it seems like!He is my biggest outdoorsy kid, though Ty loves it outside too. He is very strong and athletic for his age, and he is not afraid of heights. Yeah, that's what I say! His favorite foods are plain cheese pizza, macaroni and cheese and cheesy hot dogs ( notice a trend here?)and he actually loves most veggies and fruits which I find unusual for a boy his age (I got lucky!:) He is 4'5" and 49 lbs!

Ty is 12 now, and we say 12 going on 14. He is still a boy in some ways,but mostly he is diving into adolescence head-on. This brings about new disciplinary challenges as well as new delights,and God has been up to the job 100% so we are actually not worried about it (gasp!) I know, I never thought I'd be saying THAT! God is so good! Ty is still really big into Star Wars and Hardy Boys and he is getting too old he says for toys(ha ha) He loves board games and card games, playing outside- where he inspects nature- especially bugs- and he loves that he will be getting to do much of his schoolwork on the computer this year coming up. Though we will still spend a good amount of time using our penmanship because he has nice writing and I don't want him to lose that :) Tyler is growing to be a young man of integrity who respects his elders and is protective of, and kind to, youngsters. Most of all, we see him growing into desiring to honor God and this brings us immense joy! Currently, Tyler says that he would like to be either a youth pastor or a police officer when he is older! I am surprised, and warmed by his ideas on wanting to be a youth pastor. I am also glad that we have a pastor who was a youth pastor at one time and can be an example to Tyler.


Well, that's all for now- household's waking and shaking! God bless and have a great day :)