Restoration

Restoration: the action of returning something to a former condition

I have been thinking a lot about this word lately. I have been praying for certain things to be restored. Relationships, states of mind and even my house. Haha! It will take a while for my house. Not kidding.

I have been petitioning God about restoring . He has been very faithful in the past to restore certain things to me. I had to get on my knees an awful lot to get there but He was faithful to do so. In fact, he made what was restored better than it had been before. That is what He does. He will allow some things to be torn down in your life only to build them back up the way He wants them. He does not promise that it will not hurt because crushing and breaking does hurt. He does promise to hold you through all of it though. He is also a Master Restorer. He sands off all the old varnish and dirt, takes out all the old fixtures that are broken, scrapes away the peeling paint and puts a new finish on all of it. In the end it looks better than how it started. So I hope if you are praying for restoration that God does all that and more for you. I think it is best not to fight all the change but ask God what He is saying in the change. If you have been praying for God to restore, hang in there... He has a plan. He will work it out and He will restore. It is up to us to listen through the process.

Raising A Lion

How do I raise a man in this day and age? When men are constantly demeaned and made to look like they have nothing good to offer to a family other than comic relief? He is past my chin now. In church my chin would rest on his head as we worshiped, now my head tilts back. I will do this thing until I cannot do it any longer. I will rest my head on his and hold him close when his friends are not watching. He still lets me kiss his cheek and hug him in front of them though. He is strong enough to not care what they think. I hope we can always give him that. Strength. I was thinking the other day how do we teach him to be the spiritual leader of a home someday? I know he watches his dad and his dad is a great example for spiritual leadership but where do I, as his mom, fit into that? I have begun to give him a Scripture every day that he has to look up in the Bible by himself. I help, a little. He is then required to read that Scripture to his sisters at the breakfast table. This was the first week. Everyday I gave him Ephesians 6:10-19. Everyday he lead them in putting on the full armor of God. Everyday he lead. He was not made into the funny, dumb sidekick of his "much smarter sisters" he was made the leader. He was given dignity. I realized as he and his dad went out to shoot the crossbow together that I am raising a lion in a world where men have been made to be lambs. Don't get me wrong, I want him to be a kind and sensitive husband someday. I want him to be gentle toward his children and be able to hug them and tell them how much he loves them but I also want him not to be the doormat that I see often portrayed in the entertainment industry. That is not and never will be OK. It does not mean that we as women should not be strong and have an opinion but I want him to rise up someday and hold steadfastly to the leadership in his home. I want him to be confident as he claims responsibility for his family. I am raising my son to be a MAN.

Love

Love is getting up every morning and making breakfast . Love is running errands and taking the kids from you when you absolutely cannot handle another moment with someone else in your bubble. Love is when, on the verge of exhaustion, you go and work a little longer for your family because you absolutely need the money to pay that extra bill. Love is not choosing yourself when there is a choice. Love is writing a love note on the mirror in the middle of morning rush, telling the one you love that they are amazing ( with a bar of soap). Love is hearing about how everyone else does it so much better than you both do and texting sweet messages instead of bashing you over the head with that knowledge. Love is strong when you are weak. Love snuggles on Saturday mornings when there are so many other things that you should be doing. Love is being satisfied with a bad movie and the time with the one you love. Truly. Love says things at the right time even when it seems like the wrong time because you love the person so much that you do not want to see them go another minute in their discomfort. Love is keeping your mouth shut for the same reason. Love lets you go run when you should be washing dishes. Love does not comment on the condition of your dirty house when it comes through the door. Instead it gives you a smile and a hug and asks how your day was. Love tries when you tell it you are not happy. Love pushes itself to the brink. Love makes a date in the middle of chaos and takes you away from it for a few hours. Again, does not matter if it was a cruddy movie. It is the time. Love holds your hand in the car on the way to church. Love prays for and with you every day. Love races to be at your side when you have a medical scare and absolutely cannot face it alone. Love holds you through the pain of childhood remembrances. Love laughs with you at the silliness of your children. Love argues with you and then chooses to love in the face of imperfection. Love changes diapers. Does dishes. Cooks. Love says "thank you" instead of why couldn't you do more? Love hopes for better but will be with you through the "worse". Love says you look beautiful even when you have a little belly after the third one that never seems to go away. Love says the right thing at the very best time. Love bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things. Love never fails.

SO Powerful!

This was just so powerful I had to share it with you! It made me cry. I only wish that I could get a loop of the whole thing and leave it on in my house all the time. Enjoy!

The sink

Yesterday I was doing my dishes. A thing which I seem to do an awful lot. Hmmmm. I was almost done putting them in my dishwasher when I got this feeling of joy that washed over me. Seeing the bottom of my nineteen fifty's white ceramic sink gave was an inspiration! I was about to go to bed and the thought came to me that I like to wake up to a dish less sink. A clean scrubbed sink with nothing in it. I don't think we realize it but that is what we have every day when we walk with God. Everyday is like a clean dish less sink. It can be whatever we want it to be. Most of the time I feel like I have figurative dishes in my sink before I get out of bed but it is my choice how I choose to react to the day. Hang in there. Every day you get to start fresh. Everyday is new "with no mistakes in it." To quote Miss Stacey from Anne of Green Gables. Everyday is like a gleaming white sink with no dishes in it. May your faucets shine and sparkle and may your dishes be few.

Reality Hurts

Miss Sunshine

Handsome

Ok. Here are my two older children. Today they came home and told me that they had both forgotten their homework folder. Ouch! Their father and I had told them a couple of weeks ago that there would be major consequences if they forgot them again. My boy also forgot his on a day where he had a test review. Double ouch! So the parental units sit down, after sending the children to their rooms to contemplate their doom, to talk about what kind of punishments to dole out. It took us forever with Miss Sunshine. Rarely does she have a bad day. If we sit her in the corner she will usually end up playing a game with her fingers. We thought about taking her books because she absolutely loves to read but , again, has the imagination to make up any story she wants to so...no. I told Husband that whatever we did it had to hurt. The one thing that she loves is food. So for forgetting to bring her homework folder home for the millionth time, she went to bed with no dinner. It hurt me horribly to send her to bed with no dinner and what hurt even worse was that she was so sweet about it. She took it like Miss Sunshine would take things. hopefully she will remember this one. I know it sounds awful but if there is never a consequence what will she do someday if she just keeps forgetting to pay her bills? Oh, she also had to go early to school with Daddy to do homework. She has to be responsible for what is required of her.

Older one got an even steeper punishment. He forgets his folder all the time. First, he still had to do an hour and a half review with Dad. Then he got grounded off of TV and Xbox for a week and also lost the privilege of playing the XBOX during the week. Now until summer, he is only allowed to play video games on the weekend. I was a sad night for all of us but hopefully being consistent will help them become the responsible adults that God created them to be. I just wish they knew that it hurt me more than it hurts them. I cried. It says in the Word that we train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it. It never says that the training will be easy. It is easier to just overlook things, do things for them and enable. But, I have seen the results of that kind of upbringing in some adults that I know and I do not want that for my kids. I felt like a bad mom last night but this morning my little boy came over to me and wrapped his arms around me and told me he loved me. My daughter laid her head on my lap and told me how much she loved me. I think they got the message.Hang in there mom's and dad's! Be strong! You are raising up mighty men and women of God!

Did You Know?

Did you know that if you have a family of five and you wait an entire week to do laundry that you have an actual mountain on the inside of your house? Something to think about...Notice in the picture above that both of my daughters are wearing dress clothes. Note: we did not go anywhere that night that was all of the clean clothing that they had. We stayed home and watched a movie. Also notice that my seven year old Blondie is wearing an outfit that is at least two sizes too small for her. This is what happens when you are sick the entire Christmas vacation. All you do is lay around and watch every movie that you have not gone to see in theatres. Your house goes to pot. Maybe God allowed us to become ill so that we would actually rest. We definitely did. These are all of the amazing illnesses of 2010, all contracted within a two week period: The stomach Flu, Somewierdfevercoughthingythatneverseemstoleaveus ( I do think that that is the actual scientific name of this illness), Walking Pneumonia, and Strep! It was super fun!

Hey, the way I look at it. We got them all out of the way so that we do not have to get anything else. My house has been Cloroxed and, thankfully, every single person in the house is now well. We had a lot of together time though. I did very much enjoy being with my family and having my SH (Sweet Husband) home almost the whole time. Perk of having a teacher for a husband. Anyhoo, God is still good and we are sooooooo excite about 2011!

Now back to Mount Laundry!