when children help us learn

Why do I do it?  Why do I just plow headlong through things and not stop to set my heart straight?  I often fail to recognize my dependence on God for strength, courage and saying no to self.  And the hard part is that I am often on cruising on autopilot and I don't even realize that there is a problem.  Yesterday I learned another lesson about the importance of prayer.  I consider it a lesson because the Lord was gracious enough to show me how I do not do turn to him as often as I ought to.  And what's more, I am not pointing my children to Christ as often as I could be in the real, nitty gritty struggles we face.

Sometimes mothering can teach you things you need to learn.  It is quite a big responsibility to be leading these little ones in this thing called life.  I often feel like I must show them the way that I, quite frankly, am still in the process of finding.  We all have tactics, strategies and ways of dealing with things that become ingrained and automatic.  And I find that those things become magnified when I am in the process of parenting one of my children.

You may be wondering what I mean.  Well, one of the main things I am trying to teach my children is that life is all about relationships.  If the first and greatest commandment is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and the second is like unto it "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" then we can clearly see that truth.

So how does this apply to the child who is afraid to talk to the guests and runs upstairs to hide from them?  The initial response is very matter of fact "You need to come downstairs",  "You should be friendly to our guests"...then as more crying ensues..."Get up off of the bed and come downstairs"...

I hope that you appreciate the pressure and time crunch of this moment.  If you are like me you have probably been in situations where you do not feel like you have the time to deal with a child's emotional outbursts.  Everything inside of you just wants the kid to get with it and do what they are supposed to.  Well, by God's grace my tactics were not working.  God was going to show me that this was an opportunity to take a moment and point my child to the Word of God and to help them to see that though this was a very hard thing to do (for them) that God's help and strength are but a prayer away.

How often are we self-centered and afraid to come out of our comfort zones and serve Christ?  How often do we just do what feels good to us, regardless of how it makes others feel?  There is so much more to it than just "Come down from the room and quit your crying"!  There is a spiritual need that needs addressing.  There is a mom who knows that when she struggles she needs to turn to the Lord and get her focus back on him.

And so, I got down on my knees and we prayed together.  It didn't fix everything and the tears didn't stop right away.  But I know that it was the best thing I could have possibly done with my child.  And I hope that I remember that in all of the opportunities that God gives me to point my children to him.

If I could only write one more post

To all people, no matter how old you are, whether you are a man, woman, boy or girl.  To people who go to church and to people who don't.  To people who know a little or know a lot.  Whoever you are and no matter what you have done in your life, this message is for you:

Many people think that it is narrow-minded and unloving to claim that Jesus is the only way to God.  People say "How could a loving God send people to hell?"  They reason that since so many people the world over do not believe in Jesus but rather believe in some other way to God that there must be many ways to him.  Maybe they think of it like a person trying to reach a destination.  For example, if I want to travel from point A to point B, I often have more than one way to get there.  But here's the thing: I hope to end up in the right place.  There may be a few twists and winds but do I know where I am going?  What do I hope to find when I get there?

These thoughts have been heavy on my mind lately.  See, here's the thing we must understand.  It is because of a person's own sin and rejection of the pure and deep love of God that they go to hell.  We are all deserving of it.  God has graciously given us all a way to escape it.  He has given us his Son.  How could anyone ever consider this God unloving?  He who sent his beautiful and holy Son to this ugly and sinful place so that we could be forgiven?  His love is deeper than any love we have ever known!

So how can we escape being separated from God forever just because he sent his Son?  Well, Jesus came to be what we could not be.  He was perfect, he loved with the right motives, he was completely and utterly selfless, he always did what pleased his Father.  Who among us can say that about ourselves?  Not one of us.  We know we fall short.  No matter how good and loving we often like to think we are.  But the beauty of it is that we can have Christ's righteousness through faith in him!

The gospel makes my heart burn!  It has me so excited because it is true and it is clear!  Don't you long for that?  Don't you long to just know what is true and what is false?  I am so tired of all of these mixed messages and man's flawed opinions!  Give me the truth!  Give me the authority of the Word of God and let no deception worm it's way into my heart!

The other day I taught the children from John chapter 10.  Jesus makes some pretty strong claims there...

"Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.  All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.  I am the door.  If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.  I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

Please, set your experience and your misconceptions aside and hear what Jesus says to you.  He is the only way to find the peace that you are looking for.  He is true beauty, true love, and true life.  You will not find these things in anything or anyone else.  All of those other supposed "gods" or "wise" ways of living will not truly give you life that only Jesus can give to you.  He alone can show us the way because he made the way to eternal life by giving up his own.  All others are impostors, they are thieves who snatch you up and captivate you with their "good" ideas and supposed ways to God.  And in the end they will keep you separated from the God who made you and loves your soul with more passion than you can imagine.

Please turn to Jesus.  He is the only way to be one with God forever.

lunch date thoughts

So I walked in from a lunch date and found all my kiddos finishing up a movie on the couch.  Sammy is asleep in Joelle's arms and the kid's are happily laughing at the antics on the screen.  Perfect opportunity to let my heart flow onto the page a little.  Yes, the movie is "babysitting" my kids for the moment.  But you know what?  I am not ashamed.

On the way to lunch I asked my husband a question.  "So...do you ever hear the voices that you're not good enough to be doing what you do?"  I am not kidding, his immediate, unflinching response was "No."  But before I could dwell too much on his answer he said "I already know that I'm not good enough."

This made me chuckle as I realized how right he is.  Which of us is good enough to have or do anything?  It is by God's grace and appointment that we are here.  All we can do is be faithful with what God has given us and depend on him for continued strength and grace to obey his Word.

I am going through a season where I have things that I want to improve upon and change.  I am not as I want to be nor where I should be but all I know is that at least I am aware of what I want to change.  And I turn to the Lord with those needs.  I ask him for wisdom.  I pray that I am resolute with my convictions.  I pray that I choose to honor him no matter which way the tide flows.  It doesn't come easily for any of us does it?  At the same time, I am so excited about what God is doing and the new opportunities coming ahead.

As my husband drove me home from our lunch date, I shared with him some of the mundane things of life lately.  He knows my heart.  He knows how much I want to improve this or that.  These things are the day in day out reality of a mom just trying to do her best to function well.  (For example, I am considering getting rid of a whole lot of stuff.  Time to pull out the big black trash bags!  Maybe then we won't have to spend as much time picking it all up!).

It was just a little moment to have a heart to heart about our day to day family life.  He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close.  "I love you, Marisha."  I love that he does not expect perfection.  He just loves me for me.  Right where I am.  Good thing too!  Because when he loves me right where I'm at, I'm more encouraged to love him right where he's at and really, isn't that what it's all about?

On another side note, earlier today we had laughed about a discipline issue.  Seriously, all alone in our room where none of the kids could see, we laughed so hard.  I love the humor between us.  Just how we can talk about parenting and have a good laugh at something that was hard at the time but later we laugh it up.  And through the belly laughs saying "That's classic!"  I wish I could tell you what it was but I'll just leave it to your imagination.  Maybe you've experienced this too?

Well, I think my time's up.  I hear some commotion out there which probably means the movie is over.  Time to get back at it!

trying to stay on "track"

I really enjoyed my experience at the track today.  Something about running on a track.  It felt so right and so purposeful.  There was just no mistaking in my mind why I was there.  It wasn't to sight see, it wasn't to take a leisurely walk, it was to run...well, to jog.  And somehow, having that focus helped me.  I'm trying to do this "eight weeks to a 5K" program with Joelle.  Basically, you start off slow and gradually begin to jog more and more.  I need gradual.  I need a pace that is not going to chew me up and spit me out.  I need something that I can stick to and gradually get better at.  The other neat thing about the track today was that I could bring a few kids with me and not worry about them keeping up.  Whether they got ahead or lagged behind I could still see them.  That works very well for me!

Today was pretty much dedicated to making pasteles.  The shopping list was made and the ingredients acquired.  We assembled them together with Javier's parents and had an amazing dinner!  I'm glad we have some leftovers in the freezer that we can pull out when we start craving them again!

We have a sweet neighbor that seems to appreciate company. She loves to share things with us and always invites us in when we come to the door.  She recently gave us a bunch of peaches that I put into a smoothie this evening.  Just in case that wasn't enough sweetness in the house, Joelle decided to use up the rest of our blueberries to make more of those blueberry muffins.  And did I mention that Amera and I stopped into Wendy's this afternoon for lunch and since I wanted to cool off from the heat I ordered a Frosty?  Something about the combination of Summer and relatives getting together that tends to mean more sugar consumption than ever.  I really need to watch it or I'll literally be running in vain. :(

I did have a slight solution...the three older girls packaged up some muffins for three different neighbors and went out into the cool evening to deliver them.  That was one way to get some of the sugar out of the house and to spread a little love to our neighbors.  The three girls seemed so happy to do it as they marched off to make their special deliveries.  It's such a blessing to give, isn't it?

Tonight, after most of the kids have gone up to bed, Amera is teaching Brienne and Javi how to make these knitted scarves she makes.  They are supposed to be pretty easy.  I think I'll head on out there again and see what everyone is up to now.  If Sammy keeps sleeping, maybe I can get back to crocheting the blanket I'm working on.  :)

stuff that happened

Stuff that happened yesterday and the day before...

~ I didn't put away the hair cutting kit when I was finished with the boys and a certain four year old decided to take the opportunity to give his hairstyle some finishing touches.  If anyone happens to notice an area that looks a bit patchy...well now you know why.  I attempted to fix it up with the scissors but it seemed like I was only making it worse.  I decided to leave it be and take comfort in the fact that hair does indeed grow back.  Lesson learned: put away the scissors next time.  And put them out of reach.  On a side note: a little while after the incident I told my husband about it over the phone and he laughed hysterically!  I'm thankful for a husband who helps me to lighten up about these things. :)

~ I spent the afternoon yesterday sweeping and mopping our floors and when I was finished I stepped back to admire my handiwork.  Right about that same time a child fished around in the fridge searching for the sour cream for our tacos and suddenly, SPLAT!  An entire container full of leftover rice and stir fry decorated our floor.  Do you know how tedious of a job it is to clean up sticky, wet rice?  I do.  I mean, I did the right thing here and had my child start the clean up.  But there are just some things that need a mother's final touch.  I'm glad that I managed to keep my composure here.  I mean, it's not like the child did it on purpose, right?!

But the thing that tried me the most and was literally "the icing on the cake" was attempting to frost the cake yesterday.  Was the cake too moist?  Why wouldn't the frosting bond to the cake?  I would attempt to spread it on and it would pull away from the cake.  Strange, boxed cake and a tub of frosting used to be so simple for me to put together but I keep running into problems lately.  At one point I really did think that the cake was going to end up being a crumbled, goopy mess.  But I managed to salvage it.  At one point I flung the rubber spatula into the sink in a burst of lost patience but I managed to salvage that too.  Thank God for the Spirit's reminder that I should be patient when attempting to frost a cake.  Thank God for the sweet child who understands and forgives when mommy admits she was wrong to fling a spatula.

It's funny sometimes, when you consider all of the background details of life.  These little trials are often peppered throughout the day and I know they happen to us all.  But it's all worth it!  We ended up having such a fun time with our guests.  

Our  little boy doesn't care about the patches on his head, after all he can't see them!  

The floors were clean (for a little while anyway).  ;)

The cake was pretty yummy, a tad crumbly, but yummy.  

And the best part about the whole evening?  

Loving and being loved.  It's all because of Christ and because he loved us first. (1 John 4:19)  I don't say that because it is Christian cliche.  I say it with all my heart because I know it's true.  There is joy here, there is laughter and there is love all because of the Son who has made us free.  And I am so very thankful.