Happy Father's Day Dad!

When I was six years old one of my favorite things to do was to pop my head into my dad's wood shop and sniff the air and ask him what he was doing.  This was the one place I remember my dad being peaceful and really where he seemed  most at home.  He would patiently teach me how to use a wood burner and then let me make crazy plaques (he still has the one I made for over the cat's food dish!).  He was always working on something and didn't mind my hanging around his shop.  I thought, and still do that he was the most talented man in the world when it came to wood.

As I grew I didn't spend as much time in my dad's shop but learned to really treasure his opinion.  He didn't ever have a lot to say, but what he did was always spot on in wisdom and intellect.  I must confess that as an adult women I treasure my dad's opinion more and  more.  I know that he doesn't care to spend time shooting the breeze with just anyone so when he does with me I always feel honored to be in conversation with him.  The times he's expressed pride in the choices I've made  have been like wind to my wings.

This father's day I am so enjoying counting the ways that I value my father.  It reminds me of how the man I have married is accumulating ways that his girls love him.  Neither of these men are perfect, I rather like them better for their imperfections.  Were they to be great perfect men I could not relate or enjoy them!  As Father's Day approaches I want to send a loving note to my Father and the Father of my children and thank them for the great men that they are.  In my eyes they excel far above any other men and I send up thanks to God for allowing me to be in the company of these two.  So Pete and Dad I love you, thank you for all of the wonderful ways you make fathering a blessing to me and to my little women!

Check This Out........

I read about 10 ways to love on the Heart of Wisdom blog.  It was so good I couldn't help but share it.  To check it out go here.

Celebrating Marriage

(I can't find a picture of just Pete and I from the past year!!  A family pic will have to due.)

It's easy to remember to celebrate our marriages on holidays and anniversaries.  Given the state of marriage in our society it would seem prudent to celebrate and rejoice in our marriages more often.  This is the most important relationship outside of the relationship we have with God.  Do you we treat it as such on a daily basis?
Pete and I are in the process of planning a 10 year anniversary vacation.  As I plan I am wondering why I don't put more effort into celebrating each day?  It's so easy to let the ways of life get away from me and put my marriage on the back burner.  So I brain stormed a few ideas on how to celebrate my oneness with my man.

• Happy hour!  I love to surprise Pete with an appetizer and drinks (you could do tea or lemonade) when he gets home from work.
• If you can, have a bonfire after the children are in bed.  We have a second hand metal fire pit that serves the purpose.
• Have a movie night after the kids are in bed.
• Play some card games together.
• Listen to music and make a meal.
• Join your hubby in his work or a hobby he is doing.

There are so many ways we can take special time out to nurture the most important earthly relationship we have.  The time serves so many purposes.  We set an example of our heart's priorities to our families.  As women we have a time to refresh and step aside from our focus on serving in other areas.  Perhaps the most surprising benefit of taking time to enjoy my husband is the amount of refreshment I get from being with him.  That alone should spur me to set aside my daily duties and enjoy my man more!

With the crazy life I can be tempted to lead, it is so vitally important to make wise and well thought out decisions on how to spend the little bit of time I have on this earth.  I don't want to get to the end of my days and look back at the frazzled way I swung through life, but the special times I took to make certain God, marriage and family were were placed in proper priority.

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Today our eldest daughter, Olivia would have turned 14.    She died 8 1/2 years ago from cancer.  It seems impossible for me to have a child that would be a teenager!  I love this day because I have such sweet memories of all of Olivia's 5 birthdays.  She was always well on her birthday.  There are not any shadows of suffering over birthday memories.  I am so thankful to the Lord for this one day that was always happy. I wonder if they celebrate birthdays in heaven?   We've celebrated Olivia's memory in some way or another every June 10th.  Sometimes it's just looking at her memory book, or maybe going through the chest of things that were hers.  Some years we have cake.  This year we don't have any plans, but it is such fun to share who she was in memory with her sisters. 

Power

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly I forget.  In Isaiah 40:30-31 I am reminded that,

"Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. 

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall

mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary;

and they shall walk, and not faint."

Over the past week I have flexed my motherly muscle, strained my maternal voice chords and disciplined with parental consistency.  But I did not go to the Lord for my strength.  I kept trying to dig deeper, resolve more, seek some encouragement from my hubby.  However, these are all fruitless and leave me weary and falling all over the place.  Day by day, moment by moment I have to lean hard and renew my strength at feet of Jesus.  I cannot self-improve or motivate enough.  It is clear in Isaiah that my renewal and strength will not come by any other means than by the Lord.

So this afternoon I sat at the throne and asked yet again for the Lord to be in control.  The memory is slow.  The learning is painful.  Maybe this time I will remember for a bit longer?  If any good comes from forgetting it is that I am encouraged to continue to remind the little souls in my care over and over and over again as they inherited my memory!  They don't remember.  I am reminded that I must repeat, repeat, repeat to them just as I need to have things repeated to me.  

Haunted by God

This morning in my devotional that I am currently reading My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers I read about being haunted by God.  When we are walking with the Lord and His Spirit fills us we will be so close to him that he haunts us.

"The Psalmist says we are to be haunted by God.  The abiding consciousness

of the life is to be God, not thinking about Him.  The whole of our life inside and out

is to be absolutely haunted by the presence of God." O.C.

At one point in the devotion Mr. Chambers related this to a child being haunted by his mother.  This was a great comparison for me and a motivator of what I am to be to my children now so they can walk steadily and hauntingly with the Lord later.
Our culture and the effects of the feminist movement minimizes the importance of a mother's influence on her children.  Socialist propaganda would have us believe that mothers are more valuable in the workforce and children are better off in a structured peer environment.  Who is haunting our children when we choose this lifestyle?  Who is it that our children run to when harmed, think of when they are about to sin, cry out to when they are scared, look to for comfort and boundaries?  Who do they learn to place their faith in, trust and follow completely?  A school teacher, maybe a daycare provider, a family helper?  Is this one person, or does the person change often?  These are all interesting questions to consider, especially when we look to what we want their relationship to their Father God to be as adults.
If we are to imprint God's character on our children's hearts we must not believe the lies that Satan is feeding us.  There is a price to pay for farming out our children's care to someone else, their education and their moral development.  When my husband and I asked ourselves if we could trust daycare, public school and babysitters with our impressionable children the answer was perfectly clear. NO!
In the course of a day it is so easy to believe that we are failing as mothers.  That our influence is less than it truly is.  When we take into consideration that we are building a relationship between them and God by our faithfulness and trustworthiness, our comfort and care, our presence and dedication it should boost us all up by our suspenders and make us stand taller.  This is no small job to be minimized.  Ladies we are doing something so much more important than we allow ourselves to think.  Perhaps if we really valued our jobs we would find ourselves more motivated.  Be encouraged this day that you are a bridge for your children to understand their Lord and Saviour!