Happy Birthday, Mom!

 

Happy Birthday, Mom :)
You are the best mom in the world. Your love for your husband and children is obvious. Your love for God is real, and contagious. You do your best to raise your children in a godly and selfless way. You teach with your words and with your actions. You are a wonderful example of what a Christian mother and wife should be. Like every other parent in the world, you're not perfect, but the job of raising up a bold(and large, in your case!) army for God only requires for one to be perfect, God.
There are many opportunities during the day when you could choose to be selfish, and nobody would blame you for it, but you consistantly choose to serve, not to be served. You pour everything you have into your family. Joyfully. Selflessly. Lovingly. Beautifully.
As Proverbs 31 describes the virtuous wife and mother, you also strive to be the wise and resourceful woman described in the chapter. Your worth IS far above rubies. Your children ARE rising up and calling you blessed. Your family appreciates you.
This is a birthday post for you, Mom. We want you to know that you are loved, appreciated and needed. Thank you for all that you do!
-Your 11 Arrows(Written by Adria)

Today, think of what this means to you, "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind".

That is where God began with me and continues to work on in my heart. He gave me some answers but I would like you to think about this first and maybe jot down some ideas or scriptures in the next couple of days. Pray and ask God to reveal His answer to you.

This is my scripture I have been praying:

Let the words of my mouth and the mediatation of my heart, Be acceptable in Your sight. Oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer! Psalm 19:14

You may leave your thougts on my comments or just keep them by your bible. Enjoy meditating on this thought, you WILL be blessed! I will be filling you in on what He has shared with me,

soon...

Back? Stay tuned!

Oh how I have missed this! God has been so good and faithful in the past couple of weeks! I must share some things that He has taught me and do some catching up. However, He has given me some clear direction on when and what I share on my blog. I will soon be posting on some things I have learned.

I am so thankful that He has lead me to blog again and share the things on HIS heart!

Stay tuned...

Good-bye for now!

For weeks now, God has been dealing with my heart on MANY issues! Way too many to cover in a post. In fact, most He is still dealing with me on so to even begin to talk about them would be way to premature!

One of the things, probably the most important is how do I love Him? Do I love Him with all of my heart, mind and soul? And if I say I do, am I showing Him that by my choices I make? Do the choices I make reflect my answer?

Well, I have discovered I have lost the joy of my first love. HIM! I am no longer choosing Him over everything else! I am choosing everything else over Him! My heart cannot take it any longer! I am not down or guilt ridden! In fact, I am excited to see what He is going to do now that He has brought it to my attention.

Everything has been a struggle lately. From parenting, to my time alone with God and EVERYTHING in between. My attitude has just been plain horrible! To my kids, husband and God! I was reading the other day in Proverbs 2:10&11-When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul, Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you.

I have been given wisdom from Him that has made me aware that all the things I am struggling with is because I am not loving Him with all my heart! From that, I need to go to Him to help me with all my life holds.

One of the things I have been convicted of is how I spend my time. This thing sitting on my lap, (and it is not one of my children) :)is becoming between my relationship with Him and just about every other relationship in my life. Now is it the computer that is the problem? No, it is me and the choices I have been making. I questioned one day, if everytime I got on the computer, I would read a bible verse, how many bible verses a day would I read? Many! So I decided to do that and the more bible verses I started to read, the less I wanted to be on the computer! The more and more convicted I was to take a "blogatical". Not only a "break" from my blog, but from anything that has come between my first love and me! Easy? No! But the rewards will be many and I am already seeing the fruits! Spending more time with my children and making them a priority in my daily life more than I have been has been great! I want to make sure that they know my computer is NOT a relationship and has no value! Only relationship with God and the people He has brought into my life are of value!

I have had great things God has shown me through other people from their blogs and I appreciate that so much! I can also say that I have had things that have made me feel uncontent. The "REAL" post I did a while back has all been part of the process for me! That was because of some issues God was speaking to my heart on. I am who I am, that is all He has created me to be, but because I have going on what I know, and not giving Him my first of everything, I have suffered!

So my readers, I leave you for today until...well, I don't know when! Maybe I will not return to the blog world and maybe I will return every once in awhile. Not sure yet and I am not making a plan. God will let me know His direction and I will follow.

For now I am going to rest in Him and trust in Him and begin to go back to my first love, HIM!

The people who have contacted me on my comments page, I will continue to pray for you! I feel a spriritual bond with you and I thank God for that! And if you would, please continue to pray for me! I will need it as I daily search for Him and His plan for me and my family! Maybe you will hear from me again and maybe we won't ever meet until the day we stand before our Savior. Whatever the case may be, take care and continue to live for Him and Him only!

Deuteronomy 11:11&12
"but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

If we obey His commandments, He will bring blessings from heaven directly to us! How sweet! For now, I am going to enjoy basking in His blessings and rain from heaven!!

Foto Friday-

And where does the youngest of 11 children sleep...

...well under a table of course!

I came downstairs after I put the next to youngest to bed and I could not figure out where the baby mysteriously disappeared to! A concerned look must have been on my face. My husband said while pointing to the table, "I figured that was the safest place to put him!"

Never would have thought of that one!:) Maybe that's why all of our boys like to crawl under things! Thanks a lot dad!

Where does time go?

Ayson Lee,

12 short weeks ago today,

I went from holding you in my body to holding you in my arms for the very first time!

(But who is counting?!)

Where did the time go from newborn diapers and clothes,

now, size 3-6 month clothes and ALMOST size 2 diapers!

From those distant glazed look eyes,

to frantically looking for mommy's face,

and then that BIG toothless grin!

You used to not even know you had hands,

now you think they taste ohhh so good!

All those siblings that have stared and talked to you for so long,

what a joy to see you enjoying THEIR faces!

12 weeks ago I did not think it possible to love you more!

But...

the empty space in my heart that I did not even know was there, you filled!

And...

I just keep falling more and more in love with you!

Thank you God,

for another beautiul arrow!

What am I waiting for?

What am I waiting for?

• to take my son to get a biopsy
• for my stomache ache to pass
• the day I don't worry about money
• a hug from my mom
• to think of others more than I think of myself
• fall
• cool weather
• jumping in leaves with my kids
• getting things finished around the house
• selling our house
• finding another place to live
• to be more like Jesus in what I do and say
• having more patience
• losing those last 10 pounds
• time with my husband after the kids go to bed
• finishing a book I have started
• watching my children grow in Christ and become servants to Him as adults also!

Waiting is not fun for me. Some things are easy to wait for such as cooler weather and fall coming. I KNOW those things will come! They are out of my control! Some of the others, well...I don't know the outcome. Some really matter to me and some are just little things. I remember a few months ago, waiting or my 11th baby to be born. I had delivered 10 other babies previously and I knew nobody had ever been pregnant forever, but none the less, I sat and wondered, sometimes in tears, if I were going to be the first one EVER to keep a human inside of me for eternity! That waiting was HARD physically! Waiting for biopsy results is HARD in many forms! Sometimes waiting can even feel painful!

When I want something, I want it NOW! I don't like to wait! But waiting for certain things such as my children's spiritual hearts directed to Jesus must take time! For that I am greatful I have to wait! God has given me time to cultivate them. If you plant a seed, you have to wait for the fruit. It does not just grow in an instant. It takes lots of work and just plain waiting! With waiting comes lots of prayer! There has been times with jobs, houses, and my life circumstances that I did not want to wait, but after I did, I was sure glad God HAD me wait! Other times, I decided not to wait and do things my way! Not a good idea! With pregnancies, I know I need to wait for the little miracle inside to grow healthy and strong! Anyone who has had a premature baby understands that one! I used to not beable to wait for my baby to sleep longer than a 3 hour stretch. Now, I don't really think about that much anymore. It is not an issue anymore!

Such as it is with my heart! As I sit here today, God is dealing with me on many different issues. He knows it would be best for me if I "grew" some more. I don't like it! I want to just be instantly a "better" child of God! (Not to earn His love, just to be as dependant on Him as possible!) He knows I need cultivated however and that takes time! Now, what I am willing to give of myself to Him is up to me! If I give ALL that I am, then His plan can be accomplished, no doubt! If I decide to just give Him bits and pieces, then it will take longer and maybe not even happen at all! I might get in the way! That I have learned is harder than the actual waiting itself!

So today as I wait, I am reminded that waiting is hard and sometimes painful, but...

Those who wait upon the Lord, shall renew thier strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint! Isaiah 40:31

Boy am I glad God is not finished with me yet! I guess I will just wait on Him for that to be accomplished!

Labor Day potluck anyone?

Thought it would be fun to celebrate Labor Day with some thoughts on potlucks, and especially going to potlucks with a large family!

The one thing that comes to mind when I hear "potuck" is salads and "guess that ingredient" casseroles. Every type of salads! Jello, pasta, taco, lettuce, vegetable and fruit ones are just to name a few. My kids are NOT salad people. (They are casserole kids by nurture but only ones where they know what is in them.) Husband, same way. Myself, I could live on salads! So for them that leaves dessert! Ahhhh, dessert...so my children think. I TRY to limit them to only 2 desserts. But with not liking salads, dessert is about the only thing left so something with peanut butter is now considered an entree at the potlucks we decide to attend! My contribution that I sneak in the door and put at the table before anyone sees me? Peanut butter and honey sandwiches cut in squares. At least when my children ask what there will be that they can eat, I can tell them sandwiches! The last potluck we went to had RIBS! A potluck made for a man! My 6 year old commented on the green bean "salad"but I think it was just to make sure I noticed he had something from the "mommy" food group so he could move on to better things.

After I told each of my little piggies children that they could have only 2 desserts, I started noticing the many trips BACK to the dessert table. I began to monitor them and all the sudden began counting, 1...2...3...4...5...6 kids sneaking wandering innocently back to the food tables carrying a plate with 2 desserts on it. That would be fine except, they had 2 desserts ALREADY with their meal the first time around! I guess they did not understand what I meant! Okay, my guess is they did, but the flesh is so weak and the variety of chocalate in as many forms as salads was calling their taste buds!

We were the last table to get our food, so we were going up to get our food as everyone else was finishing! The great thing about that is you don't have to worry about your kids being greedy and leaving enough food for everyone else! The idea that there would be any left for others to have seconds on dessert after my piggies children went back for 4ths and 5ths, was well, just not reality ! The proof was all over their chocolate stained faces!

So now onto the final part of the potluck. Many piggies children with an abundance of sugar in them AND past naptime, (for them and me), with an open area to run with MANY other children to play with... anyone guess what that means? The entry for the cheesy grin, smiling through my gritted teeth and the phrase, "Honey, I think it is time to go now!" made its appearance. We then gathered up all our things, and noisily quietly left the building. WHEW! Back in the car and mom and dad go over the speech on everything we need to work on the next time we decide to go to a potluck! The amazing thing is, we made it through the entire meal without a spill! That may be a first! I was even prepared with extra clothes and many wipes!

I now sit, ready to nap while my piggies children nap and boy am I ready to sit down to a quiet meal at home! Although potlucks may be fun, they are ALOT of work! At least I did not have one of my kids say to me that I said to my mom once while leaving a potluck, "Hey mom, everyone else's food was gone, how come there was so much left of yours? Didn't anyone like it?"
I guess my peanut butter sandwiches were a hit! There was only 2 squares left! (But I did leave my dish!) Guess that's why you are supposed to write your name on it with that familiar tape and permanent marker! :)

Enjoy your day today whether you are going to a potluck or not! :)