Another cutie!

Time for another brag fest! (Brace yourselves...Remember I have 6 more to go!)

This is my 7 month old daughter Alyssa. We are so blessed to have such a contented baby. This makes schooling and all the other things a mom has to do quite a bit easier to accomplish!

Each one of her sisters and brothers absolutely adore this little cutie and can't seem to get enough of her! In this picture, my oldest daughter Julia decided to play dress up with Alyssa!

Alyssa loves to roll around the floor and has almost mastered the "army crawl". She is mobile enough to reach whatever object she finds interesting that happens to be laying on the floor ~ even the family dog!

This next picture is actually Alyssa's second time to use the potty.
I have never had a baby this young going on the toilet! Hopefully
this won't be just a passing fancy! Now if I could just get her sister interested in this activity!

Alyssa's wonderful, toothless smile is quite infectious and her sweet little laugh will brighten anyone's day! We pray that her sweet spirit will one day radiate from an inner beauty created by her love for our Lord Jesus Christ!

Purity from Titus 2

Titus 2:5 says that a Godly woman should be pure. If something is pure gold, it means that it is 100% gold. There is no part of it that is not gold. If something is pure chocolate, there is no part of it that is not chocolate. The Bible says that we are to be pure. What does this mean for us?
In order for a person to be pure, they must be free from impure things. It is just as much a sin to think about impure things as it is to partake in them. We should not allow our minds to wallow in evil and be fed impurities.
In this day and age, the list of impure things can tend to be a mile long! Here are a few examples of ways that we can be fed impurities.
Things that we hear and see on T.V. or movies such as bad language, immodesty and immorality. This is such a problem with Christians today. They feel that as long as they aren't using the language or they aren't physically involved in the immorality, it's okay to view these things by means of the media. Have you ever heard someone say, "That was such a good movie! It only had a couple of bad words." Think about it this way - if each bad word you heard counted as a percent of your purity, that would mean that if a movie only had 2 bad words, you would be 98% pure. Is that pure enough for a Holy God? Here's a thought for you parents - are the movies that you are watching after your kids are in bed something that you would want them to watch with you? Why or why not?
How about today's music industry? The catchy little tunes that we hear on the radio or playing in malls and restaurants that we find ourselves easily singing along to, are usually not songs that bring glory to our Heavenly Father.
One more example would be having wrong thoughts about others. This is something that I struggle with on a daily basis. Especially when I am driving! When someone pulls out in front of me or I see someone tail gating me, my thoughts are often something like "You idiot! Where did you learn to drive?" or "I can't believe the stupidity of some people!" These are people I don't even know! There are times when I have wrong thoughts about people I do know as well. Most of this probably stems from my own pride. In either case, these wrong thoughts cause me to become impure.
If we are to be pure, we must learn what Leviticus 10:10 says - "You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean."
We need to keep all impurities from our minds if we are to be pure. Knowing Jesus as our Savior should affect the way that we live, act and even think. 1 Corinthians 6:18 says that we should not just resist impure things, we are to flee or run away from them!
My prayer for myself and for my family is that we would be 100% pure before our Holy Father God!
"I will be careful to lead a blameless life - when will you come to me?
I will walk in my house with blameless heart. I will set before my eyes no vile thing.
The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.
Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.
My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me.
Psalm 101:2-6

One of my Cuties

Okay - time for a little brag session!
This is my 2 year old Amanda. What a blessing she is! She is quickly becoming "Mommy's little helper." She loves to help empty the dishwasher, "fold" laundry (okay, so that's maybe not quite so helpful!) and clean up her toys. She is our resident parrot copying everything anyone says.
One of the things about Amanda that blesses Dave and I is her love to worship. During our family prayer time before bed, she dances and sings with all of her heart. Her favorite songs right now are "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord" and "Jesus, Thank You." What joy it brings us to hear her singing at the top of her lungs, " The Faver's wraff compweetwy satified, Jesus sank You" and "My hot will choose to say Lord, bwessed be Your name!"
At night when I tuck her into bed I always sing her two bedtime songs. "Baby's Boat", which is a lullaby that I learned from my mom, and "Prince of Peace" - a song that my brother and Laurie wrote. (Great song Todd and Laurie!) When I sing the line, For Your Spirit I am a dwelling place, she always asks me, "I a dwelling place, Mommy?" My prayer for this little angel is that one day she will be a dwelling place!

Individual Bents

For as long as I can remember, the verse from Proverbs, "Train up a child in the way he should go..." Has been a part of my life. It was often one of the reasons that my parents would give me for disciplining me. (Yes, I needed discipline!) It was also one of the memory verses that I learned as a child. I learned all about the necessity of one day training my own children to follow after God, and now I am practicing the wisdom of this verse in my daily life as a mother.
Before I was married, one of the gifts that I received from my parents was an amplified version of the Bible. I have sat under many teachings given by my mother, and she would often turn to this version to help us get a better, more in depth understanding of what God is trying to show us.
Proverbs 22:6 is a perfect example of using the amplified Bible to get a better perspective on a verse that holds wonderful truths for parents who are seeking to raise Godly children. In the NIV, the verse says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." What a wonderful promise this is! Now read what it says in the Amplified version. "Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it."
Our children are each so different! They like different foods, different colors, different activities and different songs. They each have different areas in their lives that they excel in and different areas that they need to work on. They each have individual gifts or "bents".
This is something that we need to consider when we are "training" our children. One way of discipline may be a good thing for one of your children while it may actually be a hindrance to the training of a different child. For example: One of my children has a very stubborn spirit, while another one of my children has a very sensitive spirit. If I were to reprimand the stubborn child in the same manner that I did the sensitive child, they would basically ignore me and most likely laugh instead of cry, and I would have no effect on the will of this child. Likewise, if I were to reprimand the sensitive one as I would the stubborn, I could very likely break their spirit instead of their will.
Our children have been gifted with their own individual personalities, and it is our job as parents to discover what each child's gifting is. When we have discovered these, then we need to ask God to give us wisdom in helping our children develop these giftings to use for His glory.
While some of these giftings may seem more like a curse at the moment, be assured that God will develop it into a wonderful gift that He will use.
My son Mark has a tendency to be stubborn and his will is not easily broken. At first, it was a struggle to see how God could possibly use this stubbornness for His glory, but as Mark has gotten older, I see this stubbornness developing into perseverance! (It's a slow process, but I definitely see a difference!)
Another example is my daughter Christiana. Is there such a thing as a spirit of goofiness? If she were to attend a "regular" school, I am sure that she would quickly become the class clown! She is capable of turning any situation into a comedy and has a generally fun loving personality. I can see her using this gifting to bring joy to many people, including a 91 year old woman who lives near my parents and is very lonely.
I could tell you about each of my children's giftings (perhaps one day I will) but these are two extremes that I thought would make a good point of "individual bents." I would love to hear about the bents that you have discovered in your own children!

More Titus

Do you ever find yourself caught in one of those moments where you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that if you didn't have the help of the Holy Spirit, you would absolutely explode in anger? Like, when your three year old grabs the new super size ketchup out of the pantry (even though the old one isn't empty) and then proceeds to drop it on the floor because its too heavy and ketchup begins to quickly seep out of the giant crack in the bottle? Or maybe your kids have emptied all the toy bins in the basement just a day after you've brought order to that particular hurricane zone. Oh yeah, let's not forget the bleach incident - "Mom, I think I spilled a little bleach while I was doing the laundry, but don't worry, it was just over my light wash." Okay, let me ask you what I asked him, are jeans really considered lights? Well, now his are!
I must admit that even with the help of the Holy Spirit, I don't usually react in a completely calm way, but neither do I explode like I know I am thoroughly capable of doing!
In Titus 2, another one of those seven characteristics of a godly woman is to be self controlled. The only way that I know of for a mother to be self controlled is to rely on the Holy Spirit to help her! I know I can't do it by myself.
Being self controlled involves much more that just controlling your anger though. What about over indulging when you feel overwhelmed with all that being a mom involves? "It's been such a hard day. I deserve a pint of Ben and Jerry's." Or what about controlling our shopping habits? "I can pay off that new outfit I bought in just a few weeks. I needed to feel good about the way I look." How about giving in to P.M.S. or other emotional downfalls caused by hormones? Are we not supposed to be filled with the Spirit at all times?
We as women tend to blame our wrong attitudes or our irrational display of emotions on being women. How come we try and excuse these things instead of crying out to God to help us overcome them? If we have given our lives to Jesus, then we need to allow Him to work in our lives to help us to continually live out the "gentle and quiet spirit" that He desires us to have.
Elisabeth Elliot once said, "We cannot give ourselves to God, and keep our bodies for ourselves."
How true this is! Our bodies are the dwelling place of God Almighty. How I long to make it a desirable place for Him to be!

Godly Women

Titus talks about 7 things that we as godly women are to learn.
The first thing that we should learn is to love our husbands. Thanks to my mom's teachings on the godly woman, I've picked up a bit of Greek. The Greek found here are the words phileo (beloved friend) and andros (man).
We should encourage our husbands without being critical or judgmental. We should be willing to pray with him and for him. We must come along side him in whatever place God calls him to and be helpful to him in whatever way we can.

Next, we are to learn to love our children. There are many things that we can do to put this into practice. -Attentive listening
- Enthusiastic encouragement
- Physical affection
- Verbal commendation on character qualities
- Spending time with them and giving them undivided attention
- Faithful intercession for our children
Remember, we are training our kids to be warriors for Christ!
These are only two of the seven things that we as women are to be working on in our lives, but already I feel convicted in both of these areas. I need to pray more for my husband and my children. I need to be faithful in showing my love for them both physically and spiritually.