In the Kitchen with Sam

Today is the best day of his life. Wow. All it took to make this the best day of his 4 yr. old life was a little flour left over in a measuring cup. From there, he has created a masterpiece! Sam has been playing the in kitchen now for well over an hour. He asked me, " Am I creative?" Why, yes, Sam you are! Flour, water, left over corn, the juice of a grape, a granola bar, lettuce, mint from the garden, salt (lots of it), pepper, and lots of love.

I think this is what Jesus meant when he said we must come to him as children. We come curious, full of hope, imagination and creativity. We come believing that we have all the ingredients we need, provided by the Master, to create a masterpiece. We just need to be creative.

Now there is a mess to clean up, but oh well! It serves as a reminder that God has gifted me with my children, and sometimes I need to leave the flour out so they can bless me!

Holy Migraine

Yesterday was one of the ugly days. I had the mother of all migraines. I woke up fine, but after I dropped Sam off at preschool and headed into the store for a few things, it hit me. It progressively got worse, and after I picked up Sam and got back home for some lunch, I was done. I put in a movie for him, laid down on the couch, put a pillow over my head. It got worse. I tried 3 different kinds of pain meds, before I remembered around 4:30pm that Jeff had some really $$ migraine pills left. I took one (the last one), and laid back down. Zach and Emily were put in charge of Sam as soon as they got home from school and I headed for bed (did I mention my hubby is out of town??). Finally, around 7pm I felt a little relief. I was able to get up and check on the kids, making sure the house was in one piece. It was. By 9pm, I was able to sit up and watch some Olympics.

I am so proud of the kids for stepping up last night and helping out when I was not capable of functioning. I love them so much!

During all of this, I spent time in prayer. "God, please make the pain go away." But I also thanked God that it was not worse. In the grand scheme of things, it was just a migraine. It hurt bad, but thank God I do not deal with chronic pain, cancer, etc., on a daily basis. This headache gave me perspective. When I finally when back to bed last night, I got lost in prayer with the Creator, bringing Him all my requests, asking for blessings, and wanting to be consumed with Him, really feeling His presence. I realized that the headache I had was what brought me to Him yesterday.

So, even the ugly days can end good if you take the time to let God do His thing!

I do pray that it does not take a migraine next time!!

I woke up feeling much better today. Now...to get to all that cleaning I need to do...

Snow, Snow, Snow

Wow! Can you say snow??? There is over 12 inches out there and it it still coming. The kids are taking advantage of their first snow day of the season. They made Pepsi snow cones!

It is amazing how snow is so transforming. It changes the landscape to a magical land full of beauty and wonder. You no longer see boundaries, everything just flows together to make a pure white blanket. It is so comforting, so peaceful... until the plow comes down the road and pulls up all the dirty muck and slings it over the perfect white snow.

I think this is like our walk with God. He comes in and blankets us with His love and grace, washes us clean, transforms our hearts. The beauty of His love has no boundaries. Then we let the muck of everyday life sneak in and take away the beauty.

This happens to me all the time. I am trying to get to the place where the muck of the world does not have to get me dirty. It is always going to be there. But I do not have to let it ruin the beauty that has been given to me. I get tired of running back to God, asking him to clean me up AGAIN.

I recently had a friend dump me. She stopped having anything to do with me. At first I did not even realize I was dumped. Living up north, we tend to be "fair-weather" friends, so once the cold months hit, we see each other less and less. When I realized I was not being invited over when other friends were, I knew something had to be up. To boil it down, she had been gossiped to by a mutual friend and things were said to her that never should have been. She felt I was passing judgement on her as a parent and was highly offended. She even de-friended me on Facebook. (ouch) I did reach out to her and requested a face to face sit down so we could talk. It turns out that the gossip was the product of a bitter friend that was sour with me over other issues (that we had since worked out). But during her sourness at me, she mis-stated things to this friend that I had said about her parenting.( She left out the part where she agreed with me. ) After a LONG talk, we were able to have restoration and forgiveness. I prayed as I sat across the bar from her, wanting to be 100% open and honest with God putting the right words on my lips. And he did. So...what did I learn from this? Gossip is gossip, and it it never good. Some one will get hurt. I am always going to have an opinion, but I don't need to share with with others. (just my hubby)

The muck of gossip is dirty! I let it stain a friendship. But, Jesus is there, ready to forgive me when I ask. He lays down a new blanket of fresh fallen snow. It is beautiful! Now, all I need is to keep the plows out a here!

More than enough

Today my goal is to view everything I have as "more than enough". In the wake of the Haiti disaster, I do not want to feel guilty about being a privileged American, but instead view my blessing as a gift, be thankful for them all, and know I have more than enough (material things).

The only thing I want more of is God. I pray that He will shake me up and reveal what is not of Him in me and replace it with a desire to know Him more. I am reading Lisa TerKeurst's book, "Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl", and have been challenged with seeking God more than I do. It sounds easy enough, but life gets in the way...kids get in the way...laundry gets in the way...you know the feeling???

So, today, I have more than enough of everything...but The Lord.

"Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord and will bring you back from captivity." Jeremiah 29:12-14

The with all my heart is the key here. This is my struggle. I will be working on it.