God's Love Revealed

A twelve year old recently asked me if having children helped me understand God's love better.  First of all...Wow!  How inciteful of a twelve year old to even think like that!  (This was not your average everyday girl though.)  The answer is YES.  I have absolutely known since the day I held Lion in my arms that I also held a bit more understanding of God's love than ever before.  But since asked the question recently, I have been thinking about it even more.  I do think that if we try to pretend that the way we love our kids is the way God loves us, we are kidding ourselves.  But isn't it a precious gift that He gives us a glimpse of what it is like?  However, the older my kids get, the more I realize there is so much more to God's love than just that feeling of awe, amazement, and wonder.

For instance....I am sure God has been irritated with my immaturity when He was trying to teach me something vitally important.

God wants me to know...."You don't know as much as you think you do, and you are getting way too big for your britches."

I sure do make some messes out of things!  And yes, He keeps cleaning them up.

(Yes ladies....that IS what you think it is ;-)

He really does think I am beautiful, but He is much more concerned about my heart's beauty. 

He wants me to run the race until it is finished.  He will be just as proud when I finish even if I do not win first place.  (And isn't it neat that just as Jeremy ran with Lion, God runs with us!)

His heart is proud when we serve and make someone else's day brighter.

He is glad when we work with a cheerful heart, even though sometimes our "work" is not quite as productive as He would like.  We are still in training. 

(Doing laundry...every piece brought to me was being worn and took about 10 minutes to get from the bathroom to the laundry room)

Most of all...God sees our relationship as priceless and He would die for me...In fact He DID! 

Thank you God for the blessing of my children!



Catching Up!

When I started doing this blog I intended to post at least once a month, which really shouldn't be that hard.  But, much like the many other things that never get done, I have failed at being consistent.  You see, if it does not scream, cry, whine, ask, beg, or demand, then I may not get around to it!  I have too many that DO those things to have time  for the ones that are silent.  The same reason I kill plants...they make no noise!  The dishes and laundry pretty much stay done because I like to eat and prefer for the family not to stink.  The clean laundry rarely makes it past the couch though.

So....I have some catching up to do.  I'll start with holidays.  Good ole holidays!  I truly love getting together with family and watching the relationships that my kids are building with cousins, grandparents, aunts, and uncles.   

Even though Halloween is not one of those "get together" kind of holidays, there are so many fun memories and traditions that I love.  I can't go without carving pumpkins on Halloween.  It was one of my favorite things when I was little.  Of course, the kids would probably say the candy is the best thing, but I think once they are grown they will remember carving pumpkins together, picking out a costume, and the excitement of the season.

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday!  It is all about being thankful and getting together with people that you love. Not to mention all of the eating...any holiday with the excuse to eat and eat...and eat is high on my list.  This Thanksgiving my family all came to our house.   I had tons of fun!  I don't know how comfortable everyone else was with all 17 of us crammed in this little house.  But, what I love about my family is that doestn't matter.  Our time together is precious even if you have to find a place to park it on the floor for hours while you watch Auburn beat Alabama and then don't feel your butt for the next couple of hours!  And we still love being together even if the kids barely fit around the kitchen table and the rest of us basically sit in each others laps at fold-out tables in the living room!

(I think we can fit at least one more, don't you?)

(Yes, that is an Auburn fan lovin on an Alabama fan! It happens.)

Christmas is also such a fun and special time.  The excitement and anticipation that the kids have are priceless!  Also, seeing them start to understand the true meaning of Christmas is enough to bring tears to a mothers eyes.  One thing that we have started as a tradition is making a birthday cake for Jesus and singing "Happy Birthday" first thing Christmas morning.  Of course, the kids love it because they get to eat cake for breakfast!  But, hopefully this along with many other Christmas traditions will help us all to be thankful that Jesus came!

Here are a few more random pics of Christmas.  We also got to see Jeremy's family for Christmas, which was tons of fun.  Thank you Grandma for keeping the kids a few extra days!  Jeremy and I got to take a little vacation in celebration of 10 years of marriage!!!  It is so nice to know that my kids are well taken care of and of course, having fun with cousins, while we are gone.

That brings us to the New Year, so now I am only 2 months behind!  I will keep catching up...hopefully.  After all, when April gets here I will have one more thing that cries to keep up with.  Until then...maybe I can add a few extra posts in here and there!