Happy Birthday Pea!

My little Pea is 2 years old now, and I am thinking about giving him a new blog nickname, because pretty soon he won't be a pea anymore. :)

Since his birthday was the Monday after we got back on Saturday from our mission trip, we did not do much of anything special that day. In fact, it was not the best day. The kids (and me too) were still adjusting to coming home and getting into the groove of life here. However, I did decide to make him some birthday cookies. Unfortunately for him, they were "Deceptively Delicious" birthday cookies, so probably not the most fun cookies. But, fortunately for me, neither of the kids seemed to notice the deception. :)

Here are some pics of the eating of the cookies:


Still more to come on the birthday party...

Praying for their Footsteps - Psalm 139

I bet you thought I forgot about my own idea to pray for my kids - nope! We've been studying the Psalms at church, and this week we studied Psalm 139. This is one of my all time favorite Psalms, and I thought I would use The Message version along with my own attempts to paraphrase this week to pray for Princess and Pea. Remember if you want to join in to do this too, just add a comment to my blog, as I'm not using Mr. Linky right now.

God, investigate Princess's and Pea's life; get all the facts firsthand.
Each one is an open book to You (even when they are mysterious to me);
even from a distance, You know what each one thinks.
You know when each one leaves the room and when each one comes back;
however, neither one is ever out of Your sight!
You know everything each one says to me each day and the sounds they make
even before the sound or word is ever uttered.
When each one looks around, You are there, everywhere they look -
in the trees, in the sky, in the kitchen, in the bathtub.
Your reassuring Presence is there wherever they are;
You protect them from the boogie man much better than I
and linger even when their fear is gone.
It is almost too much, how wonderful, so wonderful
that is hard for me to even understand much less explain it to the kids.

Is there anyplace Princess or Pea can avoid you?
Are they ever out of Your Sight?
If they climb as high as the sky, You are still there with them!
If they go far underground, You are still there with them!
Even when I am not with them (as now they are asleep in their room),
You are with them!
If they ran away from me as far as they could go out of my eyesight,
You would be their waiting on them going before them.
If they were lost to me, they would be found in You.
Even when it is dark, it is as light to You
because darkness isn't dark to You - it's all the same.
You still see them.

You shaped them even as they grew in my womb.
And I am convinced that you knew them more intimately than I
even before You placed them there.
How I thank You for these precious little ones!
O Magnificent One - You have made each one marvelously,
both body and soul, inside and out.
My adoration is for You in creating each one just as they should be.
You know all about them - in and out,
you know every bone in their sweet bodies,
you know their organs, even each cell that forms all the rest.
You know exactly how Princess and Pea are made
You sculpted them from nothing into something
You know the whole story of their lives,
from conception to the grave to eternity -
all the stages and developments they will achieve You have already seen.
Every day that they will live has already been prepared for them.

Your thoughts are beautiful to me, O God.
Please allow Princess and Pea to find Your thoughts beautiful as well.
Even though we can never comprehend them or even count them.
Let me rise in the morning and live always with You,
and let my children want to do the same!
God, we wait for You to do away with wickedness forever.
Some belittle You, but may my children never want to do this.
Let them never be infatuated with cheap god-imitations.
Let them hunger only for the Real Thing.

Investigate them, Know them,
Find out all about Princess and Pea (and give me wisdom),
Get a clear picture of what each one is all about
(and let me have a picture of it too)
Guide Princess
Guide Pea
on the road and pathway to eternal life.

Today

I am going to follow my friend Brooke's lead, and just start with today as opposed to trying to catch you up on everything that I have experienced in the past three weeks.

I had a biopsy on my thyroid, and for that update, everything turned out fine. The mission trip was awesome, and I will have more to say about it on another post.

Today, we got up and ate and then we listened to VeggieTales, which we often do after breakfast. Pea had a birthday last week, and a birthday party last weekend, and we still had not really opened a few of the presents yet. He received two types of train sets, and we weren't sure what to do with them, but ultimately we kept and opened both of them - they were both Thomas the Tank Engine sets, just different types. He went crazy for them - absolutely crazy. And so did Princess.

We were all out of diapers, so we went to Wal-Mart, and then met some friends at Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Chick-Fil-A was packed out, and Princess and Pea got to sit at a kids table with their friends. Then they played in the oh-so-loud playroom. I was proud of my kids today - they were so obedient and even sat quietly at the table for a while before we left. We came home to Thomas, played a bit, and then off to bed for Pea. Princess played with Thomas and then her ponies that we found on clearance at Target a few days ago.

Then Pea got up. We played and played with Thomas. Daddy came up to see our new Thomas fun.

After dinner, we went to the park, were the kids played and ran and ran in the grass. Then we got sno cones for a treat. Tomorrow we are going to see the trains at the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum. Our friend, Jeremy, owns a caboose, and we are hoping to ride it.

So this is not my favorite kind of blog to write, but there you go, a summary of what we've done today.

What I hope to blog about soon:
1. Our Mission Trip / Vail, AZ
2. Pea's birthday
3. Bible study thoughts
4. New memory verses

The Truth for Barbara and any others who need to know THE Way,

I received the following comment on my last post:
"Hello! In your sidebar: "Unreached people of the day...". Unreached? No one is "unreached", because evryone is a child of God, no matter which religion or belief they have. There's no religion, who is the "right" religion. All ways leads to God. God is evrywhere and in all beings, and all beings are in God. Barbara"

I don't have Barbara's contact information or I would contact her directly, but I hope you visit again, Barbara, and are able to read my response to you.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You,
O Lord, My Rock and My Redeemer! Psalm 19:14

Dear Barbara,

I believe that truth is not relative and that God defines Truth, and I believe that His Truth is given to us as our guide in the Bible, His Holy Word!

John 14:6 says (Jesus speaking), "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." And Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 say, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." Acts 4:12 also says that "salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." So all ways cannot lead to God because the Bible says that Jesus is the only Way and that some ways lead to death, not to Him.

I know we are talking about spiritual matters here, but this metaphor also applies. When I leave my house, I can get on the interstate. It can take me to Atlanta or to Dallas, but that same road cannot take me to New York - I must get on a different road. Just like you have to get on a particular road to get to a particular place in the physical world, so it is in the spiritual world.

Barbara, I wish I could sit and talk with you face to face and tell you these things because God loves you with an everlasting love and He does indeed want to you know these Truths. He is the Creator, and he is the Father over all created things, but we as humans have turned away from Him and believed lies. We want in a sense to be our own god or make a god for ourselves to worship. But all of us fall short of being God - we are less than His perfection. We cannot be a god for ourselves or for anyone else. We are imperfect and without Him, we are powerless. Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." However, there is a GOD that longs for us to turn back to Him and have a real relationship with Him in which He guides us.

Because He is the Creator, He is seen in everything - because everything is His handiwork uniquely designed by Him for His pleasure. I think it is true to say that His fingerprints are on everything and everyone and that all beings were created for Him. But this does not imply that all know Him or that He is in all beings. Romans 1:19 says, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." One can see God in creation and perhaps KNOW the true God, but He is best known through hearing about Jesus.

Romans 5:8 says that "God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Oh, sweet one, God loves you. He seeks after you and longs for you. He loves you more than you could ever begin to imagine. "For God so loved the world (that means you, Barbara, and that means the Jino of China too) that he sent His only Son that whoever believes in Him would have eternal life" (John 3:16).

Unreached? Yes, all those who have never heard the good news of Jesus are unreached. They need to hear about how incredibly awesome He is!!

I pray for those who are unreached because they have never heard the precious good news of Christ, and we, His servants, are to find ways to take His message to them. Romans 10:17 says, "faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." Romans 10:14-15 say, "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

My friend, truly, I long for everyone I know to know this glorious life-changing truth.

Romans 10:9-10 say, "if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

To be saved:
1. admit your sin, your imperfection, your need for God
2. believe in Christ as one who came to die for you
3. confess that you want Him to be Lord over you and submit yourself to Him.

If anyone reading this wants to know more about Christ, please contact me here, and I would be happy to talk about this on a personal basis. Also please visit this link for more information.

Praying for all who read to be stirred by Him,

Marital Wisdom

I have about a million and one things that I would like to tell you, but I don't have time to even start and finish tonight, so I am going to direct you to Nancy Leigh DeMoss's site about marriage today. I happened to click on a few blogs and found this interview (July 16, 2009) to be encouraging and challenging. I hope it provides a tiny amount of marital wisdom for you, as I certainly hope to glean some from it.