Love God Greatly

I have been unbelievably blessed this evening. Even though I’ve already posted something today I feel incredibly led to share this with you.

Since kindergarten recognition, Hannah has prompted we start a family bible reading time, every night.

Hannah started this.

Hannah wanted this.

Because the baby goes to bed so soon after dinner, some nights it’s just easier to read to Hannah right before bed.

We’ve read one chapter a night since we started, at this rate it will take us a year to finish the entire Bible.

Tonight’s chapter, Genesis 22… Where Abraham’s faith is tested.

Genesis 22:2-3 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.” The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about.

I don’t see anywhere in those verses where it says Abraham questioned God. Nowhere does it say that God gave Abraham a reason. He just simply obeyed.

Genesis 22:9-10  When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.  And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice.

Not only did Abraham obey God, he did exactly what was asked of him.. Not what he THOUGHT God wanted him to do… It doesn’t say anywhere in this verse that Abraham hesitated either.

And this is my most favorite of all:

Genesis 22:15-18  Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven.  “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that. I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants^[a] beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”

Because Abraham obeyed without question, or hesitation, he was blessed. How many times do you see a blessing because of your obedience? We are told throughout our journey as Christians that we must wait for God’s timing. God’s timing is perfect. His ways are perfect. To have faith in God is to have faith in his timing. God didn’t say “Because you have obeyed me I will give you all the earthly riches in the land”. He didn’t say “I will give you all the women, drugs, lust, power, money, intelligence”. He simply said “Because you have obeyed, I will give you the desires of your heart”. This is my absolute my favorite verse out of tonight’s chapter because our hearts desires are so simple. For me it’s to be a godly woman – WHATEVER it takes. (as soon as I wrote that I heard a small voice just whisper one word, “patience”)

It speaks so deeply to me that a father could sacrifice his ONLY child. I know that if I were in Abraham’s situation, I most certainly would have disobeyed God. I’ve already lost one child, I sacrificed that child unwillingly for the kingdom of God. I couldn't imagine losing another, especially by my own hand. But our miscarriage made me stronger, it made me a better mother, a better wife, a better daughter, a better sister, a better friend because I was able to empathize with other women on a much deeper level. It’s added so much depth to my testimony, and what my faith in God has brought me through. Not faith in my money, or my husband (even though I have tremendous faith in him), or anything with worldly value. Then and only then did I realize that God truly giveth and and He taketh away. I guess a thought along those lines is what crossed Abraham's mind. A peace beyond measure.

To know that Abraham was about to take the life of his only child must have been terrifying for him, but he obeyed anyway.

How many times do we obey God without question?

How many times DO we question when we are called to obey?

What blessed me this evening was the discussion after our reading.

My child gets it, y’all.

She understands obedience

She is pretty good about not whining when asked to do homework

Or turning off the tv for dinner

Or bedtime

Naptime is another story

She doesn’t whine about our dinner menu (because she knows if she does her Friday night menu is out the window)

She does these things because she’s been taught that if she obeys there will be reward. Not necessarily at the end of the week, or at the end of the month, but she knows it’s coming. Whether its intrinsically or extrinsically motivated isn’t a concern to me right now.

The Lord spoke to me this evening, and as usual, it was a simple message. Obey and be blessed.

Don’t you love a simple message?

Until next time,

Love God Greatly!

tuesday thoughts

family story.

I am blessed to have the husband that I have. He has a high stress job and works all day at that job. I hate how the stress of that job affects him. He also works very hard not to bring that stress home because he knows how important it is to me to enjoy our family time. Even with all that work and all that stress he still finds the time and energy to facilitate bath time so I can clean the kitchen from dinner. Sometimes we turn the tables and he "sorta-kinda" cleans the kitchen for me. During one of those nights I asked him to load the dishwasher for me and I would finish cleaning after tubby-time. He flat out refused and said he would do anything and everything else except load the dishwasher... and that got me to thinkin'.

Isn't that what he do to God all the time?

God - "Hey, I need you to plant a seed for me... Are you up for it?"
Us - "Well... I don't know, God... I mean, it would be uncomfortable for me to talk to someone about you. Can I do anything else?"

We are given strengths and weaknesses by God to glorify Him. Some people sing. Some people teach. Some people are really good at empathizing... and when God asks us to step out of that comfort zone and exercise that weak muscle it makes us uneasy. We start to question our abilities. And we flat-out are not willing to do it.

We could save thousands of souls if we would just follow the path God has set out for us to follow, but instead we refuse to go outside of our comfort zone. I myself take responsibility for doing the same thing.

When my little one is shining her light into the darkness I try and quiet her because I don't want to ruffle feathers.. I don't do it because I don't want to keep his kingdom to myself. I do it because I don't want an adult telling my child that the #1 thing she believes in is a joke, or isn't right. I need to be more bold in my relationships and in my ministry... I need to flex my weak muscle and be the guiding force in my children's lives and be the spiritual LEADER when my husband isn't there to do it. We need to stop being so scared to step into the darkness, because with God's love, we have a light to illuminate our path. 

fourteen.

     I was going to post a Happy Homemaker Monday, but today is special. Not only because it's Memorial Day, but because Miss Maddie is fourteen months old today. Fourteen. It doesn't seem like that much time has passed since she was born. I love how her birthday falls around Easter. Her birthday and her name coincide together so well. I remember her first Easter like it was yesterday... She was three weeks old.

Easter, 2011
as big as a bunny

     And here she is today. Still teeny, still bald. But she has eight teeth, and (in my opinion) starting to look like me more and more everyday! She loves our 3 year old puppydog. She's very passionate with her life. When she's mad, hungry, or tired you know it. Her favorite foods are salmon, broccoli and wild rice. I think if she could eat that every night she would actually put on some weight, haha. She is strong-willed and she is definitely the head of the family. What she says, goes.

     Being supermommy can be quite overwhelming at times, but when I see sweet little smiles like the one above, it makes all my struggles to provide worth it. I know that being completely devoted to my husband and children has earned me a special place in my Father's heart.

Thank you, little one for the laughs and love shared these passed 23 months. I know you will bless the next 23 :)

 - Mommy

is natural family planning an option for you?

participating in the Mommy Brain Mixer today. 

This girl is co-hosting this week! you should go check her out!

So much has happened since my last post and I'm sorry, buuuuut life happens.  Since October I've become an aunt for the first time and let me tell you... Being an aunt is just as special and amazing as being a mommy but it's a completely different love all at the same time. Is he not the most precious thing in the world?!!!?!!?

Ok, so now for the purpose of today's post. I've had some issues with my OBGYN lately and am looking for another one. One of these issues is the issue of birth control. I haven't tried EVERY birth control out there but I've tried plenty. None of which have worked for my lifestyle.

With my mother being a nurse, the minute I hit puberty it was off to the doctor to get on the pill to "regulate my cycle"! (I only wish you could hear the happiness disdain in my voice). Needless to say I've been off and on BC since I was 14. I've been on several brands of the pill, I've been on the patch, I've been on Mirena, and the DepoPreva shot. Each form of BC had different side effects on me. All have made me nauseous, all have made me moody and have affected my eating habits. Each time I would go back to my doc telling him that it wasn't working for me and I wanted to try something else. The only options given to me were hormonal contraceptives or barrier contraceptives.

About two years ago I heard from a friend that an acquaintance of ours was using natural family planning but at the time I thought this acquaintance was absolutely crazy and was playing with fire for not being on hormonal BC. Today is a different story because of all the health problems I've experienced because of unnecessary hormonal contraception.

I don't know how my husband has put up with me for as long as he has. I pray for that man everyday for his patience and unwavering love for me.

I was just curious one day and googled "Christian birth control" because ultimately I want to do the Lord's will and follow the path He has set out for me. I was astounded at the actual science behind my Christian Birth Control/natural family planning search.

One article mentioned that if a woman starts hormonal birth control before her first full term pregnancy that her risk of getting breast cancer raises to 40%.

As soon as I read that I threw my pill packet in the garbage, called my husband and told him I was done and decided that I was going to look for an OBGYN or midwife that would support MY wants as far as MY healthcare goes. I was also shocked to also read that the side effects I was experiencing was not "normal"... that it was actually my body fighting the chemicals in my body. My body was at war with itself and that scared me.

You might know a lot about NFP and not even know it. Using a fertility monitor or charting your temperature while trying to get pregnant is a form of NFP. But  it's not just for conceiving, it's for control as well. The days you would participate in your "marriage act" to conceive are the days you abstain from your "marriage act" in order not to conceive. It's not that simple but that's the math of it. You use your abstain days to court or be with the family.

I know this is a lot of information to absorb, but I want to empower you. I want to empower you because I want to give you options. Options that I wasn't given. I felt lied to, I still feel lied to. I know I will have a lot more posts about this topic because it's an ongoing issue in my life that I think is so VERY important.

It wouldn't surprise me to know that not a lot of people know about NFP because I didn't hear about it until a few days ago. I encourage you to do a lot of research in order to inform youself because you are your first and best advocate for health.

Ultimately it comes down to this for me. If a medicine is going to alter me in a negative way... I'm done. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Whitney