Moving on!

I'm moving over to WordPress.  If you'd like to join me, my new address is:

http://robertsfamily5.wordpress.com/

"You'll Blink"

My baby is 4.  It's kind of strange that my littlest is getting so big.  I knew this day would come, but didn't realize how fast.  Everyone who has "big kids" warned me.  You hear it all the time..."You'll blink and they'll be grown...etc."  And how true it is.  The girls are far from grown, but they are growing fast.  And I'm excited that they are changing and learning and growing, but also wish time would just freeze sometimes!  I love how fun they are right now.  I love how the biggest issues of the day can be if they play Legos or do a craft.  How it's the simple skinned knee that causes tears and not the issues of middle school friends!  I love how they still want to snuggle and sit beside me and want me to tell them stories.

Yesterday we had a picnic after church and Steve asked me if I was able to have any conversations with anyone.  I told him I was able to have a lot of half conversations and one full one.  The others were met with "I need to go to the bathroom" or "Mom, can you look at this sandman's head?" or "Mom, look at this (dead) fish I caught!"  And the cool thing is, as much as I would have loved to have had a full length grown up conversation with each of those friends, I'm grateful to be in the season of interruptions.  I hesitated for a couple of minutes to jump up and take one of my little ones up the hill to the bathroom, because I had been wanting to have a conversation with this friend for some time now, but when I did get up and take her, I was so glad I did.  As she skipped along and laughed, I thought it won't be long and she won't need me to go with her.  She won't need me to help her wiggle back into her wet bathing suit back up or turn the knob on the sink. So, instead of feeling frustrated, I actually, by God's grace, was able to enjoy the so-called interruptions.  And I'm slowly learning that they really aren't interruptions.  They are opportunities to teach and train and enjoy the little people God has given to us to care for this season.

So, my baby is 4 as of yesterday.  And she loves elephants and the color purple and blowing bubbles.  She loves Popsicles and Magna Doodles and playing with her beads and drawing with chalk.  She carries her pink Princess Softy wherever she can and she likes to wear dresses and brown sandals.  She wants fish kisses and worship songs before she falls asleep at night as she's being tucked in before her prayers.  And next year this time she'll probably have a different favorite color and toy and I'll be happy she's 5, but I won't wish away this season.  I'll enjoy learning and growing with her!

May 19th

32 years ago today Steve was born.  He was in Orlando and I was a month and half old baby in Alexandria, Louisiana.  

He was born the oldest, I the youngest.  

He grew up playing in the woods, taking care of his animals, spending time pretending and learning with his brother and sister and learning school from the comfort of his very own kitchen table!  

I still remember the first time I met him and who all he was sitting with.  I still remember the first time I heard him play piano.  We were 15.  At that time I had no clue we would one day be married!

So now, 17 years later, I have watched Steve change from a teenager to a man.  Over the years he has grown in his love for the Lord, as a leader, as a husband, as a father and a friend.  He is steady.  And loyal.  He's the hardest working person I know and rarely do I ever hear him complain.  

So, May 19th is a day worth celebrating in our home! So celebrate our man of the house we will...bring on the steaks and carrot cake, the presents and the fun!

It is called...

a light (Psalm 119:105)
   a fire and a tool (Jeremiah 23:29)
      a weapon (Ephesians 6:17)
         seed (1 Peter 1:23)

It is perfect, sure, right, pure, true and righteous.

It is sweeter than honey, and to be desired more than much fine gold (Psalm 19:7-10).

It can convert the soul.

Make wise the simple.

Rejoice the heart.

Enlighten the eyes.

It is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.

It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

                                    It is the Word of God.

Am I being governed by the Word of God?  That is a question I've been thinking on as I've been reading Donald Whitney's excellent book "Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health".

Governed - (Websters 1828) - Directed; regulated by authority; controlled; managed; influenced; restrained.

What is most important to me?  Where do I go for answers? strength?  hope?  Where do I go for light and life?  Where do I go to search for wisdom on how to train my children?  be a wife to my husband?  on how to love others?  Am I daily being informed and influenced by the Word of God?  If not, what is influencing me?  These are questions I'm asking myself...and forcing myself to answer honestly.  

I love this resolve from Jonathan Edwards...

"Resolved, To study Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently, as that I may find and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same."

The Word.  It IS alive.  It IS active.  It DOES bring change to this heart. May I be increasingly governed by it's Truth.

Deco

I let the girls take a bin of Easter decorations and decorate their room all by themselves. I made sure I had "work" to do in the room next to them so I could listen to them decide what they were going to do. They were so cute working together and making decisions, and I had decided no matter what it looked like, it would be "beautiful"! ;) And it was! They did a super job and have been enjoying their bunny display ever since!!

Reagan took a piece of card stock and stamped "Hoppy Easter" to go in their frame.

Little Girl.Long Way

Out of the Depths

-Sovereign Grace Music

Out of the depths, O Lord, I cry to You
When I am tempted to despair
Though I might fail to trust Your promises
You never fail to hear my prayer
And if You judged my sin
I’d never stand again
But I see mercy in Your hands

So more than watchmen for the morning
I will wait for You, my God
When my fears come with no warning
In Your Word I’ll put my trust
When the harvest time is over and I still see no fruit
I will wait, I will wait for You

The secret mysteries belong to You
We only know what You reveal
And all my questions that are unresolved
Don’t change the wisdom of Your will
In every trial and loss
My hope is in the cross
Where Your compassions never fail

This song rang through our home, our car, our shower, my head, my heart many, many, many times for the first 3 years of our Jordyn's life.

Today I was sitting here at breakfast, watching her put down some Rice Crispies, and I was just overwhelmed with JOY.

Joy in what the Lord has done and is doing in this little girl - the little girl who used to scream, out of anger, for eight or nine hours straight. The little girl who used to sit on the floor and bury her fists in the ground when we asked her to do something. The little girl who would refuse to eat because she simply didn't want to pick up the food. The little girl who would scream every Sunday during worship.

This morning she's eating and listening and talking - thanking me for her cereal and asking to play beads, and as she clears her dishes and puts them in the sink she begins dancing around the kitchen saying "it's time to party"! The LORD indeed is good. And not only has He been changing her, He's been changing me. Again...big, grateful sigh! =) HIS steadfast love endures forever. HIS faithfulness never ends. HIS mercies ARE new e.v.e.r.y. day.

I read these verses this morning and began praying it for the girls...

"The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous." Psalm 118:14-15

May He be their strength and song. May He save them! May glad songs pour forth from their lips as they are overwhelmed by God's unending, never-stopping, always and forever love!

3234 Oak Tree Lane

Over the last couple of months, Steve has been building a playhouse for the girls.

It's about 6 feet off the ground, looks like our house =), has a great view, and is so.stinkin'.cute.

When I see the playhouse in all its adorableness (not sure that is really a word!), I think of the hours and hours of fun the girls are going to have playing house and school and restaurant, the hours of reading and eating and laughing, the hours of sister-talks and friend-talks, the times they'll run up there for a good cry or to just think for a while. But that's not what I think about most when I look out my window and see the house with the address 3234 Oak Tree Lane. (Reagan's address for their new place!) I think most about the man who put the house together and what a labor of love that house displays.

What a dad. What a man. He has so much to do and yet he takes the time and money to make something special for his girls. Regularly I think they don't realize how good they have it. And then I think in many ways I'm glad they don't. I tell them regularly, but they have nothing to compare too. That their dad enjoys playing with them and teaching them to throw baseballs and climb trees and weed the yard is normal for them. I am so thankful that they have a dad that will stop and listen to them and tickle them and pray over them. Who will take them out for breakfast dates on Fridays and Lowes dates on Saturdays and read the Bible to them over breakfast. Who will take them on walks and teach them to ride bikes and dare them to do things I wouldn't do!

When I look at that little yellow house with a tin roof, I see another expression of love from a dad who adores his girls. I hope that little house weathers a lot of storms (and any large falling tree branches!). More than that, I hope the Lord uses it and the many other ways their dad demonstrates love and care toward them to set their eyes and hearts on HIM, and that He uses the ways that Steve loves them as their earthly father to reveal to them that He, their Savior, loves them even more. My heart is full of gratefulness when I see my girls being cared for by their dad.