Absolutes...

On Friday evening I went for what was supposed to be a relaxing girls night out with some other mom's that have kids my age. Most of the moms are within a couple years of my age. This should be a fun night, right? Well it turned into a night of thought, at least for me anyway.

Something you should know about me, I'm a pretty conservative person. I know that the conservative view is not the popular one these days but it served people of old well. If it worked for them, why not today? I don't like grey areas. I like for things to be black and white. I like to know where the line is so I'm sure to stay for from it.

Anyway the conversation turned to raising kids. One of the moms was talking about how she didn't know how to handle her daughter. The daughter is soon to be four! The mom wants this small child to make good choices, on her own. She wants for her daughter to not feel forced into doing what's right but to choose the right path for herself. Umm, SHE'S FOUR!!! She can barely make the right choice when choosing her clothes for the day! Unless a child is pointed in the right direction, how can they know the way! No wonder our society is falling apart! No wonder churches are being founded on the principals of "it feels right for me". Do they ever stop to think that maybe being nailed to and hung on the cross didn't feel all that great? Do they ever think that maybe leaving a wonderful place like Heaven to come to this crummy earth was as from a vacation as you could get?

I absolutely believe that it is my responsibility to train my children up in the ways of God. It is my responsibility to make sure that they grow up knowing that is better to give than to receive, that it is better serve than to be served, to show kindness to all, to love their family, to treat others with respect. These principals alone will not guarantee that my children will grow up and be perfect members of society. Neither does all this training guarantee that they will be Christians when they are old enough to make that decision for themselves. All this doesn't even promise that my kids will behave themselves now! But if I cannot take the time to teach them right from wrong, good and bad, acceptable and unacceptable behavior, who will?

Remember when I said I wasn't going to vent??? :) I wonder if there are others who struggle with all of this? I can think of a million things that I should have said to that mom. But I let fear hold my tongue.

My challenge to those that struggle as I do would be to be BOLD!!

Yes, I'm Still Alive!

It's just been so nice here that we've been getting out a lot. Along with that things have a little distressing. There for a few day I thought that we were going to be adding to our family. At some point in time I would like to have more children, just not right now. Whew!! I love babies! I'm just very, very glad that I will not be having one in nine months.
Also sadly, Facebook has now become an addiction! I miss blogging. I know that if I could find a balance I could do both Facebook and blogging. In an effort to do just that, I've gone through and deleted some blogs that were bookmarked. For you see, I am a people watcher. I could spend hours at the mall watching people go by. In a sense that is what I was doing with blogs. Somehow I'd come across one, and there I'd be, lurking. And instead of updating my blog I would see if others had updated their blog. There is still a list of ones that I frequent, in addition to the ones over on the side. But there are some that I just couldn't not let go. It's nice to see how others live there lives. It's nice to be able to learn new recipes and take comfort in the fact that there are others learning or the same lessons that you are. It's nice to see that there are others that have gone through the same season that I am currently in and they made it through!

I keep thinking that I would like to be able to offer more on here. I have an idea that's been running through my head on something that I would like to try. I just don't know if I'm brave enough to take the first step. We'll see... I am getting ready to teach the Wednesday night Bible study for 4 & 5 year olds at church. I know that's going to take up some of my time for the summer. We will also be taking our annual trip to Red River in June. Maybe I'll shoot for the end of summer to launch my idea. That will give me a couple of months to try and get my act together.

I guess the bottom line is to please bear with me.

Gratituesday

As I was putting my girls to bed tonight I was thinking about bible class on Sunday morning. The teacher made the point that we are quick to point out all the things that we seem to be lacking. At the same time we are slow to count our blessings. I know that at times this is especially true of me. I could give you mountains of lists of things that I feel that I want or need or arrogantly feel I am entitled to. How selfish of me! If I would only stop and truly take time to be thankful for all that I do have.

For starters I have air in my lungs! I don't even have to think about putting it there! It is there because of the marvelous way God created us! I have a roof over my head. I have a wonderful husband(who BTW is being nominated for Manager of the Year!!) that works hard so that we can have the things that we do. I am also able to stay home because of his hard work. I have two beautiful, healthy girls. They are a handful at times, but I wouldn't trade them for anything. Goodnight hugs and kisses are quite possibly the best!! We have some minor health issues, but compared to others there is no room for complaining. I live in a country where we are still free to worship God. We are free to worship whenever we choose. Yes, we are continually falling away from being the nation that was founded on godly principals by God-fearing men. But, we are still FREE! And if ever worse comes to worse I have the hope of something more to come, because this world is not my home! God blesses us while we journey HOME! He provides all that we need! How could complaining ever come into the picture(I'm still working on that one!)?? Let me know if anyone has it figured out!

The greatest blessing of all is that I have the promise and hope of Heaven. No matter the troubles of this life, there IS more to come. There IS more than just this life!

God is GOOD! What a blessing it is that He chooses to bless us!!

Head on over to Heavenly Homemakers where you'll find others that are sharing what they are grateful for this week!

Folks We Have Our Winners!!

I used the number generator over at Random.org to pick our two lucky people!

Drum roll Please....

Our two winners in no particular order are Rebecca with number 7

And Lorrie Briggs with number 16.

I will be sending you ladies an e mail soon so I can get these handy neck warmers out to you!
Congratulations!! And thanks for participating! And a big THANK YOU to Laura at Heavenly Homemakers for hosting the Spring Giveaway!

Kids Say the Silliest Things!

Every time we leave church services we ask Pumkin what she learned. Most the time she remembers what the story was about in bible class. Sometime she even remembers what songs they sang! Last week when we were driving home we asked what her story was about. I was not expecting her answer! She said the they had talked about Esau and Jacob. Still pretty normal right? When we asked what they learned about them she told us! She said that Jacob was a cooker and Esau, well he "huuunnnted". She kinda drew out the word just like that! And that Esau ate some soup and then he was sad! At least I know she's paying attention right?!?!

Want another funny quote? Wednesday Pumkin was talking to her Grandpa that lives in MO. She asked him how he was, when he was coming to visit. And I guess she also felt the need to fill him in on our day. She told him how we went to the library and listened to the guy with the funny voice(he does a great job!) and that we went to play Frisbee and that her daddy got a short cut! Now that would be a HAIR cut. It didn't matter how many times we told her, she kept calling it a short cut!

Kids really do say the silliest things!!