I was overwhelmed, again, by the wonderful response I received to the post that I wrote about my dream (not sure if you read it, find it here). Every message and comment is treasured, and I hope to get back … Continue reading
Exactly one week ago today I wrote a blog post about Fearing God. In it I said that I don’t truly understand what it means to fear God, and that I was going to go on a journey of seeking … Continue reading
We are very excited to be apart of what our new church is doing involving reading the Word together and journaling. As much as I love writing, I have never been good at journaling. Why? I really don’t know. I … Continue reading
After watching a video testimony of a man being raised from the dead after 3 days, I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the words shared by the man. I will post the video at the end of the … Continue reading
Yesterday we were able to see our second baby at our ultrasound. With both babies so far, we’ve had to have ultrasounds at 9 weeks to see how far along we are. To see a baby at such a tiny stage is truly a miraculous thing.
This was Caleb at the 12 week ultrasound.
It is unbelievable to think that less than two years later he has grown into such a busy, healthy, wonderful boy! Here he is in one of our most recent photos of him.
Ultrasounds remind me of the verses in Psalm 139, and we have been praying them over baby #2.
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
Psalm 139:13-16
One of the number one concerns for us as parents, besides our children one day following the Lord, is health and strength. We have been praying that the Lord would knit this baby together within my womb and that He would watch over every detail of baby’s development.
This is our newest baby. It fills me with so much joy and curiosity to think of what this child will be like, after having gone through this process once already.
I know that this baby is bursting with personality already. The way Caleb was like during pregnancy, has been very much what he has been like on the outside. He never stopped moving within me, and he never stops moving now! As difficult as pregnancy can be, it is such an amazing time to get to know your baby before they are born.
I haven’t been as focused on this baby as I was with my first pregnancy, since life is busier. However this baby’s development and life is just as important. I know that they are going to bring a unique dynamic to our family that only they can bring.
To all my readers carrying babies along with me, let me pray this prayer of protection upon your little one.
Dear Jesus, would you hold each of these unborn babies within your hands. Please protect them, form them and create them as only you can. Your workmanship is exquisite, and I ask that you would place a wall of protection around each little one as you knit them together within the womb. May each one be blessed by you, and may you call each one to do mighty works for you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
I’m fairly certain that author Robert Munsch wrote “Love You Forever” more for moms than for children.
After a particularly frustrating morning with Caleb taking things out of the fridge and ripping the house apart, and the combination of time-outs and hand-slaps that followed, I was feeling pretty discouraged.
I sat down on the foot stool of the rocker in Caleb’s room and started to cry. My 16-month old peaked at me from around the corner and then I heard his little footsteps run quickly away.
After pulling myself together I came out into the main room that was littered with pantry and fridge items, toys & books and crushed crackers. There was Caleb standing on the rug in the living room holding the book “I’ll love you forever”. He saw me and ran over and gave it to me.
We sat down, and of course I can’t read a page of that book without starting to cry. We came to this part:
The baby grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was two years old, and he ran all around the house. He pulled all the books off the shelves. He pulled all the food out of the refrigerator and he took his mother’s watch and flushed it down the toilet. Sometimes his mother would say, “this kid is driving me CRAZY!”
My son seems to be very understanding, and when we got to that page he looked at me with big eyes that said “I’m sorry”, and for fifteen brief seconds I rocked him back and forth, back and forth, and said “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.”
With that Caleb jumped off the chair and was on to the next event.
But I’ll remember it forever.
You may be like me and feel like you don’t have a clue what you’re doing, but I hope you can find some joy in the moments where you seem to understand each other. Taking time to remember just how much you love your child can be a step towards turning a rough day around.
My heart has been aching for all the people who I have once seen living passionately for the Lord who have now seemed to completely have “thrown it all away.”
Some of the ones who were extremely influential in my spiritual walk when I was younger, are now ones who I am praying for to return to the Lord. I’ve asked a lot of questions, the biggest one being “what happened?”
In the midst of grieving over another life not being lived to it’s fullest potential, I felt God speak to me and ask me how I know that I will never walk away from him. It flung me on a path of searching for an answer.
While reading in 1 Peter chapter one the other night, I felt like I gained personal revelation on this topic. It’s going to seem obvious, but I believe that this holds a huge piece of ensuring that you will walk with the Lord all the days of your life.
Ready for it?
You must recognize and accept that life is going to be really hard, you might suffer and not everyone will like you.
1 Peter 1:6-7 says
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
The people who I have sadly watched walk away from the Lord, are the ones who have given up in the midst of trial.
There is a lot to be said for sheer will power and determination. The best marriages succeed simply because they determined in their hearts and minds that regardless of what happened, they would never leave each other.
So it is with our relationship with the Lord. We already know that he will never leave us or forsake us. The question is, will we forsake him?
When I read through the famous chapter on Faith found in Hebrews 11, I can’t help but get emotional. Oh the faith these men and women had! They went to their graves with this assurance in their heart that they had lived their days unto the Lord.
Almost each example of a person with great faith, proved their faith through great adversity! It was not in the easy time that they were mentioned for having exceptional faith.
Sarah was barren for years! But she believed God, and through her came a whole nation.
Abraham left his homeland to go a place that he did not know, in a time where this was very dangerous. By his faith, the promise land was indeed inherited.
Noah, faced years and years of ridicule as he followed the Lord’s guidance and built an ark to protect from rain – an element they had never experienced! Imagine explaining to people who had never seen rain that they would be washed out by a flood!
Not all of these stories had happy endings. No, further on it says that many were tortured and killed, dying without seeing what they believed come to pass. But they all died knowing that they were looking to a better future, an eternal future, where there was no pain, torture, suffering, disease or turmoil.
What will your faith chapter say? Will it record how you lived passionately for the Lord until the flood came? Then you decided to lean on drugs or alcohol?
As I have been grieving for some who have walked away, it has caused me to strengthen my commitment to the Lord. I can say with confidence that no matter what is thrown my way, I will serve him.
We need resolution and grit to make it to the finish line. May our faith chapters be ones that speak of our love and faithfulness to the Lord until we are greeted by him in eternal glory.
There is a picture from minutes after I gave birth to Caleb, that is serving as a major source of inspiration for this present pregnancy. I don’t have to look at it, the image is burned in my mind, along with the intense emotion.
This picture is a little too revealing to put up on my blog, as it is my naked, slimy newborn laying on my chest. I am looking down at him, and the hot blankets are just about to be wrapped around the two of us.
That feeling was euphoric. I remember telling my husband that I could get addicted to that moment.
Over these short weeks of pregnancy so far, I have really wondered why I signed up to do this all over again. The nausea, exhaustion, lack of motivation, and downright discouragement has been a lot at times. I’m hard on myself, feeling like I’m not giving my best to the family that surrounds me now. I don’t feel like I have what it takes to get through this again.
But I know now, there is an end.
Proverbs 29:18 says
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
There is something to keeping the vision before us during a trying time.
Habakkuk 2:2 says
Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.”
Whatever your challenging circumstance, make sure that a vision is before you. Do not labour in vain, but keep the end product in mind.
Although I do not enjoy being pregnant one tiny bit, I already know that every minute of my pregnancy with Caleb was worth it. That one picture serves as great motivation, and I’ll hopefully have it with me while I give birth to baby #2.
What motivates you to make it through a tough time? Write it down, capture it, place it where you’ll see it. God himself knows the power of motivation, and encourages us in his scriptures to keep focused.
Paul said in Philippians 3:14
I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
He motivated himself and others by reminding the people of what they were living for, despite persecution and suffering.
Be encouraged today to lift your eyes up to the end goal, and off the present challenge that tries to hold you back.
May the God of all strength give you every ounce of energy and courage you need to succeed.
