Grace

I’ve been turning around a post on grace based parenting in my head… but Sally beat me to it, and said it much better than I ever could!

So go read it here!

Showing grace to my boys does not come naturally to me… big surprise. But the more I do the more I come to appreciate the grace God shows to me.

It’s so easy to expect immediate, cheerful, constant obedience (notice I said expect… not receive!!) from my kids… then I turn right around and expect God to be understanding and forgiving when I fail… and I’m so thankful that He is!!  How hypocritical of me to expect something of children that I’m not even capable of!

Testimony

 

If you go to church with me you’ve already heard this… so get ready to hear it again!

Last night the boys and I loaded up to head to church, as I backed the truck out I felt a pop.  I’m always driving over stuff in the yard so didn’t think to much about it.  I started to pull forward and felt another pop and then the truck started sliding sideways. 

Brian said the ball joint broke.  In “Lisa Speak” the thingy holding the wheel in place broke and my front wheel went cock-eyed.

I’m so thankful for God’s hand of protection.  Just a few days ago I was driving 70 mph down interstate, just that morning Brian was driving like a crazy person on the back roads here by the house, later that morning I drove the kids to church… not like a crazy person.  

That joint could have broken any of those times, or a few minutes later when we were down the road, and the situation would have been much different.  Instead God allowed it to happen when I was barely rolling in the front yard.

Now you might say, “but wouldn’t it be better for it just to have never broken?”.  I believe many times God does keep things from happening and we just go merrily on our way none the wiser.  But sometimes He allows things to happen so that we can see His hand at work.

We live paycheck to paycheck… and haven’t gotten far enough along in our Dave Ramsey plan to have any savings put up… so I had No Idea how we would pay to have the truck fixed, but these verses from Matthew kept coming to me.

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

So I just handed it over to God and told Him I trusted Him to provide.

This morning Brian called and got a quote on having the truck towed to the mechanics… because it’s to big to get on a trailer and even if he could get it on a trailer we wouldn’t have anything to pull it with…  the quote was $180.  We don’t have $180, so again I handed it to God trusting  Him to provide.

This afternoon I began to see God’s hand at work.  Our mechanic made a house call!  He said we couldn’t replace just the piece that broke, the whole thing had to be replaced and it costs $400.  But then he said that it should still be under warranty so we shouldn’t have to pay anything! And, he thinks he can come here and fix it well enough to be driven to the shop so we won’t have to pay a wrecker!

I may not know yet just exactly how God’s going to work all this out… but I know that He will!!

Zoo Day

I have a lot on my mind today. I spent the weekend at a Mom Heart conference in Dallas, this was the second year I’ve gone and it just keeps getting better. Soon I’ll write about it but for now I’m still soaking it in and trying to put things into practice.

So instead of that I’ll share our trip to the zoo!

We intended to go Sunday, it was Cade’s birthday and that’s what he picked to do.

Then Brian suggested we wait and go Monday because he had to work Sunday afternoon but would be off Monday… Cade was agreeable so that was our new plan.

Monday morning Brian woke up feeling sick… we hung around for the morning waiting on him to feel better with no luck. I had decided to take them by myself when sweet Cade offered to wait one more day so Brian could go with us.

I am so proud of Cade for being flexible and understanding when plans didn’t work out the way we intended… wish everyone in our family had been so understanding, but we’re still a work in progress!

Brian was still feeling bad this morning so the boys and I loaded up and went without him. I drove the big blue truck to Tyler all by myself… Woohoo!!

The boys loved the maps and had a great time figuring out where we were and where we should go next. We walked the entire zoo… twice!

The played and played until I finally drug them away. Next time I’ll take my Kindle to entertain me so they can play as long as they want!

It was a Good Day!!

A Conversation with God

Sometimes God has to remind me of things… maybe not so much remind me as thump me over the head… ok, maybe not so much thump me over the head as pound it into me… I’m a little stubborn.

Yesterday was one of those days.  He prodded me to study on grace and I wound up in Romans, chapters 3-6 specifically but don’t stop there… read it all when you go read!

So I read that and got a few things re-ironed out in my head about living a life dead to sin.  I’ll be honest, it doesn’t come naturally.  There are some things my flesh doesn’t want to let go of.  And when I try to do it all on my own, I fail… of course, we were never meant to do it all on our own.  Which brings me back to my stubbornness and toddlerish insistence to do it ‘all by myself’… yeah, it never works… you’d think I’d learn by now.  Thank God for His grace ‘cause I’d be in a world of hurt without it.

After reading my conversation went something like this…

Me: But it’s hard, I know I should want to lay these things down but I don’t want to… I should want to, I want to want to… but I know it’ll be hard, so what do I do about that??

*Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.*

Me: Ok, so you’ll help me and it won’t be hard… but what if I don’t?  It’s not that big a deal… does it really matter??

*The wages of sin are death*

Me:  Well alrighty then… guess that answers that!

Yes, that was a short talk… usually I have a lot more “yeah, but”’s  before I surrender.  There just isn’t anywhere else to go after that… it’s life or death, kind of brings it down to basics and makes the choice pretty clear. 

And I’ll say it again, I’m so thankful for His grace that never gives up on me and keeps pulling me back up when I stumble. 

 

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39