31 Days (Day 29) Limited in my prayers

I can definitely say that I believe in the power of prayer.  But, I can also say that there are times I fail to pray.  There are sometimes seasons that I fail to pray.  Our pastor has been leading us through a series called "I Pray".  There are huge chalkboards that line the walk way into and out of our church.  Those chalk boards have allowed people the freedom to fill in the blanks....."I pray when________".  I love scouring the chalk boards and seeing "when" people pray.  

Prayer is something we are teaching our children.  Our daughter even at 2.5 years of age loves to pray to Jesus.  Her words are short but they are full of deep rich meaning to Jesus.  We encourage and lead our children to pray about and for all kinds of things, people, situations......

I fill in my blank "I pray when things are going well".  This is the pattern of what I see in my own personal life.  My deepest prayer conversations happen between me and Jesus when things are going well.  When things seems to be spiraling out of control in my life....ie, the last week, I tend to clam up and trek through and mutter small prayers thoughts along the way.

I love to pray for future things with great hope and expectation that God will be true to His name.  I prayed over my husband through a prayer journal starting at the age of 13.  I gave him that prayer journal on our wedding night 12 years later.  I pray specific scriptures over my children and what I desire for their lives.  I pray over our families future and for what our time on earth will matter.  I love to pray for healing to flow from the hand of the Great Physician.  I love to pray for the Lord to show himself as the Great Provider.

But I fail too many times to pray in the now, in the day to day, in the struggles of my moment.  Maybe it is because I feel like I can handle it.  Maybe it is my pride that gets in the way.  I tend to clam up and push it to the back burner.  It is not the pretty part of me.  I limit myself when I allow myself and my LIMITATIONS to get in the way of God's LIMITLESS revelation of Himself to me through conversation in prayer.  I don't want to miss what He has for me "when thing are not going well".  I want to be poured out and not proud soaking in and seeking all HE longs to reveal of Himself to me.

"Where do you feel like you need God least?  Where are you most proficient, most sufficient?  Maybe that is precisely where God wants you to trust Him to do something beyond your ability.  It is God's strange and mysterious ways that renew our awe, our trust, and our dependence." 

 The Circle Maker  by Mark Batterson

How about you?  

I pray when __________? 

31 Days My Week......LIMITED!

I am sorry that I have been out the last week, but something had to give.  Monday, I took my son for a well child check and ended up with a chest xray, albuterol, and pulmicort nebs for him AND....my daughter with bilateral ear infections and albuterol nebs.

That was JUST MONDAY!

By Thursday the were both running fever.  I came down with a violent stomach bug on Thursday and could hold nothing down.  There was one point I remember telling my husband....I want to die.

Friday I woke to my son grunting and wheezing and retracting after 2 neb treatments.  My daughter had spike a fever.  Back to the doctor to find out....my son has RSV and his difficulty breathing without response to treatment would now send us to the ER.  AND my daughter's ears were worse than Monday and she needed another type of antibiotic.

My son checked out okay in the ER.  Lots of deep suctioning and his sats final came up.  Too bad this mommy nurse does not have wall suction at home.  But I did purchase this nifty and successful tool from Buy Buy Baby, The NoseFrida.  This is the best suction device for at home.  Don't judge! Read for yourself about this and know that it is recommended by the mommy/nurse.

31 Days (Day 21) Limited in my reading

Over the last 20 days I have referred to several books that have helped and continue to help me along my journey.  Reading, by nature, is not one of my favorite past times.  I do not wrap up my day with a good read.  I rarely ever stay up late to finish a book.  I am usually a chapter a day kinda gal when I am reading a book.

My husband, by nature, is a reader.  He is always purchasing books off of Amazon for our iPad or by paperback.  He does keep me in the loop concerning the latest books and many of the books I have read over the last 2 years have been by his recommendation.  

I never want reading a book to take the place of God's word in my daily time spent with Him.  But, I do want to use books to help me glean deeper understanding of Biblical Truths.  I do want to use books to help me learn from people who have gone before me and have successfully accomplished whatever it is I am hoping to accomplish. 

In January of 2010, our pastor challenged us to read through the Bible in a year as a church.  Matt and I began reading through our Bible in conjunction with our church's 12 month guide.  The first four almost five months of the plan, I was pregnant.  The last 7 months of the plan, I had a newborn.  It was a great reading challenge for me.  It was a daily commitment.  It was just me and God's Word.  IT WAS HUGE IN MY LIFE.  

I have known Jesus personally for 25 years of my life.  I have read the majority of the Bible in those 25 years but there were definitely books that I had never read.  I learned to dig deeper into truths I had always known and to ask harder questions concerning what I had always been taught.  

For the large majority of the Bible reading journey I was LIMITED by my own personal circumstances, a new baby and a first time mom.  But, I made a commitment to read through the Bible in a year and that commitment kept staring me in the face everyday, no matter how tired I was or how many times I had been up the night before.  God was LIMITLESS in the truths that He solidified in my heart and mind through that time spent in His Word.

Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives.  Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives.  Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.  Colossians 3:16

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land theLord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

Deuteronomy 11:18-21

Here are two on-line sources for reading through the Bible in a year.  Good news is, you can start at anytime of the year.  It does not have to be January 1.  I hope you will personally take the challenge.  I promise you will be reminded of how LIMITED you are but how LIMITLESS God is through age old stories and truths that are as real and relevant today as they were 2000 plus years ago.

http://www.biblegateway.com/reading-plans/?plan=1&version=NIV

http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/readingplan.asp

31 Days (Day 20) Limited in my crafting

 I love to craft and I come by it honestly.  My mom is one of the craftiest people that I know.  The things she is able to put together are simply AMAZING.  Crafting is honestly so good for my soul.  I feel most in my element when I am crafting.   I love the entire process from planning, implementing, doing, and finishing.  

Since having kids, I go on crafting marathons.  I find that I do not have time every day to "craft" or even every week so I usually knock out a few projects once a month by staying up WAY TOO late.  If you have little ones you know that there is NO WAY to craft while they are awake.  OK...maybe there are...but for this mommy...I need "mommy craft" alone time.  It is my outlet.   

Here are a few of my most favorite projects that I have completed in the last 2 years.

Cooper's Birthday Banner

Book Page Wreath

Halloween Mantle

Stripped Curtains as seen at The Nester

Growth Chart as seen at Bless Our Nest

Bow Holder

Rolled Paper flowers as seen at JonesDesignCompany

Hall closet organization as seen at AThoughtfulPlaceBlog

Can you imagine how much fun God had creating the world?  He was not limited by time or space.  He was/is LIMITLESS in His creation of the world!  

31 Days (Day 19) Limited as a working mom

I am a working mom with 2 little bits!  Thankfully my work allows me to work 2, 12 hour shifts per week.  Now by the time I leave and return home for the day, it ends up being a 14-15 hour day away from home.  There are days that I really struggle with being a working mom.  And, there are days that I really love being good at something outside of my home.  It feels like a constant battle that wages within me.

Being a working mom has taught me.....

• Plan ahead. Days/Months ahead.
• Make a list. Check it off. There is no way I can keep up with all of this in my head
• Prepare meals for the nights I work that can be popped in and out of the oven easily
• Do the majority of the work the night before and not the morning of work
• Go to bed!!!!!  There are things that can wait until tomorrow.
• Accept help from others
• Believe others can care for my children just as well as I do and TRUST them to do their job
• My children are well adjusted and time away from me is not always a bad thing
• Don't spend my off days cleaning every moment.....play with my children
• Play dates are just as important for me as they are for my children
• CHOOSE MY FAMILY FIRST, ALWAYS!
• I AM LIMITED.
• HE IS LIMITLESS!!!!!

There is NO WAY that I could have gotten to this point with my children and working without the LIMITLESS GRACE of God.  Work is hard in and of itself but top a newborn, breastfeeding, naptimes, a toddler, 2 dogs, a 35 mile commute to work, a babysitter.....on work and by my own limitations this would be impossible.  BUT GOD, has been LIMITLESS in his abounding love and grace to me during this ride.  I am every day at His mercy begging him to give me the strength to be all I need to be and to know when to be still.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  1 Corinthians 10:31

Hope you are blessed by this song by Steven Curtis Chapman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEqdDdvFXZ0

31 Days (Day 18) Limited in my ability to always get to the heart of the matter

One of my favorite books on parenting is Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman.  It is a mom's look at heart oriented discipline.  Ginger describes her "challenge" for the day, raising her two children in the ways of the Lord, "It is my calling, my priority, my struggle and my goal."  

Don't you just love those four words: CALLING, PRIORITY, STRUGGLE, GOAL?  It encompasses just about every emotion that moms feel on a daily basis concerning the raising of their children.  There are days that CALLING and STRUGGLE meet head to head in our household.  There are days that PRIORITY and GOAL meet.  There are many different combination in which these four words could meet concerning the raising your children. 

Ginger talks openly and unashamedly about Biblical Discipline.  Here are her words, "Biblical discipline involves love, the heart and God's Word.  Because God is concerned with the issue of the heart, biblical discipline involves much more than outward behavior.  Biblical discipline gets to the heart of the problem.  After all, if you can reach the heart, the behavior will take care of itself.  In order for us to reach the hearts of our children we must realize that there is far more to parenting than getting our children to act right.  We have to get them to think right and to be motivated our of a love of virtue rather than a fear of punishment."

Some days I am extremely limited in my ability to reach the heart of the matter in my children's behavior.  Most of the time my limitation is  when I am running on fumes or the day between my two work days, when I feel most crunched for time.  Satan desires that I feel limited and that I fail miserably.  Sometimes discipline of my children just feels like a down right struggle.  Can anyone relate?

Luke 6:45 says, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.  For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."  "The heart is the control center of life.  Behavior is simply what alerts you to your child's need for correction" (Ginger Plowman). 

I know God's desire for me is to feel limitless in my ability to reach the heart of the matter in my children's behavior.  For when I reach the heart of the matter God is honored.  I think honored that I took the time to reach in and direct my child toward ultimate obedience to Christ.  Yes, I want Amelia and Cooper to obey, but my greatest goal is that they would obey as a result of wanting to obey Christ, ultimately.  Now, I realize that this may take years....because after all, I myself do not always have this concept figured out.  And there are times that I fail greatly in my obedience to Christ.  

But, the greatest CALLING, PRIORITY, STRUGGLE and GOAL of my life is to point them to Jesus.  I can not do this alone. I AM LIMITED but GOD is LIMITLESS in His ability to make up for my failures and reach deep into the heart of the matter in my children's lives.  

When we focus on our children's outside behavior and neglect what is on the inside, we will cause our children to become manipulators.  They will learn to please us by jumping through the hoop (by acting the way we tell them to act out of a fear of punishment) but they will not learn the righteousness of Christ." (Ginger Plowman).

Ways this physically comes out (because this is much the way that God physically disciplines me)...

• I have to get down eye level with my child
• Find out what made them act out the way they did (anger, frustration.....)
• I have to talk with them and not at them. Give them a chance to speak (this might take some time)
• I have to discuss with them God's viewpoint on all circumstances
• I have to ask questions that focus them off of the circumstances around them and onto their behavior and action

31 Days (Day 17) Limited By Taste Buds (Big and Small Alike)

Often I feel limited by tastebuds big and small alike.  I am married to a picky eater.  He has come a long way in 8 years and to his credit he is not as bad as some of the people I know.  I have two toddlers whose taste buds are ever changing.  Sometimes they like strawberries for breakfast and hate them for lunch.  AHHHHH!  Sometimes it makes me want to rip my hair out!  Just eat it!!!!

 Meal planning can be stressful to me. Trying to juggle everyone's taste buds is a full time job. Anyone out there know where I am? I like to plan meals for a week and grocery shop only once a week. So when the husband comes home and I have made enchiladas and he makes a funny face and tells me he had mexican for lunch....AHHHHHHHH!

So here are a few things I am working on.....

 Find out what the husband is having for lunch
 Tell him what we are having for dinner so he doesn't eat if for lunch
 Make one meal and let them eat what they will and don't worry about the rest
They eventually will eat
Offer their favorites with their not so favorites
When the husband is out of town or working late make a simple dinner

I would love to hear how you tackle this battle....if you face it at all!