Overwhelmed with the goodness of God....

I have so much fun during the day being at home with my three little munchkins. Yes, I do have moments of pure insanity and chaos, but I love it.  I look around and feel so blessed. Have you ever been driving or sitting on your couch when you just felt overwhelmed with the goodness of God? I had one of those moments this week. The girls and I like to dance in the living room! We turn on the ipod, and they take turns having me hold them as if we are slow dancing. It is too cute how they put their arm around me and lay their head on my shoulder. Timmy also loves to do this with his girls. Today, I had the ipod on "shuffle" and the song, When God Made You, started to play. I know this is typically sung as a love song, but today, as I heard it playing, I related it to Kamryn, Hadden, & Pate. I'm so thankful to be their mother.....He must have heard every prayer I've been praying (Amen!). He must've knew everything I would need. When God made you, He must've been thinking about me.

Thank you, Jesus!

I don't thank God for what He has done for me enough! None of us do. I also don't bathe my children in prayer 

near as much as I am commanded to. This has been on my heart lately and I know it is God just tapping me on the shoulder reminding me of it's importance..... As I danced with the girls today, I suddenly felt overjoyed, but also ashamed of how I let the little things in life get in the way of what's truly important. The older I get, the more I am reminded of this and the more I think about it. As a parent, I am commanded to "train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it, Proverbs 22:6." All I can say is....wow. What a big responsibility and what greater joy it is to train your child to love Jesus. 
Remember that children imitate their parents. How does your child imitate you (totally asking myself this question too right now!)? Do they know the importance of prayer, saying the blessing, being kind to others, having a strong work ethic, giving your best in all situations, reading your bible, etc??? I fail so much, but I am trying harder every day to imitate Christ so my children will imitate me doing this in return. Every minute counts and every minute that I am doing something (which is 24/7), my kids are watching me. It is crazy how they imitate me in so many ways already. I want to be a Godly mother. I want them to know without a doubt that I love them and love Jesus with all my heart. I want them to see a difference in me and in the way I handle certain situations of life. I saw it in my dad and I see it every day in my precious mom. What great council I have received from her! 
Timmy also said something the other day that really stuck with me.....He said, "I want my kids to see me reading my bible. I want them to point to my bible and say....this is Daddy's." He also said he wanted our children to see how much he loved his wife. This almost made me cry. I praise God for a Godly husband. He made this point...."how I treat you is how Pate will treat his wife one day." So true. Makes you think, doesn't it? I hope you will all make this one of your goals as well....to REALLY let your children know how much you love them and to also be the kind of person you want them to grow up to be. Yes, it is definitely easier said than done, but worth every minute of trying. This should be high up there on our priority list! And...if you are not a parent, I pray you will apply this to your life in other ways. The point is....life is short and we can't waste it worrying about the things that are temporary. We should focus on the greatness of God and all other things will seem so small. So, the next time you find yourself feeling down, frustrated, or unloved, just think about what God has done for you. As you do this, I promise your attitude will turn around. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice! Philippians 4:4. This is important or it wouldn't have been written in the bible twice in a row. God is constant...all other things are temporary. If we remind ourselves of this truth (even if you have to every 10 minutes), you won't have time for your mind to drift into fear, doubt, worry, anger, negativity...whatever you struggle with! 

Security Blanket

Before we go to bed each night, Timmy and I always check on the kids. We usually split up...one goes upstairs to Pate and the other goes to see the girls. This is such a special time for me as a parent. As I look into their cribs (yes, at this time in our lives, we have three cribs!!), I am overwhelmed with love. I just stare at them and thank God for allowing me to be their mom. Two nights ago, as I peaked in at the girls, I just wanted to say, "awwww" out loud. All I could think about was how adorable and precious they looked. One of the things that makes them so adorable when they sleep is how they snuggle with their blankie (thanks Russ and Karen!). They are always curled up in a little ball, holding their blanket close to them. The girls sleep with this blanket every night and they have every night for as long as I can remember. Here are a couple of pictures of them with their blankie :)

Kamryn at 5 months

Hadden a few weeks ago. She loves to wear hats too:)

As I looked down in the cribs, I thought about how special their blankie is to them. I guess you could refer to it as a security blanket. This got me thinking about my security and how I can live in peace knowing that Christ is my "security blanket." 

Timmy and I have been praying about a certain situation for quite some time and recently, God answered our prayer....just not in the way we thought He would. It was almost like God was saying out loud to us, "be still and just know that I am God....that's all that is important right now." It is funny how God gets your attention sometimes. During the past couple of months, God has truly spoke to me and Timmy and revealed himself to us in so many ways. He has used certain situations that we haven't understood to speak to us and draw us closer to each other and to Himself. We are thankful for this. Psalm 46:1 reads, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble." How amazing is that?? God.....our Savior, the Great Physician, Jehovah, the Bread of Life, our Creator, the Great I Am....He, yes He, is our refuge and strength! We don't have any reason to stumble. When you truly and deeply think about this promise, don't you suddenly feel a spark of hope that you didn't have a couple of minutes before? 

We all let our flesh and the things of this world become a fog in between us and God, but when we are reminded of how great our God is, our personal forecast seems to get a little more pleasant :) In my life, I have had things occur that I didn't understand, particularly losing ones close to me and not understanding why it had to happen the way it did. I still don't know the answer to all of my questions. I just know, "all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28)," even if it is not until we see Jesus face to face. Wealth, good health, the perfect job, good grades in school, a new car.....those things are all fine and dandy, but not the "good" that Paul was referring to in Romans. He was referring to a life beyond what we have on this earth....As a child of God, we have the promise that everything will work out for good because we get to spend eternity with Jesus! If you know this, praise God and if you don't, I pray that you will seek God and become His child. I don't know who will read this post. I don't know what is going on in their lives or what they are struggling with. I don't know their heart...their doubts....their insecurities....but, I do know that God can change it all. Maybe not on the outside, but He can on the inside.....your heart, your purpose, and your hope. I recently found this song on youtube and it is now one of my favorites. I'm going to have to play it for Timmy to sing pretty soon :) It pretty much sums up what I have been talking about here. No matter what happened yesterday, God was there and no matter what tomorrow brings, God will be there. Praise God....praise Him for being our "security blanket."

Fun-day Sunday :)

Today has been a great day! Church was awesome! We are enjoying our new pastor so much and we look forward to what God has in store for Eastside in 2012. Also, Timmy led the music today and did a wonderful job. I am so proud of him and how he uses his talents for the Lord. I love the fact that we can worship God in song together! My sweet girls looked so pretty today (or as they say, "pree-pree"). They were very proud of their new dress that Mommy bought for them :-)

When we got home from church, we had lunch and Timmy left for his Sunday tennis outing....his favorite! I played with Pate a little and then got the girls ready for their nap. They are so worn out on Sunday afternoon (thank you nursery workers :)!! ) Thanks to this, I get a nice and quiet Sunday afternoon too! Anyway, I dressed the girls in the T-shirt Uncle Walt bought them for Christmas. It says, "My Uncle is a Deputy Sheriff." It is very cute and they were very proud of it.....especially Hadden. She loved the car on the front and kept saying....."Car! vroom, vroom!" They wanted to wear shoes with their new shirt, so of course they did :) They also HAD to take their nap in their shoes too!

After they fell asleep, I started to think about how lucky the girls and Pate are to have such great uncles! My brothers adore all three of them and I know Timmy's brothers do too! Walt says he thinks about them all the time! Since he has started working day shift, he brings the girls a happy meal every week. The girls run to the door when they see him coming. They are just a little spoiled! He eats with them at their new table that Uncle Tommy and Daddy made for them....see, just another example of how great each of their uncle's are! He did such a great job on the table, and I know Pate will grow to love it too! I am amazed at how talented Tommy is with stuff like this! I had no idea!

Uncle Wil visited the girls and Pate last night. He comes to visit us on the weekends, and it means so much to us! As soon as the girls see Wil, they say Wo Wa (Lola)! It is so neat how they can already relate people together. When they see Walt and Wes, they ask about MeMe, Poppy, and Rachel. So, so cute! Pate loved his time with Uncle Wil last night and so did the girls. They figured out that they can watch Elmo on Uncle Wil's phone! This is something they will now remember every time they are with him :)!

Uncle Wes stayed with us one night last weekend and the girls LOVED it. He is also such a big help to me always. I couldn't find them after lunch last Saturday when Wes was here. I went to the guest room and there they were, on each side of Uncle Wes, in the bed! These are moments we will always cherish! They also love going to see Uncle Wes play ball. We went to his basketball game yesterday and he did awesome! Pate watches the ball go up and down the court and the girls keep saying, "Go Dawgs!" They relate sports to the bulldogs already :)!

Like I said, it has been a great Sunday. I guess I am going to try to get some stuff done around the house now! Pate has enjoyed his Sunday afternoon too...

Dah :)

For those of you who knew my Aunt Faye, you remember her being such a special lady. She was one of my best friends and I miss her so much.  I adored my Aunt Faye. I wanted to be just like her----she always seemed as if she had it all together......I just loved being with her, and I still remember all the things she taught me. I have many memories of my mom and I with her growing up. My mom was the timid one and she was the strong one. She always gave the advice and we listened!:) She normally did everything just right, but I remember one thing that she did wrong....this is too funny....Think back to when "duh" became a part of everyone's vocabulary. Well, Aunt Faye picked it up too, but she didn't get it quite right. Instead of saying, "duh," she would loudly say, "dah!" It was actually more like.....daaaaahhhhh! It was hilarious because no one ever told her the correct way to say it. Even still, when I am with my mom and duh seems to be an appropriate thing to say in our conversation, we look at each other and say, "dah!" 


This morning, just as plain as day, I heard....."dah!" God basically said, "Alana, how could you ever doubt? How many times do I have to tell you? I am right here, child!" It was awesome. Timmy left pretty early this morning to go to the Tattnall Campground for a men's retreat, but he left his devotion and bible open on the ottoman. If I am asleep when he leaves, he usually does this to share with me what he read for the day. This morning, I am not sure if this was his intention, but I was touched by the words that God revealed to me. I read Ephesians 3:20-21......Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen. This is a very fancy way of saying......daaaahhhh.....or at least that is how I interpreted it this morning. There is no limit to what God can do and even though at times we may feel discouraged, we don't have to feel this way. Ephesians 3:20-21 and so many other passages in the bible remind us of that. 


I haven't had time to blog in a few days, but every day, I have thought of the same thing to share.....I know it is something that someone needs to hear and it relates to what I wrote above. Timmy used to dip and it bothered me so much. First of all, I think it is disgusting, but besides that, it is also very unhealthy. When we first got married, this led to many arguments.....I would nag about him quitting and he would just get aggravated at me. I finally realized that my current methods of trying to get him to quit were not working and I told myself.....God is going to have to take care of this. So instead of doing it my way, I just began to pray that God would take the desire away from him. It didn't happen overnight, but eventually God did take care of it. Timmy, out of nowhere, came to me one day and told me that God had taken away his craving for it and he hasn't done it since. There are so many things going on in my life right now that I find myself worrying about.....maybe this is what I needed to be reminded of this morning. In my last blog post, I talked about how I journal my prayers. While looking through some of my old journals, I came across this one..... 


Lord, forgive me for not praying enough for my husband. I fall short so much. God, Timmy has a temptation.....an addiction, that my heart is weary over. I don't know what else to do, but pray. Help him to cling to the verse James 1:2. This is a trial in his life right now, but let him (us) to learn from it. God you can help him, no matter how helpless he feels. I know it is hard for him. I can't imagine because I have never had an addiction like this. Lord, I pray that you will strengthen Timmy to resist his temptation to dip. Stop his cravings before they come. Help him to rise above anything that erects itself as a stronghold in his life. Protect him, Lord, if he should refuse to quit. I can't make him, but you can decrease his temptation and strengthen his ability to say no. Help him to come to me for help. Protect him. Keep him healthy. Help him to think about those who love him as he makes the decision to harm his body. Thank you for your faithfulness, God. Amen. 

I'm not sure how long I prayed this, but it was quite a while. This is one time that I can truly say I handed over a situation to the Lord. I still remember the day that Timmy called me while he was at work and asked me to pray with him.  I was totally shocked. In his prayer he asked God to make the dip taste like poison in his mouth. From that day forward, Timmy has never dipped. He knows that God supernaturally lifted this temptation from his body. He tried long enough relying on his own strength only to fail time and time again. Praise be to God! The Lord truly answered my prayers for Timmy. This may seem silly to some, but this is a prime example of God's faithfulness and power. If anything, God has reminded me of that through this and I really needed it today. It is like God himself stated Matthew 17:20 out loud for me to hear. "You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."

 


Lord, help me to continually trust You. When I start to doubt, whisper in my ear, "I am God. I can do all things. How many times do I have to remind you of this? Dah!!!!"