Of Blessings Received

Today, what was received far outweighs what has been given.

Today, two sweet little ones at work toddled right up to me in the middle of my bad afternoon and gave me hugs.

Today, a precious friend took me out and bought me more than $80 worth of groceries.

Today, my wonderful husband and two sweet boys pulled up the disgusting dining room carpet for me.

Today, I began to see my younger son especially experience the true joy of giving.

Today, a need that has been heavy on my heart was partially met.

Today, my cup runneth over.

Day 3 Giving:

Time: my family took time out of their afternoon to rip out that carpet. And from the sound of things, the boys got along extremely well and were just a huge blessing to my husband.

Talents: I think we need to work on this one a bit more, huh?

Treasure: I was able to share a few more of the cookies we baked yesterday.

Day 3 Blessings Received:

See above!!!

I posted as my Facebook status today, “What prayer has God answered for you today?” and the answers were such a blessing to me. God is good.

The Beauty of a Giving Heart– Giving Challenge, Day 2

My sister posted this story yesterday on her Facebook, and it is such a beautiful story that I asked if I could post it here and she said yes. I think it fits in beautifully with the giving challenge. Her daughter has already learned this lesson, at the age of three.

One of my favorite things about fall is pumpkins. Although we don’t carve them, every year we buy the kids each a pumpkin. This year, we are a bit under the weather financially, so each kid just got a small pie pumpkin. I was worried that they would complain, but they were so excited and proud of their little pumpkins. As soon as we got them home from Walmart, they proudly set them outside near the door. I promised that we would cut them and roast the seeds and make a pie from them, and they have been looking forward to that with great anticipation.

This morning, when we got home from church, I noticed that one of the pumpkins was missing. It was Kay’s pumpkin, and it was nowhere to be found. Kay, of course, wasn’t terribly concerned that her pumpkin was gone. But Megan was crushed. She started to cry, and was just so upset that someone would have stolen one of our little pumpkins.

The kids were very confused. They wanted to know why someone would have stolen one of our pumpkins. They wanted to know what the person was going to do with Kay’s pumpkin. They were angry and upset. And so was I. It was just a little pumpkin. Why would anyone steal it from my children? My mama bear came out something fierce, and while I hid it well (for the children’s sake), I was very upset.

And then something beautiful happened. Megan, who was the most upset of everyone, had an idea. She said, “I know! I can give Kaybelle my little colored on pumpkin!”, and she ran to her room to retrieve it.

A few weeks ago at church, Megan’s Sunday School teachers gave her a very small pumpkin, and she colored all over it with markers. It has been one of her most prized possessions since she brought it home. She has been carrying it around and playing with it every day. And this afternoon, because she didn’t want her sister to be disappointed, she chose to make a sacrifice and give her little colored on pumpkin to Kay.

The whole thing brought me to tears. I certainly would have never asked Megan to do such a thing, and Kaybelle couldn’t have cared less. But in that brief moment when Megan presented Kay with the treasured, little colored on pumpkin, she demonstrated true sacrifice and love.

Blew me away.

I don’t think there’s much to add to that.

Day 2 Giving

Time: Stinky and I baked cookies for our neighbor lady and shared them with a couple others as well.

Blessings

The neighbor we gave the cookies to gave Sam a piece of candy, which wasn’t a big deal, but I have been praying that God will teach my kids that when we have giving hearts, He blesses us. So this was a blessing to me, because in a very tangible way it showed that concept to Sam.

30-Day Giving Challenge, Day 1

I sit in the cool basement, surrounded by piles of sorted laundry waiting optimistically to be washed. Before me are a blue basket and two boys contemplating the hot wheel cars located within.

“What about this one?” I suggest, holding out a silver motorcycle. The boys look at each other and at the motorcycle.

“That’s yours,” Stinky tells Bubs.

“I know,” Bubs replies. He looks at it a minute longer. “We can give that one away,” he decides. I put it in the box next to me.

The next car I pull out belongs to Stinky. Although it’s possible he has never played with it before, he is struggling to give it up. I remind him that Christmas is coming, that Grandpa will probably give them a car next time he sees them, that there is a big pile of very similar cars next to him. But he can’t do it. And because this is supposed to be giving– not grudgingly or of necessity– I do not force the issue.

In the end I have a box half-full of miscellaneous odds and ends. They are selling their toys to buy a toy for a Christmas project at Bubba’s school. I’m not sure if they can make enough money selling these things to buy anything, but it’s a start.

Later, my hands sticky with juice as I make apple crisp, I pray.

Lord, give my children generous hearts. Help them see the joy and blessing that comes from giving– especially sacrificial giving. Let me be an example of letting go of my own things in order to bless others.

This will not come naturally. My prayer for my children, however, is that they will gain an understanding of the way God blesses cheerful giving. That as we go into December, month of gifts piled upon gifts, they will have changed hearts– hearts that delight in giving.

It does not come naturally to me either. I am selfish, and lazy, and weak.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

We will boast in our weakness, because through it God can be seen and glorified by a world so desperately in need of a Savior.

How we gave today

Time: I spent my “me time” this evening making a special dessert for my family, and praying for them.

Talents:

Treasures: The boys and I went through their toys and chose things to sell in order to have money to buy a Christmas gift for a needy child.

Blessings God gave today

1. Constant reminders of His strength being perfect in my weakness

2. Sweet fellowship with Him

3. Seeing my son truly broken before the Lord over something he said to his daddy. Seeing him come to a place of confession, forgiveness, restoration. (And tickles).

4. A gift from my secret prayer partner at church– a candle and some chocolate!

Before I close (which I really need to do!), I want to share some of the precious truths that God placed before me today.

⁶For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”^[amade his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.  ⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁶Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (From 2 Corinthians 4)

And this:

¹⁰That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (From 2 Corinthians 12)

This verse has been convicting me as I realize how many times a day I choose to neglect my responsibilities:

¹⁷Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins. (From James 4)

I am going to take any “I should really . . .” moments as prompting from the Holy Spirit this month to do whatever I should really do to bless others.

Finally, the verses my sons and I will be memorizing this week:

⁶Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹As it is written:
“He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” ¹⁰Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. (From 2 Corinthians 9)

Hmmm. Maybe I won’t make them memorize quite all of that.

 

Baby Bug

So you may have noticed a lack of pictures of Little One the other night. Our community had beggar’s night on Friday, and it was cold, windy, and drizzly. So I took Captain Sleepy and Pillowboy up and down the block while Art stayed home with the baby. But my mom and I found this adorable ladybug costume for Little One back before she was even bornded, and I really wanted to get some pictures of her in it.

I had planned yesterday to go out for some Halloween Bug Cutie Patootie Photo Takage, but instead we got to go to WalMart and have a new tire put on the car. Which was practically just as much fun.

I have been noticing all the gorgeous leaves up and down our street, so my intention today was to walk a block or so, find one of those yards, plop the Little One down (in the part between the sidewalk and the road so it wouldn’t be so weird), take a few shots, and then call it good.

Unfortunately, this weekend was leaf collection in our community. So all those lawns that just days ago were covered in a gorgeous red and gold carpet of leafy happiness are now just green.

Blah.

So this afternoon, Bubba, Little One, and I set off on a tour of our town to find some leaves and take some pictures. Little One was adorable in her ladybug costume, and we started our stroll with smiles and coos.

Once we found a yard with sufficient-if-not-spectacular leaf cover, Little One changed her tune. She did not want to sit in the leaves. She did not want to lie in the leaves. She did not want to scoot around in the leaves. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with the leaves, thankyouverymuch.

Which is why most of the pictures I took look sort of like this.

Between Bubba and me, we were able to get her to smile about twice. Thankfully the camera cooperated one of those times.

One of my favorite parts of this little costume is the feet. They say “flutter”! (I will not say “squee!” but I really, really want to.) So while Little One was thrashing about in the leaves as though I had thrown her in a pile of rabid chipmunks, I snapped a shot of one of her cute little tootsies.

Let’s just pretend it’s blurry because of her thrashing, and not because of any lack of photgraphic ability on my part, mmmmmkay?

When I took this next picture, I was lying on my back with her on my lower legs and Bubs holding onto her for dear life. Fifteen minutes later as we were walking home I thought to ask him if there were any leaves on my shirt, which of course there were.

She wasn’t happy here, but at least she wasn’t screaming, right?

I really like this one, in spite of its many photographic imperfections.

Plus, you can see her one weird strand of newborn hair that never fell out when the rest did. Her head is all covered in fuzzy 1/2-inch-long hair, except for that one long strand. She’s such a nerd.

I finally got her interested in a leaf.

Seriously, don’t you just want to eat those cheeks? Love this baby!

And finally, I swear in this shot I only edited her eyes a teensy weensy bit. They’re just that beautiful.

SQUEEE!!!!

Sorry. I just couldn’t help myself.

A Challenge to Give

One of the blogs I follow is Keeping the Kingdom First, and in the month of November she is hosting a challenge to give something every day for a month.

When she first posted this challenge, I kind of thought “that would be cool.” Then our finances kind of blew up in our faces and left little bits of my self-esteem stuck in my hair. I think in seasons like this it is really easy to justify a lack of generosity, but as we seek to follow God’s will for our finances and our family life, I truly believe that we need to be giving what little we can to others.

So the Together family is taking on the 30-Day Giving Challenge. To be honest with you, I don’t know how much I will be posting about it in this blog. We are trying to teach our children that we give to encourage others and please the Lord, not for the applause or recognition of other people. I am certainly not posting this so everyone will say, “My, but aren’t those Togethers just wonderful?” I am posting for a bit of accountability, and also because I believe that this experiment– to give with your whole heart and see how God blesses– is worth sharing.

Our giving will be small, and it will not be financial in nature unless huge and incredible amazing miracles happen. We will give of our time and resources, and we will be creative as we think of new ways to give.

I told the kids about this tonight, and they had some ideas.

Stinky said we could make brownies to share. Bubs said we could give some toys away. Little One said “BABAMABAMABBtthhptttttpppp.”

Little One just learned to babble and it is shockingly cute.

Will you consider joining the 30-Day Giving Challenge?

Do you have ideas of creative ways we could give during the month of November?

Have you had the experience of stepping out in faith to give and receiving a blessing?

If so, do tell. I do love comments.

Sleepy Superheroes

We had a bit of a crisis this week when I realized that I had no costumes for the boys as well as no money to purchase costumes for the boys.

Thankfully, as I was digging through my closet looking for something, I discovered these huge pieces of fleece that I bought two years ago to make blankets with (yeah, clearly that worked out well). I had the idea to make a pillow costume, just tying it off like you do to make a blanket, with the kid inside, and then stuffing it. Stinky decided that nothing would make him happier than to be a big fleecy pillow, so I made the costume for him, and then I had the brainstorm that I could turn Bubs into a superhero and Stinky the Pillowboy could be his sidekick.

So I present to you– CAPTAIN SLEEPY AND PILLOWBOY!!!!!

*warning to the craftily inclined: I am not a seamstress by any stretch of the imagination. Please prepare yourself for a desecration of fabric such as you have never seen before*

They were just an eensy bit wound up. It’s amazing that any part of any of these pictures is in focus.

Behold the striking of the dramatic superhero poses. Bahahaha.

I think they were supposed to be giving each other a hug here. Not exactly sure what Captain Sleepy is doing.

Here you can see Captain Sleepy’s costume more clearly. The mask kept falling down so after this I made him a mask that was more like Stinky’s hat, just coming down over his eyes.

And here is Pillowboy. As you can sort of tell, the “stuffing”– which was a bunch of dirty laundry (don’t tell)– had all fallen down by his knees. Before we went trick or treating I ended up taking all the stuffing out, because Pillowboy looked weird enough without a red sleeve sticking out from the bottom of his costume.

In spite of the fact that no one had any idea what they were and that it was cold and drizzly and generally unpleasant, the boys had a fabulous time being Sleepy Superheroes. And I had a fabulous time knowing I had spent exactly zero dollars to give them a little bit of fleecy joy.

Trying Out a Fix-It Friday

I’ve been following the blog I Heart Faces for a few months now, and one of the features they run there is called Fix-It Friday. They give you a picture that needs some work and then you get to play with it and see how you would make it better.

I’ve been playing along for a little while now, since I got PSE5, but I haven’t been happy with my results till today. So I’m gonna share.

Here’s the original:

And here’s my fix:

Here’s what I did, best as I can remember–

Sharpened her irises

Adjusted the lighting in levels

Upped the saturation a bit

Used the healing brush and clone stamp to fix some of the bruises on her shins (not perfect)

Dodged the highlights in her eyes

Duplicate layer–

Desaturated new layer so that the leaves and things in the background were less vivid

Used a layer mask to reveal the girl on the bottom layer

Added warming filter

Merged layers

Duplicate layer–

Filters- Render- Lighting Effects- added omni light to her face

Changed blend mode to multiply

added layer mask to reveal the girls’ eyes

Crop and sharpen for internet

********

I had a lot of fun. Now head over to I Heart Faces to see the work of people who actually know what they’re doing.

Joys of the Season

A pile of freshly washed apples–

Conveniences that make the job more fun–

Time with a willing helper (and apple peel muncher)–

Applesauce that is gone before you ever get around to taking a picture of it–

Today I’m giving thanks for the joys and bounty of fall.

The Breaking

Fumbling, my clumsy soapy hands drop the glass. Noisily it announces to the world my failing and its demise, before coming to rest in a hundred small sharp pieces on my kitchen floor. I can do nothing but gather broom and dustpan and pray I find all the slivers before little feet do.

This breaking– this work of a moment’s carelessness– it cannot be fixed. This casualty of my error is doomed for the trash, destroyed.

But not all breaking destroys.

Not all breaking is the work of careless hands.

How often have I prayed, Lord, break me? How often have I seen the brittle shards of my hardened heart and prayed that God would take them, break them, and then heal them to be used for Him?

He does not just drop His beloved on the floor, then sweep us up and toss us away, useless.

His breaking is the touch of love, taking what is useless already, shattering it, and then using it to make a masterpiece.

But it is still breaking. And the breaking leaves me crushed, bruised, and shocked.

You said You loved me, my broken heart cries out, forgetting that I have cried out to be broken. In this moment– when I look around me and see the shattered remnants of my foolishness, my pride, the strengths I thought would please Him– in this moment I grieve this breaking process.

I grieve the loss of what I thought I had.

And as I grieve, He comforts, for He knows what it is to be broken for love. He knows what it is to give all, to lose all. And He knows better than I what beauty can come from the broken.

So I submit to the breaking, though every ounce of my flesh screams in anguish, and I trust the One broken for me to create something beautiful. The process of recreation begins anew (for I have been broken before, why do I not continually submit to His shaping hands?), and I see that the making will be slow and long. I begin to understand that though the breaking took only a moment, the making will require daily work, daily submission, daily acceptance of His plan.

And I understand that the beautiful something He desires to create will still bear the scars of the breaking.

In the scars of His breaking, in His hands and feet, we are reminded of the ugly and painful that led to the beautiful reality of our salvation. He willingly took that breaking, not because His heart was brittle and useless in the hands of the Father, but because mine was. And now, having taken what was broken to create something beautiful for me, He reaches out His scarred hands and draws me to Himself in love.

He knows how painful the breaking is.

He knows how ugly and terrifying and confusing the breaking is.

He endured it for me, and extends grace that I may endure it for Him.

I do not know what beautiful thing He will create with my life. In the midst of the pain of the breaking, I must simply trust His broken hand.

He has made all things beautiful in His time.

Reflections on 42

I finished Shepherding a Child’s Heart last week, and since then I’ve been pondering what to write about it. To be honest, it laid bare several issues in my parenting that needed to be dealt with. The exposed flesh is raw and painful, reminding me of my desperate need for grace and help as I raise the children God has given me.

And grace He has promised to give.

If you are raising kids and have never read this book, I highly recommend it. The principles laid out are vastly different from anything you’ve ever heard about parenting, unless you read different magazines and websites than I do. Rather than simply addressing behavior, Dr. Tripp counsels you to address the heart issues behind the behavior. This goes against pretty much everything you read everywhere else, which basically is behaviorism: reward the good behavior; ignore or punish the bad behavior. While behaviorism is often successful, it doesn’t address the needs of the child’s heart.

I found this book so incredibly convicting. God used it to address the needs of my heart. How can I shepherd my children to live lives that glorify God when I so often live only for myself?

I was also specifically convicted in the area of communication, which Dr. Tripp dwells on as one of the most important methods of biblical child rearing. He speaks on the importance of dialogue, as opposed to parent-based monologues.

A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions. (Proverbs 18:2)

He who answers before listening– that is his folly and his shame. (Provers 18:13)

I am definitely guilty of answering before listening, and airing my own opinions rather than seeking understanding.

Honestly, the whole book is rich with insight and practical application in raising children. Although we have a long way to go, I have been gradually applying some of these principles as I work with my kids, and I have been so pleased with seeing them obeying more quickly and thinking through their responses, especially to each other.

I could sit here and write about all the things I found convicting and useful and helpful, but I’d basically be re-typing the book. Which is frowned upon is most circles.

So, basically, you should read this book if you have kids and are looking for biblical methods to raise them. You will be convicted, and you will be blessed.

And I get to cross another thing off my list!