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A day in the life of....well, me. :)


6:00am - Alarm goes off.  Another day.  Morning came way too quickly....again.  Hit the snooze button.

6:07am - Hit snooze again.

6:14am - Hit snooze again.

6:21am - You get the idea.

7:00am - Finally up.  NEED.  COFFEE.

7:05am - Slippers.  Check.  Bible.  Check.  COFFEE.  Check.   Cozy couch with warm, fuzzy blanket.  Check.  Check.

8:00am - Kids start to trickle downstairs.

8:05am - Wait!  What's that I hear?  Laughter?  No, yelling.  Trudge back up the stairs.

8:10am - "He's in my room!!!!"  More yelling.  Some tears.  A couple of foot stomps.  One wet bed.  Start the laundry.

8:15am - Get the kids dressed, teeth brushed and hair brushed.  We're doing good.

8:30am - Oldest daughter starts breakfast for everyone.  Stick coffee in the microwave to heat up.  Still 2/3rd's full.  Walk away.

8:45am -French Toast is served!  Bible time around the breakfast table.  A stray elbow knocks over a cup of milk.  Milk spills all over work.  *Sigh*

9:15am - Spill is cleaned up.  Breakfast is finished and bible stuff is all put away.  Out comes the school work.  While my back is turned loading up the dishwasher, the Lego bin is dumped out all over the kitchen floor, the boys start a sword-fighting duel, and a small tornado whips through my house at lightning speed.  Someone is yelling for me from the bathroom.  Give some quick instructions and then head down the hall.  Just a little poop on the floor.  No biggie.

9:30am - Mess is cleaned up.  Crisis averted.  WHERE IS MY COFFEE??  Check microwave.  Cold.  Set for another minute.  Ahhh...perfect.  Nice and hot.  Move onto memory work.  Math.  Reading.

10:30am - Quick!  Run upstairs and switch over the laundry.  Handwriting (a few tears).  Science experiment (a couple CHEERS!). 

--Temporary interruption due to two small children who shall remain nameless; creating a little science experiment of their own. ;) --

11:15am - Spelling test.  Check.  Vocabulary review.  Check.  History lesson.  Check.

12:15pm - BREATHE.....The kids scatter.  It's free time.  Time to think about lunch.  Pick up a couple random things off the floor.  One sock.  A handful of rogue Legos.  Some play food.  Not sure what the point is.  There's a lot more where these came from.  Collapse into a chair.  Finally I remember.  "Hey! My coffee!  Where DID it get to??"

I should have known. :)

All in all, I count that as a GREAT morning!!!  I think I may just about have the best job ever. :)

Kirsten

Shepherds and Sheep......and Cicadas?

I sat this morning out on my deck, my coffee in one hand and my Bible in the other, listening to a chorus of cicadas singing praise to their Creator.  And as I enjoyed my front-row seat, I began to read about shepherds and sheep. 

"As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.  I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.  I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land.  I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements of the land.  I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land.  There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.  I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord.  I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.  I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy.  I will shepherd the flock with justice."

~Ezekiel 34:11-16

Well, it is that time of year for me again .... time to finish up my lesson plans for the year.  I've scoured curriculum catalogs....searching for the "perfect" curriculum.  I've written up lessons plans, worked on objectives and ORGANIZED closets, bins and drawers....all in the attempts to "start off the year on the right foot". 

And as I read about the responsibility of shepherds to their sheep, the faces of my four little "sheep" entered my mind.  How am I fulfilling my calling to them?   Am I training them up in the way that they should go?  And am I doing it in a way that is honoring to God?

And so out came the pen and paper and the list began .....



Areas I'd like to see improvement:



~Heart-changing issues~

~First-time obedience~

~ Being more intentional about family devotions and praying with my children~

~Service to others~

 

And as I began to plan how I could begin to implement these things, God gently reminded me....I can do all these things, but in the end, the fate of my children does not depend on if I've used the right curriculum, penciled in enough service projects or crammed enough scripture verses into their little heads.  These are ALL good things, even NECESSARY things, but NOT the final determining factor in whether or not we will produce children who follow Him.  It's so easy to fall into the trap of placing our trust in methods, instead of trusting in God, isn't it?  Feels somewhat safer, tamer maybe.  And I am guilty as charged.

Yet in the end, the most important impact I will ever have as a mother on my children will be my prayers for them.  It will be MY relationship with the Lord.  It will be how I model Christ's love to them.  It will be the everyday praise that bubbles up out of me as a natural overflow of my love for Him.  Just like those cicadas. :)



Crazy little bugs, huh?  And yet, they bring Him praise just by being what they were created to be.  I kind-of want to be like that, you know?  Singing my heart out in praise as I do what I've been called to do.  Praising Him in the mundane.  In the countless diaper changes, piles of laundry and mounds of homeschool curriculum.  Praising Him when I am tired and feeling unequipped for the task at hand.  Singing my continuous song of praise and petition to Him as I go about my day doing what I've been called to do.  And doing it all for the glory of God.   Just because it is who I am.

And as I do, I pray that my children will have a front-row seat to the Savior.  That as I work on MY relationship with Him, as I pray and serve and love, as I offer a continual chorus of praise.....that they will glimpse Him and desire to do the same. 

Kirsten

My Reading List

Over the past several months I have posted excerpts from a few of the books that I have been reading.  Some of you have asked me to share those with you.  Here is a look at the books that have impacted me the most this year:



 

 

 

 

 

And just for fun....

 

Here's a peak at what's on my nightstand right now....



A memoir.  One couple's journey from infertility to adoption.



and



One courageous woman's personal  look at the HIV/AIDS crisis in Ethiopia.



And no reading list could be complete without my two all-time favorite novels.....

 

and

 

Summer's not over.  Grab a book and sit poolside.  Happy Reading!

Kirsten

Obedience

It's always amazing to me when God uses ordinary, everyday examples from my life to illustrate biblical principles.  Right now He is doing just that in the realm of obedience.  Any other parents out there with me on this?  I feel like I am living parallel lives as my worlds of training my children in obedience and my own personal obedience to the things God has laid on my heart collide.  And so, I've been asking God lately, "What is true obedience?"  "What does it look like in my children?"  "What does it look like in ME?"

I read this quote the other day in regards to training our children to obey our voice:

"As we teach our children to obey our voice, we're also teaching them to obey God's voice.  Someday, they will learn to hear His small, still voice in their hearts and they will know to obey Him because it is the right thing to do."

Isn't that what I want for them?  The ability to RECOGNIZE and OBEY the Creator's voice?  And it all starts here at home.....*sigh*.  Somedays I feel pretty ill-equipped to teach my children much of anything, particularly when it comes to weighty things like recognizing the voice of God.  In the midst of temper-tantrums, sibling squabbles and blatant defiance, it is hard to remember that the real reason I am here is not to play referee, but to point them to Him.  In. Every. Thing.

In the temper-tantrums.  In the sibling squabbles.  In the mundaneness (is that even a word?!!!?) that is life.  If I am only breaking up fights and changing the OUTWARD behaviors of my children instead of their hearts, aren't I doing them a disservice? 

Take the city of Sodom, for instance.  I have loved this verse ever since I came across it. 

"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom:  She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy."

~Ezekiel 16:49

What?!???  Sodom was not destroyed for its sexual sins and wickedness???  Apparently, those were merely the OUTWARD manefestations of the INWARD heart.

So as I've pondered and revisited issues of obedience with my own children lately,  it causes me to re-evaluate where I stand with God.  Do I recognize that still, small voice that resides in my heart?  Do I practice first-time obedience myself?  Do I simply exhibit OUTWARD behaviors, while ignoring the heart?

"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the OUTWARD appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

~ 1 Samuel 16:7

If I am completely honest with myself, I could stand to listen more closely to His voice.  There are certainly things He has placed on my heart with His still, small voice that I have yet to do.  Things that are hard.  Things that I am resistant to.  And what do I do?  I dig in my heels like a toddler.  I throw that temper tantrum.  I practice blatant defiance.  Because it is easier than giving up control and surrendering completely.  

JUST.  LIKE.  MY.  KIDS.

Man I love those crazy kids!  They teach me so much about myself and life.  So despite how difficult it may be, I'm gonna take another look at obedience.  I'm GOING to commit myself to heart-changing.  Because it's too important not to.  Because I want to give my kids the best shot at growing into mature adults who both RECOGNIZE and OBEY the Creator's voice.   Because God is laying it on my heart in His still, small voice and it is the right thing to do.  Because I want to be obedient to the task that God has laid before me.  I want to be obedient to Him.

Kirsten 

Parenting is not for the Faint-of-Heart

So, I've spent the last hour, roughly, sitting at my dining room table, just thinking.  My house is relatively quiet (well, as quiet as a house with four young kids gets!!) and the kids are busily playing downstairs.  And, yet,

Here.  I.  Sit. 

Not because there is nothing to do.  Upstairs, there is a musty stench that hits you when you reach the hallway.  I'm not sure if it is the three loads of dirty laundry that await me or the bathroom that desperately needs to be scrubbed.  There is a sink of dirty dishes in the kitchen and toys strewn around the house.  I haven't even peeked in the basement for fear that the kids will see me and then quiet time will be over.  We only got through about half of our schoolwork for the day before we (I) needed a break.  I have a mountain of projects to get done around the house before our home visit next week and some more paperwork to complete.  And yet, the silence beckons me.  To come.  To sit.  To do nothing.

Being a parent is hard.  Even when our day is through and the kids are all tucked into their beds, there is still much to be done.  A checklist to complete.  In some ways though, the checklist feels like the easy part.

Clean the toilets.  Check.
Make dinner.  Check. 
Give the kids baths.  Check.

What complicates my checklist though, is trying to balance it in the midst of relationships.  Making dinner looks a lot different with one kid hanging on me, another trying to show me the project she just made and two others fighting it out over a toy (can you guess who's who??!).  Yes, the checklist itself is the easy part...trying to complete it with diligence and grace, all the while loving on my four littles is what complicates things a bit. How often though, do I allow my "checklist" to come in the way of these relationships that I so value?

Isn't it the same way with God?  I have MY agenda.  I have MY plans.  I have MY checklist.  And in some ways, it would be a lot simpler.  This relationship thingy is what complicates matters!  Trying to do all that I need to do, while I am extending the love of Jesus to those around me and maintaining a relationship with God.  Yet, that is where the problem lies.

Too many I's and MY's and not enough of Him. 

David Platt, in the book, Radical, states:

"Instead of imagining all the things we can accomplish, we ask God to do what only He can accomplish.  Yes, we work, we plan, we organize, and we create, but we do it all while we fast, while we pray, and while we constantly confess our need for the provision of God.  Instead of dependence on ourselves, we express radical desperation for the power of His Spirit."

Learning to surrrender my plans is hard, however, settling for a life apart from His resources and His Spirit is even harder.  Because, in the end, when I don't depend on God and try to do things in my own strength, I am nothing more than a Pharisee, trying to do good by my works.  I am holding onto the law, holding onto what is comfortable, and forgetting about the relationship.

In Luke 10 we find the all too familiar story of the two sisters, Mary and Martha, as they anxiously await the arrival of Jesus to their home.  Martha, is busy in the kitchen....cleaning, cooking, baking....she's got her checklist!  Mary, on the other hand, is sitting at the feet of Jesus.  She has put aside her "to-do list" and is invested in the relationship.  And what does Jesus say of her?

"Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.  Mary has chosen the better part." 

 ~Luke 10:42

 

So I'm gonna give it another try today.  I'm gonna give myself permission to enjoy my kids amidst the clutter and chaos.  I may not have the luxury of abandoning my checklist altogether, but I will press into Him and attempt my chores in His strength, all the while investing in the relationships around me. 

The laundry can wait. :) 



Kirsten