2.20.2014

What are your words saying?

I love our church and I love our Ekidz program. My girls come home each week excited to tell me about their Bible story and what they learned for the day. This weekend they were super excited to tell me about their Bible verse.

May these words of my mouth…be pleasing to you O Lord.” Psalm 19:14

We had the most amazing conversation about how our words can either build people up or hurt them and how Jesus loves when we are kind to others. We talked about examples of how we can say pleasing words. Their examples: "Tell my friends at school that I like playing with them." "Tell my sister we can share the toy." "Say kind words but also do kind things for people, like open a door for them."

I love opening up these discussions with my 5 year olds and hearing what their little minds come up with. We have even had several moments this week where the girls started getting mad at one another and saying somewhat mean things, but all I had to say was "may these words of my mouth..." and they corrected themselves.

I think I sometimes fear that kids will be mean because my children may look different or go to the doctor way more, but I have girls that truly want the words from their mouth to be pleasing to the Lord. And I think that when we act that way it opens the door for those around us to act with kindness. Of course we are all human, 5 years olds and 50 year olds will say unkind things but what do you do when you remember that Jesus is listening to all the words that you say?

I love that the Bible is for everyone! This verse is just as much for me as it is for my 5 year olds. What things are coming out of my mouth? Am I building others up? Am I voicing things out of love? What have I said that could be hurtful that I need to apologize for? What things am I saying that I don't truly understand and instead need to show restraint and keep my words in? Am I showing the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) in the way I speak?

How much better could our day go if we start by saying "May these words of my mouth be pleasing to you Jesus"?





2.19.2014

Snow!

If you are from the South you know that last week we had one of the largest amounts of snow that I have seen in a long time! And then the past two days my kids have been wearing short sleeve shirts. The weather here is definitely interesting.

I wanted let you know some of the stuff that we did in the snow that incorporated some of our therapy but Liana had fun instead of thinking it was work. You probably won't be in the snow again this year but maybe it will be helpful for the next time. And pretty much all of these are things you would do anyway but now you can see what a great job you are doing by throwing PT and OT in there!

1. We went sledding. We don't own a legit sled but we tried various methods to go down the hill. We used cardboard, laundry baskets, and a plastic bin lid in a trash bag. Our personal favorite ended up being the bin top in a trash bag. The girls had to bunch up the trash bag at the end and Liana had to use two hands to sled and also even her weight on both sides to not fall off.

2. We rolled down our hill. Both girls got on their side and rolled down our hill. Liana loved this but it was challenging for her to keep rolling. I know that was using a lot of core strength for her.

3. Snowballs. Who doesn't love to throw snowballs? We had to use two hands to pack the snow and then we worked on aiming it at targets (mostly Wade).

4. Snowman. I think our family made a pretty impressive snowman. The girls helped make snowballs and would roll them on the ground to get them bigger. They also had to help with packing and placing the snowman accessories on.

5. Snow cream. The girls actually didn't help me make this, but this would have been a perfect opportunity to have Liana scoop up the fresh snow with a big spoon and then stir all the ingredients together. Guess we can do that next time. However, here is the ingredient for snow cream that I used.
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
(Mix all the above ingredients together and place in the freezer while you get some fresh snow. Then slowly add in the snow until you get fluffy ice cream)

I was hoping to add some pictures but my computer needs to load them so hopefully I can update this post soon with those.

2.10.2014

Crash the Chatterbox

Download this and more from GloryDesigns

I love being part of Elevation Church. The people are amazing, we serve with so many wonderful outreach partners, our worship experiences are incredible and we are truly blessed to get to hear an awesome message every week from Pastor Steven Furtick.

If you didn't get to hear the first week of the Crash the Chatterbox series you have to listen to it soon. You can go to watch it here.

In the sermon, Pastor Steven talks about how the "chatterbox" is the lies that surround you (from others and in your own head) and if you listen to them can keep you from the person God has designed you to be.

I began thinking about how moms deal with our "chatterbox" so often. How many of you have heard something like this in your mind...

"A good mom would never yell at her kids like I just did"
"My kids would be better off with someone else"
"I am not equipped or prepared to handle this"

The chatterbox can bring so many more thoughts into your mind that discourages you and pushes you to give up. But we have hope in Jesus. Jesus has defeated the enemy. He has power over the chatterbox and when you walk in the confidence of being a child of God you can overcome the chatterbox.

One of my favorite parts of the sermon was realizing "we can't stop or control what the chatterbox says to us but we can learn to block it out." Pastor showed the example of wearing headphones that can drown out the outside noise but we can also plug it into the living word and hear the voice of our Father.

This week when you want to think you aren't good enough, you can't handle it, you don't have what it takes...remember that you are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). And use this verse to change your inner thoughts from negative ones to ones that are uplifting!

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

To get Pastor Steven's new book and more info about it go to crashthechatterbox.com