" Lord, be good to those who are good,

whose hearts are honest."

Psalm 125:4

Mercy Mercy Mercy

I have found myself (yet again!) in the position to extend mercy, grace, and forgiveness. An injustice has occurred against one of my children. He came forward about a sinful situation that he witnessed, and although he did everything appropriately and spoke the truth in love, the messenger is being shot. As a mother this is very difficult to experience. I want to protect my sons from anything that would cause them pain. I am having to pray a lot and remind myself that God calls us to forgive as He forgave us, which is a lot! I know He understands how I feel, too, as His own perfect Son was ridiculed and rejected for speaking the truth.

To make this situation even more difficult, at a meeting to try to bring reconciliation between the two parties, my child was treated with anger and disrespect, with his father and I sitting right there beside him! Interestingly, today's bible study lesson focused on Psalm 123, which says "Have mercy on us, O Lord, for we have endured much contempt" (verse 3). So, I join the psalmist in asking for God's favor and mercy. I'm trusting Jesus to be our Advocate. Sometimes hearing the truth is difficult but my child did the right thing. Although it looks in the natural like he is being punished because of someone else's sin, I am looking to the One who is enthroned in heaven (Psalm123:1), our ultimate Authority, to intervene, convict of sin, protect a relationship, and guard our hearts.

I choose to forgive and because God grants me mercy, I can extend it to someone else. Speaking of mercy, here is a beautiful song about God's mercy that our family watches on EWTN on weekends. It's a Catholic prayer. We love it. Noah sings it and knows all the words. We've watched it so much that we ordered the DVD so we can enjoy it whenever we want. The actual song begins almost three minutes into the video if you are short on time.

Ahhhhhhh..........

I am the proud recipient of a clean house. I was blessed with a photography shoot recently, and decided to splurge and treat myself by hiring a lady to come and clean my house. Since the baby came, no heavy cleaning has been done! There is just not enough time or energy to do anything other than the most basic household tasks, and the dust everywhere was driving me crazy. I absolutely loved coming home to cleanliness. What a blessing to be able to relax in a tidy home! I cleared away all the clutter and my "maid", as Charity called her, took care of everything else. The clean floors feel wonderful to my bare feet, there's no Noah-height fingerprints all over the glass doors, and the furniture is polished so well that the cat slides off.

My Wal-Mart Woes

Wal-Mart is not my favorite place to shop. I am forced there by the low prices. I endure the long lines, crowded aisles, and bad service to feed a hungry family of six. Well today's trip takes the cake!

I left Noah and Isaac with Bo and headed off with a long list of things we needed: household items, groceries for the week, and baby food. Isaac isn't ready for baby food, but I had ten coupons that expired soon so I went ahead and stocked up with four full bags of pureed bananas, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans....you get the idea. So anyway, I get to the check out and there are HARDLY ANY CASH REGISTERS OPEN so all the shoppers are crammed into LONG LINES and forced to WAIT while hoping the milk doesn't go bad in the meantime. I decide to be patient and make the best of it. What the heck, I'm kid-free, I'll just relax, clean out my purse, text the kids. Joshua and Caleb and I text back and forth a while and then PRAISE GOD it's my turn. It's been about twenty or thirty minutes. I load all my stuff onto the belt and the cashier rings everything up and scans my coupons. On the last one, the little computer thingy that controls the register FREEZES UP and she can't complete my transaction. A manager comes over and says "wait a few minutes and see if it will clear". Wonderful, more waiting. There is still a LONG LINE, mind you, and people GETTING ANNOYED behind me. So the cashier and I just stand there, waiting on the computer, looking each other. My phone beeps and it's Bo, texting me "BABY HUNGRY". Now I get upset. I tell the cashier I can't continue to wait, I am breastfeeding and my baby is hungry. The manager comes back to see if the cash register came back to life and when she sees it hasn't, tells me we have to re-scan everything. WHAT????? Yes, I had to pull all my bags out of the cart, dump everything back on the belt of a new cash register, and re-scan every item INCLUDING ALL FIFTY OF THOSE LITTLE BABY FOOD JARS. This takes another twenty minutes and by then my patience is gone, my breasts are full, and my nerves are frayed. Jesus help me.

Out of the mouth of babes

Noah's friend Luke came home with us from preschool yesterday for a playdate. I was having a "large time" (as my friend Suzette says!) listening to these little guys converse in the back seat. Here's the conversation:

Noah: Is my face stupid?

Luke: Yes.

Noah: I thought so, thank you.

Noah: I don't like my face anymore.

Luke: Yea, I don't like the way God made me.

Noah: Yea, I wish I had another head.

Heee Heee Heee

Happy Baby, part two

Is he cute or what??????



If you can't view the video, go to this link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0YW_av7R6g

Happy Baby

Does everyone know that Isaac's name means

LAUGHTER!!!!!?????

Evil Intent???

In response to Alex's question from the post "I have a dream" http://aprilchapel.blogspot.com/2008/01/i-have-dream.html , asking if I agreed with the thought that Joseph's brothers didn't intend to harm him but were playing a practical joke....

Well of course the bible doesn't always reveal what intentions were at work so we have to look at the facts. Seems to me that after playing second fiddle to a favored child all those years, those brothers might harbor some jealousy and ill will toward Joseph. In Genesis 42 the brothers claim responsibility and accept guilt so I'd say their actions were intentional. Even if they weren't, there are always consequences to our actions.

When it comes to the human heart, I think if we are not purposely intentional about being kind and loving, we'd be left to our own devices and wound our brothers and sisters all the time. Jeremiah 17:9 says "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?". If we don't turn to the Lord and seek his heart about how to respond to each other we would make foolish decisions that cause damage to each other's hearts and lives like Joseph. We'd throw each other into the pit and sell one another into slavery. Did Joseph's brothers seek the wisdom of God about how to handle their feelings toward Joseph? I'd say that's a big NO. I'm sure they didn't think this through, consider what affect it would have on their father, or their relationship with God. We do the same thing today. Although we are not accountable for each other, we are accountable to each other, and of course we are accountable to God.

A while back I went to a friend about a wound they had caused me. Wanting to be honest and direct and repair the relationship I, in love, expressed how my heart had repeatedly been sacrificed to placate someone else. My friend's response was "well, I didn't intend to". Well, okay, but they also didn't intend to do anything other than expect me to patiently endure disrespect. I would have appreciated, "yes, I did not treat you right, let me now mend the damage."

Lord, help us be mindful of the effects our decisions will have on tender human hearts. Teach us to treat one another in love. You are love. Pour Your love in our hearts.

Isaac's Birth Story

In addition to photography, I also create photo stories. I just finished Isaac's, here it is. Click center triangle twice. It includes photos from my pregnancy, labor, and delivery. My belly is exposed but there are no graphic pictures. I am happy to share my birth story with you.



If you cannot view from the screen above, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VEaevXXgsQ