The Truth #3

Truth #3 from Lies Women Believe is I am complete and accepted in Christ. I don't have to do anything to make myself acceptable to God. I can stand before Him, even though I'm a sinner, because Jesus is the acceptable sacrifice for me and I stand in Christ.

Ephesians 1:4-6 says "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."

When I think about being complete and accepted in Christ, I think of the phrase I learned from a Philip Yancey book years ago. "There's nothing you can do to make God love you any more. There's nothing you can do to make God love you any less." This is hard for me. I like to think of myself as a "good" person who does "good" things that would surely make God love me more. I think I should be able to earn his favor. But that's not the case. He chose me before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless; before I could even think about being "good". And that's why it's called GRACE. It's a gift; I didn't earn it; I don't deserve it. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast." (Eph 2: 8-9)

I've also had to learn a lot about God choosing me. I grew up with more of an emphasis on the free will aspect of accepting what God has done for me and thinking that I had to go to Him to become His. And although I still don't totally understand the balance between the "free will" vs. "predestination" issue, God clearly tells us that He chose me before I was even born to be His. He did this because it brings Him pleasure and glory. Again, there is nothing I can do to earn this gift of his favor. My only hope is to cling to Christ, who is perfect. Through Him, God makes me pure and complete and freely gives me (and you) grace through the One He loves, His only Son Jesus.

Normal Days

We've just had a lot of "normal" days lately, so there hasn't been anything all that newsworthy to post about, but I figured most people (especially the grandparents!) are more interested in seeing pictures of Catherine and Will than simply reading my rambling thoughts on other topics. So here are a few pics from the past week or so.

Catherine and Will in the grocery car at Publix. With both of them down in the front of the buggy, it's almost like I'm in the grocery store by myself. (almost....) Don't they look excited?

Fun in the bathtub!

Catherine has been on a major creative streak lately. Every day she wants to make some kind of craft. This week, we've made an octopus, crab, fish, and bugs. She loves to paint. And as you can see, she mostly likes to paint her own fingers once the project is done.

Will is definitely teething and chewing on everything. I keep checking every day for teeth, but no new ones yet. Be careful if you hold him; he occasionally mistakes your shoulder as a teether!

Be Careful What You Ask

Last night, Jay came home from work and had just enough time to change clothes and eat dinner with us before he headed to church for a deacon's meeting. While we were eating dinner, Catherine kept looking at Jay with a puzzled look, like she was studying his shirt. We thought maybe it was because he had changed clothes; he doesn't normally put on a polo shirt and khakis for dinner. So finally Jay asked her, "Catherine, do you not like my shirt?" Her response was classic: "No, and I don't like your shoes either." So be careful what you ask of a 2 year old. You may get an answer.

The Truth #2

The second truth from the book Lies Women Believe is that God loves me and wants me to have His best. God loves us because He IS love. There is nothing we can do to make him love us more or to make him love us less. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve His love. Because He loves us, He wants us to experience all the joy in life He designed us to know.

Romans 8:32 says "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" 1 John 4:10: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." Psalm 21: 6 "Surely you have granted him eternal blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence." (also see Romans 8: 35-39, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 3:17-19, and Psalm 21: 2-3)

I guess I've always known that God loves me, but I think I often forget how much he truly loves me or question whether or not he really likes me. The thought of God loving me personally and being concerned with my joy is hard for me to understand sometimes. Lately a lot of my studies have been more about God giving people suffering and trials to make them more like Christ, so it was good for me to be reminded that God also gives us joy.

The key is knowing where this joy comes from, because there can be joy even in suffering and trials. Psalm 21:6 has the answer, "the joy of your presence." When we're in God's presence, we should be filled with joy. And since God dwells in us through his Holy Spirit, we should always be glad with the joy of his presence. Again, I think this is something I often take for granted as I just go through day to day life. And so my prayer needs to be that of Ephesians 3: 17-19 "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know his love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

The Truth #1

This past year my Mentor Moms Bible study did the book Lies Women Believe (by Nancy Leigh DeMoss). The book focused on lies and deception that women often believe about God and themselves, even though we usually don't realize what we believe. Satan has very cleverly deceived us in so many ways. Each of the "lies" was countered by The Truth of what God says through His Word (the Bible). At the end of the year, some of us said that we were going to study these truths again through the summer. Well, it's the end of June and I just did Truth #1 this past week (and I think there may be 22 of them). I figure if I post them, it will help hold me accountable to going through them all. And I figured it may be a help someone else also.

So here's truth #1: God is good. That sounds simple enough and most people would say that they believe this. But it's very easy to think you agree that God is good when you're healthy, you have a job, your marriage is going well, you have the exact number of children you want when you want them, etc. But do we still proclaim that God is good when you have cancer? lose your job? get a divorce? have an unexpected pregnancy? a miscarriage?

"The truth is, regardless of our circumstances, regardless of what we feel, regardless of what we think, God is good and everything He does is good." (DeMoss, pg 254) Psalm 119:8 says "You are good and what you do is good; teach me your decrees." Psalm 136:1 "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever." Psalm 34:8 "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (also see Psalm 100:5, Psalm 106:1, and Romans 8: 31-32)

Right now I'm in a season of life that I consider to be pretty good. I have a wonderful husband, 2 beautiful healthy children. We have a nice home, good friends and family, great church, etc. But would I still praise God in the same way if all of these things were taken from me? I pray that He will use this "good" season of my life to prepare me for times that may not be as easy. We all know that we will have trouble in this world (John 16:33) but He has overcome this world. So I pray that I will be so rooted and established in His love that this Truth will flow from my lips, even when the trouble comes. For God is good. His love endures forever. Praise the Lord!

F301

On Saturday, my Furman roommates and I (apartment F301) spent the day in Asheville for our annual summer get together. It is always so great to be with them. Although we all do a good job of staying in touch regularly, it's just great to all be in one place at one time and have a conversation that doesn't require 8 emails being circulated between the 4 of us. I love these girls so much! I do still miss our days at Furman when we could just walk to the dining hall and have dinner together or stay up late talking or just be there with each other for the little things.

We've gotten together every Christmas and summer (and a few more times at special events like wedding and baby showers) since we graduated. We were trying to remember what we've done for all of our get togethers yesterday and there were a few that we couldn't come up with. It hasn't been that many years and we're already struggling. So we decided we needed to start writing these things down or there's no way we'll remember in 20 years. And we really still aren't sure exactly what we did for Christmas 2004....

In case you don't know these lovely ladies, they are (from L to R) Marianne Creamer, Jill (Bryant) Cothran, me, and Sara (Watts) Miller.
I am truly blessed to be their friend.

On the Move

Will is crawling! Last night he just started crawling across the rug. I think he was trying to get Catherine's shoes. He's been trying so hard these past few weeks and has been going every direction except forward. He was so frustrated with going backwards and around in circles that he has figured out how to sit himself back up. But then last night, he just started crawling, like it wasn't a new thing at all. Jay and I got so excited and cheered and clapped so much that we scared him. He started crying and just sat back up and looked at us like "what did i do?" So the next time he crawled, we couldn't show our enthusiasm quite so much.

This is Will's other trick he learned while trying to crawl. He would push himself totally up off his knees. A little bit like "down dog" for those of you who may know yoga.

"How did I get under here?" Poor guy...going backwards gets you into the strangest predicaments.

"Maybe I'll try to go get that really big ball"

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

I just want to publicly say how much I admire Jay. He is such a fantastic dad for Catherine and Will. I am constantly amazed at his leadership for our family and his willingness to serve both them and me on a daily basis. God has been so good to me by giving me Jay as a husband. And I know Catherine and Will feel the same way about their daddy. Catherine's favorite part of the day, I'm pretty sure, is when Jay gets home. She wants to wait outside as soon as he calls to say he's on his way. And then as soon as she sees his car, she runs to him, yelling "Daddy, Daddy" the whole way. Who would want a better welcome home? And although Will can't verbalize it yet, I can see it in his eyes. If Jay is in the room, he always watches him. He'll get this big smile behind his pacifier and just look at Jay like "Finally...my dad...a guy!" Watching Jay with our children has been one of my favorite parts of marriage. So Happy Father's Day, Jay! I love you.
(And Happy Father's Day to Papa and Poppop too!)

Recovering Eden

I was reading Newsweek last night after everyone was asleep and the house was quiet. I flipped through and read articles about Obama vs. Hillary vs. McCain, the impending economic crisis, the fuel shortage that now has scientists using bacteria to create fuel, and even people who travel around the world to eat food in hopes of satisfying their soul. Quite honestly, it's enough to make anyone feel depressed!

But as I was lying in bed thinking about it, none of this should be a surprise. All of these problems are a result of the Fall. The world just isn't right. We all know that. Just look at any of these national or global issues. Or just look at your own life--relationships with family and friends, sickness, divorce, financial troubles, etc. The world isn't right; life is difficult. And we can elect a new President, we can find a new fuel source, we can eat the most wonderful meal in the world, but none of that will satisfy our soul. We aren't made for this world. And all of these things should remind us of that and draw us closer to the only One who can satisfy our soul.

Jay read something a few weeks ago to me about how all the "progress" people have ever made in this world, from inventing a wheel to a computer, is simply trying to recreate Eden. We're trying to achieve that state where everything would work easily for us and our lives would be blissful. But that's not going to happen until Christ returns and redeems this world and we can see Him face to face. All of creation knows it (Romans 8: 18-25) but we sometimes forget it. We spend so much time trying to fix all of the problems here. Let's cure cancer, great--but people are still going to die of something. Let's only use anti-aging products on our whole bodies, great--but our bodies are still going to decay. Let's fix global warming, great--but Christ is making a new Earth. I'm not saying that we shouldn't worry about these things, but I think we get so easily distracted by them that we allow them to take our focus off the eternal.

So the next time you're listening to the news or reading a magazine, don't let it make you depressed. Let it be a reminder to you that one day it will all be made right again. And for that we have hope.

One of the Reasons I love Greenville

One of the reasons I love living in Greenville is because there's always something to do! For example, this weekend is the Scottish festival. I'm not Scottish (that I know of anyway) but I thought it may be fun to go to the parade downtown last night. I really enjoyed listening to the bagpipes, and who doesn't like men in skirts?

Catherine's favorite part was seeing the Chick-fil-a Cow. (Chick-fil-a is definitely her favorite restaurant. She refers to it as eating at "The Cow".)

Baby Will was enjoying the parade too! I was worried he would be a little intimidated by the loud bagpipes because he's not a fan of really loud noises, but he seemed to enjoy it (or at least tolerate it for my enjoyment).

Summer Time Fun

We've been enjoying the nice, warm summer afternoons so much. Catherine and Will both love to be outside. Every day, Catherine suggests that we go outside and play after her nap, like it's a brand new idea. She'll say, "After my nap, go outside and play, maybe?" I've decided that one of the best things about being a mom is that you have a reason to go outside and play, without feeling silly about just playing in a sprinkler by yourself!

Playtime at Butler Springs Park:
They just finished remodeling the park with all new playground equipment and walking trails. It's great because it's within walking distance of our house.

Playing outside in the yard:

8 Months Old

Will is 8 months old today! He is such a sweet little man. He gives the best hugs and cuddles.
He's currently trying to crawl. He'll get up on his hands and knees and rock, but isn't really getting anywhere yet. He has 2 teeth and LOVES to eat! He cries when the food is all gone. He's not very picky either. He eats squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, peas, green beans, corn, apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, turkey, cheese, yogurt, and anything he can grab off our plates when we're not looking. He's a lot like Jay in his personality. He laughs and smiles a lot at home and with people he's comfortable with. But if he's in a big group of people, he just sits back and watches everyone to see what's going on. He is such a joy in our family!