Where's Your Head?

When Catherine was about 10 months old, we taught her "where's your head?" It provided us hours of entertainment to watch her put her hands on her head in delight. It was especially fun at her 1st birthday party when, while covered in cupcakes and icing, my sister asked, "Catherine, where's your head?"

So we decided that Will should know the same kinds of joy and pleasure from this game. Jay has been working on it with him every night at dinner for the past week or so. Will finally caught on in the last few days and now thinks that any time he's in his high chair he's supposed to touch his head! The result is an even messier Will than we had before! It's so cute to watch him. He's so proud of himself that he laughs and squeals with delight and then claps and gives us high-5's. We'll keep practicing to make sure he'll be ready for his birthday party.

The Truth #13

Truth #13 from Lies Women Believe (I warned you that I was catching up!) is that I am responsible before God for my behavior, responses, and choices. God does not hold me accountable for the actions of others, but I am responsible for how I respond to them. We can control how we respond to the circumstances that He allows to come into our lives. When I stop blaming other people or circumstances for my sinful behaviors or negative patterns in my life, I will be free to obey God, regardless of my circumstances.

Ezekiel 18: 20"The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of his son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him." God looks at people individually and judges them accordingly.

It's very hard to control our responses when we feel that we have been wronged or we are the victim of a situation. But Jesus gave us the ultimate example. 1 Peter 2:23 "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered he made no threats. Instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."

This has been a huge lesson for me over the past few years. I am not responsible for the decisions and actions of others--my family, my friends, even my husband and children. Obviously, I should be living my life in a way to point them to Christ and not cause any stumbling blocks for them. I should allow God to use me in my relationships with them. But I am not responsible for their sin; I am not their Holy Spirit. I am only required to be faithful and obedient in my response to the circumstances God has placed me in. That is very freeing.

The Truth #12

Truth #12 from Lies Women Believe is that Through the power of His Holy Spirit, God will enable me to do anything He commands me to do. God does not command us to do anything that He does not give us the grace to obey. For example, there is no one we cannot forgive or cannot love. We can give thanks in all things and be content in every circumstance. By God's Holy Spirit, we can choose to forgive, to love, to give thanks, and to be content because we are filled with His Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5:24 reassures us that "The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it." and Philippians 2:13 "for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."

One of my favorites is Philippians 4:11-13 "for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

A lot of people use the "I can do everything..." verse as a motivational, inspirational verse--which it is. But I think it's often taken out of context. People use it to inspire them to run marathons, win football games, or accomplish major goals. All of these may be great things to do. But the context of the verse is Paul doing all things for God through his struggles. If God can give Paul the grace and power to obey the work He gave him, then we can be reassured that He will give us the power we need too.

The Truth #11

Truth #11 from Lies Women Believe is God's word is sufficient to lead me, teach me, and heal me. God's word is alive and powerful. It is sufficient to meet any need I have. People around me don't need to know my opinions or suggestions. I need to point them to the Truth of His Word so that they will know His commands, His promises, and His ways.

Psalm 19:7 "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statues of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple." Psalm 119:105 "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

I know that the Bible is powerful and has the ability to change me. But for some reason, I still feel the need to read books about topics on my heart instead of just seeking God's Word. The truth is, even if I never read another marriage, parenting, or Christian book, the Bible would be sufficient to teach me all I need to know. God may use other books to help point us to His Word, but we should never let other material take the place of what He has given us.

The Truth #10

I've gotten a little behind with posting the "Truths" so I'll try to catch up over the next day or two. Hopefully it won't be an overload.

Truth #10 from Lies Women Believe is that My past does not have to plague me. Through Christ I am made clean and new. I am no longer what I once was. I have been set apart for His holy purposes and declared righteous in the eyes of God. My past does not have to be a hindrance. My past can be a stepping stone to greater victory and fruitfulness.

Galatians 5:24-25 "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." I Corinthians 6: 9-11 "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived...And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

Everyone has a "past"--some may seem worse than others, but we're all sinful until we turn to God and accept his forgiveness. For most of us (myself included) we let decisions and actions of many years ago still hold us captive. We still feel a slave to sins of long ago. But God has made us new. We are His and He sees no more record of wrongs. So we should let the past make us look ahead and run even closer to Christ, not constantly look back at where we're coming from. Galatians 5:1 has become one of my favorite verses about letting the past go: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

Will at the Beach

A few fun pics of Will at the beach (I promise I'm about done with all of the beach pictures!)

Will learned how to give "fives" this week. He would get so excited about it and was so proud of himself that he would clap. Too cute

Will loving the water

Having fun on the swing

Will's new adventure of mobility this week was that he learned to climb the stairs. Since our house doesn't have stairs, this hasn't been an issue yet. But he figured it out there within the first day. He, of course, thought that it was a great new adventure. The rest of us were on constant stair watch. The one day we left Catherine and Will with the guys while we went shopping, the guys solved the problem by barricading the stairs with all of the pillows in the house. At least if he fell, he would have a soft landing??

Catherine at the Beach

A few fun pics of Catherine at the beach:

look at those adorable pigtails! ready to build a sand castle

totally worn out from the day

enjoying her pink "margarita" at the restaurant

having fun on the swings. with 6 adults, she managed to convince someone to take her for a walk or to swing at least once an hour!

Family Days at the Beach

Our week at the beach is the only time that all of the Hattens are together during the year except for Christmas. Melissa (Jay's sister) and Andy (her husband) live in Pennsylvania, so it's hard to see them often. This was the first time we had seen them since last Christmas. We enjoy having this week all together.

The whole family together (from L to R: Andy, Melissa, Steve, Marcy, Catherine, Betsy, Will, and Jay)

Aunt Wissa holding Will

Uncle "E" (as Catherine calls him) talking with Catherine

For dinners this year, we cooked in our condo instead of going out as much. Those of you with small children know that it's just not that much fun to take them out to restaurants every night. So we divided into 3 teams---Jay and Marcy, Andy and me, and Melissa and Steve. We had a lot of fun preparing food for everyone and the food was very good.

Lazy Days at the Beach

We just returned from Hatten family vacation week at the beach. We had a great trip. I have multiple posts to cover all of the photos, but I figured I would start with the basics...the beach itself.

Baby Will and Daddy playing at the ocean early one morning. Will loved being out on the beach. He would just grin from ear to ear as soon as we got to the sand.

Jay and Catherine going for one of their many walks together. (I took this picture from our balcony.)

Catherine and Will playing in the "little ocean" (tide pools) one afternoon. Will was fascinated by the sand on his hands (and subsequently ate a good bit of it) and Catherine was very entertained with pouring sand on Will's head.

Will's favorite activity was to crawl through the water and splash.

The other eventful happening at the beach was that Jay got stung by a jellyfish. It was not pretty. He was in more pain than I've ever seen him in. We coated him down with vinegar on them and it was hurting so much he was biting on a towel. When we went to the grocery store that afternoon, the pharmacist said to put meat tenderizer on it. So Jay now has some very tender and juicy legs after sitting with a meat tenderizer paste on them for hours :) Thankfully it worked and his legs feel much better now.

10 Months Old

Will is 10 months old today. He is still growing so much and learning new things, especially how to move, every day. He's so much fun!

Naked before bath time

Today he learned how to clap. He was sort of surprised by it, but he's done it quite a bit this afternoon.

Catherine was giving Will some clapping lessons.

Union afternoon

We spent yesterday in Union, where I grew up. We went mostly to spend some time with Mama Belk, my grandmother who suffered a stroke at the beginning of July. She is improving so much. She came home from the hospital about 10 days ago. She is doing very well with her mobility and is still working on her speech. They said it would take 6 months to a year for the speech to get back to normal, but that they expect her to make pretty much a full recovery. That is so encouraging!

Here we are with Mama Belk. She's such a trooper! She loved spending some time with Catherine and Will yesterday.

While we were in Union, I also had the joy of pulling my neice Maddyson's first tooth. It has been very wiggly for a while now and she told me I could pull it. When I did, I caught her by surprise. She didn't think I really would do it. She was very startled for a few minutes but then we did a little celebration dance and she was okay!