‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎‏jenn on a journey: April 2008

Lessons from the little one

Recently I had the pleasure of doing our bedtime rituals with my son by myself, as my husband was working late that night. A deeply profound thought occurred to me, as it so often does, in the middle of our ‘goings on’. Being a 2 year-old, Dylan has at times chosen to communicate his frustrations through crying and fussing. This of course gets my attention and I intervene as best I can in a timely manner. But on this particular night he chose to “use his words” and tell me what he wanted and needed. I can’t tell you what a difference that made in my spirit and sensitivity. To hear him verbalize to me what his desires were touched me and made me desire to reach out and extend fellowship to him – to let him know that ‘yes, I am accessible and would love to help you, if only you will call on me’. At that instance, I had an “Aha!” moment with God. In my heart, the Holy Spirit showed me “It is exactly the same way with me.” God will answer us even if our cry to Him is an “Uggggh!” But there is something that captures His heart when He hears us cry “Abba, Father, help me. I need/want this.” He has always invited us to lay our burdens at His feet and through Christ has welcomed us into His presence. When we call Him by name and make our requests known to Him, we can know that we are making the Father smile.

Dylan, thank you for the lessons that you are teaching me about the Lord. So small, yet you are leading me to learn more about the God I have worshipped my whole life. From the womb your Father and I have prayed that you would one day come to know this Savior we call Jesus. I love you, son!

Top 10 reasons why I love my husband

In anticipation of our upcoming 8th anniversary, I have compiled a list for you, Babe. I am posting it on my blog so everyone else can know the wonderful things about you that I love so much. Happy Anniversary (early)! Here goes...

10. Tim can build a computer from the ground up with just a couple of pieces of conductor wire, a CPU tower, and a processor...and he can fix anything that has a mother board or a memory card in it :)

9. He loves Shakey's almost as much as I do.

8. He lets me win at basketball ;)

7. He tells me I am beautiful.

6. He watches chick-flicks with me.

5. He fixes my blog when I mess it up or need help with new features.

4. He gave me 2 dozen roses for Valentine's Day.

3. Twice when I was throwing-up sick, he stayed by my side and held my hair back so it didn't fall in the wastecan. (That is true love)

2. He is a GREAT father to Dylan

1. He answered God's call to be a minister.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

We enjoyed a lazy Sunday afternoon. We spent sometime laying around and watching "Bible Action Songs" video. Thanks Nana! Click the last picture to see a short clip.

Silence of the Lamb of God

Silence. The lack of sound or noise. Ahhh, not a peep. Silence is golden.

Seeing as we have a 2-year-old, we wouldn't know much about that word. But the Lord has been pressing a concept on my heart this week regarding silence in our spiritual lives and the times when seemingly God is not traceable in our midst. In a noisy crowd, it is often difficult to make out anything intelligibly strung together. So many distractions and voices compete for our attention. But silence and quiet voices are different. They cause us to tune our ear closely in order to hear any sound whatsoever. Why are we so surprised when we go through times where God's voice is difficult to discern? Isn't it those times when He is drawing us closest to Him? He is giving us the opportunity to tune out the distractions that surround us and calibrate the cochlea of our hearts to His frequency alone. How? By making himself so faint that He almost seems silent, so that we have to block out all other noises to hear the timeless wisdom only He can give. If God threw himself out there as another loud voice in the crowd, how could we distinguish? He is found in that still, small voice known as the Holy Spirit. The Bible puts it this way, in the form of a promise: "Be still and KNOW (emphasis mine) that I am God." Psalm 46:10
Also, this silence may cause us to cry out saying "God, where are you? I can't hear you!" And thus begins the dialogue God likes to call "prayer". One would like to think that God wouldn't have to resort to this to get one to call upon Him, but trust me, I'm sure I've been there!! Remember the game we played as kids "Marco, Polo"? God does not mind playing Polo. He is pleased with whatever it takes for us to find Him, even calling out to Him until we hear Him call back.

This week was our state's Children's Week and Dylan enjoyed a festival-like atmosphere at preschool each day he went. This picture is from Wacky Day where the kids were supposed to dress wacky. In case the pic isn't clear, he had an inside-out t-shirt, rolled up sweat pants, one red and one orange sock, and swim shoes!

This week we also began a new series known as Adventures in Potty Training. So far we have wet in 6 pairs of pants and underwear. Mom has washed the couch cushions twice and mopped up the floor three times. But there have been many more moments showing positive promise...we have had countless M&M's for successful attempts. When I saw what is in the picture below, I was a little unsure of how this would go. But so far, so good for a kid who'd rather pee in his pants than use the potty, and a Mom and Dad who are being as consistent as they can but both work full-time! Tune in next time for more fun in the Adventures in Potty Training!