I Remember

There is a verse in the Bible that states: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”   (John 15:13 NIV)  This morning I woke up thinking about this today.  You see it is Memorial Day today, the day that we honor those who have served our country and have fought for our freedom.  Today is a day we thank those in active military service or a veteran.  Today is a day for remembrance.

          Today is a day that I remember someone who was very important to me.  Today I remember my Grandpa, Staff Master Sergeant John H. Peacock of the United States Air Force. My Grandpa was an amazing man who enlisted in the Air Force at the young age of 16 (lying about his age), to serve his country in World War II.  He met my Grandma on a blind date while in New York.  He raised a family of four in England, Morocco, California, and Florida all while making three tours in Vietnam.  Last year at the far too young age of 80, he left this earth to begin his journey in paradise.  My world has never been the same.

          There is so much that I wish I could tell my Grandpa.  He never got to meet my youngest son, to make him talk and laugh the way that he did with my other children.  Grandpa had such an awesome way with babies.  I wish that I could hear him say “Hey Jennie” just one more time on the phone.  I wish, well there is a lot that I wish.  Mostly I wish that everyone could have known my Grandpa.  He was an amazingly special, intelligent man who did a lot for people everywhere.

          More than people knowing him, I wish that he and all the veterans in the world were remembered correctly.  I wish that all the heroes who have served our country were honored in the way that they deserve.  I wish that there were still ticker tape parades, jubilees for people returning home, people lining the streets mourning any flag draped coffin.  These are all things that I wish for our veterans.  More than anything, I wish that there was no reason for them to have to go to war or leave their families. 

          Today, as you go about your business, remember to thank those who have served and shed their blood for you.  They called you their friend.  They gave their lives for you and they did not have to. They chose to fight so you could be free.

          Thank you, Grandpa for your service to our country.  Thank you for being my Grandpa.  I love you and miss you daily!

Delight!

There is a verse in Psalm, actually Psalm 37:4 that states “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (NIV).  Beautiful isn’t it.  Delight yourself in the ways of God and He will give you what your heart desires most.  Is it really that simple?  Is God really that loving of a Father that all we have to do his delight in His ways, honor Him in all things, and we will get the desires of our sinful hearts?  In short, YES! We have certainly seen this in our house lately.

          At the beginning of the month, my wonderful husband in passing mentioned how much he enjoyed butchering with his Granddaddy when he was younger and wished he could have that experience one more time before his Granddaddy was too old to help anymore.  Not really a prayer, just a passing thought.  Yet, he dismissed this thought because he figured the cost of raising a steer for grain fed beef would be too high.  Low and behold when Granddaddy went to sell some cattle, through a sheer accident (or was it), we were given a grain fed steer for my husband, Granddaddy, and our children to get the pleasure of butchering.  Yes, the meat was a huge blessing.  What was the bigger blessing was God granting the desire of his heart to him.

Granddaddy and Robert working together

Robert teaching Maggie how to butcher.

When taking what was left of the steer to the meat processor, my wonderful husband saw a horse that would be perfect for our children.  She was petite only about 12 hands, could neck rein beautifully, and was bomb proof; the things that we wanted in a good horse for our little ones.  The asking price was much too steep, $1,000.00.  Together we prayed about it and left it to God. He knew how much we desired a good horse for our children.  He knew our hearts.  Guess what, price was lowered and we have a beautiful Paso Fino mare sitting in our pasture.  Not only did we get the mare, but we got a saddle, and 2 barrels of feed.  Her name is Candy.

Candy and her excited new owners!

Are we doing anything extraordinary?  NO!  All we are doing is seeking to honor God with our lives.  We purpose to train our children for Him.  We seek to do what is right daily, no matter what.  Are we always successful?  Certainly not!  I am nothing more than a sinner that is saved by His grace.  I do not deserve any of this.  Yet, here I sit, on this Sunday morning after eating a meal of T-bone steak last night that I did not deserve and watching my children with their new horse that we all did not deserve and the only thing that I can think to do or say is: WOW!  What a God who loves us enough to bless us with unexpected things that we don’t deserve.   

          Delighting in the ways of God is good for us on so many levels.  We learn to think of others first and ourselves last.  We learn to be bold in our faith and actions in a time when Christians are told to hide.  We learn to live and rely fully on God for all things, even things that seem frivolous to many but are important to us.

I am thankful that my husband seeks to honor Christ first in all things.  I am thankful that my husband will take charge and lead his family in the ways of God when the world tells us to do something differently.  I am thankful that Christ gave me this strong man to stand up for me and then stand with me. His faithfulness is having a lasting impact on our family and my children are learning this and seeing the rewards.

 So, this makes me want to ask a lot of questions.  Do you know my King?  Not the vindictive hateful God that most people try to portray, but my King.  Do you know the joy that it is to call him Daddy and run into His arms with dreams that people say are foolish only to get His warm embrace? Do you know how much He desires for you to delight in Him?  Do you know how much He wants a relationship with you, one that starts at a place called Calvary and is forever moving forward with you?  I hope that you do. For God’s rewards are much sweeter than anything you or I can ever imagine.

Time

There is an old song that states time is on our side.  Ummm, I have to vehemently disagree.  I feel that there is not enough time for me on any given day.  Often times I feel as if I am drowning in a sea of busyness and run out of time to get my to-do list done.  There just isn’t enough time to get everything that I need to get done.  I am a wife, mom, teacher, student, housekeeper, cook, laundress, and well you get the point.

     At any given moment what I am doing is interrupted by someone who needs a towel for the pool, toilet paper for the bathroom, or food for the 100^th time this day.  Okay, maybe that is a slight exaggeration.  My kiddos don’t eat 100 times a day, only 95 or so.  I often feel as if I am going under without a life jacket in the sea of our crazy lives.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband and my children.  Most days I don’t mind having to take care of the house or meet all their needs.  BUT, there are some days that I would like to have a little bit more time.  Even just 30 more minutes would be helpful.

     This got me to thinking.  What do I want the time for?  Do I want to be responsible and use my time wisely or do I want the extra time to do something for me?  Truthfully I wish that there was more time for me.  There are days that I need a break and if I had enough time to relax I might feel better about my hectic life.  BUT, I have the same amount of time that you have; a mere 24 hours in my day.

     This idea of a mere 24 hours got me to thinking again (this is dangerous d huh!?!), what does God say about our lives and time.  The Holman Bible tells us in Ephesians 5:16 that we need “to be making the most of our time for the days are evil.”  What exactly does this mean?  To me this means that I need to not worry about me time and focus more on others.  What have I done to share the love of Christ with someone?  How have I ministered to my family, my friends, my neighbors?  Have I redeemed my time, used it wisely to fulfill my God given role in this world?  Most days I would have to say no.  That saddens me!

     Oh, don’t get me wrong, ME time is vitally important!  If it wasn’t, the Bible would not have mentioned how often Christ went off to be alone.  He needed to punt and regroup after meeting the demands of the people everywhere.  He needed time to pray and be alone with His Father.  It is my sincere prayer that I am using my time as wisely a Jesus did.  After all, we have no promise of tomorrow.

     So, how will you use your 24 hours today?  Me, well I think that I am going to wash clothes, cook meals, change diapers, and steal away for some alone time.  Just me and Jesus and His Father.  Nothing sweeter than that!                                                                      

5th Birthday Fun

Who gave my children permission to grow older? I sure would like to know who said it was okay for my little ones to turn another year older? Sadly, that has happened again here in our home. Just last weekend we got to celebrate Ethan’s, dare I say it, 5th birthday! UGH! My first major issue with this offensive birthday was the theme, it was Spiderman. Really son, Spiderman? We have never seen Spiderman anything. BUT, this is what Ethan wanted because he was a good guy that helps people, so I looked at Pinterest and found what I could to make a wonderful Spiderman birthday 5^th birthday for my little man. 

Since we live in Florida and it is already HOT in May, we decided to do a Spiderman pool party.  Being the dutiful Mama that I am, we got the pool ready, got a new slip-n-slide, and lots of silly string.  Due to our past experience with piñatas, we opted for a candy / goody buffet area instead.  The party was a smashing success.  All the kids had a great time in the pool, on the slip-n-slide, and the trampoline.  They chased each other spraying silly string, err I mean spider webs, until they were so hot they had to jump back into the pool.  Food was devoured and fun was had by all.  It was a perfect 5^th birthday party.

Here I am being all Pintresty setting everything up!

The birthday boy with his superhero moves!

PRESENTS! The fun part!  Look at all the Spiderman loot!

As Robert and I delighted in the birthday of our second son, our precious boy, I started thinking.  I did everything that I could to ensure that he had a great birthday.  I loved watching him laugh, jump, bounce, and just plain have fun.  I loved watching his delight in his Spiderman presents and boy was there a lot of Spiderman stuff!  I loved seeing him so happy.  I loved seeing him fly around the room as a superhero!  I delighted in him, his joy, his fun, his life. 

Guess what?  God does the same with us!  He loves seeing us happy.  He delights in the laughter of our good days.  He even cries with us in the bad ones.  Just as I tried to do what I could to give my son his desires, God wants to do the same for me!  WOW!  What a thought. 

So, here’s to Spiderman, kids growing up too fast, and a God who delights in us just because we are His children.  Is there anything more precious or important than that?

Home Improvements

              Home improvement jobs aren’t that much fun.  They are hard work, they take planning, and often times once you get started you realize that you are missing something.  Home improvement tasks are not on my everyday list of this that I want to do today.  BUT, the end results are so worth it, I wonder why we did not undertake the task sooner.

                For example, last year we redid our master bathroom.  It was, well, not pretty before we started.  Green carpet, old shower, and well just ugh.  After spending months at Home Depot (the kiddos began to dread that store) and after spending a year on what was to be a two week job (kind of like that movie the Money Pit….Two Weeks…..Two Weeks….) the end result was worth it all.  Oh, how I LOVE taking a shower in our new bathroom.  Candlelit bubble baths are joyous.  The stress and chaos of the project was well worth the end results.  

Isn't it dreamy?  UGLY gone, replaced by all natural slate tile beauty!

So, being the brave souls that we are, this year we decided to redo the living room / dining room and the master bedroom.  So far the living / dining areas are done; sort of, they still need to be painted.  The birth of a new little one and the idea of moving cribs and beds just don’t appeal much to us right now so we are waiting to tackle the master bedroom thank you very much.  Once again it was sheer and utter chaos.  It took a month for the special order flooring to arrive.  Once they arrived the first day we started laying the new floors our new furniture arrived.  Oh did I forget to mention that new furniture wasn’t on the agenda but when Robert’s Granny fell through one of our old chairs we decided that we needed to do something and fast!  The couch and was too big for the front door so it had to come in the sliding glass door where Robert was working.  I was trying to cook, kids were running crazy, and the baby was screaming.  Yes that day is forever burned in my memory as stressful!  Once again, the week long process, (supposedly it was going to be done in two days…..see a pattern here?!?) yielded some results that we are proud of.  We find ourselves asking why we didn’t do this sooner!

Here Ethan and Mommy tear carpets out....

 

John Robert helps carry them out while Daddy is at work.

Welcome Home....Now, start the floors!

Isn't the new furniture pretty?

Saturday BEFORE Easter Sunday, last board done!

All 4 kiddos showing off the finished results.

The new TV armoire and the new area rug.

                         

All of this has started me to thinking.  Why don’t we just trust God and do things His way sooner?  The end results are always so much sweeter.  Yet, I fight God on almost everything.  I want what I want now.  I don’t want to start on the journey He has for me, and when I do get started I find that I haven’t prepared like I should.  When the bumps and stress come, (and believe me, they do and will come), I panic and want to run away and hide.  BUT, the end results are always so much better, so much sweeter than I could ever imagine. 

So, here’s to Home Improvements!  Here’s to letting God have His way in my life.  May I never grow tired of either one!

Bad Dreams

It’s about 1:00 in the morning.  I hear the baby rolling around in his bed so I get up to check on him, sure enough he has wiggled out from under his covers and is cold.  Quickly I cover him up and climb back into my own bed and pray that the elusiveness of sleep will soon find me.  Yes, I admit it….I should not have taken that late afternoon nap.  I have been wide awake since, well since forever, and I am in bed listening to my husband snore softly and the baby whimper in his dreams.  Suddenly I hear the patter of footsteps across the house.  My bedroom door is flung open and quickly shut back.  Two sleepy sad looking eyes are staring at me: “Mama, I had a bad dream.”

Bad dreams aren’t uncommon in our house.  They have gotten less frequent which is a blessing, but they still happen.  Even I have an occasional bad dream or two.  Like the night I dreamt that I was grocery shopping and could not find meats anywhere only laundry piled in the aisles.  Oh wait, this isn’t about me or my bad dreams.  Sorry!  On this night Ethan climbs over his Daddy, snuggles up close to him, yawns a few times, and then feeling safe in the arms of his Daddy that he loves and that he knows loves him; quickly falls back to sleep.  Robert keeps him snuggled close for about an hour until he can no longer stand the little hands and feet jabbing him and gets up and carries him back into his bed.  Ethan never wakes up.  He is totally safe in his daddy’s arms. 

As I lay in bed watching this I tell myself that I need to share this.  It is a perfect picture of God’s love for us.  God doesn’t complain when we have bad dreams or run to him hurting.  Just like we do with our own children, he pulls back the covers and lets us climb into his arms.  The only difference is that oftentimes we as mature responsible grownups don’t want to run to our Heavenly Father the way that our little ones run to us.  Perhaps this is what God meant when He said we had to have the faith of a child. I like how the New Living Translation of the Bible words it. “But Jesus said, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children." (Matthew 19:14).  Did you see that, the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are as innocent and trusting as little children.

Bad dreams can be scary.  The good news is that I can run to my Heavenly Father with my bad dreams, snuggle down, and be restored and comforted.  I love these reminders in my life, even when they happen at 1:00 in the morning.