Time Out!

    Sweet little Annie got her first, "No whining!" lesson today!

She did not really know what a time out was.

     So the kids and I all stood together, put a chair in a corner, and I explained: "We are only going to use kind voices.  No fussy voices.  No whiny voices.  So if you want something, you may say, "May I please have . . . '"

    I explained that if she whined, she would go in time out.  Since she is 2 years old, she would stay for 2 minutes.  I would stand with my back to the chair.

    Then I explained to the other kids: "We cannot whine or use any voice other than a kind voice.  We have to model kind voices for her. . . Even me!"  They loved that, and understood the importance.

    So the whole day, we were vigilant about Annie and her kind voice.  She got 3 time outs.  The other times, we corrected her, and she changed her voice immediately.

    She seemed to like her little chair, the fact that I did not walk away, and the chance to get it right, and then to be applauded and to get a reward.

     She was remarkable.  When Ron came home after work, we had to use it one time, and Annie's polite little request for what she wanted shocked him.

     Hooray!  All in a day's work!

Love

     "Love is patient, love is kind.  Love is not envious or boastful.  It is not arrogant or rude.  Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful.  Love does not rejoice in the wrong, but rejoices in the right.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails."  (1 Cor. 13)

    I do not think it is possible to live out this passage without a powerful and real relationship with Jesus Christ.  Anyone would want to be able to have and live out love like this description of it.  But who can do it, in the face of being wronged, in the face of humiliation, in the face of abuse, in the face of abandonment and betrayal?
     It is not a matter of becoming peaceful and detaching from anger or pain; it is a matter of truly forgiving, and loving our enemies: that is the highest way of achieving love.  But without the power of Jesus in one's life, anointing one's spirit, giving us His power that forgives all wrongs and conquers all death, where would we get this ability?  The Power in the Universe that can achieve such a miraculous state is not a Force, but a Person: a humble, loving, gentle person; God, who is a Person, who made us to love us and share with us His power, His nature, and His love.

Feeling "worthless"

     I have never resonated with Christian writers who discuss being "worthless" as this has seemed so easy to confuse with a self-hatred or self-debasement.
     But recently, I have simply loved this idea of my being "worthless," and it has been a great help to me in prayer.
     It is a great cure for the aspects of my self that are still self-reliant, and not totally dependent on God.    In this regard, my ability to do anything good on my own, I am in fact worthless, and it is not erroneous or harmful to myself to constantly remind myself of this fact.  Of course it is definitely not to be confused with one's value as a person, as we are created with not just worth, but infinite worth.
    It is something to wrap one's head around: that we are worth the world in one respect, and worthless in another!  And yet we are: we are like jewels in the hand of God, precious in His sight, but yet are like vanishing mist, able to obtain nothing permanent, no lasting good without the supernatural power of God.
   

One Year Ago Today

. . . my father died of a heart attack.
     It is so hard to lose a parent.  So hard.
     I miss his smile, his laugh, his levity, and his being a grandfather to my kids.
     But today, as always, I am grateful.  I am grateful for my father's love for me.  I am grateful for my time with him.  I am grateful for the dignity of his death--he so feared living through a severe stroke.  For that, and so many other blessings around the circumstances of his death, I give thanks to God.   I am grateful for the gifts he gave me: instruction, admonition, encouragement, and warnings.   He was full of them, and wanted me to avoid the pitfalls he had fallen into or seen others fall into.  He wanted me to flourish.  He wanted my best.  He did not always know what that was, but he desperately wanted me to be happy.
     And so I am.
     Thank you, Daddy.  I love you.

God Bless America

     On this election night, it is such a point of gratitude for me to think of our country--our right to vote, our freedoms a priority, our dignity honored.   Compared to prior eras in which tyrants ruled, peasants were at the mercy of malicious whims, and slavery was the norm, we have come a long, long way.  It is humbling to be a part of such a great country.  God bless America!

I love this girl!

Oh, how I love this girl!  She loves to cook with me.  She loves to help with chores.

She has become so sprightly.  She has become sparkly.  This was not apparent in her for her first 5 years.  Yet now it shines!

     She had a big transformation this summer.  At her request, desiring to feel God's presence in her heart, I prayed for her and with her, that she would take to heart the message of Galatians 4, that the Holy Spirit helps a person's heart identify God as "Abba, Father."  When she could identify with that, I told her, that is the mark of having God in your heart and Jesus in your life.  That is the demonstration of the grace of one's baptism and conversion.

     We prayed for that feeling, and as soon as we did, she cried in my arms and said, "Yes, I feel that."  We repeated it for several days at her request.  She just loved it.

     But what has been astounding to me is that, not only has that feeling persisted for her (clearly God's doing, and not her own, given how quickly her feelings come and go), but there is a total transformation that is beyond the scope of that prayer experience.  She has become light hearted, whereas she used to be heavy hearted.  She has become radiant, where she used to be gloomy.  It is totally beyond her will, her daily decisions, her thinking.  God is truly present, I believe, in her heart, and it shows.  I should be the Mom who knows more than she, but I am the student here.  I am learning up close what it is like to have the Spirit of God in one's heart.  It is seeing God's beautiful, humble power right in front of my eyes.

I Could Eat a Million Donuts

     "I could eat a million donuts right now," said Leigh, while doing her math.

This girl is so darn sweet!

Leigh LOVES food.
She is an EXCELLENT reader and probably the smartest child in our family.
She is an outstanding artist, having a talent that none of the others has.
She is NEVER moody or upset--she is the most emotionally stable person in the group.
Most interestingly, she has a deep, inner sense of God's presence.  She says she feels God close to her always.
When she grows up, she wants to be "either an artist or a nun," she said yesterday.
God love her, protect her, and bless her!!  A PRECIOUS child of God!