We have to stop being cowards at some point

“It is easy for believers – especially in the Western world, where the church is generally prosperous and respected – to be complacent and become oblivious to the seriousness of the battle around them. They rejoice in “victories” that involve no battles and in a kind of peace that is merely the absence of conflict. Theirs is the victory and peace of the draft dodger or defector who refuses to fight. They are not interested in armor because they are not engaged in the war. A Christian who no longer has to stand against the world, the flesh and the devil is a Christian who has fallen into sin or into complacency. A Christian who has no conflict is a Christian who has retreated from the front lines of service.”

-John McArthur

In the midst of friends Christmas 2009

Celebrating with our friends means so much more these days.

These are some of the sweet friends who stood by our side as we buried Sweet William.

You can't say thank you enough for the love and support. You just have to cherish

their friendship and thank the Lord for providing.

These are also some of the friends that helped us welcome our little girls into our lives.

I'm so thrilled that my girls will have this group of Godly people in their life to love them.

I urge you if you don't have a church family

Get one !

So to all of our friends(there are several not pictured)

we love you

and

Wish you a Very Merry Christmas.

Rudolph Daniel

Keith and Christopher

Aaron and Kelly

John and Trish

Three amigo's

Master of the bad gift list

Christopher

Daniel and Kristen

Ted and Karen


Three amiga's

Rudolph with your nose so bright...

Mr Art looking snazzy

J.D

Keith and Phyllis


Thank you to the Vest for opening up their home.

I didn't get a picture of you guys

but we love ya.

View from the White house

Scott took our family on a hike and did our family devotion while the earth in all of her majesty listened on as a father read words that fed us.

Jo enjoying his little sisters...

My star quarter back.

Tim Tebow has nothing on this girl!



Tuckers pizza night.

We found a website called Cooking for dads so that

Tuck could learn to cook from a man's point of view and

he cooks once a week and this is the dish we had this week.

It was home-made pizza dough and tons of toppings.

The kids LOVED this and the pizza's were delicious.


We lay the girls down next to each other and 99% of the time

we go back in and check on them and their laying arms crossed

around each other. They fit right in with our touchy- feely family.

Jo's gotcha day!

Scott and I went to a Christmas party with some of our very best friends..

Woke up to our little slice of white heaven

Alot of memories packed in a weeks time.

My time here is precious and fleeting like

the melting snow outside my window.

It's beautiful but as the sun

pours in through the trees the blanket of

white slowly starts to melt.

My time is no different.

I'm in a beautiful season with my

husband and children but time is slowly

changing things everyday. The hours are melting.

Little ones grow and my time with

them becomes like disappearing snow.

Once it gets started there's no stopping the white stuff

from melting.

I think I'll go build a snow man so that this season

is remembered by all.

Up against a wall

Eyes focused on the same spot.

Feeling the need to move forward, but the Lord

has you standing in the same place, day after day.

The mortar uneven, the clay cold, the view viewless or so you think.

Having the urge to look around and see what everyone

else is looking at. Knowing it will sew discontent, knowing it will pull you

away from your spot.

Their view must be better than mine.

The Lord must have them standing in beautiful fields with flowers

putting out their smell and the sun shining down, their faces

brown from it.

"If we complained less and were more thankful, we would be happier, and God would be more

glorified. Every day thank God for ordinary mercies. Let us thank Him that we are not among the hopeless or confined among the guilty; let us thank Him for liberty, for friends, for family and comforts.

Let us praise Him, in fact for everything that we receive from His generous hand.

If you roam the universe, you will not find another friend like Jesus; if you could have all the comforts of life but lost your Savior, you would be wretched' but if you win Christ, then you could rot in a dungeon and even there find peace. If you live in obscurity or die hungry, you will still be satisfied with favor and will be full of the goodness of the Lord." C.S Spurgeon

Let your feet stand firm on the ground God gave you. Be thankful for the view.

Is it raining? Be thankful for the rain. Is it a beautiful view? Be thankful. Is it lonely where you're

standing? Know your Father is standing next to you. Your view will change but first you have to stand until the Lord changes your season, until He changes your view.

Let no one challenge you to leave your post!

We are on a high-calling and it is essential we stand.

Without murmuring and complaining

Just stand!

Katie says it best...

I complain about the dumbest things. Forgive me Lord...
Let us all remember our place.

Words from Katie:



"A week ago today, I turned twenty one. I sat in awe as I celebrated with 14 beautiful girls who call me Mommy. (Ok one actually calls me "Maamaaaamammaaa") I wondered why God chose me, little ole twenty one year old me, to be entrusted with so much. There is nothing greater than the responsibility of raising a child to love Jesus. Except maybe raising 14. Words are escaping me. Two years ago today, two we moved into this home. In the last years I have learned more about Jesus, about myself, and about life than I ever could have imagined. I am so thankful. So, so very thankful for the life you have given me Jesus, for entrusting me with so much when I deserve so little...Last Thursday as I was meeting with some women in the village of Masese, one of them got a call from her brother that there was a child dying near the local steel mill and did she know anyone who could help... So it was off to the steel mill where I met the sickest little boy I have ever seen (I know, I know, I say that every time, but I am serious.... God just gears me up for it a little at a time...) David looked merely dead, breathing shallowly as I took his naked, 15 pound, 4 year old body into my lap. His mom was "scrapping", or digging around the steel mill for nickel-sized pieces of scrap metal that she may be able to sell for 2 cents. As we waited for her to come back, I felt sure that this child was going to breathe his last at any moment. When she got back to their closet-sized home, she explained that her husband had left her for another woman last year when she miscarried (often viewed as a curse in rural villages). Since he has been the only one providing an income for her, David and her other 3 children, and since she had never been to school, she began the practice of picking scrap metal. In just 30 minutes in her yard, WITH shoes on, I cut my feet twice... It broke my hear to think of all the physical pain she was having to endure every day as she cut her hands and feet trying to find this metal that may sell for enough to buy them a small sack of corn flour. She cried as she explained that they had not eaten in three days because no one had wanted to buy her metal. I felt certain that David would not make it through the night, and I am guessing I do not have to tell you what happened next. I scooped him up, put him in the car and took him home where my sweet, loving girls welcomed him with open arms, and we gave him all the ORS and Pediasure he wanted :)The next day at the hospital, we found that David had sickle cell anemia, which was worsened severely by his chronic malnourishment. While they gave him his blood transfusion, I was very thankful for a doctor that, though he may not know it all, knew more than me. I watched David like a hawk all weekend, making sure he had lots to eat and drink and all his medicines and vitamins at the right time, but he continued to weaken after the initial improvement following his transfusion. He cried all the time as it hurt his little body to sit, to stand, to lay... just to be. He finally gained the strength to stand, but shook the whole time. This morning, when his feet began to swell, I took him to the hospital where I asked that he be admitted. Though they won't do anything different, I imagine, I want his mom to be able to sleep with him and I will feel better with someone who knows more than me about sickle cell supervising. Please pray for sweet David tonight...At the same time all this was going on, three of my children have had very high fever's and Patricia has had severe pneumonia (they are all doing so much better now, thank you Jesus.) Sleep was infrequent for this Momma and I had a lot of time to just ponder the fragility of life".......................
Read the rest here

Making strangers brothers

He was born in an African village some 60 miles from the nearest town.

His floors were dirt and the sun was for power.

His water, unclean.

Only the strong survived and he was amongst them.

His heart was a mess and his life hung in his mothers arms.

He was destined to live his life somewhere else.

To leave his only sister, to fight the fight of survival.

His life lived out across an ocean some thousands of miles away.

I was destined to be his mom. Our lives intertwined like the branches

of a grape vine.

His little life so fragile and so dependent on me who came

all the way across the world to retrieve him and bring him to a little plot of land

in the middle of the country. A country farm for him to run and play and grow

and be loved.

To live.

Not all the same skin but it matters little now as his branches

mingle with ours.

Just a vine praying to bear fruit.

Allowing the Lord to so tangle our hearts that

you can't tell us apart.

Learning to love one another as brothers and mothers,

sons and fathers.

Choosing love

Choosing to dig a well instead of filling one in.

Choosing to put myself and our family on the front lines

and finding ourselves overcome with love.

Celebrating the week the Lord brought Joseph Turner

to America.

Celebrating that He used us.

Can we walk away from the pursuit of happiness

He lived a plain life.

He came from a plain, poor family.

Messed up relationships in those families.

He had people that didn't understand him.

He watched as his mom had to suffer the death of a child.

He taught like I teach, I wonder if like me, He wondered if

His disciples ever "got it". He seemed to repeat himself alot..:)

He welcomed little children in His lap.

He forgave.

He had friends who betrayed Him and He still kept loving.

He didn't go boil some drug to calm His nerves, He kept on

because He knew that what He was doing was hard work, but

it was a work He alone could do.

He couldn't pay someone else to do it.

I wonder if He ever looked heavenward and said

"Could you make all of this better?"

Do I believe He wants me to be happy?

Yes, but do I believe my happiness is His top priority?

I want Him to make my life painless but it hasn't been without pain.

His letters to me tell me to have joy and contentment in all things.

Some of the most incredible people I have met are not the richest or prettiest,

but the ones that have lost much and are still able to serve others on the other side.\

Still able to be happy inspite of

death

loss

fatigue

failures

There's alot of people who spout knowledge and I appreciate that, but the ones that

inspire me are the ones that have lived through it and are on the other side still praising the

Lord. They seem to have a brokenness to them. They seem to know their place.

To know that their desires didn't win out

they suffered and lived to tell about it

To know our place.

That our happiness and our desires

may not be His desires.

He's not going to fix it all for us just because we're His children.

Sometimes walking through it will make us better.

More loving, more caring, more empathic....

Things you can't buy.

I often laugh because I tell people I love finding ways to make my children work more.

It's the truth, when they have to work hard, when they have to work

long, it builds their character.

As parents we need to make sure our children know

their happiness is not what should drive them.

"When I get a new car, I'll be happy" yeah, until it breaks down...

"When I get married, then I'll be happy" yeah, until you realize he's a sinner, just like you...

"If I was 50lbs lighter, then I would be happy " nope. not going to happen..

"When God gives me more children, then I'll be happy"

you and I will not be happy

until our happiness comes from Him

and our desires are not our own

but His desires

How we can help our kids learn this?

make them work

from the youngest to the oldest

let them cook

clean up

take care of little ones

burp babies

change diapers

clean bathrooms

windows

cars

feed animals

cut grass

dust

change sheets

make them work until they don't complain

day after day

teach them that work is a way of life

if they try and get out of it

give them more..

Help them to die to self early.

We have to teach our children

that they will find much happiness in

work if they do it to please God.

If they are constantly trying to get out of work

they will never, ever be happy because their selfishness

will win out and they will become lazy bums who expect the world

to do it for them.

There I said it.

So my pursuit of happiness has not always been happy

but

It makes me realize my place

who I am

a

daughter to a humble King who came to serve, not be served.

who came from a dysfunctional family and turned out great!I'm glad about this one!

A

King who didn't complain about His job

or his circumstances

He just did it and did it well, I might add.

Toilet water

My son, do not forget my teaching

but keep my commands in your heart,

for they will prolong your life many years

and bring you prosperity.

Let love and faithfulness never leave you;

bind them around your neck,

write them on the tablet of your heart.

Proverbs 3 1-4

Two glasses;

One full of nice clean fresh spring water.

One full of dirty germy toilet water.

Which one is different?

You can't tell until you bump it

and then you see what spills out.

My heart is deceitful and so it can't be trusted.

Out of the mouth is an overflow of the heart.

Mine is dirty, murky water most of the time.

When I get bumped the overflow of my heart is

not a sweet spirit. It is not always a heart full of love

and concern for others. The overflow, I'm afraid, is selfish

and self protecting.

I have used friends and other families to 'gauge' my heart.

I give, I share, I'm a good wife, a good mother, heck, we've

adopted, we love kids and when I put myself up against others I think "I do ok"..

average

My gauge should be Jesus, to be more like Him.

not more like you sweet friends just as you should not strive to be more like me.

I'm wretched.

I should want to be more like Him everyday.

I should strive that when I get bumped I respond as He would.

Pouring out nice clean fresh spring water that all can drink

and want more of.

When we act selfishly or talk bad about someone or respond to our husbands

as cold prudish women or talk meanly to our kids or anyone we are pouring out

nasty toilet water that they can't drink without getting sick.

I can justify my behavior on just about anything. I responded to you coldly because I'm tired.

Our hearts are deceitful

I'm sarcastic, it's just how I am.

Our Hearts are deceitful

I didn't spend time with you because I had to have alittle time for myself

My heart is deceitful

I'm not kind because I have pms, you'll just have to understand if I'm moody and

mean to you.

My heart is deceitful

My three-year-old cries when she doesn't get her way.

Her heart is crying out....

Selfish, dirty, murky toilet water is inside.

It needs to be dumped and refilled with clean fresh water.

I'm no different

If I don't get treated fairly, someone is short with me, my hubby is late

my kids are noisy

I pitch my own little tantrum and

my heart is brimming with the nasty water.

Undrinkable

We cannot justify our behavior.

We need to ask forgiveness for it and start holding our hearts accountable

by God's heart not others who are just like us.

We are sinners

Our only hope is Him

to be

more

like

Him

An easy thanksgiving craft

"Say What?"