Happy Easter!

Child of God

Does the learning and continuous search for being better ever stop? I have been struggling within myself for awhile now with that question. Here I am almost thirty years old and I feel like I am a failure as a Christian, a horrible mother, a nagging wife, and just an okay friend.

I have been searching, reading, taking classes, working on change in myself, all in hopes to better myself. Better myself for God, my family and the people that I love. I feel like it is all for nothing. I feel like everywhere I turn another obstacle is there. I have one more thing I have to work on. Some things I don't think will ever change. I am my own worst critic, and I know I am harder on myself than I should be. Yet, it is so hard to work on yourself and continually feel like you are failing God, your family and yourself.

In the past few weeks this thought has been on my mind. I am a child of God. What do I do with my own children. I teach them, continually. Even though I am a grown woman, an I am still a child, and always will be to my heavenly father. And just like my earthly father, He will love me always ,no matter what. Instead of feeling down on myself for feeling like I need to change things, grow in certain areas, work hard at discipline, I should embrace those things. Every interruption, every learning experience, every conviction, every discipline is sent from the hand of God and it is not my right to be upset and not content with that part of my life.

My prayer is that I will be patient with myself in this process. That the Lord will help me be content with myself in my failures and successes of searching for Him. That the Lord would show me when I am looking for happiness instead of the joy that comes from Him. I pray for joy that only comes from the Lord to fill my life. I ask for the perseverance to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.

Our Special little...wait, BIG bunch of sweeties

I had to write these things down so I would not forget and thought I would share them with the rest of you.

Things Mallory says:

You know that kids song "I'm in the Lords Army" Well at the part that is supposed to say I may never march in the infantry or ride in the Calvary.... Mallory's version goes like this.

I may never march in the impitry, ride in the calorie.... I guess her army contains impotent, calorie counting soldiers.

She calls exercises, extrercise.

Joseph in the Bible is Jofis.

She calls sneezing, Bless Yous. She will come over to me and say "Did you hear that big bless you I just had?" or "Rachel just did a bless you!"

Other fun things said by all the kids:

Yesterday, on the way to church we got talking bout Moses and the Red Sea and the Israelites. Dalton shared with us about how Moses got the Ten Commandments and that one of them was about idols. We were talking to the kids about what an idol is. We used the example of money. We were talking about how you can't take things here on earth to heaven or hell with you. The people who make money their idol always want for more and are never satisfied and money or the idol becomes their focus in life. Etc, etc... Matt said that is why I choose to follow God and have God in my life. Jack said, "It's not even a choice. I just do follow God, why would it even be a choice?" Really awesome to hear him say that! Like...DUH people, it's not even a choice..hello?

Then after church we got out of the car to go in to a store and Mallory started asking for gum. Matt said we'll see but lets focus on having fun and behaving ourselves in here. The kids said "Yah, Mallory, don't make gum your idol." Hahaha...too funny

We went to Target to let the kids spend their Valentine gift cards and money they received from family yesterday. When we were in Target all the kids were busy trying to choose the perfect thing to spend their money on. Jack kept coming up empty handed. He really didn't know what to buy. Everyone else already had their things picked out. He came upon these blow up punching bags. The kind that are weighted at the bottom and bounce back up when you hit it. He asked Matt how much it was. It was four dollars. He said 4 + 4 that's 8 dollars, right? Can I buy one for Dalton too? What generosity. We were so proud of him. He wasn't asked to buy someone something else, Dalton already had his toys picked out, he didn't even think about himself. Really special.

Cake Makin' Fool

I just finished making this cake. It is for Dalton's end of the season basketball party tomorrow. The stars represent stars that each player gets at the end of each game. The coach passes out one star to each player in recognition of their efforts for that game.

Blue--Best Effort
Grey-- Best Offense
Yellow--Best Sportsmanship
Red--Best Defense
White--Most Christ-like

Jack Attack!