A Grand Party Day

Last weekend, we had family in town and celebrated both Jonah's and Parker's birthdays on the same day. (Photos below!) Jonah's 4th b-day isn't until the week after next, but it made it easier to party earlier with out-of-town family being here for memorial day weekend. My mom has wanted to host one birthday party for each of her grandchildren during their early years, and she always goes to great lengths to make them special and memorable. This year was Jonah's turn to have a "Gigi party" - and it did not disappoint! It was held at a nearby wildlife drive-through park where you drive your car to see all these different animals that come up to your window and you feed them. Jonah had a blast. My mom did such a cute job with the decorations. I'll have to get some pictures of the table from my aunts because I didn't have any good ones. It didn't go exactly as planned, thanks to a downpour the second the party table got set, but those are the kinds of things that make for extra funny memories! It was quite an adventure for the kids. We're so thankful for everything Gigi did to show her love for Jonah. She sure did show it! A couple hours after his party, all of our family returned back to our house for a little party to celebrate Parker Jane's birthday. She was her usual self, trying to be sassy. We discussed this little attitude of hers a lot last weekend - it's like she wants you to think she's mad and doesn't like you so she scrunches up her nose and squints her eyes at you, but her eyes remain expressionless. She doesn't quite follow through. It's hard to buy that she's really being mean, but she sure tries. I can't believe I have such a snobby daughter. Thankfully, she's gotten over herself a little this week and is being friendlier than normal. She's such an interesting mix of sassy and sweet. Now that I'm starting to see that unique personality coming through, I keep thinking it will be very interesting to see how God shapes her little heart over the years. Just so you know, in the photos below of her eating her cake (first sweets she's had), about 10 different people took what seemed like 30 photos each, and she never once cracked a smile for any camera. She's stingy with those smiles! I thought people told me that girls innately know how to pose for a photo??! She was serious about that cake though.

2 Great Parties:
Aren't these amazing-looking cupcakes??!! Tasty, too! Way to go, Mom.

Fun Firsts

I haven't updated in a while. Not really sure why. We've been having lots of fun around here...

First Real Interest in a Sport:

First Pig Tails:

First Buzzed Head:

First Birthday (In this picture, she was smiling and swaying as we sang "Happy Birthday", like she knew the day was all about her):

First Fish Caught:

First Baby Doll Stroller:


First Trip to a Fire Station:

Who She IS

Last week, I had the privilege of attending a graduation ceremony for 75 women in my community who were afforded the opportunity for job and life skills training through an excellent organization called The Christian Women's Job Corps. I was so blessed by being in the presence of these incredibly strong women. They were truly inspirational. As the keynote speaker gave her address, she shared something that has been swirling in my mind ever since. At one point in her speech, she listed the verbs that describe the woman in the Proverbs 31 passage. I always recommend that people study Scripture in context, but assuming you are familiar with this passage, I wanted to share those verbs below (mostly in the ESV with a few exceptions coming from the NIV) because their emphasis has provided for me a fresh, different perspective on the women we are called to be. (If you are not familiar, you can study it in context here.) I had never before looked at this chapter from this viewpoint. It's been nice to think through not solely what the Proverbs 31 woman does, but who she is.

She does.
She seeks.
She works.
She brings.
She rises.
She provides.
She considers.
She buys.
She plants.
She dresses.
She perceives.
She holds.
She grasps.
She opens.
She reaches.
She makes.
She delivers.
She laughs.
She speaks.
She watches.
She surpasses.

Remembering

Periodically, our church does these initiatives called 28-Day Experiments. A small booklet of 28 brief, devotional-like readings is published, and families within the church can read through the booklet in their homes. For 28 days. All together. They're pretty neat. Each one that has been produced takes a different focus. Currently, we are doing a 28-Day Experiment entitled "Catalyst - Becoming Agents of World Change." We're one week into it, and this particular one is excellent. Much of its focus is on our own church's missionaries who are serving in various places, but it contains daily snippets of truth about God's design for our personal involvement in supporting these fellow believers and church members serving elsewhere. But it's far from typical.

I mostly grew up in churches that I thought were mission-oriented. But I'm hearing things now about supporting missions that I've never heard in my life. Things beyond the "Pray, Send, Go" options we've heard about. I'm being taught new truths about cultivating a heart for missions that reflects Jesus' own heart. And to be quite honest, I never really paid much attention to that idea before. Supporting missions seemed like an "extra" in the Christian journey. Periodically there would opportunities to do something along the lines of supporting missions, but when I happened upon them, they always seemed to fall into one of the following categories: praying for missionaries, supporting them financially, or taking an occasional trip to provide physical help. I never really looked at the whole issue in a comprehensive way. I never sought out what Jesus' heart for supporting missions looks like and ALL the ways it could be developed in my own heart. That has been changing throughout the last several years. Despite being a slow learner on this stuff, I am grateful to be in process.

One of last week's readings, written by our global outreach pastor, Steve Rumph, really convicted me, and I'd love to share it here:

"I'm still impacted by a Grace Community missionary's answer to the question I posed to her in 2002, 'What's your greatest concern about heading out into the field?'

Her response was not at all what I expected. I expected something like, language problems, health issues, financial support, or dangers for children.

What Serina Hollowell said with genuine emotion was, 'We are afraid you will forget us!'

The first missionary also mentions how important it is to be remembered as he wrote: 'Timothy has come to us from you...and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you.' (1 Thess 3:6).

Could it be that what comforted the Apostle Paul 2,000 years ago, and Serina Hollowell today, should be of real importance to us?"

I had completely missed this concept in Scripture. Now I remember reading these sentiments from Paul, but it never connected with me how important it is that I remember to remember those who have left here to go where they are. Doing so is another way I can become more like Jesus. It's biblical! How hard is remembering? It should be easy. But I get distracted. I get caught up in my own little world and forget about others' circumstances. Later that same day I read this, my sister-in-law randomly mentioned to me something about almost deleting an email newsletter she received from a girl she knew a long time ago who was serving as a missionary in a country overseas. She was about to trash it without reading it when she suddenly was stopped by the thought that she was put on that newsletter distribution for a reason and was meant to read it. She was telling me this because she was sharing how blessed she was by reading this girl's testimony. In some way, it filled her up that day and pointed her more towards Christ. I got chills from experiencing further conviction from the Lord on this topic. Two nudges from the Lord, on the very same day, through two different sources. Hmm...

As Joel and I attended a missionary support team meeting last night for a couple in our community group who is leaving this week to head back to Africa after a 6-month respite in the States, I was reminded of the timeliness of God's nudges. When He speaks, it's for a reason. And when He instructs, there are always opportunities to obey. I want to remember to remember people and their needs. There's so much I have to learn.

Spring Fun

We're having so much fun having Shelly and Piper for a visit right now!! Sure miss that friend.

And here are some snapshots from an Easter egg hunt at my aunt Joy's house and then more on Easter day:








Other quick updates - We're still staying busy. It seems we've been having lots of company lately, and I'm loving that. I have a few (very frugal) decorating projects I'm working on right now, so hopefully I'll soon have pictures to post. Our community group has started a new series that Joel and I are so excited about - The Peasant Princess sermon series from Mark Driscoll. It's a series he preached on Song of Solomon, and we're anticipating great discussion on the topic of marriage within our group, as the husbands and wives meet separately each time our group meets to talk deeply about some of the issues of marriage that often go untalked-about in the church. And the biggest thing in our family's life right now is that Parker Jane is taking steps! I have an almost-walking child! I'm sooo not ready to have a preschooler and a TODDLER! Didn't I just have a baby a few weeks ago?? Her walk is the cutest thing ever. For one thing, she's so short that it looks pretty funny to see her move those legs. And if you ever saw her crawl, you'll know she moves very delicately. She has a very dainty walk too! We've got to get some video of this soon. It might be next year....poor second child.

Serving Like Jesus, Part Two

I started a post a couple weeks ago all about how nice it feels now that the big wedding is over to have a cleared calendar (ha!) and no major time commitments hanging over my head, and then I wasn't able to finish it because my days been so occupied. Funny how that works. I was thinking this morning about that though and realizing how right that probably is. I think God works that way. Sometimes we need to free ourselves and our schedules up enough to be ready for whatever He wants to surprise us with. I really believe He clears our calendars only to fill them back up with what HE wants us to be doing. The disciplines of solitude and stillness are vital to the Christian journey, but in Scripture you always see Jesus' times of solitude followed very closely by opportunities to serve people. His very last one of these times alone with the Lord (and a quite intense one, I might add) took place right before He went to work for us on the cross. It should be the same for us, that those quieter times are always about heart preparation for the action that is to come. We are all led to different actions, of course, but I think God is pretty clear with us about what the life of following Christ really should look like (Matthew 10:38-39, Mark 10:43-45, 1 Peter 2:21, John 21:17, Luke 19:10). I don't think He ever intended it to be all leisure. Our lives are clearly intended for purposes greater than ourselves, so it shouldn't be all that surprising that God wants me busy enough to be impacting lives and modeling Him. But I admit, sometimes I'm surprised by it. Sometimes I just plain forget what He wants from me. Just as I can crowd out His plans by making too many of my own and filling up my schedule too fast and staying busier than I need to be, I also find that I pridefully congratulate myself during those times when I have cleared my schedule - only to be hit with the conviction that I've cleared it for me and my own agenda and relaxation. I've found that any decision or effort or action can easily slip into the form of an idol. What a delicate line there is between unnecessary busyness and just plain idleness. I find that I can slide so easily between the two without even realizing what has happened.

I do think that the balance is found only through daily surrender and readiness. And I want to get there. I want to wake up each day with a real desire to serve wherever I'm needed, regardless of what it is. I want to daily have that attitude that is seeking needs that the Lord desires to meet through me. From what I've seen so far in Scripture and in studying Jesus' example of servanthood, just being willing to have my plans changed isn't enough. That flexibility is a good thing, and I would like to see that more consistently in my life. But I'm starting to understand that it wouldn't be enough. A heart wouldn't look like Jesus' in this area if I wasn't being more proactive in directing my day's activities towards others and their needs. Am I making His plans my own in the first place? Am I actively trying to seek out ways to serve?? I don't think I want to answer that out loud.

So, yes, I have been busy the last few weeks. But a different kind of busy. I don't have long-terms plans or those big events you put on your calendar way in advance and anticipate for a long time before. Nothing wrong with those, I just don't have any of them right now. It's a weird place to be. I don't remember ever being in this place actually. Most of my married life has been filled with a lot of anticipating, planning, and expecting of children to be added to our home, and now that I'm not looking towards that (for the first time ever!), I'm in more of a day-to-day living, not knowing what's next in life, type of place. Things are just happening day by day. And what I'm finding is that when you do live more in the present and you are actively pursuing how you can be used "just today" every day, amazingly, He uses you!! There are a lot of needs around us right now. Lots of really heavy needs. It can get overwhelming, honestly. But it's definitely driven me to spend more time at Jesus' feet, finding refreshment there. Prior to these last several weeks, my time in the Word had become more task-oriented than relationally-driven, and these random serving opportunities around me are certainly pushing me out of that dryness as I'm learning that spiritual activity not motivated out of love is NOT going to produce what is needed for me to be able to do all this stuff and serve like I'm called to! But I've always been a slow learner with these spiritual lessons. Oh, the patience of God.

Another blessing this "new" busyness has brought is that it's caused me to reexamine what God wants for me, in terms of personal ministry. I've been seeking direction on where to serve? Who do I serve? What gifts do I use where? Am I neglecting my gift? Am I using it where it's most needed? When opportunities to minister and serve others are popping up all over, you realize quickly that you can't do it all. You have to decide what are the best things to be doing and stick to them. And only the Lord can show me what those are for me. So I've been in a refining process concerning those things, and I am excited because I feel like God is really speaking to my heart about these questions I have. He's giving me glimpses into what my main focuses of ministry should be right now, both day-to-day and in those situations where some longer-time commitments are necessary, and I'm getting excited about the new things to come! I'm still in conversation with Him about it, so maybe I'll share more about where He's leading at a later time. But I am reminded that it's less about the details of serving than it is about the heart of serving. Sometimes I try too hard to understand spiritual gifts. It can get really confusing trying to figure all of that out - what our gifts really are, natural abilities vs. spiritual gifts, when exactly the gift comes, etc. The Bible isn't especially clear about all of it. But the Bible is clear on the importance of intentionally serving. The goal of following Christ doesn't come without practical guidance and lots of examples from His life. So, to me it seems like God is more interested in me just doing it than in me understanding all of the hows and whys of it. I think as I obey the call to serve, He will reveal more of what I need to know about it. But for some reason, I've spent most of my life trying to know more about it so that I can do it. The problem with that is that I end up not doing it a lot.

So I'm in transition, and I don't know what life is going to look like tomorrow. Or even later today. And it's weird. But it's really good too. I'm ok with it. I've never quite lived like this before. And no doubt my natural tendencies will pull me towards selfish living every single day. I'm just hoping that writing about it now will compel me a little more to put it into action, and I hope I come out looking just a little more like Jesus.

Somebody Likes Eyeshadow!

Is this a guilty face or what?!?Parker got into my make-up when I stepped out of the room this morning. Apparently, she likes blue.

In case you've been wondering, my hands are FULL!