A Generation That Did Not Know God

And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. (Judges 2:7-10)

I came across this passage in my Bible reading yesterday. (See this post I wrote about the plan I'm using this year.) As a mom, I think this has got to be one of the most sobering and saddening passages in the Bible. Think about it. The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt. Then God, by his own mighty hand and through incredible feats of power, delivered them. God's fame spread through all the known world. Then God led them through the desert. He provided them with food and water. And he gave them his law, so that they would know how to live. (They didn't have to use guesswork or trial and error to please him like the idol worshipers did with their gods.) He subdued nations before them. He even appeared to them in smoke and fire on Mount Sinai. And all through this time, he kept telling them to remember and pass down the stories of what he had done.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

Confessions of a Messy Mom

I am a bit of a slob, a "messy" if you will. I always have been. I know for a fact that I drove several college roommates crazy! My house is usually fairly clean (i.e. free of dirt and grime), but it tends to stay messy! Sure, I tidy up when company's coming, but day to day, I let things go. However, I am proud to announce that I am on day 11 of keeping the house tidy!! Eleven days ago, the house was in pretty bad shape, and I was feeling very depressed about how messy everything was. (Having it be "that time of the month" didn't help!) My husband graciously told me to rest while he tidied the whole place. He spent a few hours getting everything put away. He even mopped the kitchen floor! Everything looked so nice! I came to the shocking conclusion. I like having the house tidy! I think my husband appreciates it, too! So I decided to see if I could keep it that way.

I've discovered something: it doesn't take much work to keep the house tidy if you keep up with it! I've started putting things away when I'm done with them. When I change my son's clothes for example, it's not too much work to immediately put his dirty clothes in the hamper, rather than leaving them on the floor in the living room! And cleaning up the kitchen right after dinner works better than waiting till morning! I have also found that if I unload the dishwasher as soon as it finishes running, it's easy to put dirty dishes in as I use them, rather than leaving them piled in the sink. And my son's toys are more manageable if I pick them up several times a day.

I know all these things are common sense for all you "cleanies" out there. But they're real breakthroughs for me. Eleven days is definitely my record. I'm getting excited to see how long I can keep this up!

My Five, Yes Five, Trees

As you can tell by this panorama picture (an awesome feature on my husband's iPhone 5!) of our living area, I'm a little obsessed with Christmas trees!

It's my Grandmother's fault really. She started buying ornaments for me for my first Christmas. Every year she added to my collection. She continues this tradition to this day for all of her grandchildren and their spouses, and now for her great-grandchild, my son. As I got older, I became obsessed with Christmas ornaments. In fact during my teen years, I'd hang anything with a hook on the tree, including a miniature windsock and a Christmas pin! Anytime I travel, I can't resist picking up an ornament. And I love to hit up Hobby Lobby and Target after Christmas each year and pick up cute ornaments for 50-75% off! 

By the time I moved out on my own, I had nearly 100 ornaments. That first year, I went to Wal-Mart and found a six-foot tree (center in the picture above) that I decked out and set up in my tiny apartment. It was over-loaded with ornaments! By the next Christmas, I was engaged. (Actually, it was supposed to happen on Christmas day, but I ruined it. You can read that story here!) Since I was now going to be married and living in a bigger place, I went to the Hobby Lobby 75% off After-Christmas sale and found a nice 7.5-foot, pre-lit tree (far right in the picture). I figured I'd have enough ornaments to fill both trees the next year. After all, I was adding lots from our time dating. I even bought two on our honeymoon!

The next year, my in-laws, seeing my budding obsession with Christmas trees, asked if we wanted to have their very real looking, pre-lit tree (far left) from Bronner's (an amazing Christmas store in Frankenmouth, MI. It's worth the trip if you're ever in Michigan!) My father-in-law is a die-hard proponent of cutting down your own tree every year. My mother-in-law talked him into trying an artificial tree, so they bought the most realistic one they could find. But it wasn't the same. So we happily inherited it! In the bag they gave us with that tree in it, we found a whole other tree (middle left). When we asked about it, they realized they had inadvertently given us my husband's great-grandmother's tree. We offered to give it back to them, but they said to keep it. So we did!

For two years, we "made do" with four trees. But this year, I attended a class at our church where we learned how to make Jesse Tree ornaments. The idea came from this website, and is an Advent calendar of sorts. You and your family can trace the story of Redemption from Creation to Christ throughout the month of December. The blogger provides pictures to color and cut out and hang on the tree for each day, but our church's children's department leaders, being the amazingly creative people that they are, decided to spruce them a bit. They gave all of us the materials to make all 25 ornaments. They also provided all the devotionals in a spiral bound book. I am really excited about setting our minds on the real reason for Christmas with these daily devotions. I know our son probably isn't comprehending much, but it's never to soon to start giving him the truth of Scripture! So of course, I needed a small table-top tree for these ornaments (middle right in above picture).

And there you have it! Five Christmas trees, all pretty full of ornaments. Somehow, I don't think I'm done, either. There's no tree in the den, or in my son's bedroom, or in our bedroom. . . .

Thanksgiving Challenge, Days 25 & 26

Day #25: I'm thankful God keeps the stars in place.

"'To whom will you compare me?

    Or who is my equal?' says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
    and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
    not one of them is missing" (Isaiah 40:25-26).

I'm always losing things. In our home, it's my husband who can usually find something when I think I've looked everywhere! Whenever I read the above passage, I'm always glad I don't have the job of keeping track of all the stars! God knows each star's name, and he placed each one in space. And for thousands of years, he's kept them in place. He hasn't misplaced one yet!


Day #26: I'm thankful God created man in his image.

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 14

Day #14: I'm thankful God is near when I call.

"The LORD is near to all who call on him. . ." (Psalm 145:18).

At ten months, my son still doesn't often sleep through the night. He normally wakes up once, usually in the wee hours of the morning. It doesn't really bother me when he does this because I know he's just hungry. He almost always eats and goes right back to sleep. And, as his mother, I can't bear the thought that my child would be awake in the dark crying out in hunger (or fear or pain) and have no one come to him.

The point of this post is not to pass judgement on anyone's parenting decisions, nor am I soliciting advice on how to help him sleep through the night. (I realize I may need to teach him that at some point, but for now I'm content with being there when he needs me.) I'm just comparing my son's call to me to my call to my Father. He is near when I call, so near that he can always hear me. Whether I'm calling out in helplessness, despair, anger, and fear or in praise, thanksgiving, joy, or love, he's right there to hear me. Just as I come running when I hear my son call, so God hears me when I call to him!

Adventures in Baby Food

This little guy would rather eat soot from the fireplace than food with texture!

When my son first transitioned to solids (as opposed to breast milk), I started by feeding him jarred baby food. I did this for a few reasons. Several sources I read pointed out that food used for baby food is picked at its peak and is actually better quality than the produce offered in stores (especially the stores I can afford to shop at!), and I kind of thought that making my own baby food would be far too time consuming and difficult. However, he quickly progressed through stages 1-3 of baby food, and it seemed like he needed to transition to something with a little more texture. Even stage 3 foods are fairly liquified, so I was forced to make my own. And it's been an interesting process, with lots of trial and error!

I quickly discovered that although my son will eat paper, dirt, and carpet fuzz, he doesn't like his food to have texture! He'd stay on a liquid diet if I'd let him--hence a lot of the trial and error. But slowly, I've been feeling my way along and figuring out what works and what doesn't!

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 3

Day #3: I'm thankful that God is Creative

This afternoon I was sitting with my son on a blanket in the front yard. (At ten months, he doesn't like the feel of grass on his hands when he crawls, so he won't leave the blanket!) I was showing him all the pretty leaves that have fallen in our yard. It turned into a game where he grabbed each one out of my hand, crumpled it up, and threw it on the ground. He thought that this game was really funny! But as I handed each leaf to him, I noticed that, even though they all mostly came from our Bradford pear tree, every one was different. They were different sizes, slightly different shapes, and many different shades of red, orange, and brown. And I thought how creative our Maker is. He made so many diverse types of trees and plants and animals and people and planets and stars and amoebas! What an amazing Creator!

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 2

Day #2: I'm thankful that God's gifts are good.

I love the illustration that Jesus gives in Matthew 7:7-11. He asks the parents in his audience to imagine that their children ask them for bread and fish. Would they give their children stones and snakes instead? Of course not! Jesus says, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" 

We have a loving Father who delights to hear and answer our prayers with good things. He is not a harsh, uncaring parent who gives us things that won't satisfy! He knows our needs and desires to meet them. He is good! 

I don't think though, that this is a promise that we will always get everything we want from God. In the last few months, I've heard of two different families that had their infants go through emergency surgery and not survive. I'm sure those families asked God to spare their children, but God saw fit to take them. And in that he was still good. Of course, hearing their stories takes me back to when my husband and I were sitting in the hospital waiting room, so emotionally distraught, begging God to protect our two-day-old son during his emergency surgery. God was gracious and he lovingly answered our prayers with "good things." Our son's surgery went perfectly, he recovered easily, and today he is a strong healthy boy. But I wonder, if God had seen fit to take our son, would I have still been able to see that God's gifts are good? Because there are times that his gifts may not seem good at the moment. And he doesn't promise to always show us why the things that don't seem good, are good. But he does promise that his gifts are good.

So as we ask, seek, and knock (verse 7), we need childlike trust in a Father who loves us and will always give us the "good things" we need.

A Perfectly Fall Afternoon

 After having lived in the south for 5 years, I can finally say that I made it to Sky Top Orchard! We went with some friends from our community group at church and my sister. I love the fact that, living in the upstate, we are just a short 30 minute drive from the Blue Ridge mountains. It was a perfect day for apple picking--partly sunny, weather in the low 70's, and a slight breeze.