The older I get (Hard to believe since I look so young). The more I realize, is that it is God who saves, It is God who changes the hearts of men. And it is God who loves us-completely. SO often we look to others to find our identity and find strength and find answers when, all of what we need can be found in cultivating a relationship with Him. Sadly we have made our "walk" with Christ about us and how we can grow, and be blessed and move on to greater things. (Which there is nothing wrong with desiring growth) The travesty lies with in the guise that we make our life's growth, our focus and use Christ, our heavenly meal ticket to get us there. We are too busy medicating our selves and sedating ourselves by putting garbage in our temples. From the foods we eat, to the books we read, to the television programs we watch, to the music we listen to and the people we associate with. We invest so much time in all of those things and know deep in our hearts that our relationship with the one who created us, the one who loves us the most, lacks passion, commitment, and meaning. During my "quiet" time, the worship song "Your Name" by Paul Baloche kept coming to mind. Shouldn't our lives be about glorifying God's name? In the way we treat our family, our neighbor, ourselves? Shouldn't we glorify His name by walking in a higher level of integrity at work while we diligently strive to take care of all that he has entrusted us with, like our spouse and children, our home, the poor? Does He constantly turn away His head in shame each time we bring dishonor to his name by choosing a secular spirituality instead of His love and kindness? I am so glad that God is merciful and is slow to anger. And his arms are opened wide like a Dad who is waiting to pick up His child and toss them in the air. Let's glorify His Name together- today.

Oh give me a break

I saw a commercial for a department store opening up at 4 am the day after Thanksgiving! I thought to myself "Give me a break!" Why on earth would you want to get up that early if you don't have to? To shop? The day after Thanksgiving? I never have shopped the day after Thanksgiving. Never. I don't think I'll start either. I grew up in a house when the day after Thanksgiving we worked on the left overs. Shopping the day after was unheard of. Now as an adult I don't even understand why we rush around getting "stuff" for ourselves and others and accumulate more unnecessary debt (as if any is necessary) all in the name of wishing someone a Merry Christmas. If you want to make a huge impact, all that stuff you would normally buy at Christmas, give it to your loved one for their birthday- then you'll score major points. Don't get me wrong I'm not against Christmas. I make a list, I check it twice, to make sure everything I want is the right price. I just have a hard time with all the hype and headaches and struggle to make Jesus the center of it all when the lights of the lights from the Christmas tree shine brighter than the light of Christ in our hearts.

Here is my Holiday wish list:

1. All people would walk in a crosswalk and not dart across streets.
2. Unsolicited fruit cakes would become a felony.
3. The Salvation Army would get a church bell and ring it until everyone gives donations
larger than 3 cents.
4. No one would re gift.

5. That we would pick a cause or charity and bless them through out the year not just at Christmas time when we feel compelled to show love and good will toward men.

6. That we would break down our facades, surrender our hang-ups and stop putting on a selfish show so that others that do not know Him, (Jesus) May know Him.


That about wraps it up. How many shopping days til' Christmas?

"You've got your hands full"

One of the most annoying things as of late has been the silly comment "oh, you've got your hands full" or "aren't your hands full?" Among all the things my old sinful nature would like to say to them, I often give a fake smile and go about my business.
Some woman last week said the same corny thing "Oh, your hands are full". Why did this comment get to me so much?

All I have to say in response to all of the naysayers that feel it is their duty Godly or otherwise to tell a Woman with 4 or more children how full her hands are is that its not our hands that are full but its our hearts! Our hearts are so full of love that we unselfishly have shared our bodies with another for 10 months (pregnancy is 40 weeks), Lovingly opened our homes to them. Laid down our selfish ambitions to collect the most toys and climb the top rung of the corporate ladder and stay home with our babies and not shuck our responsibility off on the government to raise our them. Our hearts are so full of love that we rejected everything that society has said about how we should run our households and we chose to honor our husbands (as hard as that might be), we cultivate a relationship with God and not popular daytime talk shows, we raise our children, teach our children and love on them because they are a blessing not a burden.

Why on earth would some one have more than one or two or three children nowadays? Haven't they heard of birth control? I'll tell you why. From personal experience, we had more love to give, so we had more babies. Our hearts desire was to have a big family. Each of them by God's grace is happy and well adjusted. And as imperfect as their parents are, they have joy and peace and rest in the security that if Mom and Dad mess up, forgiveness is always granted. Children NEED security.

No one on earth can dictate or limit our fertility but ourselves. I can't even imagine what my life would be like if I didn't have Dolly laughing in my face all the time. Or if I didn't have Noahkeem asking "You okay Mommy?" after I cough. All the pleasure and all the joy I would miss if I didn't have Rocco & Cookie having a jam session on the drums and Cookie ad libbing these incredible lyrics.

Is my life perfect? Of course not. Is any ones? Are my children perfect? Not at all. But one thing I do know is that I am walking in a level of wealth and freedom that I never thought I would experience 8 years ago sitting in a cubicle, punching a time card, with a headset on, reading someone else's script.

So you tell me are my hands full? or is my heart?

A time to heal

Two days ago, Cookie woke me up, upset and told me that Sammy's legs were broken. "What?" (His legs were not broken last time I saw him). Sure enough, I looked in his tank and saw about 4 half pieces of crab legs. You can't imagine the heaviness I felt in my stomach. "What do we do?" Cookie asked. I'm no crab expert. So we got out the Hermit Crab Care book which of course had no info in it. Then I went on the http://hermit-crabs.com/ website and found out what was going on. Due to some kind of stress in his/her environment or disease the poor thing can loose legs. Can you imagine? A hermit crab can have stress? I have 4 kids, 7 years and under, home school, cook, clean, chauffeur, breastfeed, volunteer for a mom's group, and blog and you mean to tell me that our hermit crab has more stress than I do? Needless to say. We cleaned out any poop and old food in the tank, put more sand in. Gave them fresh water. Took out a small piece of driftwood. Put new food in. And waited to see what would happen. (Although we read we were suppose to isolate Sammy and wait for him to die). Well he didn't die. As a matter of fact he was crawling around and trying to get some water. Then Dylan, was crawling around too. Yesterday both of them were huddled together in the corner of the tank. I assumed that Dylan sensed that Sammy was not okay and he was comforting him/her. Mind you Sammy is 5 times the size of Dylan. I don't know if we are out of the woods yet. But we all prayed for Sammy and believe that he/she is healed. : ) I am so glad I did not have to take him/her to the vet. Dr's visits can be a pest.