Life as the {C} family.: March 14, 2010

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Little Miss Independent-- Shoe Style

Finley is definitely Little Miss Independent these days! I have a feeling this will only be the first of many posts regarding her desire to be a big girl! Lately, she has been trying SO hard to put her own shoes on and though she hasn't had a lot of success yet, she's incredibly cute when she tries!

Concentrating... Looks like this should belong to a "Little Miss Independent-- Potty Style" post

Maybe water will help!

Sitting in Momma's lap... Much easier!

Yea!!!! They're on... and I (Finley) helped!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Truth-filled Tuesday

I'm two weeks behind on my Truth-filled Tuesday's so since BSF is on Spring Break this week, I thought it would be a good week to catch up...

Dear Finley,

This week in BSF, we studied I John 1-5... once again, we are learning the vital truth that our God is a personal God!

The basic outline for this week was:

I. Fellowship with a Holy God is a Reality

II. Fellowship with a Holy God is Revealed through Tests

III. Fellowship with a Holy God is found in Jesus Christ

At this time, false teachers were becoming very prevalent... They were teaching that one couldn't have sin in one's life and have a relationship with Christ. They also taught that Jesus could not have been fully God and fully man at the same time. And lastly, they taught that one can't have assurance of salvation.

False teachers today teach many of these same beliefs.

In I John, Know is used 40 times. This shows the importance of the message being proclaimed in this book. John was here to set the record straight by saying: "I was there." "I want you to have fellowship with a Holy God." "There's a joy in companionship with God."

God is light...we continue to see this message throughout the New Testament...

Completely holy, perfect, just

No darkness in Him

He dismisses 3 of their claims:

~can't continue living how you want and have same relationship with God... we must be cleansed

~no such thing as "sinless perfection"... we must confess our sins and He will forgive us

~God calls us to live without sin, but when we do sin, we have an Advocate

Important Bible Truth: Sin is an outrage against God. It separates us. It is universal. It effects us and those around us.

If we don't understand the impact of our sin, we can't fully comprehend His sacrifice.

Principle #1:

Sinful people can have fellowship with a Holy God if and only if they are in Christ.

Either in God or not!

He is our only way to salvation.

I John 1:9 MEMORIZE

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

How can I make my relationship with Him even sweeter?????? We should always ask ourselves this question...

What's on the inside WILL come out...

Because we have fellowship with God, He will be more and more evident.

Obedience will be part of our life if we love Him... We should walk as Jesus did.

We must compare ourselves to Jesus and not to others.

We should be loving one another... especially other believers.

We can love people of the world, but not the system of the world....

What is the world?

The cravings of sinful man (I want to be in charge of my life... I want to control my life and the lives of others....)

Lust of the eyes (I want everything I see...)

Boastful (Proud of all we are and do)

We should see that the desires of this world are deceiving.

Obedience and perseverance are tests of fellowship with Christ.

True believers have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is like a lie detector that enables us to discern false teaching.

Persevere with Biblical doctrine!

Stay with the Truth.

How closely am I listening to my inner lie detector?

The hope of the 2nd coming should effect how I'm living! Should impact my daily life!

We will sin, but continual and habitual sin should cease when we are in fellowship with Christ.

We are loving others with our lives... in love and deed!

I John 4:4 MEMORIZE

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

God is love...

the source of love

holy, pure, and just.

We must yield to Him in order to love others!

We should have no fear of Judgement Day because our sin has been taken care of.

We should not fear what God might do to us... We have a perfect God with a perfect love for us.

Principle #2:

God has done everything necessary for us to enjoy the certainty of eternal life with Him.

Principle #3:

Assurance of salvation requires the right object... Jesus of Nazareth.

Can't work for eternal life! It's a free gift of God's amazing grace!

I love you, sweet girl! You are an amazing testament to God's grace and a constant reminder to His unconditional love!

Mommy

Dear Finley,

We have moved into John 16 and are seeing Jesus' last moments before His crucifixion. As a parent, I am relating to His words of comfort and warning. He loves His disciples and wants to protect them, but knows He can only do so much.

The outline for this chapter is:

I. The Holy Spirit's Work Through the Believer

II. The Holy Spirit's Work For the Believer

III. Jesus' Last Words of Comfort and Promise

Let's remember John 13...

Washing Feet

Evening Before Crucifixion

"I am going away..."

v. 7: "It is good for Me to go away...."

Disciples only heard the negative. They didn't want to hear He was coming back and that He would live with us forever.

Question:

John 15:27 "You will testify about me!"

We are mostly fishermen.... uneducated... How will we do this?

Answer:

v.8 I am sending a Holy Spirit to you that the world will be convinced

v.9 What sin will they be convicted of?"

REJECTING Christ... this is the root of all sins.

We can't convict the world of sin.

Only the Holy Spirit can speak through us.

We need to pray!

We need to know the Word!

We need to live holy lives!

Our responsibility is to BE READY!

It isn't only what we say, but how we live...

"Be ready to give an answer...."

v. 11 Convince the world that their righteousness is just filthy rags:

We can share God's message and reveal how we live, but it is the Holy Spirit that must open their eyes and their hearts.

What sin is a battleground for us?

God will give us victory over it!

Convince the world of judgement:

The Holy Spirit can use the believer's life that it is possible to live a righteous life free of judgement.

Principle #1:

God's plan to draw unbelievers to Himself is to use Holy Spirit-filled believers yielded to His power.

Must be plugged into the Holy Spirit to be effective.

We must be praying for the unbelievers in our lives! Pray the Holy Spirit will convince them of the Truth.

v. 12-- The disciples are feeling overwhelmed

Jesus discuss the Holy Spirit

The Spirit of Truth will give only what God gives Him... This is whole NT in a verse... Speaks of what will come

v. 15-- all the belongs to the Father is mine

We are NOT writing new books of the Bible

The Bible gives us enlightenment

The Bible gives us discernment

The Bile is ALIVE, fresh, new!

The Holy Spirit illuminates Jesus to us.

Principle #2:

The Holy Spirit will lead yielded believers to see, to love, and to obey Jesus in their study of the Bible.

Yesterday's truths are not good for today... must be in the Word every day!

v. 16-33

Won't see me

Will see me

Great joy

Immediate fulfillment:

Would be crucified the next day

Won't see me

Delayed fulfillment:

Saw Him when He rose from dead

Future fulfillment:

Joy in Heaven

Sorrow and pain with purpose

~Like childbirth

~fruit of child versus fruit of salvation

~both result in new life

Where is your focus?

problem or God

I need strength to trust the purposes I can't see! How much am I praying!!!!!?????!!!!

Prayer Pre-requisites:

1. Ask

2. Ask in His name

~doesn't go against His will

His last words before His prayer:

You WILL have trouble

You won't be alone

You will have peace

I HAVE overcome the world

Peace is the possession of adequate resources.

Principle #3:

Jesus' peace is not based on circumstances but in trusting the One who controls the circumstances.

I am so thankful that I can point you to the Master of peace. No matter what your life holds there is always rest in His arms.

Love,

Mom

Monday, March 15, 2010

Messy, Messy... A Parenting Philosophy

Since my last post was titled "Busy, Busy", I thought "Messy, Messy" seemed like an appropriate follow-up!

When I was snapping this picture of Finley who had somehow found an old compact of make-up hidden under my sink and had expertly applied the lipstick to her mouth area, I realized that I am constantly taking pictures of Finley making messes!

I am sure that I have the weirdest and most bizarre parenting philosophy ever when it comes to messes, but I am completely okay with her making them! Even Devin the other night said "I can't believe you are letting her do that." To which, I panicked because I thought I was missing something major when it just boiled down to the fact that he couldn't believe I was letting her make such a huge disaster!

I basically have 3 rules when it comes to messes:

1. She has to be having fun and learning through the process of making the mess... I do not allow her to make a mess because she is frustrated, angry, or throwing a fit.

2. She can only make food messes when she is trying to feed herself... food is not a toy and shouldn't be played with.

3. She MUST help me clean up her mess. Granted, she isn't really old enough to help clean up all messes, but we sing a song and she sits in my lap as we clean up.... ALWAYS... no exception.

{I also obviously do not let her make messes involving something that would hurt her or something of value.}

Why I let her make a mess:

1. What takes her 20-30 minutes to mess up takes less than 5 minutes to clean up. That 20-30 minutes buys me enough time to get ready in the morning, check my email, fold laundry, or get dinner started.

2. I am by nature a messy person. I may be a Type-A, perfectionist kind of girl, but whether I'm crafting, cooking, or even cleaning, it usually looks worse before it looks better. I learn through my hands and if I worry about keeping it all clean, I don't get the same experience.

3. My second-graders taught me many things, but one of the most important lessons I learned is that saying "No" all day long accomplished two things: 1. Complete tune-out by them and 2. Utter exhaustion for me. Finley does understand "No" and by only utilizing it when it's absolutely necessary, I'm hoping she will be more obedient to the concept of it!

As she gets older, we will have more conversations about messes... At this age, I think messes are important to her development, but as she gets older, she will need to learn when messes are appropriate and when they are not. My biggest fear is that she will absolutely destroy someone else's house... I definitely want her to be respectful of other's things!!!! So I'm sure the rules will evolve, but I hope that I will always see the value in

messy hands...

and messy lips.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Busy, Busy

This last week was a pretty busy one for us. Even though I find myself much more productive when I'm really busy, I admit I prefer the weeks where we are mostly at home!

On Monday, I spent most of the day trying to clean up the construction zone that is now our two upstairs bathrooms. The official remodeling has begun and since Devin is doing the demolition himself, there was tons of dust and debris to clean. I knew this would be the only day I could focus on it and even though it took both nap times to complete, it was worth the effort.

On Tuesday, Finley and I went to BSF and then Hunter came over for a playdate. He is darling and super-easy. After he left, I met with a guy who will potentially be doing our bathroom remodeling.

On Wednesday, Liberty and Emory came to play and then I spent the rest of the afternoon cooking for Thursday night. Devin and I also watched the OSU game that night. I love March Madness. I love March Madness. I love March Madness. I absolutely can't wait for the NCAA Tournament to begin!

On Thursday, I dropped Finley off at MDO and spent 5 hours cleaning our house. It's the first time in FOREVER that the whole house was clean at one time. That night, I hosted our first Book Club here and it was so much fun!!!! I can't wait until next month! You can't beat great girls, good books, and yummy food!

On Friday, Finley and I went to MOPS. It was on my 101 in 1001 so I joined about a month ago and am really enjoying it! I took her to the park in the afternoon since I hadn't felt like I had gotten to spend much quality time with her this week. She loved the swings and was fascinated by the squirrels and geese.

The geese scare me, thanks to Boomer Lake, so we stayed clear of them, but Finley was obviously disappointed! We just sat on this bench and watched them from afar.

She also loved the slide though I had to help her go down it. That night, Devin got tickets to the Thunder game so we all went. Our seats were great and it was a lot of fun, but Finley became really antsy so we only stayed until half-time.

On Saturday, Finley and I drove to Tulsa to have lunch with Beth and hang out with her until Emily's wedding that night. Devin stayed home so that he could finish working on the bathrooms which worked out perfectly since Kenny also had to work. It was a girls' night! Emily looked beautiful and Beth wrote a great post about the wedding! I pretty much never refuse the opportunity to attend a wedding because it is so much fun to relive Devin and I's wedding! It's so wonderful being in love! Unfortunately, I didn't get to see much of the wedding since Finley's new found sense of independence inhibits her from ever wanting to sit still. Did I mention that she also missed her afternoon nap? She was crazy girl! I was exhausted by the time we got home, but it was so great to see Beth and be a part of Emily's big day!

Today, the day just flew by and I don't really know what I accomplished other than grocery shopping. Looking back, it doesn't seem like our week was all that crazy, but it was just a complete blur for me. I'm looking forward to a calmer week this week where we have a few things planned versus something every day!