Found this on Priscilla Shirer’s blog (goingbeyond.com/blog) from her friend Shundria and I had to share because this is truth….or at least my truth.

Here’s to all the moms who:

*only iron the front of your kids clothes because that’s what really matters.
*put carrot sticks with chicken nuggets only to have something healthy on the plate…knowing they are not going to eat it
*has forgotten the last time their child under 3 has had a bath
*has gone to the shoe store only to realize that their child’s foot is 2 sizes larger
*has given a not so new toy or book to another child because you completely forgot about the party
*has put your child in timeout and forgotten about them
*has thanked the Lord for McDonald’s
*skips pages in books when reading to a toddler…they will never know
*does allow your kids to watch more than 30min of TV.
*goes to bed with a sink FULL of dishes
*is always late
*can make a meal out of the snacks in the car and has
*is relieved when dad won’t be home for dinner…2 minutes and beep…Dinner!
*has wiped their kids’ nose with their own shirts
*has NOT taken a kid to the doc only to realize that they are actually sick
*has cleaned only the family room and guest bathroom for an event and prayed no one asks for the other bathroom
*dresses their kids out of the laundry baskets
*when laundry is done…feels like she has a new wardrobe because it’s been so long
*enjoys going to work or wishes she could go
*has worn the same thing 2 days in a row because you won’t see the same people
*has let your children do the same!
*secretly wishes that their toddler still wore pampers because it’s so much easier
*has yelled at your children to tell them to stop yelling
*can’t remember the last time you took a picture of your youngest child
*hasn’t yet included your youngest child in the family picture
*called your kid from another room only to retrieve something that you could have gotten yourself
*just so happen to remember on the way to a soccer game that you are the snack mom
*didn’t remember that you were snack mom
*has forgotten to brush your teeth and remembered as you sat in the pews on Sunday right before greet your neighbor
*has also forgotten about deodorant
*has cried in the shower
*has cried with your crying baby
*has thanked the Lord for kids going to school everyday
*is a home school mom who wished her kids went to school
*is a mom who wishes she could homeschool
*doesn’t want to attend another conference/seminar on being an excellent wife
*has allowed your child to sit on your lap as you go potty
*has taken the long way home
*has questioned your decision to have kids
*has questioned your decision to be a wife
*HAS THANKED THE LORD THAT YOU ARE BOTH!

i have been absent from the blogging world for quite sometime now. i enjoyed a nice little break from school and i am now back in full gear for fall with kids, school, work, and all the stuff that comes with it.

i know that this is quite an unusual title to begin my journey back into blogging but it is what God has been re teaching me through the past year. i have not been the best learner. i have been whiny and childish at times. i have shed tears through the struggles that i have faced. but today i picked up a book that i read when i first got married, “The Power of a Praying Wife.” it is one of my all time favorite books. i immediately flashed back to a time when jonathan first got married. i was frustrated with the newness of adjusting to living with a boy. i moved from an apartment where we all pitched in together to clean and pick up and transitioned into living with a boy. in reading the book i realized that i often had unrealistic expectations of jonathan and he probably had the same. if we got into an arguement i would immediately go to take a shower to pray and to fuss him out to God (i still do this by the way). in the end God would end up showing me what i needed to change and how i was all of a sudden expecting jonathan to meet needs that only a perfect God could meet.

so back to the present, i am relearning the same lesson 10 years and four kids later. a woman’s calling is not easy (neither is a man’s by the way). i sometimes swing between the extremes of “im a woman hear me roar” to “im falling apart, i can’t do this anymore”. but my calling is not meant to be done on my own strength and when im falling apart it is not my husband or family’s fault. im here for them, im suppose to show God’s peace in the midst of all the stuff going on. it is my own fault for not relying on God. it is awesome when God shows His love to me through my family’s help but it is not a right nor is it pleasant to live with someone who is always stressed out. so i am learning still to rely on Him to fill me and to rely on His peace in the midst of stuff and uncertainties that comes with being a mommy and wife.

yep-that is 12 kids for our “vacation”. fun times. really busy now but will post later.

i am studying the book of Daniel right now and it amazes me how new things pop up in reading the same book over and over again that i never realized.  one thing that beth moore says in the study is so good that i have to blog it…

“They (Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednedgo) learned the language, literature, and customs all right, but only God could use them in the midst of it. They read the language of their culture with the lens of God. Thereby, they became culturally relevant without becoming spiritually irrelevant. Against all odds, they retained a God-centered worldview so that ultimately the world could view their God. Amazing.”

this is my prayer for my family, my prayer for oak leaf, and my prayer for my kids. may we never be so culturally relevant but become spiritually irrelevant, nor may we become so “spirituality separated” that the world can not see our God.

these are two girls in my life that have known me for awhile, christy and kim.we have seen each other grow spiritually, christy seeing kim and i both accept Christ as our Savior. we have seen each other through relationships and breakups before our husbands came into the picture. we have encouraged one another in our walks with Christ and sometimes we have goofed up together. we were in each others weddings. we went to different colleges, and have lived in different states (soon christy will be living on another continent) , seen each other through pregnancy (10 total between the three of us) and we have remained friends through it all. i am very proud of these girls and blessed by them in so many ways. may we have many more memories to make! i love you both.

it was funny in one of my developmental psychology classes where there was talk of lengthening the span of adolescence from puberty to 25! Seriously- 25- I had my fourth child at 25. i was technically still a teenager when i got married at 19.

 then this morning i was reading in the book of Daniel and i realized again how young some of the people in the Bible were when they were “living” for God. Mary was probably 12-15 when she had Jesus. Daniel was 15-18 when he was in training in Babylon along with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. David was also not an “adult” when he killed Goliath (probably 15-18). Josiah was a king at the age of eight. it talks in verse two right after it informs us that he was 8 when he became king that, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.” (2 Kings 22:2)

if a person is walking with the Lord and is growing in His wisdom then old age and the wisdom from that are wonderful. but oh to live with the faith of our youth. bold, passionate, and stupid for God! this knowledge gets me excited about helping light that fire to my four sweet “stupid” kiddos. it also should change majorly our view of children’s and youth ministry. that is where the fire and passion lie. that is where they will learn to live a life boldly for God. if they learn then to walk by faith and that God has used many young people to lead and accomplish great things then they will learn to seek and accomplish great things for Him.

this is one of the reasons that i love youth and kids. there is so much potential in that one little child that just needs to be pointed to the Savior. In Psalm 89:1 it says,”I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever;  with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. ” let’s encourage their uninhibited faith, love, and daring boldness for God now. and let us always, no matter how old we are, be learning ways to pass on God’ faithfulness to all generations.

(if kids 20 years from now think it’s cool to sing hyms with an organ then i will be in a church with an organ singing hyms with them. )

this probably sums up what i have been learning lately in my life. i have always loved change. i love the next thing. i love living a full life. i know life is short. i really have realized that over the past several years. i have lived a very full 28 years of life with lots of experiences and wonderful things that have happened. but there is something missing in how i live life…

the realization that i have to pace myself to finish the race strong. you have to take care of yourself, your loved ones, and most importantly your relationship with God. you have to remember to enjoy and celebrate the amazing things that have happened and that God has done in the midst of pushing forward onto what He has in the future.you have to rest, to build time for unexpected ministry that He puts in your path. that could include kid’s sickness, to your sickness (this is to prove how human we are), and other people that He puts in our path.

it is a tricky thing, living life as a marathon. you still aim, strive, and move forward. but with pacing yourself you may end up further along the path then you would have if you lost steam after the age of 30.

-had dinner with Oak Leaf staff wives on Thursday. i am very blessed to have these ladies in my life. I love them all and consider them some of my dearest friends. i remember taking a seminary wives class one time that warned us of the loneliness in ministry that comes when your husband is on staff. they told us that often the personalities of the staff wives can often be different and you may not connect. definately not the case here at oak leaf.  i am so thankful for them all and for all the wonderful friends that i have here in cartersville! also thanks to Amy Bloye for taking time out of her schedule to meet with us! she is amazing.

-i want to give a shout out to cloverleaf elementary for adding spanish classes for all the kids k-5. i really want my kids (and myself) to learn spanish. being a kid is the best time to pick up another language!

-it has been 6 days without the real thing (coke). i do miss it. i agree that nothing compares (i hear ya joy!) but i have found some comfort in fountain coke zero from chick fil a. (thanks laurel and cindy. )

- i celebrated 9 years with my hubby! it has been quite a wonderful adventure and an extremely busy one! our anniversary was on thursday but we went out to eat instead last night. we are doing our official celebration of Christmas and anniversary in February by going away for two days. our lives are so busy we have realized how crucial it is to spend time together.

-after a sabbatical from sports over the winter i am letting the boys play baseball in the spring and kinley will continue on with dance.  i can’t imagine when all four are in something! i have a hard enough time keeping up with pajama days and snack for everybody. (i accidently sent braden in his pjs when it was only kinley and logan’s pj day- braden’s was the next day. i felt so BAD! he forgave me. )

i just got back in from a week long class in Virginia. it was wonderful and i actually felt recharged by the trip. i was ready to get back home and hug my family at the end of the week, and my family (especially my parents and Jonathan) were really ready for me to get back home.

but here comes the announcement. i am saying good bye, at least for two months, to my dear friend fountain coke. this is the longest that i have given up real coke outside of a fast that i did. (isn’t it funny how God knows our hearts and our silly little preferences when He calls us to fast from something and to pray.) this time i am giving it up for weight loss goals. i am getting older (29 is coming soon) and drinking 44oz. is not helping.

the reason i am blogging about this is because i want accountability. if you see me drinking something i give you permission to ask me if it is diet. i want you to ask me. i thought i could do real coke in moderation but this is hard to moderate for me in stressful times. sad but very true so i am hoping that i will forget about the sweet taste and the delightful bubbles. who knows, after the two months are up i may not even miss it.

p.s. happy 2009!

i have prayed for awhile now for a mentor relationship. in everything that i have done/read/ learned over the past ten years or so, whether it pertains to spiritual, relational, business or ministerial related refers to finding someone who is further along in the game and spending time with them. it talks in Scripture about the older women teaching the younger women and so forth to learn to love their husbands and children.

i love learning from books and blogs and that is where i learn a lot from. this does not mean that i shouldn’t be held responsible to spiritually learn for myself from Scripture and from Christ. i don’t want to become like my mentor.  i just want someone to challenge me to go “to the next level” as a parent/spouse and someone who is involved in ministry.

 i had wonderful women that did this in my life in college and even in an informal way as a young mom. although i have  a high regard for accountability and i have AMAZING friends that could keep me accountable it is in a mentor relationship that i think that growth occurs. a picture that was shared with me by a professor at school is that when two stinking dogs are lying together they don’t really smell what is really going on where as when it is a one way relationship, i answer on a level of accountability that is  only in one direction.

i am continuing to pray that this will come along but until then i am very thankful for my friends who encourage me on in my faith, for my journey group, and for my husband and family. i also am thankful for the women who blog and write books from times before my time and now. God has used them to encourage me on in my calling and in my walk with Him.

some of the women that i read/learn from are: Ruth Graham, Beth Moore, Susanna Wesley,  Mary Kassian, Barbara Rainey, Sarah Edwards, Nancy Ortberg, Priscilla Shirer, Elizabeth Elliot.

some other authors i love reading are: Patrick Lencioni, C.S. Lewis, John Ortberg, Dallas Willard, Andy Stanley, John Maxwell, Les and Leslie Parrott, Tim Kimmell, Ted Tripp, Paul Tripp, John Piper and Donald Miller.