My Rock

I am not the perfect wife.

Nor the perfect mother. Or sister, or daughter, or friend, or Christian. 

I stopped striving to be the "perfect _____"

It's so exhausting to constantly be focusing on ME all the time, how I can be better, do better, who is doing it better and how I need to be like them.

I do have a role model in the Proverbs 31 woman. 

She takes care of others. She cares for her FAMILY and for the seamingly lowly people.

Her husband calls her blessed and HE himself is respected by people.

I have this life-partner. A BEST friend. Someone I can confide in, laugh with, cry with, PRAY with and enjoy playing with our kids. He is my greatest encourager. He is my husband. My very own knight in shining armor.

I think about him all day, every day and I truly miss him when he is at work and jokingly say he could never work from home because I would just want to spend time with him ALL DAY.

I loooooove him. (sometimes I don't like him, but even then I choose to love him.... but about 99% of the time I REALLY like him!) 

I don't have it all together and he sees that. Maybe even better than I can see it myself.

Can I be honest? I do try to maintain the house during the day but I often let the dishes pile up. About 15 mins before he gets home I run over to that sink and clean them all up in a flash! (...most of the time...) that is my "I feel like I actually got something done today", even if I did vacuum, sweep and do 3 loads of laundry- but you would never guess because of the crumbs on the floor and giant pile of laundry. 

I am blessed to have a man who loves me so well because he understands Christ's love. He doesn't put me down and say "what did you do all day" when the house is spilling with toys and crumbs.

I am a Momma who would rather be on the floor, making a mess of those toys with the kids than yelling at them or stressing to constantly be cleaning up everything behind them.All.Day.Long. 

But my kids aren't my main priority. Don't get me wrong! They ARE my priority and I strive to live each day intentionally loving them and raising them up in Christ's love. But my husband is my other priority. THE main priority. As in, he comes (our relationship) BEFORE our kids. Or our jobs. Or our ministry. Or our church. Or our friends. Or our To-Do list.
I want my husband to know and feel SO loved! SO encouraged. I want him to be as eager to come home as we are for him to come home. I want our home to be a place of peace (as much as I can control it) so that when he walks in that door our world stops and we cheer that Daddy is home!! 

 

We are some of the silliest people I know!

Ugh, what a blessing!? I don't take this man for granted. Not.One.Bit. I adore him. I LOOOOVE HIM. I respect him and I encourage him. I am his #1 fan and I will fight for him. I do battle for him. Every day- in prayer. And we have gone through a lot in our 2 years of marriage. We have struggled, battled financial hardships, health issues, depression, BIG fears, broken pasts and the list goes on. We are messy sinners who have to be washed clean DAILY by Jesus. I can promise you that our marriage wouldn't be like this if we didn't both love Jesus.

Can I emphasis that we DON'T have it all together? Each day is new, and we love each other. We play on the same team, working together, building each other up and learning how to do this thing called life together. We find new hope each day in Christ, spending time in His Word and in prayer. Being committed to our Lord enables us to be more committed to each other.
Craig, I love you.

I'm Watching You

Don't worry.

You are not the one being watched.

I am.

And Craig is too.

By a 4 year old boy.

And a 1 year old girl.

I am not a night person. 

With that being said, while I was pregnant with Abigail, I told Craig in advance that  he would be doing the bedtime routine for our children.

Little did he know (insert Stranger Than Fiction movie here) that when Abigail was just 7 months old a sweet little just-turned-4-years-old boy would be coming to live with us for a while.

They got in the routine of reading a book, likely to be a Dr. Suess, and a story from Nathan's Children's Bible, then praying together. They each pray. Out loud. So precious!

Pause right here.

Can we talk about this Bible? It was a gift to Nathan from our friends the Dahlfred's and we are kind of in love with it. So much so that we bought a bunch as a gift to a church to be given to kids who don't have a Bible at home.

It is called- The Jesus Storybook Bible By: Sally Lloyd-Jones

LOVE LOVE LOVE this Children's Bible

Uncle Rob came all the way from Zimbabwe to spend Christmas 2010 with us.

So I often find Nathan on the couch or floor flipping through his Bible. He is "spending time with Jesus." I will hear his sweet four year old voice "reading" His Bible.

"God is unchanging... His forever, never ending love... He rescues us..."

These are the most precious visions of Christ sweetly instilled in this boys heart.

He gets it. 

He hears the Word. Stores it up in his sweet little heart. Spills it out of his own mouth. 

And I pray that as he grows into the man God has created him to be, that he will continue to store up the Truths of the Gospel in his heart. 

So that he might one day believe them. 

And share it with others.

Craig and I are on a mission. 

In our hearts first, then our home. To know and believe the Gospel. To live it out in our home. To raise our dearly loved children to know the Gospel. To share it with the rest of the world.

Would you pray for us? 

Pray that God will grow our hearts more like His. Pray for the 2 little children growing in our care. Pray for our future children, who have yet to be born and those who are already out there around the world.

Grace and Peace to you.