Make a Joyful Noise

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, 
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your 
requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends 
all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds 
in Christ Jesus. 
Philippians 4:4-7 


What is the noise that is happening right now in your home?
Are you the kind of person that has to have background noise on while your kids are playing?
Is that noise from the television, the radio, or is it praise and worship music?
What kind of message is the noise we are listening to sending our children?
What is it saying to us, to our souls?

I have a very good friend that is a stay home mother to two wonderful children. She hates having the house quiet while the kids are playing. She almost always has the television on. It often is just whatever is playing on a certain channel. That channel, from my experience, has some pretty terrible shows. But during the day they keep it pretty tame.  But they do show the ads for the shows that come on later in the day.  How many times do you think the kids see those commercials, or even just hear them?
And what are they learning from them?

Have you ever just sat in silence and enjoyed the noise that your children make? Have you really enjoyed the joyful noises they make as they learn a new game, accomplish something or have a new toy?

My daughter loves to talk.  She started making cooing noises and trying to copy our sounds before she even hit a month old. By one year she was communicating over 300 words clearly and in full sentences. God really has blessed her with the gift of communication.

She also loves to sing.  Most of the words that she started to use early on in life were words from songs that she loved to have sung to her and signed using ASL.  Now she sings all the time.  If she isn't talking she is singing.

She wakes up in the morning and doesn't call out for us to come and get her, she sits in her bed and sings. The best way I have ever been woken up was when she woke up and started to sing:
"My God is so good,
God is so good,
God is so good,
He is good to me."
Isn't that such a great message in the morning. That our God is so good to us.

Have you ever spent the day playing worship music? Even just had it play as you got ready in the morning?

I used to work in a school with some very frustrating children and co-workers.  One day one of the kids pointed out, " Mrs T, we know when you are mad, cause your eyes get really big, like this." He then made a terrible impression of what he thought I looked like when angry.  I then came to a realization that I wasn't being joyful at work. I wasn't showing the children God's love for them, and I wasn't praising Him with all that I did.

I then began to start my days with prayer and worship as I got ready for work and as I drove to work. It made a world of difference. I noticed a change in my attitude and how I approached the children. I started to see them the way God sees them and that he made each of them special and with a purpose.

When we praise the Father, he fills us with joy. We need to become like children and worship him in all that we do. When we spend our days living out worship we are connected to the Father and he will speak to and through us.  When you are feeling distant from God or struggling with your relationship with him, turn to him and praise.

At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, " I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. 
Luke 10:21

My lips will shout for joy 
when I sing praise to you- 
I whom you have delivered.
Psalm 71:23

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. 
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 
Psalm 100:1-3

Wisdom vs Baby Brain

She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. 
Proverbs 31:27

Have you ever felt this terrible feeling like what you are saying doesn't make sense to anyone but you? Or have you said something that came out horribly wrong?How about being stuck trying to say a simple word that just wont come out?

I call this Baby brain.  Many of you have probably gone through this.  I started having it while pregnant with Little A and then it just never went away after having her. Then it got even worse while pregnant with Little E.   

I have to share a funny story of what happened to my sister-in-law after she had my nephew.  They were living with my in-laws after having the baby because my brother-in-law was going to be going back to school. They were living in the basement.  A few weeks after my nephew was born, my sister-in-law(s-i-l) wasn't coping well to the new baby and living in a dark basement.  

One day she was upstairs while her husband was downstairs with the baby in the swing. Nephew was happy as could be sitting in the swing while my brother-in-law was watching some sort of sporting event on tv.  The lights were dimmed and the little one was enjoying watching the lights from the game.  My s-i-l came downstairs to check on things, immediately began to cry and said angrily to her husband, "You're gonna make him think its Christmas!"

What she meant was that he was going to throw off the schedule she was trying to get nephew into. She meant that the lights had to be on so that he would think it was daytime and not night.  But what her post-pregnancy mom-brain said made her feel stupid and instead of her words being respected they brought laughter and gentle teasing, not just from her husband but from the rest of us when we heard the story.

I hate having tangled up words. It makes me feel like what I am trying to say wont be taken seriously. Like I have no wisdom. 

God is the one that gives true wisdom. I may be smart and know a few things, but real wisdom comes from God. 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
    all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
    To him belongs eternal praise.
Psalm 111:10

For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 2:6

Then you will understand what is right and just

and fair- every good path.

For wisdom will enter your heart,

and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. 

Proverbs 2:9-10

God gave solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. 

1 Kinds 4:29

God gives true wisdom. My prayer this week is that God will fill be with his wisdom for how to handle situations. For how to approach the people in my life and what they are going through.  That he will give me wisdom to see his leading and hand in my life and my family. 

So when you get muddled up with baby-brain or are just struggling getting your points across, just stop and call on God to give you his wisdom. Because the little we know does not compare to the expanse of knowledge of the one who created the universe. 

God Bless you and be filled with his wisdom and let learning be "pleasant to your soul" this week. 

~A

Inadequacy

Proverbs 31:10-11
A wife of noble character who can find
She is worth far more than rubies.

Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. 


Do you ever feel like your husband lacks confidence in you? 

I do. I feel like that often. Not because of his words, but because of my own feelings of inadequacy. I am often feeling like I am not that "perfect" wife or mother.  Like my house isn't clean enough, my meals aren't tasty enough and that I am not as good of a wife as I could be. 

My Mr is such a loving guy and would never say anything to purposefully hurt or upset me, but there are times when what he says or how he says it, can feed into my feelings of inadequacy.

A recent example of this in my life was a few months ago when I gave birth to Little E. My labour was fairly easy which was an answer to prayer, delivery was painful and involved lots of stitches afterward. And then shortly after leaving the hospital I ended up back in the ER with some serious complications.

During that time we had my wonderful parents around to help with watching Little A while we delivered and then for a day or two after.  Then my dad came back to help watch her while we were in and out of the hospital.

For those of us with children we all know how hard the first few days or for some, weeks, are. Its hard enough to take care of that new little blessing let alone ourselves and the rest of the household. This is where my confidence in myself and my abilities fled. My loving husband was trying to help me out with the baby and my health issues. And my dad was being amazing taking care of Little A. But the house was a complete disaster, if the guys cleaned anything it was just the kitchen and the dishes.  They didn't really do much beyond that.

When my mom came down on the weekends to help out she took care of anything she could clean. It was such a blessing.

But it felt like I was failing.  It still feels like I am failing when my house is a mess and things aren't getting done. ( I am also attempting to pack up our house to move so that doesnt help)

It was a terrible feeling having to have someone else come and clean up our mess. To take care of things that I should have been able to take care of. Not that anyone but myself expected that I be able to do those things in the condition I was in.

I think most women that you talk to would, if answering truthfully, say that they often feel inadequate or that they are falling short in some area of their lives.  The expectations we put on ourselves can be so high.  We don't give ourselves enough credit for the things that we do on a daily basis, and a lot of the things that we do are chores that do have to be done daily.  ( do you ever wish that the dishes would do themselves, I hate that there is always dishes to be cleaned, even after you have finally cleaned them all you turn around and it is another meal or snack, and you have to do it all over again.)

My prayer today is that God would show us what normal tasks we do are truly important and which are just distracting us from him and the jobs he has given us. That he would help our husbands to have full confidence in us and that we would have full confidence in ourselves.
God bless you. 

Blessed

Proverbs 31:28
Her children arise and call her blessed;
  her husband also, and he praises her:“Many women do noble things,
  but you surpass them all.”


I just wanted to share today how blessed we are. When did you last sit and enjoy the blessing that God has given you through your children?

Today, I tried to just revel in it. To soak it in and fill me with joy, all the wonderful things God has given me. I focused on not having that joy taken from me for the little frustrating things that little A does, being that she is nearing two and loves the word "no". We can get so distracted by life that we forget that we are so blessed. The everyday chores and duties of a wife and mother can be so overwhelming and never-ending that we can get caught up in them and forget that we could be spending our time showering love on the littles that God loves so much. 

How deeply He cares for me and for my little ones. What a wonderful God I serve. 

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb. 

Psalm 139:13

 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.

Mark 10:13-16

God has blessed parents with such an amazing gift.  He has trusted us with little ones that he cares so so deeply about.  Jesus also said in Matthew 18:10:

 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. "

Matthew 18:10

Children are a heritage from the Lord,

offspring a reward for him. 

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior 

are children born in one's youth. 

Psalm 127:3-4

Try to focus on that blessing, on how much God truly cares for you, your husband, and your littles. 

My prayer for you is that in reading this you will be reminded of the love of the Father for you and yours. That you will be filled anew with overflowing, never-ending God given love for those around you, be it family, friend or neighbour (in any sense of the word). Blessings upon you. 

Tiny Tip Tuesday

Here is a little Tip I received today from a brilliant woman of God who has been an incredible Sunday School Teacher her whole life, and a Preschool Teacher for 15 years.  

• You shouldn't let you toddlers use markers, crayons do more for their development of fine motor skills.  If you break the crayons into small, 1 inch or slightly larger, pieces, your child will have an easier time developing the proper skills for holding a pencil.  

Great to know.

Passing Blame

 I was blown away a few days ago by my daughter, "little A". Actually I am consistently blown away by her and how brilliant she is. God has truly blessed her with an easy personality and a desire to learn.  She is just over 20 months old now and talks up a storm.

Anyway, I have to be careful because I could talk about her all day if I get started.  The other day my parents were in town visiting. Little A is in completely infatuated with my dad. She adores him and always has, even as an infant she would just sit and stare and laugh at him and they have had a special bond. He fully returns the affections and is always on the floor playing with her, signing with her (they both use sign language, but more on that another day) and singing silly songs with her.

One of the things Little A started to do while my dad was around was to blame him. She would blame anything and everything on him. The most used one was that any flatulence from her, her little brother, or anyone else, was grandpa's fault.

We all thought it was hilarious that this little one and a half year old would go around blaming farts on grandpa. She would even do it when he wasn't in the room, and it continued even after they went back home.

It took me a while to actually get past the hilarity of what she was doing and try to point out to her one year old self that its not okay to lie and pass blame.  Not surprising that she doesn't understand it but I hope and pray that someday she will.

The other day God pointed out to me how I do this often, how we all do this. We all pass blame. Without even noticing that we do it we try to shirk responsibility for our actions and pass it onto someone else.

I know that in arguments I have often tried to pass the blame or even tried to take a smaller portion of it.
I recently tried to stop in the middle of an argument and actually focus on what I did to make things the way they were. To stop blaming my husband for it and accept the responsibility.

We are all sinners. We all make mistakes.
Romans 3:23
 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

I shouldn't be surprised at all that a child already has the knowledge to pass blame, we are all sinners and like sinners we hide from our mistakes and try to pass the blame.

Genesis 3:8-14
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
And God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
The man said, " The woman you put here with me- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, " The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

But once we are made aware of our "shirkiness" how do we move away from it and towards living a more Godly, responsible for our actions kind of life?

Like I said earlier, I have been trying to live out an attitude of responsibility.  Taking the responsibility for what I have or haven't done and allowing others to do the same. We cannot force them to take responsibility but when we take our fair share of the blame and don't try to push it onto them,  people are more open to accepting their own responsibilities.

It is only through prayer that our sinful, blamepassing natures will be changed into a more Godlike attitude of responsibility.

That is my prayer for myself and for you. May God bless you as you try to walk it out.