Even the Perfect Parent Failed!

What characteristics would you list for a perfect parent?

Spends time with their child every day. Talking and conversing.

Meets the many needs of their child every single day. Physical, spiritual, emotional.

Provide for their child every day. Food, shelter, even a few little extras to make life fun and enjoyable.

Sets rules and guidelines for their child to follow. To protect them, to give them boundaries, to show them they are loved.

You would think that a parent who did ALL of these things EVERY day would raise wonderful, loving, obedient children who honored their parents and loved and respected them right? WRONG!

God was that perfect parent to Adam and Eve (and every living human being since).

The Bible says that God walked with Adam in the cool of the day.
We know that God met every need Adam had and provided him a paradise in which to live.
We know that he created Eve so that Adam would have a helpmeet.
We know that God gave Adam every tree (except one) to eat from.
And we know that God set up limits and boundaries in Adam and Eve's lives to protect them from pain and death (Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil).
We know that God loved them with all that he had and that he gave and showed his love to them in every way possible.

And we know that he FAILED to raise perfect children. Adam and Eve were disobedient, willful, untruthful, and played the blame game at the first sign of trouble. They brought sin and death into the world. Adam and Eve had the perfect parent, they wanted for nothing and yet their FREE WILL led them astray.

My husband and I pour into our children everyday! We give them all that we can. We give them our time, we give them all that they need and a lot of what they desire, We are in no way perfect or even average! We make lots of mistakes (LOTS) and we stumble and fall.

And there are days that I KNOW I am messing up these kids in the worst way possible. And there are days I KNOW that I am one (just one) mistake away from them hating me and walking out the door the day they turn 18 and NEVER looking back! But then there are days when my oldest comes over and sits by me on the couch, puts his head on my shoulder and says, "Your the best Mommy (yep, he still calls me Mommy) ever!"

I watch my children worship in church, give all that they have to God, spend hours and hours memorizing scripture and I think to myself okay I must be doing a pretty good job at this whole parenting thing!

And then I stop in my tracks and realize that it's not ME! IT'S HIM! It's the perfect parent, loving them through me, through my faults and through my failures. It's HIS love that wins them over. It's HIS blood that covers over my mistakes and lets them see and feel REAL LOVE! It's HIS reaching arms, and loving heart that draws them close to my feeble mistake ridden heart.

HE IS THE PERFECT PARENT! Loving imperfect children through even more imperfect parents and drawing and leading us all to a PERFECT CROSS where PERFECT LOVE gave ALL!

Do They Want What I Have

Our conduct has a direct influence on how people think about the gospel. The world doesn't judge us by our theology; the world judges us by our behavior. People don't necessarily want to know what we believe about the Bible. They want to see if what we believe makes a difference in our lives. Our actions either bring glory to God or misrepresent His truth.”
~Carolyn Mahaney, Feminine Appeal

Do They Want What We Have?

I came across this quote the other day as I was surfing the blogsphere and it stirred something in me. It made me question my life and the way I live it. Do I live a life that would make others STOP and think "What ever she has, that is what I want!"

I am not talking about the THINGS that I have like a new house, a new car, or Disney tickets. I am talking about the way my husband and I treat each other, the way my children act, the way I conduct myself both in and out of my house. Will others see something IN me that will make them STOP and wonder what I have in my life that makes me different.

I have very strong beliefs and convictions about the way I dress. My family and I dress VERY modestly and plainly. I believe that most people when they see my family and I out they look at us and know that we are religious (at least I hope they do). But lately, I have been thinking what good does that do? If along with my modest dress they see a scowl on my face, or (blush) if I have just raised my voice at my husband or children. What good does it do if my heart does not match my dress. If I look like a child of God but act like the devil himself.

Now, in no way am I saying that I am going to stop dressing the way I do, what I am saying is I want my heart to match my dress. It is so EASY for me to get up everyday and put on a long skirt, and leave my nasty dirty heart just the way it is. How nice that I look the picture of modesty and yet my husband longs for a Biblical Wife that will respect him and his God given place in this family.

Believe me when I tell you that NO ONE has seen me on one of those days when I'm yelling at the children, rolling my eyes at my husband, scowling and stomping around the world and said "WOW, whatever she has, that's what I want!". On those days I don't want it either!

But there have been days (oh blessed days) when strangers have walked up to our table at restaurants and commented on how well behaved our children are, or how we are the picture perfect family. I have been called June Cleaver, Betty Homemaker, and Mrs. Christmas. Those days my heart swells, my smile widens and I KNOW that they are seeing JESUS in me!

I didn't have to tell them, I didn't have to wear a shirt or a button that says "I Know Jesus, Ask Me How You Can Too!" They saw HIM! In my patience, in my demeanor. They heard him in my laughter, in my quiet and gentle tone. They watched him clean up a spill for the waitress, smile at the woman with the screaming baby that everyone else was scowling at. And my prayer is that when they walked over to our table they FELT HIS sweet sweet spirit at work in our lives. And that as they walked away they said, "WOW, whatever they have, that is what I want!"  

31 Days to Clean - Day 2

On day 2 of 31 Days to Clean, Sarah Mae says that women are LIFE-GIVERS! She goes on to say that

"Life-giving, in its most basic sense, is raising life above the level of mere existence."

This is so very true. I know as a wife and mother, I do not want my husband and children to merely exist. I want them to THRIVE! I want them to live out their dreams, to pursue greatness, and to find joy in becoming who God created them to be.

After the birth of each of my children, I did not sit back, put my feet up and tell myself that I had done a great job and now I could relax. Nope, I knew that the REAL work had just begun.

Life-giving does not begin and end in the delivery room. Every day I must make the decision, a conscious effort to pour into my children, my husband, my family and my friends. Some days, I must pour into them more than I get back from them. Some days I must give more than I think I have to give! And on those days I must go to GOD, the True Life-Giver, and let him pour into me (more than he gets back) so that I in turn can pour into those around me! 

Today's Challenge: CLEAN OUT AND SCRUB DOWN THE REFRIGERATOR AND FREEZER

I will post an update later today of my clean and organized refrigerator and freezer!

31 Days to Clean - Day 1

Our front door

On Day 1 of 31 Days to Clean Sarah Mae asks 

"Why do you want a clean home?"

And all kinds of reasons came to my mind, 

so that others don't judge me 
so that I can open up my home to family and friends and not be embarrassed 
so that the voices in my head that tell me I'm not enough will be quiet 
so that I am not ashamed when people stop by unannounced 

And as I ran through this list I realized something...

these reasons have always been my reasons and obviously they are not enough because hear I sit in a house that is far from clean! And I had an epiphany, fear and embarrassment DO NOT motivate me. They actually make me less motivated in the fact that they remind me that I will NEVER be able to do it all. 

So I realized I needed to come up with much better reasons to keep my home clean. And I realized that while fear and embarrassment do not motivate me, LOVE for my children and my husband DOES! And when I looked at keeping my home clean through the eyes of a mother and wife here are the reasons I came up!

Why Do I want a clean home?

I want to create a place that Micah and the children want to be! I want our home to be a safe haven from the world outside our door. I want this home to be a place of comfort and calm for them. A beautiful place that makes them happy and lets them see God’s hand in their life. From the minute they walk in the door I want them to feel, know, and see the love that I have for them and breathe a sigh of relief in their soul that they are “HOME”! 

31 Days to Clean - Introduction

Today I am starting the 31 Days to Clean book written by Sarah Mae. I am very excited to start this book because I really need to get my house, life, and time under control.

Sarah Mae confesses in the first paragraph of her book that

"I struggle with managing my home well. Cleaning does not come naturally to me; in fact I think my DNA is allergic to it. "

and from that sentence on I knew that Sarah Mae and I were kindred spirits!

I have been married for 21 years and I have struggled with keeping my home clean, decluttered, and organized since the very first day. I have gotten MUCH better over the years but it's still a daily struggle to do all that I feel I should be doing. Finding a balance between housework, family time, homeschooling, and cooking/baking has always seemed an impossibility to me.

And then when Sarah Mae wrote,

"The heart of our home is not in the ability to keep it perfect at all costs; the heart of the home is love."

I knew that this book was written to my very feeble, insecure, imperfect heart. See, I want a perfect home, decorated just so, spotless with everything having a place and everything in its place. I also want to cook 3 meals a day from scratch, make my own bread and whip up a special treat that my family will love. I want my laundry to be caught up, my children to have the most amazing education possible, my husband to be amazed at his Proverbs 31 wife, and I want to always be there for anything that my family or friends need.

Unrealistic dreams... ABSOLUTELY! But just because I realize they are unrealistic does not mean that I stop having them and unfortunately that also means that I do not stop beating myself up because I cannot achieve them!

My prayer is that this book will help me, not only to better maintain my home, and set me up for success in keeping the kind of home my family desires to have and I desire to give them. But more importantly teach me to show my family Jesus every single day. Whether that be by taking on the heart of a servant and washing floors, or by taking on the role of a teacher and sitting with a child until they understand a hard math concept, or by taking the role of comforter and listening to a broken-heart.

Because I am fairly certain that my children and my husband will focus less on the mess and more on the message that Mama is showing/living/teaching everyday.

My New Year Starts Today!

Happy New Year

I realize that most of the world started their New Year 11 days ago, but I'm a rebel!

Okay, not really but we had company coming from Ohio on January 2nd and staying until January 8th and in the middle of that time we had planned a 3 day mini-Disney vacation. So I knew that starting my New Year on January 1st and then stopping all my plans/goals on the second and not picking them back up again until the eighth was just not going to work for me.

So I put my New Year on hold until now.

My New Year goals/plans/dreams will start on January 11th instead of January 1. And I'm okay with that because one of the things that I want to work on this year is GRACE!

Grace for myself, my children, my husband, my family, and my friends. I may even try and push myself beyond my own expectations and offer grace to the people in my life who really need it (those that I have removed their labels). But let's not get crazy before the year has even started and give myself a goal that feels impossible right now.

I will begin the New Year with grace for myself and forgive/understand why I didn't start on the first and jump in where I am with what I have. No looking back, no doubting, no wishing I had done it different!

Here is a quick re-cap of what my goals/plans are for the New Year:

Meals on the table at the same time everyday Monday - Friday!
And a semi-consistent meal time on the weekends! You can read why this is a priority for me here! 

Take at least one picture a day

Find at least one thing to be thankful for every single day

Do something from one of my Pinterest boards every day!

Set up a weekly blog plan and stick with it! This is a HUGE priority for me and one that I want to have finished by the end of this week.

I have lots of other goals/plans for the year (and you can read about them here) but these are the ones that I am planning on working on this week.

Did you start your goals on the first? How are you doing? If your not doing as well as you hoped give yourself some GRACE and choose January 11 as a re-start date for your New Year and join me in being a rebel!

The Foyer (A New House Update)

I love my house and I love my Foyer! I have BIG dreams for my foyer and in my mind I know pretty much exactly what I want it to look like when I finish with it! This is both good and bad.

It's good because I have a vision!

It's bad because I have a vision!

I have specific things that I want and while it's good to know what you want it can be very very frustrating when you cannot find what you want!

I LOVE this pictures so much!

I found this amazing picture at Kirkland's! Don't you just love it! And I knew the second I saw it that it would look amazing in my foyer! It is what started my vision!

LOVE this rug so much!

And then I found this rug and I loved it! I knew that it would fit the space perfectly and that it would help tie in the outside of the house with the inside of the house. (I found it at Kohl's) 

So now I had my picture and my rug. I needed a table. And here is where my vision became a HUGE problem! I could see the table in my head and I wanted it. PROBLEM: I could not find the table in my head at any store in the real world!

The table in my head was white (or some variation of white), it had at least one drawer and at least two shelves. It was at least 30-inch tall and could be no more than 45-inches wide (that's how long my wall is). It was perfect and I wanted it!

TWO MONTHS! That is how long I looked for it. And I was just about to give up and settle for something else. When I found it! It was perfect and I LOVED it!

Better than I imagined!

I found it at Wayfair (on line) but since I had never ordered furniture on-line before I was very nervous. I should not have been. The table is perfect and while it did need to be assembled the directions were easy to follow and the table was put together in less than 20 minutes!

Now I am on a quest to find the perfect lamp and some picture frames to set on my table and I also want to paint the room and I have a few more ideas of things that I want for the other walls!

I had no idea that decorating could be so much fun or take so long!