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Oh the Sweetness of the Bittersweet

Yesterday marks one year my dad has been in joyful bliss with His Savior.  I can't believe it's already been a year!  Sometimes it feels like longer that he has been gone and sometimes it seems like just yesterday he was worshiping alongside us on Sunday.  All I know is he got the better part of the deal!  Just like Paul says he had the "desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better."  Oh, the fun he is having right now!  We will join him there soon, a lot sooner than we think.
On the same day we were remembering my dad, we were also looking ahead to the future.  We recently found out that we are expecting our third child and Lord willing, will have another blessing in the fall.  This will be the first grandchild with my dad not here so it will be very weird.  Like something's missing.  He was present for both of my boys births, which is amazing considering he was out of town a lot! God allowed the timing to work out perfectly so he never had to miss one.
The Lord gives and He takes away, but blessed be His name! I wanted to share the ultrasound picture from yesterday.  Looks like we're gonna have another thumb sucker :/

Have you left your first Love?

Revelation 2:4 - "But this I have against you, that you have left your first love."

When I began my journey on studying the book of Revelation, I had no idea what the Lord was going to show me.  Of course, the obvious things like the tribulation and the last days I expected to learn about.  Then I came to chapter 2 when the Lord begins writing to the seven churches who really existed in the days that the apostle John was writing this letter.

The first church was the church in Ephesus.  This church was a strong witness to the dark city they were planted in.  Christ commended them for their diligent work for the gospel, perseverance in trials and their intolerance for sin in the church.  But one thing they did lack:  A love for the Lord.  All their outward service to Him was great, they were evangelizing to the lost and helping those in need, but when it came to their hearts, their love had grown cold for the Lord.
 This was a wake up call to me!  I can be doing everything I should be doing as a Christian in the service department, but not realizing the fire in my heart has burnt out a long time ago.  

Proverbs 4:23 says, "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life."

We need to continually be doing a love test on our hearts.  I feel like I wake up everyday and carry out all my responsibilities, which I should be doing, but forget to check my heart and my motives for carrying out these tasks.
Then the Lord gives us the command in verse 5, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen: repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place- unless you repent."

Have we forgotten the miry clay He has brought us out of?  Have we forgotten where we should be if He had not had mercy on us?  I know where I should be right now and it's in utter darkness, eternally separated from the presence of God.
Oh Lord, please forgive us for losing our first love. Forgive us for forgetting where You have brought us from, how You have saved us when we were on our way to hell.  Give us the burning love for you that we had at first when your Spirit first gave us life.  May we not only serve You with good deeds, but also with a heart that loves Christ.

Potty Training and the Glory of Christ

                     I know what you're thinking, "Wow Lindsey, you're really stretching it. How are you going to connect potty training to the glory of Christ?"  I have wondered that myself, but the more I meditate on it, the more I see the connection.               
So, my precious bundle of sin Giovanni is now turning the corner to be 3 years old and as of a few weeks ago, there was no potty training in sight.  Okay, I know maybe your child was one of those kids who potty trained themselves at 18 months old.  Well, let me just tell you that if so, that is a blessing from God and definitely not every child...and definitely not mine!  Both of my boys had no interest in the toilet and they were just fine running around with their diaper on and having me change them.  I know boys are said to mature later than girls, so I didn't expect them to make any amazing leaps when it came to this.  
But when they start hiding out to go #2, knowing exactly what they're doing, and then coming to me to tell me to change their dirty diaper, then you know it's time!  They are just being plain LAZY by that point.  Then I ask myself, do I really want to start this process of taking them every 15 minutes to the bathroom, more than likely having a few accidents and having to add messes to my already messy house?  No, I'd rather just keep them in diapers so I don't have to interrupt any of MY daily activities that I want to do.  Then it hit me, I'm being just as LAZY and selfish as them! 
 I know they're ready to be trained they just need to be pushed to do it.  My heart was not much different from theirs.  I also needed to be pushed.  I didn't want to fit this inconvenience of potty training  into my schedule. (As I'm proof reading this post, my son runs in from playing outside needing to go to the bathroom, let me just say we didn't quite make it in time :)
                     
Some verses that spoke to my laziness are: 
           Proverbs 31:27- "She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness."
           Proverbs 10:4- "A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich."
                     
                      So now to the glory of Christ. Is my heart attitude of selfishness and laziness bringing glory to Christ?  No. Am I trusting Him that He will give me the grace and strength to get through this possibly long and arduous task?  No.  I know you're probably thinking, Lindsey it's just potty training, it's not that serious! Well, let me also bring up another point.  The money that I would be spending on diapers every month (which adds up to a lot per year!) , once my son is out of them, could I give that money to God every month to be used for a greater cause and to further His kingdom?  Yes!  So when you think of it that way, potty training is a big deal in God's eyes.  Just as the poor widow who put in two copper coins in the treasury, which was ALL that she had to live on, amounted to more than the rich man gave out of his surplus, so is everything we do with a heart that desires to bring glory to Christ.  So even if it's as "little" as potty training, it can still amount to great heavenly treasures as long as our motive for doing it is for the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:58
               "Therefore, my beloved brothers (or mothers), be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

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Riding Lessons

Having two boys makes for lots of fun memories and this is definitely one of them!  Solomon and Gio pretty much play outside everyday and I usually hear them making noise and running around.  This day I noticed they were unusually quiet so I thought for sure they doing something they shouldn't be doing.  To my pleasant surprise Solomon was actually teaching Gio how to ride his bike.  He was also boasting about how much of a good big brother he is :)