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 :)

He Keeps His Sheep

         Hebrews 13:20-21-"Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."


  Man is not at peace. He's not at peace with God, and usually not with anybody else. It's amazing how we sin and pursue the satisfaction of our desires and our pleasures and we'll sit there, and if we think about it long enough we'll say, "I'm not any happier than before I did this."  We are in this condition of sin which brings ruin, disorder, chaos and destruction, and into that kind of a world the Son of God came to make peace. He is the God of peace. Through Christ and the gospel He made peace with sinners, and they are able to make peace with each other. Christ can make peace and He gives peace (Romans 5:1). 
          This is the grace of God: it doesn't matter how far down you've gone into your sin, He's greater than your sin.  The One who the hostility is against is the One that takes the initiative to go and get the one who is at war (John 10:16). We can't fix our state; we can't pick ourselves up; we can't free ourselves. Only He can break the hold of our own sin and self destruction. That sheep on that cliff is going to fall off and is going to be destroyed if the Shepherd doesn't grab it (Luke 15:1-7)! 
         I don't care what age you got saved. Have you ever thought about what you would've become and what you would've done to yourself if He hadn't of intervened? He keeps His sheep! I don't care "super christian" who you are, I'm gonna tell you why you've been sustained and haven't destroyed yourself, even as a Christian: He's kept you! He has kept you!

One Thing is Needed

              The last few months God has been burdening my heart to learn what it truly means to worship Him.  I've been blessed to inherit many of my dad's books from his library and quite a few are specifically written on worship.  You may think of worship as the time you sing songs at church or a biblestudy, but I have come to find out it springs out of your heart and shows through every day of your life.  One of the books that I read is titled, "How To Worship Jesus Christ" by Joseph S. Carroll, so many of things I will write is from that book.
            The first chapter is focused on Luke 10:41-42 which goes, "And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."
           As a busy mother and wife, many things are necessary to manage our home, be a helper to my husband, and bring up our children in the Lord.  By the time you are done with cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, disciplining the kids, getting them off to school, or homeschooling you have little hours left in the day.  This doesn't even include the things you need to do for a ministry you are serving in at church.  Helping with a ladies meeting, going to a biblestudy, bringing someone a meal, planning a baby shower, discipling a younger woman.  There are a lot of things that demand our attention!
             I would venture to say that most of us women, if not all of us, can relate to Martha.  Now all the things I just listed are good things.  God calls us to make disciples, study His word, serve in the church, give to missions, pray for others, but if we do all those things and leave out what is the most needed, then we will always fail to truly worship Him in our daily activities.
             Now if we go back and look at Luke 10:39 it says Mary was "seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word."   
              John Macarthur comments on this passage,"Most people, unfortunately, are exactly like Martha - preoccupied, distracted, too busy serving to sit at the Savior's feet. Living in a high-tech age, we tend to be driven by time clocks, deadlines, schedules, appointments, obligations, assignments, and urgent things beyond our control. Few people feel they can afford to put worship at the top of their "To Do" list.  The truth is, we can't afford not to. Worship is ultimately our first priority. Nothing on anyone's agenda is more important."
                 The Lord isn't saying to not be busy. As women we will be busy and we will always have a lot on our plate. If you read Proverbs 31:10-31, you see that this woman who is said to be excellent and fear the Lord, is a very busy woman. In vs 13 she is working with her hands, vs 14 and 15 she is preparing food for her family, vs 16 she is making a profit to help financially, vs 19 to 22 she is making her family and others clothing and vs 27 she is not idle.  But if you notice in vs 25 her intimate relationship with the Lord is shown by her trust and confidence in her God, in good times and bad. We may be "busy" with many things tugging at us from all different directions, but may we not be anxious and troubled by them, and may we never leave out the most important, the most needed thing of all.
                Joseph Carroll writes in his book that, "the best time to worship is, of course, in the morning, in that time that we call a quiet time."  But what is a quiet time?  I used to think it was a time when I would read a few chapters of the book of the Bible I was going through and pray for the people on my prayer list.  That is not a quiet time, that is a study time and a time for intercession, but not a quiet time.  
                Matthew 6:6 says, "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you."  You need to be alone. Whether you are in a closet, a room, a forest, or a car. The main thing is you get alone with you Father.  When we pray, we enter into the very presence of God only by the blood of Jesus.  May that great truth never grow dull to us. We need to be in awe of not only what God has done for us, but who He is.  These are the things we should think on when we are having our quiet time.  Instead of looking at the clock and saying, 'I only have a few minutes to get through my prayer list and read these few verses and then I can go on about my day', we should simply be bowing down and worshiping the Lamb of God who was slain for us.  The only One who is worthy of our worship.
                 Psalm 27:4 says, "One thing I have desired of the LORD, that I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to meditate in His temple."  David was a great man, a great leader, a king, an amazing psalmist, but the only thing he desired was to behold the beauty of the Lord and have intimate fellowship with God.  We must seek Him with all our heart!  
                Now back to Martha and Mary.  Martha was not the only one busy - Mary was busy too, just in a different way. Martha was allowing all the "things" in her life to swallow her up and spit her out. She was complaining against the Lord and then commanding Him to do something about it. She was so distracted by the world around her that she completely missed the most important part.  I used to read this story and think the difference between Martha and Mary is their personalities. Martha is busy and involved in a lot of things and Mary is quiet and reserved.  I've come to see that that's not it at all.  The difference between these two women is this: Mary made a choice. Martha did not.  It's natural for women to be looking after our home, cooking up dinner in the kitchen and ordering people around to help in this way and that way.  We must make a choice to seek the Lord. And it's not an east choice. As we fulfill our calling to the Lord, may we not forget the one thing which is needed to set the foundation of a Christ glorifying life. May we consciously make a daily choice to seek hard after the Lord with all our heart and cast off every hindrance that is weighing us down. May we sit at His feet and adore the One who gave His life for us and experience a personal love between you and your God. May we commune with Him in complete aloneness, almost as if there were no one else in the world.  May we pour out our love on the Savior's feet, just as Mary poured out the costly oil.  
              
 "We were created to worship Jesus Christ. We were created for Him, to become something to Him in order that He might find pleasure in us. But this demands discipline. This demands self-renunciation. This demands the mortifying of the flesh. This demands the taking out of our lives everything that does not contribute to the one great objective."

Excited To Learn

                         Well, I never thought it would come to this, but yesterday was Solomon's first day of school.  Oh, and it was also my first day of school too :)   Troy and I have decided to home school (ahhhhhh!).  So, as many other moms in our church have done and are currently doing, we are going through a charter school Visions.  Trust me when I tell you, there is NO way I would ever be able to do it independently!  Ha now that would be a sight to see!  So anyways, Visions provides you with a Certified Teacher that you meet with once a month, they guide you along the way and are there for you whenever you need them.  I am very thankful for the opportunity to be able to do this.  I know the last few days leading up to this I started to get a little anxious, just thinking about how in the world was all this going to pan out?   Especially when people would ask me the dreaded question, "So, are YOU ready to home school?"  Well, if you REALLY want to know, the answer would be no and yes at the same time.  NO, of course I'm not ready, I've never done anything like this before!  And YES I am ready because I have God on my side and He promises that "I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me."  So the night before the big day, I cried out to the Lord and asked him to wake me up early the next morning, give me energy for the day, give me wisdom on how and when to start the school day, to multiply my hours to still have time to run an errand and cook dinner all before Troy gets home.  Yesterday morning I woke up to my alarm I set and I felt refreshed and ready to go.  I started my day with communion time with the Lord, just being quiet before Him and talking with Him. I can't express to you how much fun the first day of school was for Solomon and for me.  God answered all my prayers and then some. I even got a workout in before school started!
         A few verses come to mind when I think about how blessed our day went.
Psalm 37:5, "Commit you way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass."
 Also Psalm 34:4, "I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears."  
                So here I am, ready to start day 2 of the unknown path of home schooling and my way is still being committed to the Lord.  I pray all of our school days will be joyful and that most importantly I would use those days to continually point Solomon to Christ or it would all be in vain.  Here are a couple photos of how much fun Solomon had testing out his cutting skills, and of course a picture he drew of himself.  Hey, he got the curly hair right!