For the latest updates/pictures of what we have been up to - click on the link under blogs for "Beans!" - my cousin Karina created a blog while she was visiting, and included a slideshow of almost every photo we took while she was here. She has gone, the boys are gone for the next 10 days - and I finally have some time to get some much needed cleaning done . . . if I can persevere through this weather :) It has been like 100 degrees and we have no air conditioning. Thankfully a letter from a missionary couple reoriented me about doing without some comforts and growing through it. I learned I don't do well in extreme heat and mugginess :) Anyway - we are all doing GREAT, Maddie is crawling everywhere - getting better at eating too :) Lili fell twice this week and cut/bruised her lip pretty bad - but seriously only cried for 15 or so seconds - we are amazed at how tough she is! Austin and Justin are at Loon Lake vacationing with their mom - please continue to pray for them and their salvation :)
I have put together a binder (as any good home ec major would do ;) tee hee - and have been collecting things to meditate on/remind myself of for spiritual growth. I got this John Piper "Challenge to Women" a while back from a mass email from a godly woman . . . and just recently pulled it out to really go through it, and it totally rocks! I hope that you take encouragement/exhortation from it - copy and paste it and/or print it out and use it for a devotion - you will be blessed ;) Also, GirlTalk has been doing a series on teaching our daughters to be lovers of the home, and I have been LOVING it - it is convicting to me, as my example is what my daughters will remember most. Check out the link under "Blogs that sharpen me."
A Challenge to Women
By John Piper January 1, 1995
1. That all of your life—in whatever calling—be devoted to the glory of God.
2. That the promises of Christ be trusted so fully that peace and joy and strength fill your soul to overflowing.
3. That this fullness of God overflow in daily acts of love so that people might see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven.
4. That you be women of the Book, who love and study and obey the Bible in every area of its teaching. That meditation on Biblical truth be the source of hope and faith. And that you continue to grow in understanding through all the chapters of your life, never thinking that study and growth are only for others.
5. That you be women of prayer, so that the Word of God would open to you; and the power of faith and holiness would descend upon you; and your spiritual influence would increase at home and at church and in the world.
6. That you be women who have a deep grasp of the sovereign grace of God undergirding all these spiritual processes, that you be deep thinkers about the doctrines of grace, and even deeper lovers and believers of these things.
7. That you be totally committed to ministry, whatever your specific role, that you not fritter your time away on soaps or ladies magazines or aimless hobbies, any more than men should fritter theirs away on excessive sports or aimless diddling in the garage. That you redeem the time for Christ and his Kingdom.
8. That, if you are single, you exploit your singleness to the full in devotion to Christ and not be paralyzed by the desire to be married.
9. That, if you are married, you creatively and intelligently and sincerely support the leadership of your husband as deeply as obedience to Christ will allow; that you encourage him in his God-appointed role as head; that you influence him spiritually primarily through your fearless tranquility and holiness and prayer.
10. That, if you have children, you accept responsibility with your husband (or alone if necessary) to raise up children who hope in the triumph of God, sharing with him the teaching and discipline of the children, and giving to the children that special nurturing touch and care that you are uniquely fitted to give.
11. That you not assume that secular employment is a greater challenge or a better use of your life than the countless opportunities of service and witness in the home the neighborhood, the community, the church, and the world. That you not only pose the question: Career vs. full time mom? But that you ask as seriously: Full time career vs. freedom for ministry? That you ask: Which would be greater for the Kingdom— to be in the employ of someone telling you what to do to make his business prosper, or to be God's free agent dreaming your own dream about how your time and your home and your creativity could make God's business prosper? And that in all this you make your choices not on the basis of secular trends or yuppie lifestyle expectations, but on the basis of what will strengthen the family and advance the cause of Christ.
12. That you step back and (with your husband, if you are married) plan the various forms of your life's ministry in chapters. Chapters are divided by various things—age, strength, singleness, marriage, employment choices, children at home, children in college, grandchildren, retirement, etc. No chapter has all the joys. Finite life is a series of tradeoffs. Finding God's will, and living for the glory of Christ to the full in every chapter is what makes it a success, not whether it reads like somebody else's chapter or whether it has in it what chapter five will have.
13. That you develop a wartime mentality and lifestyle; that you never forget that life is short, that billions of people hang in the balance of heaven and hell every day, that the love of money is spiritual suicide, that the goals of upward mobility (nicer clothes, cars, houses, vacations, food, hobbies) are a poor and dangerous substitute for the goals of living for Christ with all your might, and maximizing your joy in ministry to people's needs.
14. That in all your relationships with men you seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in applying the Biblical vision of manhood and womanhood; that you develop a style and demeanor that does justice to the unique role God has given to man to feel responsible for gracious leadership in relation to women—a leadership which involves elements of protection and care and initiative. That you think creatively and with cultural sensitivity (just as he must do) in shaping the style and setting the tone of your interaction with men.
15. That you see Biblical guidelines for what is appropriate and inappropriate for men and women in relation to each other not as arbitrary constraints on freedom but as wise and gracious prescriptions for how to discover the true freedom of God's ideal of complementarity. That you not measure your potential by the few roles withheld but by the countless roles offered. That you turn off the TV and Radio and think about...
The awesome significance of motherhood
Complementing a man's life as his wife
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Here is Justin, Ethan, Grant and Austin. They found a huge crawdad, Ethan carried it up to us holding the big pincher after he had gotten pinched by it and decided the hat was a better place for it :) Sorry you can't see it - I was fascinated by it!
They played in the creek just about the hole time, here they are building a dam.
FAMILY CAMP :) Maddie is chewing on a chicken bone :) It kept her and mommy VERY content through dinner :)
This marks a HUGE turn around for Maddie . . . up until this last month, she has not wanted anyone to hold her but mom . . . and now she not only lets others hold her - she is so happy to :) Yay Maddie! This is Dusk :)
Sweet Melinda :) I miss you friend!
Lili is FEARLESS! She could have gone down this slide ALL NIGHT and not have gotten tired of it :)
Sweet memories - we took a walk around the camp, and this was just too tender not to capture. Lili adores her Daddy :)
