My Hope

  Yesterday when I was praying with a friend, we were approached and asked to pray for another friend’s daughter who apparently is strong willed in nature.     Having two rather strong-willed daughters myself (who come by this trait quite naturally), I laughed.     I immediately felt bad about my reaction because I want to be able to help and guide other parents but really and truly, I don’t always know what I’m doing and looking back I generally find ways I should have approached things differently.     So, this morning I spent some time praying for wisdom both for myself and to pass along.     It was amazing because as I prayed, I felt like God gave me such a clear picture.       The Bible tells us that God is the potter and we are the clay.  I took a pottery class in college and it’s not as easy as it looks to do it well.  In order for our pieces to be graded the professor cut into each of them to confirm...

  If you're feeling weary right now, let me know.  I may not be able to ease your burden as God can, but I'm happy to listen. I hesitate sharing this because it feels so small in light of the struggles so many others are going through, and yet, it’s where we are right now and I wanted to share and ask for prayers.     I’m weary.   This transition has been much harder than I thought it would be for one of the girls.  School has never been her favorite and it’s been a weekly battle.  But I think the underlying issue has more to do with the move.   One day after having to unpack some boxes she cried in my arms sobbing that she’d lost count on what move this even is… and it depends on how you count them.  But the lowest I’d say is 7 in her life- twice for Bainbridge, twice for Lebanon and three times for Clarkston.  I thought we’d done well since there were only 4 basic areas, but apparently the moving and ...

I wrote the first part over of this post over the summer but never actually posted it. At the time I'd posted a few back to back and didn't want to flood everyone's e-mails with one more thing. Today though I experienced the same humbling grace from my kids so I thought I'd share both experiences. "Recently I was humbled by the grace of my children. GFM always has group gatherings to pray for people as they head out and also to hear about what’s happened on mission or vision trips. I love going and hearing and praying, but they aren’t the most child-friendly, particularly for children that have a hard time sitting for any length of time. I feel like there are times my children have to learn there are times they have to be quiet and times for play- a time for everything under heaven. Unfortunately, I told the girls we were going to a party. It really was a going away party of sorts… but not party in the sense that a 6 & 4 year old automatically pictur...

I shared a video in a post a few weeks ago, but I'm not sure it pulled up in people's e-mails. If you haven't watched God's Heart for the Foreigner, please take some time to watch it. Here's the link to it on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd4IEuPvQw8 Everybody always says it would be nice for babies to come with instruction books and it’s true, but it’s even more exciting parenting a newborn in Clarkston. When M was born many of my parenting decisions and styles were much like those of my friends. Sure there were some differences, but common threads throughout. It’s easy to forget how many things are influenced by culture. Now I’m getting glimpses of how different people parent across the globe. Take something as simple as nursing. I’ve always been told that brand new babies need to eat every couple of hours and as they get bigger and older you can extend the time between meals further. It makes sense to me. If they fuss between those times ...

It seems like at every turn lately, my plans have been backfiring. The doctor that I thought would be doing the surgery didn’t and the doctor who was my last choice ended up being the one to deliver V. We thought both grandmothers would be here the first week to ease the older girls into life with a newborn. The only glitch… both girls came down with stomach bugs and so the grandmas whisked them away to Florida so as not to infect the rest of us. M’s birthday just passed and I thought I may be able to pull off a celebration with just family and maybe a fun outing instead of a big party but as the day approached it quickly became clear that her heart was set on a celebration surrounded by friends. The list goes on with lots of unscheduled bumps and hiccups, but you get the picture. My concern about the doctor ended up being unfounded and the surgery went well. The girls ended up having a great time and don’t seem a bit fazed that they missed V’s first week of life (M d...

The girls have noticed differences between their lives and those of our neighbors. I try not to point certain things out, but address them as they naturally occur and this was one of them. As we were driving to our homeschool group one day, M asked me why we had items that our friends didn’t have. I tried my best to explain that quite simply, I don’t know. I don’t know why we were born into safe and secure homes. I don’t know why we were blessed with the intellectual capabilities to succeed at college. I don’t know why. I have an incomplete picture of things- only God sees the bigger picture. But I shared with the girls part of Luke 12:48: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” I explained that we have been given so much- God has been so good to us- we are therefore called to use what we have been entrusted with and give back to others. I felt like a parenting failure when M...