Safe Place

Do you ever think about what it means to trust God?

I mean *REALLY* trust God?

Some of my recent Bible study has led me to ponder this question and I'm thinking a large part of trusting Him has to do with trusting in His goodness.

As I was reading about the fall of mankind, I wondered what went through Eve's mind as she considered the words of the serpent.  It seems to me that part of her problem was that she didn't trust God's goodness.  Maybe He really was just trying to keep her from being wise--from being like Him.  Maybe He didn't have her best interests in mind.

This same lack of trust was evidenced in the Israelites many years later.  Hebrews tells us they were unable to enter the promised land because of their unbelief.  It seems to me they didn't trust the Lord to love them and to do what was best for them.  They grumbled and wondered why the Lord had brought them out of Egypt and questioned whether His desire was for their ill and destruction--even death by the sword.

Do we ever succumb to the temptation to believe God doesn't have our best interests in mind?  Do we ever question His goodness?

I recently heard that rebellion is rooted in distrust (this stuck with me as I am a parent to two teenagers--and it makes sense!)  How often might our rebellion against God stem from a lack of trust that He is good and that His will is for our good always?

The longer I live, the more I experience, the more I am persuaded that my Heavenly Father wants what is good for me, even when I don't understand how it is good in the moment.  His will is my safe place.

What does the LORD your God require of you, 

but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, 

to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart 

and with all your soul, 

and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, 

which I am commanding you today 

for your good?

Deuteronomy 10:12-13

Unglued

I highlighted many sentences in the first half of Lysa TerKeurst's most recent book, Unglued:  Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions.  I even texted my sis and my sil to tell them my toes were sore from Lysa stepping on them.

Unglued is relatively easy to read as she writes with humor and honesty and liberally sprinkles her personal mistakes and victories throughout the teaching.  In addition to focusing on different emotions we might experience and how the Lord wants us to handle them, Lysa also helps the reader discern personal coping mechanisms, which was one of my favorite parts of the book.

Interestingly, Lysa also says that our reaction type changes based on the other person we're interacting with, which I think is very insightful.  The four types are:

• exploder that blames others
• exploder that shames herself
• stuffer that builds barriers
• stuffer that collects retaliation rocks

Regardless of our natural tendencies, Lysa encourages us toward soul integrity.

"Soul integrity is honesty that's godly.  It brings the passion of the exploder and the peacemaking of the stuffer under the authority of Jesus where honesty and godliness embrace and balance each other" (52).

I think the section contrasting boundaries and barriers benefited me the most.  In many relationships I tend to be a stuffer, sometimes building barriers and other times collecting retaliation rocks.  I want to learn to effectively establish boundaries rather than building barriers, especially as building barriers separates me from others when that's not really what I desire.

"The difference between boundaries and barriers is honest transparency.  When we erect a barrier with a person, it's either because we're afraid to be honest, tired of being honest and getting hurt, or feel like the relationship isn't worth the hard work honesty sometimes takes.

When we establish boundaries, we are brave enough to be honest but also compassionate enough to wrap the boundary in grace by clearly communicating the parameters of the relationship.  Barriers set relationships on a regressive course that leads to isolation.  Boundaries set relationships on a progressive course that leads to connection" (85).

Even as I got a lot out of this book, I also got a little tired of it towards the end and thought it could have been shorter.  I'm not sure if that was just me, or the relevance of the chapters, but I was glad to be done with it rather than left wanting more.  I'll be interested to see if others felt the same way, or if the end of the book just addressed topics the Lord and I have been through already.

The best line of the book summarized her main point that we need to be in constant communion with the Lord in order to choose self-control.  If we are just plugging along in survival mode, the bumps in life are going to bring out the ugly.

"when the rhythm of my soul is survival instead of revival, I will come unglued" (157).

WWBUT: Organizing

So, it's not often I go to someone's house and see something they have that I want, but I have to confess it happened to me recently.  You see, while I aspire to being organized, I'm actually rather "organizationally challenged" (no snorts of laughter, Marcy or Shayla!).  When Matt and Sarah had us over to share lunch with them, I saw an organizational rack on the back of her pantry and got a case of the "I wants".

She told me she got it at Lowe's.  And I turned big brown puppy dog eyes on my hubby.

I've been blessed with this large, deep, wonderful pantry.  It has so much room, but it's also easy for things to get lost in there.  And the shelving unit was really so cool.  I guess Alan thought it might be justified so he bought it for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed these precious moments of watching Destry and Easton put it together for me.  How sweet are these brothers?!

 You wouldn't believe how much extra space this unit cleared up on the interior shelves.  Now I feel like going bulk shopping (Costco?  Dutchman store?) and completely filling up that pantry!

 Before and after--how fun!

WWBUT: Cooking

When Daddy is home and no school is going on, we spend a fair amount of time cooking together and eating together.  Here are just a couple of the "fun" kitchen experiments we tried.

Thanks to my dear sister-in-law, we decided to make candy cane cookies.  Smashing the candy canes was fun for Daddy and Tyrell.  But rolling cookie dough snakes and twisting them into candy canes with six "helping" hands was not quite so much fun for Mom!

It worked out, however, and they were delicious.  I must have held in my frustration better than I realized because the kids thought it was great fun.  (Never. again!)

While Alan is not a huge fan of eating donuts, his kiddos are, so he is the fun daddy who frequently makes them with the kids.

This time we made them with our fancy, schmancey donut-maker.

They were beautiful and yummy and that icing is pure sugar.

Making memories. . .

WWBUT: Our Town

I got this really great idea from my friend Amber to help the kids build a town.  We used painting tape to make roads and then set up dollhouses, fire station, garages and a farm.  The kids played and played and played.

Their town stayed set up in the living room and just kept growing.  One day they added an airport and another day they added a train station.  They used Legos to build a church building and a hospital and built a school building out of wooden blocks.

 They brought their kitchen and toy food downstairs so they could have a restaurant and another day they built a zoo.  They even have a "community theater" for drama fans.

I love watching their imaginations at work and it was more than worth it to me to have tape and toys all over the living room floor.  The town has been disassembled for now, but I expect we'll be getting the tape out again before the winter is over.

What We've Been Up To

 Since I haven't posted in quite some time, I'm going to spend the next few days on a little series summarizing "What We've Been Up To" (WWBUT) in the last couple weeks.

I kinda spoiled the kids with gifts this year.  I just had a little too much fun shopping and then I had even more fun as we spent lots of family time enjoying them.  Kiana got stuff for her baby dolls and Briana received her own set of The Mysterious Benedict Society which she then proceeded to delve into yet again during our break from school.

 Alan's dad got them a dairy barn set--hours of enjoyment!

 And when you have three boys you just can't go wrong with rubber band guns!  When cousins came over, they had a blast playing with them too (and I'm talking about the big boy cousins--who are 19 and 21).

Tyrell was thrilled with a firetruck and a garbage truck and cars--anything that moves and makes noise.

 I saw a funny cartoon on facebook about homeschoolers buying their kids educational gifts and couldn't help but chuckle as we got bridge-building kits, Legos, tutu-making craft sets, Oliver Twist on audio, etc.

 But there were plenty of "just-for-fun" gifts as well including a remote-controlled car that can drive on walls and ceilings for Easton, new jeans for Briana, and hair accessories for Kiana.

Personally, I thought the coolest gift was this electronic set for Easton with which he can build circuits to turn on lights, run motors, and all sorts of fun stuff.  It was right up his alley and perfect for the way his mind works.

We were really blessed in that Alan had lots of time off (he only worked one day out of the last 12 days of 2012) so when we weren't taking turns being sick. . .

 

(this is what Kiana did for an entire day, from 7:30 am to 7 pm, 

and then she was still puny for four days more)

 

we spent lots of time as a family playing and enjoying one another.

Blog Break

In case you haven't noticed, I'm on a blog break.

First it was because of Christmas break.
Then it was because we were hit with a sickness rather like influenza (we didn't go to the doctor, but it lasted a solid week for each of us).
Then Tyrell got strep throat.

And now school has started back up and I didn't accomplish anything over "the break".  So I'm scrambling a half a step behind.

And I don't have anything to say anyway! :)  I have lots of stuff swirling in my brain, but nothing logical or organized.  I'll hopefully be back soon.