Just some thoughts...

So I've decided that I want to periodically post about what God is teaching me. I'm always encouraged and challenged to hear how God is working in other believer's lives, and so here are some ways God has been challenging me lately.

I've been reminded lately how different head knowledge is from heart knowledge. It is so easy to KNOW the characteristics of God. But where is faith in knowledge? Everyone KNOWS there is a God (Romans 1).  It's not enough to simply know. Faith is believing and trusting and practicing that knowledge!

I've been convicted a lot about this in my own life recently. When rubber meets the road and it's time to believe that God's plans and timing are better than mine, I find myself struggling. I KNOW His plans are better than mine, but when I see myself becoming discouraged over His timing, I'm humbled to see that I'm not truly BELIEVING it by practicing it. I have to ask myself, "When has God ever been unfaithful?" Never! He's blessed me beyond anything I could ever deserve. I have salvation through His Son, and therefore I possess everything!

I had to remind myself today that God is in fact hearing my prayers. I feel like I’ve spent the last 5 months praying the same thing daily. And what I have to tell myself is that it's not that He isn’t hearing my prayers. It isn’t that He is choosing to give me no answer to these prayers. He answers each one of my prayers. His answer has simply been no. What looks like no answer or indifference is in fact just my faulty perception of how He is answering my prayers. It’s not the answer that I want and so I perceive it as an unanswered prayer. But no prayer has ever gone unanswered. He is faithful. I need to praise Him when his answer to me is no or not yet. I need to see AND believe that His answers are perfect and timely. It doesn't mean that His answer will always be no. But today it is. And that's good. 

Anyways, I'm thankful for moments when I feel helpless. It humbles me and gives me a better perspective of myself. I need to decrease so He can increase. This life is not about me. It isn't about my wants. It isn't about my plans. It's about Him. When I remember these things, I feel such peace. My anxiety goes away and I'm content. He is SO good. I'm blown away with His willingness to shower grace and love on me. It's an undeserved blessing. His plans truly are good and His timing really is perfect. And when I step outside of myself, it's so much easier to practice that knowledge and believe it. :)

I'm so blessed with my little family! So thankful for them! 

 

Catching up!

Since I am so awful at remembering to update my blog, here's a collage of the last 2 months or so. :) Not a whole lot going on. My Brother-In-Law gets married in less than 2 weeks, so we've been busy with Bridal Showers, Bachelor Parties, etc. I'll have to update the blog with pictures from the wedding in a couple of weeks!

 Jace has his own cabinet that I let him play in while I'm in the kitchen. He isn't allowed to play in most of the cabinets, but having ones that he can play in has been great for while I'm doing dishes, cooking, etc. He loves playing with the tuppawear. And playing IN the cabinet is fun too. 

My MIL is amazing! She watches Jace for me at various points in the week and he just loves her! 

We've been trying to get outside and play while the weather is so great! 

When things are quiet, I know something's up. I even hid the Kleenex box in the wicker basket and he still managed to pull them through the hole. 

Playing at the park! 

He LOVES to do pull ups. He saw Matt and I doing some while we were working out at home with our door pull up bar, and he always lifts his hands up so that he can do his pull ups too. 

I pulled out the white table that we have just been storing in the extra room because I found him wanting to sit on the chair. He LOVES this. He eats his snacks now at the table (better then when I used to throw them around the room and he would find them. That used to buy me a good 10 minutes.) The chairs are still a little big for him and falls off them quiet a bit. But I'm shocked at this kid's pain tolerance. Shocked. He's learning though how to get off the chair and on without falling. 

Jace has no fear. And standing on the chairs (or climbing onto the table) are exciting to him. It's one of the things we are working on--SITTING on chairs. He's getting better. 

He loves my head bands. He wears them through out the day. As I am typing this comment, Jace decided standing on his chair was fun again. #workinprogress 

Jave loves music. Playing the piano is his new favorite thing! There is a song called "Say Something" (so beautiful!) that for some reason he LOVES. I sing it to him and he just smiles and tries to sing along. It's such a slow song that it surprises me that he loves it so much. But every time I play it he runs over to me and smiles. 

Family pic at the park!

Jace found a straw wrapper at the park. He carried it around with him everywhere.

He even let it go down the slide.

My sister and my mom planned a last minute trip to Cali to go to Disneyland. It was such a fun, quick trip. I missed my boys terribly, so I was definitely ready to come home, but it was such a nice time with my mom and sister. 

Apparently Jace knows how to climb ladders. Like I mentioned before, NO fear. I'm just glad I catch him doing these things and can get him down safely. 

Brush brush brush. Brushing our almost 8 teeth! 

We've been taking advantage of this weather. While I let Jace play outside in the backyard, I laid out to get a tan. In March! That's just too early for it to be tanning weather. 

He's my little ham!! 

This is Jace's new room! We finally finished it up in mid January.