I Heart To Laugh!

This week at I Heart Faces it's all about Hilarious Outtakes. Being the wife of one silly man and the mother of four children-I have more than enough laughable outtakes! I think that for every one good picture, I have at least ten funny out takes. We also get to pick FIVE pictures this week, versus the regular one!!! So exciting this week!

Here is my crazy husband, on Easter making fun of me as I snapped away with my camera. I pointed my lens in his direction and he made this funny rabbit, ear face! Always the jokester!

This next one was taken that same Easter day, when we were desperately trying to take a "grandchildren" picture for my parents. There is always so much drama going on whenever you combine lots of children having to sit for longer than five seconds and all look the same way. My dad is talking-probably making some joke about how this is never going to happen, my mom is trying to get my week old son to stop crying by pushing the pacifier in his mouth and laughing at whatever joke my dad is saying; Will is screaming probably because he wants to go eat some of his Easter candy and Foster is looking at his brother in disbelief. The girl grandchildren are the only ones cooperating! Too bad mom doesn't have more grand daughters than grandsons!




This picture was taken that same say as Will (who was crying above) is now in his lovable, kissable mood, trying to kiss his baby brother, whether Samuel wants him to or not!

Now fast forward eight months and here the same two brothers, Will hasn't changed much as far as the whole kissing his baby brother goes! I took this one on Christmas morning, a few days ago.

And lastly, here is my Will again. He made this face Every. Single. Time. I got out my camera while we were at the beach. He refused to wear sunglasses, so this was his poor attempt at keeping the sun out of his eyes! I have all these cute, group shots of my four children with the exception of him wearing this face-every single time-even when I made sure to face his away from the sun! I guess I should be glad he'd at least stop whatever he was doing to look at me!

Make sure to head on over to http://www.iheartfaces.com/ to see all the Hilarious Outtakes! It will be sure to snap you out of any post-holiday blues!

One Ordinary Night

The air was cool and crisp. It was quiet and peaceful. Most of the world slept, after just going to bed and following their usual routine. They may have laid there thinking of what things they had to do the next day and how to solve certain problems in their lives. Mothers may have been tending to a sick child, fathers trying to get as much sleep as possible before another long working day began.

Life was normal, usual, nothing out of the ordinary by any means.

And then it happened. The sky filled with a heavenly light. A light so bright that men had to cover their eyes. What was this, what was happening?

This was no ordinary night.

What had once been a routine, now became something new. What had once been a burden, now offered redemption. What had once been hopeless, was now overflowing with hope and meaning.

In one night, the whole world changed. In one night, the lives of millions of people who had not yet been born-was changed, forever. In the blink of an eye, after one ordinary, normal day.

The God who formed the universe by saying a few words, could now say nothing audible except for a tiny cry. The One who uses the mountains as a footstool, could not even stand on two legs. The God who had never needed food or nourishment, was now dependant on a woman to feed Him. The One who holds eternity in His hand, now grasped the finger of His mother.

Immanuel.

God with us.

All of God, yet all of man, wrapped up together.

Suddenly our lives don't look so ordinary anymore.

"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has said through the prophet:

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son,

and they will call Him Immanuel"-which means "God with us".

Matthew 1:22-23

More Than Just a Story

I must give a little explanation before I let you read the following post...ok, more like a confession than an explanation. I wrote the following entry on November 10th. Why haven't you seen it yet, you might ask. Well, I had this great idea that I could add some pictures to it and I needed some of my mom's pictures to complete the task. She emailed them right away and I ...well, it is now over a month later and I am just now getting around to it...but I must explain why. God's timing is amazing.

I have been in a full "Must get ready for Christmas, but totally not feeling it" type of mood since before Thanksgiving. When Thanksgiving weekend was over, it honestly had just felt like we had had some great food and great family time, but not like it had been Thanksgiving. I have been SO BUSY to STOP and really enjoy the holidays. To STOP and really think about why I'm scrounging around to buy all these gifts and make all these cookies. Why am I doing all of this?

This morning, I was making bread, waiting for cookies to come out of the oven, filling out Christmas cards, emailing and helping with Randol's schoolwork-All at the same time, of course. I had gotten this grand idea to email folks I knew on Facebook and get their addresses so I could send them a Christmas card. I was overwhelmed by how many people wrote back and how fast they were, in their response. These were mostly people I know, but don't really talk to very often. Facebook is a great way to quietly keep up with folks. It's kind of sad in a way. I can know so much about people I haven't seen-or really talked to in years...all through Facebook.

Ok, enough soapdish talk, let me get back to where I was. So, I was getting lots of emails from folks I hadn't heard from (and who hadn't heard from me) and a few of those folks mentioned reading my blog recently and something that I'd said, had meant something to them. Wow. That's all I could say. It made me remember the following post and how I'd never finished it and how I need to make my writing more important. Here were people God had reached, through me and I never even knew it. How many more could He have touched, but I didn't take the time to write?

So I went back to this post to do a final read through with the goal to finally post the thing. By the time I got to the end, I almost laughed at what I read. Here I was, the day after I'd bought some presents for people I really didn't need more presents for, all because I was in "Christmas Panic" mode of fearing I wouldn't get all my shopping done. Here I was, all wrapped up in the baking and shopping and Christmas cards and all the DOING that I had forgotten the WHY of what I was doing. God used my own words to give me a slap in the face that forced me to wake up!

Talk about eating your own words, as the saying goes! So here you go, five weeks later, I get this to you. I really pray you'll be blessed and if you're like me worrying about finishing that very long to-do list, you'll remember the Reason for the Season.

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My parents recently returned from a trip of a lifetime on a Holy Land cruise in the Mediterranean. We keep kidding my mom who took 1700 pictures of their trip! Wesley kept telling her, "I don't need to go to the pyramids now. Anytime I want to go to Egypt, I'll just come look at your pictures!" (Anyone want to ask where my love of photography comes from :)

Now while I was not there to actually experience everything first hand, I couldn't help but being moved by what I saw and the stories I heard. Out of all the amazing places they went, I was most fascinated by the pictures of the Sea of Galilee and the roads where Paul walked in Ephesus. A lot of what they saw is debatable. For example, how do they know that was the real rock Jesus stood on when He did the miracle of the loaves and the fishes? Is that really the marble slab they laid Jesus body on when they took Him off of the cross? How do they know these things? Did some guy store it in his backyard for hundreds of years until 300 A.D. when some man proclaimed what the rock was?

But then there is much that is not debatable. There is only one Sea of Galilee and we know from God's Word that that is where Peter walked on water and that Jesus calmed a terrible storm. There is only one Jordan River and we know that Jesus was probably baptized in its waters. There is only one Garden of Gethsemane and we know that Jesus went there to pray, even on His last night before His death. These things, are not debatable. To look at the scenery that Jesus once looked at is fascinating to me. I'm sure things have changed, but when you look out into that wide open water with the mountains in the distance, to know He once was there; to see bits and pieces of the town He grew up in, played in and walked along telling others about His Father in Heaven, it really puts my life in perspective.

God in the flesh, on this earth, walking, eating and sleeping just like we do now. He was real and He really lived and died for you and me. Recently while studying 1 Thessalonians, I came across a verse that I cannot get out of my head. In 5:10, it says, "He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him."

The whole reason He died is so that He could be with us! Right now! We don't have to wait until we are in heaven to be with Him. How many times do I take that for granted? One of my pet peeves is when I talk to my children and they don't listen. I cannot stand it! So often the Holy Spirit is quick to remind me-I do the same thing to my Heavenly Father. He will tell me to do something and I will pretend I didn't hear or I'll be too busy to stop and listen to His voice.

But that is why Christ suffered on a cross...so that I could be forgiven and without sin and so that His Spirit (the Holy Spirit) can reside in my very being. How humbling is that thought? As we are in the midst of this Christmas season, I encourage you to reflect on that. Don't forget that there really was a baby who was sent to the be the Savior of the world. There really was a manger and a stable and a star shining bright in the sky.

He really lived.

Last Christmas it really struck me that without that tiny baby lying in a manger...there never would have been a cross. Calvary never would have happened and His Spirit would not be here with us today. We would still be under the Law that Christ's blood freed us from. Christmas is about so much more than lights and presents, it's about grace, sweet grace and the tiny baby that started it all.

"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God...And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

Colossians 3:2,17

Picture #1: The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. You can see the tiny prayers written and shoved in every crease of the wall. This is the last wall standing of the second temple, built after King Solomon's temple was destroyed.

#2: The Jordan River

#3: Sea of Galilee

#4: A view of the Sea of Galilee

#5 An amphitheatre where Paul preached in Ephesus.

#6: Mosaic walkway the dates back to Paul's day in Ephesus.

Two of the Hardest Things to Do

Last night Wesley and I went to the Deacon/Elder Dinner at our church. After a wonderful evening, when everything was coming to a close, our Pastor said he wanted us to pray for our Children's minister and his family. They moved here nine months ago and still have not sold their house in North Georgia. They come from a very tiny town and there really isn't much hope of it selling anytime soon. Thad had the couple get in the middle of the room and we all stood up to do a "popcorn type" prayer, where anyone can pray and then he asked Wesley to close us. After a few people prayed, a mighty prayer warrior in our church began speaking. One of the first things out of her mouth was, "God we are asking for you to sell this house. We are asking that you would send some family down Clint's street and see his house. They may not be in the market to buy a house or even know how they ended up there, but we know that is was You who sent them. We are asking for you to send a buyer to purchase this house."

I was blown away. She didn't ask that God would give them peace in the midst of this trial, she didn't say for God to comfort them or any of the other things I personally would have thought to have prayed for. She prayed specifically and more importantly, she prayed expectantly. I could actually picture in my mind a family in a minivan driving down Clint's road, seeing the For Sale sign and calling the number on the sign. I could picture it all in my head as she spoke the words.

In Psalm 5:3, it says, "In the morning, O Lord, You hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait in expectation."

Wait in Expectation.

Jesus Himself said, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." (Mark 11:24)

Believe that you have received what you asked for.

How often do we do those two things? And why is it so hard to do?

In Sunday School last Sunday we were talking about how important it is to pray God's Word. What a powerful weapon when we actually pray His Words back to Him. One man commented how prayer is one of the hardest things for him to do. It's easy to sit and read your Bible, but to find a place, away, alone to pray, that is hard. I started thinking about how I pray all day long, in the midst of the chaos in my house. But it is more like a one way conversation. I don't listen for His voice and I don't wait long enough for an answer.

So often when I see a hard situation I don't pray for the big things. I don't pray that God will get rid of the cancer, I pray that He will give them peace in the midst of this trial. It's almost as if I don't believe that He really can get rid of cancer. satan's small voice whispers in my ear that it's an impossible situation and I should just accept it. Instead, I should remind myself what Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 19:26, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Even the angel told Mary that, "Nothing is impossible for God." (Luke 1:36)

Nothing.

Let those truths seep into your very soul and pray those things that seem impossible in your life. Pray for complete healing, pray for a new job, pray for a buyer for your house, pray for all the things that look hopeless in your life. Allow the world to see your Mighty, All-Powerful God turn a hopeless situation into His glory. I have found in my own life that it is in those situations that others can see God so much more clearly. When man cannot explain how things happen, they are more likely to recognize God's power.

A Prayer Based off of Colossians 1:9-14

"Lord, I pray that you will fill me with the knowledge of Your will and that You will give me spiritual wisdom and understanding. Help me to live a life worthy of You and that every aspect of my life will be pleasing to Your sight. Help me to bear fruit in every good work, grow in Your knowledge and be strengthened with Your power. I ask these things so that I might have endurance and patience and be able to joyfully give thanks to You. Lord it is You who invited me to share in Your inheritance and be apart of the kingdom of light. It is You who rescued me from darkness and brought me to Your Son. Thank you for redeeming me

and forgiving me of my sins.

In the Sweet name of Jesus, Amen"