When our children were at home I would often awaken them by singing, “Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory!” We even had actions that went with it, although it was often hard to get them to join in first thing in the morning. LOL
Isaiah 60:1 reads: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
How has “rising and shining” been going for you? It’s hard to arise shining in the middle of January. It’s dark and cold, and here in our part of the world most days are covered with clouds.
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And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Luke 2:52 NIV
From the very first moment I found out that I was pregnant with my first child, I just “knew” that I was going to be a “boy mom.” I don’t know how or why, but I just knew that God knit me together to raise boys. The exciting, adventurous, rowdy days could be a challenge, but the sense of purpose was like a mission for me.
Twenty-two years old, married less than a year and completely overwhelmed with this next stage in my life, I cried out to the Lord and asked Him into my heart.
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As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife. Proverbs 26:21 NIV
“I can’t find the thing,” I spat into the phone.
“Which thing?” my husband questioned me.
“The thing. The thing! The thing that tightens the car seat!” My patience thin, I shouted into the phone while my husband tried to explain how to install my daughter’s car seat.
I hunched in the back of the van, stepping on toys and castaway cereal, heat dripping down my face, trying for the life of me to find the magical tightening strap for baby Grace’s seat.
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WHAT? How come I put the peanut butter on first?
This morning, as I was making my son, Brennan, a sandwich, he looked up at me and asked me the peanut butter order question. As I stood there with a knife loaded with peanut butter, I didn’t know what to say. I had never thought about why I put the peanut butter on before the jelly. I’ve just always done it that way.
So I told him that I didn’t know and that’s the way I always do it.
His response? “Maybe you could try to do the jelly first sometime?”
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As I’ve sat and reflected on the coming New Year, there are a few goals I would like to accomplish. I have always been one to make resolutions — a resolution to lose weight, spend more time with my family, be more organized, simplify, eat better, sleep more, and be more patient and loving. But as each year has come and gone, I have found that, for the most part, my resolutions remained unmet, and I was left confused, angry at myself, and unmotivated to continue the journey.
I have always been an “all-or-nothing” person. And when I fall short, I can tend to be hard on myself.
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