Another reason...

"In Isaiah 41:11 the Lord is promising Israel "All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish."

Newspaper 'suppressing' Obama link to anti-Israel professor

Good advice?

"Follow your heart!"
Sounds good. Romantic. Even noble, right? That's the advice given in all great fairy tales. Disney's really got it down. I know I've had a little fixation with the movie Fireproof this week, but there was this one line in the movie that really gripped me. It was so piognant! There is a part in the movie when Ken says to Caleb, "DON'T follow your heart. LEAD your heart!" It totally went against all great love story movie advice.

Think about it. The bank robber from the next town over followed his heart. So did the child molester and the serial killer. My heart in it's human, sinful state cares only about one person - ME! Without the saving, transforming grace of Jesus, my heart is dark and selfish. Imagine a world where people (especially Christians) stopped following their heart, and instead surrendered it completely to Christ. Maybe instead of chatting it up with our best friends at church, we might spend some time getting to know that person who's visited every week for a month and still sits alone, . Maybe we'd take our oldest child with us to the grocery store just this once and really focus in on them instead of claiming those few minutes of "me" time. Maybe we'd stop arguing with our spouse about our plans long enough to really hear his dreams.

Maybe we're all too busy listening to the advice of fairy tales and following our hearts to notice the person right next to us.

"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." Matt. 15:19

"I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun." Eccl. 2:10-11

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Psalm 51:10

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26

Great worship song!

I fell in love with this song when we went to see Fireproof! I looked it up today, and not only found the song, but the video with scenes from the movie on YouTube. I was so excited! My husband (the worship leader at our church) is hoping to have the worship team learn it soon. YAY! I just love the ladder scene. I can think of times in my life when waiting and trusting God felt just like that! What a powerful song!

Here's my Friday Flashback

This picture is of Maia (now almost 8) climbing into Daddy's suitcase as I was unpacking and repacking it for yet another business trip. During this stage of our lives, Tom was working for IBM and travelling whole weeks or more at a time to install new machines all over the east coast. He would come home for a few days, and then head right out again. It was such a hard time for us as a family with him having to be gone so much. I took this picture for him with a caption "Take me with you, Daddy". We are so thankful for the job he now has that keeps him close to home.

**IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR MY IRL FRIENDS: If you are here because I sent you an e-mail saying to check out the cute picture on my blog, this isn't it. Scroll down to Wednesday's post!**

There are no secrets in the family of God...

Secrets are really, really hard to keep around here! I mean, really, really hard! So my secret is out and maybe God just wanted it that way. For those of you who didn't already find out through divine intervention of sorts, here is a little picture to clue you in...

Yes, we are just about 7 weeks pregnant! My due date is June 7th. I had planned all along to wait until Thanksgiving to reveal our little surprise, as I would be past the first trimester by then, but I believe God just had other plans. From running into my sister while waiting for my ultrasound appointment, to others just out right asking (I could never tell a lie!), maybe it was a secret that was just never meant to be kept. *BTW:This is relatively new news, so if you asked recently and I told you no...I really thought the answer was no at the time.* Those who now know keep saying "how could we pray if we didn't know?" They are right.

So this is my prayer request as well. That God will protect this little one and bring it safely into this world, and that He would grant me the peace that I will need just 5 months after such a painful loss. Thank you to all of my friends and family who have been praying and praying, and waiting, and praying... And to those crazy bestest friends of mine who even secretly kept track of my cycle and were watching each month for any tiny little sign that I might maybe possibly be pregnant...you know who you are and I know about your little scheming :0)

Amazingly, I have already seen a healthy heartbeat by ultrasound. The u/s tech was astonished that she was able to find it so early (not even 6 weeks at the time). I felt like that was just a little gift from God to ease my fears that day. I have been feeling quite nauseated, which is a new thing for me, and chronically exhausted. So I'm not sure how long I would have been able to keep it a secret anyway. It isn't easy to act like my normal happy enthusiastic self when I feel like I need to puke and go to bed for a week.

BTW: I would still like to wait until after my next ultrasound to tell the girls, so please try to keep it quiet when they're nearby. It would be nice if this just trickled quietly through the grapevine.

My Treasures

Whenever I need some inspiration, I just turn to one of my blog buddies. Today, in response to Tuesdays Treasures by Storing Up Treasures (once again), I have posted some pictures of my own little treasures. This also inspired me to take some pictures, something I often forget to do. So I marched around the house and found my oldest treasure working hard on her math book.

She was very happy to stop for a picture or two.

I found my youngest treasure feverishly studying her Hop on Pop book while reclining in her bed (it was naptime at the homeskoolmommy house).

I just couldn't resist climbing in for a nap myself. Naptime cuddles are real treasures!

Flashback Friday

In response to Storing Up Treasures post, here is my "flashback."

It was January 2007 when we realized that Hannah had more than just a lazy eye. Up until that time, we had heard from the nurse practitioner (whom I will never trust again) that she just had lazy eye muscles and would outgrow her problem. We were finally convinced it was not going to clear up on it's own and I asked her doctor about it. He sent her to an opthamologist who immediately sent her for an MRI. The MRI was quite traumatic enough, since 2 year old must be put under general anesthesia for such a test. It was discovered that Hannah had a large tumor growing quite rapidly behind her left eye.

We were sent to a top-notch hospital with a top-notch eye surgeon to have it removed. When I was told that they would have to cut the bone away from between her eye and temple and then screw it back into place, I felt like I would be sick! My poor sweet baby girl!

But God's grace and peace were abundant and she came through surgery just fine. Recovery was quick and the tumor was benign! Praise God for his protection and the strengthening of our faith through it all.