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Yup, I'm gone.Well, I will be gone tomorrow morning for a week and a half. Me, my husband and our four children 7 and under. Yeah, I know, what are we thinking?? It'll be the first time in a while that we've been together on a trip like this. I hope all goes well and if it doesn't that the Lord will give us grace and the level of maturity it takes to handle unexpected problems that seem to arise on trips like these. It'll be a good trip, it'll be a good trip, it'll be a good trip...if I say this enough, will it happen? Oh me of little faith. Welp, glad to go and see all the faces I'll see. Especially my sis. My one and only sis. :)I'm gone. Yippee. Open road and screaming baby. Okay, it's not all bad...
We are about to travel nearly a thousand miles to go and celebrate the 90th birthday of my very dear Grandmother. It's a celebration of quite an amazing life. I didn't have the opportunity to live near grandma as a child, but my mother always made a point to visit her at least once a year and I have always tried to keep in touch with her through letters. I am so looking forward to the reunion with her and the rest of the family that will join us.
My grandma was a war bride (WWII) to a handsome man. They had 12 beautiful children together and struggled to make ends meet. Grandma did her best to stretch out the food and money. My mother tells me stories of grandma buying sacks of potatoes and her cutting them up and making fried potatoes or home made fries and that would be dinner for the night because that is all they had. A special treat would be ice cream, of which was cut into 12 peices, enough for all the kids to have a small taste. They had an out house and who knows what the substitute for toilet paper was! There came a point when grandma started taking all the kids to church. Grandma became a Christian and the children followed in her footsteps.
The most impressive thing to me is the children she raised. None of them are perfect and have gone through their own growing lessons as we all do in life, but there is something that seems magical to me that happens when we all get together. Aunts, Uncles, cousins and cousins and cousins, sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers...there is one person that unites all of us and that is grandma. I feel close to her with each letter, birthday card, and every other kind of card we all recieve from her every year. She sends them to everyone in the family. That's unbelivable considering how many are in the family and I've lost count.Anyway, can't wait to see you, grandma!
I don't know why I do this. Do you ever get sucked into really bad news and then it consumes you? I recently began reading about what depleted uranium does to a baby in utero. Horrible, consuming stuff! Bad choice of research for me right now. Especially since I am pregnant. Then you read the day to day news...another bad idea. I like knowing what's going on in the world, but I don't think I can take anymore bad news. Some news close to our town was about a teenager who was to adopt her new baby out to some agency (supposedly), but "they" ended up stealing the baby. She was all over the news saying,"Please, someone help me find my baby!" Several days later on the same news channel she was charged with killing her newborn, then dumping the baby in the garbage can. The garbage truck came and got the trash for the day and the baby hasn't been found since. The world's gone mad and sometimes it puts my stomache in knots. If I wasn't a Christian I think I would go mad along with the rest of the world. I'm thankful that the Lord keeps my mind under control when I see what the world is doing and how they are living. There are brighter things to think about and the bible is filled with promises for every Christian. I guess I should start thinking about that instead.
I can't sleep.
This bout of insomnia is coming terribly early in this pregnancy. I'm only about a little over four months along. I can't afford to not be able to sleep right now. When I'm 8 and 9 months insomnia is inevitable for me, but not now. I'm not willing to take pills, but would rather type until my eyes swell shut or *okay* even remotely close. Here goes nothing...
We went to our house church meeting tonight and it was interesting. Something God is showing me more than anything in these meetings is that I have God packaged up in a neat little box and I am threatened by things that do not fit in the box that I put God in. Make sense? Okay, maybe not. I read the bible and gain the knowledge of who God is, what He's like and how to have a close relationship with Him. The "box" is anything outside the bible I make God to be or the rules I think He wants me to keep. In other words, my "box" is my bondage.
Who am I to think anything should be done a certain way if it is not clearly laid out for me in scripture? I guess that would be a declaration of my best assumption, not a proclamation of biblical doctrine. What's even worse is I use my assumptions of God wants to gage the spirituality of others. That's where my box gets me into the most trouble. Can't the Holy Spirit simply guide and direct each individual as He so chooses? Each in a different way?
There is no denomination, no superior person or situation that can cage and keep the Holy Spirit. He can't be boxed up and neatly packaged by the one choosing to be possessed by Him, although we try. I try. I realize there is a fine line to be drawn between solid, biblical doctrine and what we think is right beyond the written of God. But we can't be the Holy Spirit for someone else nor can we impose upon someone our boxed up beliefs.
For instance, I have struggled with what is considered good, Christian music for years. I have heard well-intended speakers misuse scripture to "prove" that most Christian music as we know it today is completely unacceptable to God and that we should all be trapped in the 1950s with our musical style and lyrics or it can't be right. That's a box some have put God in. I am deeply moved in my spirit by music today that I would find have found unacceptable in the past. Grant it, there are some pretty fluffy songs that are weak on God and doctrine so much so that is could be sung at any concert, Christian or otherwise. My God's spirit within me keeps me in check. My heart knows. I recieve a pull from God telling me that this or that is not good for me.
This is funny and off the subject, but He always tugs my heart about what would seem to many of you insignificant. Stuff like putting your grocery cart back when you are done with it instead of stuffing it beside someone's passenger door. That one gets me every time. No, I don't always listen and put the cart where it needs to go, but for me and my heart, I probably should, but again, that personal persuasion of mine cannot be put over anyone else.
I choose to homeschool my kids. I think it is superior, but would I impose my belief on others? I would like to, but that is another part of my packaging up my ideals of life. I can give my opinions, but what does the bible say? That's what truly matters. Anyway, my head is starting to get fuzzy...
Soo...I'm following in my sister's footsteps and getting a new blog. I know, it's not like having a new car or even a new pair of shoes, but it's seems like it will be a better experience for me since I can post pictures with ease. I appreciate the "freeness" the other blog provided, but this is free too and it seems far better. Who knows? Maybe the whole thing will crash with out warning like my Yahoo Mail account did. I lost all the email addresses and info I had on there. What's up with yahoo? I guess you can't complain when something is free.Looking forward to writing more and posting a lot more pictures of our family.
