Better Than a Hallelujah

My December has been busy, busy, busy.
It has been a fun challenging visiting someone each weekend and packing for not just myself, but a 'messy' (it is normal) baby.

I haven't had much time to post, but I've had a lot to think about. On a recent quick trip to Nebraska I spent a good portion of my driving time in prayer. I have learned that praying while driving leaves me such peace.

I'm also excited because my dear cousin (the one whom I meet with weekly for a devotional) bought me two new devotional books for Christmas. I can't wait to read through them and have God use them in my life!

In the holiday spirit my dear husband bought me an iTunes gift card for Christmas. We exchange gifts early due to our many trips. I was able to buy an Amy Grant song that I heard on the radio and wanted to hear again. I wanted to post the lyrics, because if you haven't heard the song it is beautiful.

God loves a lullaby
In a mothers tears in the dead of night
Better than a Hallelujah sometimes.
God loves the drunkards cry,
The soldiers plea not to let him die
Better than a Hallelujah sometimes.

We pour out our miseries
God just hears a melody
Beautiful the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah.

The woman holding on for life,
The dying man giving up the fight
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes
The tears of shame for what's been done,
The silence when the words won't come
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes.

Better than a church bell ringing,
Better than a choir singing out, singing out.

I think the chorus leaves such a beautiful message. Even when I pour our my miseries to God, He hear my voice crying to Him for strength and crying to Him in pain. Jesus did the same thing. 

Matthew 27:46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

Of course I don't know exactly what God was thinking, but imagine with me for a second...

...that instead of God's heart breaking as mine does when Adley is in pain, imagine God rejoicing or hearing a melody knowing that all of the pain will be wiped away in Heaven. Each earthly pain we face not only allows us to lean more on the God who deserves all trust and praise, but also brings us one step closer to permanent Hallelujahs. How beautiful. 

As I ponder on these lyrics I cannot help but remember that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Conviction is a beautiful thing...

My mother sent me a link to a radio series...
It is definitely worth the listen...

http://www.reviveourhearts.com/radio/roh/past_programs.php?m=6&y=2010

Listen to the June 7, 8, and 9 series by Bob Lepine

I am going to have to process these and listen to them again. They are totally worth the listen and have helpful advice for wives and single women. I think even men would enjoy hearing a guy back them.

The two things that I took away...

1. My husband wants to know that I respect him and needs me to show it. To most men showing respect is more important than saying I love him. (I asked Jason if showing him respect was more important than saying that I love him and he said yes. It was a good refresher that I need to be respecting him in all things. He is the head that God has placed over me. I am blessed to have such a wonderful man that is so easy to respect! :D )

2. I am imperfect and sinful and I cannot just make a list of things to fix in my life. I have been really convicted lately to change my heart and attitude but, I need to submit each of my down falls in prayer to my God. Only He can help me. I cannot expect to be a better wife if I choose to fix all of my downfalls myself. I need my perfect Savior.

Have a blessed night!

Life as a Wife of a College Student

Okay...so I was thinking of ways my life would be unique or different from other wives/moms and I thought of one major one...My husband is a still a college student, full time and I am a stay at home mom.

Now before you start wondering how we can do that...I have to brag on my wonderful husband!
We have no debt! And will still have none when he graduates in May. Both of our cars have been paid for in cash! I work parttime as a nanny, but I bring Adley with me so I'm still mommy 24/7! (yay!) We save the entirity of my paychecks each month. Because my husband also works for the school as a Hall Director he gets half off his tution and we have zero housing costs! I love how hard he works at being a good steward. Besides working as a Hall Director he works as a receptionist at one of the dorm lobbys and works as the preaching intern at our church. That little extra allows us to take wonderful trips to see our families.

Thrifty is truly nifty....and Jason is such a good motivator. Our pre-light Christmas tree (donated by my parents, aka no buying on our part!) gave out on us last year so it ended up in the dumpster. Since my husband has been recently motivating me to be a better saver than spender I used his palm tree (remind me to complain, only jokingly, about that later!) as our Christmas tree. Check it out!

This is definitely funny to me! But I'm proud for only spending $1.00 on Christmas decorations (for jingle bells for my front door!).

Anyways...I got off topic. Sorry...

So yes it is almost two o'clock in the morning and I am up blogging. Jason's job and college student life style has us usually sleeping in or taking naps and staying up late. He is usually finished with his Hall Director work around 2am, so unless I work the next morning I stay up with him so while Adley is sleeping we can chat or just have some nice quiet time together.

He is still at work (no complaining here) so yes, I am cooking my spaghetti squash at 2am, yes, I am eating a snack, yes, I did not go to the grocery store until midnight and yes, I love late nights.

Weird right? We love where God has us right now and we can't wait for the next phase of our lives.

And finally a brag on my baby girl. We got her picture taken at the Lighting of the Commons at OC on Thursday night...here is her picture.

We were SO surprised that she was awake AND happy for the picture. (P.s. the outfit was a garage sale find for $2!) Not to mention it looks super adorable!!! This one is going in my Christmas cards. This picture made the front page of the OC newspaper this week for the teaser for the rest of her pictures. Her proud little mommy (yes, that is me) is going to scrapbook this one for sure! Now we just need to tell her that is Dr. B (who is the Registrar) and not Santa (oh and that Santa is make believe, not real).

And last a family picture from the night. Enjoy (and I apologize for over bragging on my family, I just love them both so much!!)

Self Control

Ah...the holidays

where we stuff ourselves with lots of calorie laden food and regret it later.

Self control...a word that we simply ignore during the holidays using excuses like...

...we never get this food...

...it is just once a year... and so on.

But what does the Bible have to say about self control

Proverbs 25:28 'Like city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.'

A city left defenseless....hmm...

So when I chose to overeat and not have control over my body I am not only allowing my self to sin I am also allowing myself to be defenseless to Satan's other schemes for sin in my life. In my devotional book it says that lack of self control in little areas of our lives (i.e. overeating, not praying or having personal devotional time) leads to lack of self control in larger areas of our lives. Thinking about the potential consequences can be devastating and motivating. Choosing to overeat can cause lack of self control in obedience to my husband and other areas. Lack of self-control is sin and causes me to sin more, but self-control is a fruit of a healthy spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I took this to heart this Thanksgiving and focused on enjoy the food and filling myself with good food, but not stuffing myself. I felt so much more satisfied and I didn't regret one bit of the delicious food. We were also blessed with so many leftovers than I am able to enjoy all of the delicious food even today.

My motto for self-control: Practice self-control in the little areas and it will come naturally to me in the bigger areas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Most Important Wounds

Today my sweet baby girl scratched her little face till she bled.

 (You can't see it, but under her left eye she has a horrible little scratch.)

As a mother, seeing my daughter draw her first blood many emotions stirred within me.

I don't want to see her have little hurts.

The hurts though, that worry me the worst are the spiritual wounds. If every bone in Adley's body is broken or she ends up with a horrible disease, that will be sad. But if she leaves this would not a Christian that would be the true tragedy. Her spiritual health needs to my first and foremost focus.

As a mother I need to not be scared of what can be done to her flesh, but what can most harm her. The thought of not having her for eternity should be way more scary than not having her flesh here.

It is hard for me to wrap my brain around that concept, but it is one that I need to keep fresh in my mind.

What I choose to teach my child and what I expose her to will help shape and mold her. My constant prayer is that my baby girl grows up learning to love her Savior most of all.

Desire to Serve

Recently God has placed a desire on my heart to serve my husband better. It is a slow process, but slowly I am submitting not only my will, but my heart to the head that God has placed over me. I realize it belongs first and foremost to God. On Tuesday Jason and I were dealing with a crabby/fussy baby. I normally would have been short with Jason, but I took the opportunity to pray through our challenging event and I felt so refreshed and I maintained a positive attitude throughout the day. I know that the goal of being a better servant is not to feel better, but it shows that my heart is in the right place.

Jason was reading in Psalms last night and I just love this scripture...
Psalms 35:1-3 Contend, LORD, with those who contend with me;
   fight against those who fight against me.
² Take up shield and armor;
   arise and come to my aid.
³ Brandish spear and javelin^[a]
   against those who pursue me.
Say to me,
   “I am your salvation.” (emphasis added)

I just love that David asks God to to remind David and God is his salvation. Beautiful. I feel like I need to constantly remind myself of this.


Adley and I just got back from Michigan on Tuesday. Jason was such a sweet husband and surprised me with a trip to see my Grandma for our one year anniversary. My Grandma had open heart surgery the same day that Adley was born and she is still at home recovering. It was a delight to spend time with her and introduce her to Adley. She lives in a cute tourist town just two hours north of Chicago. Here are some pictures of our trip!

Have a blessed day!

Quick Post

Hello friends...

First off I need to apologize for my blog yesterday. I get so excited about something that my writing is often messy.

I was able to talk through some of my excitement and desire to be a better Christian, parent and wife with my dear cousin Jerica. Reflecting on my week of devotionals with her is truly a treat and the hilight of my week. I love hearing her wisdom! And our prayer time was incredible!

I'm leaving to visit my Grandma on Friday. This will be Adley's first flight! And I am nervous!!! Not about her flying, but about packing enough stuff. Blogging may not be consistent until next week as I am not sure how busy I will be or how much internet access I will have.

And I've been working on having better habits in my daily life. When I woke up at 7am to get my husband up for his class and feed my sweet baby girl I was wide awake. So after feeding her I got her and I ready for a walk/run. This was my first run since wow, January of last year. Since morning sickness wrecked havoc on my fitness schedule I've done nothing but walking most of this year. I still managed to walk about 10 miles a week and do two 5k's but I missed my running. I am excited because I get a chance to start anew and really focus on training myself to be a better runner. (It's kinda like a second chance!) Hopefully I will be back up to speed by January so I can start training for the full Marathon (my first!) in May!

Keep praying! It is a beautiful thing!

Having a Baby Changes Everything...

Haha, okay I've heard this phrase many, many, many times in my life and you don't realize how true it is until you have a child yourself. From the moment I found out we were pregnant our lives changed. Our cozy little one bedroom apartment became flooded with baby stuff and we thought then our lives had changed...

After over 36 hours of labor with both of us exhausted and zombie like holding our little girl we thought our lives had truly changed...

And I am sure that we will laugh as the years go by seeing just how much our precious miracle has truly changed our lives.

In my devotional book I am reading through lies that Women believe about their Children. This has created a huge sense of responsibility and motivated me with a desire to be the best parent I can be.
I have been very convicted this week that I should work very hard to focus on my daughter's spiritual training.

Haha, I thought this military training picture was a cute way to bring across my point.

I have had this deep conviction probably since I was young, but this week it had been exponentially increased. One thing my mother always said and I feel now more and more as I have my own child. She would say and still to this day says that her purpose for homeschooling us was not to get a better education than the public school system or to be 'better' as some view it but simply that it was more important to my parents that I learn about my wonderful Savior and be a Christian rather than read, write or spell. If I got all of the way through highschool and could not read, write or spell but I loved the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength her job as a teacher was complete. And that reading, writing and spelling were just pluses.

THAT IS CONVICTING. Homeschooling is very much more appealing to me when I think about where my focus should be for Adley. Her spiritual development is and should be my number one focus. No matter what I want her to love God. If she goes to heaven unable to read or socialize (a usual complaint against homeschoolers) but loves her Heavenly Father I do not think I can say that I have failed.

I'm not trying to get ahead of myself here, school is a long way off. Learning isn't though, it starts from the moment she was born!

This isn't a soapbox for homeschooling, this is me processing out loud how important of a responsibility I've been given. I love my daughter, and if I process my decisions through the most important question (essentially, how does this effect Adley's spiritual life?/what does God want us to do?) rather than what the world wants, prefers, thinks or says than we will be raising Adley in hopefully a Godly manner.

My devotional today had some great quotes...
The lie was 'We are not responsible for how our children turn out.'
This quote stuck out to me...'What parents tolerate in moderation, their children will excuse in excess.'
That quote was convicting. Now to process this all with my dear husband since this truly does change everything! ;)

Adley update-today I had her playing on her little play mat and she kept looking up at the center toy (a star). She loved staring at it, talking to it and smiling at it! I love watching her learn and grow! She is truly fearfully and wonderfully made.

Do People Actually Care?

Okay people,

I won't lie to you. I love stalking people on networking social media sites (only friends and friends of friends of course ;)). I love hearing about what is going on in their lives and I in turn love writing about my own life.
Each time I write a new status update or post another picture of myself I can't help but wonder if people think I am self centered. I find it very interesting how much I feel the need to share with others. I know I can't be the only one though, since I equally love reading about other people's lives as well.
I've been wanting to do a blog for a while, but I have been questioning my motives before I began. I don't want to be self-centered.
As a little girl I kept a diary. I wasn't very faithful with it, but I adore writing and reading. I love being able to look back at what I was experiencing at different moments in my life.

So on to the purpose of this blog...

I am hoping to use this blog as a way to look back at moments of my sweet daughter as she grows up and our family memories. I want to use my blog to hopefully inspire others spiritually, but to mostly inspire myself to keep up on my daily devotional time with God.

...I figure if I think I have someone reading/keep up to date than I have yet another person to be accountable to...

I guess in a way this is my grown up, 21st Century diary.

So...

To start things off (for those who care). I have a beautiful baby girl (Adley Anne). Adley means God is righteous or God is just. She is 5 weeks old and time is flying by so quickly! She is already growing bigger and bigger and interacting more and more everyday.

I also have a wonderful husband! We were married exactly one year on October 16th, 2010. It has been quite the ride and very enjoyable considering we had our first child before our first wedding anniversary. God knows how to plan our lives way better than we do.

He is excited in this pic because he wrote himself the biggest check he has ever written. The best part is that is all went to savings. He is very financially savy, which allows me to learn to be a better steward of what God has given me!

And lastly, my current devo book is...

I am really enjoying this book. My sweet cousin and I are taking time to meet once a week to pray and encourage each other as we read this book and apply it to our lives. Right now we are studying Lies that Women believe about their Children. This book has two thumbs up, but only if you are ready and willing to change!

And remember to praise God because we are fearfully and wonderfully made. <3