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