Can Young Children Understand the Bible?

I'm continuing to enjoy the radio program on www.reviveourhearts.com and this 3 part series linked below is definitely worth hearing. I was challenged by the idea to read the Bible every day to my kids. We read The Jesus Storybook Bible a lot and we are working our way through Sally Micheal's God's Names. We regularly read portions of Scripture out of our Bible to the kids, but to read a chapter a day?? Wow! I honestly don't see reading at breakfast working for us right now (although at least Matthias would be strapped down), but I can see reading in my bed. The kids would definitely think that is special.
However as the first and third part of the series points out, I need to pray that my kids have a hunger for God's Word. The specialness of reading in mommy's bed won't last forever. I thank God, literally, that I have been blessed with that hunger. I've realized recently that not Christians have....

Let me know if you decide to start reading with your kiddos.
Can Young Children Understand the Bible?

Thank you Carrie Ward...an everyday mama.

Matthias Signing 17mths

Some Words that "Hit Home"

It's Raining

Outside, the rain is pouring down. I've looked out the window for sightings of cats and dogs, but only seen raindrops! We tend to not like rain very much. It gets in the way of our obsession with comfort. Rain gets in the way of the comfort of a dry day. Rain gets in the way of the comfort of nicely coiffed hair. Rain gets in the way of dry shoes and pressed clothes. It makes outdoor entertainment and activities difficult.

Few of us look out the window on a raining day and say, "What a great day!" But that's exactly what God's people in the Old Testament did. When you are living in desert-like places a rainy day is a good day. So, in the Bible rain is often used as a metaphor for blessing. The Bible talks about blessings raining down on us. Perhaps there's a connection between the way we tend to respond to rain and the way we tend to respond to blessing.

God blesses us in surprising ways, ways that don't always seem like blessing to us. 

He sends the rain of difficulty, not because he doesn't love us, but because he does, and he is calling out beyond ourselves to find new and deeper hope in him. 

He sends the rain of an honest friend to confront us with the need for growth, because he wants to bless us with maturity. 

He sends the rain of failure, so that we will get our identity from him and not from our acheivement. 

He sends the rain of want, so that we will grow in faith and courage. 

All of these things are blessings of his love, but we tend to not see them as blessings. In fact, in the moments when we are experiencing these things we often are tempted to question God's love.

How about looking out your window and thanking God for the rain. And how about asking him to give you eyes to see the surprising blessings he will rain down on you because he loves you.

God bless.

Paul David Tripp

Lots of pics, Few words

One of Matthias' coffee dates last week

Darton working alongside our temporary gardener Manuel

 And a few of Macklin

Although I hear how igualito (looks the same) he is to the other 3, he has a very different look about him than the others. One distinct feature is his brow line (seen above). He gives very serious stares when he is concentrating on an object.    

Smiling for mommy! He is 6wks tomorrow

His other unique distinction from the others is the fullness of his lips. 

Tidbits

Multiple times this week I thought of different things to blog about, but I'm finally sitting down to update you on our life and I'll just have to write about lots of things in one post. :)
Cheating
This has been our first week without family helping me in 2 1/2 months! Wow, how the time flew! We've decided to have help in the house every day during the week days.  Ana is here Monday/Tuesday and then returns for Thursday/Friday. She was upfront that she doesn't want to work probably more than 6 months like this, so we will eventually need to find someone else for Mon/Tues. Ana's main responsibility is the children. She is more of a nanny while I've given the bulk of cleaning responsibilities to another lady who comes twice a week. Her name is Santa and she is with us on Mon/Wednesday. With Theo still gone due to his broken leg, we've hired another gardener for two days a week - Wednesday/Friday. We hope Theo will be getting his surgery next week and then be on to a speedy recovery. The majority of my girlfriends have a driver and while we've lived here for 3 1/2yrs without one, we are considering getting one for at least 2 days a week. Needless to say I've definitely gained the title of House Manager with all the extra help we have.
I feel like I am cheating as a mommy, especially when I think of all the moms in the States. And while I'm okay with having the extra help in order to be able to nurse in peace or deal with a crying infant while someone else takes care of my 16 month old, I'm not at complete peace about it. Maybe it's a pride thing. Maybe God in His sovereignty knew that I needed to live here during this stage of life in order to survive being a mommy to 4 under 5 1/2...or rather I needed to live here so that my children would survive this stage...know what I mean?

Silliness
I watched Adeline giggle like I'd never seen her do when we were stateside these past few weeks. I LOVED IT! I watched her be silly with my or Scott's parents or even Scott and enjoyed each moment. But then as we were doing school this past week, she wanted to be silly with me while working on phonics. I DON'T HAVE A SILLY BONE IN MY BODY! It was at this point that I realized a new way to bond with my daughter...to be silly. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to try. It's going to take a true conscious effort in order for me to be silly....and that's no joke.

Macklin & Matthias
Macklin is now 5 weeks old and weighs 10lbs. He's only waking up once at night to feed! What a blessing from my merciful God! He smiled directly at me today while I was talking to him!

While in TX my "sweet" Matthias turned into a little terror...I'm not exaggerating. Scott didn't quite believe me until he arrived in TX and realized he had a monster to tackle with trying to teach Matthias discipline. Needless to say after daddy was his full-time caretaker for 3 weeks Matthias now FULLY understands when he is disobeying and usually does so with a smirk! He's still addicted to his pacifier and when you ask him where it is, he always knows where to find one. He actually wakes up multiple times in the night and searches for his pacifier. If he doesn't find it, he starts to cry...but he usually always finds it. I took Adeline and Darton off the paci at 7-8mths. I tried weening Matthias around 12mths...don't know when we'll try again. He's learned that Macklin has his own (one) paci and Matthias has his own army of pacifiers. He started this week trying to share his pacifier instead of trying to steal Macklin's. He also started this week kissing on Macklin instead of hitting him every time he came near! It's still a love-hate relationship, but that's to be expected.

My mom took Matthias' stitches out! Let's just say the paci really helped when stitches were being put in  AND taken out!

What to say....
Today I walked away from two conversations thinking, "Man, I wish I would have said..." Each time the statements caught me off guard, but here's what I would have said if given the chance again.
BAckground to conversation: I've challenged 5 non-Christian girlfriends to do the 30 Day Encourage Your Hubby challenge from Revive Our Hearts with me. The handout includes scripture references and the challenge is based upon biblical truths. I let the gals know that up front. That's when one girlfriend said, "You don't have to be a Christian to be nice to your husband." I said, "Well, no that's true."
But then I should have continued with.... "It's true that you don't have to be a Christian to be nice, but I know that in my flesh there is no way I could complete 30 days of encouraging Scott (without saying a bad thing to or about it) and that I need outside help to encourage and nourish my spirit to do so.  That's where God and Christ come into the picture."
Then I had a short conversation about how I plan to homeschool my children even though our company will pay for an education here which costs $10,000US a year. Moms ALWAYS say, "Wow, you must have a lot of patience." And I ALWAYS respond with that I DON'T have patience and I have to work on it EVERY DAY. The lady then replied, "And you want to work on it?" Hmmmm....didn't know what to say to that one.
But if given the chance again I would say....."Yes, I do want to work at it because I've chosen to make Jesus Lord over my life. I want to fully embrace his way of living life which means living by the spirit and not by the flesh. I want to possess love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control."
I know the Spirit puts words in my mouth for those moments when I'm defending my faith, but I haven't been in my Word enough...hence the lack of words

Darton is 4

Time keeps moving forward and yesterday we celebrated Darton turning 4 years old. For the majority of his toddler life I have expecting him to do things Adeline does since they are only 20mths a part. But then this past Spring it hit me that he is ONLY 3! Sorry little fella.

Do you have the same problem of thinking your children are "so old," 

but you see other 2 or 3 or 4 year olds as babies? 

photo credit: Milano Photography

Darton is celebrating with 4 parties this year! We had one in TX with family, a small one with rice krispie treats at school, one with just us last night, and then he'll celebrate tomorrow with a few friends that aren't in his school. This year's party theme is pirates! I chose pirates because of his love for Hook...not to be confused with a love for Peter Pan. He loves the Robin William's movie Hook. However, Hook and Peter Pan are way outdated and I couldn't find anything related to them for party favors, cake decorations, etc. Pirates of the Caribbean are a hot item right now though, so thankfully we were able to find swords, treasure coins, and pirate patches. Unfortunately Pirates of the Caribbean have skulls on everything.

For a party activity, I drew up a treasure map of things around the house for the kids to follow. At each stop they collected a coin and then they had a treasure bag at the end. 

 When Darton gets something in his mind, he becomes obsessed with it.  While in TX one of his obsession was getting a guitar. Grandmommie made that happen for his bday and he's been strumming to music ever since. I never knew he paid so much attention to the musicians at church until he showed us how to silently count to lead us into singing while he plays the guitar.

Darton's recent work writing "letters" (as in the alphabet). He's very detail oriented, which comes through in his choice of clothes as well as fixing his hair.

 I've learned a lot about my little bud over the last six months.  He blossomed out of the baby stage last Fall and we started discovering who our son really is.  He is so intense and will rarely willingly do something if it wasn't his idea. I've always said Darton came out of the womb crying and hasn't stopped. Those that know him can testify. If Darton was able to live by himself, there would be much less crying. But because he has two parents to deal with, his life is quite frustrating. I didn't know all my son's characteristics were of a strong-willed child until I began reading Cynthia Tobias' You Can't Make Me (But I can be persuaded). It has been an "ah-ha" moment for Scott and I to say the least.  Scott has also realized his son is A LOT like him, scoring slightly under Darton in the strong-willed test Tobias gives in her book.

One of the funniest quirks about Darton is how he loves to mimic adults. It started with our gardener Teo, but while in TX he picked up tree trimming (his Papa's profession) and wearing his socks high (like his Gdad). He works like I've never seen a toddler work. When he sets his mind to it, he is an incredibly hard worker and his detail oriented personality carries over in this area. Both grandfather's can testify to his work skills, rather that be pulling branches to the shredder or raking a whole front yard full of grass trimmings.

I won't lie Darton, there are times when I think life would be much easier without you. But my handsome boy, God has given you to me for a specific purpose. You are my perfect gift. You have the sweetest nature and I'm enjoying discovering how God created you. I will continue to do my best to learn how to be a good mommy to you. I love you.

Karen Hossink: Small Enough to Do Something Big

God always brings me the right encouragement at the right time. Now I must put to memory that it's okay to not feel adequate for the job of training 4 hearts for His glory. I am inadequate. HE'S NOT!

Home Again, Home Again

My mom, the kids, and I all flew back to the DR last Thursday. Our 3 hour layover turned into a 9 hour layover and the airline had sent my stroller through with the luggage! It was quite miserable, especially since my mom and I were running off of only 3 hours sleep. I am still catching up on sleep....

 Macklin was just 3 weeks old the day we flew home. Adeline was taking her turn holding Macklin. You can imagine how hard it was to hold either a 3 week hold or chase after a 16mth old for 9 hours.

Grandmommie and the kids on Easter morning. Even preparing Darton 2 hours in advance that we are going to take a picture doesn't mean he will cooperate. 

 

I was quite overwhelmed looking at four Easter baskets sitting on the coffee table. Just last year Matthias was celebrating his first Easter at 4 months old with not a single hint of a thought that I would have another child the next Easter. But here we are with four Easter baskets and enough children in my house to not have to invite other children over to have a fun Easter egg hunt! Blessed, yes. Overwhelmed, yes. But it's keeping me dependent on my sovereign God.