Mommy... the phone's ringing

Yeah I finally scrapped! Okay.. I cheated a bit and used a template from Melgen Designs and Sweet Genevieve's kit Soft Spoken both available at Oscraps.com

Well I don't have much to post about today.

Actually, the cutest thing happened today and it just made me realize how smart my baby is and how much children learn through watching. I hopped into the shower while Izzy was playing in the living room and out of nowhere a little arm reaches into the shower with the phone. I had no idea (didn't hear it ringing) why she had done this but I thought it was cute... so I grabbed it and set it on the dehumidifier. Isabella decided to stay in the bathroom and play for a little and the phone rang again. Before I could get to it, Isabella picked up the phone and again reached into the shower and handed it to me. I don't know why such a little thing surprised me but I just thought it was precious.

And it was my sister... always good to talk to her. So we chatted for a bit... actually a long bit and then Izzy and I headed outside. She was such a good girl today... eating properly, playing well, even giving me the opportunity to clean up a bit and her nap was amazing! I put her down around 2:30 and she didn't wake up until about 4:30! And even when she woke up... I sat her on my lap and she fell back to sleep until about 5:15! What was sweet about that (besides the fact that this doesn't happen very often.. her sleeping in my arms) was that it forced me just to sit and relax and I finally got to finish (well almost anyway) the scrapbook page that I want to frame and hang on our long, white, bare walls.

Today's reading in 'A Heart Like His' talked about when David was hiding in the cave and how he handled his feelings in this situation. Beth Moore points out how wonderful it is that God 'inspire David to write his feelings' (aka the Psalms) and I couldn't agree more. We don't always get to read the deep personal thoughts of the people mentioned in the Bible but God inspired David and we get the inside scoop on how 'the man after His own heart' communicates with God. We get to see that it's okay to share our frustrations, our hurts, our pains and just cry out to God. The focus of this chapter was Psalm 142.. a prayer from when David was in the cave. If we study this Psalm, we are given an amazing example of how to respond when life gives us difficult circumstances.

1. David prayed. We know that praying is important but how often is that our first response?
2. David cried aloud. There are often times when a good cry is all you need to gain sanity yet we try to be macho or keep our dignity. God can take it... cry out to Him!
3. David poured out his complaint. I think sometimes we feel that it's a bad thing to tell God our frustrations, troubles, etc.. but God wants to share in everything... the joys and sorrows and in reality... He knows them anyway.
4. David rehearsed his trust in God. This was powerful reading for me. The whole idea behind this verse is that it's easy to be attacked by the enemy when we are down so we need to be constanly reminding ourselves that 'God knows our way.' I think I will memorize Psalm 142:3 'When my spirit grows faint within me, /it is you who know my way.' to quote when I'm struggling with a difficult circumstance.
5. David longed for God's presence. I'm not totally understanding what Beth is pointing out in this observation so I'm not going to add my own thoughts here. LOL
6. David confessed his desperate need. Too often we try to fight/deal with things in our own power but David (who killed Goliath, a lion and a bear) cried out to God and admitted that he couldn't do it on his own so why in the world should we?

Beth Moore ends with this statement: 'We often get far more specific sharing our hearts with a friend than we do with our God who can truly intervene and help us!' and it made me think about some things I've been dealing with lately and how I've approached them. I definitely have approached people more than God and why??? Especially in some of the situations they CAN'T do anything except offer prayer so why not go to the Father myself?

This study is awesome! Not only am I learning more about the Bible and David's life... I'm learning how practical and how much it applies to my life right now. The Old Testament is very difficult for me to understand and study but this study is really opening my eyes up to a whole new world (if that makes any sense... i feel like I've been saying that a lot lately... lol). It's amazing how God speaks when you really take the time to build your relationship.

I've been hearing a lot of questions lately about how does God speak to you, how do you know what He wants you to do, etc... but when the answer given is.... you need to build your relationships with Him, take time to listen to Him, etc... the words may not be 'that sounds like a lot of work' but the eyes say it. I know myself that I've thought... where am I going to find the time to do this or that but you know what... it all comes down to priorty and what's important to you. If you are that interested in something... you make time for it.

This is one of my biggest parallels into my preparation for the 10K. I wanted to do this race more than anything and I wanted to do it well and while I didn't prepare as much as I should have towards the end... I MADE time to run, I woke up early to run (yes Mike.. I did a few times. lol) And what happened? I reached my goal and in the process developed a love for racing. A few months ago I was feeling distant from God but I was lazy in taking time to develop my relationship with Him. When I decided it WAS that important to me, I started making time and my relationship has grown tremendously and passion has returned. While God is always with us... our relationship with Him takes effort just as a relationship with a friend does.

Woah... I guess I had more to write than I thought. I still haven't uploaded all my pictures yet but at least I have one of my little sweetheart. It's actually from our trip to the states but hey.. it's better than nothing.

One of my very first pictures of Isabella in which I said, 'Say Cheese' and she did it!

A Heart Like His... Saul

Poor Mike.... he was trying to watch tv and I kept interupting him with some 'ooh's and awe's and I can't belive that'. But he was very gracious in listening to what I had to share and thinking through things with me. I was reading my book on Monday night and the chapter (actually 3 chapters that I had to re-read like 3 times) was about Saul (another important person in the backstory of David). It was these chapters that made me starting highlighting like a crazy woman. There was one thing after another that grabbed my attention and it was so exciting to find Biblical answers to some questions I had over the summer.

For example... she was talking about how the people demanded a king instead of waiting upon the Lord and what that cost them and then she said this, 'Often when God does not readily give us what we want, it is because He knows what our desire would cost us. Faith sometimes means forgoing our desires because we trust Christ to have a better plan for our lives.' This was a very powerful statement for me because there is something I deeply desire but every time I think it's going to work out... something else is thrown in and it gets pushed back. It's very hard on me but and I question why this keeps happening so I need to be reminded that to push and make something happen will probably cost me.... cost me Christ's plan for my life. I don't want to demand something from God, I just want to be confident that this isn't working out right now because God has a better plan. It's much easier to deal with letting go of my desires when I focus on God's greater plan.

And then we discuss the difference between godly humility and low self-esteem and this was really interesting because how often do we do something (like sing/play for special music or lead a ministry or etc..) and when someone compliments us we say... 'oh it wasn't that good or I should've done it this way, or etc.. again you get the point'. Maybe you don't... but I definitely find myself saying things like that. It is very difficult for me to accept compliments because I never seemed to be pleased with myself or sometimes it's because I don't want to sound arrogant.. so instead of giving God the glory with my words, it becomes about 'me'. I may be 'trying' to be humble but that's not being humble... it's low self-esteem. We may be trying to posess humility but humilty doesn't come in the form of 'denigrating' ourselves either. Humility is having confidence in how God has created you and what He has asked you to do. So in situations that I mentioned above... I don't have to be arrogant but I also don't have to put myself down either. I can be confident and give glory to God for how He allowed/guided/helped/etc me in that particular way. I was really convicted that I criticize myself too often and how that suggests a lack of confidence in God.

There was one more thing but my wording is not yet figured out and I want to be clear in what I'm thinking so maybe another day and I've been tring to post this for a few days now so I'm just going to end here. More to come later.... lol