Beautiful in God’s eyes

You may have already seen this video – I came across it on a friend’s Facebook page:

Mother’s Inspiring Video about her Blind Baby Boy

It’s a mother’s story about her son, who was born with very serious birth defects.  She chose not to abort him, and was told that she was a horrible person for not doing so.  The love she has for her son just leaps off the screen, and by the time the video was over, I had tears rolling down my face.  What a beautiful example of a mother’s love for her son.  She sees him for the beautiful person he is and is becoming, not for what the world sees as his shortcomings and defects.

If we as imperfect humans can love so deeply, how much more must God the Father love us?  We are flawed, sinful creatures who can never, in our own strength, do enough or be good enough to earn our way into Heaven.  But God loves us so much that He sent his only Son to die a painful, horrible death to pay the price for our sins – yours and mine and everyone else’s.  God did that so that we might have the opportunity to know Him and have a relationship with Him, and not be sentenced to the fate we rightly deserve, which is an eternity apart from God. Wow.  That kind of blows the mind.

I have two boys.  The thought of ever being in a position where I might be asked to give one of them up for the good of many just rips my heart out, and honestly, I’m not sure I could do it.  God could, and did.  “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16, ESV.  And when we’ve accepted Christ and believed in him as our Savior, God doesn’t look at us and see our flawed, sinful natures, deserving only of death.  God looks at us and sees the righteousness and beauty of his only Son, whom He loves, and He loves us as His own.

Father, words cannot express my gratitude, that you would give your Son as sacrifice for me.  I am so undeserving, but so very thankful.  I praise you, God, for your gift of love, given freely for me.

It comes to us all

On my way home from work, I was listening to the radio, and an Ozzy Osbourne song came on.  For a while when The Osbournes show was on TV, I watched (yeah, yeah, I know – it was like a train wreck, you knew you should stop watching but you just couldn’t quite manage it).  As the song played this evening, I thought about the young Ozzy, able to stir up mayhem at concerts, biting the heads off of bats and whatnot, and the older Ozzy as portrayed on the TV show.  He wasn’t the raging rock star he was in his younger days.  He was older, slower, and sometimes a bit of a bumbling idiot (although I’ll grant you, some of that could have been a put-on for television, I don’t know).  Should we live so long, old age and that loss of our fast and furious youthful selves comes to us all.  We just don’t all play it out on national TV like Ozzy did.

And that made me think – when Jesus returns, everyone will see him.  Isaiah 45:22-23 says:

22 Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
23 By myself I have sworn;
from my mouth has gone out in righteousness
a word that shall not return:
‘To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.’

Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess.  Every.  All.  No one will miss it.  The only question is whether we’ll be confessing Jesus as Lord as one of His children, who have believed in Him, believed that He died on the cross to save us from our sins and give us eternal life, and accepted Him as Savior, or whether we’ll be confessing as those who have disregarded the Christ during our time here on earth and realize too late that yes, He is who the Bible proclaims.

It comes to us all.  Maybe not in my lifetime, maybe not in yours, but Jesus will come to us all.  I’ve heard the question asked, if you’ve heard the gospel, what’s keeping you from accepting it?   What’s keeping you from accepting Jesus?  As the song says, “Romans 10:9 is all you gotta do.”  It’s something to think on.

A good week

As I’ve said before, Thing One has been diagnosed with ADHD.  He struggles with focus and organization, and school is often a challenge for him, to put it mildly.  Not because he lacks intellectual ability – he’s plenty smart.  He just has a hard time sitting still when it’s time to sit still, remembering to complete work and turn it in, staying organized, and, well, he’s been known to say that he hates school.

He took part in a program called CogMed several weeks ago.  It’s designed to improve working memory, focus, all the things he struggles with.  I imagine every one of his teachers thought first of him when asked if there were students who might benefit from the program!  We were told that we could continue to see progress in the weeks or months after the program, and I really hung my hat on that, because the progress immediately following the program was minimal at best.  But slowly, slowly, we’re seeing progress.

The Thursday folder comes home each week with work that’s been graded (and any corrections that need to be made and returned), and with a note as to how many times Thing One has signed the conduct book.  The conduct book has probably been the bane of his existence this year.  I think his record for number of times to sign it in one week was eight.  So imagine my delight to see a note like the one above!  He didn’t sign the conduct book at all, and he brought home all passing grades!  His teacher commented on how well he did and how hard he’s trying.  That’s a good week!

What’s on your list?

As homework for our Bible fellowship class this week, we’re supposed to come up with a list of the ten things we want most in the world, and then evaluate whether our reasons for wanting those are of the world/selfish or of God.  In no particular order, here’s what I’ve come up with:

1.  I want my boys to grow up to be Godly men, to be strong in their faith.  I want them to fulfill the purposes God has for them, whatever those purposes may be.

2.  I want my house to be a place of hospitality.  Right now, it so often feels like chaos and madness (and I know that goes with the territory of having two boys!), and there are more days than not where I’d just be embarrassed for anyone to see what it looks like.  Not that I’m going to start throwing lavish dinner parties all of a sudden, but it would be nice not to have to shove things in the closet if someone stops by, or maybe be able to have a friend over for coffee.

3.  I want a better schedule than the one I’ve got now.  Between commuting and working, I spend approximately 11 hours away from my family every day.  I leave in time to get Thing One to school (Brian takes Thing Two to daycare – we divide and conquer), make the nasty drive to work, work a full day (generally without taking a lunch break, so I can leave work at a sensible hour), make the nasty drive back home (really, can’t there be at least part of my drive that doesn’t stink?!), and make it home at about 6:30 every evening.  I feel like we’re prisoners of my schedule.  It makes it difficult for us to take part in weeknight activities at church, and it no doubt contributes to the fact that my kids’ bedtimes are later than I’d like.  By the time we get them to bed (usually both aren’t asleep until 9:30 or later), I simply don’t have the energy to do much other than collapse into bed.  I’d love to have more time to take part in outreach opportunities during the week.  I’d love to have dinner ready and on the table earlier, and have time with my family of an evening that isn’t devoted to preparing dinner/getting homework done/getting boys bathed and wrangled into bed.  So I think this is one of those wants that has some selfish motivation and some Godly motivation, too.

4.  I want to find a way to help Thing One not struggle so much in school, and in life.  He’s been diagnosed with ADHD, but I’m not really sure that’s what’s really going on with him.  Yes, he lacks focus at times, and his organizational skills are less than stellar, but so many things out there seem to manifest as ADHD, and he has so many quirks that don’t seem to fit with ADHD, that perhaps that isn’t what’s going on with him.  He’s nine.  He shouldn’t come home saying he hates school – that just breaks my heart, and some days it’s hard for me to wrap my brain around, as I was at the total opposite end of the spectrum (I was one of those kids who were smart and ridiculously good at school, and I cried – yes, cried – if I had to miss a day).  Thing One is smart, don’t misunderstand – he’s very intelligent, and I know it’s not a lack of intellectual capacity that’s making school difficult.  But it loses something in the translation from his mind to his paper, and getting it to the paper (and then remembering to get the paper turned in) is what gives him fits.  The other night, it took a solid hour for us to get through nine math problems, one homework assignment.  (You see now why our evenings may be devoted to getting just the essentials done, and not always preparing ahead for the next day!)  He’s got other quirks and curiosities that are probably better discussed in another post.  I just wish I could help him get through school a little bit easier – it shouldn’t be this hard to be a fourth grader.

5.  I want to lose some weight and get in shape.  Can you say you want something if you don’t really work to attain it?  I usually manage not to make terrible food choices, but I”m not real strict about it, and I know I’m not always consistent with exercise.  But I would like to be healthier and in better shape (note I did not say “skinnier” – I’ve made my peace with the fact that my clothing will likely always have a tag with a double-digit size on it, and that’s OK).  I want to be around to see my boys grow up and see the grandchildren I may have one day.  I want to be in good health to take part in activities as my kids get older, and to enjoy the years with my husband after our boys are grown and gone.  So yes, I can say I want this.  I just need to do more to make it happen.

6.  I want a concert grand piano and a music room to put it in.  (This probably falls more in the category of “wishful thinking” rather than true wants!)  I’ve played since I was very young, and it would just be the height of wonderfulness to have a grand piano of my very own.  No Godly motive here, I just want one.  Black, of course.

7.  I want more financial resources.  Not to spend on myself, so much, but so that I can reach out and meet needs as the opportunity arises.  That sounds like a want with a Godly purpose, right?  Well, perhaps God doesn’t think so.  Does he know me better than I know myself?  (Of course He does.)  Perhaps I haven’t been unfailingly generous with the resources that I have now, so that He doesn’t yet feel I’m ready to be trusted with more.  (This ties in with the part of The Resolution for Women that I’m reading right now, so I expect there will be another post on it later.)

8. I want to take the boys to Disney World while they’re still young enough to enjoy it.  Thing One is going to be 10 (!!!) in just a few months, so we may be getting close to the age when he ceases to think family vacations sound like a good idea.  I’d love to have the opportunity to share the Magic Kingdom with them while they’ll still like it and have a good time.

9.

10.

I can’t think of two more things to go on the list right now.  If they come to me later, I’ll come back and add them.  Some of my wants have some Godly motivation, some don’t.

So.  What’s on YOUR list?

Menu planning for the week of April 1-7

Does anyone else do menu planning?  I find that it really helps me to think ahead as to what we’re going to have during the week, and it helps me not get completely out of hand when we go grocery shopping.  I mostly just plan dinner, and try to plan things that leave leftovers for Brian and I to take for lunch.

Here’s what we’ll be having this week:

• Pork fajitas with fajita veggies
• Tacos with Black Bean, Corn, and Avocado Salad
• Fried tilapia with Cajun Coleslaw
• Kalyn’s Stuffed Cabbage Casserole
• Roasted Shrimp and Broccoli

And one night we’ll be eating out, since Brian and I will be celebrating our fourth anniversary this week!

Warrior Prayers winner!

The winner of the Warrior Prayers e-book giveaway is Aimie at Simplie Beloved!  Aimie, check your e-mail, and I hope you and your boys are blessed by the 21 Days of Prayer for Sons challenge coming up in May.

Warrior Prayers E-book Giveaway!

Here it is, my first giveaway!  In preparation for the next 21 Days of Prayer for Sons challenge, I’m giving away one copy of the e-book on which the challenge is based, Warrior Prayers: Praying the Word for Boys in the Areas They Need it Most.  The challenge starts on May 1 and runs through May 21, and it’s a great opportunity to pray mindfully for your sons for that three-week period.  If your boys make you as crazy as mine make me, and break your heart like mine break my heart, it’s truly a blessing to have the chance to cover them in prayer and share the experience with other boy moms.  To be entered in the giveaway, just leave me a comment on this post – say hi, share something good your son did recently, share something your son does that makes you nuts, whatever moves you at the time.    Be sure to include your e-mail address so I’ll be able to notify you and get the e-book to you if you’re the winner.  I’ll choose a winner by random number selection on the evening of Friday, March 30.

And whether you win the e-book or not, you can sign up for the 21 Days of Prayer challenge right here!  While you’re over at the MOB Society site signing up for the challenge, take a look around at all the other great things they’ve got.  Inspiring blog posts, a book club, a prayer room – great resources for moms of those sometimes sweet, sometimes challenging, always fascinating creatures we call boys.