He is Risen!!

Mark 16

Jesus Has Risen

 ¹ When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.  
² Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb ³ and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

 ⁴ But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 

⁵ As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

 ⁶ “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 

⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” 

Praise the Lord!  Jesus is ALIVE!!  I serve a risen Savior!

Happy Easter!

Overwhelmed

When we found out we were having a boy, a friend of mine and a coworker of Robby's told us that they each had some boy clothes they were getting rid of and asked if we'd like to have them.  Each of them has two boys and no intentions to have more children, so they were cleaning out the clothing their children have outgrown.  

I got the first batch several weeks ago and the second this week.  I feel like we're finally close enough to the birth of our sweet boy that it's time to start washing and organizing his clothes.  So this week I went through all of it, washed it, and separated it by size.  

I am overwhelmed!

What a blessing these two ladies have been to us!  There were clothes from newborn to 2T sizes.  So many of the pieces are name brand, cute as can be, and in great shape.  They gave me outfits, pajamas, sleep sacks, blankets, burp cloths, bibs, socks, hats, and Halloween costumes.

Before I found out I would be getting clothes from these ladies, I had purchased a few things.  But now I won't have to purchase much for a long time to come.  

I am very thankful for their generosity!

This picture does not include the items I've purchased.  

Just what we were given.

Good Friday

 For the wages of sin is death, 

but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Romans 6:23 

The words "in Christ Jesus our Lord" became valid when He gave His life on the cross.  Read below the events of the last day of Jesus' life.  

Mark 15

Jesus Before Pilate

 ¹ Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

 ² “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

   “You have said so,” Jesus replied.

 ³ The chief priests accused him of many things. ⁴ So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”

 ⁵ But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

 ⁶ Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. ⁷ A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. ⁸ The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

 ⁹ “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, ¹⁰ knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. ¹¹ But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

 ¹² “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.

 ¹³ “Crucify him!” they shouted.

 ¹⁴ “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

   But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

 ¹⁵ Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

 ¹⁶ The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. ¹⁷ They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. ¹⁸ And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” ¹⁹ Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. ²⁰ And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

 ²¹ A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. ²² They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). ²³ Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. ²⁴ And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

 ²⁵ It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. ²⁶ The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.

 ²⁷ They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left.  ²⁹ Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, ³⁰ come down from the cross and save yourself!” ³¹ In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! ³² Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

The Death of Jesus

 ³³ At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ³⁴ And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

 ³⁵ When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”

 ³⁶ Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.

 ³⁷ With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

 ³⁸ The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. ³⁹ And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

 ⁴⁰ Some women were watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. ⁴¹ In Galilee these women had followed him and cared for his needs. Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem were also there.

The Burial of Jesus

 ⁴² It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, ⁴³ Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. ⁴⁴ Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. ⁴⁵ When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. ⁴⁶ So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. ⁴⁷ Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was laid. 


Thankfully this isn't the end of the story!  Easter Sunday will bring rejoicing as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord!!!

Die or Dye

Over the last several months, Emma has begun to be somewhat aware of death.  She's curious and we talk about it every now and then. She knows if she falls out of her second-story bedroom window, she could die.  She knows if you have Jesus in your heart you will go to heaven when you die.  She knows if you squish a bug, it dies.  She knows that my phone can die.  But what does all that mean?  A person, a bug, and a phone all "die" in very different ways.  She doesn't know that.

This week we have again been talking about death--Jesus' death.  We talked through the events of the last week of Jesus' life before His crucifixion.  Then I told her He rose from the dead and is now alive.  You could see the wheels turning on that one.  As we reviewed the story we had just read and talked about, she went through it step by step.  She came to His resurrection and said, "Then Jesus got un-dead."  Well, I guess that's as good a way to put it as any!  I know she'll understand it eventually.

OK, so we're dealing with what it means to die.

Now, Emma, my sweet little 4-year-old that doesn't understand much of the English language yet... would you like to DYE some Easter eggs????  Wait, what??  

I don't know if she thought we were going to go outside and smash them, but she looked at me like I was crazy.  She knew we were supposed to color them but did not know that to do that we would dye them.  She later told her daddy something about the eggs being dead after we colored them.  She didn't completely get it.

How do our children ever learn the English language?  There have been a few instances over the last week or so where we have been dealing with words that sound the same but have different meanings.  At least Emma is old enough now that I can tell her that a certain word may sound the same as another but it means something different.  She may not fully get that either, but oh well.  

DIE or DYE, we had a great time coloring our little white eggs last night!

 

Heart Training

The biggest responsibility I have as a parent is to train my children in the Lord.  

Love the LORD your God with all your heart 

and with all your soul and with all your strength.  

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.   

Impress them on your children. 

Talk about them when you sit at home 

and when you walk along the road, 

when you lie down and when you get up.  

Tie them as symbols on your hands 

and bind them on your foreheads. 

Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. 

 Deuteronomy 6:5-9

It scares me.  

Do I want them to be good?  Yes.  

Do I want them to be smart and well educated?  Yes.

Do I want them to be nice and respectful to their peers and authority?  Yes.  

Do I want them to grow up to be decent people who contribute to society?  Yes.  

But do any of these things matter if they don't love the Lord?  NO!  

How do I do it?  That has been my question for so long.  When do I start?  How do I start?  

It's overwhelming.

A couple of weeks ago, we were discussing this very topic in my Bible study.  It was not what we were studying but all four of us are mamas, so it's something that we've all thought about a lot.  One of them pointed out that it is not our responsibility to save them.  The only One that can save them and change their lives is the Holy Spirit.  However, it is our responsibility to teach them in the ways of the Lord and to pray that they will be drawn to the Holy Spirit and desire to live a life dedicated to the Lord.  

While I was on bed rest, a friend gave me a few books to borrow and one of them is Instructing a Child's Heart.  It took me a while to get through the first chapter and I almost put it down.  Not that it wasn't useful, it was just BORING.  But I kept at it and I am so glad I did.  I'm only about half way through, but one of the things the book talks about is how the training of our children in the things of God is best done at times other than when they need disciplining.  Yes, there are lessons to be learned when our children need correcting, but usually at those times, the heart of the parent isn't in the best form for teaching.  

As a result of our talks at Bible study and the book I'm reading, I've realized that I need to be training Emma more through out the day.  We've been working on Bible verses for a long time now and we read out of her children's Bible, but I've realized that it's got to be more than that.  So, I've started having a little devotion with her.  I try to do it first thing in the morning.  She is usually awake before Abby, so we have a few minutes to ourselves.  Instead of just reading Bible stories, we're starting to talk about life lessons that are based on our belief in the Bible.  We've talked about sharing, honesty, being kind, etc.  One thing I've found since I started, which was just a week or so ago, is that when we get to a point during the day where she needs correcting, I can refer back to the things we've talked about and a few times she has changed her own attitude or behavior without much pushing from me. 

Ok, so it seems like it's been going pretty well, right?  Well, it has.  But then we get to things like this morning and I realize there is still so much she has to learn.  And things have to be so broken down for a 4-year-old that is learning all of this for the first time.  For instance, the book we were using said something about God sent His Son Jesus to save us.  I wasn't sure if she understood the relationship between God and Jesus, so I explained to her that Jesus is God's son like our new baby is my son.  Ok, easy enough to understand.  I'm thinking she gets it.  Then I say, "God is Jesus' Daddy."  She looks at me like I have two heads and says, "His Daddy??  But I thought Joseph was Jesus' daddy."  Oh boy!  How do I explain that?!  I tried, but then just gave up and moved on.  I figure she'll get it eventually.  And without the understanding of a virgin birth (which I was going nowhere near that topic!), she can't get it yet.  

So where does all this leave me?  Still overwhelmed and afraid of not doing enough to train them in the Lord.  With a third little life on his way, I just pray that God will draw them all to Himself and give me the words to say when the time is right.  I pray that they will be curious and ask questions and have an understanding that can only come from the Holy Spirit.  

While there are so many life changing events that my children will face in their lifetime, I know that the most joyous for me will be when they finally understand that they are lost in this sinful world and in need of a Savior.  And that Savior is Jesus Christ.  When they give their lives to Him, I will rejoice.  Until then I will pray them towards that day. 

Well, Good Grief!

As if this little boy hasn't caused enough trouble already!  I went for my 28 week appointment today and discovered that my head-down little man is now in the frank breech position (rear end down with his legs up and feet by his ears).  My doctor said there is still plenty of time for him to flip back, and the ultrasound tech said that I have a lot of amniotic fluid, which will aid in helping him flip.  But good grief!  I've just had a feeling through this whole pregnancy that he is going to be breech at term, and I'm going to have a c-section after having two great regular deliveries.  I did a little research online when I got home and I read that 25% of babies are breech at 28-32 weeks and only 3% are breech at delivery.  So here's to praying that we aren't part of that 3%!

I also found out today that I tested positive for Group B Strep, which isn't a big deal.  I just have to be on an antibiotic when I deliver him.  

So far with this pregnancy I felt worse at the beginning, had the subchorionic hematoma and 8 weeks of bed rest, he had a hot spot on this heart at 20 weeks (which meant nothing and is now gone), he is breech, and I tested positive for Group B Strep.  I've decided I like being pregnant with girls better! :-)  

Thank the Lord, he is perfectly healthy.  And if it takes a c-section to get him here, well so be it.  I just hope he isn't trying to show me what kind of trouble he's going to get into once he gets here! haha!

On a sweeter note, he has the most precious, chubby little face and already has lots of hair.  He weighs a little over 2 lbs and is a MOVER!  The ultrasound tech was laughing at how much he moves.  She didn't tell me anything I didn't already know! :-)

It's hard to believe that he will be here in about 12 weeks.  I know they're going to fly by and I can't wait!  I think because of all the issues I've had this time, I feel like I've been pregnant for a year.  And while I love being pregnant and I'm not ready for it to be over, I am really looking forward to having my sweet boy in my arms!