Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Teach them….

Ok this blog post is going to be a journal entry of what the Lord has placed on my heart lately. I have thoroughly enjoyed my summer with the girls. One thing I have been thinking about is how I can use my gifts and talents to bring glory to God and my primary ministry which is to my family. I got the awesome experience and privilege to paint  with my dear friend Melissa during an amazing sermon at church a few weeks ago and it was such confirmation that God has created me this way for a reason. 

edit2

edit6

edit7

edit10

edit13

So after this experience, my prayers have become specifically focused on showing me how God wants me to use my love of art and teaching to glorify Him. Melissa encouraged me to use art as a way to serve my own family. She is the sweetest friend, and always using her creative ideas to serve others and her own family. Weather its making an adorable bouquet of flowers from the yard and setting the table with handpainted name tags and personal notes on napkins, or decorating bags of home made cookies for random acts of kindness care packages for friends and family members….this girl has got it down!

A few months ago God hit me with a very clear reality…my first ministry is to my own family..

It says in 1 Tim 5: 8   If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

More important than teaching the kids at Buffalo Creek Elementary, or anyone else are my own kids. Ministry is about relationships and who do I interact with the most, but my own family! My prayer is that I can teach them the scriptures, continue to pray for them, and teach them how to overcome the temptations of sin, and ultimately know how to have a loving and intimate relationship with their creator God. Making them happy is my least important job, but making them content in the Lord and able to put on their armor and have faith to get through the hardships that WILL come their way would make me the most successful teacher and mother I could be! I want to leave a spiritual legacy for my children to pass on to their children and so on.

In the old testament it says In Deuteronomy 11:19,  to teach children about God's law "when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." In Deuteronomy 11:20, the Bible even says to write God's laws "on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Proverbs 22:6 says Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

In the New Testament it says in Ephesians 6:4: "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."  The manner in which we treat children is a powerful lesson in itself.

The Results..

Teaching a child the Bible can lead to the best results of all - the salvation of your child’s soul. 2 Timothy 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Monday we had an awesome time visiting with our new Pastor, Jonathan Williams and his wife Jessica. Jessica was telling me that during the day she has bible lessons with her 16 month old daughter. They are currently going through creation. They learned that God created light and they ran around the house with flashlights! I LOVED this idea. Kids learn through play. So, yesterday I read the story of Noah’s ark to the girls and we talked about how Noah loved God and was obedient. We talked about how God wants Shelby and June to be obedient too. Then we made it rain with spray bottles and acted like animals and ran inside the tent “ark” to get out of the “rain”! Then we painted a large painting of the ark and Noah and the animals!  June loved it and after our lesson, she was able to answer questions about the story and even tell Jimmy about it when he got home! 

Today we learned about Adam and Eve. First I read them the story out of the Bible and summarized it. We talked about the garden and how Adam and Eve got to name all the animals and walk with God in the beautiful garden. We talked about how God gave them one rule not to eat the fruit from one tree. We talked  about being obedient again and how God still loved Adam and Eve after they disobeyed God and ate the fruit. June totally understood because she likes to climb up on the table and get fruit out of the fruit bowl and take one bite out of it and get in trouble. I always tell her I have to give you the fruit. Then we drew and cut out Adam and Eve from cardboard and the girls painted them. June said, “don’t forget to make the snake mommy!”

First they painted the grass..

edit17edit14

edit16edit13

June was sooooo focused,,,I was very impressed. We sang the song, “trust and obey” while we painted.

edit15

Then they painted the snake together

edit12

At this point Shelby went down for a nap and Junie finished up the grass with some stamped flowers while I glued it all together.

edit11

Then we took a basket around the yard and cut some roses and other flowers to make the beautiful garden!

edit10

edit8

June was so excited about making the garden!! She was so careful and meaningful with placing every flower in the garden.

edit6edit5

edit7

edit9

edit4edit3

edit1edit2

My prayer is that in the business of life; work, cleaning, caring for two toddlers, constantly working at maintaining a  loving and successful relationship with my husband, and of course my own personal walk with the Lord, that I would be able to constantly be nurturing my children’s spiritual growth, preparing them for the future, and teaching them about God’s word. I want them to be ready to fight off the “serpants” of this world when temptations come along to try to pull them away.  I pray that I will be consistant. I am so thankful that God gives us second chances; that He loves us when we fail just like he loves Adam and Eve after they disobeyed Him. I am so thankful that he gave me these precious two girls and actually entrusted me with leading them and teaching them about His AWESOMENESS!!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Catching up Summer 2011

We have had a busy few weeks. Here are some photos of what we’ve been up to! Below are some photos from the Orange Show.

edit21edit24

edit19edit22

edit28edit14 - Copy

McDonalds is always a fun treat for the girls. I love how entertainment is so very simple with toddlers!

edit4edit6 - CopyIMG_4586

This is June’s new friend Georgia who will be in her class at school next year! So excited!

edit53


My friend Stephanie and I had a downtown adventure one day searching out great photo locations and some awesome graffiti walls! Her little boys are perfect models!!

edit46copy

edit57edit1

Above are just some pics I snapped right before church because the girls looked so cute. Junie loves her Sunday school class now and hardly cries anymore! She loves to stop in the lobby and point and name all the animals in the mural that mommy painted for the children’s building! She tells people that she is an artist now and we went to her very first art class at the museum!!

 

art6art2

art9edit1copy

edit2edit3

These are their friends, Mitchel and Tristan that June wants to marry. She used to tell me she wanted to marry Daddy or Jesus and now its these boys…yes both of them. She asks me every day if I am married and I say yes I’m married to Daddy. She asks if we had a good cake and tells me she wants to get married too. She has been watching The Little Mermaid quite a bit and there is a scratch on the disk that plays the wedding scene at the end over and over sometimes. I think that is where the obsession started!

edit5

It has only rained once this summer. We took advantage of a the puddles. Again…easliy entertained. The simple joy of childhood.


Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14

edit1edit3

edit4

edit9edit6

Jimmy was off for a week and we went to the beach on Monday. Jimmy fished with Joseph and June spent some quality time with her bestie Uncle Jojo! I was kinda jealous when she fell asleep in his arms being  as she NEVER does this with me.
The girls spent some long hours at the beach and took loooong naps!

IMG_5257

editjuly4thheart

We came home Wednesday for a few days to tend to the yard and feed the ferrets. June picked a huge basket of figs in the backyard.

edit1

She ate tons of them!

IMG_5385IMG_5393

IMG_5407

Then back to the beach house Friday for some fun with Grammy and Pa!

edit1

IMG_5414IMG_5425

IMG_5438IMG_5443IMG_5453

IMG_5458IMG_5460

IMG_5466IMG_5485

IMG_5462

Saturday we went to Aunt MArjorie and Uncle Jon’s beach house down the street for some bar-b-q and fun!

fourthedit3fourthofjulyedit2

June loves her cousin Emily!

IMG_5503

…and “pupcakes”

IMG_5534

The girl could play with shrimp all day and not get bored!

IMG_5569IMG_5589

IMG_5594IMG_5601

 

Here are some shots of June before church that I could not choose which one to post, so I just posted them all. I can never get her to smile for the camera, so these are priceless to me! They were accompanied by handfuls of skittles!

edit2edit3edit6

On the fourth of July we had our friends and neighbors over for a fun Bar-B-Que!

edit5edit2

Is this not the cutest baby ever? She looks like she is filled with sweet cream or jelly like a jelly donut! I start to crave Shipleys whenever I hold her.

edit1

 

edit7

This was my creative attempt at dessert. June managed to eat half of them, just the chocolate of course. She had a pile of strawberries on her plate… I did not give her any of them. She has a way of commandeering desserts from unsuspecting guests who can’t say no to that sweet little voice!

edit4edit10IMG_5619IMG_5649

IMG_5660IMG_5662IMG_5663IMG_5676

We watched an amazing fire works display right from our front yard! It was fabulous and June LOVED it! All the beighbors came out and sat in our lawn. So fun! Another fourth of July come and gone. Now its time to plan Junie’s third birthday!

IMG_5742edit9IMG_5739