videos and learning

Proof that Emerson isn't ALWAYS an angel... just mostly. This was how most of dinner went the other day when she missed her nap.

Emerson love, love, LOVES going to the hospital to see her baby brother. A quick clip of our visit this morning. Be warned, I had to abruptly stop the camera due to some upchuck action. I thought about not uploading it, but let's face it, puke out the nose is a Malachi reality.

I spent the night catching up on Revive Our Hearts and the 3/1/10 (You Can Finish the Race) message spoke loud and clear to me. It was just the encouragement that I needed to hear. More importantly, it spurred me on to check my thoughts, attitudes, and motivations regarding our new life with Malachi. For those of you who aren't familiar with us, before Malachi's birth we had planned to move to China as missionaries leaving Summer 2011. Our house had sold two weeks before Malachi was born, only being on the market for three months! We were ready--or so we thought. We were certain that China was our calling. We were certain that God had sold our house so quickly and that we made a profit on the sale as confirmation of us heading in the right direction. On October 27, 2009, God shut the door on that calling. Among other feelings, we were confused. But, God, what do you have planned for us instead??? I guess I kind of removed the "long-term" from the forefront of my mind. We've since been living day by day. I'm learning that God still has purpose for John and I. We KNOW that we would not have been blessed with the tragedies and triumphs that come along with a kid as complex as Malachi if God didn't have a purpose. But what is that purpose? What is that calling?

Your calling and mine is still to testify by our lives and by our witness to the gospel of the grace of God.

God put you here for a purpose... to make a big deal about God, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Nothing in life works out the way we had hoped, but here’s the point: God’s kingdom and God’s purposes are often furthered by His children (that’s us) being willing to accept the imprisonment and afflictions—hardships—if necessary and to glorify Him in and through those circumstances.

So when it’s hard and you respond to it with the grace of God, with joy, with strength and dignity as a woman of God, you are giving the world a right opinion of God. You’re drawing them to the gospel.

Tonight, I got a good idea of what that looks like. I pray that, one day, this would be said of me. A life lived as a testimony of God's grace, a witness to His saving gospel. That I would make a big deal about God. That I would accept the hardships that life with Malachi are sure to bring. That I would be considered a strong, joyful, dignified woman of God. Most importanly, that I would draw people to Christ, my Savior.