Goodbye

Fellow bloggers,

The time has come for me to say "goodbye." A week from Monday I start graduate school, and I am sorry to say that this hobby will have to go for now. I have really enjoyed reading all your blogs and writing my own, but it is my goal to graduate with honors and to do that, I must eliminate some extraneous activities. I will pray for all of you, and from time to time, I may post a few words (probably through Chris' blog). Please do not be hurt if it is a while before I can read your blog- I will try to read through occasionally, but I'm not sure how much time I will have.
I love you all!
-S
PS I'd like to leave you with an excerpt from a well-known poem; if I could rename it, I'd call it "Practical Faith" (the real title is "If" and it is an awesome poem). I hope you enjoy it.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
...If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And-which is more- you'll be a Man, my son!
-Rudyard Kipling

Bigger news than potty training!

Okay, you thought I was excited before- wait until I tell you what just happened: Hannah asked Jesus into her heart! She has been talking a lot about Him and wanting to see Him, and so today she was just adamant about it and I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to share the Gospel with her. So we talked about the beginning and Adam and Eve and Jesus' birth, death and resurrection. Then we talked about how it was all for us and she said a prayer asking Jesus to be her friend and Lord and to be a part of His family! I am so excited! Please pray for her and Chris and myself so that we can lead her continuously on the straight and narrow.
One really excited Mommy!
-S

I can't believe it!

My son is potty training! At 20 months and without any real prodding from me!
I put him on the potty once or twice before his bath, and now he wants to go all the time!
Yes, I am excited b/c Hannah took forever to potty train- over 16 months! Jeremiah asked to go this morning when he got up and after his snack. When he went after snack, he was dry (2.5 hours) and went! Wow! Kids really are different aren't they! I thought being a boy that he would be the slow one, but he's not. He even wants to use toilet paper (it's so cute). Anyway, I just am amazed. I think it's time for easy ups (I have to remove his diaper all the time) and a potty of his own.
An impressed Mommy,
-S

The Call

On my way to the bus stop, during my 17th year, God spoke to my heart: " I have a great work for you to do." Later on, I felt the distinct call to be a missionary- but I didn't know how or when. I remember going to see Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" with my grandmother that same year and I remember my heart stirring- no, practically bursting as Belle sang, "I want adventure in the great wide somewhere. I want it more than I can tell... I want so much more than they've got planned." And I wanted to yell, "That's exactly how I feel!" I remember also when I received the call to be a missionary that I stood up in church and told the congregation, "I'm not sure where I'm going, but I know that God has called me to preach the Gospel." Shortly thereafter, my pastor began asking me to preach on Sunday nights. At 17, I preached my first sermon. A little later on, I went to Emmanuel to get a teaching degree so I could be a missionary. I was focused. Along the way, I met Chris and married and had two beautiful children- but the desire to teach God's word has not left me. Over the years I have been burdened to speak to women and teach them God's truth. FOr seven years I kept up a list on my wall to have a women's ministry- my goals for that ministry and prayers. Now, I am feeling the desire to teach and preach again- stronger than it has been for a long time. And I have recently heard the Holy Spirit whispering to me, " I want you to teach my people." Now, I am not sure what that means, because as a young mom, I know I have time b/f I can do a lot. I also know that I must be in agreement with my husband- but the call is unmistakable and it is a like a fire shut up in my bones- I must speak the truth to all who will hear. I must tell them the truth. I am not sure how. I am not sure when. I am not sure to whom (women, children, families...) I only know I must speak it.
I am also not sure why I am blogging this, but I felt I must. Please pray for me- I only want to do His will.
-S

Will the real Jesus please stand up?

Yesterday, when the kids and I went to pick up Chris, Hannah saw a man with a beard and shoulder-length hair at his work. She piped up, "It's Jesus!" Needless to say, we all had a good laugh!

Until the next blog,
-S

7 children playing, 6 activity stations, 5 cups of Gatorade (a piece)!, 4 pounds lost, 3 potty breaks, 2 points, hooray! and a fly that

I swallowed last night!
Just a short update on VBS: IT'S GREAT!!! The kids seem to really be having a great time, the volunteers are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
incredibly wonderful- as well as a group of people with hidden talents, and it hasn't rained (don't boo- I know we need it, but how about next week)? Oh, and I really did swallow a fly last night- go ahead and sing the song... There was an old lady who swallowed a fly... (but please change old to at least middle age).
Thank you LORD for helping us all have such a terrific time! Amen!
Until the next blog,
-S

talking

So, I found a verse for all of us (myself included) talkers: In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he that restrains his lips is wise- Proverbs 10:19

Sin is not lacking... oh how true that is! When I get nervous, I babble, especially when I am trying to confront someone about something. I mean, I don't want to hurt their feelings. But have you ever noticed that the more someone talks, the worse it gets? Jesus said to let your yes be yes and your no no, because after that sin comes.
So, how do we gregarious people watch ourselves on this one?
That's where the Holy Spirit steps in. He's really good to say to me, "Hush, SHawna. That's enough. Or don't go there, Shawna." Once, when a good friend of mine proposed to me, the Holy Spirit literally shut my mouth; I mean I couldn't say one word! As I said before, I get nervous during confrontation, so maybe I would have ended up saying yes and messing up everything if i had had access to talking that night. WHo knows?
Well, I'd better go. And if you're a talker like me, meditate on this verse. Hopefully it will help dampen all those fires that our tongues try to stir up.
Until the next blog,
-S

Noise in a pool

Okay, I just have to have a response on this one. Parents were taken to court b/c kids were playing too loud in the pool they have in their backyard. Go to yahoo.com and click on Pool Noise Goes to Court to read the story/watch the video; then comment. I'd really like to know what you all think.
Until the next blog,
-S

Nickel and Dimed...

Good book- very thought-provoking. Profanity is pretty raw but not great in quantity; still, I'd be careful if you can't handle that kind of stuff. Found out author is an atheist. One night she attends a tent meeting at a church and this is how she ends... "But Jesus makes his appearance here only as a corpse; the living man, the wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist, is never once mentioned, nor anything he ever had to say. Christ crucified rules, and it may be that the true business of modern Christianity is to crucify him again and again so that he could never get a word out of his mouth... I get up to leave...and walk out to search for my car, half expecting to find Jesus out there in the dark, gagged and tethered to a tent pole." (Ehrenreich 68-69)
Oh boy does that make you think.
In another part of the book she says the following: " The worst for some reason (she was a waitress), are the Visible Christians- like the ten person table, all jolly and sanctified after Sunday night service, who run me mercilessly and then leave me $1 on a $92 bill." (Ehrenreich 36) Hmm...
How often do we spout our Christianity instead of demonstrate it- Christ's love- to others?
I have a friend who will never go out to eat unless he can leave a larger than normal tip. That is not because he wants to appear better than anyone; it's because he believes that as Christians we should go above and beyond what others give- give abundantly. I agree with him.
Feel free to comment about either passage.
Until the next blog,
-S