"22Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband."
So, for many of you who know me, I'm a very independent, most of the time outspoken woman. I'm a very take-charge kind of person. I like to lead and be center of attention. I'm not a very good follower at all. Which in most cases, this is all good. It was very easy for me to say no to peer pressure in high school, however, I'll be the first to say I did make some mistakes. Being a leader, definately is good when it comes to homeschooling. I sing alot in front of crowds, so being able to entertain comes natural to me. And there are not many "strong leaders" in the church, so I have come in handy a time or two there.
However, with all this being said, after reading this passage, there's lots to be said about being a follower! I've read this passage many times before, but here lately, I think God has really been speaking to me on this. Recently, I started reading a book called "Homeschooling and still married!" by Todd Wilson. You can not successfully homeschool, unless you are successful in your marriage. It reads on to tell of all the things a man really wants from his wife and how she can do her part in marriage. Such as, telling her husband he has big muscles! (Sorry, Ronnie, I had to put it in here ;) Now, all you feminists out there, he has also written a book to husbands saying the same thing about their wives. Ronnie and I will be reading it next.
There's a section in the book that talks about all a husband really wants is to provide for his family and for his wife to believe and trust in him. See, this is where I struggle. Ronnie and I have many financial issues because of mistakes we've made. I know with all my heart Ronnie will and wants to take care of us, however, just trusting that he will without my nagging is my downfall. He wants to make decisions most of the time and I have not let him in the past.
I've been praying a lot lately, for strength to let go and trust. To trust Ronnie, and, even when he makes mistakes, also to trust the Lord our God that he will provide for us. I have to constantly remind myself, has he not already?
I woke up this morning to check my facebook and found a beautiful post from my wonderful husband!!! You see, 8 years ago, on September 16, we met. And I was reminded once again of our amazing love story. I was a senior in high school and I sang the National Anthem at all the home girl's games. It was volleyball game, which is my favorite sport, and we were playing a county rival, Springs Valley High School. When I came in the door I saw a group of guys, some of which I was already friends with, from Valley sitting over in front of the concession stand. As I walked by to check in at the score's bench one of the guys, Derek, who I had been in 4-H with for years, stopped me. He told me his friend, Ronnie over here thinks your cute. I said "hi" and just blew him off. Derek was not really the type of guy I would ever date, so I really couldn't see myself dating one of his friends. Not to mention, I had just gotten my heart severely broken by another boy who had just broke up with me a couple of weeks earlier.
I proceeded to sing the National Anthem, (looking back, Ronnie has told me he fell in love with me when I walked in the door, and then fell in love all over again when I sang. Now, what girl wouldn't just give anything to hear that!!!), and then I tracked down my friend CJ to help with my physics homework during the game. CJ just happened to be sitting with our friends from Valley, so I had to sit a bleacher down from Ronnie the whole game. CJ and I cheered on my best friend Lindsey and worked on physics.
The next couple of days, my friend Tina, who had a locker beside mine constantly nagged me about going out with this Ronnie guy, and so I finally gave in and let some mutual friends of our set us up.
Our first official date was riding 4-wheelers after the Paoli Parade and we grabbed a bite to eat at Hardee's. Ronnie bought me a cheeseburger and a coke and honestly I fell in love. I know, that's horrible and he's teased me several times for being a "cheap date", but I couldn't help it! All I had ever wanted was a man to take care of me, and for the first time I felt like I had found that.
After a few short months of dating, Ronnie proposed and then was shipped off to Iraq. He came home on two weeks leave and we got married. And 8 years and 4 children later, here we are!!!
Well, once again, God has blessed us beyond our imagination! Friends of ours had been renting this house and we had attended a party for church and come inside to take a tour. We absolutely fell in love with it at once! So we told them when they were ready to move on to call us. Within a couple of months they told us they found a new house and would be moving out, so I facebooked (because that's what you do in these new age times) the landlord and ask if we could be on the waiting list for. Within a couple of weeks I was told we could move in. So I put our trailer up for sale on Monday, sold it on Thursday and we moved into the new house on Saturday. Only God, could prepare such a move! However, Satan was hard at work too!! All day Saturday, I had the worst, I mean the absolute worst allergy attack!!! I was absolutely worthless. Thank goodness for our dear friends that helped us. Between them and my wonderful husband we got everything moved in one day. However, it wasn't all roses. Ronnie and I fought to start off the day and I cried, but being the loving husband that he is, he quickly told me he was sorry and told me to just go to the new house and do as much unpacking as I could.
So now, I've spent the last two weeks unpacking and putting away, buying new appliances, painting, decorating, and trying to keep up with laundry, meal planning, and homeschooling all at once. Oh, did I mention we still have storyhour, youth group, gymnastics, and soccer going on?
See how hard it is to keep up! Lindsay's bed has not made it into the new house yet. We're painting it to match the rest of the furniture in the girls' room. Doesn't seem to bother her, though, does it?
A friend of ours lost their little girl this week. She drown in the neighbors swimming pool. I went to the viewing tonight, and was once again reminded that children are not really "ours". We are called God's children for a reason. We as mothers, are just here to raise and love them until its time for them to go home. Unfortunately, for our earthly bodies that's really hard to comprehend. Its so easy to be saddened by the fact that "our" child has been taken away, when in reality we should be rejoicing that they no longer have to suffer and they beat us to eternity. I can honestly say the comforting feeling I've had as a mother was the moment I was holding my dying child as she took her last breath, as horrible as that sounds, there was this awesome peace and serenity come over me that she was really "ok" now. Actually she's so much more than ok!
It so easy, to replay everything in your head over and over again, what could I have done different, if only I had done this, I should have spent more time with her........... But in the end, I really did do my job, I got her to heaven, and that's all that matters.
Oh, my goodness!!! I don't know about anyone else, but I praised the Lord all morning for lifting the heat for awhile! I opened the windows and turned off the air conditioner in what seemed like forever! It was soooo nice!
School has been going wonderfully! Derek is finally getting into a routine and Lindsay is participating nicely in her lessons as well. They both are just doing amazingly well at piano! I wasn't going to start Lindsay just yet, but she has really taken to it quite nicely.
My sister and I practiced our song we are to sing on Sunday for church today. The harmony worked out really well. I was worried about the song at first, but I think it has come together now. I really wish we could sing more often together. And one day I hope to get my children involved in performing.
The kids are going to have a (bike) rodeo at church for youth group on Wednesday night, so we went and picked up a new bike for Derek from a friend. His other one has just fell apart, and his big boy bike, is just to big yet. We're supposed to decorate them up for a cowboy theme, I'm not quite sure how to make a bike look like a horse, but I'm sure we'll come up with something! And while my kids are with the younger youth, Ronnie and I are supposed to be helping with the teens. They are going to be having "sofa wars". For anyone who is not familar with this term, here are the details. You split into teams. Each team has a van to ride around in and a truck to haul their sofa in. They are given a list of places to get their picture taken in front of sitting on their sofa. Each desitnation is worth so many points and few places deduct points! It should be very interesting!! I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out!
Then Friday night, we how our homeschool group kick-off! I'm also looking forward to getting back in touch with all the families from our area that have the same values as Ronnie and I. It's very important for mommy to have adult time as well as the kids to have that socialization!
Well I should probably hop off here and head to bed. Good night :)
Well, this afternoon was kind of rocky....and I'll just leave it at that, because I had pretty well of brought it onto myself. But just as Avalon sings "Tomorrow's finally here.....It's a New Day, oh it's a new time and there's a new way. I'm gonna live my life..all the old has passed away". I think that my greatest pleasure in being a christian, is every day is a new day. And no matter how bad today was, Jesus will still love me and he's going to give me a new slate tomorrow.
I'm really starting to enjoy it just being me and the kids during the day. I was really apprehensive about giving up my babysitting, but I can really see improvements in my kids!
I took Lindsay yesterday to get her ears pierced and she did so well!!! She only screamed right after it was done because the lady got the gun stuck on the back of her earring. She has whined about me cleaning them, because she's terrified that they are going to come out and "the lady told me not to take them out for 6 minutes!!" (translated 6 weeks)
I started Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons with Lindsay and she has really taken off! I had read on a blog one of my friends suggested (http://www.raisingolives.com/) and she uses the same book with her young children and just leaves out the writing part until they are little older. Lindsay really has liked the idea of learning her sounds and is excited about being able to read.
Derek completed his first song in piano lessons the other day! He called his grandma and played and sang it to her.
And Leah finally rolled over from her stomach to her back!!! She's 6 months old and weighs 12 lbs now!
Well, I have much to be thankful for! I'm going to rest now and try to have a better attitude for my new day in the morning!
Well, it's almost time for us to start school. Friday night will be our last night of VBS, which the kids were awesome tonight by the way!!! (Including my own, they have mommy withdraws alot, but they stayed with their own class all night!!!). We've had our visit to the doctor this week and the two older kids went to Holiday World with their two aunts and cousin on Monday. They had an absolute blast!!! I was so happy they were good too!
I've had a rough patch lately. I've been struggling with how God would really have us parent using televison today. I feel like their are two kinds of "christian parents", and I've been praying alot which one is the right way......and maybe they are both right and I need to be praying which is the right way for my family. Let me explain what I mean:
First parent: The parent that believes in what I would call "mostly conservative" and allows their child to watch and participate in what they believe to be age appropriate. This is the parenting style I think I am participating in at the moment. For example. I let my kids watch alot of tv, and right now my son is obsessed with Avatar: The Last Airbender. However, I'm starting to question whether or not to allow him to continue watching such shows. I've been told by several people I trust and look up to, that as long as I competely explain that these shows are make believe and what is actually true when it comes to God, it's ok to let him view these shows.
Second parent: The parent that believes in what I would call "completely conservative" and allows little to no tv. And I really like what I see from these parents, however, is this completely sheltering?
I am in no way bad mouthing what each parent has decided to do and I commend you for standing up for what you believe. I guess I'd just like to hear how it works for you and what the long term effects will be.
I was allowed to watch tv as a child, but my mother did withhold alot of "bad" movies and I never once thought I was missing out on anything until I became older and people would refer to things I had no clue what they were talking about. However, looking back I'm starting to think she was on the right path with this. It has irritated my husband in the past when he has to explain things to me, since I had not seen a certain movie, but now with our children getting older, he's starting to understand.
I know a lot of people would shrug me off to be worrying about something so small, but I just don't want to look back and wish I had done things differently. I want to raise my children to be conservative, loving, christians, however, I do want them to experience life to the fullest, I believe that's why God gave us such a beatiful creation.
Anyway, I'd love to hear what your family believes and does????
