Become a mother who delights in her children

With the new baby only 6 days away, I couldn't sleep. So I found this devotional online and it really spoke truck-loads to me. I hope God speaks to you through it too:

"Congratulations, Mrs. Layman," the nurse said to my mom when she brought her first newborn and laid him in her arms. "Your sleeping days are over."

Every mother knows the reality of that congratulatory statement! In the career of motherhood there are no weekends off, no paid vacations, no bonuses or yearly raises, and no quitting time. It is just day-in and day-out giving. There are times when we feel we do not have another ounce of energy left to offer. What we wouldn't do to curl up on the sofa with a good book, enjoy a long, leisurely bubble bath, or simply take a nap. Yet multiple needs still require our attention.

I am convinced that no profession requires harder work or greater sacrifice than motherhood. Stephen and Janet Bly provide us with this job description:

No job on earth takes more physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual strength than being a good wife and mother. If a woman is looking for the easy life she might try teaching tennis, cutting diamonds, or joining a roller derby team. There is nothing easy about good mothering. It can be back breaking, heart wrenching and anxiety producing. And that's just the morning.2

Because mothering requires constant sacrifice, the temptations to resentment, complaining, and self-pity are always close at hand. But such selfishness will quickly sap the strength of our love for our children.

I will never forget a time when my selfishness robbed me of the joy of caring for my family. My second daughter, Kristin, was ten years old, and we were out on a "date." While our children were growing up, C.J. and I spent special one-on-one times with them each month. It was Kristin's turn that day. We were eating lunch at a restaurant, and I was asking her questions as usual.

"Kristin," I began, "if there was one thing about Mommy that you could change, what would it be?"

"You haven't been smiling very much lately, Mommy," she replied. "You just haven't seemed very happy."

Oh, how those words pierced me! I realized in a moment that motherhood had become a duty instead of a joy. I was so focused on the sacrifices that I had failed to appreciate the daily pleasures of raising my children. This had wiped away my smile.

As mothers, we have a choice. We can either resent the challenges and demands that accompany motherhood and persist in our selfishness, or we can draw from God's grace and receive His help to cheerfully lay down our lives for our children.

Let's choose the latter.

If we do, we are choosing biblical greatness. As Jesus said in Mathew 20:26: "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant" (emphasis mine).

The world may not applaud us for wiping runny noses, driving in carpools, or talking with our teenager into the wee hours of the morning. And until they are trained, our children might not thank us either. But as we set aside our own selfish desires and glorify God by joyfully serving our children, we are pursuing true greatness according to the Bible. Let us do so with tenderness, affection, and with a smile!

Tender Behavior

On his long-running television show House Party, the host Art Linkletter interviewed thousands of children. He included many of these conversations in a book entitled Kids Say the Darndest Things. Kids do say funny things, and at times they also say insightful things.

With that in mind, I decided to conduct some interviews of my own. I asked a number of young people how they knew that their moms loved them. The following is a sampling of their responses:

"She consistently makes wonderful meals without complaint." Jimmy

"My mom is always asking, 'Do you know I love you? Do you I'm for you? Do you know I'm your biggest fan?'" Kelley

"She writes me notes and letters. She is always encouraging me." Andrew

"I don't think I've gone a day in my life without my mom telling me she is praying for me." Israel

"Whenever I wake up in the morning, go to bed at night, or come home from somewhere, she hugs me and says that she loves me. This is very securing. I love it a lot." Brittany

"My mom plays chess and checkers with me." Matt

"When I come home from somewhere and she knows I am going to be very tired, she asks what food she can make for me." Evan

"My mom loves to have my friends over. She likes taking us out and doing things with us. She loves my friends. They are her friends too." Kristin

"When I was little and couldn't sleep, my mom would rock me and sing songs to me. Now at bedtime she always comes into my room for five or ten minutes and asks me about my day." Bryce

"My mom is never too busy to talk to me. She tells me that she would rather be at home with me than doing anything else." Erin

"Every day before I go to school, my mom asks how she can pray for me. Then when I come home, she tells me what she prayed during the day." Jimmy

"She comes to all of my games. I can always hear her cheering for me. She's my #1 fan." Stephen

"My mom takes me out one time a month. We go to lunch and jus talk." Kristin

"When it is cold outside and I have to drive to school, my mom turns my car facing out of the driveway and starts the heater so it is warm by the time I'm ready to leave." Melanie

"When my brothers and I were little, she would always fix hot chocolate with marshmallows for us when it was cold." Chris

"My mom packs a lunch for me every day and puts in a note that says 'I love you' or has Scripture on it." Brian

"She reads me books at night." Brielle

What is remarkable to me about these children's comments is how simple these acts of love are. Tender love is not complicated. It doesn't require a large bank account or creative genius. Rather, this love consists of seemingly insignificant activities like cooking, singing, reading, or talking. It includes faithful prayer and encouragement or small gestures of kindness.

Chances are, you may already be doing many of these things. So be encouraged -- they are meaningful to your children. And if you realize there are ways you need to grow in expressing tender love, may these children's observations provide you with fresh inspiration and ideas.


[Excerpted from: Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother by Carolyn Mahaney. Copyright © 2005. Published by Crossway Books.
Found on the following website: http://www.crosswalk.com/spirituallife/women/1325717/

I love you, hubby of mine!

My hubby called our friend, Darren. Darren came out last Sunday and replaced a leaky hose on my dishwasher. It's fixed! Well, kind of...

It's old and it still leaks from the bottom but only a couple of teaspoons each cycle. We'll have to replace it soon but I can use it for now until we save up the money to buy a new one.

And no, I didn't nag. (But my hubby did read my blog and felt bad about my back aching when I had to wash dishes by hand. Who knew this blog would come in soooo handy!)

Less than 100 days to go

Ah pregnancy.

I'm getting to the point where I need 4 pillows to sleep on so I'm propped up and can breathe. Otherwise I feel as though I'm not getting enough oxygen. During my nap today I woke up having that feeling. Heck, I even had that feeling during my dream. That's probably why I woke up.

I'm trying to have a good outlook on this pregnancy. Who knows, it may be my last. And really, the only thing I have to complain about is that I need sooo many pillows...

That and it'd really be nice to have my dishwasher fixed. My back is starting to ache after standing over the sink for long periods of time. But I'm not going to nag. I've told him it's broke and that I'd like it fixed. Now I'm leaving it up to the Lord to convict my hubby about it. No nagging! I'm going to see how long it takes to get it fixed this way. (Just between you and me, I'm leaning towards the thought that although nagging puts undue stress and turmoil on our relationship, it does get things done in a more timely manner. I may have to retract that later. I HOPE I have to retract that later. Time will tell, we'll see.)

God is still good!

Yesterday, on our way home from delivering a meal to a mom with a new baby, our car started smoking and overheating. We made it home after putting water in the radiator - 2 different times. We think it's a broken hose. Hopefully that's all it is since we just got our car out of the shop less than a week ago, spending many dollars on it for unrelated problems.

Will you serve and praise God even when trials hit you?

Remember that God is still faithful. Don't confuse your circumstances with God's faithfulness or His ability to come through for you!

Hebrews 4:12-16 (NLT) says this: "For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. Nothing in all creation can hide from Him. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done. That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to Him and never stop trusting Him. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same temptations we do, yet He did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it."

YES, I will still PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Christmas Lights at CALM

Yesterday we went to see the lights at CALM. It was a lot of fun. Papa, Bana, my sister and her son went with us.
This year they had a carousel. It spun so fast you could feel the centripetal force push you out. It got me dizzy!
















Then we all rode the train. They had such a cool set up in the field. One of my favorites was the Santa Claus...NOT! I liked the Bakersfield sign:





After a warming cup of hot chocolate we walked through the rest of the wonderland of lights. Jeremiah's favorite was the pirate ship. It even fired the cannon and the cannon ball "splashed" into the water. Here's Jeremiah and his cousin, Daniel, in front of the pirate ship.











We stopped by the reptile room, mostly to warm up. My back was getting tired so I sat down for a moment. My sweetie sat next to me. We are SOOO cute: (I crocheted my beanie.)












We ended out the night by taking a family picture. Too bad Jeremiah was tired and moody because he ended up covering Papa's head.











So I took an extra picture. See, I told you Jeremiah was tired!







It was a another great family outing!

Family Pictures

So for the past 2 years Pascual, Jeremiah and I have gone somewhere to take our pictures together. The first year we went to Hart Park:


Last year we went across the street from Valley Baptist (you know, where the nice park-like setting is on the corner):


This year it was kind of cold outside so we did it inside. (I wish we would've went somewhere else.)

It was hard to get genuine smiles out of us when most of us didn't want to be there. Let's not worry about who those people were. Let it be sufficient to say that 2 out of us 3 wanted to do something else.

So these are our family pictures this year.







They came out ok. I think I would like them more if the background was more earthy and I had more time. Next year I will do a better job planning.. especially since there will be four of us then.

Apple picking and train watching

In October we took a drive to Tehachapi to pick apples. We went to two farms. The first one was...well rustic is a good adjective. We walked out to the trees and picked apples. There were only two kinds from which to choose.


Then we went to a more refined apple farm. They had all the apples picked for you. The bins of apples were labeled by variety with many varieties from which to choose. They even had samples of their wonderful apple cider. Yummy.
There was a pumpkin patch there. Jeremiah picked out his very own.



We left Tehachapi and headed for Keene to see the famous Tehachapi Loop... one of the wonders of the train world. Papa had his radio that he uses for his railroad job. Here's a picture of Banna "using" it to get info on when the next train was heading our way. (She didn't really use it.)




We waited about half an hour and the train came. You can see the train loop around itself in the following pictures.


We went a little closer and saw this train. Pretty cool pictures, huh!



Afterwards we stopped by the little Keene restaurant and had lunch. Then we went our seperate ways and went home...with lots of apples and great memories. What a fun day!