Wordless Wednesday

I once was lost, but now I'm found

Jenny wanted to play with her dollhouse.  Okay so the doll house family (actually there are two families..one doll house) were missing. Jenny said she put them in the leggo box? Why I do not know. I looked in the leggo box..stirred it around and no people. I spent this morning looking EVERYWHERE imaginable for the silly dolls. I spent well over an HOUR looking. Looked in the leggo box several times, stirred them around etc, no dolls. We prayed, we looked, we prayed. Finally I decided to dump the leggo box......eureeka...there deeply buried in leggos were the dolls. Looks like a leggo building collapsed. There were no casualties. NO dolls were hurt in the making of this post. They are all now safely back in their dolly home. Jenny now knows the dolls go NOWHERE. The leggo box is NOT a dolly vaction home. LOL LOL.

It brought to mind, the woman in the Bible and the lost coin.  Luke 15:8 -10. I was just like that woman, looking everywhere until it ws found.  I went through the toy box.  I looked under beds, and in cabinets,  I looked under couch and chairs, behind cushions and everywhere.  I prayed as I looked.  Now I know in the grand scheme of things, doll house dolls are not "valuable". However, they are valuable to us.  The girls love them and we spend time playing dollhouse together.  So the value may not be monetary, but they are valuable.  In my girls' eyes, doll house play is like when we have tea parties. It is mommy and girl time.  To us it is worth so much more than words can say.

Isn't our Lord that way?  He will search for us when we are away from Him until we are found.  He will not give up looking that the one that is lost. His love for us is infinite.  He never gives up on His beloved.  Granted we have to accept the free gift of His salvation, but He never gives up looking for the lost and drawing them to Himself.

We as His children, should look for more of Him, the way I looked for those dolls. We should search the nuggets of truth in the scripture that God wants us to learn.  We should look and search for His will and exhaust ourselves in looking for the things of God.  We should never stop searching for Him or ways to do His will.  We have been commissioned by Him to look for the lost and hurting.  To seek them out and give them His love. 
Lord, help me always be a searcher, one who searches for You and all your ways.

Strep throat, scarlet fever and allergic to antibiotics

All in one wee little body.  Jenny was sick last week and I took her to the pediatrician.  She was diagnosed with what appeared to be a sinus infection.  She seemed to be getting better. Then on Wednesday, she started tossing her cookies and running temperature. I figured, a tummy bug caught on top of what she already had.

On Thursday night, she spiked a 103.3 temp. This morning I woke up to her having a rash and it spreading and getting brighter. I called the doctor and set the appointments for two kids. Christopher also was running fever, which started yesterday, when the school called for me to pick him up. 

Off we went...to see the doctor.  He said that it could be a reaction to the previous antibiotic, sulfur drug.  Or it could be strep.  So he tested for strep.  It was positive.  Diagnosis is that it was both, because of the nature of the rash.  Part is scarlet fever like, part is not.  Poor baby is miserable.  So she gets a new antibiotic, plus benadryl every 6 hours.  She has cried more than she has in years.  I have done a lot of holding, rocking and cuddling. She tried to cuddle up to me, like she was my tiny baby once more.  Those precious little, hot fevered hands patting Mommy while Mommy pats here, about broke my heart.

Christopher said "Mommy just use your Mommy magic, and she will feel better".  If I could, I sure would.  I explained some things, Mommy magic doesn't work for and we have to trust Jesus.

I am so glad that at 10, he still thinks Mommy has Mommy magic.  Jenny still needs Mommy like she does.

Hannah, well she has been the best little helper. She is growing up and loves to help.  I see so much nurturing in her it blows my mind. 

So we are house bound for a few days.  I guess I am glad it is raining because that way, we don't miss out on the sunshine too much.

God is faithful and it is in these times, that we discover He truly does give us enough grace to get through each day.  God is so good.

Not So Wordless Wednesday

Jenny has been sick today.  She was able to hold down gatorade, sprite and a couple of popsicles.  So I let her have some saltine crackers.  She fell asleep eating them, my poor feverish baby.  So sweet and innocent.

House Hunting and the fixer upper

We are looking for a house.  We have looked at close to 17 houses altogether.  We have seen some we liked the house, but there was no yard for the kids to really play in. We have seen some, their is a wonderful yard but the house was too small, too old, too stinky etc.  I know God has the perfect house for us in mind, in our price range.  Renting is just too expensive, when buying will give us less mortgage than we pay in rent.  I know God has something for us, we have to wait on His timing.

 Looking at the houses from the kids perspective has been hilarious.  They walked in one today that would have been perfect had it not been for the yard..(it was built on cliff practically).  And being a foreclosure it was trashed and needed lots of work.  The layout, rooms etc, would have been perfect.  The kids were like "this is a NO"..before we could even say it. First, off, I'd have been sledding downhill with the car in our drive every winter just to get out.  Ice and a Florida girl on a steep driveway.......not a good combo.

We don't mind a fixer upper as long as it is cosmetic type stuff, new wallpaper or paint.  But if it needs major work there is no way on our budget we can do that.

One was nice, had a nice yard, etc, but really not enough storage for us and the girls room would have been too small. They have to share. 

In any case, it put me in mind of how God searches us and wants to reside.  We have to invite Him in. But He moves in to the "fixer upper" when we ask and starts renovations immediately. He pulls out rotten floorboards and puts in a new foundation.  He tears down walls that need to be removed.  He does so much work and one day when we meet Him in the sky, we will be perfected.  In the meantime, He is busy, setting up housekeeping and removing all the stubble and cleaning us up.  But when we stand before the Father, He presents us as spotless and perfect, because HIS love, His blood covers all. What a picture it makes of how our Lord fixes us and makes us presentable to God. He knows all the work that needs to be done in us, but He says to the Father, this child is ours.  She/he is perfect in my sight because she/he has accepted me as Lord and Savior. Atonement has been paid.  What a thought. 

Thank you God for moving in to this fixer upper and doing renovations. I yield to your craftsmanship.  Make me into Your dwelling place, so that your light shines through the window of my soul and draws others in.

Do you hear what I hear?

A child...a child crying in the night as I stumble to check in the dim dim light.
Do you see what I see?  huddled on the floor as I walk in the door...

okay so I cant think how to finish it out but here is what happened.

Last  night, in the wee hours of the morning I heard one of the children cry out.  I had coincidentally, moved to the couch because between the rain so loud on the plastic awning under our bedroom window (it covers our downstairs patio area but is just under our window) and my poor husband snoring; I needed to move in self defense.  Sleep is a precious commodity for me.  Anyway, so I get up and make my way down the hallway. I did not have my glasses on.  I see a child huddled on the floor.  Looked like Jenny with her knees tucked under her, little bottom in the air. She sleeps like that a lot.  So I go over to her and whisper .......as I reach for her "Oh sweetie" only to discover.....
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it is actually her HUGE tigger which has been dressed in shorts and a shirt, making it look like a sleeping child on the floor.  I left Tigger where he was and made sure the kids were tucked in.  However, it made me laugh almost out loud.  Here I am trying to be motherly to a stuffed animal.  She must have kicked him out of bed for taking up too much room.  He sure did look real..LOL.

See now here it looks like a Tigger laying on the floor.....

but in the middle of the night with no glasses

and only a night light to show the way...he looked like a child, huddled on the floor.

now have a happy, wonderful, Tiggeriffic day.



Mirror,Mirror in my heart..

We are mirrors...mirrors of the Lord's love.  It is our choice how we reflect Him.  Sometimes, we do a good job of reflecting His image to others.  Other times, we have to repent for showing a warped image of who our Lord is to others.

I thought of this the other day at prayer watch.  I was walking the front of the sanctuary, praising my God, singing and hands raised and the like.  Jenny walked up, took my hand and copied everything I did.  Every move I made, she made. Every step I took, she took.  It was precious and oh so revealing.  Our children learn to worship from us. They learn so much by mirroring our movements, actions, words and deeds. 

I pray I am a mirror that reflects my Lord in a way that lead them and others to Jesus in the right way.  I pray that I will learn to let HIM be the only reflection  the mirror of my heart shows.