For the Dads... especially our guy!

In the homeschool circle, it's easy to focus on the kids or the mom who seems to run the show, but we sometimes forget to notice the guy behind the scenes: the dad.  We forget how hard he has to work in order for us to enjoy this privilege of teaching our children at home.  Instead of noticing all the things he's not doing, let's praise and focus on all the ways he's an amazing dad and husband!

So, on this Valentines day, we (our girls and I) say Thank you!  

- for giving in silent, sometimes unnoticed ways so we can pursue the path God has called our family to take.

- for supporting me as their teacher without question, yet holding me accountable when I doubt.

- for desiring most of all to train our girls in God's word.  

- for cultivating a love of the world, both geographically and spiritually.

21 Valentine's later... our love is sweeter, our commitment to each other more strong, and our selfies crazier than ever. May we continue to love adventuring, learning, and growing alongside each other more and more everyday!

15 years...

15 years... The time truly does fly by!  We were so young when we said "I do!" back at West Point Baptist Church, yet I knew without a doubt you were the man that God had saved just for me!

Now after 6 moves, 3 babies, 3 churches, travels to Japan, Canada, Ecuador, and St. Lucia, there is no one I would rather be beside than you!

Marriage with you has been my greatest adventure, and I look so forward to the many destinations we explore together!

I pray daily that our girls will be as blessed as I am to one day have husbands with the same integrity as their daddy.

You are my best of friends.  You make life fun and how grateful I am that you put up with my quirkiness and love me anyway!

Even though today will be like most days:  dishes and laundry, ministry and service, and spending the majority of the day apart, I'm so grateful for the time in Okinawa.  Special memories made over authentic Japanese breakfast, walking to the beach together and writing our names in the sand, was an amazing way to celebrate the past 15 years of our lives together!  (Thank you, Dad & Mom!)

I love you more than you'll ever know, Marty Middleton!  How blessed I am that you chose me!  Happy 15th Anniversary!

Halfway Goals for January...

It's almost the middle of January, which may seem too late to set goals for the month.  But better late than never...  Laying out goals often seems like I'm setting myself up for failure, which may be true to some degree.  But in writing them down, there comes a form of accountability and a challenge to complete something, anything!  So these goals are nothing spectacular, just simply areas of my life that I hope to tweak throughout the year.

January Goals

1.  Try and implement a new daily schedule (not exactly sure the details yet...)

2.  Finish The Best Yes and read more of Notes from a Blue Bike (working on my "words")

3.  Fill out the paperwork and get pictures taken for passports (#operationokinawa - more info to come)

4.  Declutter our storage area (I must purge!! Girl clothes, school stuff, etc overflow from every crevice of our home. Starting with the storage area this month.)

5.  Order a photobook of 2014 Instagram photos. (I took more pictures with my phone this year and it's the everyday pictures that I cherish the most.  I'll share how it turned out.)

6.  Love the people in my life and show it through my words (an ongoing goal...)

"Now is the blessing.

Now is the time to love.

Now is the time to be."

by Eileen Spinelli in Now It is Winter

Losing the love...

Some weeks are just harder than others, not visibly to other people, but only known to the ones closest to you.  Humility is a hard dose to take, yet so vital to growth.  

"You have forsaken your first love" (Revelation 2:4) - lost or abandoned your first love, referring to the first commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart...

Conviction filled me as I realized how often I do that.  I idolize other things before my Lord.  I worship the devotional, the author, the blogger, the newest song, more than our God they are writing about.  

I fail to stop at the instrument without going further to the conductor.  

These instruments are still important.  The fault doesn't lie with them, but instead with the musician.  When I place someone's words, someone's thoughts at a higher level than the origin behind them, then the love is lost.  Let my words not be misunderstood.  I am so thankful for the men and women that God is using daily to help me to grow as a child of God, a friend, a mother, and a wife. There have been many seasons in my life in which I firmly believe God has used the words of others to point my eyes back on Him.  But I also know there have been times in which my eyes fall short and instead of keeping my eyes on the conductor of this amazing piece of music called "life", I focus on others.  I may even idolize them.  

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it:  Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-39) 

Not always as easy as it sounds.

Our Love Story... (& what love's got to do with it)

Even though it's been a couple of days since Valentine's day, the memories of years past still sit fresh and new.  18 years ago, we went on that first Valentine date.  But what I remember the most is the first time we met.  As a gawky 15 year old with permed hair clear down my back, I was faced with another new set of faces (and American faces at that.) Nervous and shy, I remember this cute, older guy with glasses who introduced himself as soon as he stepped in the door.  "Hi!  I'm Marty."  I'll never forget how welcomed I felt (which is rare in a teenage Sunday School class).

We were friends, more like brother & sister for at least the first eight months.  Our short lived relationship as boyfriend/girlfriend lasted an entire two weeks and three days, which included that first Valentine's day.  Our friendship remained, not the same, but still there.  But we knew later that summer that our friendship would last forever.  

He is my best friend who knows me better than I know myself. When I cry uncontrollably, he gives space, yet comforts when the time is right.  He patiently puts up with my hair-brain ideas and never says "I told you so..."  He accepts me when I fail again and again.  He lets me dream when laundry should be folded and the bathroom needs cleaning. He buys me "Hallmark" cards (even if they are from Walmart) and roses to remind me of our dating days.   

He has given me three of my favorite people in the world. These girls make any day a special day.  I may not always respond with their same enthusiasm each day, but their thrill for life inspires me.

But now that Valentine's is over... what's love got to do with it?

I always thought that the opposite of love was hate.  Yet this is not the case.  Really the opposite of love is selfishness. When we choose to love others, we sacrifice some of ourselves (sometimes more than others.)  When we choose self over anyone or anything else, there is no love.  

So when it's his turn to make the bed, pull up the covers with the pride and choose to love.  When meetings go longer than planned, shower him with kisses when he walks through the door, knowing he's working hard as an act of love.  All week the song by Warren Barfield, Love is not a Fight, has been mulling through my head.  

Love is a shelter in a raging storm
Love is peace in the middle of a war
And if we try to leave, may God send angels to guard the door
No, love is not a fight, but it's something worth fighting for

Fight for your marriages.  Love is a choice, not a feeling. Choose to love your husband above all others, including yourself.

"The success of loving is in how we change because we kept on loving - regardless of anything else changing.  The value of loving is in the value of being like Christ." - Ann Voskamp

God is so Good!

"God is so good..."  It's a song I've known since I was a young girl.  My girls all know it in both English and Japanese.  It's one of the few nuggets of my childhood that I've passed on to them.  It is probably one of the simplest songs we sing, yet the words are more profound that we can ever comprehend. God is so good...

God is good when He sets the sky ablaze reminding us of His awesome power, yet God is still good when a country faces loss and sorrow and absolute fear of what's to come...

God is good when life gets simple, even for just a morning, with eggs & hashbrowns and playing with baby dolls, just for the fun of it.

God is good in the mundane, in the school work and the raking of leaves because later it leads to jumping right back into them.  

God is good when the arguments cease for a little while and sisters work together, showing patience and love that, Praise God! only comes from Him.

"We won't stop confessing He is good and we won't stop thanking Him for grace and we won't stop holding out our hands - and taking His hand.  We won't stop believing that 'God is good' is not some trite quip for the good days but a radical defiant cry for the terrible days.

That 'God is good' is not a stale one-liner when all's happy but a saving lifeline when all's hard." - Ann Voskamp

Day 28 - A Key Ingredient: Love

 

Love means helping a sister up when she can't do it on her own.

  

Love means passing the baton (the baby) to free the hands to make the climb.

Love means including those who may be a little unlovable at times.

Love... It's been the word that keeps popping up everywhere I turn. On a day to day basis, it's a struggle to always "feel" love towards my little pupils.  But thank goodness, love is not just a feeling, but an action.  I was reminded this morning of the verse in I John 4 that says, "There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love." (v18)  One of my prayers is that my girls will not obey and listen to me out of fear that they'll get in trouble or do something wrong.  I know they have felt that fear many times.  But how I long for my love for them to overpower any fear.  That my love may be like God's love, "His never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love." - Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones

I love this 10 Point Manifesto of Joyful Parenting by Ann Voskamp and have it printed and tucked into the sleeve of my homemaking journal.  A few of my favorites point me back to this love.

- Today, I will pray to speak words that are only STRONG words, words that make these children feel strong.  Grace words.  Grace is the only non-toxic air.  All other words I breathe are death words.

- Today, the moment when I am most repelled by a child's behavior, that is my sign to draw the very closest to that child.

- Today, I will hug each of my children as many times as I serve them meals - because children's hearts feed on touch.  I'll look for as many opportunities to touch my children today as possible - the taller they are, the more so.