Eternity

Eternity Beams
Every now and then I feel like God is gracious to give us tiny glimpses of eternity... like a beautiful beam of warm light in a cold, dark room.

Does this happen to anyone else? You'll know because it's pretty much the coolest feeling ever...

I sense it when light flickers through leaves on an early spring morning.  Or when a group of people are gathered together, living this messy life together, opening their doors and inviting others in.  I sense it in the tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombing and the overwhelming satisfaction of justice served.  In a family's adoption of their child - once hungry and neglected..now given a new life and a reason to have hope.

Where do these 'aha' moments come from?  The ones that get you right in your gut...the ones that make you long for something... something that you're not even sure of what it is?

I believe these are glimpses into eternity.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

 ~Paul's letter to the Romans in Romans 8:22-23

Why Do We Choose Muck
So why do any of us Christians still live in fear?  With closed doors and task lists that have more to do with our goals than His?  With short-term planning based on meager and self-supporting ideals but lacking long-range goals with eternity in view?  Don't we feel the chains start to break free when we allow His light to peer into our dark souls?  Sure, it's terrible and bright.  It hurts the eyes.  It exposes the ugliness of how we once were.  But it's so beautiful and beckoning that we can't do anything else but walk towards it.  If we don't draw near to His light (His goodness, His grace, His mercy covering our sins...), it's as if we are choosing to hold tightly to our mud and muck.  An "it's-all-I-know" mentality instead of "it's-what-He-promises", ya dig?

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. ~Colossians 3:4

Do you ever feel like there is just so much more to this life?... if only we would truly embrace Christ and trust Him fully?  I don't mean trusting who He was on this earth and giving Jesus a high five for all the cool things He did.  No.  Do we truly hand over our lives and say...

Here ya go, God.  I believe Romans 8:28 that you work all things for my good.  I believe John 15:11 you when you say that my ultimate joy is in you and following your commands.  I believe Colossians 3:4 that you are truly my life... and I rest any of my plans apart from that at your feet.  I believe Romans 6:1-4 that you HAVE defeated death... so I am no longer a slave to sin... so I don't have to go about my day to day living like a slave to the world that I've been set free from.

There is Hope
At the end of my days, I hope this is the testimony of my life.  That by His grace, I lived each moment according to His plans for me - if it means amidst the glamor or smack in the mundane - because the more I follow Him now before I reach eternity, the more glimpses I get.

And the more I lose myself, the more I find myself.

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ~Matthew 16:25

Maybe the reason we settle in this life for the next 'fix,' the next escape, or even just casually going about our days just trying to check another day or dollar or task off of that long list...is because we aren't trusting that when we jump, He will be right there to catch us.  And afterwards, we will find that we've jumped from a pile of muck into His very own arms.

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How to Jump
1. Jump into God's Word.  He has imbued each letter with the power of His Holy Spirit.  If you come away unchanged, keep looking.  Have a pencil with you.  Write three sentences in reflection.  Start the first sentence with "God...", the next with "I..." and the last with "I..." For the first, write what the passage - or even a particular phrase - says about God (whether The Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit).  For the second, write what it says about you.  For the third, write what you (by God's grace) resolve to do in application.

2. Jump into Prayer.  It helps to begin with a passage of scripture and meditating on it like stated above...maybe a shorter one and taking it verse by verse.  Meditate on each sentence.  Where you dig, you will find gold.  It will fill your heart up with the promises of God and help to combat all the distractions of all the many things around you that clamor for your attention.  Try starting with a Psalm... there is lots of heartfelt sentiment there in Solomon or David, etc., praying and crying out to God.  Then try praying it back to God, praising Him for how the passage points to Himself and Jesus.  Let your supplications (pleas or requests) flow after you've spent some time basking in Who He is and what He's done according to the passage.  It's a way of following the model for prayer that Jesus gave, which starts with Our Father, Who Art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name, and afterwards comes Give us this day our daily bread...

3. Jump into His Arms. Jesus is not only the one who throws you the buoy, He IS the buoy.  Don't try to swim/fly/run alone.   God delights to change you from the inside-out rather than being tacked onto you like some flair attached to your suspenders.  Rom. 10:9 says if you believe the gospel in your heart and confess with your mouth, you will be saved.  Romans 5:6-8 portrays the good news (the gospel), that Jesus came to die for us...the ungodly.  Because He was perfect and a perfect sacrifice was required for our transgressions or sins, He died to pay our debt.  We are now debt-free, and we have access to Him both and for eternity.  James 2:17 also says that faith without actions is not a sincere faith.  Basically if Christ is indeed inside of you, you've had a spiritual heart transplant, and your actions or "works" will be flowing out of a new heart that's filled with a love for Jesus...not out of a sense of duty or self-aggrandizement.

4. Get Outta the Muck. The more I feast on Christmas desserts, the more my waistline shows it.  ...The more we feast on the promises of this world rather than the promises of God, the more our lives will reflect that.  Take a good hard look at your life.  Keep a time log.  Where or how is the majority of your time or thought life spent?  Compare that to what God wants of you according to His Word.  With Jesus as your buoy/rope, start to make headway in replacing what's wrong with what's right.

And don't go at it alone.  Find a church where you can find other believers who can walk alongside you in this journey from darkness to light.  Take in a deep breath and breath fresh air into lungs pumped by a heart that's been reprogrammed for eternity.  And enjoy that glimpse for as long as you can until we reach eternity, when all of His children will dance and sing and shout and enjoy Him forever.

Some questions to ask (and ones I'm asking myself):
Q: In what ways am I trusting Christ fully?  In what ways am I not?
Q: How might my life look differently if I fully trusted in the promises of God in His Word?
Q: How does a right view of eternity affect my everyday life?
Q: What are some ways in which Jesus demonstrated being set on eternity and fulfilling His purpose from God...to die?
Q: What are some practical ways I can set my heart/mind/actions on eternity?

Springtime

It's springtime!  This time last year I was nine months pregnant and counting down the days until William's arrival.  It was a time of much anticipation and excitement, but in a different way than now.  This spring, I'm enjoying it in a new way having this cutie pie at my side (not literally sitting on my inside and causing my bladder to feel like it's erupting every 30 min) and watching him discover this world for the first time. 

This winter, however, felt like it would never end.  And it probably didn't even drop below 32 degrees over here.  I guess I had become accustomed to not having long strands of overcast days (those don't exist in Colorado) and also having the flexibility to get out and about more in the days before having a child who rests best at home in his crib.  The first year of your child's life are full of so many blessings, but looking back on it now I can see that they are full of many sacrifices as well.  But the Lord is so gracious in that his mercies truly are new every morning, and the old adage holds true... this too, shall pass.

With the change of season, our activities have swapped from indoor playing to more outdoor play and stroller time.  Although William still isn't too sure about grass.

William's first picnic with mommy.  Locale: backyard.  On the Menu: grilled hamburgers, lots of ketchup, fruit, asian coleslaw

Pear trees in bloom

Needless to say we did not pack light for our picnic

Hahaha... eating an orange

He likes it

Sharing his orange with mommy

Water bath

First dandelion

He ate it

Realizing this is not food

Cutie pie

Wonder

He loves pointing to his discoveries and wants us to see everything he sees.  He usually points and says "gada!" or "itseee!"

Look at that mommy!

Watching the birds from inside

Makeovers

Matthew and I didn't realize when we first got married just how much both of us enjoy taking on projects and working on them together.  I guess it took us a while to realize it since we rented an apartment for our first few years of marriage...not much renovation happening there (although, arguably, it could have used it).  We enjoy projects because it's teaching us how to work with tools and such, and then you get to save money because you can do things yourself.  I also suffer from seeing things in my head that I can never seem to find in a store.  Thus... DIY.

I have learned (the hard way... always the hard way folks...) that it's best to not get TOO many projects going at once - i.e. twelve.  That's just too many.  And honestly at the end of our days we can't take our precious projects to eternity with us.  So bear that in mind as you prioritize your own projects.  Is there a friend who doesn't know how to use tools you can bring along and teach or build together?  Also check your motives for a project at the front door.  (get it? you know that was good)  Is this a pride thing?... like am I just trying to show of some mad skillz I think I have?  Or could this benefit others as well as myself?  How does something as seemingly insignificant as working on a project point me to the Creator?

Beautifying and creating is a beautiful thing because we have a beautiful Creator God who could have made this world drab but chose to make it absolutely breathtaking to point to Himself and how even-more-glorious He is.  So as you DIY and make things look better, keep that in perspective!  You might even call it the drab-to-fab transformation... for your project and your heart!  

2 Corinthians 3:18
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

And here's a little Grace Gem for ya on the beauty of our Lord.  He needs no makeover.  Enjoy!  
The Beauty of the Lord - J.R. Miller

Our first home... a little 1987 ish, eh?

After some new shutters and new paint color on door.  Helping this lil' home into the 21st century.  Now *just needs some big potted plants, flower beds, tearing out that banister and attaching corbels to the top and bottom of columns to make them appear larger.  *just: a word I like to use to fool myself

We made the shutters using pressure-treated 1x6's from Lowe's.  Door color: June Morn by Valspar.  Shutter color: Fired Earth by Valspar.

Matthew working with my stepfather's hammer drill and feeling quite manly.  Sidenote: later that evening he killed a fly with his bare hands AND sufficiently fixed our clogged sink on his own.  He kept telling me it was a MAN kinda day...

In the spirit of spring makeovers, I gave myself one.  Feeling much lighter with 9" of hair gone!

who you lookin at

Like Daddy

We are so enjoying this age with William.  He is so much more interactive and curious and playful than ever before.  Matthew, especially, is enjoying this time with his little buddy.  And when daddy is around, William is all over him! It's really sweet to watch them together, and to see William wanting to do everything his daddy does.

Just when I didn't think I could love Matthew any more, I do.

We pray that William would grow to look to us as we look to Christ, and that we would point him to his one true Father who will never ever let him down.  Because we know that ultimately, both of us will!  God's grace is the only means by which we will be able to shepherd him well, since we are completely lost and sinful and selfish without that abounding grace.  But Matthew and I are both so grateful for the opportunity to shepherd this precious soul for a time, and to be able to find so much joy with William in the little things like getting the mail, destroying magazines, or sharing an orange...

Daily routine of going to the mailbox together.  William likes to chew on the junk mail.  It's probably not sanitary.

Pulled himself up on daddy's knee... "Can I have some??"

Giving in :)

Reading together

William's reading is more like destroying at this stage

He's pretty advanced

"What are YOU reading, dad?"

Little beggar

Pals

Easter with Mark and Jack

Mark and formerly known as Jackie Jack came to visit us in Clarksville for Easter weekend!

These guys have been buds with Matthew since the high school days.  When Mark and Jack are around, I hear lots of car talk and British accents - if you've ever seen Top Gear you know where this comes from!  They are dear friends to my hubs and have been so sweet to me ever since we've gotten married.  It doesn't take much for this crew to have a good time.  For example, they played WWII board games and talked and hung out and even did a top gear challenge - spend $10 and see who can make the most improvements to the other's car!

::Congrats to Jack for winning with his flame thrower car attachment on the Outback::

Thank you guys for coming to visit and sharing Easter with us. :)

They washed and detailed my car... for fun!

Eating on the deck for Easter dinner - our first day of Spring weather!

These two brought William his very first Easter basket.  Pretty sweet, huh?

Holding onto his race car and simultaneously inhaling some fruit snacks

Exploring while mommy cooks.  I was able to cook everything while he entertained himself with pantry discoveries.  This has generally been hard to do, but recently it's gotten easier!

He's really excited here about his treasures

He's started pulling items out of containers and placing them back in.

Long overdue for a family picture.  Happy Easter!

Foodie

We've started being able to tell William prefers some foods over others.  He's become quite the foodie.

Favorite vegetable - broccoli
Favorite carbs - any bread... if he sees it, look out.  And Ritz crackers.  Who can blame him?

He still has yet to have desserts, poor guy (well, except that one bit of ice cream at chic-fil-A :)), peanuts, and honey.

I can tell when he likes what mom made and when he reeeally likes what mom made.  I've never seem him literally shovel food into his mouth quite like he did with my first veggie lasagna.

Inside: spinach, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, red sauce and lots of cheese

the shovel

His I love it face.  Wish I had a picture of him opening his mouth wide as he reaches for it.

 

Looking for more

"Where'd it go?" face :)

 For breakfast, his favorite is mama's oatmeal.  And he eats so much of it I have to make double.

Recipe: Quick oats + light soy milk + low sugar craisins + cinnamon + splenda + dash of salt... microwave for a couple of minutes and then let sit in microwave for a minute.  Stir and enjoy!

love his eyelashes

Trying to scoop things with the spoon and then feed himself, although unsuccessful

Can sometimes hold his sippy and has learned to tilt it upwards

He has also started sharing his food with us and gets a big kick out of it.  We are trying to really praise him when he does this and so he likes clapping back when we clap.  It's purty cute.

Spring Crafting

Some people spring clean.

Around here it looks like spring crafting.

Burpcloths and bibs for baby Hudson Micaiah

 

Bibs and a book for baby Jonathan

Spring/Easter wreath

Decided to go with a pennant banner instead of my original idea of a painting here.  Space was kinda tight so wanted something to bring in just a hint of green and also connect the oatmeal color/ linen texture from the valance on kitchen windows.  I also wanted to incorporate some sort of vintage-y vibe, so these linen napkins from Etsy did the trick!  Adapted from this tutorial.

Happy Birthday door hanging for William's bday and others.  I liked adding a chalkboard so you can easily write "William is 1" or also use for future kiddos or hubs etc.

Some party invitations.  I can't believe how soon before he is one!

Found some pretty fabric for making dining room curtains.  I can sew, but sewing in a straight line is another thing altogether! :)  We will see how it turns out!