Loving the Home

I love how God is always doing 10,000 things for every one thing we may see Him doing. (That was a realllly loooooose paraphrase from John Piper!) Because, lately, the thing I've been seeing Him doing is shaping my little 9 year old girl into quite a lover of children. I mean, she has more winsome, "pied-piper-ness" in her little finger than I have in my whole body. Kids, little kids, love to follow her lead. She is fun, imaginative, firm, and loving with them. We keep seeing it in her and affirming her skill. This past weekend, our friends the Garners asked Keaton to go along with their family to an amusement park and just be there, to have fun and be a friend for their two year old son, who has really taken to Keaton like she's a big sister. She loves this little guy! And many other kiddos have and are benefitting from her interaction. Why is this so exciting to me?

Well, as a mother who loves being in the home (albeit I have much growing to do!) I want my 3 daughters to grow up loving the home as well. And loving children is a large part of that. As God would have it, I happened to wander over to http://www.girltalk.blogs.com/, a favorite site, and saw that their current series is on instructing daughters in the skills of home-making! Keaton is at a ripe age for all of this. Though she's not quite old enough to officially babysit, she is a great "mothers helper." It is probable that she will thrive in this area with children, while perhaps my other two little gems will lean towards cooking prowess or cleaning and organization skills. But for now, I am rejoicing in this gift rising to the surface in Keaton. Someday, she will make a great babysitter, and Lord willing, an even better mother. I am humbled at this. God is taking my inept, frazzled attempts to love and train my daughters up in His ways, and making something beautiful out of it all. "O Taste and See that the Lord is Good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing." Ps. 34:8-9

Friday Flashbacks

I'm here...back from the Worship God 2008 conference in Gaithersburg, MD. Last time we went, in 2006, we ran into a friend and his wife from all the way back to our college days. This time, I recognized a girl from high school who graduated 4 years ahead of me. She had played "the Artful Dodger" in the muscial "Oliver" and I had been one of the orphans. There she was...looking exactly the same as ever. I found her alone after a seminar and just introduced myself...telling her how glad I was to see she was a fellow Christian. Neat how God lets us see His children are all around us.

Well, I don't know what to say to sum up the conference.... but it was timely. God used it in ways I didn't really expect. For instance, the lady whose home we stayed in was an amazing woman of God. And in the days we stayed with her, I learned alot about hospitality. She wasn't trying to impress us with her skills, she was hoping to be a blessing to us spiritually. And she was. I got to see firsthand how much more it means when a hostess puts people above things.

I also was challenged to be more strategic in releasing my husband to write music for the church. Nobody preached on this, nor did I hear it in a seminar, but I realized how much releasing the wives of these men must do in order for them to write worship music that builds up and blesses the church. I know firsthand how difficult it is to write Biblically informed, singable, and plain old good music for the church today. And I can't imagine how many hours, days, weeks, and months went into all the songs that made it onto the latest "Psalms" CD put out by Sovereign Grace Music. Our own Doug Plank has two great songs on this new release, and I don't doubt for a second that his wife Brenda has surrendered this man time and again for him to contribute his skill so significantly. You are both an example to us!

Well, I need to attend to other things on this lovely afternoon. Blessings!