Undeserved

On the back cover of the April 2009 issue of Decision magazine is printed a selection from Ruth Bell Graham's writings. It seemed like a meaningful piece to share, especially as Easter approaches.

* * * * *
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Him. ... But the other criminal rebuked him. "...We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into Your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:39-43 NIV)

He died—
the thief—
and yet,
before,
he'd cried for mercy
and, what's more,
his tortured soul
had found relief.

He got
a death
that he deserved;
a Life
that he did not.

Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, & mind

Yep. It's been more than five months since my last post. But I've just been too wrapped up in motherhood and don't seem to have much time for blogging... And that's been a good thing—for me AND for my kiddos.

Anyway, the boys are napping and I have a few moments to write out some thoughts about Matthew 22:36-40....

"Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?" Jesus replied, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."

Jesus said the most important commandment is to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind. So I ask myself: Does my life reflect that? I mean, really? If someone who didn't know me looked at my life, is there evidence telling that I love God with all my heart, soul, and mind? Do my actions reflect that? What about the TV shows I watch or the magazines I read? Are they filling me up with goodness...or garbage? What about how I treat other people—be it outside my home, or within the privacy of my own home? Or in the privacy of my own car after a driver has cut me off? What about how I manage my money and possessions? Am I willing to give away?

Good questions to really chew on. Next step: What am I going to DO about it? How DO I love God with all my heart, soul, and mind?? What actions does it require...?

Baby's growing up

Today I cleaned up and packed away the Exersaucer -- kind of a momentous occasion in my little world! My baby is too big for it [read: he's too busy crawling, climbing, etc. that he doesn't like being confined in it!]. Wow. Where does the time go? He'll be 1 year old in less than three weeks! My, my, my...

Think on these things

"And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."
Philippians 4:8

Today I read this verse while Brandon was watching Bob the Builder. I have read it before many times, and I have always interpretted it to mean believing the best in other people and situations. But God kindly reminded me this morning, "This applies to YOU too, Sara...how you look at yourself!"

You see, I'm one to hack on myself—true to my melancholy nature. Oh, I see many wonderful things about other people, but in myself I usually see mostly the bad stuff. So to have God point this out to me was an unexpected gift...almost as if He was saying, "And I think you're something special too..."

Milestones

Ryan is10 months old now, and he's definitely passing a few milestones along the way...

For starters, he popped 3 more teeth on the top during the last week or so. (He's a tough cookie!) He has also begun crawling! It is fascinating to me watching him learn to coordinate his arms and legs so he can go places! Another skill he is striving toward is pulling himself up to his feet. He demonstrated his efforts yesterday when I went in his room to get him after his nap and found him proudly STANDING in his crib, waiting for me. :) My boy is growing up!

Hmmm... I usually can tell when Brandon's doing something naughty by his mischievous laugh... and now Ryan is crying... I better sign off!

Potty TRAIN-ing

Well, Brandon turned 3 last week, so I decided we better start getting serious about potty training. [Incidentally, they call it "toilet learning" in the What to Expect the Toddler Years book... is that P.C. or what?! Whatever.] Anyway, I got a free DVD in the mail from Huggies, so I told Brandon we were going downstairs to watch the potty training video. It seems to be more directed toward the parents than to children, but Brandon was willing to sit in my lap for at least 10 minutes and watch. The narrator was an overly-smiley woman who seemed far too excited about potty training. Every time she'd say "potty training" Brandon would start asking where the train was.....

Hmmm...maybe I can work the train theme in with the potty chair... :)

Opportunities to trust God!

Well, anyone who lives in the Minneapolis area is aware of the nasty thunderstorm activity we had on Thursday around lunchtime. I had just put the boys down for a nap when it started moving in. The sky blackened and the rain came down in buckets...and then the wind picked up. Oh my. I have never seen it blow so hard—there was so much rain and such strong wind, I could just barely see the houses across the street through the white sheets of rain.

As I was looking out the kitchen window, all of a sudden there was a loud crunching noise...as a HUGE tree branch from our Maple fell onto the roof of our garage...also leaning on the power line that runs from the tall wooden pole in the corner of our lot to the mast on the roof of our house. In fact, the pressure on the power line from the limb is so great, it actually bent the mast and pulled up the shingles around it. Yikes!

So I called Xcel Energy. The lady said they would come out "tonight" to take care of it. Well...I'm sure she meant "as soon as possible" since it was 5:30 p.m. when I called, and no one came that evening. The orange Asplundh truck (the tree trimmer guys) pulled up on Friday morning around 10:00 a.m. Two men assessed the situation in our backyard and the main dude told me, "Nope. We can't touch it." Huh? Well, apparently they just had a new rule put in place, that if the mast on the house is bent (i.e. damaged) they are not allowed to cut down the branches... because if there was further damage to the mast, it could cause a house fire. Oh, that's great news! I was proud of myself for not wigging-out on the guy. With composure I asked him, "I understand you don't want that liability. So where do we go from here?" He said I needed to call Xcel to have one of their electricians come out and do a 'line drop'—that is, to drop the power line from the pole. THEN they'd come back and do their work, and THEN Xcel would have to come back and hook the power line back up.

So I called Xcel and got a work order put in. I was kinda hoping they'd get it taken care of before the next line of storms rolled in...on Friday night. I found myself fretting on Friday afternoon about the possibility of tornadoes or our house starting on fire. But I chose to turn it over to God (as best I could!) by speaking His truths out loud: "God, I know that everything that happens to us passes through Your hands—nothing is an accident. I have no control over this, but I trust You—our future is in Your hands!" And He gave me peace. Every time fear started to creep into my mind, I'd pray a similar prayer aloud again.

The cool thing—the storms that went through our area on Friday night amounted to little more than heavy rain! No wind or tornadoes! So I was thanking and praising God over and over!! Just think how much energy I could have wasted (and an opportunity to strengthen my faith) if I had just worried and not chosen to cling to Him! [As a side note, I STILL would have clung to Him and trusted Him if something bad had happened.]

So now it's Saturday afternoon...and the tree limb is still hanging off the garage and pulling on the power line. And it's really quite gusty right now...so I'm hoping nothing gets damaged while we wait... Trust, trust, trust...

P.S. My spell-checker flagged "tornados" and suggested "tornadoes"—like the plural of potato... that looks weird to me...