FACING TOMORROW
An Easter Musical and Drama
Waterville Baptist Church
March 25, 2013 6:00 p.m.
This is a very important time of the year. It mean so much more than what the world tries to make it. I love chocolate!!! I love to buy pretty dresses and shirts and ties and all that good stuff. When I was a child the focus wasn't on going to church to celebrate it was getting home to eat the ham and hunt eggs. This was my viewpoint as a child. I was told the true reason to celebrate, I'm sure but I still don't remember the importance being put where it should have been.
Our family has been watching an old movie about the death of Jesus. The little ones have lots of questions. They are so young and still can't believe that Jesus had to go through so much. They haven't seen any graphic parts {youngers ones 8 and under) but they have seen the actor carrying that heavy cross. It is so hard for them to understand that he went through this for us. We as adults take it for granted too. We say we want to live for the Lord yet all we do is grumble, complain, backbite, for some even use profanity and live a life than in no way speaks Christlike. We are prideful, arrogant and sometimes downright rude and hateful. There are no big or little sins I know but to an unbeliever my attitude says so much. This week I am challenging myself to pay close attention to the way I treat others. Sometimes a kind word and bit of encouragement will mean more to some than a thousand sermons preached. There are many who will make that once a year trip to church on Easter but there are many more who won't. We never know when we may have an opportunity to show God's love. May we always start in our home first showing Gods love, learning, teaching, training and equipping so that we are able to go out and share the love of God with others.
Psalm 139:14 I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made
Last night as I was bathing 3 little children after a long afternoon of playing outside the Lord clearly spoke to my heart. "You are so blessed to have these little guys and all the other ones I gave you"
Was this an audible voice that I actually heard, I'm really not sure. I heard it so clearly that I turned around for the slightest second thinking perhaps Sammy could have been there. I know it was from the Lord. I could totally feel the presence of the Holy Spirit (yes, while I am sitting on the edge of the toilet trying to bathe three wiggly kids all at the same time to save myself some time and effort) bring such peace to me at that moment. I just sat there for a minute to watch them, to take in all their silliness and to just enjoy my youngest blessings.
Is this something that I didn't already know. Of course not!! I thank the Lord every day for my children. God completely knows where I am right now. He understands it all. I don't even have to say a word because he knows my heart. I have spent many nights awake just trying to figure so much out and honestly my prayer time with him has increased drastically. Even though he knows before I say a word in prayer. He knows how thankful I am for all 7 of these with me and how grateful I am for the time I had with Daniel. He also knows how heavy my heart has been lately thinking about what I think "should have been" this month. I should have a one year old little baby boy this month!!!
March is the month for chromosome awareness. We were never told 100% if our baby had Trisomy 18. We were told that he had all the markers they look for in a trisomy 18 baby. We could have had an autopsy but really didn't want to put his little body through anything. Although I know he had already passed on days before. When you are faced with lots of decisions to make quickly at a time like that it's really hard to decide what to do. It was just a personal thing for us to not have anything done with his body beside having the geneticist look at him and give her insights on what she thought. We have no idea what day he would have actually been born on if the Lord had allowed him to live but compared to all our other births it would have been sometime around mid March. We have no other birthdays in March and it is declared in our home as being Daniel's month. March to me is bittersweet. I love to see Spring coming but I also think of those " should have been's".
There are many families that have babies with all kinds of birth defects. Many live and many will pass away long before they are born. I am thankful that God gave us one of these special little ones. Not that we would have ever planned it this way for our lives and our family but God had other plans. If Daniel had been born and the Lord had not healed him we know he would have had some major stuff wrong, one of his arms was not the way it should be and also the Spina Bifida plus probably other things we know nothing about. We would have taken him gladly just the way he was and enjoyed every second with him but again God had other plans. This has made my heart just a little more tender towards families that are going though this. I always hated to hear of a pregnancy that went wrong but now I have an entirely different reaction. All children regardless of birth defects, wanted or unwanted by their parents are fearfully and wonderfully made by God.
Looking forward to Spring!!!!
Was this an audible voice that I actually heard, I'm really not sure. I heard it so clearly that I turned around for the slightest second thinking perhaps Sammy could have been there. I know it was from the Lord. I could totally feel the presence of the Holy Spirit (yes, while I am sitting on the edge of the toilet trying to bathe three wiggly kids all at the same time to save myself some time and effort) bring such peace to me at that moment. I just sat there for a minute to watch them, to take in all their silliness and to just enjoy my youngest blessings.
Is this something that I didn't already know. Of course not!! I thank the Lord every day for my children. God completely knows where I am right now. He understands it all. I don't even have to say a word because he knows my heart. I have spent many nights awake just trying to figure so much out and honestly my prayer time with him has increased drastically. Even though he knows before I say a word in prayer. He knows how thankful I am for all 7 of these with me and how grateful I am for the time I had with Daniel. He also knows how heavy my heart has been lately thinking about what I think "should have been" this month. I should have a one year old little baby boy this month!!!
March is the month for chromosome awareness. We were never told 100% if our baby had Trisomy 18. We were told that he had all the markers they look for in a trisomy 18 baby. We could have had an autopsy but really didn't want to put his little body through anything. Although I know he had already passed on days before. When you are faced with lots of decisions to make quickly at a time like that it's really hard to decide what to do. It was just a personal thing for us to not have anything done with his body beside having the geneticist look at him and give her insights on what she thought. We have no idea what day he would have actually been born on if the Lord had allowed him to live but compared to all our other births it would have been sometime around mid March. We have no other birthdays in March and it is declared in our home as being Daniel's month. March to me is bittersweet. I love to see Spring coming but I also think of those " should have been's".
There are many families that have babies with all kinds of birth defects. Many live and many will pass away long before they are born. I am thankful that God gave us one of these special little ones. Not that we would have ever planned it this way for our lives and our family but God had other plans. If Daniel had been born and the Lord had not healed him we know he would have had some major stuff wrong, one of his arms was not the way it should be and also the Spina Bifida plus probably other things we know nothing about. We would have taken him gladly just the way he was and enjoyed every second with him but again God had other plans. This has made my heart just a little more tender towards families that are going though this. I always hated to hear of a pregnancy that went wrong but now I have an entirely different reaction. All children regardless of birth defects, wanted or unwanted by their parents are fearfully and wonderfully made by God.
Looking forward to Spring!!!!
Not the end of the month I had planned on
I had planned to do a post on our highlights for January and February and then continue through the year. I thought it would be a great way to look back at the end of the year and see all we had enjoyed as a family. Then ALL my plans changed about Monday close to supper time. First it was Samuel he said he didn't feel good and became a spooky white/gray color. He has done this once before and kinda passes out going back and forth. Just enough to scare me to death. He was in pretty rough shape but seemed to be perking up by about 10 that night (not his usual bed time at all but he was sick). Sammy and the 3 older ones had planned on going to a music luncheon hosted by Keith and Krystin Getty in Nashville on Tuesday. I was going along with them with the younger ones, just not to the luncheon. We decided it might work out. Sometime in the middle on the night Sarah woke up and started running through the house yelling that Morgan was sick. I also heard the commotion too and knew we were ALL headed for a rough week. Sammy also got sick too. That's just the start though. By Thursday Sammy had really gotten worse so off to the doctor we go. She tested him for the flu. We thought we had missed the flu but I guess not. She also treated him for walking pneumonia. He need to improve greatly by Saturday or we needed to come back. I know he was feeling awful!!!! He had the flu 11 years ago and I think this was almost as bad as that, maybe even worse. Morgan and Samuel improved quickly but poor old Dad really took the worst of it. Stephen woke up Friday morning with a cough within a few hours he was throwing up. Considering he has never thrown up he got scared and ran so this made for a mess!!! I DO NOT CLEAN UP THROW-UP WELL!!! That's Sammy's job and I do a better job with dirty diapers. That's just how it is here, it works for us but he was in the bed and I knew he couldn't do it. So I had to do the clean-up, I'll just leave it at that. Sammy's fever finally broke in the night so that is some improvement. He feels awful and it's hard on him and the kids to know how sick Daddy is. Normally he gets sick and he can kick it with some Nyquil but it just didn't work this time. Stephen still feels yucky. I was so afraid that he had some kind of stomach thing going on but I have figured out that he is the type kid that throws up when the fever goes up quickly. We have a few like that and then a few who NEVER run a fever for anything. On top of all this the toilet has overflowed (major) 3 times and the kitchen sink was stopped up. When it became unstopped several gallons of yucky stinky water shot right out that had been in the sink. If I don't stop and take notes on how this week has been I will forget just how hard it was. I don't want to do that because I want to be more thankful on the good weeks. Not to mention I was desperate and we had fast food two nights in a row. I can say though that I am very thankful that everyone else seems to be okay and God has given us the strength to work together and take care of everyones needs. Now off to hand out the medicine and hopefully get everyone to TAKE A NAP!!!!!!!!!
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