Twenty Feet of Grace: A Good Day

Sunday, October 24, 2010

A Good Day

It's 4:59 Sunday afternoon and we're finishing another openhouse. Once again, no one came through. Zero, zilch, nada. But that's okay. The house is clean from top to bottom and I look forward to a relaxing evening with the family. (If you haven't ever seen the CBS show "Undercover Boss", I highly recommend it. It's one of the few truly enjoyable shows on tv. Looking forward to watching it tonight.)
Here's why I'm posting, however -- it's not to announce that we put forth another fruitless effort. It's to tell you what the Lord did in my heart this morning. Let me back up to when I was taking down our signs after the visitor-less openhouse last Sunday. Last Sunday I was asking the Lord for direction and He put Jeremiah 29:13 on my heart. It says, "You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart I will be found by you..."
I know He didn't "accidently" deposit that verse into my mind. It was a gentle prompting. Since then I've been praying that He will teach me what it means to truly seek Him.
Back to today: I heard about something nice that happened to someone I know. Instead of being happy for them, I used it to start whining to myself about the tough times my family is in. I snapped at Matt and allowed myself to become miserable. I started having a good, old-fashioned pity party. Almost immediately, the Holy Spirit convicted me. He brought to mind the exhortation to "carry eachother's burden and share eachother's joys". I'm pretty good at bearing other peoples' burdens but I definitely lack in the area of sharing others' joy. That was one of the reasons I quit Facebook a few months ago -- because I was tired of hearing how great everyone else's life was. Real mature on my part, huh? I realized that I often allow covetousness or envy to give me a bad attitude rather than thanking the Lord for others' good fortune. I was very embarassed and ashamed when that realization hit me.
I'm grateful for the conviction from my loving, Heavenly Father. I'm thankful that He's teaching me how to truly seek Him, and that He's changing my heart. My prayer is that He will continue to work in me, and teach me how to share in others' joy.

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From the Mouths of Babes...

02/20/2012 ~ Luke has some unique observations about his baby sister. Yesterday he commented that my belly isn't big anymore because "I don't have anymore people in it". Today he asked me why Karis hates me. A little shocked, I replied that she doesn't hate me. He then asked why she's always mad at me. I guess he assumes that her crying means she's angry?
10/08/11 So excited to see a hard rain in our parched area, Luke looked out the window and exclaimed, "Mud pubbles! I wuv mud pubbles!" (I love his vocabulary!)
Me: "Seth, I've told you a hundred times not to leave your cup at the water dispenser while it's filling." Seth: "It's fine. I won't forget about it." ....Three minutes later Seth runs frantically from his bedroom into the kitchen:"Dang it! Mom! Quick - I need a mop!!!"
The younger children are really into Star Wars right now. Katie was drawing a picture of some of the characters and wanted to make sure she labeled them correctly. "Mom, how do you spell Qui-gon Jinn?" I told her that I wasn't sure, to which she replied, "That's okay. Can you tell me how to spell "Big-Headed Guy"?"
Sometimes, a single letter in a word can change the whole meaning of what one is trying to say. For example, Abby said, "This gravy I made is so good because I added turkey droppings to it." After we all gagged, I asked her if she meant to say "turkey drippings". Oh yes, that's what she meant.
Katie, Katie, Katie... (shakes head in laughter) When asked what she saw at the museum the other day, she replied, "a dinosaur and lots of dead animals!" And later, when she was talking to Luke -- "I went to the museum with the girls because I wanted to see dead animals." So, nevermind all the cool stuff like pottery from 315BC or ancient Roman coins; nope - that place was just full of deceased creatures.
We've been working with Luke to help him speak more clearly. He's often hard to understand because he can't form some of his sounds correctly. Today he asked for a "nanana". I corrected him by slowly saying "ba-na-na" and asked him to repeat it. He tried but still couldn't pronounce it correctly. I urged him to try again, and he replied, "I tan't! My boice is goken!" (Let's see if you can decipher that one...)
I overheard Madalyn singing this the other day: "I've been working on the railroad, over the hills and everywhere, I've been working on the railroad, that Jesus Christ is born..." I guess the name of that song is "Go Tell It on the Railroad."
Ok - I talk with my hands, alright? I'm just very expressive when it comes to body language. Anyway, last week the kids watched one of the old-school Star Wars movies, and a little while later I witnessed the funniest moment: Katie was telling Nate all about the movie, and she said "...And then Darth Vader "died". " She made quotation marks with her fingers when she said the word. She didn't know I was watching until I laughed out loud. When I asked her why she made the gesture she replied, "because that's what you do, Mommy!"
Luke looooves bugs. If he sees one on the porch, he'll step on it and then run inside to get a tissue, use the tissue to pick up the dead bug, and then bring it inside to flush in the toilet. The other day as he was following the routine, he decided to try something different. I asked him where the bug was, and he replied, "in my mouth!". I was speechless.