The Word on Wednesday... (a day late)

Matthew 5:3- "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

I have always heard and read that God wants us to be happy and joyful. So, why does the kingdom of heaven belong to the poor in spirit? What does "poor in spirit" mean, anyway? It sounds so dreadful. Well, after studying it, I realize that to be poor in spirit means that you have an absence of self-assurance, self-reliance and pride. It is total repentance; turning from independence to complete dependence on God. To put it simply, it is admitting that you are a sinner. Before we can truly come to know Christ and receive His Holy Spirit, we have to realize what we are apart from God: nothing, destitute, a sinner, unable to please God... That's when we become poor in spirit- when we realize what we are without God- just as Paul said, "I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh" (Romans 7:18). I think so many of us get so caught up in works- doing "good", comparing ourselves to others- thinking, "Well, I'm much better than him/her. I've never done that." We think, 'I'm on this committee; I volunteer for this ministry; I go to church every Sunday and pray out loud, ect, ect.' My friends, those are only dangerous, self-righteous attitudes. We cannot forget that we are NOTHING apart from God- we have no chance of obtaining righteousness, God's mercy or the kingdom of heaven without first becoming "poor in spirit."

Lord, I pray that I will surrender all to You- all of my "good" works, self-righteous attitudes, pride, etc. If I ever forget who I am- what I am- apart from You, just knock me off my pedestal, break me, and remind me that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit. I know that I am only a sinner bound for Hell apart from You. It is only by You that I can please God, do good and strive for holiness - not what I do, but what You do through me. Help me to never forget that. Thank you for dwelling inside of me, cleansing me and washing away my sins. You are such an incredible, awesome, amazing God and I love you so much! Amen.

Just call me "Mrs. Thrifty"

Some people think that I'm cheap. But, then again, they're not the ones having to budget on an extremely low, I'm mean tight, income. =) So, I call myself "thrifty". This weekend, I went to a neighborhood garage sell and hit the jackpot! I was so excited at all of the great deals I got- I didn't pay more than $2 for anything!

My treasures...
Zayde racked up on some clothes- he got 16 pieces of clothing with NO stains or worn spots. I am picky about the clothes I get for him, even if they are used. He also got a play weed eater, ball, tricycle/scooter, potty chair and other toys. Other great deals I found were: 4 glass mugs, pictionary, 10 movies, brown heels, a necklace, a lamp, a Christmas decoration and some clothes for myself.

My Grand Total:



Are you ready for this?





$20
Yes, that's right, 20 bucks!! You cannot beat that. Here's a closer look at our goodies...

Here's some cute pics of my sweetness!

The video below is of Zayde dancing- he LOVES to dance! (BTW- it's more fun if you have your sound turned on.)

Go Hogs!!

Zack and I were given tickets to Saturday night's Razorback game!! Even though we didn't win (we should have!!), we had a great time. Thank you so much Denny and Christy for the tickets!

Zack and Amy

This Razorback guy is hilarious!

I always love the half-time show...

Some of the band even came up to our section to play for us!

The Word on Wednesday...

Genesis 1:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning— the first day. And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate the waters from the waters." So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning— the second day. And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning— the third day. And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights— the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning— the fourth day. And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." And there was evening, and there was morning— the fifth day. And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it— I give every green plant for food." And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."

When I think about nature, the creation of new life, and the world around us, I am in awe of God. I love reading in Genesis 1 how He created the heavens, the earth and everything in it and saw that "it was good." Amazing, just amazing...

Last weekend, we went camping with my family and some family friends. We had such a great time visiting, hiking, caving, and eating!

...our home away from home for the weekend!

Hanging out at camp...

Phisher and Cayden playing.

Kynzie and Zayde playing with the leaves.

Addye, Phisher and Cayden sweep up leaf piles.

Zayde and Daddy driving to go hiking.

Getting ready for our hike...

Our family!

Our group...
(Mia, Teresa, Rick, Christa, Tamara, Sara, Becky)

Mommy and Zayde

Daddy and Zayde

God's beautiful creation...

While Daddy was caving, Mr. Rick helped carry Zayde.

We enjoyed a delicious meal of smoked ribs, grilled chicken, fried tators, grilled veggies, pineapple, baked beans, rolls, and smores after our hike.

Mmmm...

Phisher and Cayden warming up by the campfire.

Breakfast time...

Zack couldn't get out of bed, so I sent Zayde in to wake him up only to find him snuggled up next to Daddy!

Happy Kynzie!

The kids enjoy their breakfast.

Some of the group went for another hike the next day...
(Cayden, Teresa, Rick, Zack, Carol, Charles, Kynzie, Zayde and Phisher)

Taking a snack break...

Papa and Kynzie with Zack and Zayde

Zayde and Kynzie...

Enjoying a game of cards!
(Becky, Tamara, Amy, Ashton)

Mr. Rick and Zayde

Overall, everyone had a great time!!

Computer Time!

If one of us is on the computer, Zayde wants to be right there with us- he loves the computer! I've started giving him his own little "lap top" to hold in his lap, so he can work too. It actually has a cd that goes with it and you place it over your keyboard, but it works to keep him occupied while we are working! Here are my favorite two baldies...

Zayde Reading!

Zayde loves to sit and "read." He is being kind of silly in this video, but I still think it's cute!

*Update* In two weeks, Zayde went from saying 4 words to saying 19 words! He is talking more and more everyday. We took him to the speech therapist who tested his speech, comprehension, responses, etc. He did not qualify for speech therapy. Yea! Thank you for all of your comments and encouragement in my previous post.

The Word on Wednesday...

1 Corinthians 10:13- "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

Galatians 5:1- "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

So many of us have that one area in our lives- a habit, attitude, addiction, fear, doubt- that we keep surrendering to God, but it continues to creep back into our lives. We earnestly pray, no beg, for God to help us, change us, take it away... We repent, ask for forgiveness and promise to give it to Him forever. And for a while we do. We just know that we have claimed victory over that area of our lives. But God never promises that just because we surrender to Him, we'll never have temptation in our lives. So after a while, there it is again, back in our lives. Satan lies to us saying, "You hypocrite! You never really surrendered it to God. You'll never change!" In reality, we really did give it to God and He really is changing us. We just have a choice to make: keep it for a while, pray about it for a while and try to change again OR give it back to God IMMEDIATELY! We've already given it to God, so it's not ours anymore- we just stole it back from God's hands. We have to make the choice not to listen to Satan's lies, not to beat ourselves up about it, not to obsess about how we managed to fall again... Instead, we have to make the choice to listen to God's promise ("He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear... He will provide a way out..."), quickly repent, accept forgiveness and give it back to God immediately. Every time we do this, the "yoke of slavery" will be loosened more and more. Until one day when we surrender it to God- again- it won't return. We will realize that it is truly gone; we are set free; no more bondage. Amen!

Lord,
Thank you so much for your amazing promises. Thank you for assuring us that you will not tempt us beyond what we can bear, and thank you for always providing a way out. What would we do without you?! I, once again, surrender this area in my life to you. I give to you what is rightly yours. I can already feel the "yoke of slavery" diminishing! I pray that my thoughts, words and actions will be pleasing to you. I love you so much! Amen.