Walking in the Shadows

Ecclesiastes 3:1-3 "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;" Time seems to be slipping away from me, and here I stand at the end of yet another year. My three young children aren't as young as they were last year, they are each growing up, one year at a time. Before I know it, they will be adults making their own decisions, living their own lives. Am I doing enough? No. I'm surely not. Is HE enough? Yes. He surely is.  There is a time for everything, a season especially for each year, each life event, each milestone. This year, I was disappointed and I no doubt disappointed others. This year, my eldest son became a teenager, just one step closer to a man. This year, the Lord provided food, gas money, air conditioner parts, and a brake job

I'm going to try to post a couple End of Year blogs, today is our year in pictures. Hope you enjoy! We took a vacation in January to Gatlinburg, TN and had -0 tempratures and a good bit of snow. It was a great way to start out 2014. Here is Jason and Ethan on Jason's birthday in February. It actually snowed the day before his birthday and the roads were all icky. We managed to make it to Olive Garden for a birthday dinner. Ah, my little Free Spirit turned 4 in March. What a little firecracker she is, love her. This is our Easter picture, my three kiddos with their Great-Grandfather! Speaking of their Great-Grandfather (my Grandfather of course), he turned 80 years young in June!  August came and I celebrated 15 years of marriage to this handsome man. Where does the time go? I swear it was just yesterday I said "I do."  My Ethan turned 13 on September 7, seriously, a teenager! It was an airsoft war for him, n

  See that mess? It's not very beautiful, but this was my view Wednesday night when I was out of commission due to pain and such. The boys went on to church and I assured them I could handle the little one as I reclined with the heating pad and pain medicine. I looked at the messy room and wanted to jump and fix the mess, I wanted to stop looking at it, the mess was affecting my rest.   And wham! Right in my face, the Lord gives me a very important lesson. You've heard the saying "a beautiful mess" (I think there is a book called that too)? Yes, me too, but until I was looking straight at it, I had never really seen it. I have three wonderful, noisy, happy, homeschooling kids. There is a LOT of beautiful mess in my house, but sometimes I'm just too busy to see it.  But on this night, I saw it, every bit of it, and it was beautiful.   What must my Lord see when he looks at me? A mess? For. Sure. Yet, he sees something he wants, something he desires, me