I am thinking about thankfulness today. Obviously Thanksgiving is approaching and that is when we reflect as a family on the things we are thankful for, but how do I teach my children to be thankful in the everyday? How do I teach them to get their eyes off of what color of vitamins they are getting and on the bigger picture? I can tell them to be thankful until I am blue in the face and I do think it is important to talk about it, but I feel as though we need a visual life lesson. Any ideas??? I was so blessed yesterday with some maternity clothes and a date with my husband and am feeling very thankful today for being so well taken care of. We also watched the movie “Faith Like Potatoes” and it made me even more thankful for running water, a home, healthy kids, a job for my husband, and a husband that trusts God and is the spiritual leader of our home. So, I guess my question is, how do I get the little things to stay little in the eyes of my kids when the little things are the only things they know? I think I just answered my own question, but I would love to get some feedback!!
It was a big day at our house yesterday. My oldest and most cautious son picked up a worm!!! I know what you are thinking..big deal, right? Well, it is around here. I don’t think he has ever touched a bug in his four plus years and our yard is full of them. Now, his brother John picked it up right away and was even responsible when one of the worms went missing. When asked where he put it, he said, “ummmmm…ahhhhh…over there” but he has not acted sick and I have not found anything in his diaper, so I am still hoping that “over there” was an accurate description. Anyway, Jack was so excited about his two new worms that we even put them in a tupperware container with some dirt and let them come inside for most of the day. Right before dinner I told him that it was time to put the worms back in the yard so they could go find food and do whatever it is that worms do. Jack was very concerned and said, “But mom, if we put them back outside we won’t be able to find them again….will they be in the same holes where we put them?” To which I answered, “probably not” to which Jack continued to plead, “but mom, if they won’t be in the same holes where we put them then we will have to look for them again and might not be able to find them tomorrow when we want to play with them. I then said, “Well, Jack, we will just have to go out there and look for them until we find them just like we did today.”
The Lesson: God says when we seek Him with all our heart He will be found by us. He doesn’t say that we can just settle for looking in the same hole of our old paradigm because it is comfortable and it is what we know. Sometimes He wants to do a new thing or He wants us to go deeper in the same thing, but we just can’t settle for what we know, we have to get to know God and know His heart for each and every situation. Just because He is the same yesterday, today and forever, doesn’t mean that we get to be. Take the time to look in some different holes!
Hosea 10:12 “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers righteousness on you.”
Jack has recently been very concerned about me forgetting he or John when I leave the store, the house, or especially someone else’s house. The other night he kept asking if I would pick up John and carry him all the way to the car. I asked him why and he finally admitted it was because he did not want me to leave him there. I laughed and said, “Jack, I would never leave you or your brother anywhere on purpose.” Well, I am thinking back and wondering why all of a sudden is he so concerned, and I think I know.
We had made our more than weekly stop at Wal-Mart and decided to ride a few rides in the play zone before we headed home. When it was time to leave I said, “Let’s go boys.” To which I received no answer, and so I repeated my self and Jack came over slowly. John, however, was still driving away on the race car. Jack started yelling “John..come on..John Olin Watts…come here!!”(don’t know where he heard that – haha) John was looking at us but not moving, so I started pushing the cart out of the play zone and said “We are leaving now, bye-bye.” John finally came running but Jack almost started crying because he thought I was really leaving John (-: I love when he becomes the protective older brother!! Anyway, I am guessing I should explain my antics to Jack so he does not think I will leave his brother in the Wal-Mart play zone, not that we wouldn’t be back the next day anyway for more bananas (-:
I have been participating in a Beth Moore Bible Study titled “Believing God” and she has been teaching on How God Remembers and the importance of remembering what God has done in our lives so we can look back and see His faithfulness and goodness and know that He is the same God today as He was during those times. I am presently in that season where I am inbetween Egypt and the Promised Land and there is always a temptation to feel forgotten, but God does not forget us! As a matter of fact there are so many scriptures that re-assure us that He thinks of us and remembers us more than we can even imagine possible.
GOD REMEMBERS US
Isaiah 49:15-16 ” Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”
Psalm 139:17-18 “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count then, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.”
Psalm 111:5 ” He provides food for those who fear Him; He remembers His covenant forever.”
Luke 12:6-7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
God remembered Noah – Genesis 1:8…God remembered Abraham -Genesis 19:29…God remembered Rachel – Genesis 30:22.. God remembers us!
WE REMEMBER GOD
1 Chronicles 16:11-12 “Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always. Remember the wonders he has done, His miracles, and the judgments He pronounced.”
Luke 22:19 ” And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
Deuteronomy 8:11, 17-18 ”Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe His commands, His laws and His decrees that I am giving you this day….You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But, remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms His covenant, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is today.”
Psalm 103:2-5 “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits- Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
WHEN MY THOUGHTS SAY… “I say to God my Rock, ‘why have you forgotten me? why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? ‘ My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?” MY SPIRIT AND MY MOUTH SAY… ‘Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.’ “ Psalm 42:9-11
Just like God acts on what He remembers, so do we. My question to you is…what are you thinking on and remembering and therefore what are you acting on – emotions or truth? What has happened in the past or what God had done in and through those happenings? Think on these things!! (Phil. 4:8-9)
John received an awesome birthday gift from his Nana and Papa that Jack is having a lot of fun with lately which brings me my next blog topic!! It is called Computer Cool School and I must say it IS very “cool” and educational..not only that, it is also easy enough for Jack to play on his own..which we both love (-: Anyway, he loves learning about the animals and the other night he randomly asked me, “Mom, why do the zebras have to look out for danger?” My answer: “Well, they have to look around and make sure no other bigger animals are coming after them to eat them.” The lesson: Don’t get caught grazing. There are certain enemies that will not be deceived by your stripes (outward appearance) but be alert and keep your head up. 1 Peter 5:8 “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”
Every time Jack needs to go upstairs to “sit on the potty” I follow him in anticipation of receiving my next blog idea, and well…he did it once again. He goes in the bathroom, shuts the door and turns on the fan. Something to this ritual helps him really focus and get the job done. I lean my ear up to the door like only every good mother would do and listen intently. Jack has recently been asking about all of the animals at the zoo and if they will be nice in heaven, especially the polar bear from the Tulsa Zoo that recently went to heaven, which should explain the first part of his thought process, but the rest just amazed me…too sweet not to share, so here it is.
“God, will you take care of the polar bear? Ok, thanks.”
“God, just forgive us, forgive us and send your angels, just send your angels. Thank You God.”
I hear a kid crying out for his generation already!
I will never get this day back, so today I choose to do my work as unto the Lord and not as unto men or their expectations, or even what I think others expectations are of me and I will make the most of every opportunity!
“Too often, we Christians expect life to be perfect and for everything to go smoothly for us. We expect success, happiness, joy, peace, and everything else. When we’re thwarted, we pout or complain. Although God does want us to have a good life, there will be times when we must be patient and endure not getting our way. These ‘dissappointments’ test our character and level of spiritual maturity. they actually show whether or not we truly are ready for promotion….The big mistake was to say we deserved it (something good to happen), because then self-pity creeps in when we don’t get what we want. We can take that attitude, or we can recognize that we have a choice. I can choose to accept life the way it is and make the best out of it, or I can complain because it isn’t perfect. The secret of the Christian life is that we commit ourselves fully to God. If we surrender our wills to God, what happens doesn’t make us angry. If God doesn’t give us what we want and ask for, our faith is strong enough to say, “Not my will, but Yours.”
…….taken from Joyce Meyer’s Battlefield of the Mind Devotional
We were playing in the boys room the other day and Jack was working very hard to find all of the little people that we own. I looked over and he had arranged them just so on the little table by his bed. Very interested I asked, “What are all those people doing?” He said, “It’s Heaven on Earth.”
Matthew 6:9-15 “This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
I am so very thankful right now for Jesus. If nothing else changes in my life I will still be blown away by His goodness and how amazingly He has touched my life and how He gave His life so I could have this freedom, forgiveness and mercy every day.
I lay it all down at your feet…Jesus…all of the expectations, goals, pats on the back, things that did not turn out the way I thought they would, things I did or do that I think make me who I am….redefine me….in your words and from how you see me, for you are good and the things you want to do on this earth are so much bigger than me and I want to be a part of it.
