The Faith of a Child

Have I mentioned lately how totally in LOVE I am recently? With God, with Justin, and with my Children. It is a wonderful place to be in. A place I have never truly been before. I mean, I have know awesome love, it just that at this moment in time...everything is as it should be...almost perfect. I have taken it as a moment of "rest" {provided by God of course} for me to suit up for the next challenge around the bend. I am not sure what it will be, but I must take advantage of this time of peace and rest. Some of you are thinking, "why and in the world would she think like that?" And I understand. I pray this period of peace last forever, but here is my logic.

God is the leading force in my life. If I am working as hard as I can for His Kingdom {and making progress} satan must be close by waiting to try and knock me off my high-horse. But guess what?!? I am not on a high-horse. He {satan} will be in for a big surprise when he comes to cause trouble and sees that on the solid rock I stand! So, I am loving this period of peace and using it to grow in grace and truth, just in case:)

The title of this posts came from a recent happening with my almost-four-year-old son. We make a really big deal in our family over birthday's. I mean what could be a better time to make sure that my family knows that I love them and celebrate the day they were born and where they are in life at that moment.

So this year, we were at a crossroad with Sawyer. First, we have lots of family and friends who are accustomed to big "family" parties. And honestly, I like throwing these types of parties. But Sawyer {who gets this from his mommy} is a very social person. He loves to be with his friends from school. So he asked for a "friends" party. I was really concerned about being "plugged-in" to our guest at the family party if we had ten 4-year-olds there as well. So, I decided on two parties.

This has been a great idea except it has led to confusion on Sawyer's part as to when is birthday is. He loves to mark the calendar for events, so we did that. So, he came up to me this last Saturday and the following ensued.

Sawyer: Momma, I really, really want my birthday to be today.

Me: Sawyer, I'm sorry but this is one of those things you have to be patient for.

Sawyer: {with a sad look on his face} Aw...Okay.

Then he sat down in the floor, closed his eyes and began to pray. When he was finished, he popped up and said

Sawyer: Guess what I just did?

Me: What?

Sawyer: I just prayed and asked Jesus to make today my birthday.

Me: Oh you did? Well, I really think Jesus would be happy with you if you asked him to give you patience to wait until it is your birthday. I don't think he is gonna skip all those days just so that you can get your presents early. Don't you think?

Sawyer: No, momma. I know God can do ANYTHING because He does miracles. Don't you know when I'm sick He makes me better.

Me: {thinking how I should respond} Yes, I know He CAN do anything, but even when God does really great stuff for us, He still likes us to be patience. Remember, that is one of the Fruit of the Spirit that shows others that we love/trust God. Think about when Carys was sick. God made her better, but we had to wait for the medicine to work before she was better.

Sawyer: {thinking very deeply} Okay, I will try really hard to be patient, but I still want my birthday to be today!

Oh the faith of a child. He really believed that God is willing do help us. To make our lives more positive. There is a lot that we can learn from Sawyer's faith. He saw no reason why God, who loves him so much, would hesitate to answer his prayer. We should follow this pattern when praying for the needs we have and the souls of our friends and family!

~God Bless~

Goals...

So, O told you all that my friend Kimberly @ The Phillips Family shared some of her latest goals she has set for herself. I too would like to set some short-term goals for myself. I have decided to print out the list on pretty paper, becuase I am a VERY visual person, in hopes that this will help me stay on track.

I thought and prayed a lot over these goals. First, I had to remember that they are short-term goals and that they need to be 1) attainable and 2) measurable. The latter is very important to me. See, I believe that I "CAN" complete any goal I set for myself (Romans 8:28). But I need these goals to be things that I can set specific paramatiers arond to see how I am measuring up to where I need to be to get these goals accomplished.

Some of these seem "important" and other may not be to you, but again, I think I must lists them for my own accountability. So, here goes!

P.S. I randomly decided to set 10 short-term goals for myself

1) Nail-down theme and order t-shirts for Relay for Life {by the end of this week.}

2) Raise $3000.00 for Realy for Life {by May 1.}

3) Contact designer for Blog Make-over {by the end of this week.}
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4) Organize recent photos both on-line and in print {by the end of March.}

5) Send handwritten notes (not email!) to Friends to let them know I am thinking of and praying for them {during the month of March.}

6) Have the kitchen, dining room, and living room ready for new floors/paint {by spring break.}

7) Devote one hour per week to photography {per week in the month of March.}

8) Clean out Carys' closet! {by the end of March.}

9) Have my UA classwork for March finished AHEAD of schedule {by March 6th.}

10) Organize my office at work {before I leave for spring break!}

There you go! Nothing fancy, but what a busy month I will have!

Its Friday!

There is SO much I want to post about. Teaching controversy, Carys lost another tooth, Sawyer's ball practice is this week, my birthday was last week, Sawyer's birthday is next week, college, church, and on and on and on and on!

But it is time to pick up Carys from school so,
Ta Ta for now!

Have a good weekend!!

Please Give Me a Present for My Birthday!!!!

Tomorrow, February 23, 2010 will be my 27th Birthday!!!
WoW I'm Old!!

If you can, I am asking that you meet me tomorrow night at the IHOP location in Tuscaloosa at 5:30 pm to celebrate. They will give you a free "stack" of pancakes and will thankfully accept a donation to a local charity.

I chose the T-town location because guess who their earnings will support?!?

CAMP SMILE A MILE!!!!!
www.campsam.org

Please come out and celebrate with us! This is NOT about my birthday as much as it is to help this wonderful organization and the wonderful families it will support this year and years to come! And there will be a CampSAM alumnae there!!! Carys Jo Cottingham :)
You can email me (cham4him@gmail.com) or message me for more info or to let me know you are coming!

P.S. if you cannot make it to T-town, all IHOP locations are doing this just for different charities I believe the one in Pelham is benifiting Children's Hospital of Alabama:)

Ever Feel Weak??

Be strong in the Lord and never give up hope!

As I was praying over what to write, I was pressed to keep this very simple because it can apply to SO MANY different situations.

To be strong in the Lord is a broad topic. It could mean that you take a stand for your beliefs when others are not. It could mean that you use your gifts and talents in a might way in service to Him. Or, it could mean that you stand firm in your belief that God is in control!

I have faced so many situations in which the Holy Spirit had to remind me that God has all of this in His hands and worry is a)selfish and b)pointless!! I was reminded of that again today. I am blessed by God that He gave me a)His Son to make a way b)His Word to "train" me to be strong, and c) His Holy Spirit to guide me and remind me of the former!

As long as I live my life in pursuit of Christ, there will be an adversary trying to devour me and the things I hold dear {my family, friends, church, ministry} see 1 Peter 5:8. So, I must be "strong and not afraid" as Deut says. So that brought about two questions in my mind.

1) How do I become and stay "strong?"
Well, I think this one is easy enough. Stay close to God! Read His word, Talk to Him in Prayer, and Practice doing what His word says. This is the "basic training" we have all heard about. I know it seems redundant because I know I have heard them all my life. However, no one other than myself can follow through with these except ME!!

2) How do I recognize when the adversary is after me?
Let's think in reverse here. What does God want for me? To follow his commandments, to live in pursuit of Christ, to love others, show mercy, have joy, have peace - patience - kindness - goodness - and self-control. To be prepared for "battle" by putting on the whole armor of His Word. So then, ANYTHING that threatens my ability to do or have any of the above can be interpreted as the adversary's attack on my life. Sometimes is people, who allow themselves to get in the way of you doing these things. Sometimes is circumstances or many other things that make you do things like - not show a lot of love, not have much patience, or even lack self-control! But we have to learn to identify these things as actions of the adversary and not just things the "happen" to us. AND we have to remember that there is not reason for us to be afraid of what these influences might have on our lives. If we are actively seeking to follow Christ, then we have nothing to fear because HE will make us STRONG!!

Overwhelmed...:D

I found this picture when I Googled "overwhelmed"...

I must admit that I have been feeling this way lately! Work - is busy, Home - is busy, and School (as in UA) is busy. But, I am mostly blessed.

It is such a strange feeling, really. The human part of me is worn-slap out. To deny that would be crazy and dishonest. Plus, it seems that I become anemic once-per-month (if you catch my drift) causing plain ole fatigue to set in. I am guessing this is a feeling that most of us have. If not, you need to leave me a comment and tell me your secret!!

But then, there's my spirit. That part of me is full of determination and drive. It keep pushing me to do better, be better. And that is what keeps me going.

Here is an example of this morning.... Carys and Sawyer slept in the living room last night so they were pretty easy to wake up. I had to shower, wash/dry my hair which takes even more time. Then I had to pack snacks, get the kids dressed (thankfully their clothes were already laid out). I had to take the dog out, feed the dog, and then put him in the pen. Then once I got all of this done, we were late - like 20 minutes. I still had not checked on the baby chicks, so I dropped the kids off and checked on them. Some were dead, it got to cold! Then I realize I don't have my phone. So, I swung back by the house and grabbed my phone. At this point, I look around the house and think, Oh My! It looks much messier when there is not movement in there and you can see all the STUFF! Then my mind goes to "oh I can clean this weekend." WRONG! I have class at UA this weekend Friday and Saturday! So, I attempted to be down in the dumps.

But again, the spirit within me just would not let me! I kept thinking about how blessed I am. Beyond compare! Yesterday before church Carys (yes, all 50 lbs of her) fell asleep in my lap. I loved it! Even though it was killing my arm after about 5 minutes. I loved it. How blessed am I to have her, an in perfect health! I suppose it was because I got the news of the not-so-perfect news of our friends Carly and Hannah Grace yesterday. So, I held her. It was a great moment. So I thought of that.

I thought of how smart and absolutely hilarious Sawyer is. The other day we were driving and Sawyer said we were going the wrong way to Tuscaloosa (cause we were headed to Alabaster:) Justin asked him how did he know we were going the wrong way. He replied, "Daddy I just use my bone and think about it." He immediately started laughing and corrected himself and said he ment he used his brain to think! Also, I was giving him an IQ test the other day. On the verbal part he was identifying pictures of objects. I flipped to a picture of a cactus and he (very confidently) answered, "Its a cashew!" with a huge smile! Absolutely hilarious!

Then I thought of the "getaway" Justin and I had last weekend! It was the most perfect trip anyone could ask for! God blessed us with time together in one of our favorite places on earth, the most PERFECT weather we could ask for {the mountains are breathtaking with snow}, and just an overall good time. We had not been away alone since the kids were born. We were blessed with family who {for the most part:} took care of the kids with no reservations (love ya mom!)

All of this coupled with the undeniable Love of my Heavenly Father is enough to keep me going! So, in the words of Paul...I will press on to finish the race set before me:)

God Bless you all! If you have any stress relief tips feel free to comment about them:)

Philippians 3:14
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Gatlinburg Trip

I will do a more detailed post later. Justin and I were in TN from Thursday night to Sunday and it was a spectacular trip. The SNOW was awesome and so was the food!