Remembering God's Deeds

There was a time, not that long ago but which seems like a lifetime ago when I...

I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me.

When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
at night I stretched out untiring hands
and my soul refused to be comforted.

I remembered you, O God, and I groaned;
I mused, and my spirit grew faint.
Selah

You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak. Psalm 77:1-4

October 12, 2007 is a date that I will never forget.

It is not a birthday or the day I was married.

It was the day we discovered there was a tumor growing in side my three-year-old daughter. I was surprised, although God was not.

Last night, I learned of a family in our community that may hear today those same words, 'Your child has cancer." They will face a flood of emotions that nothing, not even my words can prepare them for. It will be surreal, it will be frightening. They will feel the love of those around them, yet they will feel unloved. They will have many present with them, but they will feel alone. All of these moments will come and go, but they will surely come.

When I got the news at the beginning of our church service, I could barely sit through the service. My heart was broken. Partly because all of those emotions came flooding back, and partly I felt so saddened that anyone but especially people I knew would have to experience this. I wish I could carry this burden for them. I am prepared. I have been there. I began to think of all of the things I could say to them, or do for them. And then I though...

Then I thought, "To this I will appeal:
the years of the right hand of the Most High."

I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

I will meditate on all your works
and consider all your mighty deeds.

Your ways, O God, are holy.
What god is so great as our God?

You are the God who performs miracles;
you display your power among the peoples.

Psalm 77:10-14

This is all I can really do for them. Call out to God. The God who in his mercy and grace choose to make a way for Carys to recover from her illness. To me the greater miracle of Carys' journey is the work He accomplished in our hearts. The closeness I found to Him. The many people who were {and still are being touched} by my daughter.

In good time I will see them. I will pray over them and make myself and my family available to them in any way they might need us. Yes, I could flood them with hospital advice, treatment advice and on and on and on...But I know that it will be weeks before they can process this type of information anyway. Before their hearts are ready to begin the fight. Before they are able to comprehend that their three-year-old just became the family, make that the community, missionary. This is going to change the way their world views God; it will be awhile before they can see this.

I am not sure what time they will be in clinic today. I am praying for another miracle in Clinic 8 like I witnessed on THIS DAY. Please join me in lifting up The Steele Family in your prayers.

David, Jennifer (Wallace), Mackenzie-5, and Kilya-3

Prayer and Perspective

For some reason, perspective seems to be a theme in the writings God sends me. He has revealed to me in a very real way that the Free Will He allowed mankind, requires that we be actively involved in the choices we make about how we look at and/or react to the situations God places before us.

I do not want to mislead you to think that I have always taken the right perspective on situations. No, I have not. But God has taught be from those times and I feel that it is so important to share what God has done for me! I am a VERY visual learner. So, I decided to use a visual aid to help drive my point home. Look at the following picture...Okay, before you go on talking about what a horrible photographer I am, lets think about this. What is this? {you will find out later}

I will tell you that it is just a small piece of a larger picture. Imagine that the whole image was the size of a huge wall. The image took up every square inch of that wall. And you, the observer, were forced to stand with your nose against that wall. What would you be able to see. Perhaps something like the picture above.

It would be a very small piece of the whole picture that you would be able to see. Also, it would be hard to put the picture into focus. Just the shear size of the thing and your position to it would make it nearly impossible to figure out what the artist was attempting to do with this "mess."

This is exactly how our lives are. Life is like a masterpiece of art that fills up a whole wall of time. We, often try to observe and analyze what God {the Holy Artist} is trying to do with this "mess." Particularly during the difficult times, we stand there with our nose against the wall of God's Plan trying to make sense of it all. "Why God?" and "What does all this mean?" are often our questions.

This is where FAITH steps in. The Bible says,
"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom." Isaiah 40:28

See HE knows things that we cannot comprehend. He is the only Person big enough to stand far enough back from the "wall" of His Plan to see the whole thing. So we must...

"Trust in the LORD with all {our} heart and lean not on {our} own understanding; "Proverbs 3:5

When things see crazy, out of focus, and just plain unfair we have to learn to lean on His understanding. This is difficult because our minds are made in the image of his. I believe that we have the physical capacity to understand what God understands...{you can read plenty of studies about the amount of un-used matter in our human brains.} What we lack, is the spiritual capacity to understand like Him.

I challenge you, especially if you have something going on in your life that you do not understand, to "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."1 Peter 5:7

Let him handle the details in your life...remember, only He can see the BIG picture!

{The first picture was a piece of Carys' shoulder as seen in the picture above.}

How to Kill a Mockingbird...

**No animals were harmed in the making of this post or the pictures contained therein. Furthermore, one Sir Sawyer Cottingham was duly warned against the slaughter of all types of song birds.**

Sawyer got his first REAL gun this weekend. It is a tiny Daisy BB gun. On Sunday after church, Justin took him to the shooting range to practice. Upon their return, Sawyer took me into the yard to show me how to "kill a bird with a BB gun" Here goes...

First you gather your equipment.

CALLS

Retriever

Gun, which you must load with ammo. {and hold your mouth right}

Begin to call your prey.

Hand motions are imperative.

If no luck, step up your calling efforts.

Wait, patiently, for your pray to respond or appear.

Aim. FIRE!

Send your retriever after the kill...

It is really quite simple.

Fingerprint Friday

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:
I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know its true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God.

You all know what a wonderful time we had at the beach. When I look at this photo and think about all that is revealed to us, about God, through nature I am amazed.

God is the beginning of life. All life. All form. All meaning.
I cannot help but think of the following scripture.

Genesis 1:1-9

¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² 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. ³ And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. ⁶ And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." ⁷ So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. ⁸ God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. ⁹ And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.

Visit the Rusted Chain for more Fingerprints!

Senior Portraits

I believe they speak for themselves.

Whew!!

I am really feeling the effects of the end of the school year. I will be much better prepared for this next school year. This is the first end of the year in this position by myself. I am trying to stay focused on the fact that I get the next two months off, something many would love to have.

I am so ready for my time with the kids the summer. I have a lot planned for us to do!

I will update later today with pictures from Carys' graduation. She is officially a First Grader!!!

My prayer for today is that I can find a way to...

¹⁴Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe ¹⁶as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. ¹⁷But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. ¹⁸So you too should be glad and rejoice with me. {Philippians 2:14-18}

Final Beach Post

We are home.
It is very bittersweet.

There are no words to describe the level of blessed that I feel. I just got back from a wonderful vacation. I have such a wonderful family {both that were on vacation with us and at home!} My mom stepped up and took care of all of our plants and animals while we were gone. THANK YOU Mother for doing that! The kids were absolutely wonderful while we were on the trip. The were together 24/7 for 4 days straight and did not get into any major skirmishes! My dear husband suffered from a toothache {he is on his way for a root canal this morning} the entire trip, but was a trooper and spent LOADS of time the kids which they LOVED! He even afforded me a little alone time to just sit and pray or be on the computer and edit photos! We stayed up late and slept in. We ate well and just took a short breather to get me through the next week or two of school. It was wonderful.

I hesitated before posting all of that. I know that there are people reading who's lives are not so blissful. Who have all sorts of things going on right now. They are just as bogged down with work as I am, but there may not be a beach vacation in their near future. They may not have the loving, devoted husband I have. Or, {the one that hits home the most} they may not have two happy healthy children running and playing like mine.

I stopped for just a moment to remember the moments when I felt hopeless and desperate for something to happen. Anything. Just anything that would make me feel better than my circumstances. But those were only moments. Then I realized {even back then} what I HAD. Life, given to be by a Savior to live out for His glory. And I realized that I HAD to post all of these wonderful things so that everyone can see what GOD CAN do. He is wonderful! Trusting in Him provides all that you need to carry on through the tough times and really soak up the glorious times. I realized that were it not for those "dark" times in my life I would NOT be able to see how truly spectacular my life is today!

Back to the beach...

Here is the boat we went on.

Here are the boat's Captain and Co-Captain!

Daddy and Sawyer enjoying the view from the front deck. It was so interesting to see how the sails work and how fast the boat moved through the water using just what God had provided!

Pop on deck. It was also very relaxing.

Grandmother Cottingham really enjoyed herself. And looked amazing!

Grammy and Carys on the boat before we left the dock.

Justin loves the water and this was also his first time on a sailboat.

Sawyer was very intrigued by the boat. At one point, he asked where the captain's "pirates" were. It was so funny! He is a really comical {but serious} child.

If you do not know, sailboats lean. As the winds shift or the captain changes directions and the sails move, the boat leans. Our captain was great to tell us when this was going to happen. I quite liked it, but it could make some people queasy I'm sure.

Carys loved the wind.

Isn't she lovely!

Beach Post Two

Here I am again! With more pictures from the beach!

Everything had been perfect for our trip. The weather is great. Also, the beaches of Alabama have yet to have any effects from the gulf oil spill.

The kids have reached the golden age where they love EVERY aspect of the beach {water, sand, and pool.} In the past, they liked one aspect more than the other and have never enjoyed the water as much as they have this year. Both have been slapped in the face with a good wave or two, and have come through it with flying colors. This is the moment when as parents, we knew we had arrived! I keep telling myself that this trip is not ALL about the pictures, but golly gee they have been awesome as well!

Sawyer has spent a great deal of time hunting for sea creatures.

Success!

Can you tell which pictures I did not take? HINT: they are centered:)

After this trip in the water, Pop knew why they had the red flags out today!

Sawyer's face here sums up our trip so far!

If you are loving these posts, check back tomorrow night because we are going on a sail boat ride tomorrow afternoon! We are all very excited.

Beach Post One

Who knows how many of these posts there will be. We have only made one trip to the pool and one to the beach and already I have 90 some odd pictures!

Also, we have LOVELY wireless internet so wahlah...I could go on for days!

PLUS, I have a completely empty memory card!!!

Here are a "few!"

Tragedy and Paradise

Okay, you must know that I am VERY emotional as I write {and title} this post.

I do understand that there are MUCH worse things in the world that what has happened to me. I really do.

HOWEVER...

I just lost about 800 pictures from a camera card. "Most" of them I have in other places such as shutterfly or the computer. But the 200 or so from the past two weeks are GONE, FOREVER. {sob}

I was trying to upload the pictures from Carys' Kindergarten Spelling Bee and Relay for Life {sob,sob} I needed to clean up my card so that I could have plenty of space for the BEACH pictures as we are leaving this afternoon for Gulf Shores.

I was going to prepare the wonderful post from the spelling bee and relay. {sob}

I am not as ask why kinda girl, but why oh why did it have to be my baby girl's memories that were lost? I have decided to list {here} what I know I lost. Then, I am going to put this behind me so that we can enjoy the rest of the week-end!

Carys and Ben at the spelling bee. Not only did I loose my pictures of Carys, but I was also taking pictures of Ben that are, well gone! {sob}

I lost a GREAT preggo picture of my best gal Mira who is {sob,sob} going to have her baby TOMORROW while I am gone {sob, sob}. Mira and Justin, I am going to do a full on newborn shoot when we get back {if you will allow me to!!!!} I also loss some super cute pictures of Jenna who is going to be a BIG sister...did I mention I won't be there?!?!?!

I also lost a valued picture of the kids with my MawMaw Bea. She will be 87 this year and every picture of them with her is precious.{sob}

Every year at Relay for Life, I take picture of Carys in her "survivor" t-shirt. It is such a precious thing for me to see the word SURVIVOR plastered across her back! Not to mention the wave of emotion that I get when I see that it is the SMALLEST shirt there. I also had pictures of Carys, Justin, and myself walking the survivor lap...another emotional moment.

Okay, I am done sobbing. It will NOT bring the pictures back. I know there is a REASON this has happened. I am now headed off for a wonderful weekend with my precious family. I will be sure to take LOTS of pictures, and {Lord willing:} will post them here for you to see!

Y'all Have To Know...

How much I LOVE this man!

I teach a great deal from a model called Talents Unlimited. Various thinking skills are broken down into "talents" which can be applied to all sorts of things. The point, is to help gain a better understanding of something. This list is (a) for my husband to see just exactly what I think of him (b) y'all to see exactly what I think of him and (c) for my students to see that Communication #1 can be used in "real life!"

Think of many, varied, and unusual single words to describe something. {Justin Cottingham}
Tall
Loving
Handsome
Devoted
Funny
Personable
Honest
Manly
Moncho
Goofy
Caring
Hairy
Hardworking
Compassionate
Fun-Loving
Unpredictable
Kind-Hearted
Faithful
Crazy
Mature
Interesting
Hairy {did I say that already?}
Quiet
Considerate
Outspoken
Welcoming
Attractive
Clean
Self-sacrificing
Humorous
Child-like
Spirit-filled
Blessed
Sufficient
Dependent
Nurturing

These are just a few of many words I could use to describe my husband of 8 years!

I believe that God created us to love each other, just as He made us to love HIM! I am living the DREAM! This does not mean that my husband is perfect - that he does not forget things, or make a mess, or do things that aggravate the mess out of me - it just means that I find comfort in those things because I know that if I can love someone through all that we have already faced together, that there is a force greater than myself that has sealed our love.

Justin,

You understand when I say there are no words. Too often I try, and fail. I will simply say that you are my love! Today, tomorrow, and forever!

Happy Anniversary!!

Raising Adults...

I am sure that I have posted on this before. I MUST set down and decided that I WILL label my posts so that I can find them in the future!!! Anywho...

When I read this morning's post At The Well, my heart was blessed. This is a topic that I feel very passionate about. Not in the judgmental "you should do it this way" passion, but in the "come on and show me some love for the way I do it" passion.

I believe that my job as a parent is to "raise up" my children {Ps. 22:6} That is, I am to carefully guide my children through the stages of life and always be aware of the end result. You know, I don't plan lessons at school or begin projects around the home without thinking about what the final result will be. With my children, I have to remember that I am raising adults, not children.

This is a difficult balancing act. I must be careful not to set adult expectations for my young children, but rather gauge the exceptions I set now, for a future adult goal.

For example, I do not expect Carys {5.5 YO} to be able to balance a checking account or pay bills. However, I set reasonable goals for her to learn to manage money in a way that will not hurt anyone, if she fails. She and Sawyer both have piggy banks. They are regularly given dollars and quarters from friends and family members. They are given choice on what to do with some of that money {all birthday/holiday money goes into their savings.} If they choose to spend their money now, it is gone. Or they can choose {independence} to put the money in the piggy bank and I help them{teaching} set up a purpose for that money. We always have some sort of "event" like a vacation or trip to the zoo or something where they can spend their money on an item of their choice. If one has money and the other does not, so be it. They have to be responsible for their choices to spend or save.

This "lesson" is designed with two future goals in mind (1) money management and (2) to see value in delayed gratification. See, I think too many people in my generation {including myself} did not learn this life lesson. That the feeling when you have prayed, saved, and labored over a purchase often bring so much more joy and satisfaction that when you rush to buy something that you think you need {want}.

I was stopped in a store recently when a woman witnessed the following conversation:

Sawyer {4}: "Mom, can I have this toy?"

Me: "How much is it?"

Sawyer: "Carys how much is this?"

Carys: "Um, let me see. Oh, it is $10."

Sawyer: "Carys says it is ten dollars, I guess I cannot have it today."

Me: "Yes, I think we should wait. I am buying groceries and you do not have your money with you. If you decide you want it, I am sure it will be here tomorrow and I will bring you back with your money."

Sawyer: "How long until our beach trip?"

Carys: "Two weeks, I am saving all my money for something from the beach!"

Sawyer: "Yeah, me too!"

The lady seemed appalled that my 4 and 5 year olds (1) understood about money and (2) did not expect me to buy it for them.

I will say they ARE 4 and 5 and things do not always go this nicely {just ask their grandparents} but they are learning. That is what parenting is all about! Teaching them, preparing them for the next stage in life.

There are so many other examples of how we try and teach our children about life. I could write all day! So, I have summarized some of the BIG life lessons that I am aware that my children learn from me and that I must focus on teaching them these things.

• They get their ideas about God and faith from US. By my actions they will form opinions on how big God is and what their relationship with Him can/should be.
• What marriage is all about. How wives should treat their husbands and vice versa.
• What Christian service looks like? Is it okay to be so caught up in our own lives that we forget to serve others?
• Ideas about government and law.
• They learn about Work Ethic.
• Health and Well-being.
• To be stewards of ALL that God gives to us {time, money, talents, etc...}
• How to be parents.
• How to love.
  

And so much more. I was so blessed to read about others who share the same ideals about raising up adults! Check out that post for some great advice on checking up to see how your parenting is going.