Fearing God

I recently started a Bible Study on Proverbs and this week's lesson was on fearing God. I had several Aha! moments as I have studied this week that were encouraging to me. One was as I looked at verses that had the phrase "fear of the Lord" or "fears the Lord" I came across a verse in Prov 31. You know the chapter that sometimes seems so overwhelming as the picture of the perfect wife and mom. Well, it simply said, "The woman who fears the Lord she shall be praised". It didn't say the one who had well-behaved children (wearing handmade clothes,of course), a perfectly clean house, neat yard, well-balanced artistically presented meals, nicely decorated house, was in great physical shape and had made the perfect education choice for her children all while maintaining a great marriage. It said a woman who fears the Lord. My job is to fear the Lord. Sure many of those other things will follow, some may not (depending on my gifts and talents), as I fear Him and seek to obey Him but He is to be my number one priority. What freedom. I think today so many woman get caught up in all the details of being the perfect Christian mom because it is a weighty responsibility that we have that we lose sight of our first priority : Fear the Lord!

God is Good!

Theme Music: The Hallejullah Chorus (I don't know how to include music yet)

We are rejoicing here at our home because my dear hubby just signed a contract for a new job. This is the job that he went to college for and we have been praying for since December 2005. In our human time frame we never expected that it would take so long to get a teaching job. According to the news there is a teacher shortage after all! However we filled out applications, he went to interviews, and still no job. We filled out more applications and started looking at schools outside of San Antonio feeling that if God wanted us to move then we would do so. All the while we prayed and waited. Dennis worked a variety of jobs while we waited because I had quit my full time teaching job and we were expecting a baby. Dennis got additional certification to make himself more marketable and was willing to teach any subject and any grade, but our phone was still not ringing off the hook with offers of employment. However this summer at least people were calling asking for interviews. Well, now he has a job with a classical Christian school in Boerne. We are so excited. Several of our friends are sending their children there this fall. It will be a little bit of a drive, but he will get to teach History, the subject he really wanted to teach. We saw his classroom yesterday, and of course I'm excited about pulling the stuff out of boxes from my classroom and helping him get his all ready. He starts inservice the last week of August and classes start the first week of Sept. School ends the last week of May. So it will really be an ideal schedule.
God has been so good and faithful to us through this whole time. He has provided for us financially. This last year when Dennis was substituting in the public school system, the only days that he did not work (besides holidays and ice days) were the two days he chose not to work when we had the baby. We have a healthy baby who continues to grow and is adored by our family. I have had no ill effects from my seizure and have in fact been seizure free now for six months. Praise the Lord!
We have learned so much about the faithfulness of our God. We as Christians say that we believe God is sovereign but when times get tough we don't act like it. This was a time for us to wait on God and to see if we really believed what we said we did. We said we trusted God to do what was best and it was wonderful to see Him fulfill His promises time after time. God has been so good to us! This will truly be one of the "memorial stones" in our life that we can share with our daughter.

Photo update

The youth on the Junior High Retreat are part of my adoring public.

My overalls make me look even longer!

Daddy's trying to see my first tooth, but I have two now.

Mmm! Finally, they are giving me real food!

Time is precious

I know I haven't blogged in awhile and I have many things that I intend to write about but haven't, but I still won't today.

I should be cleaning my house, but my mind keeps thinking about the memorial service I attended today. I woke up today not even knowing that this lady had died, but I got an email telling me that the funeral was today. The lady was the mom of one of the kids that had been in my kinder class a few years ago. She had died suddenly this week after complications from knee surgery. So now there is a cute little fourth grader with no mom. However God is good in that he already has a very good and close relationship with an aunt and uncle and cousins who shared his mom's beliefs. I was thankful that there was such a clear Gospel presentation given since many of her coworkers were present ( she worked for a local TV station).

Thoughts I find myself having:

• when I die will my daughter remember or know that I love God and her as this boy knows his mom did
• will my witness for Christ have been bold or obvious enough or will people simply think I was a good person and that is why people like me
• what character qualities will people remember me for (esp my husband and daughter) - will they remember a smile, laugh, hugs, kisses, kind words or will they remember discontent, rebukes, harsh word

The little boy's kinder picture is still on my fridge. So now it will remind me to pray for him and his family and that each day is precious.

* I originally wrote this on Saturday

Girls Night

This weekend is the men's retreat so the girls from our Bible study decided that we would still get together and have a girls night. So we went to Carrie's house so that she would be able to put her kids to bed and were going to watch a "chick flick" and have eats. What's not to like about chips, corn salsa, and queso?! Things I realized last night with the girls

• I am old because "Father of the Bride" with Steve Martin has been out for 15 years
• We were saying things like "For that much money, why is there house still a mess after the wedding" and "A good wedding coordinator would have made sure he danced with his daughter."
• I could see my husband feeling sad when our daughter grows up and moves away - and she is only 3 months old!
  

I guess I never realized how drastically your perception would change; I knew it would but it was interesting to see that I no longer related to the daughter in the movie but to the parent now.

Going Pink

Well, (drumroll please) the newest thing in my life is that I am now a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant.

Ok, stop laughing. I'm still in shock myself. Me, the woman (wow, I used the word woman to refer to myself, I must be old), who hardly ever wears makeup is now going to attempt to sell makeup to other ladies. We thought about it and it seemed like a good investment and a good way for me to help out our family. I do like the products and have actually been using them for about 10 yrs (when I actually bothered to do anything with my face, I know what you are thinking !)

This does not mean that I will paint the Jeep pink or only have pink accessories. I am not anticipating that I will be a career oriented MK lady who ever achieves the pink Cadillac, although they do offer cars at lower levels :)

I still can't believe I signed on the dotted line to start my own business!

My Verse for the Week

"When my heart was embittered,
And I was pierced within,
Then I was senseless and ignorant;
I was like a beast before Thee.
Nevertheless, I am continually with Thee;
Thou hast taken hold of my right hand.
With Thy counsel Thou wilt guide me,
And afterward receive me to glory.
Psalm 73:21-24


Isn't nevertheless a beautiful word?

Well, I now have a new blog. I'm trying to keep them all straight too. I'm not giving up on Xanga yet, but it seems like more of my friends use blogspot and some of them don't accept comments unless the other person has blogspot (Rachel!) so I had to get one anyway. I should change my Myspace name so that they all match and I don't get confused. Not that I really use that Myspace anymore. My highschool kids wanted me to have one.

Here's a picture of our sweet baby all dressed up for Easter.



Rachel and Mommy having Rachel's first bluebonnet pictures taken. A rite of passage for all Texas babies!