Our Day Out!

Our family went out for a day together and here are the photos and some thoughts.

The Four Crazy Monkeys!
He's getting too big for his britches!


Nice Goats, Silas was much more enthused then Kace!

My middle men! Aren't these faces the cutest??

One thing I have been pondering over the last several weeks is my own attachment to my children. My love of them is one thing, my expectation is totally another. Often I am drawn into the trap of desiring already sanctified children. I love them so much and I know that the Lord is what is necessary for them therefore their sin is often more then I "expect." But why don't I "expect" sinners to sin and to do so in HUGE amounts over long periods of time? I do so because I to am a sinner in need of grace. I hold my children to a higher standard than my God holds me. I need to remember in humility and grace that my children are a work in progress and I am not above them as the wise old sage, but I am still learning the same lessons of relying on and trusting my savior. I may be a bit ahead because the work of redemption has been active in my heart and mind in a more real way then in theirs. But I am still a sinner daily battling with the sin of my flesh. With Anger, pride, selfishness and sloth. How then am I always so tempted to think they must not and cannot fall prey to the same?

One statement I read in a book (I think it was Richard Baxters Book on his wife Margaret, she says and I am paraphrasing....) that the sources of our greatest joy are also the sources of our greatest disappointment. Therefore we must temper our love that our eyes might be fixed with more devotion on the One who truly satisfies our needs, Our Savior and God Jesus Christ! Jesus more then our children or husband or any other object is what gives us lasting joy. This is a hard concept to grasp and it is often bandied about in a flipant way that we cannot really understand, but we have all been disappointed by the things we have set our greathope in.

For Example: Our husband forgets that we like thin crust pizza and only orders hand tossed. We are hurt not only by the fact that we haven't recieved what we had set our hearts on but also that this person we have lived with for years doesn't remember who we are. (Am I right? this may sound petty, but I know that not just me is like this!) Or our child disobeys in some manner that not only embarasses us but also grieves us. I personally hate it when my boys have a melt down in the store! I am literally mortified, especially with all the accusing looks you recieve. I would honestly pay my child a million dollars to get them out of the store in about a millisecond. But what do we expect? Our chilren are not as able and willing to hide their sin as we are and thus it is more obvious. But even more then that...they ARE SINNERS, and in need of the same Grace we were in such need of. We must bear with them in patience and love.

We must temper our love. What I mean by temper is that we must get our love inline with the love depicted in the Bible. 1 Corintians 13-- We have all heard this! "Love is patient, love is kind, it doesn't envy or boast, it isn't arrogant (or prideful ie. I am better than you, I am further along then you), It does not insist on it's own way, it isnt irritable or resentful, it doesn't rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love Never fails."

Uggg! That is what the writer of Hebrews means when he says the Word of God is sharper then any two edged sword able to cut to the bone! I am undone! I am not like this with the ones I love. I set up expectations, I lose my cool, I am prideful, I insist we do things my way or the highway. Oh, How much work there is left to do in my own sinful heart and this TRUTH will temper our love as well as humble our hearts. Like Paul says in Galatians if a person thinks he is something he deceives himself and the truth is not in him (6:3). We are called to love in a manner that would honor our Great God, let us do so with abandon to Him alone and in great Humility and joy.