What are you words REALLY saying?

One of my favorite worship songs from a child is, "I Love You Lord."

The lyrics are:

"I love you Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you, oh my soul rejoice.
Take joy my King, in what you hear.  May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear."

I thought of this song yesterday as my son woke up from his nap and was angry because Emma was already awake and snuggling with me.  Luke generally wakes first and gets alone time with me and he was less than happy about Emma winning the race yesterday.  He didn't know how to handle his frustrations and started spewing hurtful words towards Emma.

Which made me mad.

Emma is NEVER the child who forces herself on me.  She generally waits patiently until you are ready for her, and then she soaks up the attention that she gets for as long as she gets it.  Emma generally is very kind to her brothers and sister and although she has her moments of four year old human selfishness, she is a pretty amazing sister.  And there she sat, hearing horrible words come from her best friend's mouth pertaining to her.

I wanted to jump off that couch and yell at him (which would have been way effective, I know) but instead, I sent him to his room and told him that if he talked like that about someone in our family, he could not be part of what our family did for awhile.  He sat in there for awhile angry, and then he eventually came down and told Emma he was sorry for the words he said and that he loved her.

All was forgiven.

But our words are powerful.  Our words can tear people down, abuse people, crush someone's spirit.  Our words can breathe life to someone, build someone up, encourage someone's confidence.  I'm trying to teach my children that, "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Proverbs 15:1  Kindness is so important.

But someone else, far more important than any human, hears all of our words...even all of our thoughts.  But our words...the ones that we mutter under our breath, the ones that we say when we are furious, the ones we think are said in secret, the ones that we think will be inconsequential.  God hears all of our words.  Every.  Single. One.

When I stop and think that every part of my life should glorify God, should bring Him joy, should be in worship to Him - I am humbled.

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer." Psalm 19:14

Let's be honest, my words are not always glorifying to God...or even acceptable for that matter.  I don't cuss (usually) but I can sure be sharp tongued at times...with my kids, my husband, my mom.  My words are powerful and beyond that they are my life's worship to God.  What am I saying, really?  Are my words saying that I love the Lord with all my heart?  Are my words saying that I find great blessing in my children and my husband?  What am I really saying?  Or better yet, what is God really hearing?

^{Matthew 12:34-37}"You have minds like a snake pit! How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-minded? It's your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words. A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation."

What are your words really saying?  Do you think they are bringing a sweet sound to His ear?

God Remains Faithful

I believe in Jesus because of what He has already done for me.  I believe in Jesus because I believe in a Heaven and a Hell.  I believe in Jesus because He has given me life and a purpose.

I don't believe in Jesus because He will always give me and my family good health.  I don't believe in Jesus because He will give me monetary riches.

I love Him simply because He loved me.

There have been times I have doubted, yes.  But I am always drawn back to Him because of the truth of who He is, and His constant presence in my life.

When we couldn't have kids - I doubted.

Now we have four.

When Dave got sick - I doubted.

But he's ok now, and we are reminded continuously that are strength and trust need not be on Dave but on God.

When Will was born - I doubted.

But Will survived, and is a rambunctious 1.5 year old.

God remained faithful.

Recently a woman who I look up to immensely had a tire fly off her car while she was driving down the freeway at 70mph in Atlanta, GA.  She was fine.  No accident.  And she posted on good ol' Facebook that God protected her that day.

Yes, I agree, He did.

But someone made a comment that irked me.  She said, "God is faithful to the faithful."  See, that bothered me.

God is faithful to the faithful, but God's faithful isn't the same as our faithful.  Nowhere in the Bible did God EVER say that, "Whosoever believes in me shall not suffer death, calamity, illness, sadness, money problems. the same trials the rest of the world does."  He did however say, "Whosoever believes in me shall not perish but have everlasting life." 

If I am faithful to my God, even in my times of unfaithfulness (that I experience daily), because I believe in Him, He will be faithful to His word, and I will go to Heaven.

I may enter Heaven broke, heart broken, and without any limbs - but God will still prove faithful.

God is ALWAYS faithful.

Today, Dave lost his job.  And I could spend quite some time spewing on and on about the injustice of it all.  But there is no point - we will hold our heads up high and move onward and upward.

Dave is confident, and so am I.  I am nervous as I imagine any wife would be, but I am brought back to the truth that God has hammered into my life - He is ALWAYS faithful.  He will provide for our needs - in might not be always in the way we think He ought, but it's always in the way He knows it should.

I am reminded of when Dave got sick.  Shortly before that day in February three years ago, I studied James 1 with my friend.  After Dave got sick, I was so angry at God that I didn't read the bible for a LONG time - because apparently that was showing Him for giving me trials.  But the word proved true, as I know it will again:


"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

See, even though people have let us down again, as people will always do, God will remain faithful - because that's what He does.

And, I will be way mature by the end of it all.

Please Answer!!!

What have you done for your marriage today?  Really, I want to know.

(Not so fat anymore) Tuesday

So, I've lost 18 pounds so far...on the 5th it will be a month that I've actually been trying.

And I have 23 more pounds to go - but let's be real here for a second.

In 3 more pounds I will be the weight I was before I got pregnant with the twins.

In 19 pounds I will be what I was when I got married.

And in 33 pounds I would be what I weighed before I met Dave when I wasn't just sitting comfortably, eating all the time.

So, I'm doing good - and not holding my breath hoping to ever see 33 pounds from now...

In my little group that I meet with the question was raised on what we would do for ourselves once we met our goals.

Obviously, I will have to buy new clothes (as obvious as this sounds, someone must remind me as I will probably just wear the baggy clothes for way too long because I will be spending all my money on my children who seemingly grow two sizes every week.)

And, in the past, my reward for myself has always been eating dessert - which is probably the reason why I found myself 51 pounds heavier than when I met my hubby.  So, that's not going to be it - although a huge piece of ice cream chocolate cake sounds like a heavenly reward.

And a trip?  Oh, let's all take a deep sigh and just imagine how amazingly glorious that would be...ok, snap out of it.  Back to reality.  It just can't happen, it won't happen...moving on.

I was thinking boots...or really, any shoes that aren't sneakers and don't have shoelaces.  Maybe shoes that make me look like I'm a woman.

Or a mani/pedi - maybe...but I would have to get the good ol' fake nails and let's be real here for a second - how do those hold up to less than desirable diaper changes?

Really, I'm not good at rewarding myself.  Actually, I suck at it.

I have never been one to indulge in shoes or purses or clothes...really anything other than the chocolate cake.  If given money I end up spending it on the kids and rarely spend it on me.

But seriously, I think it's time to change that.  Seriously.  Seriously.

I mean it has felt wonderful the last month to spend as much time as I have each day focusing on me.  Granted, I'm sweating like a pig and look less than beautiful - but I'm working out for me...with no interruptions (most of the time) and I'm getting results.  It's kind of nice to pay attention to myself...

So, I'm going to put some more thought into this whole reward thing...I want it to be a whopper of a reward.  Because I deserve it.  Seriously.  Seriously.

*To see my friend who created her version of Fat Tuesday, check out her blog at The Lumberjack's Wife - I promise you will love it!