Love the LORD your God

My previous post was all about how to love God more so that he will infiltrate every piece of you life and become and easy topic of conversation with your children. I found it so interesting today that Pastor Wally referenced Deut 6:5, which is the beginning of the verse that Beth Moore quoted in her book Feather From My Nest. This must really be something that God is trying to get through my head for it to come up so many times. I know that with such a young little one I am constantly thinking about how I'm really going to raise him. There isn't much raising to be done yet since he doesn't understand anything, but that time will come sooner than I would like. He already has such a curiosity and I hope that he has that same curiousity when he starts learning about God. I pray that he will love him fervently, but I know that I will play a very important role in whether or not he takes interest in it. I've been so challenged by this topic.

 ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.  Deut 6:5-9

Dreading Saturday

It seems like Saturday has been looming over me like a dark rain cloud for the past week. I always hate having to get on a plane back to Baltimore. I worry sometimes that it may sound like I don't want to see Kenny, but I hate leaving my family. I just wish we lived closer to them. It is especially hard now that we have Asher. My parents love him so much and I hate that they don't get to spend more time with him. I keep praying and praying that God will move us closer. As irrational as it is, it almost seems more fair to me if neither or our parents (Kenny's and mine) live super close to us so that they get "equal" time with Asher, or at least have the same opportunities to see them. It's so hard having to fly 3 hours to see my parents and it's not always easy on us financially so I end up staying for a long time to make it worth our money. I don't know if this is better or if it's harder on everyone involved. Kenny misses out on things because he's not with us the whole time and then its harder on my parents and me when we have to leave. I wish there was an easy solution to all of this!
We have had an awesome time while we've been here. I'm not looking forward to the cold weather that will greet us on Saturday night. I'm very worried about having to get Asher out of the house when it's so cold. I've been living in MD for three years and I still don't know how to dress myself when it's cold out!
I am so going to miss the warm weather and being able to put Asher in his stroller for a walk everyday, and I don't mind not having to deal with the hills! Oh well, I guess I just have to be patient and trust in God's plan for our family.

Love

I've been reading Beth Moore's book Feathers From My Nest. I started not too long after Asher was born, and as busy as he keeps me I've made little progress in it. The most recent chapter I read was about teaching our children/family about God. How He can be woven into every day conversations, how a car ride to the store, church, etc. can be used as teaching time. Those of us He has called to be parents He has also called to be teachers. Beth made such an excellent point about how we can interject God into every activity and every conversation. When we love someone or something we talk about it all the time, we don't even need to think about how we can bring that person or thing into the conversation. If its so easy to bring our children, spouses, jobs and hobbies into a conversation then why do we have to TRY to bring God into the conversation. If we try everyday to fall more in love with the God who loves us enough to sacrifice His own son, His flesh and blood on the cross for our sins it will make this teaching task so much easier.
Beth's chapter on this so spoke to my heart! I know that Asher is not old enough to understand anything I say to him, but if I can make it a habit to tell him about God as a baby how much easier will it be when he's old enough to understand? I know this is so much easier said than done, but it makes you think about how much or how little time we spend getting to know God better.
I guess this is one more goal I can add to my list for 2011!

Snapfish!

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Hope everyone is enjoying their new year so far. I am constantly setting new goals for myself for this year and with God's help I'll reach each one of them!

Beyond Blessed,
Jana<><