Mikaela at 2 years (almost)! Keira at 4 months!Such sweet sisters.

Mikaela can make Keira laugh more than anyone else.
Mikaela LOVES daddy's motorcycle.
My handsome hubby and his side-kick.
Seriously. She ALWAYS wants to be with him.
And me and little Keira.

Life Purpose

Over the past several months I've been trying to define my life purpose. I happen to be going through the book, Calm My Anxious Heart, by Linda Dillow with some friends. One of the chapters this week is about finding your life purpose. Hmmm... I had been trying to figure that out! The words of Betty Scott Stam (I'm not sure who she is or her story) JUMPED out and REALLY tugged my heart, so I'm claiming them...

"Lord,
I give up ALL my own plans
and purposes,
ALL my own desires
and hopes,
and accept Your will for my life.

I give myself,
my life,
my family,
my all utterly to You
to be Yours forever.

Fill me and seal me with Your Holy Spirit
Use me in Your best way,
send me anywhere,
work out Your whole will in my life
at ANY cost,
now and forever."

Every time I read those words, my heart starts pounding! This may or may not be my life purpose, but it's a start.

good. better? best!

This story came to mind while doing dishes the other night. It happened about 2 years ago. While we were working with 5th and 6th grade at church we decided to take one of the students out to eat. We'll call him Bob. Bob comes from a broken home in a run down neighborhood. He was one of our "challenging" kids, but we sure did enjoy him! Since he didn't go out to eat much, we wanted to treat him to some yummy food. We went to The Texas Roadhouse. We told him he could order ANYTHING he wanted. He sat there for awhile looking over the menu. We were excited to spoil him... to give him something special, out of the ordinary. When the waitor took our order, he happily ordered macaroni and cheese. We were floored. There was SO much he could have ordered, yet he stuck with macaroni and cheese. Something so simple. Part of us was disappointed. But Bob was not. He thoroughly enjoyed his macaroni.

We learned some things that day.

This is what Kevin learned... (written by Kevin)
We learned that when we get used to the ordinary and bland things, we don't have a taste for greatness. When we get used to asking God for normal and small things, we forget all that He has to offer. God wants to give us the world, and we can't even recognize it because we forget that God has great things in store for us. God wants to give us filet mignon, and we stick with the plain old mac and cheese.

On the flip-side this is what I learned....
Bob was content. Even though tempted with food of greater value, he went for something simple. Am I okay with mac and cheese? Or would I pout until I got something more expensive? Living in our culture today, we are constantly bombarded with the "need" for more and more and more. Greed is eating us up! When I start playing the comparison game and take my eyes off of what really matters (Jesus), I am NOT content. When I look at the lives of those around me, I begin to want what they have. I forget that God has given me EXACTLY what He wants me to have. He is my provider and has promised to always take care of me.

Anyways...
Needless to say, we are always learning more and more about God and His ways.

a little moment

This morning I was in the living room reading my Bible when out of Mikaela's room in such a sweet, gentle voice I could hear her sing... "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so" over and over again. She was flipping through a book about Jesus. Now, her reading a book is nothing new. She does it every morning... afternoon... evening... and in between! But normally I hear things like "Swiper, NO swiping!" from Dora the Explorer. Anyways, the moment melted my heart. Thank you, Lord, for such sweet moments!!!