More Than a Bunch of Teddy Bears

In this picture you might see a crazy women who has a goodwill addiction or if you think like my kids, a pile of ammo for a stuffed animal fight or maybe you see what I see, HOPE.  I see the kids who will at some point come into our home and need care, love and lots of grace.  You see Chris and I are 2 weeks into a 10 week training course to become foster parents in our county.  These bears are part of my "nesting".  I won't have a child growing in my belly and we won't be doing adoption paperwork, but our family will be growing.  We will welcome kids into our home that are hurting, neglected, confused, angry, and maybe without hope.

I am very thankful for the training we are receiving and from the conference we attended in DC by Show Hope called The Empowered to Connect Conference.  Little by little we are growing our tool belt of knowledge and resources to care for kids from hard places.  My moms group at church will be using the Bible study that goes along with the book The Connected Child by Karen Purvis.  What I'm trying to say is that we are not alone.  We have others who stand shoulder to shoulder with us in this, praying, babysitting, listening and learning.  Granted this has already felt daunting.  The information is overwhelming and the task just a bit scary, but...

"The helpless entrusts himself to You; You are a helper of the fatherless.  

Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their hearts. 

 You will listen carefully 

doing justice for the fatherless and the oppressed 

so that men of the earth may terrify them no more." 

 Psalm 10:14b,17-18

Maybe it's just a bear.  Or maybe it says, "this is mine, someone cares for me and I will always have a room to put it in" even if that home is mine or that someone is me I can always find more bears for each of the children that God brings my way.

Please pray for us and our family as we prepare to open our home to more children in 2015.

With love,

Raising Godly Men

As a mom of four boys we are on a mission in our house to raise godly men and to teach our boys that there are indeed differences between males and females.  We have each been given different roles and gifts within a family and community.  Daddy is the head of our household, the leader, final decision maker and bread winner.  I am the homeschool teacher, boo boo kisser, cook and the bill payer.  Now this is certainly not an exhaustive list; my husband and I do share a great many duties, but we believe the Bible has given us a template to follow.  It helps us to understand where we each fit in and how to use our gifts to best support the family and to fulfill the purposes and callings to which God has put us.

Natural born leader:  Adam being the first man was given the duty to name all the creatures,  care for creation and to create.

Suitable helper:  Eve was created to be the perfect counterpart to her husband Adam.  She was not  made to follow him around and clean up after him, but to partner with him in his duties of care and creating.

 Now unfortunately due to sin these roles have been all screwed up.  Men are raised without courage. Women are power hungry.  Families are torn apart by divorce.  Single parents struggle to fill the role of both mother and father.  Women do not have strong men to lead their families.  And so many men either are too aggressive or not even truly present for their families.  Women all too quickly step in and take charge, never giving husbands a chance. We are not connected to each other as husband and wife and we don't get our roles.  But Titus chapter 2 gives us a window into how it should go.  I encourage you to check it out.

"In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled in everything.  

Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. 

 Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, 

so that the opponent will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us."  

Titus 2: 6-8

We are hoping to stop this cycle with strong biblical teaching, example and a whole lot of prayer!  Last year we taught a Bible class written by John Piper based on his book What's the Difference and let me tell you that raised a lot of eye brows.  We talked about submission, leadership in the church and how we fit into all that.  One other book I highly recommend is Wild at Heart by John Eldridge, a must read for all men and any women with a husband or sons.  My goal today is not to spell it out for you, but my hope is that at least today it will peak your interest and just maybe you will dive into scripture and see what it has to say.

The other day I had proof that maybe we were getting through to at least one of our boys.  Levi and I are just starting our Kindergarten year together and we needed to review letter names and identify things that were created by God or man made.  In the interest of time I figured out a way to combine the activities.  Each letter was on a puzzle piece that corresponded with a brightly colored picture starting with that letter.  We made our way through the pieces matching A and apple then shouting God created.  And so it went.  B and ball, man made.  C and cat, God created.   Then we got to J. Jam.  Levi just nonchalantly says, "women made." moves onto K.  The end.  To him that was a logical answer.  I laughed hysterically, high-fived him and immediately called my husband.  I love my job!

With love,