Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Christmas Eve
I totally feel like tomorrow is Christmas. Benji comes home! Today we spent most of the day at Emery's friend's house. They met at MMO and became best of buddies.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Read This Daily, Moms
I'm not going to lie, (not that you thought I would but whateves..)This has been a hard 10 days for me while Benji has been in Brazil. Jesse hasn't slept great, well...Jesse hasn't slept great AT ALL. He is getting his molars. AT 4 MONTHS. Really?
Emery has been a little fussier than usual because she really misses Benji and doesn't understand where he is.
I'm sick again and exhausted and HOT! It is so so so HOT!
But all in all I've actually had a pretty fun 10 days with my kids. My days aren't really that different because, well, this is what I do every day anyway. Benji just usually comes home at 430pm to relieve me of some of the burden.
I've been meaning to post this ever since I read it, I'm just now getting around to it.
Mom's, especially stay at home mom's who have a hard time with finding meaning and purpose in your "everyday" routine...PLEASE read this!
I'm telling you if anything in the past 10 years has changed my heart, my attitude about something, this is it. I can not tell you how many times at the end of an exhausting day I have sat at my computer and searched again for this commentary. To read it again and again, to encourage my weary soul.
This girl, I don't know her but she deserves something, like a medal for how she has encouraged me and I would bet thousands of women out there.
I felt it would be especially fitting for me to post it this week since my husband is off jet setting and ministering to the world while I'm at home wiping bottoms and noses and getting spit up on (3 times today). But you know, our ministry is the same. I am working my mission field, he is working his.
And there is no other place I'd rather be than right here with my children at home.
Motherhood as a Mission Field
June 16, 2011 | by: Rachel Jankovic | Category: Commentary
There is a good old saying, perhaps only said by my Grandfather, that distance adds intrigue. It is certainly true — just think back to anything that has ever been distant from you that is now near. Your driver’s license. Marriage. Children. Things that used to seem so fascinating, but as they draw near become less mystical and more, well, real.
This same principle certainly applies to mission fields too. The closer you get to home, the less intriguing the work of sacrifice seems. As someone once said, “Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to help Mom with the dishes.”
When you are a mother at home with your children, the church is not clamoring for monthly ministry updates. When you talk to other believers, there is not any kind of awe about what you are sacrificing for the gospel. People are not pressing you for needs you might have, how they can pray for you. It does not feel intriguing, or glamorous. Your work is normal, because it is as close to home as you can possibly be. You have actually gone so far as to become home.
Home: The Headwaters of Mission
If you are a Christian woman who loves the Lord, the gospel is important to you. It is easy to become discouraged, thinking that the work you are doing does not matter much. If you were really doing something for Christ you would be out there, somewhere else, doing it. Even if you have a great perspective on your role in the kingdom, it is easy to lose sight of it in the mismatched socks, in the morning sickness, in the dirty dishes. It is easy to confuse intrigue with value, and begin viewing yourself as the least valuable part of the Church.
There are a number of ways in which mothers need to study their own roles, and begin to see them, not as boring and inconsequential, but as home, the headwaters of missions.
At the very heart of the gospel is sacrifice, and there is perhaps no occupation in the world so intrinsically sacrificial as motherhood. Motherhood is a wonderful opportunity to live the gospel. Jim Elliot famously said, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Motherhood provides you with an opportunity to lay down the things that you cannot keep on behalf of the people that you cannot lose. They are eternal souls, they are your children, they are your mission field.
Faith Makes the Small Offering Great
If you are like me, then you may be thinking “What did I ever give up for them? A desk job? Time at the gym? Extra spending money? My twenty- year- old figure? Some sleep?” Doesn’t seem like much when you put it next to the work of some of the great missionaries, people who gave their lives for the gospel.
Think about the feeding of the five thousand when the disciples went out and rounded up the food that was available. It wasn’t much. Some loaves. Some fish. Think of some woman pulling her fish out and handing it to one of the disciples. That had to have felt like a small offering. But the important thing about those loaves and those fishes was not how big they were when they were given, it was about whose hands they were given into. In the hands of the Lord, that offering was sufficient. It was more than sufficient. There were leftovers. Given in faith, even a small offering becomes great.
Look at your children in faith, and see how many people will be ministered to by your ministering to them. How many people will your children know in their lives? How many grandchildren are represented in the faces around your table now?
Gain What You Cannot Lose in Them
So, if mothers are strategically situated to impact missions so greatly, why do we see so little coming from it? I think the answer to this is quite simple: sin. Discontent, pettiness, selfishness, resentment. Christians often feel like the right thing to do is to be ashamed about what we have. We hear that quote of Jim Elliot’s and think that we ought to sell our homes and move to some place where they need the gospel.
But I’d like to challenge you to look at it differently. Giving up what you cannot keep does not mean giving up your home, or your job so you can go serve somewhere else. It is giving up yourself.
Lay yourself down. Sacrifice yourself here, now. Cheerfully wipe the nose for the fiftieth time today. Make dinner again for the people who don’t like the green beans. Laugh when your plans are thwarted by a vomiting child. Lay yourself down for the people here with you, the people who annoy you, the people who get in your way, the people who take up so much of your time that you can’t read anymore. Rejoice in them. Sacrifice for them. Gain that which you cannot lose in them.
It is easy to think you have a heart for orphans on the other side of the world, but if you spend your time at home resenting the imposition your children are on you, you do not. You cannot have a heart for the gospel and a fussiness about your life at the same time.
You will never make any difference there if you cannot be at peace here. You cannot have a heart for missions, but not for the people around you. A true love of the gospel overflows and overpowers. It will be in everything you do, however drab, however simple, however repetitive.
God loves the little offerings. Given in faith, that plate of PB&J’s will feed thousands. Given in faith, those presents on Christmas morning will bring delight to more children than you can count. Offered with thankfulness, your work at home is only the beginning. Your laundry pile, selflessly tackled daily, will be used in the hands of God to clothe many. Do not think that your work does not matter. In God’s hands, it will be broken, and broken, and broken again, until all who have need of it have eaten and are satisfied. And even then, there will be leftovers.
Rachel Jankovic is a wife, homemaker, and mother. She is the author of "Loving the Little Years" and blogs at Femina. Her husband is Luke, and they have five children: Evangeline (5), Daphne (4), Chloe (2), Titus (2), and Blaire (5 months).
Emery has been a little fussier than usual because she really misses Benji and doesn't understand where he is.
I'm sick again and exhausted and HOT! It is so so so HOT!
But all in all I've actually had a pretty fun 10 days with my kids. My days aren't really that different because, well, this is what I do every day anyway. Benji just usually comes home at 430pm to relieve me of some of the burden.
I've been meaning to post this ever since I read it, I'm just now getting around to it.
Mom's, especially stay at home mom's who have a hard time with finding meaning and purpose in your "everyday" routine...PLEASE read this!
I'm telling you if anything in the past 10 years has changed my heart, my attitude about something, this is it. I can not tell you how many times at the end of an exhausting day I have sat at my computer and searched again for this commentary. To read it again and again, to encourage my weary soul.
This girl, I don't know her but she deserves something, like a medal for how she has encouraged me and I would bet thousands of women out there.
I felt it would be especially fitting for me to post it this week since my husband is off jet setting and ministering to the world while I'm at home wiping bottoms and noses and getting spit up on (3 times today). But you know, our ministry is the same. I am working my mission field, he is working his.
And there is no other place I'd rather be than right here with my children at home.
Motherhood as a Mission Field
June 16, 2011 | by: Rachel Jankovic | Category: Commentary
There is a good old saying, perhaps only said by my Grandfather, that distance adds intrigue. It is certainly true — just think back to anything that has ever been distant from you that is now near. Your driver’s license. Marriage. Children. Things that used to seem so fascinating, but as they draw near become less mystical and more, well, real.
This same principle certainly applies to mission fields too. The closer you get to home, the less intriguing the work of sacrifice seems. As someone once said, “Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to help Mom with the dishes.”
When you are a mother at home with your children, the church is not clamoring for monthly ministry updates. When you talk to other believers, there is not any kind of awe about what you are sacrificing for the gospel. People are not pressing you for needs you might have, how they can pray for you. It does not feel intriguing, or glamorous. Your work is normal, because it is as close to home as you can possibly be. You have actually gone so far as to become home.
Home: The Headwaters of Mission
If you are a Christian woman who loves the Lord, the gospel is important to you. It is easy to become discouraged, thinking that the work you are doing does not matter much. If you were really doing something for Christ you would be out there, somewhere else, doing it. Even if you have a great perspective on your role in the kingdom, it is easy to lose sight of it in the mismatched socks, in the morning sickness, in the dirty dishes. It is easy to confuse intrigue with value, and begin viewing yourself as the least valuable part of the Church.
There are a number of ways in which mothers need to study their own roles, and begin to see them, not as boring and inconsequential, but as home, the headwaters of missions.
At the very heart of the gospel is sacrifice, and there is perhaps no occupation in the world so intrinsically sacrificial as motherhood. Motherhood is a wonderful opportunity to live the gospel. Jim Elliot famously said, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Motherhood provides you with an opportunity to lay down the things that you cannot keep on behalf of the people that you cannot lose. They are eternal souls, they are your children, they are your mission field.
Faith Makes the Small Offering Great
If you are like me, then you may be thinking “What did I ever give up for them? A desk job? Time at the gym? Extra spending money? My twenty- year- old figure? Some sleep?” Doesn’t seem like much when you put it next to the work of some of the great missionaries, people who gave their lives for the gospel.
Think about the feeding of the five thousand when the disciples went out and rounded up the food that was available. It wasn’t much. Some loaves. Some fish. Think of some woman pulling her fish out and handing it to one of the disciples. That had to have felt like a small offering. But the important thing about those loaves and those fishes was not how big they were when they were given, it was about whose hands they were given into. In the hands of the Lord, that offering was sufficient. It was more than sufficient. There were leftovers. Given in faith, even a small offering becomes great.
Look at your children in faith, and see how many people will be ministered to by your ministering to them. How many people will your children know in their lives? How many grandchildren are represented in the faces around your table now?
Gain What You Cannot Lose in Them
So, if mothers are strategically situated to impact missions so greatly, why do we see so little coming from it? I think the answer to this is quite simple: sin. Discontent, pettiness, selfishness, resentment. Christians often feel like the right thing to do is to be ashamed about what we have. We hear that quote of Jim Elliot’s and think that we ought to sell our homes and move to some place where they need the gospel.
But I’d like to challenge you to look at it differently. Giving up what you cannot keep does not mean giving up your home, or your job so you can go serve somewhere else. It is giving up yourself.
Lay yourself down. Sacrifice yourself here, now. Cheerfully wipe the nose for the fiftieth time today. Make dinner again for the people who don’t like the green beans. Laugh when your plans are thwarted by a vomiting child. Lay yourself down for the people here with you, the people who annoy you, the people who get in your way, the people who take up so much of your time that you can’t read anymore. Rejoice in them. Sacrifice for them. Gain that which you cannot lose in them.
It is easy to think you have a heart for orphans on the other side of the world, but if you spend your time at home resenting the imposition your children are on you, you do not. You cannot have a heart for the gospel and a fussiness about your life at the same time.
You will never make any difference there if you cannot be at peace here. You cannot have a heart for missions, but not for the people around you. A true love of the gospel overflows and overpowers. It will be in everything you do, however drab, however simple, however repetitive.
God loves the little offerings. Given in faith, that plate of PB&J’s will feed thousands. Given in faith, those presents on Christmas morning will bring delight to more children than you can count. Offered with thankfulness, your work at home is only the beginning. Your laundry pile, selflessly tackled daily, will be used in the hands of God to clothe many. Do not think that your work does not matter. In God’s hands, it will be broken, and broken, and broken again, until all who have need of it have eaten and are satisfied. And even then, there will be leftovers.
Rachel Jankovic is a wife, homemaker, and mother. She is the author of "Loving the Little Years" and blogs at Femina. Her husband is Luke, and they have five children: Evangeline (5), Daphne (4), Chloe (2), Titus (2), and Blaire (5 months).
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Our Daily Bread, Or Not!
There has been SO MUCH going on lately! And so much on my mind.
There is just alot of "life" stuff going on. Things that are occupying my mind, while I'm trying to stay above water while Benji is in Brazil and I hold down the castle.
Jesse is teething.
Emery really, REALLY misses her dad and I think it comes out in her behavior.
I've got friends who are hurting, waiting, hoping.
I've got church friends who's very lives are hanging in the balance between this world and the next.
Then I have laundry to do. Mouths to feed. A house to keep some what clean.
Bills are coming in.
And I almost went into anaphylactic shock the other night. Yes and I think the culprit is either/ or both wheat and soy.
Most of you know I have been continuously sick since Jesse was born, really since Emery was born but it has progressively gotten worse since Jesse. Then the other night I had a major allergic reaction to what I have narrowed down to either wheat or soy, but since their are wheat properties in soy it is in reality probably both.
I've always been a major allergy sufferer. I use to receive 8 allergy shots a week when I was little. I take Claritin D off and on all year round. I should have stock in Benadryl. So I shouldn't be surprised that this is my reality.
I'm just not looking forward to eliminating 60, no 70% of my diet.
Thankfully I live in a city with a Publix, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.
My Dr. mentioned this may be an issue after I went to see him about another sinus infection and cough that I could not get rid of.
My plan of action is to hopefully get referred to an allergist, get tested...and leave off wheat/gluten for a month to see if I improve.
There is just alot of "life" stuff going on. Things that are occupying my mind, while I'm trying to stay above water while Benji is in Brazil and I hold down the castle.
Jesse is teething.
Emery really, REALLY misses her dad and I think it comes out in her behavior.
I've got friends who are hurting, waiting, hoping.
I've got church friends who's very lives are hanging in the balance between this world and the next.
Then I have laundry to do. Mouths to feed. A house to keep some what clean.
Bills are coming in.
And I almost went into anaphylactic shock the other night. Yes and I think the culprit is either/ or both wheat and soy.
Most of you know I have been continuously sick since Jesse was born, really since Emery was born but it has progressively gotten worse since Jesse. Then the other night I had a major allergic reaction to what I have narrowed down to either wheat or soy, but since their are wheat properties in soy it is in reality probably both.
I've always been a major allergy sufferer. I use to receive 8 allergy shots a week when I was little. I take Claritin D off and on all year round. I should have stock in Benadryl. So I shouldn't be surprised that this is my reality.
I'm just not looking forward to eliminating 60, no 70% of my diet.
Thankfully I live in a city with a Publix, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.
My Dr. mentioned this may be an issue after I went to see him about another sinus infection and cough that I could not get rid of.
My plan of action is to hopefully get referred to an allergist, get tested...and leave off wheat/gluten for a month to see if I improve.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Days Of Grace
Weeellll today, day 3, ended on a not so good note. I am exhausted so this is rambly. If rambly is even a word. I stink because I sweat all day and all night in the bed no matter how cool I turn the air down. I didn't get a shower this morning because Jesse had a well check bright and early.
He is perfect of course. Teething and ready for some cereal.
Last night he was up at 1am, 230, 430 and 630....then Emery was up for the day at
745... It is those first 45 minutes to an hour that I really have a hard time with. Waking up after not really sleeping at all is so impossible!
I think Emery is really missing Benji. She acted out way more than usual tonight. It took me like an hour to get her to eat dinner. She behaves better when Benji is around because I am the softy of the parents. Finally I just put her to bed early, which also ended in a screaming match.
She had three paci's and needed one more. Which I couldn't find.....sigh.... finally we both calmed down and she's now in her bed singing.
I fell again at lunch today. My chair fell out from behind me while I was holding Jesse. I think my bags that were hanging on them made it fall when I pushed it back to sit down.
Really embarrassing. Again. This makes fall number 4 in 4 months.
Tomorrow praise the LORD I have a baby sitter coming over for Emery. I think I'm going to take Jesse and get a pedicure. Then I have a lunch date with one of my friends. I can not wait.
I'm just praying that I can find enough grace for Emery and enough grace for myself to make it through the next 7 days.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Life Before T.J's.
Seriously I do not know what we ate before Trader Joe's came to Greenville.
This Mandarin Orange Chicken is a staple now in our home.
Their Fettuccine Alfredo is too.
Also their organic brown rice.
All in the freezer section. All ready in minutes. All preservative free, fresh tasting and wonderful!
Emery can put down some rice so to have organic brown rice available in 3 minutes from freezer to table is a dream!
They also have great prices on fresh fruit and specialty desserts. (Which I should not buy!)
I Don't even know what I did before! It's like a baby in the family, you can't imagine your life without it.
We Will Survive!
My two adorables lounging in their own ways at the beach this past week.
My goals for this week while Benji is jet setting are few.
1. Keep the kids clean, fed and entertained.
2. Keep myself clean and caffeinated.
3. Catch up on blogger.
4. Catch up on DVR
5. Try and stay on top of my house duties....TRY!
We will survive and we will have fun while doing it.
Once Benji gets home we have a few days then we are off to beach trip #2 with the Ladd clan! Can't wait! Emery has said every day since we got home that she wants "to go to the beach today"....
Saturday, July 2, 2011
We're Back!
We had a blast at camp with the youth last week. Benji's mom went with me again this year to keep the kids while I went to the services. I am SO SO SO thankful for her! She is the most loving, amazing, caring mother in law ever! If you ever want to know why I have such an awesome husband, you only have to look to his mom. I don't think she will ever realize how much it meant to me to be able to spend time with Benji and the youth.
One of my struggles in this season of life is that I want to be able to help Benji in ministry so much more than I do. I get so frustrated because I desire to serve along side of him with the youth but I also know that my primary calling in life right now is to serve him by raising our kids.
My mission field is my home right now. Investing in Emery and Jesse, two of the most precious souls in the universe.
I know that once our kids are older I will be able to be more involved. So it was so wonderful to get to know some of the youth better and to refocus my heart on Christ. The mundane routine of life as a stay at home mom gets me down sometimes. I was reminded this week that I am so blessed that this is my purpose in life right now and that this is my act of service.
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