24 wks & Cravings

When I was pregnant with my first child, Taylor, I gained an absurd amount of weight. It didn't help that I already had an extra 10 pds hanging around from my first year of marriage. Yes, it was fun going to Wendy's with my husband at midnight and eating lots of fries because we could... But not really the best habit to get into as newlyweds. After Taylor was born it took a year and a half to get back to my engaged state. When I was pregnant with Trevor I vowed to do things differently. I would not eat ice cream & m&m's every night! And well not eating ice cream every night helped and It didn't take quite as long for my "normal" clothes to fit me after Trevor's birth. So how am I doing with this pregnancy? I'm on the track for it to be more like Trevor than Taylor. However I think it all could change with my recent discovery. We all brought a snack to share this week with one another. Knowing my health conscious Pastor wives friends I decided to contribute something sweet. Really we can't snack on popcorn all day :-) So I went to one of my favorite stores, Trader Joes, and bought for the first time chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels. Yeah I know- dangerous! Well I bought them on Friday and we were to leave on Monday. After staring at the bag for awhile my curiosity got the best of me and I thought there was no harm in trying just one. So I opened the bag and well a day later the bag was gone!!! Seriously I ate the entire bag. And the sad thing is I can't wait to go back and get another :-) I think I'll go today...

What a privilege it is...

We had a wonderful week as Pastor's Wives. Lots of laughter, tears, food & of course late nights! The Lord meet us in amazing ways and I pray that the fruit would be multiplied not only into our marriages but our church as well. I know I personally experienced God's grace as I brought some sin issues I was trying to gain better insight on. They spent an hour encouraging me in the ways God is at work in my life and helped me identify some areas of sin that I was unaware of. How thankful I am to be surrounded by godly Titus 2 women! I can't remember the last time I had a "girls only" trip! I did miss my hubby though and have been equally encouraged by how the Lord meet him this week at Together For The Gospel. We were talking tonight and again recounting how thankful we are, and what a privilege it is, to be apart of Sovereign Grace Gilbert & Ministries.

Busy,Busy,Busy

I recognize that my posting has been quite infrequent these past few weeks and I'm here to tell you it's not going to get much better :-) This is a really exciting/busy month. I leave tomorrow for California. The Pastor's wives from our church are going on a retreat for four days while our husbands attend the Together For The Gospel conference. I have been looking forward to this trip for awhile now and I'm sure it will be full of making fun memories together! When we get back my brother's wedding will be just around the corner. There will be showers to throw, dresses to get fitted (Please Lord let my dress fit me:-)), out of town family to entertain and lots of praising God for his faithfulness! So.... in the midst of all this I am trying to fight off my tendency towards self-sufficiency and throw myself into God's word even more. It's so easy for me to look at a busy month like this and have an attitude of "ok this is all that needs to get done, I'll get it done" Then I'm off to the races totally unaware of how utterly helpless I am without the Lord. I have been meditating on the Lord as my helper & strength this month.

Verses like:
Ps 54- Behold, God is my helper (not sleep or a perfectly organized, flawless (haha) schedule)
Ps 59 I will sing of YOUR strength, I will sing of YOUR steadfast love... O my STRENGTH I will sing praises to you.
Ps 18:31 For who is God but the Lord? And who is a rock except our God.
Ps 20:7 Some trust in chariots & some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

have all been very helpful in pointing my eyes back to Lord and keeping a low view of self and a high view of the Lord!

Have a great week friends! Look to the Lord for your strength & trust in His name alone!

My Little Street Evangelist

Today we were outside letting the kids play in the driveway. Chris was working in the garage and I was supervising Taylor & Trevor. There are quite a few kids on our block that are out most nights playing together, tonight was no different. While Trevor tested his skills on one of the boys skateboard I overheard Taylor singing for the other kids the Gospel Song. She was very dramatic as she sang and got louder with the words "On the Cross He took my sin...". It was great- I hope she has the same fervor with proclaiming the Gospel at 14 as she does at 4!

A Compelling Example

If I could invite you to go visit a blog by some friends of ours from our year at the Pastor's College. Their names are Jon & Jenni and Jon is on staff at Covenant Life in Maryland. Jenni is pregnant with their second child and last week they received news that it appears their baby has a serious neural tube defect, called Anencephaly. One that leaves their baby with little chance of survival outside of the womb. It is so encouraging & humbling to see how they are looking to the Lord in the midst of this trial. So go read their posts on suffering and I know you too will leave encouraged and full of faith for your own trials that you might be in the midst of.

http://the-smith-family.blogspot.com

Ballet & Spelling

Taylor started a ballet class called Fairy Tale Ballet.Each week they learn a 30 second ballet dance to a different song and dress up in costumes. At the end of the class they invite the mom's in to watch them perform! It's perhaps the cutest thing I've seen in years! Last week they danced to the "Good Ship Lollipop"



and this week it was a Siamese Cat song, can't remember the name :-) I blame my pregnancy brain!



Recently she has been writing out letters and asking me what they spell. Is it any wonder that her first word would be HOT? After all she is an AZ native :-)



Alright I know there is an A in front of hot but she wrote that as I ran inside to get the camera...Really... Plus we haven't worked on grammar yet. She's only three, people :-)

Suffering

It's been awhile since I've posted. Last I left sick & thankfully I return well! It took it's toll on me but as many of my mommy friends know life doesn't stop when you get sick. The days of staying in bed watching old movies and eating chicken noodle soup are long gone. But like I expected God was faithful & I was met with much Grace throughout the week. And I'm happy to report that I think my house is back in order after sustaining much kid damage.

It has been quite a week of encountering suffering. Not so much for myself as for others in my life. One friend having to wait longer than expected to get pregnant, another friend miscarried & another received a grievious diagnosis for her baby. All very sobering & humbling. Meanwhile my mom went to the ER Saturday night and was admited to the hospital a few days due to her heart acting up. These are lifelong heart problems and thankfully she is home but continues to wrestle with the realities of having chronic health conditions and the desire to be healthy and "normal" like others her age. Yes sometimes it's hard to reconcile trials with what we know to be a good & loving God. I have struggled through this issue for many years watching my mom suffer. The timing on the Girl Talk blog doing experts from John Piper's new book, Suffering & The Sovereignty of God, was perfect. I only wish I didn't have to wait till September to purchase it. I was particularly encouraged by Joni Eareckson Tada's excerpt:

Please know that I am no expert at this wheelchair thing. I’m no professional at being a quadriplegic. There are so many mornings when I wake up and I can hear my girlfriend come to the front door to help me get out of bed and get ready for the day. She goes to the kitchen, turns on the water, and starts brewing coffee. I know that in a few moments she’s going to come gliding into the bedroom, where she’ll greet me with a happy, “Good morning!” And I am lying there with my eyes closed, thinking, O God, I can’t do this. I am so tired. I don’t know how I’m going to make it to lunchtime. O God, I’m already thinking about how good it’s going to feel when I get back to bed tonight and put my head on this pillow.

I’m sure you have felt that way at some point. Maybe you feel that way every morning. But Psalm 10:17 says, “O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear.” O God, I often pray in the morning, God, I cannot do this. I cannot do this thing called quadriplegia. I have no resources for this. I have no strength for this—but you do. You’ve got resources. You’ve got strength. I can’t do quadriplegia, but I can do all things through you as you strengthen me (Phil. 4:13). I have no smile for this woman who’s going to walk into my bedroom in a moment. She could be having coffee with another friend, but she’s chosen to come here to help me get up. O God, please may I borrow your smile?


What a comfort it is to know in the midst of trials that God does hear the desire of the afflicted and will strenghten their hearts! Please join me in praying for these friends & my mom as they walk through difficult trials.