On Turning 35

Today, 10 years ago, was the first Sunday of the new South Site of Bethlehem. What a day, full of joyful, exhausting, exhilarating hard work!

It was the beginning of a long, hard, sweet era of South Sundays (incidentally also the beginning of manning the South Info Booth, whence along came a man named Ben, causing Karin Livingston to probe a few months later, "Amy, does Ben Katterson like you?" ... but that's another story).

Then, it was the day before I turned 25.

Today, it is the day before I turn 35.

And what do I have to say about that? (Asked no one, but I'll share anyway!)

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.--Ephesians 3:20-21

That's a pretty good summary of how I feel. The road that brought me here has been full of so many gifts, so much kindness. Long days, sleepless nights (didn't know much about those before kids!), loneliness, sweet friendship, painful conflict, encouraging conversations, deep loss, precious gifts ... God's provision has been constantly beyond expectation.

 The LORD God is a sun and shield. The LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.--Psalm 46:10

I really don't have much to say about why I'm at this blessed place in life. I didn't earn it. I didn't build it. Haven't figured it all out. As for being somebody who "walks uprightly," that's all a crazy gift too. God has covered over my sinful, selfish heart with the blood of His perfect Son, and He has given me a new love for His way. And then on top of it, He's given a boatload of other sweet gifts.

Creative, goofy, hard-working, sacrificial, Jesus-loving husband.
Three bubbly, bright, joyful, energetic, wiggly little boys, and a baby with Jesus.
Seminary life, ministry opportunities, the body of Christ.
Kind, long-lasting friendships and new connections.
Extended family that I love being with.
Mind-stretching work (some of which I am paid for) and lots of satisfying responsibilities.

Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires e’er have been
Granted in what He ordaineth? 

So today is full of reflections of gratitude. And tomorrow?

Well, tomorrow is held in the hands of the same great Keeper and King, so whatever it holds is yet another gift.

Thank You, Lord.

 Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; and I will bear you and I will deliver you.--Isaiah 46:4

Video Catch Up

In no particular order, videos:

Tiny Baby Elliot


Josiah Running


Playing Outside (this is from a while ago, because Victor is still on the Strider here!)


Josiah Laughing


Boys in the Rain

A P.S. to the Last Post

A few more things really need to be said, regarding that last post.

What this doesn't mean.

It doesn't mean that you should never take a break, because if you're not down to "two pennies' worth of strength" you're not really loving Jesus. There have been more than a few times that I have known, in my conscience, that I would be disobeying a "still, small voice" if I tried to get a few more things done instead of taking a nap.

There are times when doing one more thing is an act of pride, and not an act of love. We are not limitless. We are not the Indispensable One. We are not God.

As His very limited creatures, we reach a place (at least every day, usually!) where we honor God's design by resting, taking a break, letting go of our desire to do all and be all.

There are times when it is not love to do something yourself, when you could share the burden with another. Maybe the sense of being overwhelmed and exhausted is actually an opportunity to teach your children the importance of "pitching in" for the needs of the family or explaining to your spouse an area where you feel over your head so that you can dream up a life-giving way to deal with it together. Maybe it is a season when you need the grace of the Body of Christ to come near, to be vulnerable enough to ask for help from outside of your own home. It is not easy to be at a place of weakness, but very real grace comes when we allow others to be hands and feet of God's love to us.

There are times when it is not good, not wise, not real love to spend yourself to the point of exhaustion over things that are not essential, when it's better to let the mountain of laundry sit for one more day and take those minutes to be still, refresh your heart, and find joy in remembering all that your limitless Savior is for you.

That widow worshiped Jesus by giving her last two pennies. Mary worshiped Jesus by sitting at His feet to listen (and it was Martha who was corrected for missing "the good part.").

Sometimes life gets reaches those swells of need that threaten to swamp the boat. During the storm, I hope that you will be buoyed in your hope by the knowledge that God receives your worship in giving your "last two cents' worth" of strength.

But for most of us, most of the time, we also worship Jesus through stepping back, sharing our load, quieting our heart, taking a break, and resting in the goodness of our great giving God.

Your Last 2 Pennies

And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on." Luke 21:1-4

We admire this widow, don't we? To be "caught" (by Jesus) in the act of such sweet, unself-conscious worship of the Almighty God, to so trust in the Faithful Creator that we wouldn't cling to our last two coins but tuck them secretly in the offering plate and leave all our future to His care ... that would be a gracious thing indeed.

When it comes down to our own lives, we may find it a little hard to relate. Sure, money might be tight, but most of us have more than two coins to rub together. But maybe we can glean a lesson from this widow nonetheless.

There are days when you do feel, quite literally, like you are down to your last two pennies' worth of energy. Or patience. Or stamina. Or strength.

Days when the baby cries, the toddler has an accident on the carpet, supper burns, your jeans rip, siblings squabble, and your beloved husband totally misses the cue that you need help. You feel like you're drowning in a sea of need with no lifeboats in sight.

Months--maybe years--when you never sleep through a night uninterrupted.
Not just a pile, but mountain ranges of laundry, unfolded and unsorted.
Dishes from breakfast crowding out the crusts left from lunch where you are trying to make supper.

Mommy, I need to be wiped.
Mommy, I want a cup of juice.
Mommy, I lost my boot at the park.
Mommy, my science project is due tomorrow.
Mommy, please braid my hair.
Mommy, can you give me a ride to the party?
Mommy, the dog just puked.
Mommy, he broke my toy.
Mommy, where is my backpack?
Mommy, I don't like this food.

Days of fog and fatigue that threaten to crush out your last ounce of cheer with the sheer mountain of work that lies around you.

What do you do, when you're down to your last two cents' worth of energy, and one more crisis comes? You want to scream, "Have mercy! Doesn't anyone here care that I haven't showered in a week, haven't eaten breakfast or lunch, can't find matching socks for any member of this family, and have a splitting headache?" You have only one set of hands to meet all the avalanche of need that keeps rolling over you. You've been pressed down, wrung out, and hung to dry, and you feel like you have simply nothing left to give.

Nothing but two tiny pennies' worth of care.

This is the time, sweet friend, when you may offer a gift of immeasurable worth. When you trust that God will somehow see, somehow supply, somehow sustain you after you pour out your last two cents' worth of strength--that is an offering that Jesus sees and receives.

When you give "all that you have to live on," it is there that you find He is watching. He cares, and He counts those two pennies' poured out as very great indeed.

P.S. But read this too... 

Incidentally, I didn't write this because I'm feeling down to my last two pennies. When I showed it to Ben before posting, he said, "Oh, are you feeling overwhelmed?" And I'm not, right now. I've been there. But this has been a sweet season of largely refreshment and peace. 

Parenting Thoughts

A friend asked me today for some thoughts on parenting, what kind of biblical guidelines or principles do we follow. Since I wrote it down, I thought I would share it here. (This is just the tip of the iceberg, what came to mind when I had a few minutes to write...)

One of our biggest parenting "paradigms" is that we are trying to be an early image or reflection to our children of how God is. He is the Father "from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name" (Eph 3:15). And the most important thing that we want to give our children (although it is impossible for us to give it to our children unless God gives it to our children) is a knowledge of, love for, and trust in our beautiful Savior Jesus. 

He is faithful, so we strive to keep our word.

He is kind, so we want to be gracious and gentle.

He is generous, so we love to lavish our kids with good things.

He is awesome and holy and sovereign over all creation, so we must not allow our children to disregard or belittle the authority that God has put over them, namely, us parents.

When God gives commands to His creatures, it is never for insignificant or capricious reasons. It is for our good, for our protection, for our abundant life. In our parenting, we want to reflect the same purposing for good when we give instructions or restrictions. 

And for the same reason--because obeying God is essential for knowing full joy and eternal abundance of life--when our children disobey or disregard our instructions, we find it important to address the failure and, when needed, follow up with discipline. 

God's words are utterly trustworthy. And so it is important that (as much as is humanly possible), our Yes means yes, and our No means no (James 5:12), without games of counting to ten or bluffing with impossible threats of what will happen if a child does not comply.

Parenting is a tremendous responsibility and calling. We do it "as seems best to us" (Heb 12:10), and so frequently we feel (and are) woefully inadequate to perceive and respond rightly to the needs of the young hearts we are striving to shepherd. But what a kind Father we have, who supplies wisdom when we lack it (James 1:5), who set His love on us (1 John 3:1), and who has given the Savior and Mediator that our children need (1 Timothy 2:4-6).

4 Months Old!

 4 months!

3 months

2 months

 1 month

 2 weeks old

Dear Elliot,

What a big boy you are! When we were out on a walk with your big brothers this morning, one of the neighbor ladies out walking her dog made a detour to come over and see you. "I've been hearing about this baby, and I just had to come over and take a look!" she said. So your rolls are gaining you some notoriety!

- You are a big. boy. We haven't had your check-up yet to figure out your current weight, but you are full of lovely rolls, and as Miss Cherie at the school says, "You are just SOLID."

- You have gotten very strong and active. You love to sit, balancing on my leg and bouncing a little, watching all that goes on around you.

- You are still quite happy to take in the surroundings, when your brothers are around. However, when it's just Mom and you, sometimes you're a little fussy, wondering where all the action and adventure went!

- During supper preparations, you are normally a very good companion from your swing in the kitchen hallway. It's a nice time to chat with you a little bit while I do my kitchen busy work.

- Even more than that, though, I love to pick you up and squeeze you and give you a hundred kisses on your soft cheeks and fuzz-haired head. You are so squeezable!

- When you are fed and rested, you are still normally happy to visit other folks, but if you're getting tired and hungry, you normally prefer to stick close to Mom. It makes the hope of mealtime a little more tangible, I think...

- You have been very sporadic in your bedtime sleeping. Sometimes (last night) you'll get me up three times a night. But sometimes you'll just do one feeding. At least the hope of a good night's sleep is lovely! During the day, you normally sleep until 7:30 or 8am, then take a morning nap at 9:30am or so. We'll go out and do something outside for the middle of the day most times, and then all the boys head down for afternoon naps around 1:30pm. Blessed time...

- You are very chatty sometimes, cooing and singing and letting us know all about your thoughts. I love it.

- You really go to town on your thumb and/or fingers. Most common seems to be a combo of thumb and first finger, but any of them will do (even your pinky... with the rest of your fingers kinda jabbing you in the eyes).

- You are strong enough to get out of your bundling now, and it's that rather stressful transition to figuring out how to sleep when your arms start flapping around...

- You haven't quite rolled over yet, but you get balanced up on your side, and I think it won't belong before you can tip right over.

- As evident in this month's blue chair photo, you can hold up your head quite high now. You are a strong boy!

I love to see you grow, although I don't want to rush away the days when I can still snuggle you in my arms as a little baby. We pray for you each day that God will indeed, as your name says, be your God and that you will give your whole heart and life to Him. The Elliots (Jim and Elisabeth) who are your namesake were such a testimony that nothing given to God is ever wasted, and no sacrifice of what could temporarily entertain, interest, or fascinate us is worth the enduring joy of knowing Christ.

It is our church's memory verse these past weeks:

 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.--Philippians 3:7-9

May you belong to Him all your days, sweet son!

With love and kisses,
Mom

Vacation in British Columbia

At last, our trip to Canada! For all the uncertainty of getting there, once we arrived, it was such a delightful and fun time!

We saw God's provision and care over and over, and we loved having the special time with our cousins exploring beautiful British Columbia a bit! It went so fast, but we will savor those memories for a long, long time!

Waiting to get off the plane in Seattle

Saturday was a loooong day getting to "home" in Chilliwack, and Sunday we got to visit the Lasers' church and enjoy their lovely home, including the apple, pear, and plum trees. We picked beans and broccoli from their garden and had a generally relaxing and delightful time.

Monday, we drove 45 min to Harrison Hot Springs, which was a super fun outing.

Tuesday was Uncle Kevin's birthday. In the morning Ben, Kate, and I picked blackberries along the road to enjoy with our monkey bread breakfast, and then we went to an indoor swimming pool. We got to visit Decades (the coffee shop owned by Kevin's family) for lunch, and it was a great supper of smokies and corn on the cob, topped off with buster bar dessert in the evening.

We left bright and early this morning to return to Seattle for our flight home. The travel was exhausting, of course, but it was such a delightful trip! We loved visiting the Canada cousins and can't wait to see you again soon!