"I have resolved that my mouth will not sin." Psalm 17:3b NIV

This is my verse for the next two weeks. I have been praying for two weeks, asking God to set a guard over my mouth...or better said asking God to keep His holy hand over my mouth to keep me from spewing.

God taught me several years ago that when He says "speak this" I need to speak it. BUT just as important when He says "DO NOT SPEAK" and I do...it's a sin and does not bring good to a situation.

Lately, I have felt like God has lifted the "DO NOT SPEAK" order on a particular situation in my life. Wouldn't you know that the heat has been turned up and the situation has become almost out of control...I do not want to speak because I'm so emotional about the thing! I'm afraid that I will speak out of my hurt, and that the hurt will keep me from speaking in love. Does that makes sense at all? This is all so frustrating and I'm sure makes no sense at all. (Not to mention I'm a walking zombie this morning...AFTER 3 cups of coffee.)

Thus the verse for the next two weeks. I need God to consume my thoughts and words and show me when to speak so that it is HIS plan and not my own.

Okay...enough rambling we are off to the pool for a little while. These kiddos need to burn off some energy!!! (Aunt Steffie needs a nap this afternoon!)

More Cousin Fun

I'm so proud of my girls and my nieces and nephew. They are all working hard to get along and help each other. Don't get me wrong, we've had a few moments and at one point I was ready to have the three oldest start copying Romans 12! BUT, we are all loving this time together.

After lunch today, ZuZu left to go back home to Granddaddy. The kids were NOT happy about that. They have missed her terribly this afternoon and tonight P. (4 years) asked me if Zuzu could just come back and tuck her in.

She (P.) is having a bit of a hard time settling down tonight. It's the first time she has asked me to hold her and sing. I asked her what she wanted to sing and she said "move the mountain", I asked her if it was "Mighty to Save" and she said, "Yes, but not the long one please." We sang the chorus. Then she wanted "Seek Ye First" and then the tomato song she made up and sang to me while we swept the kitchen after lunch this afternoon.

B.(4)told me during bathtime that he "LOVES CHRIS TOMLIN CAUSE HE SINGS GOD OF THIS CITY AND I LOVE THAT SONG SO MUCH AND MY BELLY TINGLES WHEN I SING IT." This child has kept me in stitches. As Emma says, that boy is a living exclamation point!

The four oldest girls, Zuzu and I sat around the kitchen table yesterday had Smores and talked for almost 3 hours. The girls were talking about what they wanted to be, where they wanted to attend college...just life in general. We laughed until our sides hurt. What a sweet time we had.

I'm once again uploading photos for sis and brother in law. I know they miss their babies.

Cousin Fun

A couple of weeks ago my sister in law called and said that they needed some help. She and her husband were scheduled to leave for Turkey on a mission trip and they needed childcare...for about 12 days.

We are tickled pink to have our 3 nieces and 1 nephew here for the next few days.
They live in Virginia and we haven't seen them in over a year. My oldest nieces (12) are now as tall as I am and can no longer wear my shoes. The youngest set of twins are 4 and are just in love with life. Surprisingly, NO ONE has been homesick for mommy or daddy...yet. I'm sure it will hit at some point, but for now we are doing just great!!

They arrived late Friday afternoon, followed soon by ZuZu. This weekend we have just been settling into a routine and playing in the pool. This morning we opted to have a lazy morning and spend some time at a local park. I'm posting a few of my favorite pictures in hopes that my sister and brother in law can see them.

Emma, P. and B. playing "Spy Kids".






B. has loved watching the Tour de France with Uncle Chad and is wearing one of his cycling shirts as his costume.











Celebrating Uncle Chad's Birthday....



B. and Zuzu walking at the park...




My favorite group shot so far.

Just really trying to figure out....

How in the world to post. So much has gone on in the last week and I have been in awe of what God has done. How He went before me to prepare my heart and my mind for the week He knew would exhaust me. I wasn't surprised just totally amazed at the way scripture, sermons, Bible study and music all came together to prepare me for the battle that we would be in.

I have repeatedly had the words Be Still put in front of me. Because I talk with my hands as much as my mouth, be still also means be quiet. :)So this week when my human gut reaction was to speak, my heart felt the Spirit tug and say be still and quiet. THAT my friend was and is hard.

Very hard.

I will defend my family and friends with everything in me and when one of them is hurt,I become a 5'1" pit bull.

God taught me several years ago that He doesn't always need me to vocally defend my loved ones to another person...He wants me to fight that battle on my knees. I can already see God's hand and even though there are still unresolved issues, Light has been brought to a dark corner.

If I have learned anything in my life, it's that when you start shining Light in the dark corners, you see all the filth you have worked so hard to hide. Some of that dirt and grime can be old and it may be hard work to get a deep clean. That process can't be accomplished on your own. It takes getting real honest with God and allowing Him to show you all the cobwebs, the dirt, all that junk that is keeping you stuck in that dark corner. For me, it meant I had to own up and admit that my choices had affected others. That my friend can be the hardest thing, however...

Submitting to that process and allowing God to clean out my dark corners was the most freeing experience.

Not easy to talk about, not easy to walk through but worth every tear. We are letting God clean out another corner in our life right now and it hurts. It is hard, BUT.....

There is freedom when you live in the Light. We know this and are already thanking God for the process. Only He can clean out this corner. So we are being still (and quiet in my case!) and looking forward to the day when this dark corner is clean and we can say look at what happened when we added Light in this corner.

Oh My Blog, I Haven't Forgot You

The past two weeks I have said "That would make a great post" about 20 times...and then we go back to the pool.

I love summer, but find that is absolutely throws my blogging time for a loop. Part of me loves that and the other part is twitching big time. :)

I'm thrilled to be doing "Me, Myself, and Lies" with so many of you! This first week has been a little tough for me.

Part of that is coming off of the Freedom's Call Conference from last weekend. My friend Debbie F. blogged about it here. Go check out what she says and then hear me say "ditto".

So I walk away from last weekend beating myself up left and right over what I should have said, could have said, missed notes, forgotten lyric....do you get the picture?

And then we start "Me, Myself and Lies".

Timely huh? Just like God isn't it. Check out this statement from week one that has sunk deep into my heart:

"When we meditate on God's wonders and word, we have little room in our thought closet for anything else!" Jennifer Rothschild

So friends...what did you hang in your thought closet this week?

Boy oh boy, I am doing a little spring cleaning in mine and there is a lot of junk in there. I can tell this purging of my closet is going to be hard.

His Word says He gives beauty for ashes, and honestly...some of the things I've been hanging in there are nothing but nasty ashes. I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and toss out the ashes and watch God hang some beautiful new garments. :)

Weekend Ponderings

What a weekend we had. It was incredible, exhausting, powerful, reflective...the list could go on and on.

I was once again reminded just how much I take for granted. At one point on Saturday I sat on the floor and watched some of the ladies taking notes. Most were soaking up everything Jill was teaching. Others, were just there because it counted as a meeting. That is okay, the Word of God never returns void and believe you me they heard the Word over and over.

I'll be honest, Friday night I had this wave of inadequacy fall on me about the time we broke out into small groups. The majority of the ladies in my group didn't really want to talk, they wanted to know all about me. (Did I have children, how I met Chad, if my children had the same father, were my parents still married, what kind of face cream I use...yes that was a question.) It hit me later that before they were going to open up, they needed to know me. We laughed a little and somehow, God showed me how to relate all that question/answer time back to the breakout guideline. Only God could do that. And let me tell you, I am taken with this ladies. They have my heart. (And they thought Chad was pretty cute too.)

Jill was anointed and as usual taught her heart out. She shared some very personal parts of her testimony that I had not heard before. It was beautiful to see how God provided and was so faithful to her and her children during very hard times. He was and is her everything. She reminded us all that we are in a process. Until we see Jesus, He has some work to do in us!

I wanted to share just a few pictures with you.

Jill praying with a sweet lady..



This beautiful lady was like this each time we worshipped. She was on her feet and tears on her face. So thankful for what GOD has done in her life.



The next two are my favorite. They are soaking up the Word as Jill is teaching. I love that they wanted to SEE what she was reading. May we all have that passion for the Word of God.







Oh boy. This one makes me cry. Jill is big on visuals so we had given them small items to place on their dressers to remind them who they are in Christ. At the end of the day Saturday they traded the chains we gave them on Friday night, for a wedding band and a veil. We clipped those veils on those precious heads and told them what a beautiful bride their Jesus had and this lady just broke down. (These were happy tears) Debbie and I were honored to serve her.




I have to say thanks to Jill's daughter in love Laura. She grabbed my camera, her camera and documented the entire weekend for us.

I also have to say a special thank you to Chad. He was the ONLY man in that room of 125 women. I know we scared him part of the time, but he hung in there and as usual did an awesome job taking care of all our tech stuff.

Thanks to so many of you who were praying for us over this weekend. Believe me, we felt it. I can't tell you how many times God brought you to my mind and reminded me that people were praying. THANK you for taking us to the Father.

Matthew West Winners!!!

I'm thrilled for you!

Angela at Refresh My Soul

Sheryl at From My Heart

Jenmom at Mother of Three

and

Leah at The Point


Okay girls send me your addresses and I'll pass the info along to the proper people!