Training Day Is Over

Well, I already gave up. I have decided he is just not ready--even though I am, but I at least have to tell you all the drama I went through. . .

First thing Monday morning when he woke up we went in his room, took off his diaper, and put on his Nemo underpants. I went into the kitchen and set the timer for 15 minutes. When the timer went off I was going to take him to go potty. When it did finally go off, I went to him and said, "Okay Jake, time to go potty," and he said back to me, "but Mommy I'm wet." So we went to his room and put his Thomas underpants on. I went and set the timer again for another 15 minutes. When it went off, I went over to Jake and said, "okay it's time to go potty again," and he replied, "Mommy you need to change my diaper." I said, "Jake your not wearing a diaper. Did you pee in your pants again?" and he said ever so slightly, "Yes." He could feel my wrath.

So at this point it had been about 30 minutes and he had already peed on himself twice. I decided he needed to wash off, so I took off his clothes and walked him to the bathtub. As I was rinsing out the tub and getting ready to fill it I hear him yell from right behind me, "Mommy!!!" I quickly turned and he was peeing on the bathroom floor. I grabbed him and put him in front of the potty but by then he was already done. If he would have taken 2 steps backward he would have been standing right in front of the potty. I lost it!!!! He was right there. He could've peed in the potty but he decided to pee on the floor instead. Even though I was livid at this point I realized that he doesn't know the feeling of it coming so he can't make a quick enough decision to walk to the potty to go.

During his bath, we had a heart to heart and I told him we would go back to diapers for the day. He asked me if I was happy and I said yes because he had at least tried. After his bath, I took him to his room and he asked me again if I was happy. He obviously could sense my frustration. So I calmly said "Yes I'm happy, but I would be happier if you would learn how to pee in the potty, but I don't want to frustrate you anymore, I know its hard!" And what came next was the sweetest thing I have ever heard. God knew I needed to hear this. My beautiful, sweet, and loving 3 year old grabbed my neck to hug me, looked me in the eye and said, "Mommy I don't want to frustrate you either!" I melted. He was consoling his Mother.

I was reminded in that moment of when Jesus spoke to his mother while on the cross. He said, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." He was consoling her the best he knew how in that moment. What an amazing God we serve and what an amazing son I have. Even though it was the hardest 30 minutes I have had in a long time, it was also the sweetest.

Training Day

Nothing real spiritual or deep today. I just need your prayers for me as I begin Potty Training Camp today. I am about to pull all of my hair out and I'm going broke over buying diapers and wipes. Quite frankly, I am sick of changing nasty, poopy, soggy, wet, stinky diapers. I never realized how hard this really is. It takes commitment, time, and patience--all the things that are weak areas for me. How hard is it to stand there a pee in a potty--really? I guess girls get off easy since they just sit down. Boys are a little tougher.

Jacob knows how to pee in the potty, he's done it before, but he is so stinkin' stubborn that he won't do it. (I don't know where he gets that from) Right now he's sitting in his desk playing on the computer and I ask him every 5 minutes if he needs to pee or if he's already peed in his pants. I should start counting the number of times I say the word "potty" today. It will be well into the 100's I'm sure. I think I've already said it about 20.

Well, if you are in the "potty" today (21 times now) think about me and my endeavor to rid myself of diaper duty at least until the next one arrives. Pray that Jacob's stubbornness will subside and he will want to be a Big Boy finally!!!!

Any encouraging words are welcome!!!!

Listen To This Man

In John 7, the beginning of what was a series of traps to try and convict Jesus was taking place. The crowd was divided after Jesus loudly voiced his teachings to them. When they guards were asked why they didn't bring Jesus in, they said, "No one ever spoke the way this man does."

As we were studying this passage last night that verse spoke to me. Jesus has never spoken to me the way anyone else has. I was reminded that I tend to talk to Jesus more than I listen. I tend to ask for things more than listen. When I do rarely listen instead of groan and grumble for the things I think I need or deserve it is always profound and loving. This week (after we were robbed) I duked it out with God a little bit. I know that in this world we will have trouble but I told God, "Look, I know I signed up for this, but I didn't sign up for this." And with all patience and love he responded back to me that He knows and He's in control. Just to hear Him speak those words to my soul were comforting in the midst of fear and hurt. When we listen, He speaks like no man has ever spoken before. His eloquence, passion, love, grace, and much more, cannot be matched. What does it say about us when we don't notice Jesus' voice enough? The guards who weren't even his followers noticed that there was something different about this Jesus.

I challenge you today to do a little more listening to this man who speaks differently than others. Listen more than speak. Hear Him and dwell in His thoughts. Jesus will speak to your heart and you will be blessed.

You Truly Are My Joy

Well, when I mentioned that my joy had been robbed I didn't mean literally. Now, I mean literally.

Last night we had an event to go to at a church in Austin, which Jason was in charge of. He has been sick all week. He's had fever every day except for 1 and he has thrown up at least 16 times in the past day. He is sick!!!! After we had been there a little while, Jason started getting sick at the event and we decided to leave early.

When we got home someone had apparently been there. I think we scared them off when we opened the door. They only had time to take our Playstation and some DVD's (which is no real loss). We called the cops, they came, took fingerprints, the whole bit. The thieves apparently used gloves because they couldn't get a usable fingerprint. At 10:00 last night they left. Jason and I went to bed feeling very violated (I felt like they had seen me naked or something).

Well, me being the scaredy cat I am, I stayed up with most of our lights on, watched TV, and had a large stick next to our bed. I was in the middle of a late night showing of "Mickey Blue Eyes" when I heard 3 loud knocks on our door at about 3:30am. I jumped up, ready to rumble with these criminals, and answered the door. It was the cop and they had found the robbers.

Sorry this is so long but keep reading, the story becomes quite humorous.

The cop asked Jason if he could come with him to i.d. the stolen stuff. Jason followed the cop to the local Motel 6 where these so-called thieves had beat the crap out of each other. They got into a fight over the Playstation and had a rumble. One guy was hurt so badly he had to go to the hospital. They basically ratted themselves out by having a drunken brawl over a Playstation, our Playstation to be exact.

As if that wasn't dumb enough, one of the items they stole from our apartment was our video camera. I guess they thought they would document their genius heist, because they began filming their every step after they left our house. Dumb & Dumber!!! So, when Jason got there, at least 3 drunk guys were waiting to be arrested. Two were lying about what they did, and one was spilling the beans (remember one was at the hospital, and we don't know how many there were total). They put the two liars into one of the police cars. What they didn't know was that all cop cars have recorders in them. They were probably confessing everything but they were too drunk to care.

Jason got to watch the whole thing go down. He identified the stuff and left. As he was pulling away he saw the robbers getting cuffed and stuffed and slapped with felony theft charges. At 10:00pm the cops left our house and at 5:00am, the thieves were being taken to jail. Justice was served and my prayer for returned joy was answered. I was truly joyous that in the midst of this situation we kept thanking Jesus and he in return blessed us with closure, and graciousness. He didn't have to give us the satisfaction of these guys getting caught in order for us to praise him, but because he is so awesome, he did!

Last night Jason and I did go to sleep feeling very violated but also thanking Jesus that it was what it was. It could have been much worse. Stuff is just stuff. Thank you Jesus for reminding me that you are still in control. Even when we might not know why certain things happen, thank you for giving us enough strength, through your Spirit, to keep going and to continually praise You no matter the circumstance. Now I can say without hesitation, without restraint, without caution, and with full faith that you truly are MY JOY!!!!

You Are My Joy

I wanted to share my prayer for today with you so that you would know how to pray for me.

God, it's hard to know why things happen the way they do, why you bring us to certain places in our earthly life that rob us of our joy. People who say one thing and do another rob us. People who flaunt assets and financial gain rob us. People who have it better than we do help aid us in our robbing of joy. There are so many joyous things in my life and so many things I have to be thankful for but in some ways I have lost my joy. There are so many things that bring me joy that I want to do and can't because of a stipulation in my covenant with you. You have brought me to a state of contentment in my life, and I've never been more content, but I'm ready for my joy back. I'm ready for the excitement, the opportunity to minister freely without any hindrances. God I said yesterday that you are my Provider and my Provision. "Restore unto me the joy of who you are". I want to able to find joy in the little things and in the miracles. I want to enter into your presence with joy and thanksgiving. I can say "Thank you Jesus", but am I joyfully saying it? God, bring me to a place today where I can say without hesitancy, without restraint, without caution, and with all of my faith that YOU ARE MY JOY!!!

Miracle Stories

Sorry it's been so long! I will try to be better at blogging my heart and soul out. I do have some miracle stories I want to share. God is still in the miracle business by the way!!!

My husband and I have recently had to come to the place in our lives where we have had to utterly rely on God for everything, even the little things. For example: A bed. Jason and I needed a new bed. Starting a new church doesn't leave a lot of money left over after paying bills if any. We have had our bed since we were married and I slept in it about a year before that, so this bed is about 10 years old and we are feeling it in our backsides--trust me. We would wake up every day with a sore something. We began to discuss that we needed to start praying for a bed, specifically a mattress. Within a week our friends had an extra mattress in storage that we tried out and it has helped so much. Now God didn't lavish us with a brand new Sleep Number, but he did give us exactly what we needed.

Another specific prayer that we asked was answered. Now don't feel sorry for us when I tell you this because God has purposefully called us to be in this position and we have never been more content with our lives or more humbled. The reason is this: last month we almost weren't able to make our car payment. With all the extra expenses of Christmas and life, etc., we were struggling to make our payment. On Monday we sat down and talked about what we were going to do and we both decided to just pray specifically for the dollar amount. We couldn't have less and we didn't need more. We specifically prayed about it for a week. The following Monday we were going to have to make the payment. The day before (on Sunday) I was out of town that weekend with a friend and Jason called me and told me that Saturday when he went to go get the mail there was check from State Farm (of all places) giving us back some overpaid insurance money on our Mortgage. First of all, we sold our house in May and this was December - WOW!! Second of all, it was for the exact amount we needed to pay our car payment - DOUBLE WOW!!!!

I share this with you to remind you that miracles are happening because even though these might seem like tiny and insignificant things to some people, these are huge blessings and miracles to us. All I can say is "Thank you Jesus!!!!" He is my Provider and my Provision.