Why I already know what my kids are getting for high school graduation!

Ok . . . my kids are only 8 & 6.  High school graduation isn't for another 10 & 12 years, BUT I already have their graduation gifts purchased! I'm not a "buy Christmas presents on December 23" person, but neither am I a "I have all my gifts purchased in January for next year." person So . . . what would prompt me to buy gifts in March, 2015 or events that won't happen until May, 2025 and May 2027????

A few days ago I was at a luncheon with Moms in Prayer leaders from all over Phoenix area.

We had several speakers who talked about the 4 steps of prayer we use in MIP: Praising God for who He is, Thanking God for what He has giving us, Confession, and Intercession.  While at Moms in Prayer we pray the Scriptures over our kids, their teachers, and their schools.

One of the speakers is now an "empty nester" whose kids aren't in school any longer, but she continues to gather with the same ladies who have been praying for their kids for 20+ years.  This sweet woman has now been "promoted" to grandma.  The woman who spoke to us moms still "in the trenches" said that 3x (one for each of her kids) she put her "regular" Bible down and picked up one for her child.  That Bible was the only Bible she used that year.  As she read through the Bible that year she marked it up with highlights and made notes in it for her child as she prayed the Scriptures for that child.  This woman did this for each of her kids and now plans to do it for each of her grandkids.

The woman said she gave each of her kids their marked up, prayed over, Bible and they now consider it one of their most prized possessions  (along with the quilt she made for each of them of their dad's old shirts, since their dad is now with Jesus).  I absolutely LOVED the idea and decided to do it for each of my kids.   Because my kids are 8 & 6 I don't think they'd truly appreciate the gift at this age, but I was thinking high school graduation would be an amazing time to present it to them!

I heard this on Friday and bought the kids each a Bible on Monday to get this project started.

For my kids I'm modifying it slightly . . . I will still use "my" Bible for things like church where my kids will see it.  I have my kids' new Bibles hidden so that they won't see them, yet.  I know my kids well enough to know that if they see me reading a new one they'll wonder why and I don't want to spill the secret, yet.

I am starting with my 8 year old's Bible since he'll graduate first! I am using a Bible in One Year reading plan on my phone to track my progress.  I am reading in his paper Bible, but am using the app to track my progress and give me a schedule.  Right now my son's Bible is tucked into my nightstand drawer while my daughter's is hidden in my closet.

As soon as I got back from the meeting on Friday I posted the idea on my Facebook page and several friends liked it, and some said they were going to start it.   After I bought the Bibles Monday I shared a picture on Facebook and Instagram of the Bibles I'd purchased.

Over the weekend a friend asked what kids of things I was writing in the Bible.  I'm basically highlighting and taking notes the way I would for myself.  I am also writing notes to my son with the prayers I am praying for him as I read.  For example, after reading Psalm 1 Psalm 1 I wrote "We pray you will not walk in step with the wicked.  We pray your delight will be in God's word.  We pray you will be like a tree planted in streams of water whose leaf does not wither."  Not every prayer will be able to be written out like that, due to space constraints, but that's an example.   As I am reading through Proverbs I am highlighting a lot since there is a lot of wisdom in there :)

I can't think of a better way to send our kids off to college than with the knowledge than seeing what Mom prayed for them as they were growing up.

P.S. If you know my kids . . . PLEASE don't mention this! It's a surprise! 

Our Global Wall . . . It is finished!!!!

In November I wrote Leaving a Legacy where I mentioned a Global Wall we were going to put together in our hallway.   I updated that post with a bad cell phone picture I took in January to show what it looked like before I bought frames and shelves this week.

I am THRILLED to report that several months after I started the project it is finally finished! YAY!   Because the hallway is very narrow it was hard to get decent pictures or lighting, but here are the results! I have removed the pictures from the frames so if you want to see our friends' smiling faces you need to come visit me and I'll show you in person :)  The unframed pictures you see are our Compassion kids :)  I couldn't find frames to fit the cards sent to us by Compassion so I just tacked them to the wall. 

Yesterday, Kristen at We are THAT Family announced My Walls Talk.   My walls don't speak in words, but they speak in memories.

 

 

 

 

To give a bit of perspective as to the height of this wall . . . I am 5'3 and I would hit the bottom of the lowest shelf with my forehead if I weren't paying attention. The ceiling height is 10'.



As I stand back and look at this it brings a smile to my face. (I'm also thankful I don't live in CA because some of these priceless pieces would be extremely vulnerable in an earthquake). Every day I get to see the faces of our friends who live overseas and I get to see souvenirs from trips we've made around the world and ones friends have brought us from their travels.   I am not very crafty, nor am I good at decorating so this is a HUGE accomplishment for me.  It is not an exaggeration to say this hallway is now my favorite part of the house :)

Leaving a Legacy

"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Deuteronomy 6:6,7

 

Last weekend we attended the memorial service of an amazing woman who left a tremendous legacy of faith for her kids, grandkids and great grandkids.  We all leave a legacy to our kids and my husband and I want to leave a legacy of faith, compassion and prayer for our kids.

Here are a few ways we're trying to live out this teaching in our family and leave a lasting legacy for our family while talking about the things of God throughout our day:

 

 

We have a cup that sits on our kitchen table that contains craft sticks.  Each craft stick has the name of friends who live overseas, our kids' teachers, the preschool director at church or our pastor. Currently there are 11 sticks. Eventually we're going to start adding other friends and family members who need prayer.  Each night before dinner one of the kids gets to "pick a stick" and we take turns praying for that person or family.  We have been doing this for about 2 months and it's worked out very well.  The kids love picking the stick so much that it's become a reward for winning the nightly manners game we learned from a friend.   This has been a wonderful time of hearing our kids hearts as we lift up others in prayer.

We have this large map hanging in our hallway.  This hallway is the gateway to our bedrooms and our office/guest room so we all pass it multiple times per day.  This is phase one of what will be our "global wall".   Right now I'm working on getting shelves to display items we've been given, or personally collected, from around the world. We also want to have pictures of the friends who we pray for surrounding it.  Our kids are simultaneously learning about where friends live and world geography.  (The first several weeks we had this map the kids would find a flag in the pictures surrounding the map and would ask me where that country is).



Our daughter's Bible is being held together by duct tape from it's nightly use

Like most parents we read our kids bedtime stories as part of our night time routine.   From the time our kids started getting a bedtime story it has always been from their Beginner's Bible.  We usually read 3 of these stories a night before prayer.  Our son turned 6 in August and has graduated to his "Big Boy Bible", though we keep his Beginner's Bible handy as a reference tool since he is so familiar with those stories (and has several of them memorized verbatim).  After Bible time is prayer time. 

Each child gets one on-one-time for Bible and prayer. When our oldest was 2 and our youngest was infant it made the most sense for my husband to tuck in our son while I nursed our daughter and rocked her to sleep.   4 years later my husband still does the bedtime routine with our oldest  most nights while I do it with our youngest, though we occasionally switch it up.

We by no means have everything figured out, but these are just some of the ways we're trying to talk with our kids about the things of God on a daily basis.


4/1/13 Update: We now have 17 sticks including our Compassion kids, members of the military and ministries we support.   The wall is almost complete and I couldn't be more excited!  There is still some work to be done: I still need to get shelves to display our items that can't be hung on the wall and I still have 2 more pictures to frame.  In addition to our friends who live overseas we also have pictures on the wall of our Compassion kids.

Here is a really bad cell phone picture of the global wall as it looked in January, before I had any of the pictures framed.  The hallway is very narrow so I couldn't get the entire thing in one shot.  The blank space above the wall will be for the shelves.



 

 

4/4/13 Update: The Global Wall project is now done and I couldn't be happier with the results!

Just a Mom

I've always been fairly confident in the decision my husband and I made, before getting married, that I would stay at home while our kids were little and I would not work outside the home until our kids were in school.

Now that my kids are getting older and my social circle is expanding from my friends to parents of my kids' friends I am often finding myself the only mom in the room who doesn't earn a paycheck and admit that when the question is asked of me,  "What do you do?" I shyly admit, "I'm just a mom".  I see the looks and hear the unspoken words from these moms who have "real" jobs and my confidence in our decision gets shaken.

In addition to the new experiences of my expanded social circle, for several years I have looked around at what others my age have accomplished professionally and I can't help by wonder, "What have I done with my life?"  I have a degree in a field I'm no longer interested in entering.  I worked up until just before the arrival of my oldest, but I've just had "jobs" and I've never had a career.  I have come to the realization that I will probably never have a career, even when I do re-enter the work force and get a job outside of the home.

In short, I have started to see my role as "just a mom" as one that is less than my peers who work outside the home and are wonderful parents.

Last week an amazing godly woman was called home to be with Jesus and I spent time this week thinking about her legacy.  I don't know if she worked outside the home while her children were young.  I don't much of her story, but I have spent time with her at family gatherings for as long as I've known my husband.  I didn't know "GG" well, but I know some of her kids, her grandkids and her great-grandkids and I know the legacy she and her husband built has impacted countless thousands of lives for all eternity.

GG has one daughter who has been as a missionary overseas her entire adult life serving children who desperately need Jesus' love and compassion.  GG's daughter has been Jesus' hands, feet, arms, and so much else to these children for several decades and the lives she has touched have been changed for all eternity.  I honestly don't ever remember having met this daughter (maybe a brief introduction once), but I know her family and I've heard of her and her work for years.

GG has another daughter who I know primarily as my friends' mom. My friends' mom is the board of directors for a missions organization and is the missions director at her church.  My friends' mom has raised a son and daughter who love Jesus, who serve Him in their community and who are raising their kids in the Truth.  I count both of her children as friends.

One of GG's grandsons and his wife are close friends of ours.  My husband and GG's grandson grew up in the same church together and have a friendship that has lasted decades.  GG's grandson taught at a Christian school and was a youth pastor for many years before he and his family went on the mission field.  Now Stateside this man is a pastor leading his own congregation. 

GG's granddaughter is also a friend and she is raising her family in the same church she grew up in.   While not in vocational ministry GG's granddaughter is serving her Jesus and is a light in her community to those who know her. GG's granddaughter and her husband have two young kids who they are raising in God's Truth.

GG has 4 great-grandchildren ranging in age from 19-2 and I can only imagine the future God has in store for them.

This amazing legacy of faith that has spanned several generations, multiple continents and to countless thousands of lives is all because one couple loved Jesus and demonstrated that love to their children.

While this legacy can (and IS) left by families where both parents work, single parent families where working is the only way to put food on the table and everything in between, it has caused me to re-think how I view myself and my role as Mom.

No matter if I one day have a job that out earns my husband's or if I never earn a paycheck again, I look at GG's life and remember that parenthood has an eternal impact for generations to come.

I am not "just a mom" . . . I am a woman who is one half of a couple raising our kids for eternity and praying we leave a legacy of Christ followers that lasts for generations to come.