Well, tomorrow starts our April Challenge. Jimmy and I have been really challenged at our church by how we spend our money and in the process have been totally convicted that we can do a better job about not only how we spend it, but also how we view money. Our pastor has said that when we get our paycheck our first thought should be, "How can I use as much of this to bless other people as possible?" That is SO NOT the American way, but I don't want to do things the American way, I want to do them God's way. So, in April, we're going to save as much as we can and at the end give it to one of the missions that our church supports (we support some churches and orphanages in Africa and some missionaries around the world). Our $30--that's just one dinner out, by the way--can support an orphan at one of those orphanages in Africa for an entire month.
Our goal in April is to give away as much money as possible, on top of what we're already tithing. Do we really need new clothes this month or should we save that money to give to people who literally have none? No, my shoes don't have holes in them so I'm not going to buy new ones and therefore maybe someone who doesn't own even one pair can acquire one. Do we really need to go out to eat, or can we eat that canned soup in the pantry we've been avoiding so that someone who doesn't know where the next meal is coming from doesn't have to worry for at least one day?
I used to think that spending money made me feel better--when I had a crappy day it felt good to go buy myself something special. But that's so empty. Things can't really make you happy, not in the long run. Maybe in the moment they do, but I bet you that one special thing isn't going to make you feel any better tomorrow when your job still sucks or your children are screaming at you. So you have to buy something else. And the cycle continues. So, we're hoping to do something that not only makes us actually feel better because we're hearing and following God's call from 1 John 3:17 (go look it up!), but that also helps someone else in a tangible way.
So...do you want to join the challenge?
P.S. Now that it's been about 12 hours since I wrote the above, I just wanted to add an addendum: It is not through our own strength that we are attempting this. I don't want this to sound like we are gloating over how generous we are (or attempting to be!). It is only through God's grace that we were convicted to think about how we spend our money and only through God's sovereignty that we are even considering this experiment. And it will most definitely only be because of God's strength that we are able to be more generous than we have been in the past.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
(Some) Potty Success! (And some pictures!)
Well, some things have changed since yesterday's pathetic post. Nathan has successfully used the potty several times, and has had no major accidents since then! Yesterday afternoon I was pretty irritated so I went on a walk and ran into my friend Lisa who suggested that I read this book about potty training in three days. I won't say that we buy the whole idea, but I did like a few things. Right away (after his nap) we stopped asking him if he had to go and suggesting that he go try. Until this point, he hadn't wanted to sit on the potty so we were bribing him with M&Ms just to sit there and not whine. Instead, we started telling him to check if he was dry and when he says yes, we just make a big deal about it. Also, we tell him, "Let mommy and daddy know if you need to use the potty," so putting the control in his hands. I kid you not, within a couple of hours he successfully used the potty for the first time! I don't know if it was because after a day and a half of accidents he just got the idea, or if the change in communication really worked. Today he has not had any full-blown accidents, and has kept on the same underwear almost all day! We're very proud of him, he's proud of himself, and I can tell that he's much happier. Yesterday and Thursday he was pretty grouchy but he's back to being himself now. I'm not going to say that we're done, but at least we've made some progress!
And, now that you've put up with my rambling (or maybe you skipped all of that...), you can reward yourself with why you really visit my blog. :) (I don't remember what I've done in the past but each caption goes with the picture below it. Also, click on the picture for a bigger view.)
Isaac riding the firetruck we got Nathan for his first birthday. In this picture, Isaac is almost the same age Nathan was when he had his first ride!
Nathan decided he wanted to give Isaac a push, and Isaac loved it!
Two cuties :)
The big day has arrived! Nathan throwing away his diapers on Thursday morning. Do not be alarmed, though, we're not crazy enough to actually send unused diapers to the dumpster (though perhaps Nathan thinks that's where they have gone). They're in a clean garbage bag hiding in the basement.
And today! After some potty success and feeling great about himself, Nathan brings me the camera and asks me to take a picture of him laughing. :)
And, now that you've put up with my rambling (or maybe you skipped all of that...), you can reward yourself with why you really visit my blog. :) (I don't remember what I've done in the past but each caption goes with the picture below it. Also, click on the picture for a bigger view.)
Isaac, as cute as ever. :) This kid will always smile for the camera!
Isaac riding the firetruck we got Nathan for his first birthday. In this picture, Isaac is almost the same age Nathan was when he had his first ride!
Nathan decided he wanted to give Isaac a push, and Isaac loved it!
Two cuties :)
The big day has arrived! Nathan throwing away his diapers on Thursday morning. Do not be alarmed, though, we're not crazy enough to actually send unused diapers to the dumpster (though perhaps Nathan thinks that's where they have gone). They're in a clean garbage bag hiding in the basement.
And today! After some potty success and feeling great about himself, Nathan brings me the camera and asks me to take a picture of him laughing. :)
Friday, March 27, 2009
Potty Woes
I should have taken a picture of Nathan with his Cookie Monster underwear on his head, but I was downstairs and the camera was upstairs, so I didn't. I think that's about how he feels about using the potty--might as well wear the things on his head.
Needless to say, today and yesterday have not been the most successful days of potty training. We're now at naptime on the second day of being diaper free, and Nathan still has yet to produce anything in the potty. Not one little dribble, at any point in his life, has entered the toilet coming from his body. I can't decide if he just doesn't know the cause-effect relationship of the feeling he gets and then what happens, or if he's scared of doing it, or if he's willfully disobedient. Thankfully, I'm pretty sure it's not disobedience. I think that he's afraid of failure and therefore doesn't want to sit on the potty. We've given in from first offering him ain M&M if he produced anything on the potty to now giving him one if he'll just sit there without whining. And I'll read a book to him while he sits there.
I think I just need to reorder my thoughts about this whole process. I thought the 1-3 day approach was best, where you just jump in all at once, no more diapers, only "big boy" underwear. But maybe that's not best with him. We'll see...hopefully I won't still be blogging about this in a year! :)
If you have suggestions, you're welcome to leave them!
Needless to say, today and yesterday have not been the most successful days of potty training. We're now at naptime on the second day of being diaper free, and Nathan still has yet to produce anything in the potty. Not one little dribble, at any point in his life, has entered the toilet coming from his body. I can't decide if he just doesn't know the cause-effect relationship of the feeling he gets and then what happens, or if he's scared of doing it, or if he's willfully disobedient. Thankfully, I'm pretty sure it's not disobedience. I think that he's afraid of failure and therefore doesn't want to sit on the potty. We've given in from first offering him ain M&M if he produced anything on the potty to now giving him one if he'll just sit there without whining. And I'll read a book to him while he sits there.
I think I just need to reorder my thoughts about this whole process. I thought the 1-3 day approach was best, where you just jump in all at once, no more diapers, only "big boy" underwear. But maybe that's not best with him. We'll see...hopefully I won't still be blogging about this in a year! :)
If you have suggestions, you're welcome to leave them!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
A Challenge
Tonight at house church (a small group of people from our church who meet weekly to study scripture, pray, etc.) we discussed the passage that our pastor preached from on Sunday. This verse struck me, and is a major theme at our church, New City Fellowship:
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:16-18 (bold mine)
We worry about owning houses when we have brothers and sisters in a sister congregation in Congo who are orphans without a dwelling place. We worry about not getting to go out to eat when we have brothers and sisters in a sister congregation in Togo who say that they will go home and not know where their next meal comes from. We worry about getting the best education for our children that money can buy, and yet there are Burmese children living in refugee camps in Thailand who will possibly be there their entire lives, never getting an education and never working. What is frustrating to me is that most of us rich Westerners have not really bought into God's economy; we are still pursuing the American dream. We make sure that our perceived needs are met and then give from excess to those truly in need instead of living sacrificially, to the point that it hurts. God's idea for our lives might not include owning a home, going out to eat, or buying an expensive education for our children. It might include renting, shopping at thrift stores, and public school so that we can do just what 1 John 3:17 says we should do. We are indeed Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, and if we were really all doing what 1 John 3:17 says we should do, we wouldn't have starving brothers--that's right, fellow Christians--around the world.
This blog post isn't intended to point fingers away from myself onto other people. It's meant to point to other people, for sure, but also to myself. Though Jimmy and I feel like we live sacrificially because we do give generously to our church, there are so many ways I can think of in just the past month that we should have not spent money and perhaps used that money in ways that would fulfill the call from God to give to those in need. So my challenge for you and for myself is that we make a conscious effort, maybe for just a week or two, to think about all we spend our money on and think about whether we should instead invest it in God's kingdom by serving those who need it most. That's how God's economy works, and it doesn't crash.
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:16-18 (bold mine)
We worry about owning houses when we have brothers and sisters in a sister congregation in Congo who are orphans without a dwelling place. We worry about not getting to go out to eat when we have brothers and sisters in a sister congregation in Togo who say that they will go home and not know where their next meal comes from. We worry about getting the best education for our children that money can buy, and yet there are Burmese children living in refugee camps in Thailand who will possibly be there their entire lives, never getting an education and never working. What is frustrating to me is that most of us rich Westerners have not really bought into God's economy; we are still pursuing the American dream. We make sure that our perceived needs are met and then give from excess to those truly in need instead of living sacrificially, to the point that it hurts. God's idea for our lives might not include owning a home, going out to eat, or buying an expensive education for our children. It might include renting, shopping at thrift stores, and public school so that we can do just what 1 John 3:17 says we should do. We are indeed Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, and if we were really all doing what 1 John 3:17 says we should do, we wouldn't have starving brothers--that's right, fellow Christians--around the world.
This blog post isn't intended to point fingers away from myself onto other people. It's meant to point to other people, for sure, but also to myself. Though Jimmy and I feel like we live sacrificially because we do give generously to our church, there are so many ways I can think of in just the past month that we should have not spent money and perhaps used that money in ways that would fulfill the call from God to give to those in need. So my challenge for you and for myself is that we make a conscious effort, maybe for just a week or two, to think about all we spend our money on and think about whether we should instead invest it in God's kingdom by serving those who need it most. That's how God's economy works, and it doesn't crash.
Potty Training!
Well folks, hopefully tomorrow is the big day. Nathan has been excited about the prospect of using the potty and wearing "big boy underwear--like Titus and Silas and Samuel!" for a while now. I bought him a package of Sesame Street undies about two weeks ago to get the dialogue underway, hoping to do the potty training this week (spring break for both Jimmy and me). I had hoped to start on Monday, but since both of the boys were so sick, I thought that would be torture for everyone. Nathan seems to be fine now, so we went to Target today to get some more supplies and hopefully tomorrow we'll be diaper free! We got: a potty seat, a stool, an Elmo potty coloring book with a sticker chart, a new book that he picked out that he can have the first day he uses the potty all day with no accidents (not counting sleep time), and Thomas the Train big boy underwear. He is really excited about all of it, and Jimmy and I are certainly excited about the prospect of no more diapers (though he will use Pull-ups during nap and bedtime), but we're not all that excited about the process. Hopefully in the days to come, I'll have some very positive updates!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
some things we've been doing
Well, I found the camera cord so I decided to put up a quick blog post of some of the things we've been doing recently. This is a picture of Nathan and his friend Maggie playing hide and go seek. I don't think they quite realize that one of them is supposed to go hide!
When it was so cold outside, we had a lot of indoor playdates. Here is a picture of Isaac and our neighbor, Asher, who is only six days younger than Isaac. Hopefully they'll get to play more together--until now one of them seems to always have an ear infection but maybe that will stop now that the weather is getting warmer!
This past weekend we went to Texas for Jimmy's grandmother's funeral. It was a very beautiful funeral, and a great time to see family at a time we wouldn't normally. On our trip there he got to sit in the pilot's seat while we were on the ground. It was very exciting for all of us :)
Here are some pictures of this amazing playground that we played on in Corpus Christi, Texas (near our hotel). It was this huge maze of playthings. Isaac came along, but as you can see, was a little too out of it to participate in much of the running around. This is another picture of three generations on the train at the playground.
This last picture is of a trip that the boys took to the zoo today. During our trip to Texas Nathan and Isaac got really sick, bu they are feeling better. Unfortunately, I am now not feeling so well! So, Nathan and Isaac and Daddy along with our friend Zach, who is visiting from California, went to the zoo and gave me some time to rest. It was much needed.
Well, now that the camera cord is found, I guess I have no reason for not posting very often. I'll try to be more up-to-date with my posts, that is, if there is anything worth posting about!
Monday, March 23, 2009
back from a long break
Well, congratulations to you if you're still checking my blog. I honestly want to be better about it and we're getting a new computer soon, so hopefully it will do everything faster! I was so excited--last night I was mentally prepared for a great blog post! But alas, I couldn't find my camera cord. So...once that is found we'll have a post with pictures. We just got back from a trip to Texas to go to Jimmy's grandmother's funeral. It was a beautiful funeral and a great time with family. On the way to Texas we had to get off of the plane in Dallas but not in Houston (our destination was Corpus Christi). Nathan and Isaac made friends with the flight attendants and Nathan said "bye" to everyone getting off the plane. I turned around to get something and when I looked back to where Nathan had been standing, he wasn't there! I asked the flight attendant about it and she had put him in the pilot's seat in the cockpit! There are some great pictures of him in the cockpit that I will post as soon as I find that cord! It was very exciting for him (and me) to see it. He got to move levers and push buttons and pretend to fly the plane!
Now, unfortunately, I have two very sick boys on my hands. Nathan was sick while we were in Texas and we took them to the doctor once we got back to St. Louis and they have both been diagnosed with a double ear infection :( So sad! Jimmy and I are both on spring break this week so I hope that they will get better soon so we can all enjoy it to the fullest!
Now, unfortunately, I have two very sick boys on my hands. Nathan was sick while we were in Texas and we took them to the doctor once we got back to St. Louis and they have both been diagnosed with a double ear infection :( So sad! Jimmy and I are both on spring break this week so I hope that they will get better soon so we can all enjoy it to the fullest!
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