June in our Home: In Pictures

This month's update will be in pictures.  I just got a nice camera before we left for Portugal, and I have been loving it so much!

Here are some highlights from this month, in pictures.

Hudson got his first haircut this month.  Here is a before picture:

And here is after...

Whoops.  Botched that a bit.  In my defence, Hudson was squirming too much to do it the "right" way, so he just ended up getting more or less a bowl cut.  Alex says he looks like this:

We also moved into our new house this month.

 And met some of our new neighbors.

(That's a bison.)

Settling is taking longer than I would thought, so I haven't taken many pics of the inside yet, but here is one of our entryway.  Please come visit if you haven't yet.

The first week of June we were in the Azores, Portugal visiting family.  Here is Esther swinging in the yard of our hotel.

And here she is exploring flowers at a huge royal garden on the island.

Too many beautiful flower pics.

And Hudson being cute.

I have tons more vacation photos (about 2000 to be exact) so I hope to post more eventually!

Thought on the coming persecution

Friday's supreme court decision has really thrown me for a loop.  Not because it was unexpected (it wasn't) but because it has really gotten me to think about persecution.  And for as much good as I logically know persecution does for the individual and the Church, I'll be honest, it scares me.

In the coming years, we are going to see two things happen: churches who preach against homosexuality will be in danger of losing their 501(c)3 status and speaking against this sin will become a hate crime.  The first will cripple many churches financially, and the second will cause many faithful Christians to be sent to jail.

But the government will be generous.  If only a church will refuse to preach the whole counsel of God and bow instead to government regulation, they will be allowed to continue on.

This reminds me of Christianity in China.  Churches can either be government registered, and have to follow government rules about what they can do and teach, or they can be independent (and therefore, illegal) and worship God without government regulation.  Pastors of illegal churches are often thrown in jail.  Meetings have to be secret and there is always the thread of intrusion by authorities.  You see, the Chinese Government wants to be god.  And churches that dare bow only to the True God and not to the Chinese god feel the wrath of this human institution.

Even more, this reminds me of early Christianity.  Early Christians were persecuted in large part not because they worshiped a different God (the Romans had a whole pantheon of gods and didn't mind adding one more) but because they refused to worship the god of the Roman government: Caesar, the one god they were required to worship.

Reading in Daniel this morning, I was struck by two verses.  The context is an uprising by a major enemy of God.

"He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder" (11:32-33)

And what is the final end of this enemy of God and his people?

"And he shall come pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him." (11:45)

So let us stand firm on the Word of God and not fear.  Let us not be man-pleasers and conform the Bible to what is currently popular and accepted.  In the end, there is only God.  The US government, and all governments will have their end in time, but He will not.

Sorry SCOTUS, nice try thinking that you have the power to define marriage.  There is only One Creator of marriage, and He created it to be for one man and one woman.

The End of a Sprint

The end is in sight.

We started on a sprint back in February. That month, we started raising money for the community garden we hoped to build.  Around that time, I took on responisbilities for two big events at church.  In March, we started looking for a home to buy, and made the decision to travel to the Azores, Portugal at the of May to see Alex's family (he hasn't been there in 27 years, and I have never been there or met most of his family).  In April, we broke ground on the community garden (and once we started, Alex worked 30-50 hours per week on it, and it took the majority of my free time as well).  In May, our sprint hit a fever pace as we started packing for our move, finished enough of the community garden to get it open, called our loan company often enough to make sure they got things done in time for our closing, closed on our house, and packed suitcases for our trip to the Azores.  All of this was on top of church and home responsibilities that were already keeping us quite busy before the sprint started.

But you can't sprint forever.  And the end is in sight.  Our vacation is almost over, and while it was relaxing in many ways, as is usual at the end of a vaction, you look forward to getting back to normalcy.  When we get home, we will have three days to finish packing and move into our new home.  So one last push, and we will be finished with the majority of the work we embarked on a few months ago (we still need to finish some things on the garden, and then of course there will be the work of making our new house a home).

But God has been very good to us in this very full season.  All of these potentially stressful things could have caused difficulty in our marriage, but instead, it has strengthened us as we have worked hard side by side.  God used this time to strengthen my prayer life (which is still so, so far from where I want it to be) as I have sought to emulate the example of George Mueller who found it necessary to devote more time to prayer in difficult seasons, when our temptation is to pray less.  And we have both felt God's sweet blessing in many ways, as he has made our community garden vision come to reality, allowed us to visit family that we have been trying to see since we got married almost 7 years ago, and given us our first home (even though we know its just temporary, for the next 4ish year we are in Bloomington).

Here are a few pictures from our vacation.  I definitely plan to write more about that (it was absolutely wonderful!) so look for more to come on that.

Alex and Esther walking down a beautiful cobblestone sidewalk.

Behind Hudson is a picture of a small island created by a volcanic eruption.  It is hard to see in this pic, but in the middle is a lagoon, almost perfectly round, the mouth of the volcano.

Hudson on the beach.  The sand is very dark, made from volanic rock.

Beautiful flowers in front of a beautiful waterfall.  I think I have several hundred pictures of flowers from our trip.

And espresso.  Lots of espresso.

Materialism and Asceticism

I can't stop thinking about this blog post I read today.  I recommend reading it, but to sum up the author says that she was concerned about materialism in her two daughters and after getting fed up with their toys, she took them all away.  As a result she has seen more contentment in her daughters' lives.

On one hand I totally get where she is coming from.  When we first became parents, we went from 0 to 4 kids in two weeks, all of them under age four (they were a foster sibling set).  We were incredibly blessed that many people stepped up to give us hand me down clothes and toys for our kiddos.  In fact, within a few weeks we had 4 full bins of toys!  I tried my best to rotate these toys but they always managed to take over the house.  When the kids were reunited with their mom, we sent the vast majority of the toys with them.  Since then I have continually been reducing the number of toys we own, and keeping fewer toys out at a time when we do toy rotations (or at least I try... sometimes the number of toys around the house seem to multiply despite my best efforts).  Having fewer toys around helps keep me sane and the kids really don't seem to notice (especially when I do a good job of rotating).

BUT.

There is one thing that concerns me about this idea.  Taking away your kids toys is not going to stop them from being greedy.

"If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." Colossians 2:20-23 (emph. mine)

So taking away your kids' toys to help them be less materialistic?  Maybe if they don't have toys they appear less materialistic and more content.  But setting up these regulations in their lives will not stop the indulgence of the flesh.  Only the Holy Spirit can change your children from the inside out.

Pray for His mercy and soul cleansing work in your children.

And maybe you should take away their toy or at least get rid of a good number of them.  But don't expect that to save or sanctify them.

We did it!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who was a part of our kickstarter campaign for the community garden we are building!  With just 6 hours to go yesterday, our campaign received full funding.

Our future garden site!

Part of me feels relieved, like we can just kick back and relax now.  But actually, the opposite is true.  The hard work is over, now the really hard work starts.  Now that the funding is in and the weather is warming up, its time to roll up our sleeves and get to work on building this thing.  Today a big truck is going to back up to our tiny apartment and deliver enough 8' fence to surround the whole garden, along with two 8'x6' gates.  In the next few weeks Lord willing and weather permitting we are going to be building and installing a fence, a shed, water pipes and a new spigot, compost bins and raised bed gardens, among other things.

Did I mention that at the moment Alex and I own a hammer and power drill and that's about it for tools?

But we are not alone in this effort.  Some forty people have already offered help (and I hope they were all serious because we need it!!).  And God raised the money, God can raise the fence.

Will you please pray for us?  This is possibly the biggest project we have ever embarked on.  Pray for patience, wisdom, enough help, good weather and fun.  Lots of fun :)

Soli Deo Gloria!

My Late Winter/Early Spring Meal Plan

This past winter I decided to simplify life by making a 3 month meal plan, a 4 week plan that I would repeat 3 times.  It went very well over all (I didn't follow the plan 100% but it worked for us) so I decided to make a new plan for the next few months.

My main goal with this meal plan was to try some new things, and like last time, include at least one crock pot meal per week and meals that I can double and freeze.

I have included links to recipes where applicable.  Some of these are things I make often enough that I don't use a recipe.

Week 1
1 Hamburgers with sweet potato fries and carrot sticks
2 Sri Racha Meatballs (made with beef, not turkey like the recipe says) with Asian sesame-lime cabbage salad
3 Crockpot Chicken Enchillada Soup with warm buttered sourdough tortillas (I make half of this recipe)
4 Mujadara (I recommend doubling the onions.  Also, the site says it serves 4-6 but I would say it serves 2 adults and 1 child if it is your main dish).
5 Pizza with sausage, olives, mushrooms and bell peppers
6 Brazillian Fish Stew

Week 2
1 Crockpot Beef Stroganoff
2 Tuna Melt Sandwiches
3 Meatloaf with French Fries and Steamed Broccoli
4 Fried Rice
5 Chicken Pesto Pizza with carrot sticks
6 Fish Tacos (all you midwesterners probably think this sounds weird.  I did too until I lived in Cali and now I know fish tacos are the best!)

Week 3
1 Chicken Gyros with Hummus and Veggies
2 Spaghetti and meatballs
3 Crockpot Chicken Tikka Masala
4 Thai Peanut Stir-fry
5 Pizza with Sausage, olives, red onions and mushrooms
6 Chipotle Salmon Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries


Week 4
1 Burritos
2 Quiche
3 Crockpot Sloppy Joes
4 Curried Alaskan Salmon
5 Pizza with Pepperoni and Bell Peppers
6 Pesto Pasta with Salmon Fillets and Steamed Broccoli

Bonus: desserts
I don't really plan ahead for desserts very often, but here are a few I plan to make in the near future

Five ingredient peanut butter cookies

Peanut butter cups

Our Community Garden Vision

Six months ago, Alex and I had a crazy idea.  What if we started a community garden?  We already knew the location: our church has over 200 acres of land and we were hopeful they would let us use some to start the garden.  And we felt like this would be the right place to serve our community, as it is right down the street from a very large low-income apartment complex (with lots of international students and young families).  It would be a great way to build inroads into our community and be of practical service to our neighbors. Around this time we also found out about a new bike path that the city was building right through this same area! This would be another draw for people to garden on this land.

But there were some major hurdles to be cleared: coming up with a proposal and blueprint for the garden, getting it approved by our elders, raising the money for materials and gathering people to volunteer to help build the garden.  Did I mention that we know almost nothing about community gardens?  I visited a community garden that my friend had a plot in while we lived in California, and last summer I had a plot in a garden on the other side of town.  But... that's pretty much it.

We worked hard coming up with a proposal (and by "we" I mean Alex as he's done most of the work on this whole thing).  And finally it came time to propose it to the elders.  We really didn't know if it would be approved or not (among other barriers to it being passed, our church gets much needed money from renting out our currently unused acreage to a farmer).  And to be honest, I almost didn't want it to pass... I knew it would be a lot of work on our shoulders if we had to turn this dream into a reality.

It passed.  And I prayed for strength from God to carry this increased load.  But though I knew it would be hard work, I was also excited to have something so big to trust God for, to depend on him completely for.  It has been a while since I have had to do something where I thought "If God doesn't move in this, then this is going to completely fail."  While that is a scary place to be, it is also a place where you get to see God move the most.  As George Mueller once wrote "Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man's power ends."

[Side note: I highly recommend reading The Autobiography of George Mueller.  This is one of my favorite books as it is very faith building and challenging]

Since the proposal passed (and that was just two months ago), we have been working on various aspect of this project almost daily.  We read a book on how to start a community garden and started a kickstarter campaign. We started to spread the word about the garden and have about 10 plots filled and 40 people willing to help build!  

I find that I am being amazed daily with how God is working.  Raising up 40 volunteers?  This is at least double what I could have hoped for.  Just this past weekend he put us in touch with an organization that is probably going to donate the fruit trees we need for the mini-orchard we are hoping to have in the garden.  And just today we passed 50% of the funds we need through our kickstarter campaign.

Will you join us in this work?  Would you consider:

1. Praying for us.

2. Sharing our kickstarter campaign on your social media of choice.

3. Giving to our fundraising campaign.  We have just one week left to raise up the last of what we need.

Thank you!

February in our Home

Where to start when you have stepped away from blogging for so long?  And it hasn't been intentional... many (most?) days I think to myself "I need to blog about ___".  I have the notes scribbled on scraps of paper, in my journal and in various binders to prove it.  I've had glorious plans to write down some deeply moving thoughts (they're always deep and moving in my head) I've had on race and racism, the Bible's portrayal of motherhood, on marriage, school choice, sin, loving people who are far from Jesus, and (of course) adoption.  I always have a blog entry on adoption somewhere in my back pocket...

And I don't really know where to start up again.  So I'll just talk about life... where we have been the last few months and where we are going.  And- as usual- life is quite dynamic right now. It seems that life really is never the same for too many months on end for us, as is often the case when you have little ones, but especially for us as we continue to follow Jesus and take uncomfortable steps of faith on a regular basis.

Sometimes its enough to make me want to take a nap just thinking about it.  But what would life be if not for following Jesus?  And why keep life comfortable here when you can store up treasure that will last for eternity?

Where have we been?

The past few months have been full of much toil. Not anything crazy, just the day to day demands of two young children (who are currently sharing a bedroom... with sleep schedules that aren't quite compatible...), and serving at church.

We were supposed to move to a three bedroom apartment in our complex last month but things fell through with that. It was a disappointment, as we were really looking forward to a bigger space, but the main reason we wanted to move was for fostering, which is on hold at the moment.

But not on hold by our choice. Our county child services office is really busy and understaffed at the moment (really, though, what is new?) so we've pretty much been told that we are a low priority to certify since we are limited to a narrow age range (by our choice- we are sensitive to the needs of our biological kiddos in this area).  In California, this was never an issue.  But here in a small county, I guess they can be pickier.  And at the moment, we aren't making the cut.

Plenty of other ministries are keeping my schedule full for the moment, though. I am doing greeting and data entry for BloomingMoms (our church's moms group), childcare scheduling for Sundays, coordinating Wednesday evening childcare, social media marketing for Encores, a consignment sale that raises funds for BloomingMoms, childcare coordinating for our summer conference and working to start a community garden, in addition to things I just attend, like Bible study. While being a part of a church plant was a lot of work, being a part of an established church is even more work, we're coming to find, though we have a lot more administrative tasks and less shepherding than we did before.

Where are we going?

There are so many plans on the horizon that it is actually quite exciting. We are looking into buying a house for the first time ever. We've been married 6.5 years (exactly, tomorrow! :) ) and have always rented. And I've been fine with that... its cheaper, gives us more flexibility,etc.  But for the first time we both really want to "settle down" for a bit. Even if just for the next four or so years while we are here. We are hoping for a bigger place suitable for more hosting and where my mom can live with us again. And even though I am terrible at decorating, something besides white walls would be gladly welcomed at this point. And a piece of land that is ours to do with as we please (chickens? a garden? play area?).

Another area we are dreaming in is the area of adoption.  With our county not caring to certify us, we are thinking about looking into other avenues of orphan care.  Specifically we are considering pursuing an international adoption. No details on that yet, but we're going to continue to look in to it and see where God leads.

The biggest thing on the horizon is the community garden.  At the moment, we are working on a kickstarter campaign to raise the funds that we need.  Weather permitting, we can break ground some time in mid-March to start building.  And also weather-permitting, we hope to open the garden for the season sometime in the spring.  More details on this to come!  But please be in prayer for us in this.  Its a step of faith and we look eagerly to see our Father to provide for it to happen.

2014 in review, Part Three

In this final part of my reflection of our past year, I will focus on our ministry.  The year started with little to no defined ministry roles: not only were we were new at our church, but we also needed some time to just catch our breath, and said no to a few things we were asked to do early on.  But once we felt like we had our footing established, we started to take on a few roles.  Here is a sampling of some of the ministry we took on in the second half of 2014.

*Teaching four-year-old Sunday school.  Together, we teach the four-year-olds during the Sunday school hour, which we both love.  The kiddos are a lot of fun.  Alex enjoys being "on" for the kids and easily gets their attention with his energy and humor.  The curriculum we are using is wonderful, very God-centered.  Alex usually does the teaching while I lead singing and scripture memory, and occasionally put together a craft.  Not only is four a fun age, but an added benefit is that we are learning how to teach and interact with the age that Esther will be soon.

*Community Garden. Through a number of different factors, God gave us the desire to propose a community garden to our church.  This will be on our church's property, and will serve not only as a benefit to members of the church, but it will also be open to members of our community.  Our projection is that we will have more non-church members than members, which we are hoping will lead to stronger ties into our community. Alex has been putting together plans for a while, and formally proposed the plans in December.  The elder board approved the plans, and we are hoping to have it up and running by April 15th of this year! A lot has to happen between now and then, so please be in prayer for us.  This is the biggest step of faith we have taken in a while, and I am excited to see God answer our prayers and glorify His name through this ministry.

*BloomingMoms greeter. At the start of this school year, I began help with our church's moms group.  I like being a greeter because it helps me get to know the moms who come that aren't a part of our church.  It has helped me to stay outward focused when our group meets, rather than talking to people I already know and to remember who to pray for.  This has also been a great way to meet all of the new women who come.

In addition to what I mentioned above, Alex was in charge of the men's retreat at our church a couple months ago and I have been helping with nursery scheduling (a BIG undertaking at a church with over 100 kiddos under the age of 5).

Raising the Bar for Your Children

Recently we have started teaching Esther catechism questions and answers.  I figured it was better to start sooner than later but I have been amazed at how quickly she has picked up on them.  It has made me think that we really should have started sooner, but glad that we have at least started now (she is three).

There are two things that have really been impressed on me in the past few years regarding teaching young children.  First of all, that they are really sponges for facts.  Since young kids can't think abstractly yet, their brain is like a huge filing cabinet where all day long they are filing away facts.  The more facts that you can help them to file away now, the better their abstract thinking will become in the future.

The second thing I have been learning is that most parents have way too low of expectations for their children in many areas (including especially behavior) but in this case academically/intellectually.  Esther may not understand all of these questions and answers, but she has the capability of memorizing them, which will help her in the future when she can think more deeply of questions about God and life.

I was looking on YouTube for recordings of these question and answers for us to listen to as another way of helping her to learn it.  This video of a two year old answering the first 12 catechism questions is a good reminder that even little children can be expected to learn much more than we usually expect of them.

This video of another two year old is even more impressive, as she does the first 20 questions with great clarity and annunciation.  I can't get the video to come up for some reason so I can only link to it.

Now, if it sounds like you would need to be some kind of drill sergeant to have your 2 or 3 year old memorize all of these questions, let me assure you that its not at all like that.  All it takes is lots of repetition.  We work on these questions for about 5 minutes per day, usually at lunch time.  I read the questions over and over, and then start leaving words blank for Esther to fill in.  After just over a week of this, Esther has about ten answers memorized.  Not only does she find it fun, but she often asks to practice at other times.  "Let's do questions, Mom!" I hear several times each day, and I'll ask her a few of the ones she knows.  Not only does she enjoy it but I can tell she feels a sense of accomplishment for what she has learned.  This is a satisfying feeling that I hope will spur her on to continue to challenge herself in many areas throughout her life.

Relatedly, small children are also sponges for scripture memory.  Just as with catechism questions, repetition is key.  I try to recite verses while doing menial tasks with the kiddos, like changing diapers and brushing teeth.  Esther can recite most of Psalm 1 because of this method.

Making scripture and spiritual teachings the topic of convesation throughout the day like this is one of the ways to be obedient to this command:

“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul... You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied..." Deuteronomy 11:18-21

I love the promise at the end... that "the days of your children may be multiplied".  What good parent doesn't want that for their children?

So, where is the bar set for your children?  Maybe your New Year's resolution for this year should be to set higher goals for them and take the initiative as a parent to make it happen.

2014 in review, Part Three

Yesterday I mentioned how our lives have been developing spiritually this past year.  This has also been a great year for our family.  Here are some of the things God has been doing in our family in 2014.

*Moving. We're gearing up to move in 2 weeks.  This will be our third move in the past 13 months (and if we buy a house this year that will be yet another move!).  It was so nice living in the same house in California for over 3 years... it was the first time since the beginning of college that I hadn't moved on a yearly basis.  Well, this year has made up for that!  All I can say is that moving a lot is helpful to continually get rid of unwanted/unused items and to stay flexible.  That being said, I hope God settles us down for at least a few years (until we move again after Alex is done with classes!).  For the first time since we've been married I've had a desire to settle, decorate the house, cultivate a garden on our own soil and establish ourselves somewhere.  Also, moving a lot is entirely unhelpful for having a ministry among your neighbors.

*Hudson's birth.  He came 3 weeks early, at the end of March and has been a blessing and a joy ever since.  Esther took a few weeks to warm up to him but now she absolutely adores him and always asks to play with him as soon as he wakes from naps.  I'm glad for her sake she has a "permanent" sibling- she's had two foster siblings come and go since she was born (both of whom she also adored).  He's by far our worst sleeper so far, but I know its just a season of life and we need to be patient.  He's a very eager and active baby, not waiting any time at all to crawl (started at 5 months 5 days old!) and will very likely be walking before he turns one.  Everywhere we go he gets tons of compliments on his eyes, which are so dark brown that you can't even see his pupil.  He is also frequently called "pretty", which is Alex's least favorite "compliment" for him.

*Fostering. 2014 was the first year since 2010 that we haven't had any foster placements, but not entirely by our choice.  We started the re-certification process a few months ago but have been more or less ignored by overburdened social workers.  So it may take a few more months until it happens (moving is also one of the steps in the process that has to happen).  We are looking forward to getting placements again, but selfishly I am hoping for Hudson to start sleeping through the night (like solid 12 hours of sleep) before that happens... so please pray that his sleep improves.  There are two other families at church who are certified or in the process, and its nice to again have local friends who we can relate to in this area (a strong support system is crucial in fostering).

*Alex's work.  Our move, combined with a few other factors, has allowed Alex to start a business based off of his computer.  He runs this website with a friend and sells stuff on ebay, among other things.  This work is something he's wanted to pursue for a while and is a blessing as it allows a lot of flexibility to pursue ministry and take classes.  It will also provide income for us to go overseas in the future (Lord willing).  Its also the most enjoyable job he's had in years, which is a blessing to our whole family to see him doing something he enjoys.

*Parenting.  One of the strengths of our church, and one reason we wanted to move here is godly parenting.  Over our first full year here we have certainly grown in that area.  Two big ways I have grown in being better about disciplining our children (its always easy to make lots of excuses as to why you don't need to discipline, all at the expense of the child) and to show more affection.  Though these things may seem opposite, they are actually hand in hand, as they reflect the severity and kindness of the Lord.  I am also learning about training children in godliness and teaching them about God and the Bible.  Seeing how much progress we've made this year, I am excited to learn more in the coming years.

2014 in Review, Part One

2014 has been a breath of fresh air for us.  Its the first year since the beginning of our marriage that has not been trial after trial after trail.  Which is not to say that its been all easy, but compared to years past, much more so than we are used to.  So here is a peak at certain areas of our lives this past year and how God has been working in us, specifically in the area of our faith.

*Repenting of sin. As Martin Luther said, "The whole of a Christian's life is one of repentance".  So its not that repentance is new or different this year but that by God's grace, he's still convicting me of sin and I'm still repenting of sin.  Among other things, I have been convicted of a lot of fears this year, fears that keep me from taking steps of faith, especially in ministry.  I have been convicted of a lot of pride, especially since we are at a new church and in a new town and making new friends... I have spent way too much energy thinking about how I want people to think of me and how I want to be respected by others.  There are many more, but these are two that come to mind that God has been working on in me.

*Boldness.  God has been using some people in my life who are very bold about sharing the gospel to encourage me to be bolder in speaking up on spiritual matters (here is one example, and here is another).  The main thing that keeps me from being bold is fearing what people will think of me.  But God continues to press on me that life is short and eternity is long, and if I keep quiet I'm not changing anyone's eternity, just making my short life here on earth a bit easier.  And even if at times I err on the side of being too bold, I would rather fail in the right direction than fail in the wrong direction of constantly fearing people and never speaking up about what I believe.

*Humility.  Along with repentance, shouldn't this be a constant theme in every Christian's life?  By God's grace it is in mine, but especially this year.  I have been learning so much being surrounded by so many older, more mature Christians at our church, which has really been humbling, especially coming from different churches and groups in the past where I was usually more mature than the average person.  But its nice to just sit back and learn from others and not have to have all the answers to questions all of the time.  I think this is part of the reason I haven't been blogging as much of late... I feel like I'm just soaking a lot in and don't have so much to pour out at the moment.

Photo credit: Ryk Neethling on Flickr

*Bible reading.  Sigh.  I hate setting goals that I don't accomplish.  Its really humbling (see above).  This is the fourth year I have attempted the M'Cheyene bible in a year plan and the fourth time I have failed.  (Although in my defense for good reasons... each time I have failed its always been because of a new birth or foster placement gets me off track until I'm so far behind that I eventually give up).  This time I have decided to finish no matter how long it takes (I have about 1/3 of the OT left, so not really that much to go.  I decided to only read the NT once, though the M'Cheyene plan has two full readings of the NT) and I don't think I'm going to attempt the Bible in a year again, at least not for a long time.  Reading that much every day feels like a burden and doesn't play on my strengths: I much more prefer to read shorter passages and study them in depth.  I read the bible most days of the week (I love being up before the kids and getting to read and pray for a bit!) but 4 chapters per day is unrealistic, especially for how slow of a reader I am.  So I'm going to finish up the OT so that I can say I have read the whole Bible, but I plan to do a different kind of study after that this year.