See

Waking up first thing in the morning, I see His mercy and grace... shiny and new for the taking.
Rushing to that first cup of coffee, I see warmth and feel His presence as I soak up His word.
Rousing my children, I see opportunity.
Rushing through each morning, the stumbling to get out of the door... I see togetherness and a mix of missed opportunities.
The ten minute ride to the school, I see a man sitting next to me and not the innocent boy who played legos.
Listening to my girls sing in the back seat and giggle, I see the future.
Walking into the halls of my school, I see teachable moments and try to avoid the stress.
As bells rings, and faces fade in and out of my classroom, I see sadness and frustration and try in my fleeting moments to console those who are so deeply sad.
As the copy machine flies and plans are made and weeks transform into weekends, I try to find opportunities to love, and to SEE the good in all of my students.
And as Monday approaches, I see yet another reflection of His mercy and grace.

~Read more "5 Minute Friday" posts here...
http://lisajobaker.com/

Wonder

Today's 5 Minute Friday prompt from The Gypsy Momma is "Wonder"...

To be filled with wonder at the solar system...

To be filled with amazement at creation...

To be filled with awe like a child...

To marvel at the unknown....

To be curious at the simple.... 

To witness something miraculous.... 

And I wonder if there is a greater picture...

Home

My home does not look like this....

And I doubt it ever will.  It looks more like this after movie night....

Yep, those are my two girls crashed out.  Oh, and then there's this...

And it's pretty much a mess on any given Sunday, and sure, I know it doesn't matter because life happens here, and because I stay at home and don't work, we have furniture from craigslist and we don't do many vacations.  But I compare.  And I whine.  And some days feel hard and heavy.  And I know that my home is lovely, but I forget.  And I forget that I have seen things like this...

Orphanages in Kazakhstan

And this...

These were her only pair of shoes in the world.  I don't
 know about you, but the words
"I don't have shoes to
match" have come out of my mouth more than once.

Where life is hard and heavy.  And I am reminded to look at my reality, my home, through the eyes of Christ.

And I see the blessing.  I wonder how Christ sees me. 

And as my children play 'family' and I cook, I get to see glimpses of me in the mirror.  I get to see how they see our home. 

How they see Christ through me.

How through every hug, every kiss, every word, and even as I stand and do the dishes, they see me.

I am not just making a home.  I am not just a wife.  I am who they see as an example of  making a home.  So even on days that are hard and heavy.  I lift my eyes to Christ and am reminded, that these walls and this life and this home are temporary, and that it both matters and it doesn't matter, and that life is not about what matters, it's about Christ.  That my real home is eternally more glorious than anything I could ever imagine.  And that there probably won't be any laundry to do.  And that gives me something to smile about while I fold....

Every Day Counts...

Something I have learned from running.....  if I am training for a race, training is something that has to happen every day. What I never realized before is that "training" includes EVERY aspect of my life. What I eat, what I drink, how I sleep, and how much I rest. Even when I have a day off... I don't have the day off from eating well and maintaining proper hydration. I can't spend five days running and working out really hard, eating healthy portions and super foods and then go and gorge up on fried chicken and soda on my day off. Because it makes me feel horid the next day. 

Isn't sin the same way? 

Conscious as I am of my weaknesses and failures and my lack of self control, I fail.  When I know that it counts, I fail.  But God is not waiting for us to do better. He is not sitting around rolling his eyes when we mess up.  He whispers get back up.  Keep going.  Learn.  Your life still counts. 
Every day counts. Our lives, our thoughts, our actions and reactions are the footprints we lay down fresh ...  And time will race on and I will fail again at my training.  And there will come a day when I return to the earth never to know the children of my children's children who will trace over my footprints leaving paths of their own.  And as this stay at home mom ponders what I'm doing with my life, and where the mattering is, I am reminded that it is not in the grandeur of or the accomplishments, but in the moments where training meets grace.



source

 Reactions to situations, to my children, to my husband, my family.  Treatment of people in line at the grocery store - in front of us and behind us.  Potty training.  Hospitals.  What I choose to watch, where I choose to go.  What I say to the homeless man on the corner, the telemarketer who calls during dinner, facebook/twitter posts,  blogs, in the car, in my home.  It all matters.  It is a constant stream of chances to radiate Christ's love. 

Every Day I should open our eyes and thank God for the training that we are about to endure with the realization that how we handle it might help someone else finish the race.  And if I fail, I fail because of my humannes and I win when I keep going because Christ has allready won.

What am I really doing with my one life, this one wondrous grace that moves like grass in the wind, this one brief blink of earthly existence that holds all our eternity and before it’s too late, on and gone? (source)

Every Day counts.  What are you doing with the time that God has given you today?

5 minute Friday

Today at The Gypsy Mama, for 5 Minute Friday, the prompt is....

When Seasons Change...

We sit on the brink of summer.  A season of swimming and sunscreen and hats and leisure days of sleeping late and ice cream and melted sticky popsicle hands.  When seasons change I change.  My house changes, our clothes change.  But does my attitude?  Am I always grateful to move into a season of heat.  With summer comes heat.  IN South Texas...  sometimes intense heat.  We prepare, we spring clean, we find swimsuits, and pack for camps.  My house may be ready.  My children are certainly ready.  Am I ready to look at my God and consider him good if he decides it is time for a different season. 

We pray for more awareness, we pray for closeness, we pray for God's blessing.  What if God's blessing comes in the midst of change of season.  In the heat.  What if closeness comes with the shedding of spiritual clothes that we no longer need.  Can we only be aware of God's goodness if it makes us happy? 

To live with joy is to see God's goodness...  even in the midst of change.

There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

Lord help us to prepare for change. Help us to see your goodness when you aask us to change. Help us to realize that there is a time and a season for everything under your glorious sun.  And even though we may not like it, and even though we may not understand it, help us to continue to strip off anything that hinders us.  Help us to recognize when you are calling us into a different season so that we may look at things with heavenly eyes and see your goodness in everything.

deep breath

I am participating in Gypsy Mama's 5 minute friday....  her prompt today is deep breath....
here we go.................

I sit here watching Becoming Chaz...  an Oprah documentary on the gender switch of Cher's daughter Chastidy who started life as a budding beautiful blonde headed blue eyed girl.  My thoughts flash between my two budding beautiful blonge headed daughters and an old woman in the grocery store line commenting on a recent magazine cover, shocked.  I switch the channels as my son walks in and out to "shelter" him and breathe in anxiety over rising gas prices and the failing heartbeat of the world that my children were born into.  I breathe deep as I flip channels between Mob Wives and Bin Laden and Sister Wives and fires and droughts and famine and back to this documentary to catch a lady professing her thoughts on how the he/she has so much courage to truly be himself and my thoughts flash to small bald children shaved by chemotherapy and I wonder where the definition of courage has gone.

I breath deep watching my daughter hop so happy out of the car each morning and hold up i love you in sign language and pray with each step that she takes further away that she has the courage to say no to crystal meth and tatoos and gossiping.  and the world.  and the courage to say yes to christ.  I take a deep breath and pray that I have strength... courage to NOT do what is easy but to do what is right.  That when all other parents say yes to going to a rated R movie, that I stand firm.  I breathe in deep the strawberry scented bubble bath and lock away the memory of mispelled words and dimpled hands.  I breathe in deep the chaos and the busy and the mundane and look to the source of breath for strength and courage and exhale gratitude.  grace.  in abundance.