You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September, 2007.
We’re going on vacation for the week!! It couldn’t come at a better time for our family!
I hope to post some pictures, etc. from there, but who knows, I may be having too much fun relaxing to think about blogging.
at what I read on the Desiring God page today. Thank you, Shawnda, for linking to these.
What I Said at my Granddaughter’s Funeral
Abraham and Molly Piper’s daughter was stillborn a day before her due date.
On Sunday afternoon we celebrated Jonathan turning two.
Happy 2nd Birthday, Jonathan. We love you so much!
After finishing his cake on his first birthday
A few hours old
My first day on the job as Mom of four, a role I have grown to love
We reviewed the results of my CT scan this afternoon with the urologist, and he stated that it was his suspicion that I had passed a stone just before I saw him last week. I have felt better and better each day since then, and my only remaining symptom is a bit of stiffness in my right side. All my tests were clear today!
I do have four stones in my kidneys, but they are not moving (which means they don’t hurt), and they are quite small (1 mm or less).
So praise the Lord! I can’t really imagine a better outcome! Thank you for praying for me.
One of the nicest things was that I woke up yesterday morning feeling almost completely normal. I could enjoy a nice day with friends celebrating Jonathan’s birthday (more on that coming soon!).
since one of my favorite Christian artists went home to be with Jesus.
Remembering Rich Mullins by Andrew Peterson
After my visit to the doctor today, it is his suspicion that I have kidney stones again. I view this as a good report because it is easier for me to swallow than a chronic condition. Although it’s an incredibly painful thing to pass a kidney stone, at least it ends at some point!
They sent me right over to the hospital (next door) for a CT scan, and I’ll see the results of that on Monday. They also sent me home with a prescription for Vicodin (yikes).
As I was sitting in the waiting area for the CT scan, I was thinking about how I am feeling right now. Strangely, it feels remarkably akin to the last month of pregnancy. I am uncomfortable (but not in pain) all the time through the midsection, I have to get up to use the bathroom at night, and I know that there is a future, very painful, event awaiting me. Only this time, I will have something the size of a peppercorn to show for my efforts instead of a person. A slight letdown. 
Thank you for praying for me. As Charles Spurgeon said, you can do me “no greater kindness.”
Mrs. Martha Ramsey and her Children
This chapter is full of praise for Mrs. Ramsey and her early interest in all things related to the godly upbringing of her children. Soon after her children were born, she began reading up on educational theory to better understand how to prepare them for life. She encouraged time outdoors to give them “a healthy constitution,” and to encourage their spiritual development,
“…they were taught to subject their passions to the control of reason and religion — to subdue their tempers — to practice self-denial — to endure disappointment, and to resist temptations to pleasure; about all, her children were the subject of prayer, even before they saw the light.”
She daily read Scripture to them, and when it was necessary, applied the rule of Scripture to their hearts in loving discipline. As the children grew, she still persisted in directing and advising them, as shown in this excerpt from a letter to her son, who was away at college:
We ought, dear child, to take great pains to understand our errors; we have, every one, by nature, some secret error, some constitutional defect or vice. In childhood, the advice or authority of parents may restrain it; still it is there. As we grow older, we must watch for ourselves, restrain ourselves — look up to God for help, while we exercise such acts of self-denial as shall break the bias, and keep it from producing a vicious habit, which alas! may become too strong for us and be our curse and our master as long as we live. Persons about your time of life are apt to think themselves very wise, and to pay very slender attention to the voice of their superiors: this is a very great error; as by such conducts, they not only deprive themselves of the experience of those older and wiser than themselves, but they appear, and really are, very unlovely in their tempers to those who reprove or advise them, whether parents or others…. May God give you wisdom to understand your errors, and a manly resolution to resist every temptation to evil; make you lovely in your temper, diligent in the pursuits of useful science, and enable you, by conciliatory and engaging manners, to make friends to yourself among the wise and good, wherever you go.
What a wonderful prayer for us as mothers to remember to pray for our children (and for ourselves!): a soft heart towards sin, a welcoming attitude towards those who seek to correct us — especially those older and wiser than us, and “friends…among the wise and good, wherever [they] go.”
In watching the interactions of many mothers and children today, I often feel saddened by young parents’ attempts to accommodate their children’s every whim. Granted, we should respect our children’s wishes so long as their are right and beneficial to the child (and the larger family); however, a child who is used to (even in toddlerhood) getting everything they ask for is destined to miss that acquisition of self-denial and endurance in the face of disappointment that is so valuable later in life.
I think strangers sometimes take me as unkind when I am so comfortable in saying “no” to my children, especially when they are causing a scene. I admit, I feel little guilt in doing so most of the time, because I had, early in my motherhood, the benefit of older mothers around me who encouraged me to foster self-denial and attention to one’s heart in our children. It is precisely those moments when our children are “causing a scene” that we must give due attention to their hearts, because the “scene” is a demonstration of an attachment that perhaps is too deeply rooted in their young hearts. As mothers we can understand this better than those around us, and address the child with appropriate firmness and yet with sympathy, knowing that we, too, are susceptible to attachment to inappropriate goals (I could go on and on here…a discussion of vanity, anyone?). It’s just that mothers usually have better manners during their temper tantrums.
Translation: temper tantrums = idolatry; in moms and kids.
Have you had a temper tantrum lately?
Online couple cheated with each other
Remember this happening in a song? Sing along with me…
“If you like Pina Coladas, and gettin‘ caught in the rain….”
Of course, the song had a happier ending. Instead of divorcing, the couple realized that the other person was exactly what they had been looking for all along.
HT: Challies
…for your prayers. I had a sweet night of sleep last night: about seven and a half hours, which is newsworthy around here, especially when David is away. I awoke feeling refreshed, ready to face the day. Thanks to God for His kindness!
In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:8
for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:8
I’m feeling conflicted even writing this post, because I feel as though I’ve burdened you readers with enough blow-by-blow health trials! But I need your prayers right now.
Over the last two weeks, I have had symptoms of a UTI. Antibiotics seem to address it temporarily, but as soon as I’m off the antibiotics, the symptoms return. In the world of internet research, I have found many frightening options that could be causing these symptoms.
My GP has referred me to a urologist, who I will see on Friday afternoon.
I covet your prayers in the following ways:
- healing of all sickness
- removal of fear…that I might be able to meditate on what is instead of what might be; that I would not despair; that I would understand that this, too, is God’s best for me
- wisdom for myself, David, and the doctors with treatment options
- that David would be able to come home Thursday (he is currently in NH) so he can attend my appointment with me
- good sleep. I haven’t had this in weeks. Granted, I’m used to it, but it’s more fun when it’s a baby that’s causing it.
Please, please pray! I am praying that this would be another praise-filled story, much like the one that Shawnda wrote about her daughter Keziah.
Thank you!
