All Wiped Up

The other day my three and a half year old yells to me from the bathroom to come and wipe her bottom.  We have a deal, she wipes for number 1 and I wipe for number 2.  I called back that I would be there in one minute.  Upon arriving I immediately realize that she has attempted to take care of things herself.

"It was an accident," she says.

"No it was NOT.  You deliberately tried to wipe your own butt and it was not an accident," I tell her.

"But mommy, it was a deliberate accident!" She cries.

I had to bite my tongue and try not laugh out loud!

However, is there such a thing as a deliberate accident?  And do I justify my own deliberate accidents time and time again, knowing that my God will repeatedly wipe the slate clean (...no pun intended) no matter what?  How thankful I am for that unmerited favor that he bestows upon me.   And I know that my righteous acts are like "filthy rags" (Isiah 64:6).  Yet, how often do I just shake, what I know I shouldn't do or say or behave like, off and deliberately disobey my God and His Word and then chalk it up in my mind as "an accident"?   A deliberate accident!

Little Miss Sassafras really drove home a hard point with her mama today!  I sit here and am amazed at how God speaks through my children to me...even in the bathroom when I'm wiping a little bottom!!  

  

Figuring Life Out - One Thousand Gifts

 1000 Gifts: A DARE TO Live Fully RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE

When I watched this video I felt as thought I had stepped into a "Country Time Lemonade" commercial.  My packaged book arrived the other day in the mailbox and I haven't been able to put it down!  Those warm summertime feelings are deepening as I take in each remarkably written word by author Ann Voskamp.  Gratitude and grace fill each page as she humbly shares her journey of a new connection to God.  As I read through this book my outlook at the mundane is changing and my eyes are opening to the beauty hidden in the monotonousness of daily living!

(Click on the Bloom button on the right of the page if you are interested in the book!)

Fresh Starts

Giant snowflakes are fluttering outside of my window. There is nothing like freshly fallen snow. I am reminded of new beginnings as each delicate flake dips and twirls down upon the clean white-blanketed ground. The blackened, dirtied-up mounds previously surrounding the edges of the street and driveway melted last week with temperatures warming up around here so this snow is pure and brilliant. Today I have been reminded of how grateful I am for brand new starts with no left-over mud.

"Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow!"

New Year's Wishes

2011!! Can't believe it!

Here are a few of my goals for the new year:

-specifically praying for each one of my children-

-respecting others (especially my hubby)-

-exhibiting self-control in more than one particular area of my life-

-thinking before I speak (which requires divine intervention)-

James 1:26
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.

On another note:

Ayla climbs into bed with me this morning, curling her tiny body up into a ball on my pillow and whispers into my ear,

"I wish that I had wings like Tinkerbell."

I replied back to her that I wish I had wings like Tinkerbell too!