out with the old, in with the new...

Growing up, I spent many an hour with my buddy, by the name of Tele Vision.  My buddy told me fine stories of love, family life, friends, parents, school, how to dress, what would make me "cool" and "special".  TV (as I like to refer to buddy) told me the best clothes to wear and how I would be able to dance through the hallways of school and be so popular and that "cool" boy would like me so much because I would look so cool and beautiful (because that is so important.)

As I got older, I saw what holidays were supposed to be like and the way everyone else was celebrating them.  I continued to learn how to find love, how to act with friends, what life would be like in college and how marriage would be 50/50 with my blooming career and then having children some day, 2.5 you know with the picket fence, golden retriever, nice cars, baking cookies on the granite countertops with commercial grade kitchen...

(Are you laughing---or crying---yet?)

Yep, seems I've had quite a bit of disappointment over the years...life didn't go that way...

So let me tell you what I did end up with.  A husband who loves the Lord.  Four sons who are amazing people, teach me daily, stretch me to be the mother I want to be.  A home filled with love, dirty clothes, dirty dishes, sometimes stinky bathrooms, closets overflowing, a mudroom continuously spilling out shoes, a dresser covered in dust with note that says, "I love you Mom" from a 6 year old.  Another dusty dresser, missing knobs, filled with pants that are too small, boasting a framed piece of poetry to Mom and Dad from a then 8 year old.  Rugs with dog hair, pink candy stains and coffee stains.  Walls smudged with fingerprints, shoe marks, some random spiderwebs and dust bunnies.  Stinky diapers, overflowing bookshelves, piles of paperwork, random bins filled with fabric, pictures, scrapbooking paper of projects yet to be started.

Days filled with little and big voices, laughter, crying, some arguing, sorries, "mama," hello's, goodbyes, "I love you's."

Random pictures from the past almost 4 years...significant years in our walk with the Lord, growth in our faith and His amazing grace over our family...His love endures...

Thank you's, prayers and His Word.

...not disappointing in the least when I tell my "buddy" what my true Best Friend, by the name of Jesus, says is "good and right." :)

Praying you can see the reality that is in front of you...lemonade, not lemons sweet ones.  It is all in the eye of the beholder, let that beholder be your heart through the eyes of Jesus.  Find joy in the everyday, in your reality, your cup, not comparing it to another's...all that does is breed discontent, giving the enemy a foothold to destroy.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 

(2 Corinthians 5:17)

Happy 2011!  His blessing upon you and your dear ones Praying for fresh eyes, guarded tongues and a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father.  Praying His will would be revealed to you for your life, my daily prayer for our home.