On my Heart

Can I just tell you how wonderful you are??? Your encouraging comments and prayers have truly, truly blessed me. Thank you for being a part of this journey we’re traveling. I love you and always pray for you as I read your comments. 🙂

I can’t believe that it’s already the middle of August! We’ve had a great transition back into the school routine, and spent lots of time with football, friends, and spray paint. 🙂

1st day of school… 2009. Look at what a difference a year makes!

(1st day of school 2008)

Football…

Friends…

And, spray painting

These are the drawer pulls from our bathrooms. We had planned on investing in new ones, when we painted the bathrooms, but in trying to stretch our dollars, we decided to use what we have. So, I put the method of “Prayer and Spray Paint” to work.

I sprayed a flat black coat to act as a primer. Then I sponged on a black/brown acrylic paint.

We are putting the finishing touches on getting our house cleaned out and ready to sell if that’s what needs to happen. Frappuccino Fun with Amy came over on Thursday and helped me put a few decorations back on the walls. (She even brought some beautiful things from her house for us to use until we know what we will be doing.)

I’m praying for a few specific lamp shades, some large chunky candles, a few neutral valances, and a few iron-type candle holders to complete the look. It will be fun to watch how and where and how amazingly inexpensively the Lord provides these things…

When everything is in place, I’ll post some before and after pictures. Even if we don’t sell our house right now, I know we’ll enjoy it being “edited” and feeling more spacious.

Have a great weekend, my friends… My mom is coming for a week long visit, and I’m looking forward to enjoying a finished clean house, days with no painting, and to celebrating fourty-one-derful years of living this life! 🙂 Much love to each one of you. ttfn…
Jennifer

Do you know anyone who is sending a precious baby off to Kindergarten this year? Maybe it’s you and your baby. Whether it’s the first or last child in the family, sending a little one to kindergarten is a huge and somewhat fearful experience. It’s been 6 and 7 years since my babies started going to school, but I well remember those thoughts and feelings of that first kindergarten year.

The Lord gave me a gift the summer before Nathan started school. God had called us to place our children in public school. I thought for sure that I would homeschool, but that was not God’s plan for my family. Even though we knew God called us to public school, my heart was still heavy with concern over “letting go.”

One day I was studying in Exodus and came upon the passage about baby Moses and his mother. Through that passage, The Lord brought me great rest and peace about what He had called us to do.

If God has called you to send your baby to school this year, I pray that He’ll use His Words to guide you in your prayers for your child, and bring you peace as you trust Him in your obedience. This is what He gave to me so many years ago – and it’s still a comforting truth for me as each school year begins.

2) And the women became pregnant and bore a son; and when she saw that he was exceedingly beautiful she hid him for three months.
She kept her child to herself because she saw the beauty in him, and knew that the “world” would neither see nor nurture her precious child.

“O Jesus, you know how much I love my children, and how I want the very best for them. They are beautiful not only to me, but also to You. You have blessed me beyond my ability to describe when you allowed me to stay at home and “hide” my children these early years of their lives. Thank you, Jesus.”

3) And when she could no longer hide him
In other words, it was time for him to go to Kindergarten… (or middle school, high school, or college…)

“Lord, the time to put ‘faith into action’ is at hand. You have called my family to public school, and we can no longer ‘hide’ from it. Just less than two more weeks…Help us, dear Jesus, to trust You.”

she took for him an ark or basket made of bulrushes or papyrus,
She built a basket of protection for him with great care.

“Jesus, you have led me to build that basket every day as I love and invest in my children. Thank You that You have helped me build this basket with Scripture prayers for them, time, patience, play, laughter, Godly teachings, acceptance, and joy in my children. Because of You, my son’s basket is almost ready. Thank you!”

making it watertight by daubing it with bitumen and pitch
She made the basket “watertight” where no outside element could easily harm him.

“O Jesus, because of Your love and training of me, You have graciously allowed me to train and love and build healthy self esteem, based on the teachings of Your Word, in my children. Please help them to be ‘watertight’ and ‘insulated’ from the worldly influences trying to seep into their hearts and lives. Please call them to know you at an early age and to be ‘sealed’ by the redemption of Your blood.”

Then she put the child in it
With her heart wrenching, she placed her son in the basket, making him secure in the surroundings she had built for him, trusting that she had done all she could for him.

“Jesus, you know how my heart wrenches when I realize that now is the time to place my son in this basket we have built together. Please help me to believe – I mean REALLY BELIEVE- Your Word that promises You will “never leave, nor forsake” my baby. I am placing him in the basket with You, and covering him with a blanket of prayer.”

and laid it among the rushes (reeds) by the brink of the Nile river.
The reeds: Webster defines “reeds” as the grass stems growing at the edge of the river, and/or “a person or thing too weak to rely on; one easily swayed or overcome.” She placed her cherished child in the midst of, at best, a weak support system.

The brink: The beginning – in my case, Kindergarten. (now, it’s middle school)

The river: The public school system influenced heavily by the currents of the “world”.

“I lay my precious child at your feet, surrounded by the ‘reeds, brink, and river’. Thank You that You are going with him, before him, behind him, between him, and through him in this new era of his life. Thank You for the deep peace, joy, and great expectations that this knowledge brings to my wrenching heart!”

4) And his sister stood some distance away to learn what would be done to him.

“Lord, please give me ‘sisters’ in You to watch out for and over my children in every one of their schools.”

5) Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along the bank;
Pharoah’s daughter and maidens: The teachers and assistants at the school.
she saw the ark among the rushes and sent her maid to fetch it.
She saw the basket and rescued it.

“O Jesus, please help my children’s teachers to see the treasure-filled baskets we have placed in the river. Please help them to be drawn to those baskets, seek them out and rescue them.”

6) When she opened it, she saw the child; and behold, the baby cried. And she took pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew’s children!

“Jesus, help the teachers to really see our children, their personalities, their strengths, weaknesses and needs. Help them to hear the individual cries of our children, take sweet pity on them, and to realize how valuable they are to You, to us, and to Your work in this world.”

7) Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call a nurse of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?
8) Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the girl went and called the child’s mother.
9) Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed it.
The mother is given an unexpected opportunity to have additional influence on her child’s life.

“Lord Jesus, please help me to see and obediently take every additional opportunity You give me to ‘nurse’ my children. Jesus, please help me with my priorities. Please show me the way that I should go (Ex. 33:13), and help me to walk in it. Please help me not to get ‘side-tracked’ and miss the ‘best’ by being distracted with the ‘good’. Please help my focus to be off of me and onto You and Your best for our lives. Please help me to remember that time spent investing in my children’s lives is a ‘gift’ of great ‘wages’ or value”.

10) And the child grew,

“You know the plans You have for my children. Plans to prosper them and not harm them. Plans to give them a future and a hope. (Jer. 29:11) Jesus, I know now that my children will grow through this, and they will be O.K. They will be even better than “O.K.” – they will be victorious! (PTL!!!) They will have been where You instructed us to place them – insulated by us, and protected by Your hands upon their lives. It will all be for their good, and for Your glory (Rom. 8:28). For You and for the remembrance of Your Name – this is our heartfelt desire! (Isaiah 26:8)”

and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son.

“Jesus, I realize that a day will come when we will be asked to release our children to stronger ‘waters’ than elementary school. But when that day comes, Lord, I trust that You will help us to be ready. O Please help our children not to become ‘sons’ of the world, but of You.”

And she called him Moses, for she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

“Lord Jesus, please help our children’s lives to be significant for You, because of Your instructions to us to place them at this tender age into the ‘water’. Please help them to be known by Your name because YOU have drawn them out of the water and called them Your own. A men.”

God used Moses’ life in mighty ways, and did things through him that He did through no one else. I want God to use my children this way – their lives lived to His power and glory. Baby Moses, my children, public kindergarten, and God’s faithfulness ~ What a Trustworthy God we serve! 🙂

I’m praying for all of you who are sending children off to school this month.

“And the Lord said, My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:13
“And when they had done everything according to the Law of the Lord…the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace (favor and spiritual blessing) of God was upon Him.” Luke 2:39-40

(This is dedicated to my sister, Rebecca, as she sends off her precious Hannah Grace to kindergarten this year. I love you both!)

I can hardly believe it, but summer, as we know it, is over this week. We take our children to school for a partial day this Wednesday, and school officially begins this coming Monday!

It’s been such a short summer for everyone around here this year. We have a modified year-round system, and will be loving it in October when we get two weeks off. But right now, it just seems too early to go back to school.

It’s been a good, but busy summer. We have crammed a lot into a little bit of time. And, we’ve had a few of those “lazy days”, but I want more!!! Waaaaaaaaaah!!! 🙂

Time is moving us so quickly through this stage of our lives. 6 & 7: That’s how many years our children will be at home with us. I’ve probably said it before, and will certainly say it again – but I want to make the most of these years at home with Nathan and Abigail. It seems like just a few years ago that we were taking our oldest to kindergarten. Now our youngest is in middle school…

I’m asking the Lord to help me prioritize my focus and my time so I can invest in what is most important. Seems like I’m always asking Him this. He shows me the way to do it, I do it for a while, then I stop. How I pray to obey Him consistently this time…

As we are waiting for the Lord to reveal His next steps for our lives, we are seeking to make the most of every moment right where we are. I’m thankful that God has shaken up “our world” a bit – it’s caused us to intentionally set our focus on Him and to appreciate each day as it comes.

Ephesians 5:15-16 says, “Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people), Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil.”

Making the very most of the time – buying up each opportunity… that’s what I’m going to be doing for the rest of the week… and I hope, for the rest of my life. I don’t want us to miss a thing God has for us. Do you?

If I don’t post for the rest of the week, now you’ll know what I’m doing… buying up each opportunity to soak in these last days of our summer break.

I’ll catch up with you soon. In the mean time, I pray that you’re soaking in the days the Lord has given to you, too.

With lots of love to you~ Jennifer

It’s been so busy around here that I didn’t realize until I went to bed last night that I missed the 1st Birthday of Smelling Coffee! I’ve been a blogger for a year and two days now – and have loved every minute of it. 🙂

I love having a place to journal and share life and pictures and all God is doing. And I love how I’ve made new friends along the way – friends from all over the world!

In reflecting on this past year, though, I realize that having a blog is like having a plant. It does need care and attention to thrive and grow. Too much time without any attention makes it wither and lose its vitality. And too much attention can be unhealthy for everyone.

Early in my blogging career (ha ha) I read a post via Rocks in My Dryer “Works for Me Wednesdays” about how not to let blogging take over living – and that’s so true. It’s taken a while, but I think I’m finally finding a balance of what works for this blogging season of life.

It certainly has been an amazingly full year – and I’m so glad to have much of it journaled here on Smelling Coffee. It’s been a blessing to walk through these days with you! The Lord has improved me through you, your blogs, your ideas, your devotions, and your comments here on Smelling Coffee.

Just for fun, I went back over the lists of my posts and pulled out a few that I consider to be “favorites.” (And in doing that, I found my Lemon cookie recipe that I couldn’t find for this week’s Tasty Tuesday. Funny thing – it was written on July 8, 2008 – exactly one year ago from this weeks Tasty Tuesday’s post!)

Very first post

Favorite 🙂 Post – Attitude is Everything

Favorite “tip” Post – Dressing Like the Lilies (The key to Staying “fashionably current”)

Favorite “Word” post from the early blog-year – An Expectant Wait (This re-blessed me as I read it again today!)

Favorite early post when I had no readers (smile) – Why Does This Keep Happening to My Hot Dog?

All-Time Favorite post – I am Now a Leaping Cow!

Thanks, friends, for being a part of this past year. I look forward to all the Lord has in store for the next.. and I’m hoping part of what He has plans includes a super blog redesign one of these days! 🙂 Blessings to each of you…

With much love,
Jennifer