Pouring Down Fun

Well, today Erica came over for lunch just to hang out with the Harper Mama and the Harper Boys. It was awesome conversation and laughter! We love Erica. When Erica was going to leave it started raining........well Eli asked me if he could "Please go play in the rain..." I think......ugh....he will get all wet and then I will have to get a towell and dry him off and then I will have to wash his clothes and when Kai sees him then I will have to deal with him also............what have I turned in too an old no fun mama! Eli awaits my anwser standing there with a pitiful pleading face..........finally I decide he is to cute and why not......."Go aheah crazy!" He was so excited. He ran out into the rain like a crazy man yelling and turning in circles, it was so funny. Kai was sitting by me and when he saw his big brother out in the rain playing and having fun he decided to caustiously venture out of the carport and into the rain..... and to my surprise he loved it! I thought he would cry because of the water in his face. They both had a blast............and to think I almost let them miss all this fun together. I would have missed Eli do his Rain Dance:












He is so hilarious...........he has watched his daddy dance to much.....he he he.










He is such a character! It was really fun to watch Eli and Kai have so much fun in the rain. It is funny sometimes.....things that would be more work for me are usually the most fun for them. I can't believe I almost said no to all of this fun, as a parent I have never really thought about how sometimes I am so selfish and just becuase I don't want more work I will miss these wonderful moments of their lives. I hope that the next time I think like that I will remember that the joy of watching my two boys laughing and playing together far outways the work that comes afterwards! Praise God for the Rain that brought so much joy into our day.

Eli's Victory

Victory at last! Eli rejoicing in his accomplishment! For the last three weeks he has been diligently practicing riding his bike with out his training wheels. It all started when his friend Layton from across the street came over riding his bike that is identical to Elis with out his training wheels on. Eli was amazed and immediatly convicted to to take his off too. So over the next 3 weeks Eli would on his own take the intiative to go outside and practice trying to ride his bike all by himself(with us). Layton would come over showing off peddling fast and then braking to make a skid mark........Rick and I just watched in amazement at this boy who is a few months younger than Eli ride so fearlessly and recklessly! It only pushed Eli to practice more. I am telling you he had such determination in doing this. Rick at one point suggested to put his training wheels back on but Eli didn't want to. And this past week when I would hold his seat I started to let go every now and then to see how well he was doing and on Friday when I would hold on to his seat I decided to let go longer and to my surprise he would ride for a good period with out my help. Anyway, today we all went outside because Eli wanted to practice riding his bike again so we did and I was doing something with Kai and Rick was watching Eli when Eli shouted so happily "I am doing it!" and I looked up and there he was riding his bike all by his little self!!! We were clapping, wistling and yelling I just know that our neighbors were wondering what was going on. It was crazy excitement to watch my boy accomplish something that he strived so hard for. He never gave up because it got to hard, he just pushed himself until he got the results he wanted. I pray that he will keep this determination, endurance and patience in his life with Christ. Rick and I am so proud of our little Eli and his first big accomplishment. Yes!

A Lesson in the Box

Kai sitting in his favorite box and reading his favorite book. How sweet! He loves this darn box so much. It is amazing how content children can be with such a simple object. This box was given to us by his Papa Pat. It has advantage stickers all over it and at first I was just using it as storage for less used toys and then I decided to bring it out into the living room to store the toys he plays with most. Well, everyday I put out this silly box full of his toys and everyday he empties the toys and gets in His Advantage Box and sits in there. He loves it, why I am not sure but I don't care so long as he is having fun.

We could so learn from little children. Here he is day in and day out playing in this box totally satisfied with it and not desiring anything more. How many things do I look at through out my day with disatifaction. To many I am afraid and not only is he content but he has found joy in this box. Obviously or he would not go to it laughing pull up on it and then look at me with a big grin and then proceed to play with it. Hebrews 13:5 says ".....to be content with what you have........" Am I content with what I have, on the surface I would say yes but take a look inside am I really. Do I find joy in my contentment? if not then am I really content. How could I be satisfied with something if I did not find joy in? Contentment I think has been misused greatly. Often I think we use it when we are not satisfied with something we are told to be content with it. What does that mean? If you don't like what you have just settle for it. Is that what god tells us, settle with what you have because it is all you have and you can't get anything else? No, He says to be content, to be satisfied, and to find joy in what you have. To be continued.......so let's do just that, be content. Let's be like little babies and find joy in such simple things such as boxes. When we look around let us be content, happy and thankful for what we do have and let's praise God for giving them to us.


~keli~

Yeah.....

I am so excited! My Eli is home from his Nana's house. I missed my little booger so very much. It is amazing how different he looks everytime he is gone. He always looks enormous when he comes back home. And it is so warming to my heart when he walks in the door and sees me, I can see his whole face light up as he says "MOMMMMY" and runs at me. It just makes my day to know that he missed me and was filled with joy when he saw me. It is refreshing and uplifting. I can't believe how big he is getting! It seems like yesterday he was doing his crazy look at me dance in the middle of our floor in our old apartment bald headed and wearing only a diaper. He is asleep in his bed right now right next to Kai and tonight I can sleep with the peace of knowing my family is all here and well.

Thank you God for the many blessings you have bestowed upon me. You are awesome and I am in awe of you. I pray that I will show my family the love that I feel for them, I feel like I would lay down my life for them God like there is nothing I wouldnt do. Please put in me the desire to show them this selfless love everyday and in everyway. amen.

~Kelli~

~His work in the past year

Today is July 5th, 2005 and I would like to kind of recap what God has done in my families life over the past year. This could get pretty long depending on how well I am able to express myself and how long my Kai will allow me to write. He is actually throwing a fit as a write so it might not be as long as I originally thought it would be. You know what, I think they have this radar that detects when Mommy is going to sit down and have a little me time. Oh okay He is distracted so I will begin.

Okay let me start at the very beginning. A little over a year ago my Rick and I had a very rough time with a lot of things that were going on in our lives. I was pregnant with Kai and he was very depressed for some reason. We are still not sure why till this day but it was all in God's plan. After Kai was born some things were brought to my attention that shattered my view of my life. I had always viewed it as perfect and with out any evident evil, well there had been a lot of evil lurking around for quite some time. Through this time Rick and I were able to see God more clearly and eachother. Rick started to come out of his depression and started to have a great desire to become a more godly husband and father. About 6 months later Ricks dear grandma became very ill due to her ongoing struggle with cancer. In December she was hospitalized and went home to be with the Lord on December 23. It was extremely sad for everyone who knew this beautiful woman known as Huzzy to our 4 year old. Rick immediately turned to God and began to see life in a whole new perspective and so did I. God had started His work in Rick. It was becoming clear to us that He was trying to move Rick to make a decision about how he is going to live his life. Rick began to think about how he would like to one beable to see his grandmother again and I believe that this is where it really hit him hard. He realized that he needed to change his ways and that is when God began His work in Rick's heart. A seed was planted in him and he could no longer see himself doing anything else but work for the Lord. Praise God. I can't tell you the joy and shock I had when he first told me he was thinking about going into the ministry! I was going crazy inside with so many emotions, but I didn't want to get to excited cause I was afraid he might change his mind but God was in control and he didn't.

So now let me tell you the road that we have traveled since then. Okay first off I need to introduce 2 other families the Groomes and the Swinsons. The BJ and Rena Groome are the preacher and his wife who are very close friends of ours and Allen and Dena Swinson are close friends of there's and ours. I will start with Rick decided to go look at a school in Dallas which is where BJ is from Mesquite to be exact. It was supposed to be a very good and very cheap school. Now in Mesquite there is a church that would help support a student going to the school in Irving Texas, it was a ministry they had. So we decided to go and look at the school and try out for the position at Meadowview Church in Mesquite. There were 3 other guys who wanted the position as well so we really were not expecting to get it. Well later Rick was accepted into the school and then after a long wait was chosen to intern at the church there! We were in shock. During this time another church had mentioned that they needed a song leader and well we knew of one but he was not planning at the time to go into the ministry, but we told him about it and casually and jokingly Rick told Allen he should come to Dallas with him. Well, a few days later Allen came to Rick and said I think we just might! We couldn't believe it, could this be. Well He also was accepted into the school and the position at that other church who needed a song leader chose Allen. We were all rejoicing and praising God. It is amazing how perfectly everything was going. So, Rick and Allen told their bosses about what they were planning to do and they were both surprisingly calm about it and even happy for us. We put our house up for sale and were all planning what came next. When here came a shocking curve ball that none of expected. The school a 40 year old school was going to close! What! Now what are we going to do. We were a little worried but continued to trust our God and started looking for other schools to go to. Well after a lot of looking and advice Rick found a school in Austin Texas and Allen found one in Dallas. Now, listen cause here is where God is just so amazing! Now we didn't know exactly how we would live in Dallas and Rick would go to a school that was 3 hours away. Well, BJ and rena had months earlier tried out for a preaching position in Taylor Texas which just so happens to be about 40 minutes or so outside of Austin. They were not sure about this and if they would get it or not. Well, a little while after Rick decided to go to Austin and figured out his classes which would be on Mondays and Tuesdays, he would just need a place to stay on Mondays, BJ and Rena got their call from Taylor that they wanted them to come and become their preacher. Can you believe it! There was Ricks place to stay and me and the boys could come down to sometimes. And it just so happens that Eli and Soren which is the Groomes 3 year old boy, are best friends!

Okay, now we have a plan. Rick will go to Austin to school and we will live in Dallas. But, we were once again thrown another curve. We were asked by the church to calculate how much more it would cost Rick to go to Austin than if we had been able to stay at the school that closed. It came out to 11,850 dollars more than what we budgeted! O man, what were going to do now. Where would we come up with that. Well, the school that closed decided to give the student who had just enrolled in the school some money and just guess how much? 12,000 dollars! Almost exactly the amount we needed, Praise God! For He is awesome and wow does He take care of His children. Okay so that is pretty much where we are right now. We just found the perfect aprartments for us last week and they are right down the road from Allen and Dena our friends.

Now the only thing left is to sale our house. No, it has not sold yet, and we are expected to move by August 11. I am trying to not worry and lean on my own understanding, for I trust God and I know that He is faithful and that He is going to take care of us. So, that is what God has done in our live in the past year. He has brought us out of depression, grief, brokenness, hopelessness and a lack of direction and into His illuminating joy, love, fullness and Has showed us His direction for our lives! Thank you God, You are truly awesome and you give me more than I deserve.

*Glory be to God*
~Kelli~

Daily Struggles

A struggling mother, yep that's me. I struggle pretty much everyday with well to be honest a little bit of everything. Anger, selfishness, pride, laziness, a wrong heart, a bad attitude and everything inbetween. But in these struggles I know that I will persevere through them, because I want to glorify God and the only way I can is if I get control over these struggles. And I have assurance that one day I will have them under control and not to perfection but as close to it as possible. I want to take them out of the hands from which they are being given to me everyday and hand them over to my God. When he hands them to me I want to smile and joyfully in his face just bring them straight to God with no hesitation. I try in my daily life to think of the battle that I am constantly in and to remember that there is one who so desperately wants my soul and is trying diligently to conquer me through my struggles. But I pray that I will also remember that Christ gives me nothing that I can't handle, He only allows the evil one to test me with what He knows that I can handle, and the only reason I can handle these is because He gives me strength. He gives me strength in so many ways some days it is through His word, some the encouragement of others, and sometimes just knowing that others are struggling with the same things that I am. I am reminded of what Paul says in:

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficiant for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I love that verse, how amazing and humble, that in my weaknesses His power is made Perfect and wow how His grace is sufficiant. Thank you God for your grace that flows like a river. I know I will never be relieved completely of these burdens, He will though give me the strength to carry them and He will show His strength through my weaknness. It is splendid how He works through me to bring Himself glory! That is what I want to do in my everyday life is to bring Him glory and to be His instrument. Join me in being an instrument of the Lord, let's completely surrender ourselves to God and let Him do what He pleases with us even when it goes against what we feel. Let us walk daily with God and really listen to what He tells us to do so that He will recieve the glory through our obedience to Him.

1 Timothy 2:20-22
In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Have a blessed day in the Lord~

Gloomy turned Bright

So I am in my living room folding towells and thoughts are just running all around in my mind. They are coming so fast I hardly have time to process them. I feel like that episode of I Love Lucy when she is at the candy factory, stuffing her face with all those chocolate candies but they are just coming at her to fast, she is just overwhelmed with the amount of candies and the speed they are coming. But the funny thing is that when I come in here and sit down at the computer ready to write nothing comes to my mind. All the things that were running around in my head earlier I can't remember a single one of them now.

So, I guess I will just reflect on the day; it started out depressing and gloomy for me. I don't know what it was I just felt really down cast. Whenever I feel gloomy it is good for me to get out of the house and do something fun, so I packed up Eli and Kai and decided to go to McDonald's and then go eat at a friends house. But of course all of our friends were gone so we just ended up sitting outside of one our friends apartments and eating our lunch. It wasn't exciting fun but at least we were out of the house! So then after that we went to Walmart to do our weekly grocery shopping. I usually have a list and a calculator but this week I just kind of winged it, I didn't feel like being in bondage of a budget and list. It was fun and relaxed and I exactly felt pretty good about the numbers on the screen when we checked out. After we packed up the car with the groceries and were on our way out of the parking lot, and I am so exhausted and I am just so thankfu that it is over!, Eli asked me a question that comes out of no where,"momma" he says. "Yes" I said tiredly. "What does Malvation mean?" What, I am thinking trying to figure out what word he is trying to say and the only one I can think of is Salvation but I am like why would he be asking me that. "Salvation?" I ask. "Yeah, S-alvation, what does it mean?" I ask him where did you here that? He told me to start the song in the cd player over. So I did and in the song there are a lot of words that I am thinking why doesn't he want to know what that word means? Why did he find salvation the interesting word rather than these other words that came before. Hmmmm how do I put this in child like terms. And I know that I am going to mess up the meaning and I did but I say, "Um, well, when one day we will all pass away and when we do if we have obeyed God then we will have salvation, heaven."I added"It is a wonderful place, where Jesus lives." "Oh, okay it is a good place?", "Yes". Then he asked me to start the song over again and while we were listening to it he asks "What does Salvation mean again?" "It means after we have obeyed God....", "Oh, okay, I remember." I contued".....it is after we pass away and.....","Thats okay momma we don't have to talk about it anymore, I know what it means." Now I know that this definition that I gave may not be exactly right but he put me on the spot and now I am not even sure I know what it means. No, I do I just didn't know how to explain it to him so he would understand. Anyway, this was the highlight of my day and after this conversation I was uplifted. I was just kind of astounded at the thoughts that my little 4 year old is thinking in his head. He is always asking us questions like this. It is amazing to see the seed that you planted in your child starting to grow and branch out. I am so thankful that God gives me these little blessings to renew my mind of what my ministry is and how extremely rewarding it is going to be after all of the hard work is done tending to my little gardens!

After this we went home relaxed and then met with some good friends of ours. Eli and Kai got to swim and just have a blast, while I got to enjoy some meaningful conversation and laughter with a friend in Christ. Eli had a t-ball game at 6:15 and when he came home his daddy said he did awesome and usually he doesn't do anything but stand out in the field and pick flowers but today he chased after the ball and even got one! Right now he is drawing pictures of crabs, smiley faces, his name and other silly things that only he knows what they are. What a day, a day that started out gloomy and downcast has been turned completely around into a day full of sunshine and a beautiful rainbow! Thank you God for your wonderful promises and the work that you do in our lives, I love you and give you all the glory!

Have a blessed day in the Lord.

Sunday

Sunday is always a pretty stressful day for us. I always have the best intentions the night before. Every Saturday night I set my alarm for 6:00 am with the intentions of getting up and starting the coffee, making a good breakfast, getting everyones clothes ready for church, eating breakfast, get dressed and have time to pray and clean up before 9:00 am class time. In reality my alarm goes off at 6:00 and I pust snooze as many times as it takes till it is 7:00 by then I figure we better get up or we are not going to make it. I forget about the coffee idea and instead go sit on the couch to watch the one eye monster! About 15 minutes later I start getting everyone up to eat breakfast, cereal, and then we all sit and eat for about 15-30 minutes. It is well 8:00 and no body has even started to get dressed yet, the thoughts of are we going to be able to make it, should we skip class run through my mind but I push past them into determination of making it to class. By 8:50 we are all almost ready, all we have left are the finishing touches but for 4 people that is more than 10 minutes worth. So it is 9:10 and we are finally rushing out the door with the thoughts of better late then not going at all. On the way the words I say every Sunday morning "Next Sunday we are going to get up earlier! This is ridiculous!"

I am thinking wow haven't we missed the whole point of what Sunday is all about and doesn't God deserve more than this? Yes, of course no question. So why, I wonder do we continue to do this Sunday after Sunday after Sunday! Selfishness and more selfishness, this is why and something that I have been dealing with lately. How selfish of me to lay in bed and keep pushing the snooze button the only person I am thinking about is ME, when I should be thinking about CHRIST my savior and Lord. This is HIS day, not mine. Every Sunday morning my mindframe should be today is HIS and me and my family will Honor HIM today and surrender this day completely to HIM. He deserves for us to, on this one day give everything in our hearts and minds to HIM. Sunday should be a day when we look at everything around us and everything we are doing as a gift to the Lord and a gift from the Lord. I know that everyday should be this way, but on Sunday, the Lords Day I think we should really soak it all up and really give thanks to HIM by recognizing HIM in everything. I suggest that Sunday should not be thought of as a drudgery day full of things to do and people to see but as a day of full of God's sunlight. It should be the Friday in the week, the sunshine after the rain, not just the day before the dreaded Monday. I know that a lot of times that is how I think of Sunday. I encourage us to submit this day to the Lord by enjoying it in Him by praising Him with love and adortion. Let's look forward to Sunday as much as Friday. Let's remember Christ on the cross, HIS blood, God's love for us that HE gave HIS son for us. How about we give HIM thanks all day with joy and love in our hearts. I think we can do that, and I know that He deserves that and much more like letting it spill over into the week.

Ephesians 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.