Josiah's Drawings

Here are some of Josiah's recent drawings. He spends quite a bit of time each day working on artwork. Benjamin doesn't have the same attention span yet. After dinner last night, Logan and I posed for this portrait. I love the details! I had some sunglasses on my head, Logan's got a bald spot, and he's even got my earrings. :)

We went to hear Uncle Jim do pulpit supply at a local church a week and a half ago, and Josiah drew this in the pew. It's Jesus and the two thieves on their crosses.

Josiah is in a big fire engine/fireman phase these days. He spends a lot of time dressed as a fireman each day, playing on his new bunk bed like a fire engine. And he loves to watch fire engine movies and of course, draw fire engine pictures. :)

Going Mobile

Here are some cute pictures of the kids from last week. This first one of Abbey was taken by Ben! All smiles:

Here are the kids going mobile at the Catholic Church--home to the largest empty parking lot in our area. :) Abigail was pretty proud of herself with her little walker/buggy.

Benjamin's 4th Birthday Party

We had Benjamin's birthday party this past Saturday! It was a blast. I have a "Bigger is Better" mentality when it comes to parties...to Logan's deep despair. So if you include the 2 and under crowd, we had 19 kids here for the festivities. We braved the cold and stayed outside for most of it, since the boys' parties last winter were headache-inducing nightmares. The kids were all happy to jump in a leaf pile. Talk about an inexpensive party! :)

Casey, Josiah and Zaid were pretty competitive with their leaf throwing!

In the midst of the leaf war, Benjamin exclaimed to me, "Mommy, this is the best birthday party ever!"

The moms and dads tried to stay warm with hot chocolate and hot apple cider...

...and our outdoor "fireplace."

At the tail end of the party, we came inside for cake and presents.

"Let's see who can give me the prettiest smile!" Benji won by a landslide. :)

Finally, it was "present time" (watch the first video in my previous post to see how eager Ben was for this moment).

Thank you, friends, for your very generous gifts! Benjamin was thrilled.

As Ben's friends were leaving, round two arrived - the "adult" party with my family and close friends the Townsends. After the protests over last year's noisy parties, I thought it would be more enjoyable to have dinner with the family after the kids left. And it was very nice! Josiah, Benjamin and Abigail always love spending time with their Papa, Grandma, Uncle Jim and Auntie Linda, and Benjamin had especially requested that the Townsends come.

I don't have too many pictures that aren't blurry from the evening, since my flash is not working. My previous post has a couple cute videos.

When all was said and done, we were all exhausted. But I was pleased that everything worked out and everyone had a good time -- especially the Birthday Boy.

Birthday Videos

Here are some videos from Ben's birthday party on Saturday:


Can we have present time now? (1 minute into the party)



That's right, everyone gang up on Miss Ruth!



Happy Birthday, Big Ben! Take one.



Happy Birthday, Big Ben! Take two.

Abbey working the crowd.

Little Ben

Benjamin's fourth birthday was yesterday! It doesn't seem possible that four years have gone by so quickly. Ben has been such a blessing to our family. He is our little monkey, our imp, our mini-Curtis (his NC Papa), our mischievious second child who brings so much laughter--you can't be mad at this little rascal! He still has his raspy voice and lisp. I'll be so sad when he grows out of that! And he still carries his "special" blanket most of the time, although he finally saw Linus when we watched The Charlie Brown Halloween show, and he wasn't too impressed. Benji loves trains more than anything else, but also enjoys playing ball nd playing with dinosaurs, blocks and Legos. He's always picking things up from his big brother, and I wouldn't be too surprised if they both learn to read around the same time. I'll ask Josiah a question about the alphabet and Benji will interject the correct answer first!

Benji is sometimes competitive with his big brother and rough with his little sister, but always ends up impressing us with how thoughtful he is of others and how well he plays with his siblings and friends. He loves to cuddle, wrestle, tickle, dance and sing. He makes up the sweetest songs about how much he loves God and God loves him. He says grace before every meal for us. Benji takes a couple naps a week, but gets really tired the days he doesn't nap. He also is always the first one up in the morning.

Here is a picture of Ben in his booster seat yesterday--a milestone he has been looking forward to for months! And Josiah is excited to be "retired" from buckling Benji into his carseat. :) We're having Ben's birthday party tomorrow, which has caused a lot of excited anticipation and planning for the boys.

We're proud of you, Little Ben! Happy Birthday Sweetie! We love you!!!

Abbey's first steps!

Abigail took her first steps Monday night! I was sitting on the side of the boys' bed with Abbey standing between my legs, when she just took off walking like she'd been walking for weeks already, probably making it 9-10 steps before she stopped and stood still. We all got very excited, of course, and tried to keep her momentum going but instead gave her a case of the giggles that resulted in jelly legs. So cute! I missed her first steps, but this is a little video of us trying to get her to take some more.

Survival Skill #1: Forgiveness - video

http://www.harvest.org/media/

If you go to this link, go to page 2 and find 8/21/11, you can download an audio version of James MacDonald's sermon on forgiveness or watch the video. Watch the video! There were several sermon illustrations and examples I didn't include in my notes because it doesn't translate to words with the same impact. MacDonald is a very dynamic speaker. There is some singing for the first 11 minutes if you want to skip ahead.

Survival Skill #1: Forgiveness

I was flipping through my Roku channels a couple weeks ago, looking for a sermon to listen to while the boys were outside and Abigail was sleeping. I'm not familiar with Greg Laurie's church, Harvest Christian Fellowship, but I clicked on their channel and randomly chose a topical sermon, since I wasn't looking to get into a series. It turned out to be a sermon by guest speaker James MacDonald, one of my all-time favorite preachers, on the Number One Survival Skill, Forgiveness. This was a powerful sermon! I've since watched it three more times and have taken notes that I'd like to share with my loved ones here. :)


If you can't displace the pain, disappointment and heartache of this life through forgiveness, you're going to get stuck going around and around Mt. Sinai, and you wont go forward into any Promised Land -- in fact, the Bible says you wont go forward into any eternity with the Lord if you can't get on with forgiveness.

James told the story from Matthew 18 where Peter asks Jesus, how many times ought we forgive? Seven? Jesus tells him -- Don't count! Then he tells the parable of the servant who was forgiven an unpayable amount by the King, but then went out and put another servant in jail for not being able to repay a small amount. When the King heard, he sent the unforgiving servant to jail.

3 points from this passage:
1. Rationalizations for not forgiving are foolish
Peter was looking for a loophole, but Jesus answered, in effect:

Forgive everyone for everything immediately always.

Some rationalizations for not forgiving:
1. The hurt is too big.
Really? It's so big....that you want to carry it? It makes more sense to say, that's so big I have to forgive it, because it is too much to carry.

2. Time will heal it.
Time heals nothing. Unforgiveness is like tumor that only grows with time.

3. I'll forgive this when they come and apologize.
How's that going? They have their own rationalizations, things they may blame on you...they're not coming.

4. I can't forgive it until I forget it.
No - it's I can't forget it until I forgive it. Forgiveness is not the final step in the process, it's the first step. But if I forgive, they're just going to do it again! You might have to carry two burdens? All the more reason to get rid of one now!

2. The fallout is huge
Unforgiveness cuts a path of destruction across your life like a tornado through a field. Unforgiveness is destroying everything in its path in your life.

Fallout in the parable:
1. Mental breakdown of the servant who loses it, goes out and chokes his friend - he's not thinking clearly.

2. A shattered relationship - you don't usually lend money to strangers. That relationship is destroyed. Then there's the co-workers who witnessed this and run to the King. Worst humiliation is before the King.

The message of Scripture is: When you live a life of unforgiveness, then you've never truly been forgiven. You're going to stand before the King one day, and he's going to say, "I forgave you all this, and you couldn't forgive...?" But it's pretty big what I have to forgive! All the more reason not to carry it.

Let's define forgiveness:
The decision to release a person from the obligation that resulted when they injured you.

When you hurt, shame, wound somebody, you've taken something from them - their comfort, dignity, etc. That creates a debt. Forgiveness is saying, "You don't owe me."

That's the awesome thing about the Gospel - we sinned against God, we owed God, but because of what Christ did on the cross, he said, You don't owe anything. The surest sign that we have been forgiven is that we extend that forgiveness to others. But how many Christians are proving that they don't really have a thing with God because they're drawing hard on God's forgiveness but not doing too good on forgiving others?

I couldn't be here today if I hadn't learned what I've learned about forgiveness. As a pastor, you better earn your Ph.D. in forgiveness. You just can't go forward without that. You can't go forward in business, you can't go forward at church, and you for sure can't go forward with family without forgiveness.

Anybody who's here today with broken relatonships, I'll guarantee the fork in the road was when you said, "I'll forgive this and this and this, but not that! Not that many times!" Relationships go south when we say, "I'm not forgiving anymore. That's the limit." And yet, we don't want God to limit his forgiveness towards us.

Mark 11:25 "When you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive them."
Luke 6:37 "Forgive and you will be forgiven."
Lord's Prayer "Forgive us as we forgive others." How would that be? What if God says, and he does say, "I'm gonna forgive you the way you forgive others."

3. The consequences are massive
If you are living under the illusion that God forgives you but you don't forgive others, you are deceived.

James 2:13 "Judgement is without mercy to the one who shows no mercy."
Grace - we get what we don't deserve
Mercy - we don't get what we do deserve

If you're someone who always gives people what they deserve, you're setting yourself up. God's going to give you what you deserve. No, no, I'm in Christ! You're not in Christ if the forgiveness of Christ has not penetrated to the place where you choose not to forgive - then it hasn't penetrated at all. You don't earn your salvation by forgiving, it's just the proof of people who have it.

Ephesians 4:31-32 "Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, malice - let these things be put away from you."

Let's talk about each of these damaging emotions created by unforgiveness.
1. Bitterness - From the Greek word pic that means "to cut" - it cuts your insides to ribbons. It is the fretting, irritable state of mind. It is the perpetual animosity which refuses reconciliation. It is the person with the harsh opinion of others. Bitterness is the sour, crabby demeanor, acid on the heart, scowl on the face, venom in the words. What a lemon is to your mouth, bitterness is to your soul. Bitterness is its own whip. There's nothing quite so bitter as being bitter.

2. Wrath - Deep settled indignation, the flowing, constant anger. When your heart is like a furnace, the more you stoke it, the hotter the blaze.

3. Anger - The temporary excitement, the outburst of rage, the often violent, fist through the wall, broken glass, physical contact, BANG - then it dissipates.

4. Clamor - The noise of relational strife, the loud self-assurane of the unforgiving person who requires everyone to hear their grievance. Clamor is tight lips, clenched teeth, hold still, you're going to hear me whether you want to or not!

5. Slander - From the Greek blasphemie - the depth of evil speech, not just against God but against others. Its the words forming to ventilate the darkness of the heart. Reviling. Words intended to hurt. The cold, calculating, ready-aim-fire, I'm going to say this, I don't care who it hurts.

6. Malice - The evil inclinaton of the mind. The capacity to locate wrong doing and then do it. It means literally, "bad heartedness."

These are the damaging emotions of unforgiveness. Ephesians 4:32 tells us to, "Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you."

Here is what forgiveness isn't:
1. Enabling
2. Rescuing
3. Risking

In all forgiveness, there's a Crisis and a Process. The process of forgiveness is three commitments I make:

1. I won't bring it up to the person anymore (with the exception of when it will help them). I won't bring it up for my own advantage or to punish them. I won't continue to ventilate to the person.

2. I won't bring it up to others.

3. I won't bring it up to myself. This is the hardest one. The enemy will put it in your mind and keep you going over it and over it, and he'll hold you in that prison of unforgiveness.

The crisis of forgiveness is, "It's sin, it's wrong, I choose to forgive." And then the process is, "I'm not bringing this up to them, to others, to myself."

If you have a pattern of unforgiveness over weeks, months, years, then you have a pattern of thinking that is going to take time to change. You might do good today and then blow it tomorrow. This is the most important sentence in the sermon: When you fail in the process, you have to return to the crisis. And you have to confess it as sin.

Here's how you know when you've forgiven: Ephesians 4:32 where he says, "Be kind to one another." That's not a generic reference to your favorite people. In the context of the passage, it is, "Be kind to every person you're struggling to forgive." Kind here means useful, benevolent, eager, gracious, the freedom to give my very best without reservation. That's the fruit of forgiveness. You know you've forgiven when there isn't a single persn on the face of the earth that could walk in here today and sit down beside you and you wouldn't be glad to see them. There isn't a single person anywhere that you couldn't run into and in your heart of hearts have the freedom to be kind to them.

Tender-hearted - the capacity to feel the pain of another. When we pull into unforgiveness, we pull into me, my life - forgiveness enables us to see, even with the sinful, damaging, awful things they've done, that this person is a wounded person too or they would never have done the things they did, and they're more miserable than you are, their life is a mess, and the tender heartedness is the capacity to feel compassion even for the worst of people.

The Scriptures are wall to wall saying, If your life has been altered by the message of the cross, the truest proof is your forgiveness of others. There's no enduring relationships without forgiveness. If you're married, your marriage is going nowhere without a growing capacity to forgive. Great marriages are growing in forgiveness. Failing, dying marriages are pulling back into me, what I want and am I getting it.

A big subject when we're standing before Jesus will be - how were you in the forgiveness thing? Because he talked about it alot.


--- This post is my notes/transcription from James MacDonald's sermon, "Survival Skill #1: Forgiveness", Matthew 18, 8/21/11 delivered at Harvest Christian Fellowship.

http://www.harvestresources.org/catalog/product/view/id/2718/s/james-mac-donald-survival-skill-1-forgiveness-matthew-18-08-21-11/category/88/

In the News

We've had a streak of appearances in the local paper: Three weeks ago, picking out pumpkins at the Railway Village Pumpkin Patch.

Two weeks ago, recognizing Abigail's 1st birthday.

This week, at the Halloween party at Story Time. :)

Halloween Cuties

After quite the build-up, Halloween finally came on Monday! In the days leading up to the big event, the boys had dressed up in different costumes for three other occasions (the Railway Village Pumpkin Patch and Ghost Train, and a library Storytime party), so they pretty much worked through 80% of their costume trunk. We didn't know what they were going to be until they made their big decision Sunday night. Monday evening, we attended the annual Library parade through town, visited all our local family, and then made it to a Trunk or Treat that included a real fire engine, face painting, and a big bounce house. We had a blast! The last hour or so our toes were pretty much frozen, but overall it was comfortably cool. Here are a few pictures of our Knight, Dragon and Ladybug: