There are many hardships in life, but my biggest struggle lies in trying to fully lay myself (life/hopes/dreams) down for the sake of my husband and family.

 I'm just being honest.

I'm full of pride, and with pride comes a multitude of sinful thoughts and attitudes. I'm also "unlearning" independence which, in one word = brutal.

         Interdependent- Co-dependent - dependent

Dependent only sounds good to me if "in" is attached to it. I'm completely fine with being fully dependent on God. It's just that when he tells me he wants to provide for me through my husband, I start feeling squirmy.

Most days, I don't get encouraged about being a wife and mother, so I have to remember to look to God's word for encouragement. My worth doesn't come from anything I could do or be, but in who I am as God's child and I am... beloved. 

Today I felt drawn to look up Proverbs 31 to remind myself that God highly approves of my desire to be a wife of noble character. I also needed to remember the characteristics of that woman.

"A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies." Proverbs 31:10

I'm not going to type out the full scripture, but I encourage you to read it in it's entirety. After you're done, read this next part, which I copied directly out of my Bible*:

"Proverbs has a lot to say about women. How fitting that the book ends with a picture of a woman of strong character, great wisdom, many skills, and great compassion. 


Some people have the mistaken idea that the ideal woman in the Bible is retiring, servile, and entirely domestic. Not so! This woman is an excellent wife and mother. She is also a manufacturer, importer, manager, realtor, farmer, seamstress, upholsterer, and merchant. Her strength and dignity do not come from her amazing achievements however. They are a result of her reverence for God. In our society where physical appearance counts for so much, it may surprise us to realize that her appearance is never mentioned. Her attractiveness comes entirely from her character.


The woman described in this chapter has outstanding abilities. Her family's social position is high. In fact, she may not be one woman at all - she may be a composite portrait of ideal womanhood. Do not see her as a model to imitate in every detail; your days are not long enough to do everything she does! See her instead as an inspiration to be all you can be. We can't be just like her, but we can learn from her industry, integrity, and resourcefulness."
                                            *Life Application Study Bible, NIV

What wonderful encouragement! It's easy for us to get out of balance and become so busy that we don't love our families with excellence. However, when we apply our efforts out of reverence to God, we'll be covered by His grace, strength and power to get the job done!

A Do Over Day

The other day God did a great thing.

He always does great things, by the way, but this was an extra bit of fun for me so I'm going to tell you about it. First, I have to explain that on St. Patrick's Day, I decided to be festive. In honor of the holiday, I made green butter for my kids to put on their biscuits.

I am SO clever and fun!!!

Upon entering the kitchen, my kids took a look at the green butter next to the biscuits and said:

"Ewww, what IS that?"
"I bet it tastes weird."
"I'm not putting that on my food!"

Sniff...and oh yeah, I never realized you all had such discriminating taste in food dye.

But I digress.

Here's the God part. Our church is just finishing up work on our first permanent space. One of my friends is a gifted artist and was painting murals for our children's ministry area. Her problem was that a couple of her kids are in year-round school and this just happens to be their spring break.

I offered to babysit, figuring it would be a practical way to serve God and support her at the same time. I picked up her girls, aged 7 and 9, and we went to their home.

"What should we do?" I asked.

"We know!" One ran out of the room, while the other climbed up on the kitchen countertop like a monkey and rummaged through a cabinet.

You'll never guess what they brought down....

In case you haven't seen one in awhile, this is the new and improved Easy Bake Oven. I could hardly contain myself. And they couldn't believe that I could possibly be excited by this.

"Are you sure this would be ok with your mom?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, no problem at all. We get to bake anytime."

So bake we did...

As I watched their little hands, pour, mix and stir, I started to get a little choked up. I miss my little girls. I regret that because I got so busy with life and work, I missed baking in the Easy Bake Oven more often. 

They were like little women working together, singing and dancing around the kitchen. They even got  gossipy about their little sister.

"She's a mess."

"Yeah, five-year olds are such trouble!"

We talked and baked and waited patiently for our strawberry/chocolate creation. 

Afterwards, we made homemade macaroni and cheese, (they proclaimed it THE BEST!), cleaned the kitchen, and went out to the backyard for trampoline jumping. The bees scared us away so we came in and took fake pictures kissing Justin Bieber, thanks to a handy iPhone app.

Incidentally, after the cake came out of the oven slot, they said, "This is the best day ever! Our mom NEVER has time to let us use the Easy Bake." I explained that moms were very busy people with lots to do. Sometime's you just have to borrow a mom for things like this. They howled with laughter at the thought of borrowing someone else's mom, but I think I'm on to something (they were laughing at my jokes!!!)

And get this...I didn't even have to reprimand them for lying because they're not my kids - I could just bask in their undying admiration of me. When I told them about my sad green butter story, the 9-year old commiserated and then offered her mother's butter so I could do it for them. This time we made it blue and she thought it was WONDERFUL.

We finished the day playing solitaire together, and I had one girl snuggled on my lap and another leaning up against me and I thanked God for the "do over." Imagine that.

I thought I was going over there to serve Him and instead, He served me. It really was the best day ever!

The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11