- I recently had a comment by a friend commending me for doing such a good job balancing my attention between Chloe and Bailey. While I truly appreciated the compliment, it made me wonder if perhaps I only blog about the positive things I do. Surely not, but if that’s the case, then I feel obligated to set the record straight. I fall short in so many ways. I’ve always had a Mary Poppins mentality, where I desire to be “practically perfect in every way.” Of course, I fail with that mind set! Last night I yelled at Chloe for peeing in the floor, knowing full well that she couldn’t get herself on the big potty in time. This morning as she harassed me for chocolate milk, I responded, “Can you give me a damn minute!” Shocked myself with that one. She coolly replied “yes momma, I’ll give you a damn minute.” Major fail! I tell you this to open myself up to you and admit that I’m far from Mary Poppins status. But the positive thing is, that I start each day fresh, not looking behind, but looking ahead, pressing forward to the goal.
- Today was an eventful day. Ben and I have waited on our Christmas shopping, mostly due to finances. Right before Christmas can be a financially inconvenient time to take off work! But today we finally went! We had Chloe and Bailey in tow. Ben took Chloe and the list of guy names and I took Bailey and the list of girl names and we split up to cover more ground. This is our last day off together before Christmas and we were in a time crunch since his daughter Marlie would be getting off the school bus at 4:30. I think he had an unfair advantage since I had to make a pit stop right off the bat to nurse the baby. So if you were in the shoe dept. at Walmart today and saw a ragged looking woman with an apron over her chest, that was me! I was also stopped approximately every 500 ft so that total strangers, mostly older women, could ohh and ahh over my little bundle. Bailey only cried out loud once, but since she sounds like a tortured animal screaming, it elicited dirty looks from the entire electronics dept. We managed to achieve most of what we wanted for the day, but this caused Chloe’s nap to be skipped which was regretted for the rest of the day.
- I would like to speak briefly on “hearing God’s voice.” First off, I am not a biblical scholar. Anything I speak on this subject is my opinion based on what I believe. There are many thoughts about that phrase, “hearing God’s voice.” Some will feel at ease with it, having experienced it themselves. Other people may feel confused, frightened, or uncertain if such a thing exists. Some may find the idea laughable or absurd. In my opinion, God still speaks to His people. It’s not something that was left in the Old Testament in a burning bush. There are many ways He speaks, through the Bible or from the words of another, but most often, I think it’s that still, small voice you hear in your head when you are quiet and listen for it and are accepting of what you hear. I’ll try to give an example. I was sitting on a hill enjoying some quiet time on my lunch break. I was at a park by the river. My time was up and I had to head back to work. While heading to my car, I saw a woman my age down by a fence looking over the water. I heard a voice inside my head say “go talk to her.” I thought, well, that’s crazy, I gotta get to work. I went to my car and got in. As I tried to crank the car, I heard it again. “Go talk to her.” I again ignored it. I cranked the car and put it in reverse. Again the voice. “Go talk to her!!!” But I’ll look stupid. Dang. I couldn’t leave. I cut the car off and went over to her sheepishly. Finally I said “hey. I just thought you may wanna talk.” She began to cry. Then she told me her best friend, her brother, had just died. She admitted to feeling suicidal at that moment and had thought of jumping. We talked at length about him. Mostly I listened. She thanked me as the conversation waned and said “I just needed to talk.” I believe that God told me to talk to her. It doesn’t always have to be like that. Sometimes He may just be telling you to give back the extra change that cashier just gave you. Sometimes He may tell you something is gonna happen in your life, but then it doesn’t. That doesn’t mean you can’t hear God, it just means His way or timing of fulfilling what He said may not be the same as yours. What’s important is to start listening. Believe that He speaks and that He’ll speak to you. Don’t be surprised at what He has to say to you. Just believe. Sit alone in a quiet place, open your heart and mind, ask to hear, and then listen. It may not come easy at first, but keep trying. He likes perseverance. Just believe.
That is all 🙂