Psalm 130

"Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;

O Lord, hear my voice.

Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,

O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness;

therefore you are feared.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

and in His word I put my hope.

My soul waits for the Lord..."

Heir I am Lord

This past week I've been listening, reading and learning about what it means to be an HEIR of Christ. On top of that is the list of things that characterizes (or SHOULD) an heir of Christ...and how religion is NOT relationship. Breathe. In case you've forgotten or maybe never heard - did you know that our lives as believers should look like this... (WARNING: CONVICTING)

*Submissive to authority ..(including gov't and anyone in "charge" over you)

*Obedient...(married? ever struggle with that one?!)

*always ready to DO good...(you mean, works still matter? I cant just sit around and be "saved")

*not speak evil of anyone (gulp)

*avoid quarrels, MAKE peace...(but you don't know my....)

*be gentle...(no tough love here)
*show humility to all...(ah geesh)

Now, I don't know about you...but, that seems to be a tall order sometimes. And in my life lately...all the time. However, I have good news. We aren't at it alone - remember how I mentioned the whole "heirs" thing? The same God who gave these words to Paul to give to Titus calls us his children and despite popular opinion... He doesn't set these standards then leave us lying on the ground to figure it out for ourselves. Praise the Lord, He doesn't! I like how the NLT puts our solution to life in Titus 3 -

"But then God our savior showed us His kindness and love. He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of His mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit." (vs 4-5)

So, guess what heirs...princes and princesses... we CAN do the above mentioned and we CAN do them well and with the help of our Loving father! And more importantly, we MUST do these things. As I was explaining to my small group of teens tonight - as royalty, heirs to the King, we have every right and expectation to behave the way Titus 3 explains. I have read this passage several times and I don't see any parenthesis that say (optional) on them. We can do this. We can love and serve our King! Be encouraged this week and be ready to say, "Heir I am Lord..."

The amazing napping baby

Ava has been consistently sleeping in and taking HUGE naps (up to 3 1/2 hours) for the last week. The first few days I still woke up wondering, "why am I so rested?" but the last few I roll over to see its almost 9am and think..."WHAT?".

This is an amazing stage in parenthood. 9 months, that is. Ava is spunky, adventerous, happy, expressive... and, energetic. I credit the long naps and sleeping in to have active she is during her day. The girl has to get 40 miles in... :)

It also reminds me that our lives are changing.

With her amazing napping skills have also come some pretty talented ways of disobeying - do we call it that when they are so little? I do. I feel totally unprepared on how to discipline this tiny girl (ok...not so tiny, but, compared to a toddler, small). She does not respond to pats on the bumper, so we stopped that. Hand squeezes and firm verbal "no's" are responded to with smiles and swats at momma's face...grrr. I began hand swats this week - to which she yells back at me and then grins this EVIL grin. It feels unnatural to have to start this so early - but, we know sin knows no age, amen? So, while she was napping this morning I continued on reading my incredible read of the month "The most important place on earth" by Robert Wolgemuth and todays topic just happened to be about Discipline - funny thing. He had several good reminders for me on how to start now so that discipline starts and remains effective. Be swift about it...dont' wait and let things pile up so that I'm about to blow my top because of frustrations. Deal with each incident as they come. Good reminder. Be precise - MUST let Ava know what she's doing that is wrong EACH time. "Do" discipline in love. And this is my favorite part - although she doesn't get it now. Each time she gets a hand squeeze, swat or firm "no" I take her away from whatever it was and hold her - look into her little 9 month eyes and tell her, " I love you, you need to obey momma." And almost always, even so young, she gives me loves - hugs, kisses or just lays her head on my arm. WOW.

My amazing napping baby, growing and changing... I love her. I love this experience. Check out that book if you get a chance. Really good.

When my heart is passion-less

Lately I've been frustrated with myself. I just can't seem to get a grip on attitudes, thoughts of my heart and rediculous habitual sins. Every morning when I wake up I pray that God would give me the strength and wisdom I need for the day... He's already given me the help and hope. And then sure enough opportunity presents itself - and, I fail. I feel like I'm trapped on a hampster wheel lately. Round and round I go with my "issues" chasing after myself...and maybe therein lies the problem.

I'm humbled this morning after reading from the book of Acts about the passion of men like Peter, Silas, Mark and Barnabas. Obviously, men still not without faults and flaws...but men who made their main purpose in life to follow God and do HIS will always. This morning I was blown away by reading how Peter was actually physically stoned...to the point that his tormentors thought he was dead, but he got up (after being dragged away) and continued on preaching, teaching and reaching those in need of a savior. I'm not asking to be stoned - but, why can't I have that passion when I live in such an easy place in life?!

So today as I go through my tedious, somewhat mundane Tuesday I am purposing in my heart to be passionate about my God. I know that if I seek HIM I WILL find him...in all the little ways.

Nature

Not a lot of words to share today...

Just to mention that we are a day away from the start of my FAVE season - Autumn. Brad, Ava and I went on a walk the other day through Union Park here in Des Moines. It was so nice. The trees are just right on the verge of changing colors. The bugs are already frantically gathering those last few pieces of food to hide away...and the last of summers flowers are fading. I've always loved this time of year. I captured a few pics of the last few days of summer to share with you all. Enjoy God's creation!

That perfect balance

(sigh) Good afternoon world... (ok, so, the 3 of you that take the time to read my thoughts...and thank you by the way)

Ava is napping, the bugs are outside "buzzing", I actually had 10 minutes to take a shower and put on real clothes - what a great start to the day. Funny the things you appreciate post-baby. :)

I've been missing out on so many things to blog about. Our lives have once again changed so dramatically in the last few weeks. Here's a recap...

Mid July - found out the rental house we were in sold and we had to be out by the end of August. Continued house hunting for one of our own.

Sept 4 - closed on our 1st house!!! Sept 4-5 we moved in!

Ava turned 9 months old this past Wednesday.

Youth group is officially in full school time swing. Brad almost has something going on everynight.

So, amidst all of those little details we continue to live life here in the Pausley home. We love our new place. The house was built in 1914 and has some really cool little things about it... the built in china cabinet, linen closet and bookshelf/bannisters are a few of my faves. I am so eager to really make this place our own. Look out Home Depot here I come!!! I haven't been able to find a way to really capture good pics of the place...but here's what the back view looks like. We have 3 bedrooms, an upstairs sunroom, 1 bathroom, but one blue toilet (working) in the basement, living room, dining room, kitchen and full basement, oh, and a HUGE front screened in porch. We feel so blessed! Besides transitioning to a house - we've been transitioning into a new phase in parenting, as well. As I mentioned, Ava turned 9 months old this week and wow have things changed. Gone are the days of laying my wee one down on some sort of play mat while I lazily dust the house or skim through the tv channels. This girl is everywhere and fast! She went from laying on the floor, to attempting to crawl to crawling in about a week - then went straight to standing and climbing. I've found her on top of her walker chair, hanging on the back of one of our chairs (while I was in it!) and up two stairs!! eeeek! She's literally into everything and all at once. This week she has -pulled out an entire box of wipes from the holder, emptied my makeup bag at least 3 times, pulled out most of the spoons from my utensil drawer, strewn about the contents of her diaper bag, and my personal favorite...found the airwick air freshener and was sucking on it. Yum, scented oil! I learn my lesson every day that NO I really can't pop away somewhere for even just a second. But, although she is moving and learning and changing... I just find that the more she grows and changes, the more I fall in love. She is amazing. While most of the time she is way to busy for momma to hold her, every night for a few treasured seconds she just "wants" me. She reaches to me and just wants her head on my shoulder and an arm around my neck. It melts me. She's learning to give kisses too! If I make the smooch sound a million times she'll lean in and plant a wet one right on me, then smile. She's starting to get things! She wants to be with me all the time during chores, too. Which, occasionally presents a problem - loading the dishwasher for example... as every possible crumb she eyeballs seems to invite her to eat it. yuck. She's snuck more then a few tasty morsels. Makes my stomach churn even thinking about it. Any attempt I make at putting makeup on is also an invitation for Ava to put hers on. She's especially fond of my Mary Kay compacts and mascara. At least she has good taste!

I love every second... and I knew I would, but I guess its just more evident to me lately. What an amazing miracle motherhood is. I'm blown away.

Before I end this blog I need to make two book recommendations. I remembered this time to take pictures of the books so you can identify them if you ever see them. I went on a theme of reading books with the word "creative" in the title. No, not really...but thats whats happened this summer. First, Creative Counterpart - its taken me MONTHS to read because of how lazy I was with reading it...but really is a good book. Topical based on Prov. 31 and how to be a "creative counterpart". The parts about how to honor and respect my husband was especially thought provoking. I will warn you - it was written in the 70's and has some old school ideas and language, but still pretty good. Second book I recommened is this one by Emilie Barnes - especially if you enjoy having a well organized, non chaotic life...to which I am striving for. Its page after page of bullet points of ideas on how to maintain life and be better stewards with what you have. She covers everything from kitchens to garages to wardrobes to cleaning stuff... just really really good ideas, some of which I'm incorporating already. I especially loved her ideas on "make your own" household cleaners... etc. But, like that guy on Reading Rainbow always said, "don't take my word for it"... :) If you get a chance to check them out - let me know what you think.