Irresistible Love

I woke up Saturday morning with a simple idea, and it should have only taken a half hour. I was going to move the linens out of the hall closet, and use the space to store all of our board games and puzzles instead. I was then going to combine all the sheets and towels into the linen closet of our master bedroom. (I've mentioned it before, but a massive number of closets is one reason that I fell in love with this house.) Once I got started, though, I couldn't stop. Ten hours and several closets, drawers, and cabinets later, I'd purged our home of three bags of trash, three bags of donation items, and numerous kitchen appliances that no longer needed to take up useful space. It felt great, and I learned a couple things about myself. One: I really need a way to organize my kids' drawings and school papers. Two: I'm a greeting card hoarder. If you sent us a "congrats on the new baby" card, chances are I still have it. I found lots of treasures along the way though- old love notes, notes between Amy and I in school, old pamphlets about childbirth and breastfeeding, and then most importantly- a prayer of salvation I'd written out four years ago for my children. I adapted it from a book my mom bought me called Praying the Scriptures for Your Children by Jodie Berndt. It's a prayer that I've spoken in some form or another even as a child and teen myself, before I was ever ready to start a family of my own. It's a prayer that's already been fulfilled in my older two children, and yet to be filled in Isaac and Lydia. It's the most important prayer I could ever pray in my lifetime, and so I wanted to share it here. I wrote it out for each one of my three children four years ago, and plan to write it out for Lydia now as well. While I have been praying for Isaac and Lydia's salvation since my pregnancies with them, I think it helps to have the words spelled out using Scripture interwoven throughout the prayer, and to pray His promises word for word.

Here it goes:

Thank you for loving Isaac so much that You gave Your one and only Son, that when Isaac believes in Him, he will not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) We pray that Isaac will trust in You and never be shaken. (Psalm 125:1) We pray that he will repent of his sin and confess with his mouth that Jesus is Lord. We pray that he will believe in his heart that You have raised Christ from the dead. Guide Isaac to call on Your name Lord, and save him. (Romans 10: 9,13.) We pray that Isaac, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how long and how wide and how high and how deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses all understanding, that Isaac may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3: 18-19)

I believe two things that may seem incompatible. I know that each one of us comes to God of our own free will and choice, and we cannot pray another person into Heaven ourselves. I also believe what God has promised in 1 John- that whatever we ask according to His will, we will have what we have asked. My children's salvation is well within the will of God. I pray that God's love will be so overwhelming to my children that He will be found irresistible. I have no idea what it would feel like to have an adult child living outside the will of God, but in Jodie Berndt's book, she states, "God wants our children to be saved. When you pray for your children's salvation, you can be confident that you are praying in accordance with God's will." She references 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

I John 5:14-15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of Him.

Closets Meet Spring

After being home less than thirty minutes from a week at the beach, Bill and I were already looking at beach area real estate, and contemplating if that was really a move for us in the near future. Real estate there was surprisingly cheap if we were willing to downsize- which then got me thinking about how much stuff we could get rid of, and still be quite happy. I imagined how much easier daily cleaning would be in keeping up with less space and things. After a couple days, reality set in that we already were home, and maybe one day when the kids were grown we could move to the beach, or at least have vacation property there. So instead, after spending two days of imaging a life in much less square feet, I decided it was time to clean out the closets. One of the reasons we (and when I say "we" I mean "I") fell in love with this house was because of the vast number of closets and how big each one was. We have only lived in this house for two years (today marks the anniversary we had our closing) and already I'd managed to fill each one without even realizing it. So to make a long story short, I spent the next week working in the morning at VBS in our local church, then spending all afternoon and evening purging our closets, completely rearranging the kitchen cabinets and pantry, and making countless (I seriously lost count) trips to Goodwill. The result? I smile every time I open a closet, the house stays picked up throughout the day with much less struggle, and I am a much happier momma.

At the Deeper Still conference in Kentucky, Priscilla Shirer spoke on the commandment from God regarding keeping the Sabbath. She posed this question: Are we as a society addicted to the chaos? Do we get restless and irritable when there is a day with no planned activity, instead of enjoying the rest? Do we have too much stuff in our lives- both in activities and our possessions? When the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, God provided them manna from Heaven that they were to gather each morning. They were only to gather as much as they needed, or else the remaining food would become infested with worms. However, on the day before Sabbath, they were to gather a double portion, so that they would not have to work the following day on the Sabbath. The way the original Hebrew is written, it appears that they did not have to work double to gather the food the day before because there was more bread per square foot. The same amount of work that day resulted in twice the results. Priscilla then gave the example of her own speaking schedule in 2007- she was traveling so much that she was exhausted and didn't feel she was praying enough for the women she was speaking to, and felt overwhelmed throughout the week at home with her small children. So she and her husband (also her manager) prayed for God's leading. They decided to leave the schedule for 2008 completely open, and wait on God. That is when Lifeway approached her about the Deeper Still conference series. Instead of spending every weekend speaking at an individual church, they could invite ten or so area churches to come at one time in a big arena setting, thereby reaching ten times the number of women in the same weekend as would have been reached before in the same amount of time. If she had continued to schedule speaking engagements as she had before, this opportunity would not have been possible. Priscilla said it was as if God was telling her, "You give me the Sabbath, and I will give you a double portion."

Purging the closets and getting rid of so much stuff- toys, clothes, and more toys and clothes, opened my eyes to the ridiculousness of it all. My girls have one entire wall of their bedroom that is one giant closet- and it is jam-packed with clothes. All of it bought on sale/clearance, and gifts from Grandma, yes- but they don't need that much! I still had infant baby blankets tucked in the linen closet because I didn't want to let go of them. Keeping a couple blankets as a keepsake is lovely, but twenty? Craziness. Today, for the first Sunday in a very long time, I did not fold a single item of laundry, clean one single bathroom, or mop one single floor. Instead, I went to church, played with the kids, and took a beautiful two hour nap (thanks to my parents who came to visit and play for awhile.)I have four children to feed and nurture, so in this stage of life there will never be a time I can prop my feet up for twenty four hours, but as far as anything that can wait for tomorrow? It will still be there in the morning. My double portion? I see it in the way my house seems to stay picked up so much easier- who knew cleaning closets could have that effect? Maybe it's more a state of mind that makes it seem simpler, but whatever the cause, I'm liking it. The children also pitch in a lot more now, and I know that's making a huge difference. So my new goal is to continue honoring God in this way, taking rest when I need it, and becoming a better wife and mom for it.