Today, I shall preach (not really)...

I'm just going to "borrow" some things from the sermon I heard today, which I will get to in a moment.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I had a pretty good day today.  The kids weren't as well behaved as I would have liked, considering it was Mother's Day and all; and they SHOULD have been on their best behavior so as not to annoy me...

While at my mother-in-law's tonight, Abbey made me a card.  She had drawn pictures of some of my favorite things.  One of the things on there (aside from Red Hots and my laptop) was a picture and underneath it she wrote "phone/iphone".  It was a cute card and I said "You better not let Daddy see that you put that on here.  You know how he feels about iPhones."  He hates all things Apple, as I have mentioned before.  So he made Abbey show him the card and he said "Why did you put all these things that Mommy hates on a card for her?  Her laptop?  Red Hots?  The iPhone?"

We're all chuckling and then Katherine said "When I get older I'm going to get an iPhone."  She was laughing and I said "What?  Just to spite us?"

Then I got to thinking about it more.  So I told her "Katherine, if that is the WORST thing you do, then THANK GOD!"  More laughter ensued, because I'm so funny, of course.  Then Kris was saying "Well...I don't know if that would be the worst thing or not."  So I continue with "Yeah, Katherine...go ahead and come home pregnant.  That would be preferable than you having an iPhone."  More laughter all around.  I'm sure it was one of those "you had to be there" moments.

The sermon this morning was probably the best Mother's Day sermon I have ever heard.  You know, we have probably all, at some point or another, heard a "themed" sermon, tailored to suit a certain holiday and sometimes they are just on the surface.  And while they are "nice", they don't really seem to encourage us to really embrace what we (in this case, as mothers) need to be doing.  This morning was different.  And I just wanted to share with you the five main points of Tony's sermon this morning.  It totally convicted me and God spoke to me through Tony's words.  And I hope that someday my kids can look back and say that I contributed to their own spiritual growth.

The sermon was about "Mom Power".  Here are the main points, and all are things I want to strive for as a mother.

1.  Mom has power to teach her children what it means to have real faith in God.

This point spoke right to where I am at.  My children have literally seen me transform in these last three months.  They have watched this journey that I am on and can see real change in me and in my faith and I think it is so cool to understand that I am, thanks to God's intervention, am SHOWING my kids what faith in God looks like.

2.  Mom has power to disciple her children.

I found this point interesting, simply because of our decision to try our hand at home schooling.  It seemed like more affirmation.  As Bible would be a part of our daily curriculum, and I would be teaching them, I would be in a more effective place to disciple them.  Also, just as a side note, when Olivia prayed tonight, it was really funny.  She said something to the affect of "God, I know you can't just drop money into Mommy's lap because you don't have money because you have everything you need."  The rest of the prayer trailed off into something else and then she again used the words "drop the money into Mommy's lap", which was hilarious because I have said on several occasions that if God chooses to drop the money we need for private school into our laps then great!  I had previously said that I wasn't sure what I would do, now that I have decided to home school, if God did choose to provide a way for the kids to go back to Grace.  But tonight, listening to her earnestness as she prayed about going back to Grace, I told her that if God chooses to provide a way for them to go back to Grace that I would seriously consider and pray about it before starting to home school.

3.  Mom has power to develop her children's spiritual gifts.

This one, while I believed it, made me realize that I hadn't ever really thought about my children as having spiritual gifts.  When I look at it now, I can see bits and pieces of the gifts they each are developing.  But in general, I have no idea what their spiritual gifts are.  But I am now, thanks to this sermon, really watching them and trying to discern what their unique gifts are.

4.  Mom has power to teach her children the word of God.

This goes along with the home school aspect, but more than that, this idea of putting Scripture up on our walls and praying God's word over my kids has become more important to me, as I see how valuable this is for them.

5.  Mom has power to help her children find their own faith.

I know that on my own journey, this happened to me.  I grew up on my parents' faith.  I believed in God, that Jesus died on the Cross and everything that I was taught growing up.  It is important to teach our children this.  And then, at some point, (it was in college for me) I realized that I had to step away from their faith and learn how to stand in Christ on my own.  And I thought I had it right, all those years ago in college.  But I find now that it has been a journey of some 13 years that finally brought me to that place where I truly understand that my faith is now my own.  All I was taught growing up is still in my heart, but I am now clinging to Christ with a faith that is my own.  And I can help my children on their own journeys and hopefully they can avoid some of the heartache that I went through to bring me to this place.

I'll get some pictures of the cards the kids made for me tomorrow (Katherine's was so witty and hilarious, just like her mother!).  Today was a bad day on the pain side of my life and I finally broke down and took my last two Vicodin.  Mix that with a muscle relaxer and the fact that I didn't sleep well last night, I'm already drowsy (I'm not even sure I'll be able to keep my eyes open long enough to proofread this for spelling/grammar errors so deal with it).  And I haven't even taken my medicine to help me sleep yet!  But my neck doesn't hurt as bad as it did and the pounding headache has dissipated.  The bad news is that all the "good" (i.e. EFFECTIVE) pain meds are now gone.  I go back to the spine specialist on Tuesday to hear the results of my MRI.  Praying there is some explanation as to why my lower back keeps "giving out", and that there are no ruptured discs in my neck.  It is really frustrating to have the body of an 85 year old woman.