A Sleepless Night

Last night, the wind was HORRENDOUS! It blew and it blew and it blew (but our house still stands :0) At about 2:30am I heard an excessive banging and woke Tony up to check it out. It turned out to be our two cats tearing around downstairs. The wind was blowing so badly that I thought there was a storm outside - but when I checked out our bedroom window, the sky was clear! The storm eventually did come and the girls were very excited to be able to pull out their rubber boots, rain coats and umbrellas. It really does feel like spring is arriving!

Tony read our "Week 3" devotional, scripture and prayer last night for us. It really hit home for the two of us. It talked about 'disobedient children' - and it was referring to us ADULTS! Here's a quote from the page:

"Parents (myself included) are often quick to expect perfection from their
children, and are shocked when it doesn't appear .... 'You should know better!',
we say. Yet, far from having the right to pose as mature and sinless
adults (whether we are parents or not), we too are merely disobedient children
in the eyes of God. Paul writes to the Romans, 'All have turned away from
God; they have all gone wrong; no one does what is right, not even one.'
God didn't wait for us to come to our senses, or to prove that we were going to
'behave' for the duration. This gift, this forgiveness, is not a reward
for good behaviour. It is free and undeserved. Even so, God says,
'You are worthy of this gift because you belong to me. I am your
father, you are my child. I love you and I am not willing to lose you.' "

Read ROMANS 5:6-11

After last night's devotional time and then the raging wind that rattled our house, it reminded me of the importance of integrity - meaning what I say and doing what I mean - Lord, make me like You! Then I read the scripture from Luke 6:46-49, "So, why do you call Me, 'Lord', when you won't obey me? I will show you what it's like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching and then obeys me. It is like a person who builds a house on a strong foundation laid upon the underlying rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who listens and doesn't obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will crumble into a heap of ruins."

At church Saturday evening, we read about Abraham, from Genesis. God called Abraham and promised to show him the land where he was to live. He promised blessings for Abraham's obedience. REVELATION - CALLING - OBEDIENCE - BLESSING. There is definately an order to God's ways and our part is in the patience, praying and believing. Regina asked me what 'faith' was during that same sermon. We looked up Hebrews 11:1 to find our answer. It says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." In my NLT it reads, "It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see." Then it goes on to say, "GOD GAVE HIS APPROVAL TO PEOPLE IN DAYS OF OLD BECAUSE OF THEIR FAITH," and then in verse 13, "All these faithful ones died without receiving what God had promised them, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed the promises of God."

God grant us faith to believe, the wisdom to pray without ceasing
and the patience to wait for the fulfillment of Your promises.

Well, Tony and I have some rather dark circles around our eyes today (he had to work at 6am). I noticed that he changed his alarm at 2:30 this morning to be able to sleep in a little. He was going to work out at the gym before work and had his alarm set for 3:50? Yikes! He does that so he can still get home on time and not be any later than he has too after work. I really appreciate that about Tony ... he works very long hours and sometimes it feels like we don't really see him for a few days at a time, but he makes a great effort to be at home as much as he can. Thanks, hun!

Lou is home sick today. He has the flu - he put himself to bed at 6:30 yesterday evening, and there he stayed! We never heard from him for the rest of the evening. I really do hate when the kids are sick. Since it was a 'down' day for us, I decided to start blog pages for the kids!

It's an idea I've been mullin around for awhile and today's the day! So, I sat with Maria and Lou and we started their own pages. They picked their own templates and we filled in all kinds of fun info. Regina's is started and I'll get her to fill in her info after school. I've put links to all our pages - so check them out!