The wife and the rib

Today, I must confess, I failed yet again to allow the Lord to work thru me. Satan had a foothold and I complained to SuperDaddy about all the misery I'm dealing with. The Lord gently reminded me that He is all I need and I just need to turn to Him for rescue. I immeadeatly started to pray and ask Him for forgivenss. Our Lord keeps His promises! Such an amazing thing, yet we doubt Him at times. why? Our sinful nature is a powerful dangerous part of us. I praise the Lord for saving me and showing me His unconditional Love! For how I do not deserve it, yet He freely gives it continually!

Today's lesson in my study is about the wife and the rib. Why did God use Adams rib to make Eve? Some of the key points that stood out to me we're...

Woman was made to be by the mans side. "to walk alongside him, to bless, support, and to protect him, to be the closet thing to his heart."

God made women to be delicate in nature.

God made women strong-"this gives us the ability to fight for our families and what we believe in."

We protect his heart and lungs, his vigor. "all that he breathes in and breathes out is dependent on his wife's protection."


So what can I take from this... Well I definetly know that this morning I was a huge discouragement to my husband when I just kept complaining through text messages how awful my day was going. That was nothing but encouraging to him. He is at a loss in how to respond to such behavior. God wants me to encourage my husband and build him up. So the life application for me today is to pray and think before I speak(or text) I need to have wholesome uplifting words leave my mouth for anyone I may be talking to/with, but especially my husband.

Dear heavenly father, I'm so sorry for the way I was this morning, I ask for your and SuperDaddys forgiveness. I pray I could lean on you and with your strength not allow Satan to grab a foothold. I pray you continue to mold me and make me into the woman you have planned. Please change my heart. In Jesus name, amen.

My Second Love: A Proverbs 31 Study

As you can see, or not see,  my life has been crazy these past few months.  From the roof leaking, water damage, mold, foundation issues discovered, my home ripped apart, not having a kitchen to cook in, living out of two rooms we have made into a "mini loft apartment" on our second level; to pregnancy complications, intense discomfort, pain, going into labor 5 weeks early and after 30 hours of intense pain-still no baby, bed rest until we reach full term to keep him in longer, and the scare of him coming too soon for his lungs to be mature; it has been a whirlwind of emotions on this roller coaster of my life.  ( I know that is a run on sentence but it makes my point clear)  Life has been anything but pleasant and "easy" these past few months.  My heart has also been a roller coaster thru it all.  I would love to say that thru all of this, we as a family, have trusted the Lord wholeheartedly and have watched him work miracles in our hard situation.  Yes, it's true we have watched him do miracles; but to say I have fully been trusting in Him would be a lie.  Only have I come to my knees recently and have asked the Lord to forgive me for the way I have been in my heart regarding all of the choas in our lives right now.  My attitude, heart, words, and actions have not been godly nor appropriate. I have since then been clinging to the verses found in Romans 5:3-5 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  I pray that we will forever be changed and seek the Lord wholeheartedly first, me as an individual, then as a couple and as a family.  Thank you Lord for these hard times, for it is when we go through them, we realize how much we must rely on you and not ourselves!
God has been showing me my heart and has asked me to take a walk with Him through Proverbs 31.  I want and strive to be a woman after God's own heart and to be the mother and wife my family so desperately needs.  I asked the Lord to show me where He wants me to go.  He took me to the study entitled "My Second Love: A Proverbs 31 Study"... A journey I am desiring to take and I pray the Lord changes my heart; bringing Him honor and glory; showing others His love, mercy, and grace thru this change.  I want to use my blog as an accountability, as I will not be doing this study with a group of ladies, just solo.  So I'm not sure if anyone even reads my blog, but I pray this will be suitable for my accountability.  May the Lord be glorified!!

I started the study last night and worked on the Preface/Introduction today.  Here are my thoughts and notes on the Preface/Introduction...

Preface:  Biblical Submission:  What is it and What it's Not


The bullet point that stood out to me the most was:   A wife will consider her husband and his needs more important than hers.  (Phil 2:3)  This is a simple idea/thought/characteristic.  It means to be self-less.  Something the Lord is revealing to me that I must work on.  Yes, I want to regard my husband needs greater than mine.  But then I think, I'm the one pregnant, in intense discomfort and pain, have to deal with Lil Peanut's craziness of this new attitude she has started to have.  Shouldn't he be the one who should consider my needs above his?  Well, you can plainly see in Phil 2:3  Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves, that is not where my heart should be.  Those thoughts are of satan and God wants me to surrender them to Him.  I pray O Lord, that I will count SuperDaddy's needs more important than myself and learn to serve him wholeheartedly!

From the preface:   "a wife who is not practicing biblical submission will become the source of one of the most horrid things – causing the word of God to be reviled (Titus 2:3-5)."

Introduction:

Psalm 139:23-24

  Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

  And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting! 

Psalm 19:14
  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable in your sight,

O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. 

May these two verses to be prayer of my heart O, Lord.  I pray for change in my heart.  Please help me to change from the inside our.  Change my heart to be more like yours.  May I apply these verses to my life and impact those around me to bring you the glory and Praise.  I pray for your strength because I know and believe without you I will only fail.  

  

Luke 14: 27-33

 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’  Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

I must deny myself, take up my slack, my sin and carry it to the cross.  I must give it all to Him to become like Christ, please help me O Lord to become like you.  Here is my heart; please change it.  Amen.

 

Some overdue updated News...

I would like to let you know that last week before I got this terrible sinus cold (probably a sinus infection)  and then an ear infection, I was having some pains and worrisome pressure in my pelvis.  The midwife advised us to go to the hospital and get checked out; just to make sure everything was ok.  Seven hours after arriving in Triage, we were given some pretty exciting news.  They performed a follow up ultrasound to check my cervix and the placenta previa.  To our astonishment, the placenta had moved completely out of the way in a very short time, only 2 weeks!  Some believe it was originally a mis-diagnosis, but I don't.  I know and believe that we had placenta previa and I know that the Lord has graciously answered our prayers and moved the placenta.  We prayed for His will to be done, regardless of the way of delivery for this wonderful baby.  We wanted Him to receive the glory.  And I want you all to know that our God has been answering many of our prayers in ways that we still can't fathom. Please praise Him with us!!  We were finally discharged, knowing my cervix thined ever so slightly, (no big deal, I guess).  We left with instructions for pelvic rest for an additional 4 weeks.  So we are very excited to say that we, again, are planning our home water birth for our second baby if God allows, and in the event of an emergency we will be go to the hospital.

In other news, SuperDaddy and I have been praying and seeking a job change, So that he can spend more time with the family.  We are pleased to say that he starts his new job on July 25, 2011.  Working til 3:30 everyday instead of 6 and still making the same amount!!!  God has been so gracious to us, when we are so underserving sinful people.  It's amazing to see God's hand in our lives and His plans unfold before our very eyes. 

We want to thank all of you for your prayers and support during these times of transition for us.  Please continue to praise the Lord with us!!!

and here are some pics of our new addition coming soon...

It hurts...the longing and constant reminders...

Lord, please grant me the patience, understanding, and wisdom to be the mother my children need and and the wife my husband needs in the midst of the painful moments of life when I am so constantly reminded that I do not have that special someone to stay with me to help with my newborn, the one I can wake at 10:30 at night to talk about my heart, to help me with my one year old when I need a break, the one who'd tell me everything's going to be okay, and I'd believe her because she would be that special someone most call Mom. Lord, thank you for my family and what you have given me. I pray this constant pain and deep desire to have a mother, could be used for my good and Your glory.

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Our expectations have been changed...please pray with us

We found out shortly after our miscarriage in early March, that we were blessed with another pregnancy.  We were overjoyed and excited that God had blessed us with another baby!! Because Little Peanut's birth was so amazing and extraordinary, giving birth with a midwife in the water, was beyond a miracle, we were excited to do it again.  So needless to say, we gave ourselves an expectation that this new pregnancy would go as smoothly as hers did.   We were set on having a lovely home birth with a local midwife in the water.  We had our ultrasound last friday to determine the gender of the baby.  As I was counting down the weeks and days to this ultrasound, I never imagined what we were about to find out.  Our expectations of this pregnancy, labor, and delivery have definitely changed drastically.  The doctor was doing the routine 20 week ultrasound and everything seemed cool until he got to the placenta.  He was slightly concerned and spent a lot of the time looking at and measuring my placenta and cervix.  I had no clue what he was doing.  As I was watching he typed "Placenta Previa"  onto the screen and began to tell us what it meant.  Of course, he had to tell us the worse case scenario right off the bat, so I was a little in shock.  My pregnancy isn't just a normal low-risk pregnancy anymore.  So my understanding thus far of Placenta Previa, is that the placenta has implanted and grew over the opening of the cervix.  The cervix is the opening to the  the birth canal.  The risk here is that if the placenta does not move as the pregnancy progresses, when I start to dilate the placenta will start to bleed and the baby and I will start to loose blood. ( In my understanding, in this situation, there is a 90% chance it will move away from the cervix, but no guarantee.) So the worst case scenario is that the baby will be delivered  via C-section pre-term.  This may not seem that alarming to some, however; as I stated earlier; I was hoping, dreaming, and praying for a home birth with a local midwife delivering in the water.  We will not find out for some time (possibly as long as 12 weeks) what is going to happen regarding our delivery.  As of right now, we are seeing our midwife next week and will discuss risk factors, statistics regarding placenta previa, and where to go from here.  The best case scenario is that the placenta moves on its own and we will have a home-birth.  Either way, the doctor said that we will be okay with the medical advances these days. If you would like to read more about placenta previa, click here. So in wirting this post,  I am asking you to join us in prayer for our pregnancy, labor, and delivery. 


Lord, we need your daily grace and peace, so we ask You for your generous supply of grace and peace for this pregnancy and placenta previa situation, I pray that we respond to the results in a God honoring manner. Lord, in the midst of this struggle, work in us the joy of the Holy Spirit, so much so that people will wonder how we can respond in such a manner.  We pray for direction and wisdom for the decisions to be made regarding this pregnancy. We hand our pregnancy and our baby to you.  We thank you and praise you for your unfailing love.  Amen.

1 thissalonians 1:1c; 6

Thank you for your support and prayers.  And FYI, we could not find out the gender as the baby wasn't cooperating. 

‎1 peter 4:12-13 dear friends, do not be surprised as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the suffering of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

Following taken from Facebook...

The following message was being shared on Facebook started by Sihol Gianito Situmorang.  I feel so strongly about this topic that I wanted to share it here with all of you.  Step by Step, we together, can end the mass murder being done to these innocent babies. 



A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said:

'Doctor, I have a serious problem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even 1 year old and I'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together.

So the doctor said: 'Ok and what do you want me to do?'

She said: 'I want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your help with this.'

The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady: 'I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's less dangerous for you too.'

She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request.

Then he continued: 'You see, in order for you not to have to take care 2 babies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, you could rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one of them, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for your body if you chose the one in your arms.

The lady was horrified and said: 'No doctor! How terrible! It's a crime to kill a child!

'I agree', the doctor replied. 'But you seemed to be OK with it, so I thought maybe that was the best solution.'

The doctor smiled, realizing that he had made his point.

He convinced the mom that there is no difference in killing a child that's already been born and one that's still in the womb.

The crime is the same!

If you agree, please SHARE. Together we can help save precious lives!

"Love says I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person. Abortion says I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself..."

Jesus sacrificed Himself for the good of sinners! That's perfect love!

The Nuk update!

 The NUK...

So, you might remember back when I posted about taking the nuk from Little Peanut, here.  Well, things didn't go that smoothly.  My pride didn't want her to have that thing.  But her need to suck to soothe said otherwise.  So now at 14 months old, we are at the decision table again as to what to do about the nuk!  After much consideration, weighing the pros and cons, praying, and asking advice; Super Daddy and I have decided to let her keep the nuk until after our new baby arrives.  When the new baby is about 3-4 months old, we are going to take the nuk for good.  By that age (23-24 mos old) her need to suck to soothe should be done.  Yes, it is a most difficult decision to make when taking away the nuk. Like I said, for us, it's not about the crying. Babies cry and we can handle that part. But I've already tried taking it from her 3 times and all 3 times; she didn't really care it was gone, however, she replaced it with sucking on something else. I tried at 3 mos, 6 mos, and 10 months. At 3 and 6 months she just wanted to nurse almost constantly, that became painful and unpractical; therefore, we gave it back. At 10 months, she stopped using it because of an ear infection and stopped nursing as well. Then, she started wanted to suck on her bottle constantly when she got better from the ear infection. I broke and after 4 days of no nuk I gave it back because she needed it to soothe herself. I would rather her have a nuk than constantly want to suck on a bottle. Even when it was empty. I didn't want her to get a tummy ache from the air she was swallowing. So my point of the story is, in my opinion, it solely depends on the child when he/she is ready to give up the nuk. When the need to suck to soothe is gone, then I believe it will be much easier to take it away for good. She still is not really attached to the nuk itself, just the sucking part of it. If she can find something else to suck on and can't find a nuk, she'll suck on it. If we take it, I know she will find her thumb. And I do not even want to go there. So SuperDaddy and I have decided to let her keep it until the baby is here for a couple months, to help her cope with having a new sibling. This is so contrary to the way I use to believe before I was a mother. My pride wants to scream and say NO! I'm taking it now. But I think it is right in saying every kid is different. As the saying goes, "I use to be the perfect mother, until I became one." Motherhood is not just a journey about raising little ones up to be like Christ (yet this is still very important), but more about our Lord re-shaping us to be more like Him, instead of going on and doing our things our own way. God is good in humbling us in simple yet complex ways.