April Thoughts

*Each month of this year, I have enjoyed rifling through the pages of my journal, looking back on what I’ve written, and then writing a blog post about it all. You can check out the other posts here-January, February, and March.

Intentional Dates with the Kids

A couple of months ago, Bernd and I decided to mark the first Saturday of every month as intentional date day with one of our kids. The idea is that we will alternate months. This month it was my turn with Dilly. It turned out to be a very cool day, so my plan didn’t exactly work out, but we had fun nonetheless. My plan had been to take him to run around in the Park. We ended up going to McDonald’s for ice cream, to Walmart so he could spend his Christmas Money on Lego, and to check out bikes.  What did I learn from this? That it’s so important to recognize that life needs intentionality. I recognize that when we plan for things with intention, we actually fit in the things that we value most. Hopefully, years from now my 5-year-old son will remember that Mom took the time to spend time with just him.

It doesn’t matter if I feel like it

NBA great Jerry West said, “You can’t get too much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” It’s so easy to quit when things get tough. This month, I’m learning that even when I don’t know how to do something, or things get hard-I cannot quit. It doesn’t matter what it is-“quitters never win.”

5:30 a.m. for the Win?

I have begun to get up at 5:30 several mornings a week. Honestly, I struggle with going to bed at a decent time to make this work the way it should. However, I can get a lot of writing done at this time of the morning. There is just something about the quietness of this early hour of the morning that lends itself to productivity and peace. I am not at the point that I could do this hour every, single day, but perhaps I will be one day.

Ladies’ Conference Insights

I had the opportunity to join some amazing ladies from local churches at a Ladies’ Conference. The theme was “Break Free.” I was only able to fit in Friday night, (it was a Friday and Saturday conference) but I was tremendously blessed. The Lady who spoke was so open and honest with her struggles in life and what God had brought her through. In fact, the entire evening was like that! There was sharing time and I was able to share some of my struggles with learning to Trust the Lord. It’s hard to stand up and be open and vulnerable, but so worth it. My biggest takeaway, though, was when the lady speaking reminded us that even when we know what the Word of God says and we can stand on it, sometimes we need to ask someone trustworthy in our lives to stand with us. It is often than that we will see the breakthrough. I know for a fact that this is an area I struggle in greatly. I know the Word of God in many situations and I keep speaking it, I think I can do it on my own, and I don’t want to bother anyone. I think it often comes down to Pride. I need to let that Pride go and we willing to be open and vulnerable.

Finding Rest

Last month, I shared how I have been exercising just before I begin school with my kiddos. I am still LOVING that! Now I don’t work out every single morning, but even on the mornings that I don’t, I have been using this time to sit down and relax, to read a little in a book, to play the piano a little bit or to read my Bible. This is so refreshing and gets the day off to a great start.

Seeing Others like Christ sees them

This was a busy month. We had the 20th Anniversary Celebration for our church. It was 4 jam packed services of the Word of God. I was challenged, I was blessed, and I was brought back into focus again. I was blown away to start to get just a small picture of how Christ sees people. Christ was all about people. So how does Christ see people? Well, he sees them as forgiven. How many times do I judge people based on what I see of them in the natural? How many times do I think God can’t possibly love that person because they’ve screwed up royally? Yet, I’ve held myself to a different standard. This is especially apparent with my own children. One of my children is tough for me a lot. This child pushes buttons, makes life difficult, and is hard to discipline. Always has been. I have often been very harsh with this child. The thought that I am not seeing this child as Christ does is shocking. It’s hard. I often feel VERY done with this child. I made a commitment this weekend not to deal with any discipline issues after my husband is home. We are both hoping this will help me to be kinder with this particular child.

What about you? What did you learn in April?