Stand and Consider

God has blessed us with a beautiful beginning to spring. Last week was windy, but warm and sunny and everyone wanted to be outside a little bit more. When Micah was at school last Thursday Abigail wanted to fly her kite again, so out we went to fly the kite and blow some bubbles. I know I already posted some kite-flying pics recently but here is one of Isabel that I just could not resist sharing. She was having such fun!

The girls are doing amazingly well flying the kite on their own. They look so cute running around the yard, kite in tow! We have two rather large trees in our yard though that keep the wind from blowing too steadily so soon we will take it to the park to see what it is capable of.

Another of Isabel’s favorite activities is blowing bubbles.  While sissy was flying the kite she would blow her bubbles and then they would switch activities. Isn’t it lovely when the kids take turns without too much fuss? Here’s a few more shots of my sweet girls…

David and I love movies, and we tend to gravitate toward the independent films. You win some, you lose some, but many times we find they are the gems of the film industry and the ones that become our favorites. One such movie is Once. Many of you have probably at least heard of it and some of you may have seen it. Since it has been out for a while I didn’t think it was something I should write about, but this morning I read a review on one of my new favorite blogs, The Rabbit Room. They always have great and thoughtful reviews on music, books, movies, and art all from a Christian worldview. The “Proprietor” of the site is Andrew Peterson, a Christian singer, songwriter, and author (one of our faves…his style reminds us of Rich Mullins; he is a great storyteller). Start here to read about how this blog started and what it’s all about. There are several contributors ranging from musicians to authors to artists, although I would consider them all artists.

Back to what I intended to write about in the first place. If you enjoy thoughtful movies and great music (the music in this movie is amazing), then at the very least check out this review by Andrew Peterson (be sure to take note of his comments regarding the language in the movie). He has included a video with the song Falling Slowly which won an Academy Award. It shows clips from the movie and gives you an idea of what the music is like. It’s not for everyone, but something we thoroughly enjoyed.

Abigail has been begging me for quite some time to fly her kite. The winds were a blowin’ today, so out we went for some kite flying fun!

Soon Isabel joined in the fun!

While the girls were busy flying kites, Micah was honing his archery skills. Last week he borrowed “Robin Hood” from the library, so he has been itching to get outside and practice.

Isabel helped out by collecting the arrows and bringing them back to her big brother.

Micah has enjoyed this bow and arrow set, which is an actual set and not a toy…therefore requires close adult supervision! Today he was shooting them quite far and is becoming more accurate all the time. Sometimes I still can’t believe that it was my idea to get this for him. I am generally the more cautious parent, but this has turned out to be a great activity for Micah and I’m glad we went for it!

He is risen indeed!

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And…the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”

~Luke 24:1-6a

Some thoughts for the day…

“He {Jesus} was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned–every one–to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

~Isaiah 53:3-6 (ESV)

Peter said of Jesus:

“He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

~1 Peter 2:22-24

God loves us. He loves us so much He sent His precious Son, Jesus, to suffer and die for us. That is why today is “Good” Friday. The death of Christ brings us hope. A hope we can experience if we trust in what Jesus did for us some two thousand years ago. He died to set us free from the punishment of sin and death; but not only did He die, He conquered death by raising from the dead, showing us His power and victory over death. As Christians, Easter–resurrection Sunday–should be looked upon as the greatest of all days, for without it there is no hope.

Several months back I picked up a little book by John Piper called The Passion of Jesus Christ: Fifty Reasons Why He Came to Die. If you need some things to meditate on this Easter season, consider this. It is available to read online here at the Desiring God Ministries website.

Even better to read…God’s Word.

• Matthew 26-28
• Mark 14-16
• Luke 22-24
• John 13-21

“Now I would remind you… of the gospel {good news!}…that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time…”

~1 Corinthians 15:1-6

Peach blossoms…

Blooming trees…

Making wishes…

“This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

~Psalm 118:24

Today is my parents’ 35th Wedding Anniversary! I am so thankful for them and for the godly example they have given to my sister and me of what a loving and committed marriage should be like.  It is a wonderful gift to have parents that are so in love after so many years!

Mom and Dad, I love you and I thank you…

• for raising me to believe that marriage is a covenant between God and husband and wife that is to be taken seriously and lasts a lifetime. 
• for giving me and Heidi a loving home to grow up in.
• for your commitment to each other and to your family.
• for always being there for us.
• for showing us what it means to serve and follow Christ, for praying for us as we grew, and praying for our children so that they may grow to serve and follow our precious Lord.

Have a wonderful day together!

On Saturday there was another anniversary to celebrate. Eleven years ago, on March 15, 1997, David and I were married! It is so hard to believe that it has already been 11 years. There have been moves, some across town and others half way across the country! There have been three lovely additions to our family.  There have been many changes, some we planned and some we didn’t. But we have walked through it all together, with God as our anchor, and I am so thankful that He brought us together!

Our Wedding Vows
March 15, 1997

As God gives me the strength,
I promise to love you, as Christ loved the church.
I promise to look to God’s Word,
And seek His face in prayer,
To determine His will, for our lives together.
I promise to protect you, provide for you,
And to place your needs above my own.
And leaving all others, I pledge my love to you.
Love, David

As God gives me the strength,
I promise to respect, and honor you.
I promise to submit to you,
As I have learned to submit to the Lord.
I promise to trust in the leadership God has given you,
And be supportive of your life choices.
I promise to live with you,
In faith and tenderness,
And leaving all others, I pledge my love to you.
Love, Meagan

This is the third and final interview of our kids! In the first interview we were introduced to Isabel and a few days later we learned all about Abigail. Now let’s meet…

Micah James
Age: almost 8 (on April 18th)

His name means: Who is like Jehovah?

Some of his favorite things:

Book: any animal book

Bible Story: Joshua and the wall at Jericho (For school this week Micah’s journal topic for handwriting was about what Bible character he would like to be. This is what he wrote: “If I could be a Bible person, I would have been…Joshua because…He fought many battles. He destryed Jarico. He destryed another. He was cool. He died at the age of 110.”)

Color: Green

Toy: Green Transformer from his friend Charles

Song: “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High”

T.V. Show:  “Teen Titans”

Movie: “Star Wars”

Animal: “That’s a hard one. Spiders.” (I was a little surprised he said spiders! But Micah loves animals and is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to his knowledge of all kinds of animals and insects.)

Snack: Granola Bars

Food: Chicken and Bow Tie Pasta

Subject in School: “I have a lot! History, Literature, Lunch (gotta love that!), Math.”

Superhero: Spiderman

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? Australia and China

What do you want to be when you grow up? Police Officer

Up until recently Micah wanted to be a Crocodile Hunter like Steve Irwin (which means he wanted to protect and rescue animals, not actually hunt them). I still see him working with animals someday, but we’ll see. He has lots of time to get that all figured out! Micah is definitely our animal lover and has an extensive knowledge of many types of animals. I know some of you have heard this story before, but I get a kick out of it everytime I think about it. When Micah was about four years old he was talking about an aye-aye. I asked him what that was and he said, and I quote, “It is a nocturnal lemur that lives on the island of Madagascar.” It’s always fun when the mom gets to learn something from her four year old!

Micah the Meerkat…

Micah is our imaginative child. He loves to act things out and is extremely creative at finding props for his adventures. The warrior with his sword and shield…

He is interested in history and enjoys reading. Every night when he gets into bed we allow him to read for a while and on non-school nights sometimes he will read for 2-3 hours in bed, often falling asleep with an open book across his chest.

Micah also loves baseball, both to play and to watch. Next week he begins his second season playing for the Rangers. No, not THE Rangers, but maybe someday!

Micah brings us such joy and amusement. He is beginning (too quickly for me at times) to transition from little boy to young man and although it is sometimes hard to see him leave behind little boy things, it will be exciting to see what kind of young man he becomes. David and I pray that as he continues to grow that he would grow in his knowledge of and relationship with our Lord.

Perfect words for our Micah from the prophet Micah:

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? ~ Micah 6:8 (ESV)

Even though it has not felt like winter lately, we certainly had a taste of it this week! Monday a winter “storm” rolled through, leaving some areas blanketed in several inches of fresh, white snow. We however, were not one of those areas. Round two hit yesterday, quite a bit heavier than the first, but alas, again no snow; we saw rain most of the day. I was slightly surprised by my disappointment since I am not a cold weather person, but my Pacific Northwest roots run deep and part of me can still appreciate the beauty of fresh fallen snow…at least in small amounts! What should await us this morning, but a lovely, light dusting of pure white snow (that was gone by about 11 am so that made it even more enjoyable)! You can imagine the delight of our children when they looked out the windows. They immediately began scurrying about the house in search of appropriate winterwear.

It’s fun to watch our kids in the snow; they are never quite sure what to do with it! I guess that comes with living in the South, but it didn’t take them too long and soon Micah was throwing snowballs at his sisters (I use the term snowballs loosely as the snow was quite dry and not great for that sort of thing).

Our little snow angels! 

They had a great time…for about 10 minutes! Then it was in to the house for hot chocolate. And what did Mommy do to warm up? I went to Starbucks, of course!

Yesterday after church David was making some comments on the passage we discussed in our Sunday School class (Acts 7–Stephen’s speech just before he was stoned). He commented that Stephen was Greek and Micah asked, “Are you talking about Homer?” For those of you who do not remember your ancient Greek literature, Homer wrote the epic poems the Iliad and the Odessey. How many seven (well, almost eight but still…) year olds do you know who would ask that question…and not mean Homer Simpson?