the one without a title

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate coming up with titles for blog posts?  My mom in love  told me ages and ages ago that I needed to title each one so it would notify her if I wrote a new post.  I've been naming them ever since, but my dislike for coming up with a title has never left.

This is another post of random things.

The boys have had a really good first week back at school.  It's not a big deal around here when we start, we just slip kinda quietly and gently back into our old routines.  I love our days.  They're quiet and peaceful and lately, I've noticed that all the bickering that used to take place has gone away.  I guess they're getting older, and the urge to pick at one another has left the oldest one and he's maturing.  We keep music playing throughout the day, either them as they work, or me downstairs.  One day this week, I let a candle burn for the entire day.  I love candles and the warm glow they create.  It's such a simple way to make your house seem peaceful.

A sad thing I've noticed is the older two boys are pulling away from me ever so slightly it seems.  I guess this happens with boys when they reach a certain age?  I don't know.  I'm new at this stage.  It makes sense that they would start this now, the goal is to get them independent, but it's still sad.  Every once in a while, they'll come into my room and talk to me at night, and for a while they were doing that pretty often, but they've stopped again.  They know that I'm here to talk and when they want to, I drop everything and listen intently.  I suppose they're growing up.

My mom has been sick lately and I've not seen her in FOREVER.  Or so it seems.  But I get to see her today!  We're going to go run errands together.  :)  And then we're going to eat lunch.

I love Wednesday night church.  I haven't been upstairs in youth in ages, and last night was a back to school kick-off night.  The boys (three of them, minus Drew) were there all afternoon on Wednesday, building a new set for the stage.

Doesn't it look awesome?  It may not be permanent, but it'll be there for a while, hopefully.  I love the ambiance it created.  The stage used to be really cluttered and dark, so the simplicity and cleanness appeals to me.  I love the lights hanging down, too.  We had a guest worship leader last night, the one that led us in worship at D Now, and it was such a sweet time of praise and worship.  Speaking of this, though, I have a pet peeve.

An issue I've noticed lately and one that bugs the daylights out of me is that people talk during worship.  Call me old fashioned or what have you, but can we just have some quiet so we can sing to Jesus?  I realize that not everyone loves to sing and CAN sing, but shouldn't we respectfully hush so others can worship?  It's not even about whether or not you can sing, David didn't say in the book of Psalm to only sing to the Lord if you can carry a tune.  No, we are to ALL sing to Him our praise.  I watch teenagers during our singing time on Sunday mornings.  I'm in choir and I stand facing them almost directly, so trust me, I notice.  I've said something to my boys about not doing this, but do you know how hard it is to worship when the ones around you are being disrespectful?  And though teenagers do this, it's not just their demographic, but adults, as well.

I don't mean to get on a tangent, but I pray that this makes us all think about what we do during that time.  I know not everyone loves every single song we sing, but we can at least sing and meditate on the words we're singing to God.  If we do that one simple thing, our worship will change.

I have so much more to say on this, but I'll save it for a later date.

I love the church family we belong to.  I am so thankful that my husband is involved with the technical team.  So many men are not involved any more, and that creates a huge problem in the family as God designed.  If our men are not in church, they simple cannot lead their families.  I'm not saying our family is super spiritual at home all the time, but trust me when I say that they are led by example.  Todd is a wonderful husband and dad to our boys.  Neither of us are perfect, but I know that God put us together and I thank Him that He gave us the same vision for our family.  We do things differently, and we have caught some flack on that.  We are old fashioned and we are strict parents, but our boys do not hate us.  On the contrary, they love us and have we all have great relationships.

I would say that though the boys have pulled a bit away from me, they've grown closer and closer to Todd.  They call him or text him all the time, they go directly to him for things (and not to ME), they tell him everything.  If that means they're not as close to me, then so be it.  I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world, because that is exactly how my husband was raised.  And to this day, he and his dad are very close.

I know so many that don't have this kind of dad, through no fault of their own.  I pray for them, and that the men in their lives around them would step up and try to fill in some of the gaps.  I've witnessed this in my own family, and I've seen families torn apart over issues out of their control.  It breaks my heart to watch a guy try to grow up without a dad.  It can happen, though, I've seen it, even though it might be a bit harder for them.

The enemy is out to destroy the family, and we MUST do our part to make sure that doesn't happen.  We have to stay faithful to God, we have to stay in His word, and saturated in prayer.  I love the movie The War Room, and the prayer that Mrs. Clarice teaches the young lady she mentors, whose name has left my brain.  The part when the young lady goes to war in prayer on behalf of her family brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it.  There is such truth to this, that if we don't pray over our families, the world will try to drag them away.

I tell my boys this all the time: look the opposite.  I know it's hard, but do NOT look like those around you.  Look different, and be bold in your faith.

On a different note, I've been reading in James this week, and today I read chapter three, on controlling the tongue.  Lately, I have had to go back and say I'm sorry to people for maybe coming off rude.  I don't know if they feel that way, but looking back on what I said, I had the thought that maybe that came off the wrong way.  Because of that, this chapter really spoke volumes to me this morning.  I love the whole chapter, but I particularly love what it says about not letting praises and curses flow from the same lips.  My translation said that with our mouths, we curse men made in God's likeness.  That was convicting to me, and I loved the wording.  I immediately confessed that I sometimes do that and repented.  I don't mean to do it, sometimes I'll just go to my husband and vent, or to my friend, and it is so wrong.

I love God's word, and how it pierces to the deepest part of us, if we let it.

Where are you reading right now?  I prayed for many of you this morning, that you would be consistent in the Word of God.

I'd love to hear from you.

I have to stop and go get dinner in the Crock Pot for tonight.  Happy Thursday to you!  Love to all.