"For the joy of human love...

brother, sister, parent, child...

 Christ, our God, to Thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise!"

Reflections as the First Day Approaches

I just can't stop thinking about Stella starting school. Of late, I have been enjoying reminiscing about some precious memories she and I have made over the past five years. Like last night...I was walking through the grocery picking out a kiwi and remembered a silly song we sang about kiwi one time (that turned into many times) when we were shopping. Then I was over in the book area and remembered how we used to load up on books for her to look at while we shopped. (She is very easy on things normally and the books were no worse for wear. I have tried this with a certain other beloved child in our brood and have ended up purchasing a book because of what resulted in a poor decapitated pop-up zebra who couldn't escape her grasp...but I digress!) There are many of these special moments I'm reminded of lately. But I must admit I've been plagued with feelings of guilt too. Questions arise in my mind, "Have I taught her enough?...played with her enough?...pretended enough?...disciplined right and enough?...loved enough? Have we memorized enough Scripture? Have we exposed her to enough and sheltered her from enough?...kissed enough boo-boos?...wiped enough tears?" and the list goes on.

To get relief from these thoughts I don't ultimately comfort myself by looking back at our daily schedules and completed projects and filled workbooks and tattered-paged books and pictures of fun outings, and videos of songs sung, verses memorized and catechisms recited. Those things are comforting to some degree because they are evidences of God's grace and strength equipping Matt and me to lay a good foundation for the future and serve our family in meaningful ways. But ultimately my comfort from these guilt feelings isn't in what I've done. Because the truth is I haven't done enough. And even what I've done hasn't been done as well as it could've been. I have fallen short even in the best of times. So ultimately I go back to the fact that we have a God who IS enough. He always accomplishes what He sets out to do and He does it perfectly. He is never angry or mean or spiteful. He is never preoccupied or impatient. He is never absent or neglectful. He always has time, is never late or forgetful, and He always follows through on His good intentions. And because He is enough and always does enough, I comfort myself that Stella has the greatest hope for the future. As good as our memories are, I pray that the best is yet to be for her. That she'll know her perfect heavenly Father soon and have all her needs and wants fulfilled in Him for His glory. I can't do for her what He can...and I was never intended to. So when I'm tempted to despair at opportunities missed or good days passed, I look to Him for hope...hope for me and hope for her. And that is enough!

A few pictures of Stella-girl going in for her interview with Mrs. Hubbard in June:

Tay-fur, Tay-fur, Tay-fur

Ruby started saying Schaeffer's name last week. Until then she had referred to him as "baby" but now she chants his name and moves her arms imitating him. It's too cute.


Our boy is 3 months old today. He still has some of his newborn-ness - he's still all balled up (maybe it's b/c I mush him up so he stays that way), he still makes a few of the cute little "new" noises, he's still a bobble-head, and he still smells like a newborn - but I know over the next few weeks these sweet things will disappear all too soon.


So for the next month I'll be mushing and listening and sniffing (selectively!) to enjoy these fleeting moments all I can. Don't grow too fast, baby boy.

Snuggling with his Ammy

 

I had to put this picture in of Stella (above) b/c he sleeps the exact same way she did! They both love to throw their heads back and sleep almost in a back-bend! 

With our sweet friend Isabelle

Presents and Birthdays - Jesus is Better!

We've had some fun birthday celebrations recently since Ruby and Stella have birthdays within a month of each other. Stella is at the age where birthdays are highly anticipated and at this point, Ruby gets excited just because Stella does. Since Stella-girl turned 5, it was an extra-special year because she had her first friend party. We decided awhile back that friend parties won't happen every year - maybe every 4 years or so - so we did it up a little bigger than other years.

Some months ago we started listening to this CD which quickly became one of our favorite children's music CDs. We love that the words feed our souls ("You are always caring, You are never cruel, even when You see me doing wrong" - how long did it take me to get that wonderful truth right about God's character?! And I still need reminded of it!) as well as keeping the Gospel before our kids in a memorable way at this stage of their lives. 

When birthday season approached, I knew I wanted to use the phrase that's the title of this blog entry (from the song "Nothing Better than Jesus" on the CD mentioned above) in an effort to help Stella see the all-surpassing greatness of Jesus, even at a time when she's surrounded by great things - like birthday presents!!

We tried to think of a few ways to communicate this to her and came up with two to focus on this year. We can show that Jesus is better than presents and birthdays by:

1) Loving the people at the party more than the presents (showing love and thankfulness even if she didn't get a gift or got something that wasn't her favorite)

2) Seeing the party as a fun opportunity to lay a strong foundation for godly friendship in the future (God placed these friends in her life for a reason and Lord willing this is only the beginning of the many years they'll spend learning about Jesus, trusting Him as Savior, encouraging each other to love and good works and resisting temptation together)

We didn't navigate through the parties perfectly by any means (just ask the family and friends who were here!) but we're thankful for the opportunities God gives us to teach our kids about Him and His greatness. It's in those opportunities that we can really teach them application of His Word. God has blessed us with such good teaching and yet how little we apply! I'm thankful that we don't have to wait until next birthday season to keep working on application. Those opportunities are around the Owen household in abundance every day!

Some pictures of the fun celebrations:

"Sweet as can Bee" party with our family

Strawberry Shortcake Tea Party with friends

playing "Rotten Strawberry" (aka "Hot Potato")

strawberry bow favors done by our talented friend Sandra