Pounding on Wittenberg's Door

photo: wikimedia.org

Romans 1.17 - For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

Happy Reformation Day!

My Worst Subject

I've never been good at math, but I really want and need to be good at this kind of math!

Giving Thought to Gospel 'Math': Why Jesus + Nothing = Everything

Through the Years

26th

27th

28th

29th

 30th

31st

We only have digital pics from the past 5 years, but I remember some things about the past 9 birthdays we've celebrated together. They are marked by different ways we've celebrated...where we went, what we ate, and gifts you received. But the thing I remember most as I look through the pictures and think back through the years, is what God was doing in our lives during those times. Like the M Div mid-semester deluge of reading and papers, the Audi project, my sickness after Stella was born, the church planting survey trip, many MACPs, and many pregnancies. These pictures are a reminder that as we mark the years, we are marking God's work in your life. He is growing you from one degree of glory to another with each passing year. That's cause to celebrate! Happy Birthday, Love!


And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3.18)

Taking Heed

During Summer Bible Conference in 2006, Pastor Dan Davey spoke on the topic of preparing our hearts to hear the Word of God in corporate worship. He passed out a sheet called "Take Heed How You Hear" by John Piper. On the sheet are 10 practical preparations. The sheet has served me well on Sunday mornings since that time and helped me to deal with my self-centeredness, irritation with others and easily triggered temper (starting w/ my own family on Sunday as we seek to get out the door), dull emotions, and waning appetite and affections for sacred things - namely God Himself. I need my heart searched, sin exposed and love ignited to do the blessed work of worship. So as the best day of the week is a few hours away, let our preparations begin!

Click it or Ticket

Guess it's time to start buckling him in!

A Day of Firsts...and Seconds

Wow! The house was so quiet today. It was nice hearing the little things that a 2-year old does. It's not that she was doing anything different than normal. It's just that it was actually noticeable today! I heard little feet walking around in shoes that were way too big for her. I heard the "pat, pat, pat, pat" that gives Rocket more power. I heard words and groups of words that I've never noticed coming out of her mouth before - noticed being the key word. Has the poor child been talking this much for awhile and I'm just now realizing all the words she's putting together?! Lunch was quiet too and there were no art supplies scattered on the table to be cleaned up when I served the food.
But, it was a good day.
Even though it was a day of firsts, for the second time in my motherhood, I also had the joy of once again focusing my attention and energy almost exclusively on the toddler stage and all the good (and bad!) that comes with it. I cracked open "God's Wisdom for Little Girls"  and tears filled my eyes. I vividly remember the day I started going through that book with Stella just a little over 3 years ago. I remember it so clearly because it was at a crossroads of sorts in my life. We had just been through over 30 weeks of pregnancy between 2 pregnancies which both resulted in miscarriages. I was putting Stella to bed for her afternoon nap. All I wanted to do was go to bed myself and cry. God was working in my heart and testing my affections and I was struggling. I knew I needed to begin working with Stella more intentionally in biblical instruction. But to be honest, it was the last thing I wanted to do. I was confronted with the sinfulness of my heart at that moment when I realized I could very easily neglect the opportunity to train and teach Stella and instead give into the temptation to become embittered over God's sovereign choices in my life in taking away something good that I desperately wanted. I remember fighting Him. And I remember His grace conquering those rebel powers that were rearing their ugly head. I bent down and picked up the book from her book basket and opened it to the first page. I read to her through tears that day. Tears, because of the battle I was fighting, and tears, because of the verse, in God's providence, I read - "Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies." (Proverbs 31:10) I wept as I read the word 'rubies' because we knew if we had another girl we would've named her Ruby. I prayed with Stella and asked that God would work those virtues in her heart by His power and walked from her crib. By His grace and power alone, I was taking a small step in submitting to His will.  At that point in time, that difficult obedience to deny my fleshly desires and responses in that hard circumstance, lead to many, many wonderful times of instruction with my Stella girl over these past years. Because, most importantly, those big brown eyes looking up at me needed me to tell her of a Jesus who is good all the time - even when Mommy's heart is breaking and even if I had to say it in tears. He gave peace in the storm and satisfied my aching heart in a way nothing - not even a precious baby - could have. So today, when I opened that book, I remembered all of this. And I will tomorrow too. Because now some big blue eyes, which happen to belong to our little girl named Ruby, are looking up at me and she needs to hear of that same Jesus too.

Stella waking up this morning

  (notice Ruby still asleep in the fetal position and Hello Kitty precariously hanging off the edge of the bed - love it!!)

Just a little bed head!! :)

Eating breakfast with Ruby looking on

The pile of things she had to take to school. We were cracking up when she walked out of the gym this morning because she looked like she might not make it another step under the weight of everything!

Mommy and Stella almost 5 years ago to the day

and Mommy and her girl today

Stella couldn't have been more excited!

With her wonderful teacher - notice the teddy bear on Stella's shoulder!

"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