Parenting After Empty Nest?

I ate two meals with College Boy today.

We talked about goal setting and list making.

Watching adult children be...adult children is interesting.

To say the least.

When your children leave the nest you get a chance to observe.

What things they have gleaned from home.

And what they HAVE NOT. (yet)

lol

When I entered said College Boy's room to get him a shirt tonight,

I thought to myself,

"he is going to be an engineer and does not know

how to close a dresser drawer." ~hmmmm

Back to "list making"...

I have observed College Boy has become used to staying

up until wee hours of the morning and then sleeeeeeeeeeping in

until. late.

Mom of College Boy thinks to herself,

"It's not good for boy to be lazy. He needs to make goals."

Mom makes goals and writes them down.

Dad makes goals and verbalizes them to Mom.

College Boy needs to learn to make goals so he prioritizes time

and makes wise decisions.

He says, "It was New Year, Mom."

Yes....it was, but now you have one week left of vacation.

What will you do with it?

So a list he makes and worked on it all day.

Mom thinks College Boy is feeling quite satisfied!

(So is College Boy's mom!)

A Look Back

I've been inspired by my new blogging, & tweeting friend, JoAnne in Australia. As I read her overview of her blogging year, I was enabled to get to know her better...So allow me to introduce a (very) short version of my year 2010...

January: 2010 started off writing about my new role  as Women's Ministries leader in our church. In 2008, the Lord took me to She Speaks on faith. I had no idea what for at the time; speaking, or ministry...but I went with Him and attended workshops on a little bit of everything. Guess what? Since then I have done a little bit of everything! Who knew? LOL

February: Found me pondering the past and learning from it. I put up a lengthy post of my former pit, as well as a post stemming from my deep desire for balance in Christendom...

March: I HAD to do a little more reminiscing of our daughter, Kayla's wedding from 9/4/09 before sharing about the coming changes in our lives...Empty nest and grand parenting!

April: I was deep in preparation mode for the coming graduation party and the upcoming strain on my heart (ie: letting go!).

May: I posted out of my grief over the disunity and self-protection I see among professing Christians when we engage in arguments, name-calling and finger-pointing.

June: Because I spend so much time in the yard, I learn much about God, truth and life there.

July:  Garden meditations continue...on walking with Jesus...and then a spiritual check-up for my "eyegates".

August: More marriage meditations. (AND we dropped Ethan off at college the same weekend that my husband's grandmother died, but I didn't post about it..)

September: I was busy with preparations for the Anniversary event and Harvest Open House in my little gift shop, Bittersweet Farm.  I posted on Bittersweet, the plant and the name. I also was asked to speak at a "Single Mom's Spa Day" and discovered that I need to feel more free to share my story...because it is really HIStory!

October: In the midst of the busy season of BECOMING A GRANDMA, gift shop ownership, and Women's ministry events, I joined a Thanksgiving meme in gratitude for my Dad's successful surgery, and the simple pleasures in my life.

November:  Our Pastor started preaching through the book of Jude for "such a time as this"...for I found the Lord calling me to Contend for the faith.

December: Early in the month our Women's Ministry hosted a Christmas Cafe outreach with my bloggy friend Heather Cox speaking. Then later, I found the Christmas story took on new significance with a grandson sleeping next to us in church.

And THAT'S my year in a nutshell!!!...May the Lord bless and prosper your New Year!

Livin' in Love,

Kathy

A Baby Boy

I want to introduce you to my grandbaby, Bennett. He is two and a half months old. (isn't he cute!) He was sitting, sleeping actually, two chairs down from me in Church on Sunday. I kept glancing over at him when baby Jesus was mentioned in the message. Words popped in my head like "vulnerability", "trust", "growth process"...

In my mind, I imagined the span of the life of Jesus. What was daily life like in the home of Mary and Joseph? They must have lived in wonder at times...and at times, probably forgot that Jesus was who he was. I am struck with awe after having witnessed Bennett's birth, that the Lord God Almighty made his entrance into our world in a similar way. Through a dark canal.

Have you ever thought of how much darkness there is in the story of Christmas? The story of Light coming to earth? Beginning with the long, rough trek to Bethlehem that Mary endured at an advanced stage of pregnancy. Then at the end of her journey, giving birth in a barn, and soon after having to flee the country with her little boy. All the while pondering reality in her heart, and remembering the prophecy..."he will pierce your own soul too"...

What about your own life and walk with the Lord? When we meet Him, and receive Him, the Light enters our own dark hearts...but His presence in us doesn't automatically shield us from dark things in our lives either. As we know, life on earth continues to have dark events.

After pondering dark times in your own life, think of how profound grace is. The enabling of God. The giving to us what we are unable to produce...everything really. What do we have that we were not given? It's all grace. All things good are a result of His Light in our darkness.

Immanuel, the greatest gift of all came through a dark canal. Mary and Joseph were given grace to trust and teach and guide Jesus as his parents. Now we can have the Light inside of us that overcomes even the deepest darkness!

That gives us great reason to celebrate Christmas!

John 12:46

I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

Psalm 18:28

You, LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.

Sixpence None The Richer (ft. Dan Haseltine) - Silent Night [Official Mu...

Not much to say beyond...enjoy this! It is beautiful and sweet...

Why God?

I sometimes like to think why God made us...(I know that's an elementary sentence, but I am feeling a bit elementary girlish right now!)

I was driving toward the river that separates Wisconsin from Minnesota today. The beautiful St Croix River...I was out getting last-minute things for our Ladies Christmas Cafe that took place this evening. I had red dogwood twigs from my yard, but needed boughs for the glass cylinders we were using for the centerpieces. Being the cold~weather wimp that I am, I didn't want to trudge through the snow in the back yard on an 11 degree day, so I did what any weather~wimpy girl would do, I went SHOPPING!

The river....we live in a magnificently beautiful area with dense forests, rivers, streams, lakes, bluffs, and hills; nature's beauty abounds. As I traveled along the highway to the florist, the snow-covered pine trees drew my mind toward God. I felt compelled to pull over and take a photo to share with someone. I felt so... "incomplete" enjoying it by myself!! ...and that got me thinking....

When I experience beauty like that, I JUST WANT TO SHARE IT WITH SOMEONE!! I found myself wishing I could express my  delight over the beauty I was passing on my drive. And I thought of God. Why did He create us? He knew we would sin, He knew He would have to send Jesus and sacrifice Him to get us back. Why?

I know I felt something of the heart of God when the desire to share my joy overwhelmed me. He made us to DELIGHT with Him, TO DELIGHT IN HIM...

Suddenly I had an overwhelming sense of His magnificent love for us, and for His desire to have us near Him. 

I wanted someone I LOVE to be in the vehicle with me to share my delight in God's amazing creation. (He wants me to share His delight with Him in His creation and in Him!)

ISN'T THIS THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS? ~I THOUGHT...AS I DELIGHT IN HIM, HE DELIGHTS IN ME! AND YOU! As soon as one sinner repents and opens his/her heart to Jesus, He jumps in! He swoops down to make His home in us. OH!!!! How He loves us! 

Kim Walker - How He loves us

"God is jealous like a powerful and merciful king who takes a peasant girl from a life of shame, forgives her, marries her, and gives her not the chores of a slave, but the privileges of a wife-a queen. His jealousy does not rise from fear or weakness but from a holy indignation at having His honor and power and mercy scorned by the faithlessness of a fickle spouse." ~John Piper

This quote appeared on my Facebook news feed this morning. It brought the song to mind. Enjoy.

A Time To Contend

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. ~Jude 3

Contend:

1. to strive in combat; fight.

2. To strive in debate; argue.

3. To strive in competition; compete; vie. v.t. to hold to be a fact; assert.

God’s Word is Powerful and Timely

Does it delight you when you hear a message, or when you read devotions, or when you see in God’s word exactly what you need to hear for this time in your life? Does it surprise you that when you see or hear a message in several places that you find God working that very thing into your life?

That is how it’s been for me with our Pastor's current sermon series from the first four verses from the book of Jude.

 I have been given an opportunity to contend for the truth in a situation at my son, Ethan’s college. This opportunity has also been a call to lay down my son; to surrender him again to the Lord for His purposes. On top of that, it has served as a catalyst for Ethan to search his own heart and choose to surrender his life to being a “contender for the faith”.

What God does with our obedience is out of our hands when we are called to take a stand for truth. But stand we must.

The Lord has given me a clear message to go along with the battle that we find ourselves in. That message is that we do not retreat; we need to advance against the enemy. For too long we (Christians in general) have just let “little” things go and the result is a vast sea of lukewarm Christians. If we do not contend for the truth when we detect error, Satan gets the upper hand. He wants to distort and twist the truth so that it loses its power for salvation and for setting us free.

Satan’s goal is to corrode our conscience and destroy our discernment in order to keep us bound. Look at how he communicated with Eve…and then Jesus…trying to trick them with subtle questions and suggestions that would appeal to human reason. Sadly Eve fell into his trap, but Praise God that Jesus did not! Jesus used the TRUTH to oppose the Liar and won the victory for us! Halleluiah!

We need to be so soaked in, familiar with, and filled up with the word so that we can distinguish the lies. Remember they are subtle… and scripture says that Satan masquerades as an “angel of light”, which means he appears to “make sense” or “look good”…Only those close to Jesus who have His living word filling them will be able to contend for the faith for ourselves and our families.

Consider what the Bible says about the Word of God: John 1 talks about Jesus being the Word, so changing the word is equal to changing Jesus. We also read that the Word is...Living and active (Hebrews 4:12), a Light, a Sword (Ephesians 6), a surgical instrument separating what is true from what is not (Hebrews 4:12), a revealer of God, and Truth (among other powerful things) our defense against the enemy (2 Corinthians 10:3-6). To change the Word of God is to take away its Living Power and dim or snuff out its light.
 

Fire Up!!!

Here is a list of several books that I believe God is using to call His church back to sold-out devotion to Him:

• “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan

• “Radical” by David Platt (taking back your faith from the American dream)

• “Sun Stand Still” by Steven Furtick (dare to ask God for the impossible)

• “The Bravehearted Gospel” by Eric Ludy (reviving the dormant masculine side of Christianity-the truth is worth fighting for)

• “Wrestling Prayer” by Eric and Leslie Ludy (a passionate communion with God)

• “One Million Arrows” by Julie Ferwerda (raising your children to change the world)

Don’t allow yourself or your children to be lazy in your devotion to the Lord and His word. Don’t let the enemy distract you with temporal things when eternity is at stake…