Links For You 10.1.14

Hi! :) Y'all are gonna LOVVVVVVE me! So many good reads for you!

This made big tears well up in my eyes...why kids stop asking.

I have been reading Kelly's blog since the day Harper was born. They got some hard news this week. They're gonna be fine...when you read this post, you will see that they are giving God the glory in this trial. There will likely be some hard days ahead, and they want to do the very best for Harper. If God brings them to your mind, would you pray for them? For peace, wisdom, discernment.

This is another blog that I've been reading for years. I am AMAZED at what GOD can do in a life...if one person will just say "YES."

LOVE this post by Annie Downs. She is so good with words.

This post by Edie encapsulates so much of what I feel about being a mom...wishing you could take some things back, maybe do things differently, have a little more patience, love a little more.

Linking this post from Kelly Stamps. I didn't go to DOT MOM, but in this post, Kelly talks about hearing Karen Alexander-Doyel speak. Karen is a sweet friend of mine. Wise, wise, wise. She and her husband, Doug Alexander, lived in Little Rock and he was on staff at our church...back in the day. Back in our early days.

They taught Masterlife...remember that? And several different studies on marriage and parenting. I learned so much from Karen on how to be a wife and mom...how to love and lead my kids to Christ, how to create a HOME that reflects Christ, how to teach my children to see God in the ordinary. She was one of the first people who came to visit me in my home after I had Joshua. I remember her sitting on my couch, holding Joshua and praying over him. I remember her looking at me and saying, "JUST.LOVE.HIM." I've never forgotten her words.

Karen has an amazing testimony of love and loss (when Doug died in a tragic accident) and love (again with a new husband) and illness. If you ever get a chance to hear her speak, GO.

And this. I used to get asked a lot, "what do you do?" And I could say that I was a stay-at-home Mom because I was and because I still had kids at home. And then they all went to school, and I got asked "all of your kids are in school, right?"

Then, one went to college...and graduated...and married. And another one went to college...and graduated...and married. And we have one in his last year of high school...fixin' to leave the nest. And I am still at home.

I "technically" have a "child" at home...my man-child, Joshua. Sometimes when people ask if I work, I say that I work for him, because I kind of do: Running him around, teaching him to cook, clean...and about life; encouraging him and Clark...and the other two kids who are technically "out of the home;" supporting Jim while he's at work, running our home well.

I don't know when we all got to be so bossy...like we know what's best for another person or family. WE DON'T. This was a great post.

"Therefore encourage one another and build up each other..." 1 Thessalonians 5:11