Trouble with the In-laws

Because this week is both my father-in-law's birthday and their anniversary, I thought I'd pay a tribute to them. I mean, how many people blog about the dreaded "in-laws?"

The trouble with my husband's parents is that they forgot to read the rule book on how to be an in-law. They are terrible with the following "in-law" rules:

1. Criticise your daughter in law at least once every week.

2. NEVER compliment your daughter in law...she might get stuck up.

3. Give your grandkids tons of junk food, then leave them for their parents to calm down.

4. Complain to your son about how she runs the house.

5. Complain about how she cooks, cleans or trains the kids.

6. Don't spend time teaching the girls sewing or the boys how to shoot...that is only the parent's job.

7. When you take nature walks, don't teach them every tree name, bird name, wildflower name...it is too educational...who needs that anyway...

8. Don't ever sneak dark chocolate to your daughter in law...gotta watch those hips ya know!

9. If your daughter in law asks for help with sewing cause she stinks at it, tell her to take a hike and buy a book "Sewing for Dummies." You have better things to do with your time.

10. Never tell her that you are glad your son married her...she might use it against you.

Those are only the beginning of the rules that my in laws are TERRIBLE at. Either they forgot to read the book or think they are smarter than that......either way, I'm so happy to have in laws who rebel and just act like the world's best mother and father in law!! They come over every Sunday just to talk and play. It's always such a fun, relaxing day.

Thanks Mom and Dad! Happy Birthday....Happy Anniversary...love you!!

Finding Holiness on the Treadmill

One of my New Year's goals is to get back onto the treadmill again. Our tiny city just starting a walking club. It's not one that you have to show up someplace and walk (though you can.) You can just log your own miles and turn it in. So, I've gotten back into the routine of doing a few miles on the treadmill 3-4 days/week or so. My favorite part of it, is I love to download sermons to listen to while I sweat. http://www.sermonaudio.com/ is my favorite site since they have all of Paul Washer's sermon's, and I never finish one of his sermons without feeling ministered to.
The last sermon I listened to was called "Offering Your Bodies." He spoke of holiness and articulated some aspect of holiness that just blew me away. It, in some ways, sums up the whole message of the Gospel. I was in the middle of exercise and couldn't write it down on Saturday when I heard it, but today, I went back through the sermon and transcribed those few minutes because they were so powerful to me.
I wanted to share it with you...



Holiness
By Paul Washer
Taken from the sermon “Offering Your Bodies”

Be very, very careful if your child’s idea of holiness is just not doing what the rest of the world is doing. You’re not teaching the child holiness. If you’re just teaching them that they shouldn’t dress a certain way, they shouldn’t watch certain things, they shouldn’t do certain things, and on and on, which all are true but that’s all you teach them, you’re not teaching them about holiness.

Holiness is not just and not even primarily being separate from all those things that contradict God. Holiness is running TO God. It is cleaving unto Him. It is God being THE most important person in your life bar none. To teach your children holiness it to teach them that God is absolutely everything, and to cleave to him as the most important person or thing that there is.

It’s more than just dotting the “i’s” and crossing the “t’s”. It’s a passion. Sometimes an uncontrollable passion for God… for HIM. If your holiness has any other definition, it turns into Pharasaical legalism. Separating yourself does not make you holy, unless you separate yourselves UNTO God in a love relationship- a passionate relationship.

I would rather my sons turn out to be like David rather than the very clean Pharisee. Then again, more important than both, I’d rather have them turn out like Jesus than David. You see, David was a mess but there was something about him. He had a heart…that beat for God…that loved God. We are to be holy.

That message spoke volumes to me. How often do Christians get so caught up in the "do's and dont's" that we forgot what our one passion should be? Or how often do we compare ourselves that, "If I'm going to be holy, I have to look like so and so or do such and such."
Religion (and I use that in a negative sense) can really mess people up. You can call me all sorts of things but I shudder when someone calls me "religious." Ick. Religion is about rules...praying certain prayers...doing certain things...not doing certain things...and feeling really good and proud of your effort. The Bible says that "our righteousness is like filthy rags." We can't be good enough to earn salvation. It's all about running to God and knowing by faith that it's all about what Christ did on the cross for us. Our sin separated us from God. The penalty for sin is death (spiritual.) BUT JESUS!! Because he paid the price for our sins, we no longer have to be separated from God...we can know that we have eternal life because we believe and accept Christ's payment on the cross!

So like Paul says, "dotting all the "i's" and crossing all the "t's" is not what it's about. That means that one person can wear long modest dresses and headcoverings and white underwear and read the KJV and use only white or cream paint in their home and be totally in a love relationship with God. But on the other hand, someone else can wear jeans and tie dye shirts, Birkenstocks, makeup, use wild paint colors and wear pink undies (grin) and be totally in love with God. Isn't that neat? It all really is about RUNNING and CLEAVING to God!

So....THAT, my friend, is how I found holiness on the treadmill.

How a 7th born celebrates his First birthday...

When Aslan (Sweet Savage #1) had his first birthday, we had a big shin dig. All the grandparents came. There were mounds of presents all over the place. 2 cakes, the whole shebang! When we let him eat his cake...he stuck his hand in it, looked at how messy it was and cried and cried.
We washed his hand, changed his diaper and gave him a nap.
His favorite presents were a small football and an empty box.

Fast forward 13 years to our 7th born's birthday. We have learned a lot since then.
We had a small birthday with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Gabe. Homemade cake. A few pizzas from Pizza Hut (for us mainly not him since he just started solids and hasn't quite got up to devouring pizza yet.)
He enjoyed his cake more than Aslan did...no tears.
The only gift we bought him was a BRAND SPANKIN' NEW Toilet Brush. His very own! That's right. $3.00 from the Dollar Store and that boy was one happy 1 year old!! See, he's spent the last few months stealing our dirty toilet brushes from the bathrooms and carrying them around the house, only to be told, "No Gil, yucky!" Followed by tears of sadness. So....when his birthday rolls around, do we get him more toys (let's face it...he has SIX KIDS worth of toys to play with every day.) So we got him his hearts desire---his very own blue toilet brush. Out of 7 kids, this gift was the most treasured...more than empty boxes, Duplos, balls and even stuffed animals. So there ya have it.
Go against the flow....being a great parent isn't equal to spending tons of money on our kids' birthdays. It's making memories, eating cake and unwrapping beautiful toilet brushes!!!