The closer we walk with God.. the less room for anything to come between

I love when the Lord shares in my devotionals things that we are working on or things that are being taught elswhere in the lives of my family. The other day I shared we do Bible and journaling . We also do devotions and prayer time as a whole family every nite. I had an outstanding devotion and I shared it last nite for our devotion... but I did it differently than just reading it. We try to be creative in our approach to this time.

It was from Psalm 63, O God, You are my God ; early will I seek You ; my soul thirsts for You ; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

The writer shared how amazed he was that we can launch probes into deep space. He commented what a waste it would be if on the way to Mars the probe got caught in the gravitational pull of a lesser, insignificant object. He cautioned for us to beware... this could be happening in our lives too. Meaning that when Jesus called us to follow Him just like He did his disciples we are to passionately pursue Him. Followers of Christ have been launched into a trajectory that is defined by drawing closer and closer to Him. But in this process , we are often distracted and we succumb to the gravitational pull of lesser, alluring things. When that happens we cease our pursuit of Him and go into orbit around stuff that in the end is empty and unstatisfying. David pursued God, knowing that He alone could satisfy his inner longings because His lovingkindness is better than life itself. The joy of God's presence comsumed every moment when David wrote," When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches".. David understood that true joy and purpose come not in admiring God from a safe distance, but from chasing hard after Him.

My favorite was this : The closer you walk with God, the less room for anything to come between.

To illustrate this with the kids last nite... I had Jacob stand up behind Joseph ( who was holding a Bible). Then Caleb walked between... I would ask Jacob to step closer, closer and then he was hugging Joseph so tight that Caleb could not even squeeze his hand between them....We encouraged all of us to see the Lord more passionately and to "walk" more closely. How do we walk our walk daily ? We read our Bible, pray and journal and spend time with those the Lord brings to our home or around us when we are out and about ... It has been an amazing journey to watch just how and what the Lord is doing thru our family. Our mission fields will all be different but our walks should be similiar in proximity to our Lord... We need to be so "tight" with Him that we recognize His aroma and His spirit in our lives. So that when we are tempted we do not succumb to the temptation because our Lord is as close to us as Joseph and Jacob were last nite in our devotion time... or we are so close and "know" His desires that we passionately pursue them instead of getting hung up on things of this world or our own selfish desires....

How close are you walking with the Lord today? I know I can get even closer in my own walk.

Miracle Treat Day for Children's National Medical Center

We ate blizzards at Dairy Queen today in support of DQ's support of a hospital in Washington DC that has helped many of our children... We have done several surgeries at Children's National Medical Center and we are pleased to help them out for fundraising... Last year we got the dk. blue shirts and this year it was the orange ones.... Thank you to Dairy Queen for your support to a medical center that has helped our family personally. Everyone thought it was a good idea... and DQ gave a dollar to CNMC for every blizzard sold.

Bible and Journal time....

What is so significant about these pictures is that Ella is 4 and Mya is 8... When Ella was visiting us last week she would go upstairs with Mya to do her Bible and journal time too :) It is so important to us that our kids spend time daily reading their Bible and since journaling has been a big part of my life for now over 26 yrs. we have tried to instill this wonderful way to communicate - with our children. Amazingly so they all do Bible and journal every day. They also are required to read an hour a day and we go to the library often so they have lots of reading material.

We also often mention to the older kids how important "what they do and how they act has a huge influence on others".....this is a great example of this... Ella learning and desiring to do what Mya does.... May they both know and see the scriptures come alive in their own personal walks with the Lord.

Ava wanted to help cut cucumbers for our cuke salad...

Don't you just love a 3 yr olds concept of helping ? She thought she really was helping Cate to cut the cucumbers for our salad last nite :)

Our little " Rascal" Ezra

He is 2 almost 3 and the best description I can give is a rascal... but oh how he steals your heart with that I can do it myself , independent attitude... then I watched him go over to Eli and try to hug him ( but Eli did not want anything to do with that hug)... another 3 yr old with a passive rascal attitude that we love. I just love 3 yr olds... my of my and I have 3 "grand" babies that age... pure heaven for me... but way harder for the parents to parent :)

Madalyn Ruth...May the Lord be real in your life

We had a wonderful time at the Johnson's celebrating our Mady... and can you tell she did to... There were lots of people to love on her and the food was a Mexican theme... so we ate some good food too. The cupcakes were special and since it was a family party we had lots of daddies, grandads, grampys and paw paws too.... We love you our sweet and precious, Mady.

Mady is getting to be very social now at 5 weeks... and we are loving it.

Of course Mady gets to see lots of faces at our home and Keith's parents too... They live fairly close as well....She is even trying to "talk" to us... there again she hears lots of language. Having a baby is so much fun! Today is a surprise celebration for our dear, sweet Mady at Keith's parents home... MK should be surprised and I will post pics later.....All children coming into a family either birthed thru the womb or the heart should be celebrated and we all plan to do that today.