Yaweh- The Faithful One

As I was reading my Advent Devotional this morning, a particular passage spoke to me. The author says, speaking of the name Yaweh and the passage in Exodus 20 where the Lord reveals this name to Moses:

"I AM WHO I AM" What do these mysterious words mean? Was Moses as bewildered as we are by God's self-disclosure? OR did he realize that God was assuring them he would always be present to his people-Listening for their cries, answering their prayers, showing his power on their behalf, responding faithfully even when they acted faithlessly?

I stopped to ponder this for a moment and felt compelled to offer up prayer and praise for this wonderful revelation! This afternoon, I was reading The Anchoress' post on her podcast and apparently this same concept was impressed upon her as well.

The Lord is faithful. Think about that. That's a very powerful statement.

I must honestly admit that I am not very faithful to God. Oh, I try to be and I always start off doing really well and inevitably my efforts fizzle out somewhere along the way. My Christian walk has been fraught with a fair amount of backsliding and procrastinating on heavenly things that can be put off til tomorrow while I focus on the earthly worries of today-except that tomorrow provides yet more earthly worries and I find myself putting God off permanently.

No, I am not very faithful to God.

But he is always faithful to me- a mere human being. We are really very loathsome creatures, constantly choosing to put the flesh ahead of the spirit. Yet, He loves us and never leaves us.

Whenever I think of God's love for us, I think of my love for my son. In fact, the Bible tells us He is our Heavenly Father and that we are his created children- so the parent/child relationship is an appropriate analogy to a point.

But think about your own children; as much as I love my son and will always love him no matter what he becomes, will I always be faithful to him? Is there anything he may do or say that could cause me to abandon my support of him? They are very few, but there are some things that would cause me to be unfaithful to my child. If he were to fall into a life of crime, I could no longer support him. If he were to choose a sinful lifestyle, I could not support him. Some actions are extreme enough that I would probably cut off all ties to him.

I would never fail to love my child; but I may not always be there for him while I am alive depending on circumstances. And I know that when I pass on, I will no longer be there for him either.

Throughout the Bible, there is example after example of God's people being unfaithful to him. Yet he remains with them always.

Our Heavenly Father is ALWAYS here for us. He is ALWAYS with us, ALWAYS supports us, ALWAYS behind us. He loves us so much that there is absolutely nothing we can say or do that will cause him to leave us.

That's significant.

God is FAITHFUL.

Avent Begins

I'm not Catholic but I happen to love the season of Advent. It is a season of longing and preparation for the coming of our Messiah; both past and future. Even though my particular Baptist church does not recognize Advent or its customs, I personally practice as many of the traditions as possible.

I can remember very distinctly when I stopped being excited about Christmas. As soon as I found out that good ole Santa was really good ole Mama, the Christmas season lost its luster. It became less about the "magic" and more about the me (ie, the things I wanted). Inevitably, Christmas became a big disappointment to be repeated year after year.

Since becoming an adult, I've longed to recapture the spirit of Christmas but I didn't know how; that is until I began observing Advent. I've found that spending this four-week season reflecting helps me to reclaim a significant chunk of those excited feelings and intense anticipation from my childhood Christmases.

As today is the first day of Advent, I would like to share some of the things we did for anyone who would like to participate in this season of joyous anticipation.

For the little man, we kicked off Advent by reading the Annunciation account in Luke, as well as coloring some pictures of Angels. We also "lit" our first "candle" on our Advent Wreath craft, found here.

Today I spent some time online reading this Advent devotional, which specifically targets the 4 Sundays and the lighting of the candles. I also read a lovely piece of personal reflection by The Anchoress.

I will also be reading daily from this book with my son, as well as following the directed activities. And my own personal tradition is to go through the book Immanuel: Praying the Names of God Through the Christmas Season. It is a wonderful guide to Bible study and reflection upon the first and future coming of our Lord during this wonderful season.

God Bless!

Back on Track

Currently, I'm trying to lose some weight (and no, those aren't my feet on that scale). I'm down about 27 pounds so far but I have 35 left to lose before I reach my goal. One of my short-term goals was to lose a total of 40 lbs by the end of November. So far I'm on track to do that so long as I continue my routine.

I have a confession. I fell off the wagon last week BIG TIME; mostly because the little man has been sick and I haven't had much time to think about exercising or planning healthy meals. When your toddler is running a fever and has almost constant diarrhea, your own health goes right to the back burner.

But I'm not one to be beaten! The Bible says "The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger." (Job 17:9) I know that I can do ALL things through Christ, so I'm gonna keep working at losing this weight and getting healthy and continue to look to the Lord to strengthen me and help me to stick it out.

If I can get it to work, I'm gonna post my weight loss ticker on this page so my readers (whoever you may be) can see how I'm progressing. Please pray for me in this endeavor.

P.S. The little man is much better today! Fever's gone and his stomach troubles have greatly diminished.

Home Blessing Day

Monday is Home Blessing Day, or so says the Flylady. I spend most of the day on Mondays cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. The following is what I've accomplished today:

1. Dusted living and dining rooms
2. Vacuumed
3. Cleaned kitchen counter tops
4. Cleaned guest bathroom (sink, toilet and tub)
5. Wash all rugs
   

I've also gone grocery shopping, started dinner (pinto beans, brown rice, corn and home made cornbread...YUMMY!), packed and put away clothes that the little man can't fit into anymore, walked two miles, and started crocheting a table runner with a really cool variegated yarn in autumn colors.

As you can see, I've been a bit busy.

Basically I'm trying to catch up from this weekend. Little man and I went to visit my parents, which is always a blast! He has so much fun with his Marmie and PawPaw and I love getting to see him interact with them. It's so cute. The downside to these trips is because they live so far away (2.5 hour drive) it's an affair that literally takes up the entire weekend. Which, of course, puts me behind on my cleaning.

Tomorrow's agenda is as follows:

• Vacuum little man's room
• Mop floor in guest bathroom
• Scrub tile (with machine)
• Dust office
• Little man's laundry

The cleaning never ends. I try my best to follow the Flylady's system. My mother-in-law was even kind enough to pick up the Flylady calendar for me as a gift last Christmas, which is really nice. It came with a pen and some neat stickers and has been a life saver.

Anyway I'm sure that I've bored you to death rambling on about my cleaning routine. I'm off to finish my beans.

Doggie Days

When you have a toddler- especially one who is in the full-blown "terrible twos" phase- the rest of your life needs to be as simple as possible, or else you're liable to have a meltdown.

Lately my patience is continually tried by my dog, Ein. He's an 8-year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Don't get me wrong; I love him unconditionally and he's about the sweetest, most good natured dog I've ever known. But there are days when the barking, the walking, the shedding, the constant in and out of the kitchen (which is gated off for toddler protection), etc, gets to be a hassle.

Today has been an especially trying day. The little man and I are going to my parent's house for a visit this weekend. I've got some errands to run while I'm in town so I plan on getting an early start on the three hour trip tomorrow. I've attempted to spend most of today making sure my house is in order as well as packing for the trip. Attempted is the appropriate word because try as I may, I didn't quite succeed in my task.

Between constantly corralling my son away from household hazards (and there are ALWAYS hazards, no matter how much you "baby proof"), keeping him entertained, etc, and having to deal with my dog who apparently woke up this morning with an overwhelming need to be constantly touching or rubbing against me, I haven't managed to get too much done.

When hubby gets home, I'm hoping I can get him to watch the little man for a bit so I can get the bags packed, the kitchen and dishes in order (ie, washed and put away so hubby can put his dishes away instead of piling them in the sink), and the house vacuumed. All before 9pm, hopefully. I'm looking forward to watching Palin in the debate. That is, if I'm able to sit down long enough to do it!

The Bible says that the Lord will provide. I'm praying that he provides me some patience right about now.

Me, in a nutshell

My name's Mandy P. First and foremost, I am a Christian. God is the number one priority in my life and I intend to keep it that way. I am also a wife to a wonderful husband and stay-at-home mother of a rambunctious toddler. The will of my God and the needs of my family are the most important things in my life.

I'm also a very conservative/traditional lady and I do my best, with the Lord's help, to live out my values every day. Some days life is easy. Some days it's a struggle.

I intend to use this blog to chronicle the goings-on in my daily life.