Our friend Brian took these:) Thanks Brian!
Friday, June 28, 2013
Fun Friday: Your First Easter!
K so these are not yet the Easter pictures, but some family shots we did with the cherry blossoms! Eventually I will find, edit and post the actual Easter ones. 6 months from now...
Our friend Brian took these:) Thanks Brian!
Our friend Brian took these:) Thanks Brian!
Wisdom Wednesday (Even though it is Friday :) : The Invisible Church.
Dear Miss Madeline,
I am sitting here at 6:30am, listening to the sprinklers outside our window. Yesterday we played outside with the sprinklers for the first time. You are not yet too interested in that all yet, so instead you just crawled around like a little doggie.
I just put you back down in your crib where you like to instantly roll over on to your tummy with your little legs curled under you. It makes me smile.
Last night I had a dream about an invisible church. It attracted a new group of individuals as we could not see one another .... judge or think we are being judged ... or be seen by anyone else to create a "holier than thou" complex in our heads. It was purely a way we could all come together and not know who we were there with, what they have been through and where they came from, or were wearing, or sounded like, etc... but each individual was there because they were soley looking to better themselves, not just for themselves but for those around them. They were there to simply build there relationship with God.
When I woke from your stirring and desiring a bottle, I stay awake in bed thinking about that invisible church.
Why is it that church is not invisible.
With an invisible church, we would not see one another. It is that simple.
We were put on Earth into a society of decaying morals, self centered thinking minds and deep sorrows and were given each other to help us out of it. Having a place we can come together to support eachother is wonderful. While there are those who attend church because of the others on earth watching, there are those who go because they simply want to work on becoming better.
Not everyone can make it to church. Whether physically, mentally, spiritually etc for there reasons from keeping them from going, they do not come. They do not like to be exposed. Who does. But sometimes we create an illusion of what other people are thinking that isn't there at all. Perhaps history has put us there. But we have also been given another kind of Church. The Family. Family should be a strong unit of support. Everyone is much more fragile that they let themselves allude to. Which is why a healthy supportive family under a loving home are so important.
Hanging on our living room wall, I have collected masks from around the world. I looked at it the other day, as I went to hang a new one from Venice. I admired the different styles, cultures, colors etc. And I sat there thinking about how every country and culture in the world always seems to put out this art form. But why?
I thought about the idea of 'hiding' behind the mask as a global thing. Something that as humans and insecure individuals, we do. Being invisible is therefore a desire of each culture and we all have our masks.
We put up 'Fronts' to disguise our pains. Become invisible. We hide behind the mask with all of our problems invisible to everyone else. God can always see through the mask. He knows our pains, our sins, our sorrow, our joys ... our struggles. God, if we let him will lift the mask and heal us, strengthen us, motivate us, inspire us.... ( and totally unrealavant, but as means of lightening the topic just now, I can't also stop thinking of Darth Vaders mask being lifted in Star Wars :)
Anyway, everyone has a scarred face hidden behind there mask in a vain world.
After this life, and resurrection, I know that we will be restored to our full selves. Our masks lifted and our broken scarred selves restored and uplifted.
So now, when I look at that wall, I no longer see it as just an artistic form, but a reminder of the fragile nature of mankind. Everyone is a child of God. Everyone is a delicate precious child of God.
Which is why, we as family must create an enviroment in our home that is healthy to this fragile nature.
A healthy home is:
- Positive. Positivity is Power!
- Supportive. A shoulder is always there to cry on when it is needed.
- A gossip free Zone. Gossip is never helpful. Even when the other person can't hear, somehow they know and it affects them.
- Patience
- Forgiveness
- A healthy place to grow closer to God
- A place to seek rest from a world of pain
- Filled with daily Prayer and Scriptures
- Laughter. In clean and healthy forms.
- A tease free Zone
- Clean. In sanitation, entertainment, language etc.
- A humble place
- A place to talk
Together as families we can work to having a healthy home where we can groove (this was a typo but I had to leave it. So to add something to the list, not only should we 'Grow' closer to God, but a home also needs laughter, so 'Groove' can stay :) closer to God.
So my dear little Madeline. I hope that we can provide such a home to you, and I hope you will help us to make it this way. There will be times I will wish you will share more with us about what you are going through, but you will not want to. But always remember to let God lift up the mask.
I am sitting here at 6:30am, listening to the sprinklers outside our window. Yesterday we played outside with the sprinklers for the first time. You are not yet too interested in that all yet, so instead you just crawled around like a little doggie.
I just put you back down in your crib where you like to instantly roll over on to your tummy with your little legs curled under you. It makes me smile.
Last night I had a dream about an invisible church. It attracted a new group of individuals as we could not see one another .... judge or think we are being judged ... or be seen by anyone else to create a "holier than thou" complex in our heads. It was purely a way we could all come together and not know who we were there with, what they have been through and where they came from, or were wearing, or sounded like, etc... but each individual was there because they were soley looking to better themselves, not just for themselves but for those around them. They were there to simply build there relationship with God.
When I woke from your stirring and desiring a bottle, I stay awake in bed thinking about that invisible church.
Why is it that church is not invisible.
With an invisible church, we would not see one another. It is that simple.
We were put on Earth into a society of decaying morals, self centered thinking minds and deep sorrows and were given each other to help us out of it. Having a place we can come together to support eachother is wonderful. While there are those who attend church because of the others on earth watching, there are those who go because they simply want to work on becoming better.
Not everyone can make it to church. Whether physically, mentally, spiritually etc for there reasons from keeping them from going, they do not come. They do not like to be exposed. Who does. But sometimes we create an illusion of what other people are thinking that isn't there at all. Perhaps history has put us there. But we have also been given another kind of Church. The Family. Family should be a strong unit of support. Everyone is much more fragile that they let themselves allude to. Which is why a healthy supportive family under a loving home are so important.
Hanging on our living room wall, I have collected masks from around the world. I looked at it the other day, as I went to hang a new one from Venice. I admired the different styles, cultures, colors etc. And I sat there thinking about how every country and culture in the world always seems to put out this art form. But why?
I thought about the idea of 'hiding' behind the mask as a global thing. Something that as humans and insecure individuals, we do. Being invisible is therefore a desire of each culture and we all have our masks.
We put up 'Fronts' to disguise our pains. Become invisible. We hide behind the mask with all of our problems invisible to everyone else. God can always see through the mask. He knows our pains, our sins, our sorrow, our joys ... our struggles. God, if we let him will lift the mask and heal us, strengthen us, motivate us, inspire us.... ( and totally unrealavant, but as means of lightening the topic just now, I can't also stop thinking of Darth Vaders mask being lifted in Star Wars :)
Anyway, everyone has a scarred face hidden behind there mask in a vain world.
After this life, and resurrection, I know that we will be restored to our full selves. Our masks lifted and our broken scarred selves restored and uplifted.
So now, when I look at that wall, I no longer see it as just an artistic form, but a reminder of the fragile nature of mankind. Everyone is a child of God. Everyone is a delicate precious child of God.
Which is why, we as family must create an enviroment in our home that is healthy to this fragile nature.
A healthy home is:
- Positive. Positivity is Power!
- Supportive. A shoulder is always there to cry on when it is needed.
- A gossip free Zone. Gossip is never helpful. Even when the other person can't hear, somehow they know and it affects them.
- Patience
- Forgiveness
- A healthy place to grow closer to God
- A place to seek rest from a world of pain
- Filled with daily Prayer and Scriptures
- Laughter. In clean and healthy forms.
- A tease free Zone
- Clean. In sanitation, entertainment, language etc.
- A humble place
- A place to talk
Together as families we can work to having a healthy home where we can groove (this was a typo but I had to leave it. So to add something to the list, not only should we 'Grow' closer to God, but a home also needs laughter, so 'Groove' can stay :) closer to God.
So my dear little Madeline. I hope that we can provide such a home to you, and I hope you will help us to make it this way. There will be times I will wish you will share more with us about what you are going through, but you will not want to. But always remember to let God lift up the mask.
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