When you have Hamberger's you make Happy Meals!

Kids have a way of really humbling you. Not gonna lie, my kids are great, but they are 2, 1 and baby. So, we have our moments. Well I don’t know what got into them this week but they were pretty well rotten  whiny normal kids. And they were stepping on my last nerve. A. Lot.  I was that mom this week that everyone looks at and says “I won’t be like that”. I lost my temper, put off reading books, snapped, and mumbled under my breath. Which in turn caused them to act even more like 2,1 and baby.  I think you get the picture that it was just a bad week.

But despite my shortfalls as the mommy I should be, I was so blessed by this little girl 

When I went to go get her up in the morning, I could hear little cries coming from her crib. I would walk in with my pleasant “good morning Beautiful!” and then ask what was wrong. “oh *little sigh*, I just tryin.” “why are you crying?” “Tuz, I just missin you”.

Gulp. I wouldn’t be missin me, I would be hanging out in my bedroom to avoid me as much as possible. But my sweet Kalea, had a way of showing me just how I should be loving her. Even when I’m in a bad mood, even when she is in a bad mood. She still loves me unconditionally. She still wanted to spend time with grouchy mom.  After that I kinda shaped up, and tried not to get so aggravated when Kalea shreaked because Alex took the toy sweeper out of her hand, or Alex whined about not having honey on his cheerios, or Michael simply could not be put down and the dog wanted to go out at the most inconvenient time.

So often we look at the parenting relationship as a mirror of us and God, with the children being similar to us. This week, I realized that my kids can give me a pretty good look at the character of God. He loves us unconditionally. We can throw a fit, scream and yell because God isn’t doing things our way, in our time (seriously, do you know how slow a 1 year old can move?) And doesn’t God know that I have dishes to wash and laundry to fold? I just don’t have time to sit and read with Him. We can grumble under our breath about how it just isn’t going as smoothly as it should be. And yet after my fits, He still wants to come up and give me a big hug like my Alex and out of the blue say “I love you so much!”  He still cries just because he is “missing me”.

Now, Jason and I are still working on our three displaying all of the character of God, but they pretty much have the displaying unconditional love thing down.

Today in church we heard a great message about how rules without relationship will lead to rebellion. Right now I can get away with just rules. They pretty much have to listen to me, they are all under 3. But now is the time to really foster the relationship, so when they are teenagers we have a good foundation. Thankfully, as I muddle through this whole mommy thing, they are in a very forgiving stage of their life. And we can kinda learn this together.  I have to keep reminding myself, I only have one shot with these kids, I can either keep beating myself up whenever I have a failure moment, or I can learn from it and learn from them and move on, apologize to my kiddos and do it better the next time.

Now, here is praying I remember this post when the inevitable whining and shrieking start in the morning.

Today’s word is : Religion.

Webster defines it as “commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance” And that is usually how we think of it isn’t it? A commitment to an observance. I wear my hair just so, I go to church 3 times a week. I read my Bible every day. Religion in the religious circles has become a dirty word.

How many times have you heard or said “I don’t have religion, I have a relationship!” Well good for you. But you know what, you need religion.

WHAT???!!!! “Stacy, the last thing we need is more “observances”. More rules and regulations.” Yep, you are right. But thats the problem we get when we let the world define things for us (I think there is a whole other blog post there). Why don’t we let God define religion for us? You know, since he is kinda like the whole point?  Here is what God has to say “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble (…)” James 1:27.

Hey that doesn’t sound so bad does it? Do you have widows in your church? Do you know anyone who is an orphan?  How about anyone in trouble? Those are fantastic opportunities to be religious! (I can even say that word without wincing now!) Maybe you don’t know anyone that would fall into those categories. Here is an opportunity for you:

Doesn't this silly little boy just melt your heart?!

Reese’s Rainbow is an organization that funds adoptions for children with downs syndrome and other handicaps in foreign countries. These children are condemned to orphanages and eventually institutions (by the age of 6) simply because they were born “imperfect” in the world’s eyes.

What an adorable grin!

Many of these children would die without ever really seeing anything outside of the four sides of their crib. You may not be able to actually adopt any of these children now, but you can help others!

Foreign adoption is very expensive (think 27K) Reese’s Rainbow has  a fund for each child. Any dollar you donate  goes toward sponsoring someone to be able to adopt these orphans in need.

This of course isn’t the only option to being religious, ask the deacons/elders/leaders of your church. “Are their any widows I could visit? Is their anyone hurting or going hungry I could help?” After they pick their jaws up off the floor, they will probably have a list a mile long!

Its sad that more of us (yes us, myself included) are so focused on our own problems that we don’t even realize there are people that would love to even have enough money to choose between name brand or generic pop. Lets face it, the church as a whole, needs more religion.