Radical Faith = Radical Commitments

I have recently read the book Radical by David Platt. Our entire church read the book along with a six-week sermon and small group series. To say that it has changed my life is an understatement. It has changed they way that I look at everything in life.

Two weeks ago my family made five commitments.

1. Read through the entire Word.
This is probably the commitment that scared me the most. My four children make it difficult to spend any length of time in a 'quiet time'. I've found a couple of devotional books designed specifically for moms with small children and they were working for me...but now I've just made the commitment to read the entire bible in a year...that's about five chapters a day. Eleven days into it now, I'm loving it. My children interrupt some days more than others, but it's working.

2. Pray for the entire World.
We're doing this through Operation World. I love reading about specific things that I can pray for each country. The girls are also starting to ask each night at bedtime, "Mama, what country are we praying for today?"

3. Sacrifice our money for a specific purpose.
This is the one that we had to really brainstorm about. The word "sacrifice" kept giving me trouble. We can decide to give a certain about of money to a number of great charities, but where's the sacrifice. You know....the bills are paid for the month, this much is left over, so let's give it here. Not really a sacrifice. So we decided to first, not go grocery shopping for one week each month. It's amazing how many suppers and lunches you can make when you think you have no food in the house. We then chose a Compassion child to sponsor. As we thank Jesus for our (sometimes interesting combination) supper each night that week, we pray for Ama and her family who might be going to bed hungry. The money we would have spent on groceries goes to our sponsor child and family. This week was our first week to try this....It's Thursday now, and I can definitely say that the cupboards are getting quite bare, but none of us are hungry. And we've spent the entire week praying, talking, and thinking about a seven year old girl in Ghana.

4. Spend time in another context.
We committed to spend one week, 2% of our time in Gospel ministry outside of Middle Tennessee. I'm somewhat limited to where and when I can go since I'll be nursing a baby for the next year, but I'm really excited that my husband will get to go anywhere. He could go to Africa, or Belgium, or Mexico, or even just Mississippi or Seattle...but I'm excited to see how God is going to change the other 98% of our time because of this 2%.

5. Commit my life to a multiplying community.
We're very excited to join forces with Life Point Church to serve God and change our community.

I'm so excited to see what God teaches up through these commitments and what other commitments he shows us along the way.

So if you've not read David Platt's Radical, I highly recommend it, but just be ready for your world to be ROCKED!

Easter

You'll be excited...ok, so maybe I'm the only one who is excited...that I only have six more posts before being caught up.

Here's our Easter picture...and I do believe my favorite picture of all four of my boogers!

Mara's Kindergarten Program

Mara's Kindergarten program last spring was so very cute. There were kids dressed as pigs, sheep, cows, farmers, probably some more animals I can't think of since it's been seven months since the program, and some very cute chics.

Here's Mara doing the very cute "Cute Chics" dance.
And my cute chic after the show.
Can you see it in her eyes?...."Can I take my costume off now?...How bout now?....I really want to take it off now....Now?....PLEASE!"

Uh oh...

...we're running out of room on the swing set!

Does it happen in my house?

It drives me nuts when people ignorantly criticize large families like the Duggers. The most repeated complaint that I hear is about their "buddy system". Each older sibling is responsible for one or two younger siblings. The criticism is that "babies shouldn't be raising babies."

My family isn't exactly big enough to use a "buddy system", but we definitely talk a lot about how it's our responsibility as a family to love each other and take care of each other. That could mean helping your brother tie his shoes, or holding your sister's hand to help her feel less anxious about walking into school, or feeding the baby a bottle so mommy can go pee!

So call it what you want..."babies raising babies", or (I prefer) learning what being a family really means...it definitely happens in my house.

Lipstick?

Eyebrow-stick? What's the difference?!

Christmas Spirit

Since Christmas is 'only' 74 days away, I thought I'd get you into the Christmas spirit by sharing pictures from last year's preschool Christmas program (and desperately try to catch up on blogging!).

Emily got to carry baby Jesus.
And Becca was an angel....oh she looks so sweet and innocent here...the little booger!
Here's Em putting baby Jesus in the manger.
Emily singing....
And Becca singing...
After the program, they both got to tell Santa about the boots they wanted.
And this last picture was taken just moments before Sam realized some big scary guy in red was holding him.
Can't believe that I'll only have one doing a preschool Christmas program this year!

Random Conga Line

What? Doesn't everyone have one going through their house at any given moment?!

Mara's 6th Birthday

Mara's 6th birthday party was at the skating rink...the same skating rink I used to go to in middle school. So much fun!
The girls did so good after we figured out there was a such thing as "slow-roller" skates.
Look how little Becca Sue looks in these pictures.
Emily was the dare devil of the bunch. She did not want to hold your hand regardless of how many times she wiped out. You can just see the lack of concern for bodily harm in her eyes here!
Love this picture...I think she wore Papa out!
Blowing out the #6 candle. I can't believe I need to buy a #7 in just two short months!
And here's the present opening frenzy...
I can not believe how fast my baby girl is growing up. She's such a lady, and I couldn't be more proud of the person she's becoming. So here's a happy late #6 birthday little lady...love you so much!

Gymnastics

We're not doing gymnastics anymore...ballet pictures coming soon...but here are some pictures from their gymnastics class last winter. I can't believe how little they look. I bet they've all grown at least six inches since these were taken in November.

Family Photos

Since fall is here and we're getting ready to do this year's fall pictures...I'd better get around to posting these from last year.

Oh these four are so much work for this mama, but so much fun and full of love.
Nana and Papa with all five grandbabies.
My family...man, I love each of them so!
And here's the chaos of setting up for the previous picture. Love Sam's face here...he's got that 'save me from all the estrogen' look!
All of us together...the Eisher/Jerkins family.
And another shot of the loves of my life. I love Emily's real smile here. It's so hard to get pictures of them with real smiles.
The Jerkins/Butler family.
DeeDee and Grand with all six grandbabies.
I love how Frannie's holding Walt and Becca's hands here, and Mara's goofy smile too.
I'm excited to do fall pictures in a few weeks again (whew, thank you Jesus for the cooler weather)...even though I'll be hugely pregnant.

Miss Patty Cake

Let's rewind all the way back to last December...our annual morning with Miss Patty Cake. This was our third year to go see her. Look at how little they were last year (well, I guess technically this post would be "last year's" trip but you know what I mean!)...oh my word, and the year before too!

This time we had front row seats.
We LOVE Miss Patty Cake and can't wait to see her again in just a couple of months.