The past two weeks at the Gray house has been hectic as we joined a few hundred of our friends at Central Baptist to prepare of the Easter Pageant. Russell is singing and I am toddler Jesus' handler. Yes, our son made his acting debut as toddler Jesus. His role is to stand with Mary and Joseph as the kings come. He waves and blows kisses to the kings. He is absolutely cute if I do say so myself.
It has been a great opportunity to talk to him about Jesus and the story of Easter. So as we were laying in his bed the other night and he was reviewing his day as he does every night we talked about Easter pageant practice and the Easter egg hunt he had at MDO. He was so excited about the egg hunt and talked excitedly about the treats he got. I thought I had the perfect opportunity to talk to him about the real reason we celebrate Easter. So I asked him if he knew why we celebrated Easter and he looked at me with all seriousness and said, "because Jesus is alive"! I had an elaborate explanation for my sweet child and he broke it down into three words, Jesus is alive!
It brought sweet joy into this mommas heart to hear those words so simply stated. It also made me stop and cherish those three simple words.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
A time to rejoice!
Thank you all for praying for the Haven of Hope Retreat this past weekend. God answered your prayers! The mom's that came in on Friday were not the same when they left on Sunday and let me tell you that was God! Some of them mom's shared on that on Friday they did not want to be there and some even admitted to almost backing out. But on Sunday they were all glad that they came and were uplifted and renewed in spirit. God truly blessed us with His presence.
One of the greatest joys for me was to have so many mom's before the retreat want to help by providing gifts for the other mom's. We had tons of stuff to give them! It was amazing. From books to special blankets to Sentsy. It was such a blessing to see these mom's want to reach out.
Lots of prayer went into this weekend. In fact God would not let Marsha, Daisy or I sleep on Friday night so we were up praying into the wee hours of the night for the women God brought to the retreat. I think I can speak for all of us when the weekend was over we were exhausted but reassured that it made a difference for the kingdom of God.
The women who came out were precious to share their children's story with us and what a blessing it was to sit and listen.
For those of you that are reading this and have not walked this path and have children, STOP. Stop and take time to enjoy today. The messes, the arguing, the whining, the laughter, the tears, the piles of laundry, the dirty rooms, all of these things are things I missed when I Josh and Jennifer died. And today I am so grateful that I have a child that I can honestly bask in today with. When I pray with my son at night I always thank God for another day with him. Why? Because that is all I have. I don't know what tomorrow has. God does and for that I do not have to worry. I allow myself to worry about tomorrow it steals the joy of today. So hug your children a little tighter, a little longer. Thank God for all the things that irritate you about being a mom. You may not loose them to death but they will grow up and you will miss this!
One of the greatest joys for me was to have so many mom's before the retreat want to help by providing gifts for the other mom's. We had tons of stuff to give them! It was amazing. From books to special blankets to Sentsy. It was such a blessing to see these mom's want to reach out.
Lots of prayer went into this weekend. In fact God would not let Marsha, Daisy or I sleep on Friday night so we were up praying into the wee hours of the night for the women God brought to the retreat. I think I can speak for all of us when the weekend was over we were exhausted but reassured that it made a difference for the kingdom of God.
The women who came out were precious to share their children's story with us and what a blessing it was to sit and listen.
For those of you that are reading this and have not walked this path and have children, STOP. Stop and take time to enjoy today. The messes, the arguing, the whining, the laughter, the tears, the piles of laundry, the dirty rooms, all of these things are things I missed when I Josh and Jennifer died. And today I am so grateful that I have a child that I can honestly bask in today with. When I pray with my son at night I always thank God for another day with him. Why? Because that is all I have. I don't know what tomorrow has. God does and for that I do not have to worry. I allow myself to worry about tomorrow it steals the joy of today. So hug your children a little tighter, a little longer. Thank God for all the things that irritate you about being a mom. You may not loose them to death but they will grow up and you will miss this!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
A time to sleep??
Yes it is 1:00 am and I am blogging.......what am I doing up you ask? Stuff for the Haven of Hope retreat that is April 8-10th. Yes that is only a week away which is why I am up.
For those of you that are not aware Haven of Hope ministers to mother's that have suffered the loss of a child. And today I was scrolling through pictures of the children for our slide show and was overwhelmed with the unfairness of a need for such a retreat. I assure you every single one of these mom's would rather not need this retreat.
So I am sitting here shamelessly blogging at 1:00 am to ask you to join me in praying for these mom's this week. I know from experience that prayer makes all the difference.
Also please pray for Marsha, Daisy and myself as we prepare all that is needed to minister to these precious mom's. A ton of prep work needs to be done and we are almost there but this week will be hectic in finishing up all the details.
After the 10th I will fill you in on how God answered your prayers and share with you our next project, Easter Pageant at Central with none other than Zachary Gray as toddler Jesus. Lots of hilarious stories to be told already and we have only had one rehearsal, but that will have to wait for now I will try to sleep.
For those of you that are not aware Haven of Hope ministers to mother's that have suffered the loss of a child. And today I was scrolling through pictures of the children for our slide show and was overwhelmed with the unfairness of a need for such a retreat. I assure you every single one of these mom's would rather not need this retreat.
So I am sitting here shamelessly blogging at 1:00 am to ask you to join me in praying for these mom's this week. I know from experience that prayer makes all the difference.
Also please pray for Marsha, Daisy and myself as we prepare all that is needed to minister to these precious mom's. A ton of prep work needs to be done and we are almost there but this week will be hectic in finishing up all the details.
After the 10th I will fill you in on how God answered your prayers and share with you our next project, Easter Pageant at Central with none other than Zachary Gray as toddler Jesus. Lots of hilarious stories to be told already and we have only had one rehearsal, but that will have to wait for now I will try to sleep.
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