And now, because we are united to Christ, we both have equal and direct access in the realm of the Holy Sporit to come before the Father. So you are not foreigners or guests, but rather you are the children of the city of the holy ones, with all the rights as family members of the household of God. ~ Ephesians 2:18-19
Act according to your identity! I think of this often. Know who you are and act accordingly. It inspires me to do my best to live honorably. I don't always do it well but when I fail this gives me reason to stand up and try again.
I knew when I went to bed last night that according to the forecast, there was the possibility of snow overnight, but I honestly didn't expect any. So when Chris said this morning that there was snow on the ground outside I was pleasantly surprised! It wasn't much and it didn't last very long but it was pretty while it lasted.
I don't think this hen appreciated the beauty though. Somehow she neglected to get into shelter overnight and Michael found her soaked and covered with mud, barely able to move. So he brought her in, gave her a bath, and let her rest in this bin in the kitchen for awhile until she seemed like she was ready to go back out. The kids enjoyed visiting her. Well, some of them did - a couple were scared and didn't want to even look at her. In all fairness she did look a little wild, all scraggly and wet, peering up out of her bin. But by early afternoon she seemed perky and ready to rejoin the flock.
Today seemed like a good day to color a snow picture.
We did a little reading and a little drawing.
Saturday I was sorting through some things stored upstairs and found this toy. It was the most fought over toy of the day, although we had some fun, peaceful times playing with it as well. Sometimes learning to share and play cooperatively is hard.
Saturday evening Michael got to ride on Calvary United Methodist church's float in the parade. It was a beautiful evening for a parade - certainly not as bitter cold as last year was! I enjoyed watching with Darlene and Jay and their children.
I only had one little girl in church nursery during the Sunday School hour. We had a nice quiet time drawing and eating gold fish. She even shared with her make believe friends.
And here is an excerpt from a book I'm reading that made me stop and think.
Life is hard. Nobody gets through this human experience without a few scars, but people often make it harder on themselves in the long term than necessary. What's great is that we actually have a choice: life can either be easy now and hard later, or hard now and easy later.
Do you think you're lazy? You're not. You're choosing to be lazy. Do you think you're a procrastinator? You're not. You're choosing to procrastinate. It sounds small, but one is an identity statement, and the other is a choice, and as we know from Part 1, if your identity is that you're lazy and a procrastinator you will take actions that line up with that identity. You can always decide to do something different. There is a moment of choice before every action you take. Even if you're just lying on the couch and not doing anything, that is an action and it's a choice. There are downstream consequences to lay choices, however, because that means choosing to make things easier now and harder later. Eating healthy food is hard now, but so is being overweight later. Having a difficult conversation to repair your relationship with your spouse is hard now, but so is divorce later. Practicing financial discipline is hard now, but so is not being able to buy what you need later.
You know what's hard? Working to grow your business. You know what's also hard? Being broke. I was twenty-four when my first business failed. I was five months behind on my car payment, so I had to call my bankers and beg them not to repossess my car. I know that being broke is hard and hard work is hard. I've done both and know that I would much rather work hard than be broke.
~ pgs 93-94