Waiting on God

A sweet mom of one of the kiddos in my class gave me the sweetest gift the other day. She gave me her book "Prayers for Expectant Mothers", a letter, and an excerpt from the book A Mother's Heart. I wanted to share the part of the book she have me because I really think it's true and gives such hope to women waiting to be blessed with a baby.

Waiting On God-For Children

Before I was pregnant with Matthew, I studied the lives of biblical women who had waited for a child. These women were Sarah, the mother of Isaac; Hannah, the mother of Samuel; Rebekah, the mother of Jacob; Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist; and Samson's mother. From my study I gained a conviction that every child comes from God and ought to live for God's purposes.

Each of these women was initially barren. they waited and waited to conceive a child. Since failure to bear a child in their culture was often considered a curse, they experienced torment and ridicule. All of them endured a painful wait. Two of them-Sarah and Elizabeth-reached old age before conceiving.

Was it really necessary for these women to experience the agony of a long wait? Yes, there was a purpose.

God had something special in mind. He wanted to give each of these mothers a special child-a child with a specific purpose-and He wanted to receive the glory. Everyone must know that God did it. The awe of wonder of conception is often lost on us, since almost anyone can conceive-rich or poor, educated or uneducated, godly or ungodly. We can easily forget the part God plays in every birth.

Unless a sense of wonder accompanies parenthood, w may either take our responsibility too lightly or else cling too tightly to our children. God knows that withholding children often produces a different mentality in a waiting mother or father-to-be.

I wonder if Abraham could have laid his son Isaac on the altar if the long wait had not prepared his hear (see Genesis 22). Would Hannah have given her beloved you Samuel to God's service if he had come much earlier? Did the wait produce a conviction that Samuel came from God and should live for God's purposes, a conviction she otherwise might not have experienced? Perhaps another reason God allowed these mothers to endure a long wait was to lay a groundwork of prayer. they knew that these children were children of purpose and promise, and undoubtedly each of them was much prayed for.

I too wanted the convictions of a mother who had waited on God, even though my wait was comparatively short. I prayed, "God, please give me the sense that these women had that this child will be from You and for You."

I really hope this encourages anyone in the waiting to continue praying for your child and know that the God of miracles has an amazing plan for you. When your gift comes, remember to give Him the glory because He is so, so worthy.

Snowy Anniversary

You want to know the thing I love most about Texas? The WEATHER! You just never know what's going to happen around here. I also love that every time something does happen with the weather, Texans act like it's never happened before. For example-the school districts do not schedule in snow days like the northern states do. In Missouri, we had 3 days of snow that did not need to be made up, then we tacked the rest of the snow days on to the end of the year. Here we have two "scheduled" snow days. We make up one at the end of our spring break and one at the end of the year. The rest are waived. EVERY year, teachers gripe about the possibility of a snow day. I have taught in Texas for 5 years now and have had a snow day EVERY YEAR. I say bring on the snow days!

The weather started out Tuesday with some ice. The roads were pretty terrible and the whole city of DFW shut down. We still have not reached above freezing so the roads are pretty nasty. To add a little insult to injury, we got about 4-5 inches of snow Thursday night. Driving is not fun. Neither is being locked in your house like a prisoner to the weather for 4 days. Chris does not sit well. He went to the grocery store AT LEAST once a day (Kroger is practically in our neighborhood...you don't even go to a main road). On Thursday, I had the itch to get out too. We went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch and I decided that getting out was not all that great. The roads were awful and parking lots were RIDICULOUS. Texans do not know much about salt or shovels :-)

Friday was our 5 year wedding anniversary. How in the world have we been married FIVE years? We enjoyed most of the day indoors with a fire in the fireplace and watched our wedding video (a little tradition I stole from the Curry's). I LOVE our wedding. I could watch it a hundred times but Chris was not quite as thrilled so we just watched it once. The plan was to go out to dinner to celebrate but I was a little concerned about driving on the roads. Chris had already been to the gym and said the roads were okay and that we needed to get out. So we drove to Patrizio's in Highland Village. I was a little afraid for my life. The roads were not okay. We glided in, ate dinner, talked about our plans for the future, and went home. A pretty great anniversary snowed in most the day with my husband.

Yes, I am 15 weeks today. I do plan on having Chris take a pic of my belly but it will have to be tonight. I'm not showered, he's not here, so it will be later.

I leave you with a little picture of us from our wedding day :-)