God's word is LIFE.

Last night, feeling discouraged and overwhelmed, I wrote on my facebook that I feel like I am a failure..... {The plates are falling, the plates are falling........ I am feeling like a failure...with so many spinning plates, none are spinning well....but my Bible study would say..."failure" is a label, and not a good or true one.... I guess , I am in process and in need of prayer. :) I hope others are as forgiving as God is. I feel I fail so many. Gulp... Wish are were a "life genius".....but I do know one.}

I had just caught up on work emails, since I was going back to work the next day after a week away....and could see where my being out had been a hardship on some folks with my projects. I also was feeling bad about too much money spent over the weekends (School uniforms, a surprise requirement for me, for 3 kids around $600!! cha-ching!), as well as other stuff and junk. {I struggle with following a budget}.

And then my babies....we are working on some things....and some wounds run deep and there are so many different things that need my focus...I felt like I was not doing ONE THING well, but many things poorly.

Then-

I sat down with my journal...ready to write out to God all the "bad things" that discourage me and that I need help with, but I stopped and decided to first write out the things I feel good about, then the things I feel bad about. I was happy to see I had a lot of good abouts.

Good abouts:

I feel good about eating healthy and focusing on exercise and weight...and being successful.

I feel good about all three of the kids getting enthusiastic about chores and earning their allowances. It is eliminating the gimmies, and resulting in everyone pitching in and helping out! Even the yesterday, when they are eagerly earning back the money spent on a RISK game they wanted to badly.

I feel good about the family meeting we had last night, making chore adjustments, talking about our "Haven" rules and summer rules, and how we can focus, improve on them.

I feel good about Taddy thinking of the idea to use stories and making it fun when we are trying to learn a new rule (like no-name calling or mean words, what we are currently working on). And how good HE FELT about coming up with that idea when we all thought it was such a good idea. He was proud! Grinned and mentioned it several times! Yea Taddy!

I feel good about Nick doing a story "comic" for the whole family about "name calling". He did the cutest thing. He made a comic strip story on a big piece of butcher paper....

He talked about when you call people names, it hurts their heart...and it maybe that their heart is already wounded, so you are hurting it more.

He had a picture of a big heart with cuts, and stitches and wounds all over it. And he shared how when you say a kind word or encouragement, rather than call someone an unkind name, you are bandaging that heart so it can heal and get better.

He then had each family member put a bandage on a wound on the picture heart and say something that we could say to help heal each others heart. IT was awesome! Then he wrote out the verse at the bottom: Let the words of my mouth and the meditations {thoughts} of my heart be pleasing to you O Lord. Yea Nicky!

I feel good about WHOEVER {Mom? Angela?} cleaned up my entire house (vacuuming, beds, kitchen) while we were gone to lunch and a movie after church. We came home to a clean house, no note, no hint, no people. Hmmmmmm.....

So I had a lot to feel good about...and can see, even these efforts on my spinning plate are better than none. I did have quite a few I felt bad about, or concerns in need of God's help. But His word is bringing me life.

I have a little tablet of verses I have written down from time to time, I carry in my purse...and I just start reading through the pages and praying the words, and my spirit is refreshed and my soul uplifted. God's word is life, and the band aid on our wounded hearts and families.

I will hide his word in my heart, in my life, in my family...... it is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path, a balm to my soul, alive and active, not returning without completing what God intended. IT is life to me.

As I am working with my kids on behaviors and heart issues, I am realizing, we cannot just "preach" good behavior, dole out consequences and often, irritatedly deal with the conflicts. It is a heart issue...and heart that needs changed. Just like mine! And in my personal experience, I have realized my heart has NOT changed without God's word. The more I read, pray-ready, memorize, meditate, and study God's word, the more my heart changes.

So how do I get that across to my kids? We, in our family meeting, discussed, reading, memorizing and praying the word. So we are picking a verse each week, along with whatever value or guideline we are working on and tying the two together. This week: Name-calling or making negative character statements to each other. And our verse: May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing to you O Lord, my Rock and my redeemer!

Tonight we are making up a song for it....:) Last night we played a game...(Tad's idea)....with a rock and steps and having to use good "name-calling" or good character statements and what we like with each person.

Lord work your word into our hearts, that we might not sin against you...or each other.