Exaltation of the Afflicted

My heart is broken for the children involved in the Penn State scandal. The more I hear about it, the more I am sickened. I've been wondering what I can do - for the kids, and for my own children to prevent something like this from ever happening to them. Again and again, I've been brought to my knees in prayer.

I came across Isaiah 61 this afternoon. I have a few passages from the chapter underlined, but I was swept away by the appropriateness of the entire chapter for those boys. This will be my prayer for them.

Isaiah 61

Exaltation of the Afflicted

1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
Because the LORD has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners;

2 To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that
He may be glorified.

4 Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins,
They will raise up the former devastations;
And they will repair the ruined cities,
The desolations of many generations.
5 Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks,
And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers.
6 But you will be called the priests of the LORD;
You will be spoken of as ministers of our God.
You will eat the wealth of nations,
And in their riches you will boast.
7 Instead of your shame you will have a double portion,
And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion.
Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land,
Everlasting joy will be theirs.
8 For I, the LORD, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering;
And I will faithfully give them their recompense
And make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Then their offspring will be known among the nations,
And their descendants in the midst of the peoples.
All who see them will recognize them
Because they are the offspring whom the LORD has blessed.

10 I will rejoice greatly in the LORD,
My soul will exult in my God;
For He has clothed me with garments of salvation,
He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up,
So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
To spring up before all the nations.

Baby Life #7

Yesterday I realized that I still enjoy and am amazed by the sound of The Prince breathing (especially while sleeping!). I'm thinking that feeling will never diminish. What a gift.

Reflections on the Season

The Prince started walking last week. He's been taking one or two steps, but it seems as though he thinks "Wait, I don't do this," then drops to his knees and crawls. But, he took ten baby shuffle steps to hand the dog her ball. It was sort of a strange moment. Hubs and I looked at each other and squealed, then clapped, but it seemed like there should have been fanfare and crowd applause.

I can think of other recent moments that should have had extra fanfare. Maybe not the moment of The Prince's birth; it seems that there was plenty of noise then, but a parenthetical moment for Hubs and myself might have been nice. We didn't really get that until later in the day. But, certainly, when I went into labor, fanfare would have been great. The moment that we'd been waiting almost ten months for, that would start everything, had finally arrived. Graduations have fanfare, and weddings have fanfare-type music. How about the triumph of waking up and having the strength to get out of bed some mornings? Or thinking of something to make for dinner? Or having all the dishes done and all the laundry baskets empty (if only for a few moments)?

Mary didn't have fanfare in the manger. She did get a lot of strangers visiting (can't imagine having just given birth and entertaining such a wide variety of people), and she'd had angelic visions and such, but it seems like our Saviour should have had fanfare at His arrival. At least an epic soundtrack.

But that's all an integral part of the story, isn't it? How He humbled himself, and did without all the normal king-ley things. Having my own child makes so many things look different to me, not the least of which is the whole Christmas story. Seriously? Jesus became so helpless, dependent on others for everything? How many times did the Lord of All pee in his mom's face? Did she have trouble nursing him? Did he cry when a forbidden or dangerous item was taken away from him for his safety? Did he wake his mom up many times at night?

I'm proud to call Jesus my Lord, all the much more so for all these things. And when I think of the story, I have special fanfare going on in my head. Hallelujah, Lord Jesus.

The Prince SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!

My name is Mommy, and my ten-month-old son just SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! Ohmygoodness, I wasn't sure if this would ever happen. He's actually been getting a little better every night this week, sleeping until 4:00, then 5:00, and this morning...6:00!

Now, the last time he slept until 5:00 he started waking up again the following nights, so we'll see if this sticks. But now I know that he can do it! Woo hoo!

For a kid that doesn't usually sleep well, he sure hates waking up.

Here is grouchy wake-up face:

That's a Relief

1 John 4:4

...greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

Life Changing Experiences

Since my experience at Yogurtland was life-changing (sorry for the inconsistent use of the hyphen. That inconsistency will probably be consistent throughout this post), I thought I'd spend some time coming up with other life-changing events.



1. My first taste of spaghetti. I don't remember it, but it must have happened at some point, because spaghetti is now my favorite food.



2. Band girl that I am, I decided to quit band senior year of HS (for fairly childish, but perfectly valid reasons). I was able to focus on singing and choir, and realize how much I love that, which eventually led to my degree in voice.



3. My decision to leave my freshman year of college early, because of family and money challenges. I was able to transfer to Colorado Christian University the following fall. It was absolutely where I needed to be at that point in my life, and it helped me more fully pursue my faith.



4. Saying "yes" to the date offer from the strangely intriguing boy with the yellow glasses in my freshman theater class. The day I married him seven years ago was pretty life changing, too...



5. The day The Prince was born...well, from the day we found out we were pregnant...but boy, I had no idea how much life would change! I can't believe what an amazing little gift he is. He's incredible!


6. Yogurtland.


That's all for now. I'd love to hear others' biggest (most memorable, favorite?) life-changing experiences.

My Unexpected Afternoon

Whoops, it's been almost two weeks since my last post. Sorry! But, this morning, The Prince is taking an extra long nap, so we'll see how far we get.

Last week, an unexpected work snafu left me with some free time (yay!), and here's how I spent it:

I went to a magical place called Yogurtland, which was life changing. More on the life changing things later.

It didn't take long to plow through my cup of deliciousness, so I went to the library. They have a big paper crane display, which tugged at my elementary-school memory of a book, and sure enough, the label for the display talked about Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes. The display was beautiful. Highly recommend it, at the Southglenn Library. I picked up a few children's books, and a novel I couldn't resist - a mystery - The Skein of the Crime, about a murder in the college town of Fort Connor, CO.

Next, I took a short stroll around the Streets at Southglenn to discover things and stores I'd like to further investigate with my mom or good girlfriends, but which hubby will certainly not appreciate (Overpriced but fabulous mani/pedi experience at Allie Katz, anyone?)

A short stop at the luxurious bathrooms (really, they are. And they are one of The Prince's favorite changing station in the metro area), and off to browse at Target to complete my free time.

Aahhh, yogurt/library/windowshopping. Smile.