Wednesday, January 22

if i had a dollar...

If I had a dollar for every post I began (in my head and half typed out) since October, I would have quite a few lattes paid for.

It's been a whirlwind of a season. Since we moved to town, I've been amazed at how easily the days slip by, though hour by hour they seem long. Malacai is staying very busy, growing into a little boy with an impish smile, learning how to count ("one, two, free, four... Aidah!") and sing ABC's, and having very definite opinions --- like we all do, though poor him, he doesn't always get what he wants.

We had a great Christmas and holiday season, and rather than me missing it by being behind the lens, I decided not to photograph and to actually engage. And now it's 10 days left in January (and today is my sister's birthday!). And I really think that being a mom makes your internal clock ALL messed up. And perhaps its just because it's January and the 4th annual Hope Mommies retreat is in 15 days, but I always lose my mind a little bit as we prepare.

The theme this year is Looking UP -- looking up to God to save our brokenness; to Heaven as our hope; to the gospel as our platform in a dying world around us. And this morning I was reminded that as the 101 details need attending to and I'm stressing about how to get it all done, all I really need is to look to God.

"The difficulties and trials--- the casting about in our minds as to what we shall do this summer, or tomorrow, all vanish when we look to God. Rouse yourself up and look to God. Build your hope on Him. No matter if there are a hundred and one things that press, resolutely exclude them all and look to Him."
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

"But I call to God, and the LORD will save me. Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me...
Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved."
- King David, Psalm 55:16-18, 22