Attitude

This past weekend I was a grump! No, seriously, I was in some sort of funk that I just couldn't get out of...until Sunday morning when the sermon at church smacked me right upside the head!

It started Friday evening when there were 5 kids running circles around me, screaming at the top of their lungs...my head started pounding and things went downhill from there. My attitude was horrible, and I ended up taking it out on Max, which in turn caused him to be not very nice to me (can you really blame him?) - I needed to just get over it, but I didn't until Sunday morning when God gave me a little (ok, a pretty big) reminder...

At church the last couple of Sundays we have been discussing serving - serving God, your church, and others. One of Richard's "sub-points" during the sermon was about attitude and how it effects the way you serve. At this point my face is getting hot, my heart starts to beat faster, and I'm wondering why everyone isn't turning around in the pews to stare at me, because I felt like they probably should be. He was talking to me...and no, I don't just mean Richard, I mean HIM! God was directing Richards words and just giving me a reminder that my attitude was terrible and I could make a decision to change it. Because it was affecting the people around me - the people I love the most, and everyone I should have been "serving."

The scripture that Richard had us read was Philippians 2:14 & 15 - "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life..."

And Richard pointed out that the scripture says "EVERYTHING," not some things, but everything!! Ok, ok, I hear you, Lord. And I'm getting my attitude in check (suck it up, Abbie!)

Although my attitude needed adjusted - I still took the time to take a few pictures this weekend:) Here are the five crazy (and adorable, sweet, extremely lovable) children that I spent the weekend with...

And here is my little man - (with his first official black eye, can you see it?) rocking out with his Wiggles guitar...how could I have been in a bad mood with this little cutie? Ha ha...I don't know, but luckily I'm over it now:)!!

Love you all!

Surrender

"We were designed to worship something, and when we fail to worship God, we create gods (idols) to surrender ourselves to. E. Stanley Jones said, “If you don’t surrender to Christ, you surrender to chaos.” You’re free to choose what you surrender to, but you’re not free from the consequences of that choice: “So give yourselves completely to God” (James 4:7 NCV)."

-From the daily devotional I read from Rick Warren. It caught me at the right moment and meant a great deal to me, I thought I better share it in case it could mean a great deal to someone else:)! Love you all!

-School-

This morning I was helping a little girl (with some learning disabilities) in the 5th grade find the page her class was on so she could read thru the lesson with the rest of the students. She looked up at me so sweetly and caught me off guard when she said "Mrs. Toy, I love you."

THAT IS WHY I'M HERE...That is why I wanted to be a teacher, that is why I come to school everyday and handle discipline problems, deal with attitude from kids, hand out kleenex's for snotty noses, and stand outside frozen to the bone for recess duty. That sweet little girl gave me a quick reminder about why I am here. And it felt pretty good...Hope you can be reminded today of what your "real" purpose is:)

Celebrating Andon Knepp

Background: One of my "blog friends," Chelsa Knepp (and her husband Ryan and little boy Brycen) lost their sweet baby boy Andon earlier this month - and another blog friend (Courtney) came up with the idea to celebrate baby Andon this Valentine's Day:) So Max and I spent the day cherishing every moment...thinking of baby Andon...and just giving out as much love as we could!

This morning I woke up thinking of baby Andon...and couldn't wait to start celebrating his life this Valentine's Day! Max and I started out the day by making a Valentine's day cake dedicated to Andon! I told Max about the Knepp family and how baby Andon went to heaven to live with Jesus. Here we are making the cake:


Next, we decdied to write a letter to baby Andon and send it straight to heaven:) Max loved signing his name and decorating the card a little with his scribbles:)!

I spent the rest of the day snuggling up to Max - thanking God he blessed me with this sweet child, and praying for Chelsa & Ryan - hoping they were having a great day with Brycen and their broken hearts could be healed just a little bit after seeing everyone celebrate their sweet son. Andon has changed us all in ways we will always remember...the Knepp's faith is an amazing model for all of us!!

An eventful weekend!

Bowling is something I rarely do - but I had a blast this past weekend bowling with my family! I thought Max would love it - so I gathered the troops and out we went:) We began our Friday evening with eating at the Mexican restuarant in Linton, and then we headed to the bowling alley so I could kick everyone's butt (ok, so we all know that I'm kidding...)

Max was interested for about 10 min., then decided the video games were more exciting than continuous gutter balls:) While my dad followed Max around keeping an eye on him - we had a very competetive game going on...which ended in a very low score:

As you can see, EVERYONE beat my mom...she blamed it on her hiatus from bowling (that she claims lasted years)...but we all know the truth:) Here are her and my dad before we started!

Me and Max were totally digging our bowling shoes - cute, huh? I love bowling shoes...wish we didn't have to give them back at the end of the night:(!!

And I thought it was adorable how Max and his Uncle Clay sat on the floor and watched everyone else bowl (I think they were trying to steal my moves:)!!By the way - I heard something that put a warm and fuzzy feeling in my heart on Sunday. I was in a parenting class that I am going to before church every Sunday (I LOVE the class), and the guy who leads the class said this:

What can you do to make God love you more? NOTHING

What can you do to make God love you less? NOTHING

The fact that God loves us has nothing to do with the things we do or don't do. He just loves us. He created us to love us. And just because we sin (which we all do) He does not love us less. There are alot of Christians out there that make you believe you have to be "perfect" for God to love you. They try to make you think that if you don't live the same life and make the same decisions that they do - you just aren't good enough for God.

But guess what? GOD LOVES TO LOVE ON YOU. Don't let Satan tell you any different. Yes, of course we want to please God and try to avoid sinning. We want to repent when we do sin, and ask God for forgiveness. But He is NOT gonna give up on you. That's why He is called GOD...he loves when no one else could or would.

Ok - so I will stop rambling, those are just my thoughts, my opinions...Hope everyone has a wonderful week full of God's blessings!

P.S. Just had to add this on - yesterday on the way home from the babysitters, we were listening to the radio and the news came on. They said something about Barack Obama and Max yells "Mom, Barack Obama (he can say his name PERFECTLY) - he is our favorite president!" How adorable is that - Max already knows who our president is. What a smarty-pants:)!!

The Knepp family

I know that most of you are already praying...but I just wanted to reach anyone that hasn't heard and ask you to pray for Chelsa, Ryan, & B Knepp. They have lost their sweet baby boy at 34 wks. and Chelsa is still struggling in the hospital. They are going thru something that NO ONE deserves, something that none of us claim to understand...but we just need to give it all up to God. I truely believe that is one of the best and only things we can do for them right now. Chelsa is one of the most caring, thoughtful, and gentle women I have ever met - and I won't even begin to describe the type of mother I think she is, because words wouldn't be good enough:)

Just PRAY, PRAY, PRAY for this sweet little family...