Category Archives: grace

times they are a changin – Part 1

Posted in blogging, Eucharisteo, grace, joy found, laughter, my boy, my girl, my husband by

It seems that recently, each member of the Priestman household has gone through some sort of change. Some good. Some bad. Some just… um… interesting. But enough that the changes required a posting to update y’all.

First, the breaking news: POTTY TRAINING SUCCESS! That’s right, folks, we are potty training pros around here. In no time at all, he went from diapers-’round-the-clock to big-boy-undies-and-dry-during-sleep. But I should probably give credit where credit is actually due… to the little man himself. While I did suggest on Saturday morning that he try to go potty every 45 minutes and set the timer to remind myself to make him attempt at each beeping, it was only around lunch time when he told me with irritation as the beeper went off, “I do NOT have to go again! I will TELL you when I do!” Ok, then.

About 15 minutes later, he told me he had to go. And he’s been telling me every flipping 5 minutes since. Seriously, this whole pottying business is downright EXHAUSTING. Is there something about little boys that prevents them from emptying their entire bladder in one sitting??? Because I gotta tell ya, going through the effort of taking off shoes, pants, and undies (because he won’t try if they aren’t COMPLETELY OFF but just HAS to have them on in between time), pottying, washing hands, pulling ON undies, pants, and finally shoes, isn’t really worth it when it is followed immediately by, “I gotta go again…” There is just something about it that makes you want to say, “That’s what pull-ups are for, Dude. Have at it.” I’ll admit, I said it once. But his reply made me give in with a smile, “I twied, Mom. I weally did. But I dist (just) can’t weally go in my big boy undies.”

Other Jacob news… he’s sick. Again. The poor boy has a poor immune system, which is contributed to his poor eating. I mean really, it’s a miracle he’s survived this long with as little food he eats. Nonetheless, he has stolen my heart and brings me to tears about 27 times a day because of his sheer cuteness (overheard singing earlier today in a slightly-pathetic-but-adorable voice amidst sniffles and coughs, “Wudolph da wed-nosed weindeer-weindeer, had a vewy shiny nose… It’s a  LIGHT FULL!…. …den one FWOGGY Cwistmas Eve…” Picturing him picture all those frogs jumping around on Christmas Eve does bring a smile to my face.

In addition to his cuteness, I cry an additional 63 times because of his awesomeness, his sensitiveness, and his growing-up-too-fast-ness. Yes, he’s just getting out of diapers, and yes, he hasn’t even seen enough birthdays to fill half of a hand, but just the other day I bawled like a baby thinking about the day he will graduate and eventually drive-off to college. Not enough things to cry about in the present, apparently, so I thought I’d devote some of my emotional energy to 16+ years into the future.

But really, the tears just flow because I’d like to just please FREEZE this:photo(30)Serious cuteness, people. SERIOUS  cuteness.

Which was taken just moments after this:

photo(31)Little boy, Big bed. Crawled himself right in (along with a box of tissues, his blankie, Mickey Mouse, and “Clippord”) and put himself down for a nap!

And then there’s this:

photo(35)Praying one MASSIVE prayer at lunch time. Sick boy, praying for the needs of others. UGH. MORE. TEARS. Not the same reaction from his sister, though, who looks to be feeling a little less like “he’s SO sweet” and a little more like “good GRIEF, is he EVER going to finish? I’m HUNGRY!”

And while all those are cute and awfully freezable moments, I’d even like to freeze THIS:

photo(34)“Look, Mom! Da tissue dist (just) sticks to my face all by itself! It’s because of all da slimy booger stuff comin’ out!”

Yes please! I want to freeze especially this! Because what happens when he doesn’t want to show me his proud moments… even if it is just getting his tissue stuck to his face all by himself? Or when he’s too proud and grown up to tell me about his slimy booger stuff? What happens then??? I cannot bear the thought. More tears…

Another reason for tears: Annalise’s big change… her first loose tooth. Buckets, people. Crying buckets over this one. Because not only is it loose which makes her WAY too grown up WAY too quickly, but while it loosens very slowly, the permanent tooth is growing in behind it fast. Its quicker rate of growth means it will be mostly in place BEFORE the baby tooth is out, which means no adorable toothless girl that still has a teeny-tiny moment of “baby girlness” to her. Nope, we’re transitioning right from baby(tooth)hood to adult(tooth)hood in one instant. And this, friends, is DOWNRIGHT UNFAIR. For me, I mean. It’s hard enough on Mama to see the baby transition to big girl, but now I have to lose out on those precious days, maybe even a week or two, of squeezing out just a little more little girl. Coupled with the fact that she has grown taller at a quicker rate than most kids, talked early, and was BORN with more hair than many 2-year-olds, I’d say I’ve had a serious disadvantage in the baby-stage, and I’d like to call it what it is: LAMESAUCE. That’s right, I want a DO-OVER. NOT a do-over with Annalise, mind you, because I absolutely love her nearly every minute of every day and wouldn’t change her one iota. But I call “do-over” with babies. Maybe another go-around is in order? Yes, I’d say so. At least one.

Besides… even with her mouth wide open trying to show all of you her loose tooth and the one growing in (neither of which you can see in a pic), how gorgeous is she???

photo(32)Yep. Big Brown Eyes = Totally suckered parents. Every. Time.

Lots more Annalise-changing-(aka-growing-up)-news. But first, a side-note question. How come no one ever told me that FIVE is the beginning of the AWKWARD stage? I thought it was wayyyyy later… like 12, or maybe even 13. But I gotta say, I’ve seen some serious AWKWARD lately.  It doesn’t last all the way ’till 12, does it?? Maybe we just experienced random awkward. Maybe they’re just glimpses of future awkward and not the full-blown awkward we’re in for. But if the full-blown awkward is just lots more of the awkward we’ve seen already, Heaven help us. Because My. Oh. My. Awwwk-WARD! 

Just the same, I DO love that girl, and her spunk, and her neverendingdancingself. I did not realize it was a “thing” she had, this inability to not dance. But it is. It’s a thing. She can’t not dance when there is a beat or music of any kind…including Daddy singing, Jacob humming, or a car horn beeping. The dancing just. happens. She doesn’t even realize it, either. Yesterday, she needed to hold still for something. She wanted to hold still for it. Far off in the distance, there was a slight hum in the air. Suddenly, the girl was wiggling all over the place. “AnnaLISE! HOLD. STILL!” I hollered.

“But I ca-aaaannt!” she replied. “It MAKES me every time. I try to stop, but the music won’t let me!” I just love that dancin’ girl. It’s in her soul. And how can you argue with that?

You also can’t argue with this: after her Bible Class lesson today, she excitedly told me the story they learned about Jesus in a boat with the disciples while there was a big storm, only he was sound asleep. “Mom, then the disciples woke Jesus up because they were afraid. And know what Jesus did?  (Now raising her eyebrows and stretching her arms out as far as they could go in both directions.. then whispering…) He just told the wind and the waves to be still. And MOM, they DID! They were STILL! Know what he told them? He just said… ‘COMB.'” Arms still stretched out for added dramatic affect as she awaits my reaction.

“Comb? Really? Are you sure he didn’t say something else?”… like, say, CALM?

“NOPE! He said, (arms out and eyebrows raised again), “COMB!”

Hmmm. I’m still not getting it. “Why do you think he said that?”

Without hesitation, she tells me…”Because, the waves were all wild and all over the place and stuff. Just like my hair sometimes. So he said, “COMB.”

Yep, makes sense to me. And good… Not too grown up just yet.

No, not too grown up, but certainly getting older and wiser. How I love her heart. How full it makes mine. This Christmas season, she and I shared many special moments, thinking of others, praying for others, making things for others. My little girl showed me how big she really is. I am so proud of her. So blessed. And once, with her big heart and big eyes, she looked at me and said so sweetly, “Mama? If alls I got for Christmas was a big bag of rocks, know what I’d do?”

“What, Baby?”

“I’d paint them all different colors and have the most beautiful rock collection.”  That’s my girl!

Because when life gives you lemons… or rocks… it’s not what you hold, but
what you do with what you hold that matters, right?

I’m learning from that girl all the time.

But back to the changes. Even Izzy is in on it. She’s currently at the vet getting a few changes of her own. We kept it a secret, because I was afraid she wouldn’t have gone if she’d known what she was headed in for. But we were not about to go through another heat cycle with that mutt. Or at least, Matt wasn’t. If you haven’t heard the story, I’ll spare you the details. Just know that no amount of money would be too much for him to spend if he could just erase the images that are now burned into his brain forever. Oh, and as a side-note, while Izzy is “under” today, they will be pulling a baby canine that never fell out when her adult canine grew in next to it. It might cause problems later, so we’re saving a potential future surgery. And I’d just like to know, what is it about the teeth growing in this family? Don’t they know there is a process to this? First – tooth comes out. Next – new tooth grows in. There is an order, people. Let’s stick to the order.

As for Matt, his changes are all about photography. Business is booming. Growing pains are good. He is handling it all well, and I am so very proud of him.

My changes are a little more… well… heart changes. Too serious for this post. Maybe later. For now, I think I shall retire the computer and go hug my little bugs before they grow up and drive off.

The story.

Posted in grace, grief and loss, holidays, joy found by

What to say? Words whirling around, no where to land. Emotions swirling, not one sticking for very long. Crying one minute, laughing the next.

What do we do with grief so great? When it is not even grief of our own, but of a place we’ve never even been? Only it feels like we have been there. Every teacher I know feels they know that place and wondered “what if” on Friday, as they hugged each student good-bye. Every Mama and Daddy, we hurt so deeply, eyes filling each time we glance at the little hands we still get to hold. Grandmas and grandpas, relatives of all sort. It feels like it’s not far from home, doesn’t it?

Some try to argue it out. Blame someone. Our laws, politicians. It’s their fault, right? Or God. He could have stopped this.

It’s what we do. We try to figure out what went wrong, try to make sense of it all. The truth is, we just can’t. Not like that. Blaming politicians or gun laws isn’t going to get us anywhere. Blaming God sometimes feels productive, like you have finally found the source of the problem, at least that’s what it was like for me. I spent plenty of days months and even years blaming God for a tragedy I’ve experienced. While the anger felt correctly placed at the time, it only served to stir up more anger, more frustration, more hate. I’ve learned from my own tragedy – while very different and of a much smaller scale than what we all heard of on Friday – that blaming God gets you nowhere, because it is anger placed in the exact wrong spot. Hate directed at a source that only gives Love. I’ve learned that no matter how much hate is poured out, His Love pours out infinitely more.

Here is what else I’ve learned…

I’ve learned that tragedy, tremendous tragedy and evil exist. But so does God. And He is Love. He will never abandon nor forsake us. He loves deeply. He knows our hurt, and He weeps with us.

I’ve learned that on a day like today, when the grief bubbles over and runs down your face at a moment’s notice, there isn’t much to do except pray. And that is no small thing.

I’ve learned that on any day, on every day, we need to soak up the moments. Not let them slip past. Not take them for granted.

I’ve also learned that on any day, when the frustrations of being a Mama are great and the bedtimes are later than they should be and the kids say words they shouldn’t in tones they shouldn’t and I do the same, that it is ok. That I don’t need to feel guilty for letting a moment slip by and not loving every second, because day-to-day life is just hard sometimes. And frustration from the day and longing for the kids to be asleep doesn’t mean I love them less or that I don’t know how incredibly blessed I am. When I wish for no more diapers or for a moment alone, it does not mean I’m taking my moments for granted.

I’ve learned that in our hardest moments, when we have no words to say, when hurt runs so deep that it grips the heart and soul and stills the tongue, that Jesus, the son of God, prays for us. Jesus, the Son of God intercedes on our behalf. On behalf of those mommies, daddies, and all that are hurting. When our words run out or won’t come, or when they whirl around with no place to land, the King of Kings, sitting at the right hand of the Father, prays for us. And when Jesus, God the son, prays to God the Father, he can only pray the perfect prayer, exactly what needs to be said and exactly what needs to be done.

Most importantly, I’ve learned that Jesus is our only hope. He is the joy of more than just this Christmas season. He is the Hope of my heart. The hope of Oregon. The hope of Newtown, CT. The Hope of the nations, and of this world. He is the only hope. When the pain of life seems greater than we can bear, Jesus comforts. Jesus heals. When we think we can not go on, He sustains. When all around seems to crumble, He is steadfast, a solid rock.

Some blame Him for the heinous acts that have occurred in our country, yet His Love is limitless for even them. I wonder, do we also praise Him when we see blessings poured out? Or does He get ignored until the next tragedy, where we can dump further blame on Him? 

Do you know this Hope? This Hope that is Limitless Love? This Joy, that is found not in the packages under a tree, but that was nailed to a tree? This Joy to the world, that He has come to bring a Hope of life eternal?

Do you still wonder, why didn’t God stop it? Why didn’t He stop the evil that is beyond our comprehension? And while we’re on the subject, why didn’t He prevent every other pain in this world – big and small – if He really truly loves so much? That’s okay to wonder. He understands that, too. It doesn’t all make sense to us, but we must know the whole story.

I can not summarize it better than a friend did already, so I will post her answer. It may not satisfy the answer to the question, why did this happen? Because really, there may not be a satisfying answer for us. There is no answer on this earth that is great enough to make any of it feel ok. I know this, because even in my smaller-scale tragedy, nothing that would come out of it, nothing I could ever imagine, would be wonderful enough to make the pain in my Mama’s heart seem worthwhile.  So while our “Why, God?” may not magically disappear, this story answers some very important questions. Of why life can hurt so much when God loves so much, why evil and pain exist, and why Jesus is our only Hope. I encourage you to read it all. We need to know the whole story…

From Carissa Krause, in response to a Facebook question about God’s plan:

With the very words that He spoke, God created everything. By His very breath, Adam’s heart not only began to beat, but his mind began to think and his soul was connected to God. “And God saw everything that He had made and it was very good.” Adam and Eve enjoyed an astounding relationship with God. Fully secure. Fully accepted. Fully significant. Wow. To sit down and try to wrap our heads around this is mind blowing.

While I won’t get into the specifics of what we Christians call “The Fall”, I’ll just plainly state that Adam and Eve sinned. They did what God told them not to do and when they did that, the connection that they had with God was broken. They died. Not physically…yet. But they were spiritually dead. Any every person born from them and after them would be spiritually dead too.

Now, let’s just be real for a minute. If it wasn’t Adam and Eve, it would have been you and me. Let’s not forget that their sin did not catch God off guard. It’s not like He had to come up with His plan in the middle of the night while Adam and Eve were huddled behind a palm tree sewing their fig leaves together because they were ashamed in their nakedness. God is omniscient. He knows everything. If He knew “before the foundations of the earth” that I would be His little girl, then He knew before He ever began to stir up the dust to make Adam that I would need to be redeemed. Therefore, God had His plan set from the beginning. Because He loves me. Because He loves you. Because He is Love.

His plan unfolds in every page of Scripture and is so clearly stated in Genesis 3. We had a problem. God loves us. God wants us. God is Holy, He is not stained by sin nor will He accept any stain into His Kingdom. We were all born stained. We are all born spiritually disconnected. We cannot do anything about it. We have a problem.
God has a plan.

The Good News or “Gospel” as we call it, was first proclaimed by God Himself in Genesis 3:15. “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.” God said that One would come who would deal a crushing, disarming and deadly blow to satan.

Jesus is the plan.

All of the Old Testament points to the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. The plan is to give us back what we lost. To give us back our LIFE. Not physical life, spiritual life. The plan is to reconnect us to God. In order to do that, God had to remove our stains, our sin had to be paid for. So He took His Son Jesus, wrapped Him up in human flesh and sent Him to earth…because He loved the world.

And Jesus was born.

And Jesus loved.

And Jesus was perfect.

And Jesus died.

And God brought Jesus back to life.

And Jesus pointed everyone to God…

Because Jesus is God.

And whoever receives Jesus…

…is clean and connected to God.

This is the plan.

There is not another one.

This is Christmas.

This is Easter.

This is the Beginning and the End of the World.

Now, in light of yesterday’s tragedy, people ask where God was…or maybe the question is better put, “what is God’s plan in that?” We are upset because God, who could have stopped this…didn’t.
Perhaps we are not all that different then, from those awaiting a Savior in the New Testament times. He was rejected by some perhaps because He did not come the way they thought He should. Perhaps they thought the Savior would come and disarm the Roman rule and set Israel free from its oppressors. Wouldn’t a Savior stop the shooter?

Friends, He did.

We get so caught up in what we can see with our eyes, what we feel with our emotions, but God told us that it is by grace through faith that we are made alive. Our oppressors include the world, our own human nature and the devil…and on the cross, Jesus disarmed them all.
The plan WAS fulfilled, IS BEING fulfilled and WILL BE fulfilled.

My heart aches at the thought that these mothers will not hold their babies again. I am angered at the fact that the lives of these people were stolen from the ones who love them. While I hurt with those who hurt…I have not forgotten the plan. I have not forgotten that Jesus did not set Israel free from Roman rule, nor did He stop the Holocaust, or the stock market from crashing, or my father-in-law from dying, or bring my brother’s baby or my cousin’s baby healthy and into the world…

He paid for my sin and set me free.

This life I live, I live by faith in Jesus Christ.

He is the plan.

8 of No-Longer-40: Breaking News

Posted in Eucharisteo, grace, joy found, laughter, my boy, my girl, parenting (aint for sissies) by

So, you may have noticed I didn’t make it to my 40 days of Faith, Family, and Funnies (and Friends, which I added later.) Or maybe you didn’t notice because you hid me on Facebook after I posted a link to my blog each day for 7 days.

Either way, here I am, attempting Day 8…3 Days Late.

The actual “Day 8” was Monday. Monday is a day off for me. I never got around to writing, though, because on this particular “day off,” I:

  • Corrected the last of my math and science assessments, which were on my to-do list from Saturday but didn’t get touched because of some unforeseen circumstances Saturday and a jam-packed-but-fun Sunday
  • Entered grades into 28 report cards
  • Met with my job-share partner and attempted report card comments
  • Did laundry and other household chores
  • Took the dog to the vet for a check-up/immunizations and to be groomed
  • And last but not least, taught my adorable children why it’s not okay to tell each other angry phrases using inappropriate language.

That last one wasn’t on my original to-do list, but sometimes circumstances require adjusting our plans. You can only imagine the circumstances that led to that addition to my list…

In summary: one learned from a friend all about hell, taught the other, and then they both felt the need to use their new found knowledge in discerning whether the behaviors of their sibling were going to lead them there or not. I quickly interrupted the conversation and used it as an opportunity to teach important life lessons. i.e. You should not say things like, “If you don’t stop standing on my box, you’ll go to hell.” Which lead to replies like, “I am NOT going to hell. YOU go to hell.”

The discussion was overheard in the monitor (yes, we still have one, for moments such as this), and initiated a conversation I didn’t think I’d ever have with a 2 and 5-year old. Our conversation included phrases from Annalise like, “Jacob, I’m sorry I said you need to go to hell for stepping on my box.” Followed by Jacob, “(GASP) MOMMY! Leesie just said to me to go to hell! I do not want to go to that hot place!” The Phrase came out of my little angels’ mouths far too often as I talked with them, as though they liked it even better once they realized it wasn’t appropriate. And although this was not a conversation I ever envisioned having with them, it did lead to a great discussion about Jesus’ sacrifice and God’s grace. Those are two things I am super thankful for, because you know what? I do not want to go to that hot place, either!

Later that night, after giving the kids a bath, I was telling Jacob about when he was a teeny-tiny baby ginormous nearly 10-pound newborn and had to spend 4 nights in the hospital just a few weeks later because he was very very sick. I told him that even though I knew him for just a few weeks, I loved him so so much that I wouldn’t leave his side. (I didn’t mention that I actually did step away for a short time while long needles were being poked into his spine. Daddy was with him then. I figured I wouldn’t be much help sobbing hysterically right next to him, so instead I just cried all alone in the corner of another room.)

And I told him that even though he was a very big little baby, he wore the teeniest-tiniest hospital gown I’d ever seen. It was so teeny-tiny that it made me cry when they gave it to me. I told him about the medicine they needed to give him every day, and how he had a needle in his arm where they could give him the medicine, and because he was just so little, his arm was tied to a board so he wouldn’t pull out the very-important-medicine-needle.

I told him that the medicine had to go into his body for 14 days, and he was only barely that old already. And that after a few days, they took the medicine needle out of his arm, and they poked a big hole in his ankle and made a tube run up, up, up his leg, then up, up, up his chest all the way to his heart. We touched the scar on his ankle and thanked Jesus for making him better, and we thanked Him for making doctors. And we thanked Him for medicine that helps us get better. I told him that his scar could always remind him to be thankful to God for providing all these things, and for healing.

And as I whispered the story in the silent room to my wide-eyed boy, I tickled the path on his leg and chest where the tube ran. And I told him that even though I was scared each and every time, Mommy put that medicine in the tube that stuck out of his ankle every few hours for 10 days. And I prayed each and every time I did it. And that medicine went up, up, up the tube in his leg, and up, up, up, his chest, and then it came out right where the tube stopped: at his heart. I whispered it again. “The medicine had to go to your heart.”

Annalise, doll now tossed aside so she could listen to the story and touch Jacob’s scar and watch where the medicine ran up his body, suddenly blurted out, “POOR JESUS!”

“Poor Jesus?” I asked, confused and startled from the loud noise in the quiet.

“Yeah!” She replied. “He was probably covered in medicine. You just kept squirting it into Jacob’s heart. It was probably all over him!”

Jacob looked at me and said with a hint of irritation and surprise, “Yeah, Mommy. Jesus is in my heart. And you just squirted medicine on Him!”

End of story. But I can see I have more to explain…
Oh yes. And the breaking news:

That’s right, folks. I made it on the tree. Never mind that she wanted to put Izzy on again (the dog has been a suggestion numerous nights). Never mind the pink tree made it on last week. Never mind that I was beat out – by one day – by the dog’s scarf that she got after getting groomed. Yes, that’s right, Annalise was thankful for “Izzy’s Scarf” before she was thankful for her own mother. The important thing is, I MADE IT ON THE TREE! Aaaannnndd…. I made it in the first half of the month. Never mind it was the last day of the first half of the month. Because it’s not like I’m counting or anything…  The fact is SHE IS THANKFUL FOR MOMMY!

Or even just “mom.” Whatever. I’ll take it. I even got a portrait. Even Izzy didn’t get a portrait.

4 of 40 – Rescued Link

Posted in blogging, friends, grace by

Day 4 of 40 topic: Friends and Faith.

I didn’t include “friends” on my original plan for 40 days of Family, Faith, and Funnies. But I’m adding it. It’s my game, so I get to make the rules. Here is why I’m adding it… because you need to read this blog written by a friend of ours. Yes, I said need. If you are a parent, it’s a must. And if you’re not, read it anyway.

And so, that is my “blog” today. A link to his blog. Is that cheating to count that as a post for today? I say no, and like I said, it’s my game, so… 🙂 Now go ahead. Click this link and read his story: Rescued by Hope. You’ll be glad you did.

3 of 40 – Human Nature, Humbleness, and Thanks Giving

Posted in Eucharisteo, grace, holidays by

Day 3 Topic: Faith and Family

Do you ever have one of those moments where you think of something that is just so awesome you can’t wait to tell someone? In your mind you build up that moment when you will share it with them, imagining they are so in awe of your awesome idea and your awesomeness in general? No? That’s only happened to me? Hmm. Well, it was kind of me at the beginning of this month. I had this idea that – while not necessarily super awesome or unique – I thought was rather clever. And I was quite proud and excited to share it.

Then I realized a couple things:

  1. I am not so brilliant that this is a brand-new idea. I’m sure thousands of people have done it or something similar. In fact, I know 1,000’s of people have done it before, because I Googled it just now. Lots of people have done it. And way better than I did.
  2. Why is it I want people to think I had such an awesome idea? Am I so proud that I want to be noticed and applauded for an idea or accomplishment? This verse came to mind: “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” ~ Isaiah 5:21  Ouch.
  3. My “clever” idea was just a fun way to remind my kids (and Matt and I) to be thankful each day for the blessings God has provided, to remind us of HIS providence.  I was proud of my idea that was meant to keep us grateful and humble. Oh, the irony.

Human nature is a funny – and frustrating – thing. It’s always there, ready to poke it’s ugly head up at any second. Even in the moments when our spirit desires to bring Glory to God – No, especially in those moments – the desires of the flesh – the longing to be noticed and applauded, in this case – creep in and can take over if we let it. Paul calls that The Law of Sin.  He writes in Romans 7:21 “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” Hmmm…. Sounds like a verse I need to memorize and think about every time I “want to do right.”

Paul goes on (verses 22-24, emphasis my own): For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

But we can’t stop there. Because the next verse, and the first few verses in chapter 8, are the promises of God, the Hope Jesus gives: Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

I’ve written my favorite analogy for this in my Bible next to those verses. (The analogy is not my own, but one I heard first in a sermon, then later in a Freedom in Christ course): The Law of Sin is like the Law of Gravity. Always there. Always pulling us down. But how do overcome such a law? Through a greater law. For gravity, a greater law is the Law of Aerodynamics. For sin, it is the Law of the Spirit.

Yep. Always there. Always pulling me down. How thankful I am for the hope of Jesus. Who gives life and has set me free from the law of sin and death.

Thankful. Which brings me to my “clever” idea. Which 1,000’s of people have already thought of. And which a famous author (Ann Voskamp) already posted just this morning. Only hers is way better than mine. And so is her blog post about the idea.

This is our family’s Thanks Giving Tree (in a blurry pic): Each night in the month of November, we each say something we’re thankful for, write it on a leaf, and hang it on our tree.

We put 1 Chronicles 16:34 next to the tree so we remember to whom we should direct our thanks. Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! Then after hanging the leaves, we thank the Lord for those things we’ve just written.

Annalise is learning to write, so it has been especially fun watching her excitement (most nights) writing her own letters, and sometimes even Jacob’s. Other times, Jacob “writes” his own, with a translation from Mommy.

These leaves say:

  • “Jacob says, ‘Leesie.'” (Next to Jacob’s own scribbles that mean he is thankful for his sister.)
  • “Family” (Annalise’s writing)
  • “A Good Job” (Matt’s)
  • And in the corner on the red leaf, you can see Annalise’s “E” from “Ellia”

Not that I’m keeping track or anything, but Annalise’s first 7 leaves seem to be missing a certain member of her family. So far, she’s been thankful for: 1. Family, 2. Izzy (the dog), 3. Daddy, 4. Jacob. Then she “couldn’t decide between Ellia and Auntie Kye-Kye.” So she picked Ellia first (#5) and “would do Kye-Kye the next night.” Except the next night she forgot and put “my bed.” At least Kye-Kye was considered. Her #7 thing she is thankful for is “Thanksgiving.” I still have 23 days to make the list… Not that I’m keeping track or anything.

My #7 thankful thing? Freedom in Christ. Not the class (although I’m thankful for that, too), but the actual freedom. I don’t have to be “good enough.” I don’t have to “work hard enough.” I can walk freely, a child of God, drawing closer to Him, without guilt, doubt, and worry that I won’t measure up. I don’t have to win the battle over sin, because Jesus has already done that for me. Thanks be to God.

Oh yes, and since Ann Voskamp did the Thanks Giving Tree much better than I did, here is a link to her blog post about it. I just cut out plain leaves from fall colored and textured paper. She actually has a printout with verses of thanksgiving on the back, and you write what you’re thankful for on the front. Genius.