Jesus sighed...

Our church has been studying the book of Mark. I love the emphasis that Mark puts on the compassion of Jesus. Maybe Mark was someone who really needed compassion. As I read chapter 7, verse 34 jumped out at me. Verse 34 says, "Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!” 

Did you see it? Jesus "sighed" before healing the man. Why? Why did He sigh?

Could it be that it was because His perfect creation was broken? The full, abundant, perfect life He had planned for mankind was ruined...spoiled...broken. 

Jesus saw the hurt, frustration, and pain that this man had endured and Jesus knew this was not how He had planned life to be. He had planned for joy, peace, excitement of life and instead he saw sadness, disappointment, and pain...and He sighed.

I find great comfort in those two words. If Jesus sighed, then Jesus cares...about my disappointments, my frustrations, my pain. And not only does He care, He enters into my disappointment, frustration and pain. He trudges along with me and restores me to what He has planned. I find great comfort in knowing that when I am hurt, Jesus looks at me and sighs.

Death by Pizza

There is a local pizza place that has a pizza called "Death by Pizza" and it has just about every topping you can order on it. Phil loves it, but I think that there are so many toppings, I can't seem to enjoy each flavor....there is just too much going on.

I had a pizza epiphany not too long ago...my life is a "Death by Pizza" There is so much going on...I can't enjoy each flavorful day. And what's worse (yes, worse, gasp!) I have, in a way, viewed my family as a big ol' overloaded pizza and have stopped enjoying each person and their individual flavor.

I have found that the real struggle with having many kids is not that there is not enough love to go around, there is not enough "awe" to go around. Each of my kids has a lot of flavor to add, some maybe too much flavor (ahem...Gwendolyn) and as difficult as it may be, I must distinguish each flavor and enjoy each and every one of them - not view them as one big blob of flavors.

Okay, let's be honest...this blog post is really weird. I am either really wanting pizza (like the one pictured above which is my very own invention: Jalapeno Popper Pizza - YUMMY!) or I have been in my house too long with the 40 days and 40 nights of rain and am going crazy...I lean towards the latter, seeing that I started my post by saying I had a pizza epiphany...that's scary, call the guys in-the-white-suits talk.

I have a love/hate relationship with my computer

So two days after declaring to the world that I was going to do better in the blog department, my computer crashed. And I mean crashed. Not a little crash, but a wipe-out -every-memory-won't-turn-on crash. No problem, I have a laptop (hooray for back up plans). Eight days later, my one-year-old-still-a-baby laptop crashed. And I mean crashed. Not a little crash, but a wipe-out -every-memory-won't-turn-on crash. So after another long break....I am back! I lost a great deal of pictures during the crashes, but here are some from our FUN month:

 Christmas Eve pajamas are one of my most favorite traditions

 Someday, they may hate me for making them wear matching pajamas, but for now.....smile.

Cute, cute, cute!

More to come soon (crossing my fingers and speaking encouraging words to my computer as we speak)