Kids will be......... Well KIDS!!!

      I grew up an only child, so I always knew I wanted a big family.  Now I am blessed with four kids.  They give me my purpose for living and a reason to better myself everyday.  They all have such unique personalities and all though I am bias, they are all pretty good kids.  My biggest fear in life is they repeat the same mistakes I made, or live in the shadows of my mistakes. 
    When Kiptyn was born, I prayed for a scripture for each of my children, and constantly pray that scripture over their life.  They all have their issues as we all do, but to see how each of them are excelling is making me extremely proud.  I think for me it is easy sometimes to get caught up, in what I am doing wrong as a mom and beat myself up over it.  However, this weekend away from it all and had quiet time, I sat and made a list of all the awesome qualities my children possess.  I am going to share it with them tonight and print it up and put on the refrigerator, so they are reminded daily of these powerful things.  Too often we capitalize on the bad and not good, so at least for that brief moment, they see their good.  Let me share them with you......

KYNDALL..... for starters she is kind and thoughtful.  She loves helping other children.  She is extremely creative and actually helps me so much.  She is a straight A student who also excels in sports and she LOVES GOD.  Teachers repeatedly tell me they wish they could clone her!!!  She is loyal and so so smart.

ANDON....... Has a heart of gold.  He will give you shirt off his back if needed and will befriend anyone.  He is bilingual and crazy athletic.  He can play any sport and excel in it... At 8 he had already won nationals in baseball.  If I am sick, he is the one that always is looking out for me.  He never gets in trouble at school and works hard to maintain his good grades.

KIPTYN..... my boy has overcome so much.  When I look where he was a year ago and where he is now, all I can do is smile and be so proud.  His preschool class says he is one of the best and is so so good.  He has had is struggles, but even at 5, is learning how to deal with them and is doing incredible at it.  He is crazy smart already and also already hitting the baseball to the fence!!!!

TRUETT.....  This little boy lights up my day.  He is the baby, but boy he is tough as nails.  He can take a hit and get up like a champ.  He already can ride a dirt bike and play any sport you throw at him.  His coordination at his age is amazing.  He really can be thrown in any situation and see the good in it.  He loves unconditionally and  at school they say he never gets in trouble and is such a good boy. Kiptyn and Truett are favorites at the nursing home as they visit.  They love visiting and talking to the residents.

So when I look at this list, I see how incredibly blessed I am and how awesome my kids are.  All four of them love helping others and have a huge heart.  I am excited to see where God takes all them in the future and even us as a family.  I know he has a calling for us as a family and I can not wait to see where he leads us and the many experiences we will have together.

In saying all this, I know my kids are not perfect, after all they are kids.  But so often we see negative and then they began believing the negative.  I know I will still have days where they might bring me to tears, or where I feel I am failing, but I hope I can always be the mom that shows them love and compassion.  Also, I definitely am not the person or mom, who pretends life is perfect, because it is not.  They see me for me, the good and bad, and I hope in doing that, they can see life is not about being perfect, but striving to be the best person you can be.

"Train a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

I pray now I can train my children this way, and let them see how awesome of a God we serve.  And even though our struggles, He is constant!!!!!

Blessed mommy,

Amber
    

Voices in my head... No wait outside voices.... Shhh..... I am so confused

     I love sports and that is no secret. I love watching and going to live events, but I especially love playing them.  I am ultra competitive, especially when  I played travel sports and school ball growing up.  One thing I think I was pretty good at was tuning people out.  I think it started, because I am a quieter person by nature (still outgoing just not very loud), but many people are the opposite and I just hated hearing all that "noise" as I was trying to play the game I loved.  I began at a young age to tune all the voices out that came from the stands or from people watching the game. I focused on the game I was playing and that was it.  I really could have cared less what people around me was saying about me or the team.  However, there were a couple big games where I did allow myself to "listen" to these voices and I can tell you, it desperately screwed with me.  It messed me up and made my game way off.  I played horrible and was no where playing to my potential, all because I chose not to tune people out and I allowed their taunts to get to me.
     I wish I was as good tuning people out in real life as I was playing sports growing up.  It always seems there is someone who wants to put their unsolicited advice into a situation, or just try and start things and get in the middle of something they have no business in. I am learning to not care and push this type of behavior to the side.  But unlike the game, life does not end a hour later. 
   Last night I got pretty frustrated with many things and almost debated if I should just take a break from quiet time and praying, because  I felt everything that I had been journaling and things I am sure God is telling me is so contradictory to the way life is actually panning out at this moment.  One word, I have felt God whisper over and over to me is "patience".  But DANG I thought that part was over, yet last night as I was debating if prayer is even worth it, I felt God tug at my heart and I clearly heard Him say He is still working on me, be patient.  So here I am God, I am listening to you, the One voice in my head that matters.  One thing is always constant with God, when I listen to Him and pay more attention to God's word and my journals, then the outside voices, He never fails me.  He stays true to all He has promised me and all He has told me. 
     When I listen to "outside" voices that is when the issues,  the doubt, and the fear arise.  All that extra noise is not from God.  Some people really enjoy seeing others fail and really do not have the best intentions for you, even if they appear they might.  Whether it is misery, jealousy or insecurities that drive this behavior, it is irrelevant to me, because I have to learn out to "tune" these outside voices out.  Just like in my ballgames, when I tuned the "noise" out, I played to Amber's potential, and I did not care what anyone said and it worked out for the good.  So please pray with me, that I can learn to "tune" all this noise out in my life as well, because it does nothing but cause bitterness and distress.  Pray I can stay focused on continuing to hear God and allow that to be the only voice in my head I pay attention to.

"I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people....."Psalms 85:8
"while it is said: Today, if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts..." Hebrews 3:15

Keeping the outside voices out and inside voices in....

Amber