Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true (loving the truth & speaking it), whatever is noble (worthy to be honored, of persons or deeds), whatever is right (observing divine laws, innocent, guiltless, faultless, approved of or acceptable of God), whatever is pure (exciting reverence, sacred, pure from every fault, clean), whatever is lovely (acceptable, pleasing), whatever is admirable (speaking auspiciously [promising success], sounding well, good reputation, uttering words of good omen) - if anything is excellent (moral goodness) or praiseworthy (commendable, deserving of high regard or great approval) - think about (dwell on) such things (only take these things into account).
Ruth’s “interpretation”:
Finally, brothers & sisters in Christ, take only these things into account:
- If it is loving & speaking the truth
- If it is worthy to be honored
- If it is approved or acceptable of God
- If it excites reverence
- If it is pleasing to God
- If it has good reputation
- If it has moral goodness
- If it deserves high regard
Otherwise, let it be a fleeting thought. If you put this into practice, you will have God’s peace (v. 9).
Philippians 4:6-7
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
A few thoughts & discoveries on this “famous” verse.
- Anxious in Greek is Merimnao, which can be translated “to be troubled with cares, to care for, or to seek or promote one’s interests“. So when we’re anxious, most of the time (or all?) it is because we are caring about our own interests first. Think about things you’ve been anxious about… Is this definition applicable to that situation? If you really think about it, it probably is.
- “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding…” I always thought of this phrase as the peace of God goes beyond our understanding. Like, we can’t understand how we have this peace, etc. But when I was looking up the Greek for “transcends”, this is what it says: “To stand out, rise above, be superior in rank, authority, or power; to excel or surpass.” What it really is meaning is that peace from God is better than having any or all understanding. We don’t need to understand our anxiety or our problem or have a solution. All we need is God’s peace. It’s better. It’s what we need. Not the answer to our problems.
Now with those new “twists” to the verse, read it again & see if it takes on new meaning for you. It does for me.
Giggles
I was in the computer room today and heard the kids giggling in our bedroom. I walked in to see this:
Sam had “pinned” Addi down & they were just giggling away. For some reason they both thought it was pretty funny. Ah, I just love them guys! 
Ephesians 6:4
If you haven’t figured out already, I like to study the original words & meanings of words when I’m studying the Bible. I was going through Ephesians & came across 6:4. Here it is in the more common NIV version:
Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Here it is in The Message version:
Fathers, don’t exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master.
And here it is in Ruth Chowdhury’s version, based on the original words, then looking up the meanings of those original words with a little help from Google:
Fathers (& mothers) do not cause your children to be aroused to wrath. Instead, nourish them up to maturity by giving them the substances they need for life and growth. Train, educate morally, discipline, correct mistakes, curb passions, restrain & subdue them in their evil ways, counsel & warn, reprove gently, and spur them on & encourage them with cheers & shouts when they are following what the Lord wants them to do. They belong to Him!
See? Isn’t it cool to look up the original words & meanings? It means so much more to me & I can understand & apply it much more easily. This verse is nothing “new” but it takes on new meaning for me. It is now challenging me to do what it says even more specifically. What part of it sticks out to you?
Halloween & other fun stuff
On Saturday we went to go pick up approximately 1,000 doughnuts from Krispy Kreme that they donated for our church’s Great Pumpkin Party & weekend services. It took about an hour for Chris to pack them all in, so Sam, Addi, & I hung out inside watching the doughnuts being made. An employee gave them each a “Halloween bag” with 2 mini doughnuts each! They also got balloons, although they were quickly lost. There was a “scary pumpkin” there. I had to convince the kids to stand next to it to get a pic. Here’s Samuel:
And Addison:
Then we got to go to our church’s Great Pumpkin party that Chris was organizing. Addison dressed as a ladybug:
And Samuel was a “wok staw” (rock star). Chris made him a “keytar” out of cardboard, but I didn’t get a picture of it. Here’s a side view of Sam & his neck tattoo:
And a close up of his hair:
Our last sermon series was on “Meds” so our Pastor had the idea for us to dress up at our Saturday night service with meds as our theme. So I went as an injured person & most people thought I really had hurt myself. Imagine a wrist brace, ankle brace, head wrapped in ace bandage, a crutch, a realistic bruise on my cheek (thanks to my sister-in-law) and a 6 1/2 month pregnant belly. Yeah. Some people were sincerely concerned & looked like they’d call the authorities if need be! Here’s a close-up of my bruise (sorry it wasn’t that great of a picture nor was it the whole costume):
Samuel decorated a pumpkin Friday night but I haven’t taken a picture of it yet. The pumpkin we picked for Addison to decorate got messed up so it was put on our porch. A wonderfully sneaky squirrel rolled it down our porch steps, breaking it open, and was having a feast. The kids thought it was really funny.
On Thursday night we went to our local mall & since Sam is a “Giggle Gang” member there, he got a free ride on their Halloween train. It went in a loop 4 times. Sam thought it was great. Addison thought it was not-so-great because I left her with daddy so I could stand in the enclosed train area. Oops.
And completely unrelated to Halloween, we decided to make pop-tarts from scratch this morning. The kids liked them but I didn’t. 
Here’s Sam spreading his jelly (dunno why it’s so foggy):
Here’s the almost-finished product. We put homemade icing & non-homemade sprinkles on it after this picture was taken:
That’s it for now. Addison is getting over a flu-like sickness so I’ve been doing almost nothing the past couple of days! It’s crazy how you can get into a routine then something “happens” and you get back out of it. We’ve had lots of snuggle time lately, though, and I’ve enjoyed it. Have a great week!
“All I can do is pray”
Ever said that phrase? Ever thought it? I say – or should I say “said” – that a lot. When there’s a situation that is bigger than me and I want to do something about it but usually can’t, I say, “Well… All I can do is pray…” I said it with an exasperated, disappointed, “I give up” type of look on my face & in my body language. Um…. what the heck is that all about?!
As I was saying that just this week to a friend I realized how stupid that saying (maybe even cliche?) is. What do I mean “ALL” I can do is pray. Prayer should be the first thing I do, because it is the most important thing I can do! Too many times I try to figure out what I can do when all I should be doing is praying. It is in prayer that the battle is won. I can’t do anything great by myself. God is the one who does the great things. Not me.
So next time I go to try to handle something myself, realize I fall short, and start to say, “well, all I can do is pray”… if you hear me, remind me: It’s the best thing I can do. And the thing I should’ve done first.
Well, I’m gonna go pray now. Any thoughts about this?
My big girl
Addison is growing up. She’s talking more, and is way more independent, even choosing to go to other people instead of me sometimes. She is in the whole “I’m not going to do what you say no matter what” stage, though, so we’ve seen a lot of tantrums & crawling lately. If it wasn’t so “bad” it would be hilarious. She’s so strong-willed, just like her mother (ahem), so it makes for some funny “battles”.
Here she is, decorating the refrigerator. Can you guess what it is?
It’s the leftovers from her lunch… Turkey lunchmeat! Hilarious.
Here she is in her toddler bed that is newly put together. She’s actually sleeping in it right now for the first time!
I can hardly believe she’ll be 2 years old in less than 3 months! We have to remember to celebrate her birthday, with the impending arrival of Baby #3 due right around the same time. She’s growing up so fast. I’m so blessed!!!
Leaf week
We’ve started the “fall” themes now. Last week was “Leaf week”. We collected a LOT of leaves from our walks in the warm weather last week. I had several projects, games, activities, etc. planned but only got around to a few of them. We had fun though, and the kids liked just carrying around the leaves everywhere (yes, inside the house). Addison especially liked crinkling them up, getting little bits of dried leaves everywhere. Yay.
On Tuesday night, we made leaf-shaped sugar cookies:
Samuel also did some “fall themed” preschool worksheets – one of them had the whole alphabet to trace. I was going to have him do 5 letters so he wouldn’t be overwhelmed, but he wanted to do them all. So he traced all of them! He also counted how many of each object was in a picture & circled the correct number for each set:
Hmmm… Apparently I didn’t take as many pictures as I thought I did. We also put a leaf under a piece of paper & colored over it to see the leaf-shape come through. Samuel wrote his name by himself. I helped with the S & U, but the other letters he did by himself!
We sorted the leaves according to size & talked about the colors, differences, similarities, etc. We also made “leaf placemats” – put a towel down, then a piece of wax paper, then Samuel arranged some leaves. Then you put another piece of wax paper down, then another towel, and you iron over it with a pretty hot iron. It melts it together. You trim the edges & voila! A placemat!
We also sang leaf songs & let our leaves fall to the ground, and read books about leaves.
Random pics
Samuel had a cracker & was eating it (pretty normal thing to do with a cracker, huh?) and then he said, “Look Mom! It’s a church!” Expecting to see something that looked like a building, or maybe a house, I look to find this:
It is the symbol of our church, Real Church, and so that’s what he associates with what a church looks like! Ha!
Next random thing. Chris took Sam one night in his car for some Daddy-Son time and the next day we forgot to put his car seat back in the van. I needed to go somewhere, so I used his new carseat/booster seat. He’s old enough & big enough to be in it, but I was just putting it off. Here’s a pic of the big guy:
Chris likes to help me out when we get home super late from church or other events. Sometimes I take Samuel upstairs to put him to bed while Addison stays down with Daddy to hang out. Here’s what I *usually* come back down to see:
Samuel saw Chris’ Bible on the floor one day & decided to read it, all on his own. We had to take a pic!
Last, but not least, a couple of Fridays ago I decided to be a little creative & try to make staying inside not as boring. Here’s what I did with a little bit of masking tape:
I also taped out a few shapes, and they are still on our floor. The hopscotch has helped Sam learn how to count backwards. He’s played so many variations of this since it’s been on our floor!
Hope you enjoyed these random pics!
“S” Week
So… The week of September 28 was “S” week. I am so far behind! Aagh!
We did a few things like…
Coloring on the windows & mirror with soap (since it starts with “S”). Window:
Mirror:
Sprinkled our “S” schoolwork page with salt (onto glue):
We read a few books about the letter S, snakes, bubbles (which come from soap) and something else, but I forget… That’s what happens when I blog about something a month later. Ha! We had fun though.
