April Showers...

It's early morning...Saturday, April 16th.  It rained all night and this morning the sun is out with all it's rays of hope.  I am reminded of how my life can be full of rain and how God can shine rays of hope into it as well

I am thinking of all the things that we can do today and quite honestly don't want to leave the house!  We have all had colds this winter season and even now the sniffles are coming on again.  Another cold?  Michigan allergies?  Who even knows.  We could go to the community egg hunt in our neighborhood, or the indoor egg hunt at Crossroads.  We also have a fundraiser for CARS, a youth program that our good friends are starting and at 2:30 Ian has his first little league game plus at 6:30 Gracie and I could go to a Party Lite party.  We could do all of it, some of it, or none of it.  And at the moment none sounds the best!  Most f the events are outdoors and I just don't want to aggrevate whatever it is we are trying to get over.  Which leads me to the topic of busy-ness.

March was a busy month.  Gracie participated in her fourth year of Upward basketball.  She was on the Lady Wolverines team which made Mommy very, very happy!  Chip and I coached the team with assistance from Christopher Scharlach.  The Scharlachs have become great friends of ours and this was really a nice time to get to know him better.  It was great for Gracie and Ryles as well, to have their Daddy's coach their team.

Gracie continues to participate in dance and this year she and I signed up for Girls on the Run.  This made for a very busy March.  Maxo tends to tag along to all of her events, and I can't even begin to imagine what it will be like when he is signed up for his own events!

With Upward over, Chip signed the girl up for Soccer.  Of course her practice night is on Monday, which is one of our GOTR nights. 

To top it all off I have been asked to be the secretary of the PTO for next year, and I will be the treasurer on the board at Stone School.  That is a lot of Mommy involvement and I love it.  But I am tired already just thinking about it.

This leads me to my point...

We have a God that loves us.  He has created us with specific purposes in mind.  We fight an enemy that we think with thwart Gods work in obvious ways in our lives.  But he uses good things.  Follow me for a minute.  When our kids are young we teach them that "bad guys" don't always look like bad guys.  We expect them to look sinister like in the movies and that is just not the case.  Sometimes those that we think are our friends are often the ones to lead us down the wrong paths.  After all, if someone you love is pressuring you to do something you are more likely to do it right?  In the same way we are pulled away from giving 100 percent to our best choice when we choose to do 100 "good" things.  We are not making the choice between signing our kids up for soccer or how to smoke a bong 101.  We are choosing between soccer and Girls on the Run.  Both things she likes, both things that are worthy and could help her in life.  BUT!...if we choose five good things for our child to do none of them will help her in life.  Instead she will struggle with school work because she is doing too many "good" things. 

Much like our children we choose too many "good" things for ourselves to do as well.  I think the solution is to pray.  To fervently and genuinely pray that God would make clear to us the things that he would have us to do.  Then when we are obedient, we can give 100 percent to the great things that He has planned for us to do and hopefully impact the lives of others for Christ!

God's plans?  Totally the theme of my quilt!