Amy J. Bennett

Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life

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Archives for 2007

Keeping busy

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Keeping busy this weekend but nothing extremely exciting to report.  Almost all our spare time is spent in the pool.  It has been so nice this week with the temp over 100.

 Last night after we dropped the kids at ILs to spend the night, we went out to eat at Rafferty’s for our we-didn’t-get-to-go-out-for-our-anniversary dinner.  When we got home we I (Scott fell asleep within minutes) watched Deja Vu.  That was an excellent. movie.  That might be a good one to buy.  And I don’t do that often.

This morning I stayed in bed until about 10 and then cleaned, cleaned and cleaned some more until dinner time.  Then Scott and I made dinner for us and Mom, Dad and Heather.  We made our “famous” Tilapia dinner including sweet potato casserole, corn on the cob, yeast rolls and brownies and banana pudding for dessert.  Yum.  So now Emma is watching some recorded LazyTown and Lexi fell asleep literally in the pool while Heather was holding her. 

I need to get something together for Sunday School in the morning.  I skipped a few lessons through the year so now I’m left with nothing these next few weeks.

 We also have Disturbia for us me to watch tonight.  I heard it might be hard to sleep after that so maybe I’ll get to make some more updates to my theme later on…

Mommy talk addition

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Yeah, so this one is sorta embarassing but it has to go down on paper.  This is one of those things you thought you’d never say or even have to say.  These are the words out of my mouth yesterday:

Lexi, you don’t stick your fingers in people’s hineys!

Yeah, not too pleasant.  Let me qualify what happened.  We were on the back porch.  Lexi had her swimsuit on.  I was changing Emma and at this point, Emma was naked.  Lexi stands behind Emma, leans down and quickly poked a couple of her fingers right at Emma’s behind.  Which immediately prompted the quote above.  I know, gross and embarrassing.  That’s motherhood for ya.

A first

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There are so many firsts that mothers love to witness but I’m not sure I ever prepared myself for the fact that I would witness my child’s first wedgie.  Yes, I said it and I’m not even sure I spelled it right.

We were in the pool and Lexi’s bathing suit apparently got pulled up and stuck on one side.  And I guess she didn’t realize her butt actually had a crack  in it (sorry for the description but there’s really no ladylike way to say that) so she looks up with a very distressed look on her face and says:

My hiney’s broke!

WW Day 16

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OK, I’m getting bored of hearing my stats every day too.  So I think this will be last until goal unless something report-worthy happens.  This morning I was up 1/2 lb, now putting me 1 lb away from goal.  Why this pound is so hard and why it even matters, I don’t know.  But I until I see that exact number on the scale, I’m not stopping this thing. 

Look what they can do!

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img_7436s.jpgLook!  They’re swimming underwater!!  After this picture, they took their suits off and were swimming with NO floatation device at all.  Under water.  By themselves.  I was so proud!  What happened was D brought her 3 girls over to swim yesterday at lunch and her two older twins can swim.  Like, really swim.  So of course Lexi the copycat started putting her face under water.  Last night when we got in, Emma was trying to do the same.  Emma kept asking how you swim with your head under water.  So I said, you start swimming (which of course I was showing them what to do) and then you hold your breath and put her head under water and you keep swimming.  So lo and behold, they did it!  Emma can also jump off the side of the pool and swim her way up without any floatation device either.  But um, yeah, Lexi was like a rock.  I had to pull her off the bottom of the pool right after she jumped.  She wasn’t coming back up on her own.  She was completely fine, no coughing or anything but she still needs some sort of floatie when she jumps.  And I don’t know if you can see it in the picture, but Lexi opens her eyes underwater and looks to see if she can find the steps.  When she first started swimming, I said do you open your eyes?  She didn’t say anything, but immediately went out a few feet from the steps, swam back with her little eyes open, comes up and says “I did it!” 

Peacekeepers, Peacemakers and Lovers of Contention

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We are going through Beth Moore’s Living Beyond Yourself study during bible study this time around.  And I get so much out of the videos.  The ones the past few weeks seem to have been perfect timing.  This week was about peace and an opponent of that being discord.   The bible says blessed are the peacemakers.

Blessed are the peacemakers. Matthew 5:9

Peacekeepers and lovers of contention are both opposite than those.

Peacekeepers try to keep a false peace.  They are the ones that hate confrontation and will do ANYthing to keep the peace.  And specifically when there is a “false peace”, or where there is no peace to begin with.  Imagine an abusive father and a protective mother and a wild child.  The wild child does something insanely stupid and instead of confronting it as a family, the mother hides it from the father so Dad won’t get mad.  She is using deceit to keep a peace that is not even there.  Her motivation for “keeping the peace” is based out of fear.  And yet, this attempt not only is keeping a false peace, it breeds even more of a lack of peace.

They dress the wound of my people
  as though it were not serious.
  “Peace, peace,” they say,
  when there is no peace. Jeremiah 8:11

Lovers of contention love NOT having peace.  They wake up wanting to pick a fight with someone.  They soak in tension and thrive when people are bickering.  Ever met someone like that?  Yeah, I know someone like that and it’s not. fun.  This person’s motivation for acting this way can be several reasons.  First, they could just be miserable.  They could just be so miserable inside that what’s on the inside comes out and they simply quarrel with anyone and anything that looks their way. 

Another motivator is the need for power.  Have you ever met a child that has realized the power of being a lover of contention?  That child that can misbehave so much that the entire house of adults and children are controlled by whatever that child does?  Yeah, I know someone like that too.   Everyone’s attitude even is controlled by the child’s attitude.  Power is a God-given thing.  We are meant to influence those around us.  But the less God-centered we are being and the more self-centered we are being determines whether we are negatively or positively affecting our environment.

The final motivator is simply a lack of discipline.  All children realize the power mentioned above and use it to an extent.  They test the boundaries and see how much power they do have with those around them.  And when a child is not disciplined and taught how to behave and use power appropriately, the grow up to be lovers of contention.  These people are so draining to be around are they not?

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11

Now peacemakers.  They are do-ers.  They make peace.   They don’t fix people, but they do confront people.  The first step is to ask God to not take sides in the situation but to take over.  They look to God to build walls where walls need built and take down walls where they need taken.  Peace only comes with God’s authority.

I find that I can be quite a peacekeeper at times.  I hate confrontation and I’d rather just ignore the situation than deal with it.  And when I’m being a peacekeeper, that is when I find I have the biggest lack of peace.  It tears me up inside when something is not right between me and another person and yet I still place peacekeeper and try to keep that false peace.  I really need to learn to trust God and do things His way instead of trying to handle things on my own.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27

 All of that is what Beth taught, not me so I’m just passing info on.  I highly suggest signing up for the online study here.  It includes all the listening guides, homework, videos and even extra studies. 

–And this is not a paid advertisement but a personal recommendation of a bible study.