So, while the kids were upstairs playing I opened up my Bible Study plan (I’m randomly doing a 14 day study called Hearing From God Each Morning on the YouVersion app) and began to read Psalm 63:1-3…

And I felt like *I* was the one that had written it. In a dry and weary land? My soul thirsts for you? That’s where I was. Dry. Weary.

Yet, I have seen the power and glory of the Lord. I know He has good—even great things for me. Why can’t I suck it up enough to stop moping around in the desert?

I read the verses probably 10 times, pulled out my computer and listened to the Seeds version of the verse on repeat. Then I wrote it out by hand word for word. And I cried.

Cried because I know God’s love is better than life. That my first-world-rich-people-problems should barely be a blip on my radar. And I realized the ball was in my court–it was my time to lift up my hands. My time to praise Him as long as I live.

This isn’t something we should be surprised by. Jesus promised this to us, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10.

After literally sobbing through the first two chapters of the book, I realized God was speaking to me. I need some joy. Or rather, I have it. And I need to start living in it. I need to throw my hands in the air because His love is better than life. I need to live in and act on the fullness of life that Jesus has given me.

Well, God didn’t stop there. This morning in my YouVersion devotion, I read Ephesians 3:16-17 which talks about the Holy Spirit being in our inner being and Jesus dwelling in our heart. The question was, “Is your life a comfortable place to live?”.

Just as if you walked into a house for a party and the hostess started screaming at her husband while the guests got more and more uncomfortable, does Jesus reside in your life only to be bombarded with grumbling, fear, anger and jealousy? Or do you wake up and choose to have praise and thanksgiving on your lips and in your heart?

Whew. That’s a rough one. Do I wallow in how I feel? how my kids behave? how my husband wittingly or unwittingly slights me? how my house looks? how my schedule weighs? Or do I choose to navigate those “problems” with joy? with assurance that God’s love is better than life?

You think it would have ended there. But it didn’t. Every morning I read a chapter from Power of a Praying Parent (and share it on our Facebook page, too!) and what do you think today’s prayer was? Inviting the Joy of the Lord. I took a picture of my favorite part and posted it…

But really, it was a prayer for me: Don’t allow YOURSELF to be stuck with a sad, depressed, angry, moody or difficult personality. PRAY YOURSELF OUT OF IT.

And those, my friends, are my marching orders. I’m pulling joy out of me. I’m resting in the joy Jesus has already given me. And I’m putting on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness and lifting my voice to God.

Even when I feel sad, depressed, angry, moody and difficult. I want to be a joyful woman, a joyful mom and a joyful wife.

Are you ready to do JOY with me?

ps–you can download that Psalm 63 art here! I *think* it should fit in a frame, if not, you can print it out and put it in a notebook or tape it on your kitchen cabinets!

linked to Far Above Rubies & The Better Mom

***Impress Your Kids has some new digs at ohAmanda.com! Come visit us there for all the Impress Your Kids archives and all our new posts–including our Easter newsblast with fabulous tips for celebrating a meaningful Easter with your kids!***

Sunday, our pastor spoke about King Josiah. You remember him? He was the boy king who was crowned at age 8. Josiah’s father was an evil man who led Israel into idol worship and more. For some reason, Josiah decided to follow God and do what He said even though he knew barely anything about Him or his Law.

When Josiah was 16 years old, a book of the Law (probably Deuteronomy) was found in the busted up, in disarray, ignored-for-years temple. When Josiah saw the book and heard what it said, he tore his robes. This was an act reserved for news of death and destruction. It showed utter sorrow.

Josiah spent his years as king bringing the kingdom back to God. He tore down idols, temples and even burned evil priests on their own altars! But what is most interesting to me is what God said about Josiah (spoken through the prophetess, Huldah):

“I am going to bring disasteron this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah [Josiah] has read. Because they have forsakenme and burned incense to other gods and aroused my anger by all the idols their hands have made, my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.’ Tell the king of Judah [Josiah], who sent you to inquire of the Lord, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbledyourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people—that they would become a curseand be laid waste—and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the Lord.Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace.Your eyeswill not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.’”

God was going to bring disaster to Israel. But because Josiah was repentant, God held off on his anger. The kingdom–and that generation during Josiah’s reign was spared. And in fact, Josiah was the last good king. The next four were wicked men and soon Babylon took over Israel–the destruction God promised came upon them.

This is such a haunting story to me. A 16 year old boy tears his clothes at the sin in his land. He follows God without any direction or counsel from his family. And God spares the people because of Josiah’s repentant heart. One man’s choice to follow God affected an entire generation of people.

My parents did this same thing for me. Both of my parents come from dysfunctional divorced homes. My mom’s parents fought constantly, were not loving or nurturing. So much so, my mom was glad when they eventually got divorced so her parents wouldn’t have to be in the same room anymore. My dad’s parents were divorced when he was 12 and it led my dad into drinking and drugs at a young age.

When my dad got saved at 17, he said, “My life is going to be different.” When my parents got married they said, “Our family is going to be different.” And with God’s help, it has been. Their choice to obey God changed their life, yes, but also the life of my brother and me. They took a stand and said, “These curses, this sin, this kind of life stops there. It is not being passed down. It will not affect anyone else.”

It’s not to say that our life is perfect but I believe it is a spiritual truth that standing in obedience, even if you’re alone in your obedience will affect others.

And today I can’t get this idea out of my mind. I don’t have divorce or other “big” sins in my family that I need to stand against. But what about those small things?

The complaining, the insecurity, the entitlement, the laziness and selfishness that is evident in my own life?

Am I passing those sins onto my kids?

Or am I drawing a line and saying, “This will go no further!!”?

I want to be like King Josiah. I want my heart to bow to King Jesus and obey Him even when I don’t really know where it will lead me or what it means. I want sin to stop with me so it doesn’t affect another generation.

photo source: pursuethepassion

***Impress Your Kids has some new digs at ohAmanda.com! Come visit us there for all the Impress Your Kids archives and all our new posts–including our Easter newsblast with fabulous tips for celebrating a meaningful Easter with your kids!***

Our Summer o’ Fun continues with Fernbank Museum of Natural History! We took one of Lydia’s friends (who goes to our school and church!) with us and had an absolute blast.

The best part by far was NatureQuest which at first glance is just a giant play area. But once you got inside it was much more—the areas and decor mimicked areas and foliage of Georgia. There were native trees, animals, caverns and bugs! We explored rocks, footprints, pulley systems, swamps and even excavation sites.

If you wanted to just run around and play you could. Or you could stop, look a little closer and see animals, geodes and specimens embedded into the play area. There were high-tech microscopes, puzzles built into the walls and interactive video games. They even had book nooks and at-your-own-pace scavenger hunts. It was really, one of the coolest interactive playgrounds I’ve ever seen.

The rest of the museum walked you through the different areas of Georgia: swampland, mountains, etc. There was a shell exhibit, artifacts from Georgia, an interactive 5 senses exhibit and cultural relics. There was even a special exhibit called “The Scoop on Poop” (which the kids chanted for about 8 minutes straight) and except for the creative name, wasn’t very exciting.

In every step of the museum, there were comments, plaques and teaching about “350 million years ago” or “when humans came to Georgia”. There were paintings of animals in between their different evolutionary stages (like a giant elephant with a crocodile’s snout and a 8 foot tall furry duck).

We even watched an IMAX movie called Into the Arctic, which was beautiful–polar bears, caribou and gorgeous ice waterfalls. The first line of the movie explained that black bears migrated to the Arctic and eventually adapted to live there–turning into what we now know as polar bears. The VERY NEXT piece of dialogue said, “Polar bears were BUILT to live in the Arctic” (<–that is a quote) and “if we don’t protect the melting Arctic, what will these bears do?” (<—not an exact quote.)

So, the entire movie was about the poor polar bears who are dying because of the melting ice. Yet, they had JUST said black bears had adapted to the Arctic. Why can’t the polar bears adapt to the new slightly warmer Arctic? But besides all that, why use the word BUILT? If they were built, who built them?! Completely illogical.

It was just so odd to me that the entire museum was based, built and centered on these evolutionary phases. There were no questions, no theories presented, no alternate ideas–just the “facts” of evolution. It was really just a giant, interactive museum showcasing the teachings of evolution. Is that really what everyone believes? Am I just naive in thinking that most of regular America believes God created the world?

My thoughts about Creation vs. Evolution (or even macro- or micro-evolution) can be summed up with a devotion one of my Science professors in college did (he was a Doctor of Genetics). He read Genesis 1:1 and John 3:16. Then he said, “I have to take Genesis 1:1 literally so I can take John 3:16 literally.”

I know there is more to it than all that, but at the same time–there’s not. God created the world. He lovingly called life into being. He didn’t haphazardly make creatures that would shed their parts to become something different. If he did, it would make me question Psalm 139:13-14,

I believe God knows me intimately, designed my body, my mind and my personality. I want my children to believe this. I don’t want them to question God’s design of cats, dinosaurs or lizards because I don’t want them to question the amazing and wonderful design of themselves.

We took the museum with a grain of salt. We loved exploring the animals and landscape of Georgia, we loved imagining dinosaurs and fossils. We had an absolute blast on scavenger hunts and explorations. But we turned every exclamation into praise to God. We pointed all glory and honor to the God, the Creator of the Universe.

How do you explain creation and evolution to your kids?

linked to The Better Mom
polar bear photo source: irishwildcat yarn photo source: adamknits, text by me
disclosure: I was given these tickets as a member of the media.

***Impress Your Kids has some new digs at ohAmanda.com! Come visit us there for all the Impress Your Kids archives and all our new posts–including our Easter newsblast with fabulous tips for celebrating a meaningful Easter with your kids!***