How Many Kings

One of my favorite songs right now is “How Many Kings” by Down Here.  I love the message and perspective it is written from.  In a world where so many gods are worshipped, this song just brings to home the fact that Jesus died for us.  God gave the ultimate sacrifice to save the world.  No other gods have done this.  No other gods have given up their “heaven” to save sinners like me.  There is only one God, and He has given us a picture and act of love that none other can compare with.  As the song asks, Do you believe?  I do.  Thank you Jesus for the ultimate gift of salvation and the hope and peace that one day, through your shed blood, I can spend eternity with You.

Follow the star to a place unexpected
Would you believe, after all we've projected,
A child in a manger?
Lowly and small, the weakest of all
Unlikeliest hero, wrapped in his mother's shawl -
Just a child -
Is this who we've waited for? 'cause...

How many kings step down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
And how many gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that is torn all apart
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?

Bringing our gifts for the newborn Savior
All that we have, whether costly or meek
Because we believe.
Gold for his honor, and frankincense for his pleasure
And myrrh for the cross he will suffer
Do you believe?
Is this who we've waited for?

There is Power in His Name

I have had sort of a revival in my heart this week.  It’s been one of those weeks that you are just thankful to see end.  Anybody ever have weeks like that?  My little man was sick AGAIN.  He seems to just get sick one time after another lately.  Add that to him not sleeping well at all for the past few weeks and it just gets kind of crazy in this mommy’s head!  I am also extremely hormonal lately due to this little one growing in my tummy.  I literally cry at the drop of a hat right now.  And Hallmark Christmas movies are just doing me in.  I am like a raging waterfall!  I am pretty sure I had a nervous breakdown (maybe not my first or my last!) late one night as I laid on the floor in little man’s room.  I just remember praying for God to just help me.  I remember actually telling him there is no way I can handle another baby because I am a total nutcase and unfit to raise children.  Seriously.  This is what I am telling to the One who never gives anything more than we can handle.  The Master Plan Maker.  The One who created the universe in 7 days.  The One who sent His child to die for me.  Really?  The One who sent a second child to me after I prayed for more children.  And I think he somehow got it wrong.  Boy did He show me otherwise.  He came over me that night and just put a warm, peaceful blanket on my soul.  It was as if He was right there with me telling me to trust Him.

 

That’s when I came to the full realization in my life that I absolutely, 100% need HIM.  I’ve always known that, and if you asked me, I would tell you that in a heartbeat.  However, I KNOW that now.  I was trying to trust in me, and that failed me.  How many times do we do that?  Only by trusting God completely and confessing my daily need for Him will I survive this crazy thing called life.  I can’t be the wife or mother my family needs without daily confessing my need for Him and submitting myself to that.  Malissa can’t do this.  Malissa fails at it.  God can do this through me.  God’s love never fails.  And if that’s what I show my family, then I never fail.  How beautiful a picture of grace and mercy He showed me this week.  He loves us without compromise.  He wants to see us succeed.  He wants us to shower our family with love.  He wants us to be patient, forgiving, and loving.  He wants us to know that we can’t do it alone though.  And that’s what I learned in my trials this week.  I need you Jesus and there is power in calling out your name and trusting in You in all circumstances.

 

I will leave you with this awesome paragraph from my devotional, Jesus Lives.  It was one of mine from this week.  So timely, as always.

 

“There is great Power in My Name: Simply whispering ‘Jesus’ can turn a hard day into a good one.  By calling on My Name frequently, you acknowledge your continual need of Me.  And when you pray My Name, you are actually calling upon My very Being.  I joyfully respond to your invitation by coming nearer to you.”

Bloggers Anonymous

Hi.  My name is Malissa, and I am a terrible blogger!  I could list out the reasons why it has been so long since I blogged, but I don’t think that is really necessary.  When I get right down to the root of it, I think it comes down to the fact that I think I have nothing profound to say.  But, that really doesn’t matter.  I let myself get caught up in that tiny little theory.  Insecurity at its finest I suppose. 

Insecurity… anybody battle it?  Well, I can tell you first hand that it’s the enemy.  It will tear you down and change you into a totally different person if you allow it too.  I can say that because I have fought the war with it for the past several months.  In just about every area of my life.  It has not been fun, but I don’t have to go into all the details for anyone to understand.  The fact is that most, if not all, of us deal with it heavily at times.  Whether we choose to admit that or not.  Here’s the beautiful part about it though.  Just when you think you are alone, He is right there to pull you up out of the pit.  I am so glad to say that God is with us.  With me.  With you.  He’s in the middle of our chaos, our hurt, our insecurity, and He wants to completely abolish it from our lives.  We just have to let go of it too.  He has taught me so much lately, and I LOVE HIM and praise Him for being my Savior.

I hope to share some of the things in my life that God is helping me overcome in the next few posts.  It’s exciting. 

Right now, though, I just want to spread some of the love little man is giving out lately.  He is an absolute joy right now.  He’s always been a joy, don’t get me wrong, but lately he has been different.  We’ve moved out of a tantrum, clingy phase into a world or words, laughing, playing, and fun.  It might have something to do with the better attitude and perspective Mom is gaining too.  Nonetheless, we have entered a stage of a lot of fun.  Now I know there will be more tantrum stages to come, but right now, I am LOVING this one!

  

He is growing so much and will soon be 2 years old!  It’s so hard to believe.  Also, we both LOVE this weather.  I know Fall is a lot of people’s fave season, but it really is mine too.  We have been outside a lot these days. 

Clearwater Beach

Well, here we are with more random pictures. This picture thing is driving me crazy. It's hard to move them around once I upload them. I tried earlier to get them set up exactly how I wanted and somehow kept deleting them. So we'll just work around that.

I have actually been walking everyday down the Riverwalk. I have felt really good after doing that, so why I won't be that dedicated at home, I have no idea! I don't know how far, but it's at least a mile if not more than a mile. I think it's more. Well someone was so sleepy and just refused a nap, so I decided it was time for our walk. And I got exactly the result I was hoping for... his nap! I took our pool stuff so we could hop in once we returned because it is HOT outside. He ended up sleeping a couple of hours like this. We found some shade, and I was able to read some. He has a lot of sleep to catch up with. He's sleeping right now too. After waking up at 7am, he went back to sleep at 9:30am and 2 hrs later is still sleeping.

This is a view from our room. If you look to the left on the pic, you'll see the Carnival Inspiration Cruise Ship. We've seen a couple of different ones. The port authority is not far from our hotel. We walked down to this one, and these boats are huge. If you haven't seen one in person, I'll go ahead and tell you it's bigger than what you expect. I expected them to be large, but never that big.

The pool at the hotel.

Here's Parker sharing a tasty frozen treat with mommy at Clearwater Beach. We loved that beach and the area. Pier 60 has some little playgrounds for kids, and the beach was beautiful. It was packed, but very nice. Apparently, there is pretty good fishing from the pier too because it was packed as well. We ate at Crabby Bill's and had the best popcorn shrimp we've ever had.

Breakfast in bed!

We also had a chance to go to Madeira Beach and eat at The Friendly Fishermen. Neat place, but we liked Clearwater a little better.

A Sesame Street African Adventure

We decided to go to Busch Gardens yesterday, and we had so much fun! It was so stinking HOT outside, but we beat the heat with some water fun and indoor shows. It was one of those days where you literally have to peel your clothes off. I think the heat index was like 110. And if you're wondering how hot that is... IT'S HOT! I even got to the point where I did not even care if I took pics or not. We lasted way longer than we thought though. Actually Parker lasted way longer than we expected. He did take a little nap in his stroller, but he was wide open the entire 9 hours we were in the park. I don't know why we expected anything different, but we thought the park would surely wear him out. Needless to say, we all slept like babies last night.

Busch Gardens has a new Sesame Street area of the park, and it's full of water rides, carousels, and other rides/playgrounds for toddlers and kids. All of their favorite characters are walking all around too. It was neat to experience that with Parker. He LOVED it and must have said Elmo a bazillion times. He loved getting to splash around in the water too. We had lunch with some of the characters close by. They would sing and dance and all of the kids could dance with them and all. It was cute. Although Parker was terrified of Cookie Monster at first, he warmed up to him and was dancing with them before long. It was SO funny to see his reaction when Cookie Monster walked over to him. Parker was sitting in his high chair eating, and Cookie Monster walked over to him and went to give him a high five, and I am not kidding when I say Parker nearly jumped right out of his seat in like 2 seconds. And he held onto me for dear life. I just could not help but laugh. Don't think that's cruel of me! It really was funny.

We also got to see lots of animals and that was really neat too. Parker kept saying the names of the ones he knew. He wouldn't get too close to any of them though. He surprises me with the things he is afraid of. He could jump head first into a wall or dive off a bed, but don't let any animal get near him.

I've shared just a few pics below! They are really out of order, but I don't want to try to rearrange them right now. Enjoy! All of the grandparents would be happy to know he's asked about you all! We've talked about nona's, pappie's, papa's, pa's, mimi's, granny's, and gigi's.

Some interesting things we learned: Elephants have a gestation of 22 mths, and giraffes give birth standing straight up so the baby drops 6 feet to the ground when born. Just a little perspective!

This is really a hippo swimming under water. Isn't that neat? Definitely a first for me.

And here's the cutest little rhino. She weighed 150 lbs when she was born 2 weeks ago. She followed her momma around everywhere.

Today we went to Clearwater Beach, so more on that later. I've got to get some sleep to keep up with wild man!

Twenty Months

My bouncing baby boy Parker has turned into 100% pure toddler BOY. And it's happened way too fast. He's into everything, never stops moving until he's asleep, and is a very spirited little boy. That can be good and bad. Depends on which day you ask me! He's very independent these days, and wants to do everything by himself. Although when he's getting tired and sleepy, he might come sit with me and get all cuddly for a bit. Those times make the hard days so worth it! He throws a thousand fits a day, and all I want to do is laugh when he throws himself around so dramatically.

He LOVES it when I chase him. He loves to hide, and he loves to run.

And this is the result of his independence. He loves to make a mess, and then say "I make mess".

He loves his daddy and loves days where he can be outside with him.

He loves going to visit his grandparents. He loves all of his grandparents so much, and I am so thankful for that.

And he loves to swing and eat Bugles with Papa.

My favorites things right now are hearing him say "alright baby", "oh man", "oh my goodness", and "cock-a-doodle-do".

He LOVES to be outside. Doesn't matter what he's doing, as long as he's doing it outside.

I love to watch him. He's such a little busy body, and it's neat to see how he's learning and changing his ways.

I LOVE that he LOVES sleep! He usually goes down without a fuss, sleeps all night, and takes a nap sometime during the day. As long as he has Dog. He won't even think about laying down without Dog.

I just love the closeness I have with him. I love knowing that he wants me when he doesn't feel good, or when he's sleepy. I love it when he comes to me and wants to rock with me. I love it that he loves to go bye-bye with me. He's quite the little shopping companion when he's not throwing a fit or throwing random items into my buggy that I find when we check-out.

I love that he loves church. I pray that we can teach him how to always love it and know the importance of it. I pray we can show him how to love Jesus and how to serve Jesus.

He's growing so fast. I watched a couple of videos last night of him as a baby, and it was not that long ago that he was. And look at him now, doing everything on his own at 20 months.

We love you Parker and are so thrilled that you are ours!

The Miracle League

I've been wanting to share this post for a few weeks now, and I have really struggled with what to say. This day was so incredibly special to me that I'm still guarding it in my heart and thoughts. Though late, it's not due to ignorance, but to wrestling with God over this.

My nephew, Brent (aka little Brent), has cerebral palsy. There is a lot that I don't understand about CP, and the questions just make my head hurt when I think about it too much. I just know he's had it since he was a baby, and my understanding is that he has a more severe case than not. However, Brent is one of the happiest, most loving, funny, and honest little boys you will ever meet. He always has a smile on his face, and most importantly, he loves Jesus unashamedly. And he loves sports. For a couple of years now, he has had the incredible opportunity to play baseball with The Miracle League. I had the incredible opportunity to watch a game a few weeks ago. This was my first, but Lord willing, it won't be my last. It brought me to tears. Not sad tears, but rejoicing tears. The girls and boys playing ball that day didn't have ego's, agendas, scores, attitudes, or an over eagerness to only win. There were no losers that day. They simply played baseball, but they spoke loud and clear to me. Brent became my hero that day, and he taught me to look at life a little different. It was so much fun for me, but it was so humbling for me as well.

The people there that day didn't see handicaps, they saw willing hearts and children with an appetite for life. It reminded me that our Heavenly Father doesn't see handicaps either. He sees His children that He loves dearly. God doesn't look at us and doubt our capability, but we look at Him and doubt His. God looks at us and sees a vessel He can use regardless of our physical, emotional, or spiritual handicaps. Believe Him and trust in Him are two things I am repeating over and over to myself lately.

It's easy to get caught up in the why's and how's of life, especially in cases of children with sickness or handicaps. Again, there's a lot I don't understand. But this I do know. God made Brent just the way He is and intends for him to be His vessel, and Brent is willing to show God's love no matter his circumstances.

God works miracles in our lives everyday.

I'm so proud of you Brent. You love life and you let nothing stop you from living it. That takes courage. You are truly an inspiration to me. Always remember how much God loves you and know that I love you too.

I still can't look at this picture without crying. One of Brent's teammates absolutely loved Parker's stuffed puppy. He kept coming over to the fence to play with it. He couldn't speak, but he didn't have to. His face said it all. At the end of the day, he and his mom were walking to their car, and they had to pass us at our car. While we were talking with his mom, he came over to Brent (my husband Brent, aka Big Brent) and just instantly started hugging him. He teared up, and that moment touched us so much. I've beat myself up everyday since then for not giving him that stuffed puppy. Why I didn't even think about it, I don't know. It seems so selfish, but I honestly just didn't think about it or wasn't in tune with the Spirit or something. I was so upset at myself for days. And even though I still think that's what I should have done, I know it wasn't really the puppy he wanted. He wanted love and acceptance. He wanted a hug.

I am so glad I went to that game that day. It was the last of the season, but I hope it was the first of many more for me to attend. I look forward to what Brent will teach his cousin and my little boy one day.

Mr. & Mrs. Chris Clark

I know it's been a while... again! I've been distracted with all sorts of things the past couple of weeks. First, my sister got married May 29. It was a beautiful ceremony, and we had lots of fun seeing so much family. I have included a collage of photos below. There was one certain little man who was just too adorable, even though he was running a fever during the whole wedding! He did great though as one of the ring-bearers. Daddy had to walk with him down the aisle, but that's alright. After all, he's only 19 months. My sister looked beautiful and happy. I love weddings. I love the traditions, the decor, the fun, the laughing, and most importantly, I love that it celebrates love. It's so crazy because you spend so much time planning and busying yourself and then the ceremony is over in no time, but it is so special. Marriage is something that should be celebrated. It's a beautiful thing that God allows us to have such a special companion to go through life with. It's not to be taken lightly. It's a covenant relationship, and weddings always remind me of that. The reverence of it all is very humbling.

Then we battled a 12 hour drive home, sickness, busyness, and vacation planning. So, this post is a little late, but all is well again!

Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Clark!

Girls Night Out

We had a Girls Night Out the other night, and it was so much fun. We went to dinner and a late movie. Chick-fil-a and Letters to Juliet made for a great date night with girlfriends. If you have not seen that movie, it is great. Very clean, and a total chick flick/love story. All of us noticed how truly clean the movie was, and that was so refreshing seeing as how that does not happen very often. And let's not forget the Wal-Mart run at 11:30pm. You just can't let mommas go out by themselves! We go wild!!

I am running low on energy tonight. It's been such a busy weekend, and I am exhausted. I have something very special to share with you in the next couple of days though!

God is so good!

Waiting

Are you waiting on God for something? Are you wanting answers to something? Are you needing a job or wanting a different job? Are you hurting and waiting for healing? Are you waiting for children? Are you waiting for your children to come to know God? Are you waiting on answers to ministry callings? Are you waiting for husbands to come to know God? Are you waiting for a husband?

Psalm 130:5-6

I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.

I think we can all relate to this topic of waiting. I know that I certainly can. I am waiting on God about some specific things in my life right now. I am taking a journey through the Psalms, and it has really encouraged me. Only then to become discouraged by the reality of still waiting. Can anyone relate?

I still wait though because I have trust in the Lord. As I prayed this morning, I questioned why I have to wait, even playing the it's not fair card!! Then, God really began to show me the many, many blessings I have in my life that He has provided for me already, and I am complaining about having to wait for a few more? Really? God will prune us ladies if we are willing to open up to Him and His hands. Are we willing to open up to Him? Are we willing to spend time in His Word as we wait?

I love the eagerness that comes out of the Psalmist's mouth... "my soul does wait,... more than the watchmen for the morning". Are we waiting with that intensity? That expectancy?

And are we hoping in His Word as we wait?

This helps me put things into perspective a little more. If you are waiting for something, join me in waiting in His Word. I am convinced that the waiting process will be as much of a blessing and will make as much of a difference as the fulfillment of that we hope for.

So, wait intensely, expectedly, and full of hope. Stay in His word. And I will try to do the same as well.

Lamentations 3:25

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him. To the person who seeks Him.