Lately in the Heeremobile we have been listening to Beverly Cleary’s books on CD and it’s been so fun to relive some of those books that I read when I was little. Cleary’s writing about everyday life through the eyes of a third grade boy and a 4 year old girl really come to life. I read Otis Spofford out loud to Elena at rest time, and I can honestly say that I feel like I might understand the mind of a third grade boy a little better now. Matt has even found himself caught up in the storyline when in the van while we’re enjoying one of the audiobooks.

It’s also been fun for me to listen to the books after the recent release of the new Ramona and Beezus movie. Seeing a contemporary take on Klickitat street and the neighbor Henry makes me smile (or laugh hysterically, as my sister can attest to!).

Any other 3-5 year old-appropriate audio books we should check out as the next round of holiday travelling approaches?

After I saw this YouTube video today, I was thinking about my own experience of how seeing my sin more clearly has made me see the gospel in a completely different light. Dr. Piper says it so well:

I would say that I’ve been a Christian since about age 6, when I “asked Jesus to come into my heart.” Since then, I would have said I had a pretty good understanding of Jesus’ work on the cross, dying to pay for our sin. And for the most part, I was a fairly good kid: keeping my nose out of trouble, and generally doing what was expected of me. However, when I would hear songs like “The Wonderful Cross” and “Jesus Paid It All” and I would think, “Good grief…I haven’t done anything all THAT bad…” and part of me would just feel really uncomfortable.

A situation about two and a half years ago changed that. A set of circumstances made me see clearly, I think probably for the first time, how ugly my sin is to God. Without really realizing it, I had come to really, really like how people responded to me when I did the right/good/noble/expected things and ended up valuing that over God’s opinion. And in turn, I figured that God would probably be fairly impressed by that, too. Over and over the Bible talks about how God isn’t impressed by the things that people are, but that God sees past it and looks at the heart. I realized how awful my seemingly good works looked to God: things that I did to look good to people that were often motivated by jealousy, pride, or selfishness. Suddenly, I realized I wasn’t looking so hot in God’s eyes. Here’s this girl trying to be all religious when inside her heart is just ugly. In the Bible, Jesus uses religious people quite frequently to show how their hearts were in the wrong place and how they really liked the respect that their position got them. And that was me!

All of a sudden, I realized that need for that blood. I was really dirty. I am still so amazed that God hasn’t just zapped me out of existence…considering all of the junk that has been (and is) in my heart and mind. But, he loved me enough to not only not zap me out of existence, but to pay for all of the ugly things that I have (and still will) done.

There’s a children’s Bible that I love (The Jesus Storybook Bible) that puts it so simply: “All Naaman needed was nothing. It was the one thing Naaman didn’t have.” I was trying to please God and please people by doing, by having it all together. But all we need is the understanding that we don’t and can’t have it all together…that all our attempts at being good and perfect will fail. That’s why we need Jesus’ blood from the cross, the perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins.

We hope this finds you well, enjoying the pre-Christmas fun and chaos. Elena has been very excited about the coming of Christmas this year…last week she was exclaiming how the decorations at the grocery store were “so beaUUUtiful!”

Some highlights for our family this summer included a week at a cabin with Nancy’s family in northern Minnesota fishing, playing, and relaxing, and also a trip to Chicago with Matt’s family. The kids loved Brookfield Zoo and the Field Museum and we also visited some of his family’s old stomping grounds from when they lived there years ago.

Matt took a new job managing the Web team for Desiring God, a Christian ministry based out of Minneapolis, though he still gets to work remotely from his home office here in Ames. He occasionally has an overnight trip to the Twin Cites for 2-day meetings with coworkers… and we get to tag along! Additionally, Matt manages Zeke’s, a non-profit music & arts venue in Ames, coordinates and leads music for our church, and occasionally teaches at the church’s college ministry.

Elena is almost 3-1/2 and likes to write her name, loves to be read to, and is always asking to do some sort of crafty project. She is definitely a “girly girl” who loves princesses, dancing and fancy dresses.

Kate is 14 months old now, still has a very sweet disposition, and has been walking like crazy for 2 months. She seems to be a little bit more accident-prone than Elena was; she has chipped both of her front teeth in the last two weeks! She greets Daddy with both arms extended and a giant grin when he comes upstairs at the end of the day.

(Matt is now stealing the keyboard to brag about his wife) Just prior to the arrival of Kate in 2008, Nancy pushed pause on her private music studio to concentrate her full attention and effort on caring for our home and family. I am constantly amazed at the skill and joy with which she performs this all-important task. She still finds time to mentor young women in our church, and helped to coordinate a playgroup for other young moms. Amidst all this she does a masterful job of keeping me sane, her most important and difficult task. I am so blessed and constantly thankful for this rare jewel that I have in her.

Wishing you true joy and peace this season through Jesus,

Matt, Nancy, Elena, and Kate

One of my favorite blogs, ReFem, recently featured this post entitled, “Wife In The Fast Lane.” (I wish I could have been the one to come up with such a catchy title for a post, but, nope, can’t take credit for this one. ;)) I originally just forwarded it to a few close friends who I knew would share my viewpoint and appreciate the content, but perhaps there’s someone else out there that could benefit from it.

I see my role as teammate, #1 cheerleader, a support, and helper to Matt as the most important part in my life. I know that to a lot of people this idea just sounds plain crazy, but because I believe what the Bible says about my life this is the first priority in my life, second only to my relationship with God. I think I could probably write for about a decade about all of my thoughts on this because I’d really like to thoroughly explain them, but I guess I’ll just have to do that in little chunks :)

Because this is such a large part of my life, I’ve grown to deeply appreciate articles and books on the topic. I’ve posted links to other ReFem articles before, but I think this is the first one I’ve posted on marriage. The author of this particular article has been through some major difficulties in life, and I know that I respect her thoughts even more so because of that.

In church/Christian circles, it seems that women (me included) to whom God has given a husband can often get super-involved in book studies, relationships with other women, helping to meet various needs in the church (which are all excellent things to be involved in), but this articles reminds us that our primary God-given ministry is to our husbands. This plays out in many different ways in different women’s lives, but it’s something that I believe we need to carefully consider.

Oh, dear…I think I could just rehash the whole article, but I’ll just let you go ahead and read it :)

In honor of Matt’s birthday today (whee!), Elena and I came up with a “Top Ten things we love about Matt/Daddy” list. It kinda went a little longer than 10, but we figured it was ok :)

Top Ten Things We Love About Matt/Daddy

1.  Elena says, “Whenever I bring Daddy one of my favorite books, he always takes time to read it to me.”

2.  Matt is so incredibly patient with me…I can hardly believe it sometimes!

3.  Matt is an incredibly hard worker…putting in super long hours to provide for us…and I appreciate that sooo much.

4.  Matt is a man of integrity…in the big things and the little things.

5.  He has awesome taste and sense of design…and I’m not the only who thinks that!

6,  He made me into a sushi lover :)  (I never thought I would say that!)

7.  Elena says, “I love it when Daddy comes upstairs from work and chases me around the living room!  I just giggle and giggle…”

8.  I love it that Matt loves the outdoors and when we go camping, I feel like I have an expert park ranger leading our trip :)

9.  I’m so glad that my man knows how to take time to have fun…including making all three of us get dressed up for Halloween to give out candy :)  

10.  He understands God’s grace and love for us and has helped me to understand it more clearly by his love and forgiveness for me…

11.  He is a gifted musician and writer :)  

12.  Elena says, “Whenever Mommy takes me downstairs to say hi to Daddy, I get sooo excited and wiggle and giggle because I like to be with my daddy a WHOLE LOT!” (She really wanted to share that, and I think it mostly speaks to the fact that she can really tell that her daddy loves her a whole lot :))

1. He’s my big, strong, handsome man!

14.  I appreciate that Matt is involved in even the less-pretty parts of parenthood, including smelly diapers and middle-of-the-night wake-ups.  I am so thankful to be parenting Elena with such an amazing guy…

Happy Birthday, Babe!