Splash in the Rain Puddles

I truly believe that one of the greatest gifts we are given when we choose to live for Jesus is the peace that His Spirit brings....peace that passes all understanding...peace that makes the unbeliever look at the Christian and wonder where in the world that kind of peace could possibly come from...peace that sometimes is the only thing that gets us through a tough day, month, year....thank you, Jesus, for the peace You bring. I heard a quote yesterday that said "peace is a person"...and I love that so much. It's not found in our successes, in our spouses, our kids, our possessions...it's found in God alone and the supernatural contentment that His Son brings. When we believe in the promises God gives us...that He works all things for our good and His glory...we can rest in that. Of course in our humanness, fear will creep in and do its best to take our focus off of where it should be. But when we return our focus back on God, and invite His peace to meet us in ...

With my return to the blog I started thinking about the title…Splash in the Rain Puddles.   When I first started blogging 14 years ago, I was a young momma of a 1 and 3 year old, with only a hope that God had one more baby in our future.   I wanted my little boys to splash…literally and figuratively.   I wanted them to splash….whether that was actually splashing in rain puddles…or building blanket forts… or covering the entire driveway in sidewalk chalk…or cannonballing off the diving board….or riding in the tractor with daddy, just dreaming of the day they could drive on their own.   But I also wanted them to splash…like when they took a deep breath and put on their bravest faces when they walked into kindergarten for the first time….or when they changed schools and had to make new friends and learn new routines…or when they needed to stand on their own as their circles of friends expanded and not everyone believed what they believed…and when they said yes to Jesus ...

Several years have passed....how can that be?  And here I am again....back at the keyboard, hoping to pick back up with blogging.  Life comes in phases and stages...it's part of the beauty of it....never staying in the same phase for too long....but I must admit, I feel like this phase is so fleeting.  We are now raising two high schoolers and a pre-teen. The older two are finding their path...starting to feel the responsibility of making some big choices and decisions...and the youngest one is beginning the journey of adolescence.  Some days I feel like the youthful innocence is gone...all of our boys are old enough to fully understand the brokenness of our world...the reality of what a life without Jesus can look like....the sting of being hurt...the realization that one day they will be the leaders of their own homes.  But, I still get to see moments of innocence....and when those moments come around, I purposefully soak them in.  We got a big snow here ...