The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad. - Psalm 126:3
Today, Peter is 18 months!!!
Milestones are always celebrated with our children, but even more so for Peter when we considered from whence he (and we) have come.
At 18 months, Peter:
Is no longer walking, but running! Especially, he likes to run and chase his sister.
Is communicating A LOT, although not necessarily verbally. How, you ask? By signing! I taught Alana a few signs when she was Peter's age, but she quickly moved on to being very verbal (and still is). Peter, however, loves to sign and seems to think there is no reason to learn to say much when he can sign.
Is into EVERYTHING! I cannot seem to say this enough. We spend so much of our day saying, "No, no. Don't touch." He loves to explore.
Is still eating like a champ - sometimes more than Alana.
Takes one good nap a day in the afternoon for about 2 and a half hours, and sleeps from about 8:30 at night to about 7:30 in the morning.
Is VERY loving and affectionate! Peter loves to give kisses and hugs.
Is still a little stranger-shy. This one may take awhile.
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On a different note, Alana, Peter and I went up to Tom's school to eat lunch with him and help him pack up a little on his last day of school .............
And when I say last day, I truly mean LAST DAY! Today is Tom's last day as a public school teacher. Here comes the big news: After 16 years in teaching, God has called Tom into His ministry full-time. Tom has resigned his position as a teacher and plans on pursuing seminary in the fall. This decision has not been made lightly. Let me give some background:
Tom felt the first nudgings of the Holy Spirit regarding this call some time ago. However, neither one of us were really ready to pursue it just yet. As is often the case, the Lord simply planted the seeds of some thoughts and desires and He watered and grew those seeds to the fruit of His ministry call on our lives today. With the clarity that comes from hindsight, Tom and I can now look back and see God's hand moving, shaping and changing our lives to direct us to this point. Not the least of these changes come from our experience with Peter. You cannot walk through fire and come away unchanged. Before we even had a chance to recover from all we had been through with Peter, we entered a season of financial hardship like none we've ever known. This season brought us to our knees and often, all the way down to our faces before Jehovah-Jireh. And God always provided - great is His faithfulness.
God has used these two tremendous trials to sift out more of us and allow for more of Him. For Tom, and therefore, for this family, that means a completely new direction. As I stated before, this decision has not come about lightly, nor without agonizing prayer. Neither, might I add, has it come without criticism. We are fully aware of the implications of resigning a stable and secure job in the midst of a floundering economy. We have been asked, "How do you expect to feed your family?" Our response to that question is this:
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. - Deut. 8:3
and
Give us this day our daily bread - Matt:6:11
Tom and I have literally witnessed that every breath we take comes from the Lord and if this is the path of the hope of our calling, then we must walk in it. There comes a point when things simply boil down to obedience.
By no means, have we arrived at a place where we no longer contend with fear. Fear is an ever-present companion willing to walk with you every step you take. However, we daily strive not to acknowledge this presence, but to instead choose to walk by faith. As one great teacher recently put it, "If I'm going to err, let me err on the side of faith!"
This decision may not make sense according to human understanding, but then again, neither does the lives of these people:
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
Moses and Joshua
Rahab
Samuel
David
Jesus
Closely examined in context and in their culture, many of their decisions seemed to be born of lack of common sense, but "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." The stories of these people's lives are not simply sweet anecdotes to tickle our minds. They, along with so much else, compile the Word of God by which we are meant to live. God's Word should live in us and we should live by God's Word.
To put it another way, when people ask, "How can you do this?"
We look at this picture and say, "How can we not?"
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, "Till now the LORD has helped us." - I Samuel 7:12
