Yesterday, during our morning Lord’s Day service, we were responsively reading God’s Law as summarized in the 10 Commandments.  At home, when we read the 10 Commandments, our copy says not to covet your neighbor’s donkey.

So, when the congregation was reading about not coveting your neighbor’s wife, or manservant, or maidservant, or his ass…etc…Aaron looks at me with a huge grin and says, “Or his donkey!”

Good, he HAS been paying attention =)

After many, many long months of wandering the North County for a church in which we can follow our conscience concerning our belief in paedobaptism, we are glad to finally be done with our search! On July 27th, Josh, myself, and the kids, will be announced into membership at Oceanside URC. Our kidlets will also be receiving the sign of God’s covenant on that day.  We have enjoyed good fellowship and been welcomed warmly by this congregation.  The pastors and elder all have pastoral hearts and we believe we will be well shepherded there.  And Lord willing, in a few months from now, little Isaiah will also be receiving baptism.

To those of you who have been praying us through this difficult and sometimes painful journey, thank you so much.  I know for many of you, dear friends, this is not the outcome you were hoping for, but thanks for praying for us just the same. We love you dearly and will miss you greatly as we will not have the same amount of contact.  Please know you are all invited over for playdates whenever you have the inclination to come over.  We’re just a phone call away!

On  separate note…We did get the results of Gabe’s EEG.  They weren’t anything surprising.  While he was awake, his brain patterns were a little slower than a child his age would normally be, which accounts for the autism and related developmental delays.  While asleep the brain patterns on the left side of his brain showed abnormal activity which are consistent with a child at risk for seizures, which accounts for the epilepsy.   So, this is good, because it means nothing is getting worse =) So, we’re keeping the same anticonvulsant regimen and he’s getting all the early intervention therapy he needs.

I do want to publicly give thanks to the Lord that he has provided a means of encouragement and counsel for me through this.  Dr. Laura Hendricksen, who is a nouthetic counselor with IBCD (Institute of Biblical Counseling and Discipleship) has had a slot open up in her schdule to see me and Gabriel every other week.  She is a trained psychiatrist who used to have her own practice, but left her practice to help her own severely autistic son through his therapy.  I am very blessed to have someone counsel me who is not only a godly and biblically sound counselor, and medically trained to understand Gabe and his needs, but is also a mother who has gone through what I’m going through to a more extreme extent.

Gabe is such a blessing to our family and is such a sweet and loving child, and while I wouldn’t want him any other way, I’m glad there is help out there for him to have a happy and easier life.

A Different Kind of Drug Problem

This is great!

This is a website that interviewed 1600 professing Christian guys about what does, or doesn’t cause them to stumble in their striving to remain pure.  I thought it was very interesting. Much of it is common sense, of course miniskirts with fishnet stalkings are going to make a guy stumble.  Other things were not so obvious, at least not to me.  Kinda makes me want to start wearing Burkas (not really).

***This post is recycled from my old blog***

A little about why I chose “A thinking Woman” for my blog title.

I think there is a widespread epidemic in our country. It is the disease of mindlessness. This disease is a cancer and it eats away at the brain until the mass of mush is no longer able to perform its function. And from what I observe, this disease targets the minds of women more than men. The reason for this is that we women tend to “think with our hearts”. Men use the God given thinking organ to do the thinking. We use our “feeling” organ to do our thinking. Thus, all the woman jokes. And to tell you the truth, I am tempted to laugh along with the men. I am not excluding myself from the temptation to feel my way through life, decisions, etc, however, I think it’s time that we women turn our brains on and use them the way God intended.

Instead of mindlessly following our husbands, pastors, ideals of feminism, or the group of girls headed to mall to get their nails done and who can’t make a trip to the bathroom by themselves, why don’t we think for ourselves? Don’t get me wrong, when it comes to our husbands and pastors, there is a level of submission and following we must do. But it is not mindless following. It is calculated. We choose our husbands based upon our beliefs, not theirs. “I do not follow my beliefs because of my husband, I follow my husband because of my beliefs.” Although, now that I am married, I follow my husband because it is right to do so. We choose which church we want to become members of therefore, which elders we want to submit to, based upon our beliefs. Of course if you are married, your husband chooses your church, hopefully but not necessarily, with your counsel.

We must open our minds and think. Do you know how we do that? We open our Bibles and read. We yearn for knowledge. We pray that God give us thoughts according to wisdom and coherence.

Have you ever thought about the implications and consequences of your beliefs? Every belief has an implication. Every thought has a consequence.

Homework for the week Think about your beliefs. Do they end up with false conclusions? Or do they end up at God’s Word, which is the only standard by which we can safely measure our beliefs.

With the last few posts about our journey into paedobaptism, I believe there has been some misunderstanding.  It was not our intention to announce that we were dissolving our membership at our current church.  We simply believed that our closer friends, who are generally the ones who read our blogs, deserved an explanation as to why they may not see us at church regularly.  We are in the process of *looking* for a church which agrees with our heart on this issue.  We are still members at our beloved current church until further notice.  Also, if  or when we do dissolve our membership, we will announce it in a way that is more personal.  Our hearts are breaking over this. But we don’t know what else to do.  We don’t know how else to handle it.  We believe we may have made some people angry/frustrated/disappointed in us.  Again, we are truly heartbroken about this. Neither Josh nor I slept much last night because we were too grieved at the prospect that we have let someone in particular down who we love and respect so much. We understand that not everyone will understand, or support us, let alone agree with us.  It’s possible that we may not have handled this situation in the best way possible, but we did think it through and we tried the best we knew how.  We’re sorry if we’ve caused any unnecessary pain, but please know that we’re hurting too.

Dear Friends,

Out of our love for you, Josh and I want to make you aware of our most recent family developments.  Again, know that we love you all, this does NOT affect our fellowship with anyone who may disagree with us.  We pray there will be understanding and charity.  This was NOT an easy decision.  Many tears and sleepless nights were involved.  I refer you once again to my hubby’s blog for details.

Dear Friends,

As a family we are going through some theological struggles right now, please pray for us. Pray that the Spirit guides us into truth.  I have shed many tears over this and want all our friends to know that this is NOT something we take lightly. To find out more, I will refer you to my hubby’s blog.

We named our newest son Owen. Here is one of the reasons why. May the thrice holy Lord see fit to use this quote from John Owen to convict and encourage His saints as He did with me. I know it’s long, but I took the time to type it because I know the Spirit can use it to bless someone who takes the time to read it.

“We must hate all sin, as sin, and not just that which troubles us.  Love for Christ, because He went to the cross, and hate for sin that sent Him there, is the solid foundation for true spiritual mortification.  To seek mortification only because a sin troubles us proceeds from self-love.  Why do you with all diligence and earnestness seek to mortify this sin?  Because it troubles you and takes away your peace, and fills your heart with sorrow, trouble, and fear, and because you do not have rest through it?  Yes, but, friend, you have neglected prayer and reading!  You have been vain and loose in your conversation with other things.  These are just as sinful as the one that troubles you.  Jesus Christ bled for them also.  Why do you not set yourself against them?  If you hate sin as sin, and every evil way, you would be watchful against everything that grieves and disquiets the Spirit of God.  You would not be concerned only about the sin that upsets your own soul!  It is evident that you fight against this sin merely because it troubles you.  If it did not bother your conscience you would let it alone.  If it did not bother you,  you would not bother it.   Do you think God will help you in such a hypocritical effort?  Do you think that the Holy Spirit will help in the treachery and falsehood of your own spirit?  Do you think He will free you from this so you are free to go and commit another sin which grieves Him?

‘No’, says God, ‘if I free him from this lust, I will not hear from him anymore, and he will be content in his failure.’  We must not be concerned only with that which troubles us, but with all that troubles God.  God’s work is to have full victory, and universal obedience, not just the victory over the sins that trouble our soul.

‘Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God’ (2 Cor. 7:1).

If we will do anything, we must do everything.  So, then, our need is not only an intense opposition to this or that particular lust, but a universal humble frame and temper of heart that watches over every evil, and seeks the performance of every duty that is pleasing to God.”

John Owen pp. 50-51, The Mortification of Sin

Aaron (3yo in 6 days!) has been showing a greater interest in praying this past week. He’s been asking to say the blessing before we eat.  Here is his first completely self-formulated prayer…

“Thank you for this food. Thank you for Madison (his friend), and Emmie and Mommy, and Gabe. Thank you for this food. Please help everybody not to be stuck. And thank you, in Jesus name, Amen.”

I especially liked his next prayer…

“Thank you for this food. Please help us to obey without complaining. Please help us to be like Jesus. *then he mumbled for about a minute and I couldn’t hear what he was saying*In Jesus name, Amen.”

I get discouraged sometimes at how my kids treat each other. But then don’t we as parents fail in this area too? Josh and I have been noticing with our boys, that there have been moments recently when they have been making obviously conscious attempts to treat each other kindly. Aaron wants to pray. Gabe asked forgivness for something of his own volition last night.  I have been wondering for quite sometime now whether God will ever bless the efforts Josh and I are putting forth to raise godly children. I am encouraged to know that He is. It is a slow process. But then, so is my own sanctification. It took me 17 1/2 years to have a conciousness of my sin and have godly repentance.  And I was raised in a very stable God-honoring Christian home.  I don’t know why I expect every administration of discipline to single-handedly regenerate my kids.  I need to trust the Holy Spirit to work in my kids’ hearts when it is time. And patiently do my mommy job in the mean time.