Always Thinking

Mommy: "See Maggie, 6 is greater than 4. Do you understand?"
Maggie: "No, I don't understand... why is 6 better than 4?"

From Justin Taylor's Blog- Offspring of Pride

Joe Thorn points to Puritan Richard Mayo's sermon on The Prevention and Cure of Spiritual Pride. Mayo says: “It is a big-bellied sin; most of the sins that are in the world are the offspring and issue of pride.” Joe summarizes some of the sins that pride gives birth to:

1. Covetousness - because you believe you deserve something more than others.
2. Ungodly ambition - because you believe that you are most qualified, and the idea of someone else being preferred over you is an insult to your perceived worth.
3. Boasting - because everyone should know who you are and what you have accomplished.
4. Contention - because in picking fights you feel a sense of superiority over those who may (or may not) be in error.
5. Unthankfulness - because you deserve everything you get!
6. Selfishness - because others do not!
7. Self-deceit - because it’s easier to believe you are something, when in fact you are nothing.
8. A judgmental attitude - because you believe the errors of others are much more serious than your own.
9. Gossip - because you look so much better when telling others how awful someone else is. Mayo said that the proud “endeavor to build their own praise upon the ruins of others’ reputation.”
10. Complaining - because God should have consulted you before orchestrating the events of your day/life.
11. Hypocrisy - because you must hide the truth, your own failures, in order to avoid shame and accumulate praise.

See Justin Taylor's Blog: Between Two Worlds; He has another great article on handling criticism.

Switching to Home

Well after much prayer, counsel and consideration, our family has decided to homeschool this year. I am very excited about the opportunity to pour into my children's heads and hearts. I know at the very least the Lord will use this time to grow me and draw me closer to Him. But I also pray that the girls will grow in knowledge and wisdom - true wisdom- fear of the Lord! They are sponges with an incessant desire to learn new things! I think we're going to have lots of fun. They are very excited too! We haven't officially begun since the girls' last day of school was July 2nd, but I've had to give them "work" since they couldn't wait! We are going to be using the Sonlight Curriculum. Please pray for us as we make this transition. And if you have any tips, book recommendations, suggestions, etc. please post 'em!!!!

A little more Xalapa

So this turned out to not be a zoo, but it was by far the LUSHEST park I've ever been to.

The girls and I with the lovely Lupita Bigurra!

Anna & Claire chilling at the Villa's home

Miguel (missionary to Spain from Monterrey) & Chuck (associate pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas) blessed IBUC with some evangelistic training, a men's retreat & some preaching! The Villa's blessed all of us with an incredible lunch.

Our final Sunday in Xalapa we invited the church over for lunch. It was so well attended we ran out of food :)! Here the jovenes are trying out Extreme Jenga! We miss you all!!!

We had a busy, but somehow wonderfully refreshing 6 weeks in Xalapa. These posts do not do our trip justice because so many people and places are missing (because we are horrible at remembering to take pictures!!!). We praise the Lord for loving us so tangibly throughout the entire trip! The sweet body of believers at IBUC, the Moody's, the Brooks', the College Life Dudes, Torie, Miguel & Chuck, the Bigurra Families, Sra. Francis - thank you all for loving us, encouraging us, praying for us and mostly for glorifying God through your humble lives of love and service. May His grace continue to shine through all of us!

La Hacienda de Santa Ana

The ceiling of the church right next to Santa Ana's house

The church

Maggie with Bates Moody! We miss you (and the rest of the Moody family:)!

Though you might not see Jono peering out at you from Santa Ana's house, it's still worth the trip.

Elaine

More Xalapa

Elaine with Daddy at the beach in Casitas.

The family that lent us the house in Xalapa also invited us to join them at their beach house!

Our friends the Moody's joined us for several weeks in Xalapa. Marcus led an outreach to a local village. He and a team of local doctors provided medical consulations for the community. Here he is sharing about everyone's need for the only true Savior - Jesus!

Faithful servants from IBUC Xalapa & DBC led a time with the children at the village.

Sunday at IBUC Xalapa - a sweet and faithful group of believers that we love dearly!!!

A little glimpse of our 6 weeks in Xalapa, Veracruz

This is the house we were lent for our stay in Xalapa. It was perfect! Thanks Lupita!!!

Check out this yard! Our kids enjoyed many many hours playing here!

Just beautiful!

Here was our view from the living room balcony.

Our picnic with the Hernandez family at the Botanical Gardens. Very fun & beautiful!

Pride

As you may have noticed from my last post, the Lord is really making me deal with the root of all my sins: Pride. Embarassing to admit, and not new news to me, my pride is horrendous, offensive & very much alive. My personality (tend to be a listener, kinda quiet, fairly nice) makes it SO easy to hide. Well, I don't want to hide anymore. I want to be changed in the depths of my heart to be like Christ - the humble Servant. Not fearing men, but fearing God. Pray for me!

Along with the Bible, here are some things that I've been reading on the subject:
The Glorious Pursuit: Embracing the Virtues of Christ by Gary Thomas
Humility by Andrew Murray
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Humilty: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (chapter called The Great Sin)
When People are Big and God is Small by Edward T. Welch

as well as listening (or reading) to:
John Piper's sermons on Humility

If you have any other recommendations, PLEASE share!!!
Thanks,
Melissa

Quoting Gary Thomas from the Glorious Pursuit

"Pride is that potent, that destructive, that abusive, and that offensive. Relationally, there are few things so obnoxious as self-righteousness. Spiritually, there are few things so injurious or even lethal as pride.

The irony is, the more we experience the character of Christ, the more natural reason we'll have to become prideful...If we're not careful, spiritual growth can sabotage itself."

Happy Birthday Anna

Last Friday Anna turned 7 years old!!! Unbelievable.

Here are some photos from the festivities.

Tacos

People are always asking me what do we eat. Mexican and Americans are curious as to how our family eats in Monterrey. I admit that our eating and my cooking have changed in the past couple of years. It's very practical to make a variety of guisados (usually meat & veggies in a sauce meant to be eaten on a tortilla) and serve them with beans and a salad. So naturally the girls have gotten used to usually having tortillas at meal times. But sometimes they cross the boundaries in what makes an acceptable taco. Recent examples:

Tortilla w/ Rice & Mashed Potatoes
Tortilla w/ Crumbled Tostada Shell
Tortilla w/ Spagetti
and pictured: Tortilla w/ Oatmeal

Maggie & Anna All Dressed Up & Nowhere to Go

Elaine's Words

Here's Elaine repeating a few things.

Elaine

Sweet Elaine 6 months ago. She is now 1 1/2! She continues to be generally sweet natured & flexible. But she definitely holds her own with her big sisters. She will protest when she doesn't like something they (or I) are doing to her. She toddles about all day asking for whatever food item pops into her head. Her motto is "One Word to Rule Them All." She will repeat a word over and over and over and over and over until you finally give in. There's only so many times you can hear: "cookie, cookie, cookie, cookie, cookie" or "cereal, cereal, cereal, cereal, cereal" until you decide what's it going to hurt to give it to her. She is saying tons of words, and will repeat almost anything you say. I also think she has finally figured out that each of her sisters have a different name. For awhile she has called them all Anna.

Video of Claire dancing?

Claire

Here is a post on Claire about 6 months ago. She has calmed down some since that post, which is nice. But she is definitely a handful! She loves to explore and find new things to destroy. Recently I found her in the bathroom rubbing toothpaste on her legs (for it's exfoliating purposes, of course). She is always waiting for me to get occupied so she can get into trouble.

But she is also very sweet. She loves to take care of Elaine & "help" me. I am never lacking for conversation either, because she is a chatterbox! Her insights are endless (and usually hysterical). She has recently entered a scared stage. She has an incredible imagination and wakes up frightened several nights a week. The other night she wouldn't go to bed alone after I made shadows on her headboard. She is also very attached to me (or Wes) when we are around groups of people. So people tend to think of her as being shy!

Maggie

All that I posted a year ago about Maggie still remains the same! She has really matured in this last year though. It's been so sweet to see her grow in many areas! She continues to be the best helper a mommy could ask for. She is a very quick learner. And I think she may have Wes's semi-photographic memory! She has an incredible attention span for her age. She sometimes spends hours looking at books, making a project or drawing.

One of my very favorite things about Maggie is her ability to empathize with others. She easily cries at hearing a sad story or thinking about bad things happening to others. And she really wants others to know about God. She frequently talks about how much she loves God and wants others to love Him too. She's so special!

Retreat Rocked!!

Read my post on our Serve Site to hear about the Retreat. It was beyond amazing. And my workshop went well. It has already opened the doors for me to develop deeper relationships with several women!

Anna

Here is last year's update on Anna. She has certainly changed and remained the same! She will be 7 years old next month (yikes, when did that happen?)! She is still generally sweet and gentle in nature. She is still pretty flexible & laid-back. She still LOVES LOVES puppies. Also, she still really loves to be comfortable & looks for any opportunity to wear her p.j.'s. But somewhere during this past year she has moved away from loving pink & frilly things to liking things that are cool, such as: rock stars, guitars and super heroes. She says she wants a puppy & an electric guitar for Christmas:)! She's so funny!

She tends to be our quirkiest child. She pretty much will only drink water, or occasionally fresh orange juice. She likes to eat the same snack at school almost everyday. She loves cucumbers and will eat a whole one in a single sitting (especially if it's covered in lime juice & chili powder). She also loves books! She can read, but prefers to be read to. She loves to draw more and more everyday. And has also began writing stories. She's quite creative!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 1 yr. 1 month anniversary Socks n' Shoes!!!! My-oh-my, how time flies!!!

To celebrate I'll be posting an update on each of the girls... hopefully next week... since our 2nd annual Women's Retreat is this weekend and I'm putting the finishing touches on my portion of a workshop. Pray that it would go well & that we would all learn from it! And pray for Wes as he takes care of the girls for the weekend (what a husband!!!!)!!! THANKS!