Today Caleb and I stayed home from church. He still has just enough of a cough that he didn’t need to be in the nursery, and I can’t say that I’m not still contagious myself. So we stayed home.

First, let me just say that it was weird. Since our church only has one pianist, if one of the kids is sick, Stephen usually stays home with them. To be honest, it’s not a solution I’m 100% happy with, but it is the most workable of all our options. Every time he’s stayed home while I’ve gone to church, I feel bad that he has to miss. Today I got a taste of what it’s really like.

I miss church!

I am so thankful for the pastor that God sent us. He has been such a blessing, and I have been learning so much lately. The past few weeks he’s been doing a series on what young people face today. It’s been absolutely fascinating to hear him outline how to decide if something is appropriate. The first two weeks were on music, and last week and the week before were on dress and modesty. Stephen said tonight’s message was on dancing. I’ll have to listen to the recording later since I missed it. I really appreciate that Preacher is doing this series. As a teen, my excuse was often, “I don’t do ____ because Baptists don’t do that.” It would have been nice to be able to explain the why behind things.

I can’t wait until Wednesday. It feels strange not having been in church, and I miss the preaching!

It never ceases to amaze me how God uses some of the most unlikely ways to encourage me.

The other day I was searching the internet for something. I clicked one of the link results, and ended up at a blog post titled “Encouragement for mothers of young children”.

God’s timing was perfect. That’s not remotely what I was searching for, but was a nice reminder for me anyway.

My quiet time lately has been a struggle. For a long time, my favorite time of day to spend with the Lord has been first thing in the morning. It still is. Now that Caleb is getting older though, he is becoming more and more of an early riser. It’s been a struggle for me to get up early enough to be able to have my quiet time before either of the boys get out of bed. It is definitely motivation to get in bed at a reasonable time at night though!

What really stood out to me though was a comment the author made about how we can still have our quiet time, even if it’s at odd hours. My quiet time never seems to be the same if it’s not first thing in the morning, but it doesn’t have to be any less sweet at another time of day.

I’m still going to aim to be up before the kids, though I’m wondering how that’s going to work once Little Miss makes her appearance. Either way though, the reminders in that blog post were wonderful.

If you’d like to read the post, it is here. I don’t know anything about the blog author and haven’t read any of her other posts, but that particular post really spoke to me.

Encouragement for mothers of young children

July 10, 2004 – a day that forever changed my life. My spiritual birthday.

I remember that evening like it was yesterday. It was a Saturday night, and Stephen had left for our men’s prayer meeting at our church. I asked him not to be late, since it was not uncommon for him to be home later than 9:30 or even 10.

After I put Samuel (then a baby) in his crib, I sat down to read. I had been miserable lately, struggling with something. If I’d been honest with myself, I would’ve known what the problem was. . .but it took me a long time to figure out what that problem really was. Eventually I became frustrated with the book. Even the fictional characters in the book had joy in their lives.

Two months earlier I had become a first time mommy. Despite loving motherhood, I was absolutely miserable. I never would have admitted it to anyone, but I was. I couldn’t understand why I was still so empty when I had everything I had ever wanted.

Finally I’d had enough and threw the book across the room. I couldn’t read any more about someone else’s joy when I had none.

So I sat there. It was dark and it was storming outside. Stephen wasn’t home yet, and it was getting close to 10 pm. I started to worry that something had happened. My biggest fear was that the Rapture had happened and that my husband was gone. Stephen had just gotten saved a few months ago, and the changes in his life were unbelievable. I was so scared that Christ had returned for my husband and son and that I’d been left behind. I didn’t even have the courage to get up and check Samuel’s crib to see if he was still there. I was absolutely terrified.

Then the door opened and Stephen walked into the house. I pounced on him. “I have got to talk to you NOW.”

He took me to our bedroom and sat down with his Bible. He started reading me verses about accepting Christ, but I just kept thinking, “I’m already saved! I don’t need this!”

That’s when the Holy Spirit spoke loud and clear in my heart. “Melody, you’re lost.” It was the first time in my life that I ever remember realizing that I was dying and on my way to a devil’s Hell. What a realization.

Stephen knelt with me beside our bed and prayed with me. I just sobbed. I will never forget that feeling of relief as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I had finally asked the Lord to become my personal Savior, after years of pretending and convincing myself that I already was saved. When I opened my eyes after praying, I happened to notice the clock. 11:11 pm. Even though it was late, we called our pastor to tell him my news.

It was strange and a little scary going to church the next day. I’d been so involved in religion – living such a hypocritical lie – that it was hard to admit that the church pianist and Sunday School teacher had just gotten saved. But you know what? It was worth it.

I was baptized less than a month later, on my 25th birthday. What joy I had to be able to proclaim to the world that I too was a follower of Christ!

So today, 5 years later, I am humbled as I look back. Amazed that God would care to save a hypocrite like me. Amazed at what God has done in our lives. Humbled that God would love me so much to send His Son to die – for me.

Where has modesty gone? It seems like when you look for modest clothing, it’s either expensive, poorly made, or frumpy. It is so difficult to find clothes that are both beautiful and modest.

I was looking for a post I was working on the other day, and came across this post that I wrote while pregnant with Caleb. Amazing how I still feel the same way!

It absolutely amazes me how hard it is to find modest clothing any more. I’ve found ways to get around the immodest clothes that seem to be everywhere (sewing my own skirts, wearing tank tops or using hankies or silk scarves under low necklines), but it’s still a challenge.

I’ve been shopping online for maternity clothes. Wow. It seems like the skirts that are available are all way too short, and many of the necklines would need something underneath to make them more modest. The problem is – most of the maternity tank tops I’ve seen aren’t high enough to make them worth using as a more modest layer.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind sewing my own maternity clothes. I’ve been working on a couple of skirts lately that are drawstring waist so that I’ll be able to wear them as long as possible. Unfortunately, modest maternity patterns aren’t so easy to find. I do like to window shop a bit though to look for a few pieces that could fill out my wardrobe, and then try to find my favorites cheaper (like on ebay or at thrift stores).

Where has modesty gone? I know that it’s a problem with most ready-made clothing today, but I wasn’t expecting to find such immodest maternity clothes.

Now, if we could just get some manufacturers to produce clothing that is modest, flattering, AND reasonably priced!

Years ago, I had a bread machine. Then Stephen bought me a stand mixer for Christmas. I used the mixer so much that I eventually gave away the bread machine.

Then last year, I broke my mixer. For some reason, stand mixers don’t like it when you jam plastic spoons in between the dough hooks.

I went back to mixing bread by hand. I’ve been able to get bread so inexpensively with coupons recently that I haven’t been making it much. But the few times I have, I’ve really missed my mixer.

Then I got together with my friend OldPathsMom. She had found a bread machine at Goodwill for under $4, so she bought it. Since she already had a bread machine, she gave the new one to me.

I tried it tonight. It squeaks a little bit, but that should be easily remedied. I am so thankful for it!

The recipe I tried in it is a multigrain recipe made with our honey and quail eggs, olive oil, oats, oat and wheat flour, but no white flour. It’s got great flavor but it’s always had a rough texture. I’ve been playing with the recipe for over a year, trying to get it absolutely perfect. That’s why I’ve not ever posted it here because it hasn’t been ready to share yet.

Now, with the bread machine, it kneaded it so well that it felt every bit as soft as a loaf of white dough. I wanted to make breadsticks with it, so I took the dough out after the knead cycle. The flavor was fantastic, the texture was great, and the breadsticks turned out wonderfully.

I’m happy to have a bread machine again!

I was able to talk with an old friend tonight. She lost a baby girl almost a year ago, after she and her husband tried for years to get pregnant.

It was strangely comforting to talk with someone who’s been there (and the fact that it was recent helped too). It was healing. I’ve talked with women about it before – but that was before I actually experienced it myself. This was exactly what I needed. This woman just exudes God’s grace – she is amazing. I stopped her to ask how she was doing, and she ended up being a comfort to me.

I want to be that way to other people – I want the aroma of God’s grace to completely permeate the air around me.

Lord willing, someday, I will be.

My bloggy friend Karen has a wonderful post on her blog about modesty. She does a great job putting it into words, so I figured I’d link to it. Hope it’s helpful to someone!

For My Daughters – What is Modest Apparel?

1 Thessalonians 5:19
Quench not the Spirit.

Why do we feel such a need to be so full of ourselves that we quench God’s Holy Spirit? How do we not realize that we hinder His work? Can we be so blinded?

There was a time in church a couple years ago, when something happened and I reacted with a horrible attitude. I don’t remember what it was about, but I remember the Holy Spirit’s still small voice. “It’s your fault that I’ve been quenched.” Everything about that church service was dead. It was all my fault, and I knew it. It was an awful feeling, and one that Lord willing, I will never experience again.

Since then, I’ve been in services where it’s been obvious God has been moving. To quote a former pastor, “God shows up.” But I’ve also been in services that are so dead that it’s a struggle to even get through the song service.

I don’t want to quench the Holy Spirit. I want to be so Spirit-filled that people look at me and know there’s something different about me. I want it to be blatantly obvious that I’m a Christian. I want to walk so closely with God that people can say “ask Melody to pray about it. When she prays, God answers.”

There’s a family bluegrass group that Stephen grew up with called the Rochester Family. Their latest album has a song on it called Send the Rain (there’s a short clip of the song on that page. It’s #7 on the Following the Leader album). One of the lines in the chorus is, “Send the Holy Ghost in power.” But how can we ask God to send His Holy Spirit – how can we pray for revival – while at the very same time, we’re quenching that very same Holy Spirit?

We pray for revival, and we beg and plead for God to move in our church services. But are we truly sick and tired of the me-centered lives we’re living?

I know I am.

Lord, please send the rain. We need it. I need it.

You know, I learned something about quilting these past few days. I love to quilt, but I’m not that great at it. *grin* I told my mother-in-law tonight that it’s the piecework that I really love. The quilting itself, and the binding, not so much.

I ended up machine quilting it. It took me about a day and a half to completely quilt it. THAT was nice. For the stars, I did stitch in the ditch. I’m not good at that. For the sashing, I just outlined it, using my presser foot as a guide. That part looks a lot better. Stephen picked me up some matching thread, so the navy sashing has navy quilting and the burgundy border has burgundy quilting. I used the colors in the bobbin thread too. Cream would have looked nicer, but I was worried about the bobbin thread coming up from the bottom of the quilt and showing on the top.

Then the binding went on today. There was enough left over from my last quilt, but it was too narrow. I took the leftover backing material and cut binding from that.

I learned quite a few lessons making this quilt. It’s not perfect, by any means. There was some quilting I thought about ripping out, but I’m going to leave it that way. Here’s why. This quilt is an object lesson for me.

Making the stars took a lot of time, and learning to sew the triangles accurately was difficult. I rushed through a lot of it. I also spent a lot of that time praying. Not for any one specific request, really, I just used that quiet, creative time praying about things.

Then I put the quilt away for a while. Partly because I wasn’t sure how to finish it and partly because I didn’t have the supplies I wanted to finish it.

After that, I got it out and was able to work on it more and was able to order the fabric to finish it. And mostly, I just decided to use what I had. I like it that way.

From a distance, it’s beautiful. I love it. Close up, I see the flaws. I see corners that don’t match, triangles that look funny, and blocks that don’t quite line up. I was able to hide some of that with creative quilting. But some of the other quilting is obviously not straight and could have been done better.

It makes me think about my prayer life. How many times have I set out to pray, and yet didn’t finish? Or prayed, but didn’t believe that God would really answer my prayer? And what about the times when I just prayed haphazardly, just like when I pieced together triangles without being as careful as I could have? Yes, the quilt is beautiful, but if I had taken more time and been more careful, the results would have been truly breathtaking.

It really is an object lesson for me. So, because of that, I intend to leave it the way it is. Crooked stitching, mismatched corners, wrinkled backing and all.

And it is also a reminder for me to try harder. When I make my next quilt, especially if it is a special quilt, I will take my time and do my best. The end result is worth it.

Lord willing, I’ll be able to say the same thing about my prayer life.

I was worrying about something, and then I heard my 4-year-old singing along with the cd.

“believing like a child. . .God will provide. . .”

How’s that for a powerful reminder?