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A Sweet Sunday

This morning when we pulled out of our driveway and headed to church, we got to do so as a family of four. What a sweet thing to take our baby girl to Sunday church for the first time! God gave us a lot of grace and our morning was much calmer than I thought it would be. We were only five minutes late and we still got to make the obligatory stop at Shipley’s Donuts.

Here’s Annabeth in her first Sunday dress. I can’t even describe the joy I felt when I got her all dressed. She was the most precious thing since Jackson on his first Sunday. Do I need to tell you how much I love those Mary Jane socks?

Ready to go!

While Curtis was in the Shipley’s getting our breakfast, Jackson asked me about my wedding rings. For some reason I thought it would be fun to try to explain marriage to my three-year-old. I said, “One day you’ll find a pretty girl who loves Jesus and loves you and you’ll marry her.” Then his face lit up and he asked excitedly, “Who is it? Who is it? Who is it, Mommy?” He must have said it ten times. I told him I didn’t know, but Jesus already has her picked out. I hope I remember to tell that story one day at his rehearsal dinner. Okay, I have to change the subject now before I get emotional and have to admit to my husband that I’m crying about our son getting married.

On the way home, we were right behind my parents’ car and I thought about all the years that my original family of four drove that same route home in Dad’s grey Impala. And now there we were with our family of four. It was simultaneously weird and wonderful. I could go on about how the years will pass like the blink of an eye before my son and daughter are doing the same thing with whoever it is Jesus has picked out for them. But I changed the subject, remember?

Here’s my little two-month-old with Big Pink Bear. She didn’t cry this time!

In fact, we got smiles! These are the first real ones I’ve ever caught on camera.

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Friday in New Orleans

Rich sent me these pictures from New Orleans tonight. Melissa has been gently encouraging Mom to carry a camera for the benefit of the blog. When Rich saw Mom pull out her rinky dink camera at lunch to capture all the fun, he intervened. Thanks, Rich!

Here are my Uncle Tony, Mom, Aunt Cherie, and cousin Carleigh. Some of you prayed for my cousin Carleigh when she was born premature. She is obviously doing great now!

Upon arrival, they headed straight to Brennan’s for lunch.

And bananas foster for dessert, of course.

A glimpse of the Friday night session.

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Esther Poll

Hi Siestas! Several people have suggested that we do Esther for our Siesta Summer Bible Study. I’ve added a poll to our sidebar to see how many of you have already taken it. Would you mind taking a second to give us your answer? The poll will expire in a few days.

Also, I’m excited to tell you that our LPM web site is getting a much needed makeover very soon. My hero, Curtis Jones, is working on that project. (Picture me looking very relieved.) And we have changes in the works for our blog, too. Yeah! Will you pray for us as we go through this process? I will speak for myself and say that I need God to make me much smarter than I am when it comes to all of this. Thanks, sisters! We want to serve you with excellence!

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G.P. Are You With Me?

We’ve been asked a few times lately what in the world G.P. means. (Beth says it in the Esther videos.) G.P. stands for God’s Property, which is from Kirk Franklin’s song “Stomp.” It’s an LPM favorite. God’s Property is actually the name of the choir that partnered with him on that song. This is not great quality, but here’s the video for you. Enjoy!

Glory, glory!

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When the Mask Comes Off

When I was a teenager, I would look at the other kids at church and think I had absolutely nothing in common with them. They must all love being there every Sunday and Wednesday and never fight their parents about going. They must never wish they could do all the things their friends at school were doing. They must never sit on the row and be insecure because they weren’t sure if their church friends were going to talk to them that day. They must have it all together.

There was even one day in Sunday school in 10th grade when we divided into stations to talk about issues teenagers faced. I went to the station on peer pressure and to my absolute shock, I was the only one! That further reinforced my belief that I alone was being pulled in by the undertow. Over time, with no one I felt I could relate to on the shore, I gave in to the strong current.

What grieves me now is that other kids were going through some of the same stuff I was, at least to an extent, but no one was talking about it. I didn’t know. Many of us felt isolated in our secret struggles, whatever they might have been. Late in my senior year (which was the low point for me), I was at a party with some friends and a girl from my church was there. I didn’t know her very well at the time. She told my boyfriend to spill some dirt on me because it was killing her to think I could be so perfect. Are you kidding me? Partly because of who my mom was, and partly because it’s in our nature to think everyone else has it altogether but us, she had this very, very false perception that I didn’t struggle.

Her words haunted me for the next year. I felt so bad that she had the wrong idea and that I had allowed the masquerade to persist. Eventually, the guilt got to me and I invited this friend to meet me for lunch. During our time together I was finally able to take off the mask. At that point I was a freshman in college and the Lord was delivering me out of the pit I had been in. Thankfully, I was also able to share the work He was currently doing in my life.

That friend was one of the first people I ever shared those struggles with. It was not easy for me, but it felt so good to be real with her. It marked a turning point in my life toward authenticity. I’ve found that it does me no good to surround myself with pretenders and it does others no good for me to be a pretender.

Two weeks ago Curtis and I were at a very low place in our parenting experience. Jackson’s behavior had brought us to our knees and we felt hopeless. Annabeth was at my parents’ house and we were driving in the car with him to Wednesday night church. Both of us were in tears because we were so frustrated. I asked Curt if this is how it was going to be for the next 15 years – us hating ourselves because we feel like failures and not even recognizing who we’d become. Neither one of us wakes up in the morning hoping we can spend the whole day disciplining our three-year-old, you know? We were seriously at our wits end.

Curt, trying to console me a bit, told me that his best friend had recently asked him how things were going with our two. Curt had told him that things were fine. His friend’s reply was, “Thank God. If you’d told me things were good, I don’t know what I would have done.” Our friends are also in the trenches with their newborn and their two-year-old son. What if Curt had told him everything was great even though it wasn’t? All four of us would have felt alone and like failures.

That night after Bible study, our Sunday school teacher and his wife summoned all the couples from our class over to a table. In tears, he shared a struggle they were having with their three-year-old daughter. They were at their wits end. They felt hopeless. Like failures. He literally said they wondered if this is how it was going to be for the next 15 years.

So we’re not the only ones? We’re not the only ones!

Curt raised his hand and said, “Us too!”

We were able to spend some time praying for one another. I can’t tell you how encouraged Curtis and I felt. We had walked into church that night in despair and we left with hope.

You know what’s crazy? That very night we saw a change in our son. And since then, his heart has been a little softer and a little quicker to respond to discipline. We saw the hand of God move in our situation – from our friends’ vulnerability that let us know we weren’t alone to our kid’s softened heart.

People need us to be real. Of course, I don’t mean “real” to the point that we’re trying to shock others with our sin nature. We don’t need to let it all hang out. I have struck out many times on this. We must be Spirit-filled to walk the fine line.

When we’re authentic, two things happen. One, we encourage others who are struggling in the same way. And two, we allow ourselves to be encouraged by others who have been there.

I was once an incredibly self-righteous person. I was proud of being good. Then God let me eat it and I saw what was really in my heart. There was nothing good there. I learned to surrender my weak self to Jesus every single day and let Him change my heart. If I stopped doing that, I’d turn right back into my old self. That is the scariest thought ever. The stakes are especially high now that I’m a wife and a mother. So I no longer care to portray a false sense of goodness or perfection. I want to show others that He is good and He has is all together. He can take a heart that craves sin and make it thirst for righteousness. He can take a Failure and make her a Victor. He can take our struggles and turn them into strengths. That’s what He’s done for me, what He’s doing for me, and what He’ll keep doing for me until He takes me home.

For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:5-7)

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Big and High

While my kids are taking siestas, I wanted to give you some new pictures of Annabeth at six weeks old. I just figured out how to get them to sleep at the same time and I’m a new woman. Praise the Lord.

I took these first three earlier today since she was looking so cute in her first little Polo dress. It’s a little big on her still, but that’s okay because baby clothes only truly fit for a day. Daddy came home for lunch to watch a little March Madness and he was very taken with his littlest girl in her pink dress.

Sister was slightly more tolerant of Big Pink Bear this time.

She started smiling about a week ago. We get a few more each day.

These were after her Tuesday night Bible study debut.

This is what happens when daddies help fold the laundry. Little boy undies end up on someone’s pretty little head.

Yes, I did just post 10 pictures of my baby on this blog. Sorry. I have a sickness and it is called motherhood.

A few days ago Jackson was giving Annabeth some kisses on her head. I told him that right now her hair is short like his, but since she’s a girl, one day she’ll have long hair. He said, “Oh. Big! Big hair! High!” Apparently, he gets it.

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The Life of a Minister’s Wife

Part One

The Life of a Ministers Wife – part 1 from stephen proctor on Vimeo.

Part Two

The Life of a Ministers Wife – part 2 from stephen proctor on Vimeo.

Part Three

The Life of a Ministers Wife – part 3 from stephen proctor on Vimeo.

Many thanks to Stephen Proctor for these videos and to Rich Kalonick for our recap video. Thank you for serving us with your gifts!

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Ministers’ Wives Weekend Recap


LPL Minsters’ Wives Nashville TN from Rich Kalonick on Vimeo.

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Use This Post for Comments

We’re having some issues with comments on the video post. If you’d like to comment, you can do so here.

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The Inheritance Bible Study


The Inheritance Bible Study from Debra Parker on Vimeo.

We concluded our Inheritance Bible study series last night and wanted to give you a glimpse of what we’ve been up to this semester. Many thanks to our Siesta Debra Parker for capturing these pictures and making this recap video for the blog.

*For the life of me I cannot figure out why, when I post these videos, the link to comments disappears. I’ve tried to fix it with no luck. I’m so sorry! I’ll open up another post for comments. -Amanda

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