Without You

I'll be showing this song to our youth tonight as we go through our study on Moses. We've been talking about how everything in Moses' life has led to his eventual purpose that God had planned. Then, we talked about how he was called to that purpose. Tonight, we're going to talk about the excuses that Moses had. Let me say that I use the word "excuses" lightly because I look at Moses and see the same reservations to follow God's instruction that I have in my own life. Moses was face to face with the Living God and still had every reason why he shouldn't do what God asked. He felt inadequate. He was probably scared.

What's amazing to me is that God is standing right there in front of him and he still has doubts, fears, and reservations. But, I think looking into it, it's partly because he doesn't want to let God down. He is clearly showing reverence and awe to God. He serves God and desires to please him, but doesn't feel that he's capable of the task God has given.

I like how this song says that we know we have a God who lives within us, yet we still want to hear from Him to know He's there. I think along with it's theme to seek God's presence in everything, it shows us just how dependent we truly are. Moses knew that God was there and exactly what He was capable of, but it's like he wanted to hear God affirm that he had no reason to doubt in the ways that he did.

I think often we try to let our excuses drive us away from what God desires us to do, but when we really know it's God's purpose for our lives, He intercedes and outweighs our excuses. Sometimes our desire to be in God's presence means stepping out into the unknown with Him. It might scare us a little and we might have reasons why we shouldn't, but when we step out with Him, we know that He's there because He carries us through.

Fall Picture Updates

Here is our scarecrow that I thought was pretty decent for our first try! It was fun putting it together although it probably took us longer to get the corn stalks tied to the hay than it did getting the scarecrow put together.

These are our pumpkins we carved. The bat cat is Kim's and the house in mine. Seriously, though, don't ever do a house. The next day, my house collapsed in on itself.

Kim made these cupcakes for the Thursday night that Racine does its trick or treating. They were pretty awesome!

Kim made these letters for Elise's room to go on the wall. I thought they were cool. We bought the wooden letters from Crafts 2000 then some scrapbook paper. She glued the paper then cut around the letters. Then, she put some border and extras on them. She's a creative ole Kimcat!

This picture is still a little unfinished. Originally, we were going to leave it like this. I like the lights the way they are, however, ideally we wanted them on the top story roof too. But, my fear of heights prevented me from doing so. Then, we found a handy gadget at Lowe's that lets you put the hangers and lights up with a long pole. So, I'm going to try doing that. I still have to get on the top of the porch roof which is terrible considering I'm a wimp when it comes to heights, but I think I can do it!

Here is my Rudolph I put together last night. I saw these things at the mall recently (obviously, much more well built) and wanted to try my hand at it. The worst part is not having a lathe or drill press, but I worked with what I had. I had to go primitive on tapering the legs..I used a hatchet! I know, call me stupid, but it worked for something like this. My only big oops with it, that in the future I'll remember, is the angle of the legs. I made them come out far too wide. Other than that, I thought the overall result was decent.

Helping Families

This was a great story out of World Vision's magazine (I've only posted part of it here, but you'll get the general idea). It's awesome to see how God uses what people give. It's also so humbling to see things like this when we have so much. It definitely causes me to reflect and thank God for all that He has given my family.