It has been gorgeous here in Northern Ky.  Sunny, warm and lovely.  It is   fun seeing God’s creation come back alive.  My daughter, Phoebe, has been hard at play outside.  Riding her bike, sidewalk chalk, digging in dirt.  Oh, to be a kid again.  I have enjoyed watching her and cheering her on as she flies down our street on her bike, that does have training wheels. 

So, I wanted to look at some things I learned at Hearts at Home.  Stop over to a friend’s  blog,  Jennifer @ focus findings.  She has a great article on “reclaiming your family.”   That was the jest of the weekend.  Reclaim your marriage, reclaim your children, reclaim authority, etc.

I felt another theme was “foundation.”  The definition of foundation is:

• We need to build a foundation in our homes before we can move forward to a plan of action.  You would not build a home without a blueprint so we need to have a blueprint of what we want our family to be.  Think about it, there is a foundation to every building, tower, amusement park ride.  There is even a product called foundation for the makeup we wear.  It is the base for everything.

Where is your foundation and what is it made of.  I want my families foundation to be Jesus Christ.  Here are some biblical truths: 

Ephesians 2:20 

²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone

Psalm 62:2  

² He alone is my rock and my salvation;  he is my fortress, I will never be shaken

Psalm 31:3  

³ Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me 

I want Jesus Christ to be the foundation for my family.  I want my girls to know that he is the rock of salvation.  When tough times come and they will, I want them to lean on Christ.  Know him and his word.  I want them to build character, morals, respect, obedience, and all of the fruits of the spirit.  I want to build my families foundations on biblical truths. 

We will have a tough job in these worldly times.  More pressure to be of this world and conform to it.  It is hard because we live in a culture where we try to keep up with others and we base our worth and value in what we do, where we live, what we drive and the list goes on and on. This is dangerous.  This can make for an unhappy home.  Competition is grueling on the soul.  Instead of competing and trying to keep up why don’t we support and encourage one another.  Families are gonna be different.  But one thing remains the same.  GOD!!    Stand strong, dive deep into God’s word!   Know  your worth in God.   He loves you so much that he sent his son to the cross so we could live in eternity with him.   

We are called to be like Christ and bring others to know him.  This takes being a disciple.  Be grounded in the foundation of His word, having daily quiet time, prayer, surrounding ourselves and family with christian friends.  Being accountable to one another.  Encouraging one another and loving one another. 

 The stakes are high.  They are worth it!

We had a beautiful weekend here in Northern Ky.  It was beautiful on Saturday.  My girls were outside enjoying the sunshine.   It is so nice to get some fresh air.  I can’t wait for more days like that! 

I am doing two bible studies (yep, I am a junkie)  It is amazing to see God weave them together.  What Happens When Women say YES to God, by Lysa Terkeurst and Esther by Beth Moore.  Both are so powerful and have spoken to my heart and soul.  I just love seeing the possibilities of life when you are walking hand and hand with the Lord. 

So, they get me to thinking.  What is my ” theme” for the year.  That is a question Beth Moore asks in Esther.  I don’t want to go into to much details for those of you that are in the study.  I don’t know where you are and I do not want to spoil anything.  The question on themes is a good one to ponder.  I would like to change the question to ”what is your theme for the month?”  This is more up my ally.  My life changes so frequently that it would be hard to come up with a theme for a year.   I will share that my ”theme” for now is listening.  Yep, I am a talker and fixer.  Got a problem, well you do A, B, C  and it will be fixed.  It is just that easy…come on..get to it, move on.  When friends come to me and tell me what is going on in their lives I immediately want to “help.”   Type A personality  that has to control and manage all.  So God has been working in me lately. 

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I feel the need to give some history on myself and my family.  I will refer to things on this blog and I don’t want you to be reading and say, “what is she talking about.”

My husband, Elliott, and I have been married for 10 years.  We met at our fire deptartment.  He at the time was a firefighter and I was an EMT.  We dated, got married and started a family.  Natalie is our first adorable daughter.  We had a great  life as a new little family.  Life was good…

Fast forward about a year and a half.  As the world was struggling through the terror of Sept. 11, 2001 my family was experiencing it’s own terror.  Natalie had become very ill.  She was 18 mo. old, developing very normally and with such a sweet personality.  She had started vomiting and progressively got worse. 

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