What can I say about my daughter? She is amazing. She is beautiful. She is smart. She loves people. I am amazed at how much that she has grown in this past year. She can almost have full conversations with me, where she understands most of what I am saying. She also loves to sing, both my kids do, I love it. Just today I was practicing and preparing to lead worship and the kids came in and started dancing and singing along with me. I can already see in my kids that they will truly love God and want to grow deeper in their knowledge of Him, especially Josiah.. But we are talking about Promise here. She is learning so much as well.

I need to break away again for a moment to thank Bethany for being an amazing mom, but not just a mom, a leader, a teacher, a friend, an amazing wife, a prayer warrior, and a lover of God and people.. She doesn’t think that she has been doing a lot here, but I can tell you for sure that she has, and the kids will thank her for it someday in the future.

Ok, back to Promise. She is a lover of people. She really just genuinely loves people. My favorite moments are when I come home from a long day at school, I walk through the door and not matter what is going on if Promise notices me she will drop everything and come straight to me to be picked up hugged and held for a bit. I always say that this is a real picture of who God is. That no matter what is happening in our lives, when we look to God we can drop everything and head straight to Him to be hugged and held for a bit. Another way to look at it is that whatever may have happened throughout my day, when I come home and walk through the door and my kids come to me, nothing else matters. I could have the best or  the worst day ever, but when I walk through the door the only thing that matters is that my family loves me for who I am. At my best, and at my worst and I don’t have to worry about how they are going to accept me or not, they always will, they will always love me. The same is true of God. As soon as we put our eyes on Him nothing else matters, God loves us no matter what..

Poll: When is the last time that you have run to God to be hugged and held for a bit?

I just wanted to post about my son Josiah. Josiah is an amazing little boy. I really am impressed by him and what he can do. He will be turning 4 at the end of this month and I can’t even believe how smart he is, how sensitive he is, and how amazingly helpful he is. I have always that that my kids were special from the moment of their birth, and I will never stop thinking that, but I am blown away by what God is doing in Josiah every single day.

Josiah can now; dress himself, use the potty himself, brush his own teeth, count, sing [he loves to sing], and almost knows the entire alphabet. The other day we were even trying to teach him how to add and subtract and he was totally understanding it. He is one of those kids who really takes time to warm up to you, and doesn’t really jump right into a situation right away. He likes to kind of sit back and think about who you are, and what is actually going on, before he gets involved in something. Once he spends the time he needs, he will quickly start to catch up for lost time.

Josiah loves people and as I mentioned above he loves to help. A few examples are; I will sometimes ask him to throw something in the trash for me, and without hesitation he goes and does it. He will go and get things for me when I need help, like my slippers, my phone, a tissue, anything and will not drag his feet at all, he loves to help.

Josiah is a strong leader. Bethany and I remind him of this all the time, he really has a chance, especially with his sister, to be a leader and show the younger kids what to do and how to do it. Example; Promise wants to do everything that Josiah does, so we have noticed that when Josiah is being helpful and putting his toys away Promise will want to do the same. Or when Josiah is brushing his teeth by himself, Promise will want to try and do the same. It also works in a negative way too. If Josiah is doing something he isn’t supposed to, Promise will also join in. With this in mind we really try and encourage Josiah with the fact that he is a leader. He has major influence in the life of his sister and all the younger kids, and he has a choice to either show them the right things or the wrong things.

I love my son and I just wanted to write and share a few ways that I have seen him change over the past 9 months or so. I will soon write a post about Promise and the amazing little girl that she is, but for now I just want to mention it again.. I love my son Josiah, thank you Lord for such an amazing reminder of who you are and how much you love us.