Easter around our house...

He came that we might have LIFE, and have it TO THE FULL.

"Oh Praise the One who paid my debt,

and raised this life up from the dead!"

Hope you had a blessed Easter and that it was full of the ABUNDANT LIFE

that IS the reason He came and died and rose again.

...linking up here and here...

and DON'T FORGET:

Write a letter to your little one, grab a button, and link up on Wednesday!!

<<a href="http://www.racetowardsjoy.blogspot.com/search/label/letters%20to%20littles"><img src="http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb479/bloggysarah/letterslittles.jpg" border="0" alt="null" /></a>
BLESSINGS YALL!

Link Up Announcement!!! (and a Happy 3 Months!)

A lot of you bloggers are great about writing "letters" to your littles ones on your blogs,

but I admittedly am not. I'm even terrible at keeping up with the actual baby books.

I desire for this blog to be a beautiful, printed gift to my children someday,

a way for them to know more about our life, the day to day, the ups and downs, etc.

And I really want to start writing TO them more, instead of just ABOUT them.

what a gift to give them, right?

SO...

"Letters to Littles"

will start next Wednesday, April 11th!!

This will be a link up where you can share a "dear baby..." post

(no matter how old they are..even if your little one is still in your belly!)

where you can just tell them about your day with them, tell them how much you love them, how stinking cute they are in that outfit,

even tell them about your struggles in mothering them,

whatever you want them to know...

from your heart TO theirs.

(I'm doing this not necessarily because I want everyone to read my letters to my babies, but for some accountability in writing to them...because I know it will bless them someday.)

And you may not have a letter for your little one every week, but just link up when you do! :)

Grab a button on my sidebar over there,

spread the word, and come link up!

Can't wait!

SO in honor of my sweet Bethany being 3 months old today,

I thought I'd go ahead and do a letter for her!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sweet B,

You are 3 months old today, and I canNOT believe how fast this has gone.

It honestly makes me emotional because I feel like time is already flying by with you.

You are the sweetest little thing, and have the daintiest little face,

and we are so in love with you, more than we ever thought possible.

One thing I love about you, sweet girl, is that you are my cuddle bug.

Your big sister was not that way at all, but you LOVE to be close to me, to my body.

You LOVE to be rocked and are SO happy when I swaddle you!

whenever I first swaddle you, you give me the BIGGEST smile!! :)

You must really like the tight, close feeling of it.

You even sleep best when you are right up next to me.

As exhausted as I am in this stage with you, I wouldn't trade snuggling next to you all night for anything in the world.

I hope you always stay cuddly.

I could write so much about you already, in your three short months of life.

You have grown so fast.

I love you so much Bethany Len, I am so proud to be your Mommy.

Happy 3 months!!

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Yall have a great day,

and don't forget to come link up next Wednesday!!

outdoors inspiration

The weather has been GORGEOUS, and inspires me so much right now.

whimsical bubble-blowing,

snuggles on picnic blankets,

bouncing on trampolines,

chasing duckies in our yard,

hours in the playhouse,

slides and swings,

cookouts with friends,

long walks to the lake,

and just lots of plain ole fun.

It also brings me to a place of peace.

I'm hanging on to every beautiful day until it gets blazing hot out there!!

I'm linking up for this blog hop to share what inspires us today!!

aaaaand, I have a fun blog announcement...

{I feel like the Lord has really led me to start this link-up, so I hope you will join me!!}

A lot of you bloggers are great about writing "letters" to your littles ones on your blogs,

but I admittedly am not. I'm even terrible at keeping up with the actual baby books.

I desire for this blog to be a beautiful (printed) gift to my children someday,

a way for them to know more about our life, the day to day, the ups and downs, etc.

And I really want to start writing TO them more, instead of just ABOUT them.

what a gift to give them, right?

SO...

"Letters to Littles"

will start next Wednesday, April 11th!!

This will be a link up where you can share a "dear baby..." post (or "dear baby-to-be"!),

where you can just tell them about your day, tell them how much you love them, how stinking cute they are in that outfit,

even tell them about your struggles in mothering them,

whatever you want them to know...

from your heart TO theirs.

(I'm also doing this not necessarily because I want everyone to read my letters to my babies, but for some accountability in writing to them...

I just know it will bless them someday.)

Grab a button on my sidebar over there,

spread the word, and come link up!

Can't wait. Love yall!

Identity Check

I'm processing a lot in my head and heart right now.

(so bare with me)

A lot about my identity and where it comes from.

And about where it SHOULDN'T come from.

As much as I love being a wife,

it does not define me.

And as much as I love being a mommy,

that does not define me either.

Well, it shouldn't at least.

But, truth is, I let these things define me a lot.

I think I just get caught up in my roles and my day to day...

to the point of where my day-to-day becomes my identity.

Does that make sense?

(if it doesn't, sorry..Im just processing all this)

I'm not saying that these roles

(be it wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend...)

do not ADD value and blessing to my life....

they most certainly do.

But they do not MAKE me valuable.

"Value" is defined as worth, importance, desirability.

I know God is trying to teach me WHERE my identity and value lie.

and it ultimately lies with Him and ONLY Him...

with what He did for me on the Cross, with the power and peace that is available for me now.

THOSE things are what give me worth.

I do not become more valuable to Him by ANYthing I can do, or by any role I have.

It's just not possible.

It's foolish actually, to think that I could do something that would make Him love me more.

Because He is already in love with me.

Who am I?

I am a wife, a mama, a daughter, a daughter-in-law, a sister, a friend, a dancer,

a wanna-be-triathlete, a homemaker, a worshipper, a lover of music, a blogger,

an outdoors girl, a new mommy...

the list goes on.

But honestly, I want to be so sure of my place in His heart (my identity),

that were those things, those roles, to be taken away from me...

I would know I am still valuable.

It is, and it will be, a DAILY process to believe this,

and a lot of things go into my ability to live in this knowledge.

{this is a great place for the enemy to enter and attack me with fear}

and I am by no means there yet.

But I DO know that I desire to be okay with my value coming solely from Him,

from who He says I am, and from what He has done in my life.

Can you imagine walking around each day KNOWING that you are important?

KNOWING that you have worth apart from anything you can do?

That's what He gives us y'all.

{linking up here and here}

"running"...a guest post

Good Morning!

My dear friend Sarah (great name, right?) :) has agreed to "guest post" here every other Sunday

just sharing her thoughts about becoming a woman of God.

She is a woman, wife, and mama full of wisdom and love, so I'm honored for her to share her words with us...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should."

A couple of years ago, two friends and I went to run the Dallas Race for the Cure. I was pumped. I had always wanted to run in races and this was my first step. Knowing nothing about racing I assumed that they were all the same. You line up, they start the race, and you run. Stupid, stupid assumptions. My two friends that ran with me were hesitant at best and only their undying love for me got them up at the ungodly hour of 5am to join me. Imagine their delight when we discovered that we would not be running but merely strolling through Dallas with 250,000 other people. I was livid. I had come to run a race not have a chatty stroll behind a herd of people!! I will leave the rest to your imagination but let me assure you I did try to run. I almost took out a few baby strollers and recovering cancer patients in the process, but try I did.

Joking aside there is a point to make. We need to run the right race.

If we are women of faith, we need to recognize there is a race laid out before us. This race has a rich history in humanity and there have been many incredible men and women who have traveled it before us. Men and women who had such incredible faith in God that they did unthinkable things.

They go before us and they root us on.

In a day and time where finding good advice for marriage and parenting is an overwhelming avalanche of opinion, we need to align our lives up with the Word of God. We need to be very careful what opinions and ideas we are allowing to guide us.

This thought keeps pounding through my heart lately: if you took away my church attendance, my Facebook postings of favorite verses, and even my faith filled words on a blog, would someone who has never met me know that I loved God?

God, in all his amazing power, holds the world in his hand and yet sees you. He sees you and he loves you. He loves you with an engulfing, freeing love that is hard to fathom. He has a race set out for you. This race is at times exhilarating and at times difficult. It often goes against human understanding.

However, I am so thankful for the peace and joy in my life, that I keep running. And I want you to know that there is a precious gift of peace and joy waiting for you.

Come, run with me.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thanks Sarah.

And that so speaks to my heart behind this blog, and the name of this blog...

Hebrews 12:1, which talks about running this race, remembering those who have gone before us, and keeping our eyes on Jesus, who is the author of our faith.

I love that we get to run this race together, sister.