MamaArcher's Blog

When error comes into the church we face a set of obligations. First, we must confront the error. The world has embraced a live-and-let-live relativism that will accept any foolishness, but will not accept the wisdom of calling foolishness by its name. Too often the church follows suit. We want to get along, and so pet the wolves in our midst rather than drive them away. Our calling, as faithful soldiers of the kingdom, is to combat error in whatever form it takes. Second, we must not err when confronting the error. If we would have sound and accurate thinking in the church, we must be sound and accurate in what we denounce. We are not serving well the kingdom of God when we fight carnally, using gossip, innuendo, and aiming our fire at our allies. Consider the almost civil war during the time of Joshua. Those tribes on the eastern side of the Jordan, you’ll remember, built an altar. Their brothers prepared to make war against those who would establish false worship within the land. These brothers came to understand, thankfully, that the altar wasn’t built for false worship, but as a reminder of the covenantal union those on the east had with the rest of Israel. Far from an occasion for division, the altar was a monument to unity. Zeal without knowledge, in this instance, could have led to unnecessary division and senseless slaughter. (See Joshua 22 for the full story.)

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by R.C. Sproul Jr.

Sledding was great fun!  Smiles and laughter all around….until Mom wiped out.  Rest over night.  ER the next morning.  Left arm in a splint.  Thank you, Lord, it isn’t the right hand!  No broken bones but I am now waiting to see the orthopedic doctor.  It might be damaged ligaments.  I basically have one hand now until who knows when.  So needless to say….my online life will drastically slow down for a while.  The sledding run was a blast until the crash!  ho hum……. that is the update for now.

If you remember from the last post we are beginning the basement bathroom remodel.  We had those three leaks in the basement that are finally repaired.  All of the supplies for the remodeling job are purchased and the evening before we were to start we hear our son yell, “Dad, it is raining in my bedroom!”  Murphy decided to come back for a visit, I think.  This particular bedroom is already missing a good portion of two walls already from the previous leaks.

Let me say up front, “God has been abundantly providing for us financially lately!”  You will see that if you read the Melting Expenses post below.  We also just received our tax return and paid off a few things as well as buy the supplies for the bathroom remodel.  We know the Lord is good and not only good but abundant in his provision!  God is not surprised by what is happening now.  That being noted…….. here is the run down of the last couple of days.

Almost every towel in the house was used to try and dry the remaining water that was flowing and to sop up the once again drenched carpet.  Thankfully, we have an ugly drop down ceiling in the basement.  Hubby was able to move the ceiling tile and reach up to see if he could determine where the water was coming from.  He found a large ice-cycle in the floor/ceiling between the upstairs and downstairs. (son’s room is in the basement)  He them placed a call to our home insurer.

We soon had a couple of men shoveling the top of our house and breaking up the ice dam believed to have caused the damage.  The water damage mitigatory then came out to access the situation.  The report is this……..

Ice damming caused the water to back up between the wood siding of the house and the outer wall.  This ran along the outside until it reached the basement level and found the dryer vent where the moisture then moved inside the house.  The ice melted in the heat of the house and began pouring down the wall and dripping from the ceiling.  We have the entire outer wall in my son’s room which needs to be gutted, dried out, and replaced.  That makes wall number 3 in his room!  Not only that but it looks like our roof (only 1 1/2 years old) will need to be completely replaced.  It appears that the previous owner used a questionable company to replace the roof.  This company is no longer in business, therefore no warranty.  They used the cheap kind of ice water shield and it looks as if that was not even installed correctly.   We will know more next week when our reputable roofer comes out to take a look.

So we have all of this to take care of now, finish the bathroom remodel, and Oh Yeah, my hubby leaves in 5 weeks!!!!

Murphy, thank you for stopping by, thank you for giving us another opportunity to trust in my Lord, now please go bother someone else! LOL

This morning I came to the realization that I had not been to my blog in several days.  In fact, I have barely even been on my computer.  Here is the shocker….. Life does go on without the internet, believe it or not.  That is where I have been, just living life.  My hubby came home late last Friday evening.  It is good to have him home.  We have about seven weeks left until he is gone for more training and on to his deployment. We spent a little time working on getting supplies for a project we are going to use to get the family through this deployment and have a  bit of daddy at home. It is something the Lord brought to my mind in the middle of the night.  I will share more later on that.

The weekend was spent shopping for supplies for the basement bathroom.  If you remember, a while back we had three leaks in our basement that caused some damage.  There are a few walls still torn out.  One of those walls is a bathroom wall.  We had talked about putting a shower in that half bath but decided it was a project we were not going to tackle.  Well, with the wall already torn out and the plumbing exposed we decided we might as well take advantage of it.  So, the basement bathroom remodel is now underway.  Hubby is hoping to have everything finished before he deploys.

I have also begun a new exercise plan.  Typically, I just speed walk at the ice arena when the children are at figure skating but I have added to that.  I bought myself a Jillian Michael’s DVD.  You know who that is right?  She is the mean trainer on the Biggest Loser.  I must say that she is much nicer and encouraging on her DVD but the workout, well, I am SORE!!  I am attempting to do the DVD 5 times a week and am still speed walking twice a week.  Throw in shoveling a foot of snow yesterday……I am aching.  I just keep wondering when loosing inches translates into a loss of poundage!

Hubby and I did go out on a date this weekend too.  We went to the Bear’s Tooth.  It is a movie theater with tables and they bring your dinner to you.  They have great food….they are associated with the Moose’s Tooth restaurant in Anchorage. Yum!  So I enjoyed a yummy halibut burrito and topped it off by sharing some ice cream with the hubs.  We watched the movie Invictus.  It was a great movie!  It is about Nelson Mandela and how he used the South African rugby team to help unite his country.  I recommend it!

Other than that, well, school is still ongoing.  The children are waiting on me to get our school day underway….Life is calling….Here I come!

Image by Dave Delaney via Flickr

It seems that people liked my twitter RT recap last week so I think I will continue with it.  There are so many great quotes that come through on Twitter each day that I just cannot help but to share them.  So here are a few for you to sink your teeth into.

• You should not believe your conscience and feelings more than the word which the Lord who receives sinners preaches to you. Martin Luther…
• RT @burk_parsons: A man preaches that sermon only well unto others which preaches itself in his own soul—Owen
• RT @burk_parsons: Either our religion will transform us or we will transform our religion to suit our sympathies—Horton
• RT @ReformedGlory: ‘I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatsoever! ” Isaac Newton
• RT @RevJohnOwen: The custom of sinning takes away the sense of it, the course of the world takes away the shame of it.
• RT @HavetheChoice: Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.– Mother Teresa
• RT @burk_parsons: No man knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good—Lewis
• RT @burk_parsons: The life of holiness is a life hidden in Christ and His holiness resulting in a life of repentance/faith/obedience.
• RT @burk_parsons: We need to be more shortsighted, thinking less about how holy we’ll be tomorrow and more about how holy we’ll be today.
• RT @ReformedGlory: “You lose your strength, Christian, the moment you depart from your integrity” Charles Spurgeon
• “Faith does not have value; it is the instrument.” Francis A. Schaeffer (The Finished Work of Christ: The Truth of Romans 1-8 )
• RT@ReformedGlory: Works?Works?A man get to heaven by works?I would as soon think of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand!George Whitefield
• RT @ReformedGlory: “The richness of God’s Word ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.”Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• RT @burk_parsons: Sin will not come to you, saying, “I am sin.” It would do little harm if it did—Ryle

I am one of those moms who suffers from the Super Mommy Syndrome.  I like things to be perfect, they are far from it!  I like all my ducks in a row, they tend to waddle here and there.  I also feel guilty if I let someone help me rather than doing it myself.  These children were entrusted to me after all!

I do believe that children are given to their parents from the Lord and that it is the parents responsibility to raise them rather than pawning them off for someone else to care for.  Honestly, we are pretty capable around here.  We do not whine and ask for help when things get tough.  We tough it out!  This sometimes leads to neglect from family members because they think we have it all together and because the kind of help they offer is not what we really need.  I am learning to live with that.

Even though I have this great desire to be the mom of all mothers I realize how far short I fall.  Maybe that is a God’s way of making sure I remain humble in this area.  When you realize that the Lord entrusted these children to your care to raise them to bring glory and honor to him, well, that often seems an insurmountable task for one such as I!  I must rely on the Lord and not myself, it is only with his guidance, strength, and wisdom that I can be effective at all.  I definitely cannot do it on my own!

This Super Mommy Syndrome is some respects can be healthy.  It keeps one from shirking their responsibilities!  If we are focused on the Lord and seeking to do our best for his glory and not our own then it can also be a good propellant!  Sometimes though our own selfish and prideful nature rears its ugly head and then we have problems.  Sometimes it is hard for us Super Mommy types to ask for help or to even accept it when it is offered.  I have a prime example from today!

My hubby is out of town right now.  One of my children has standardized testing today on the other side of Anchorage (about a 40 minute drive).  My neighbor is taking two of her children so she offered to take him as well.  I said ok.  I woke from a dream this morning in which he didn’t make it on time and I was rushing around to get him there.  I called her when I got up and of course they were there and all was well.  I simply felt guilty because I was not taking care of getting him there myself!  I was letting another person take care of it.  I know this might sound crazy to most of you but I am being brutally honest here.

Let me ask you…..are you a super mommy?  Now let me ask you this, if you do not think you are a super mommy…..Do others classify you that way?  If so, then I would say you fall into that category anyway!

How do you balance your super mommy tendencies and high standards with accepting help from others and dealing with unnecessary feelings of guilt?