Hold on to your seats...

Hold on to your seats... you are going to be shocked I have decided to post twice in one day...

I had such cute stories to tell about Ephraim, but I did not want to leave Carson out. Carson has been in the process for quite sometime now of learning to tie his shoes. We have been remiss up until recently of teaching him to tie his shoes, because most of his shoes had been slip on or Velcro. Anyway, with some encouragement from his teacher we have been more diligent.

He came home from school yesterday with two good reports. His teacher had given him special recognition for tying his shoes at school all by himself. And he had also received a Star Student award for exemplary behavior. Another parent had noticed Carson stopping on his way to the car line to pick up hangers that other children had carelessly knocked down.

Pretty cool kids that God has entrusted to our care. We sure do love them.

God Did It!

This weekend we were really struggling with Carson having control over his anger and himself in general. He was being particularly defiant on Sunday as we were going to brunch. I have tried to be conscious to stop and pray with him when I am losing my own patience or simply do not have the words to calm him.

On this particular occasion, I had already prayed with him once and as we were getting out of the car to go in, I heard Troy praying with Carson too. When we went in, Carson did amazingly well. No outbursts or remarkably defiant behavior. Praise the LORD.

When we got to the car, I praised Carson for his good behavior. Carson said to me, "I didn't do it, God did it". Carson said this without any prompting from us. He recognized the work of the Holy Spirit in his own heart and mind to calm him. We were so happy that God had revealed Himself to Carson and that Carson had responded.

What an awesome breakthrough. We are to meet with Carson's pediatrician today to discuss his present issues in school with attention and behavior at home. As I have said before, Carson's doctor is a wonderful Christian woman so we are certain that she will be prayerful in her response to Carson's needs. Please pray that God's wisdom be discerned in Carson's plan and that we feel His presence in this meeting. That He might be glorified in this whole situation.

Dem Bones" - Video on Demand!

We are loving our new at&t U-verse TV service. (This is not a commercial) One of the features, I am most fond of is its "video on demand" function. We can select from a wide variety of programs and a small selection of them are actually free. The free videos on demand include quite a few children's programs and many of them are kid's books that have been animated. A lot of fun to see books come to life.

However, while I love the "video on demand" feature, it turns out the boys think that "video on demand" means when they demand, they get a video. We are working on limits and of course respect when it comes to this. As a rule they do okay though. Case in point, yesterday they wanted to watch a video book titled "Dem Bones". The picture on the cover of the book (shown above) was all skeletons. My boys know as a rule, we avoid things that even border on an evil appearance. My theory has been why give the devil and open door. However, I read the "info" on the book and realized it was based on an African spiritual.

So we watched the video book that ends up alluding to the story in Ezekiel 37 of when God takes dry bones and brings them to life through the prophet Ezekiel. Later that night we use the Bible passage for our devotions. I asked the boys what they learned from the story and Carson says that "Nothing is too hard for God". Yeah! He gets it. He really does. See part of the passage below**.

As an aside, on Saturday we were sorting through some things to take to a neighbors garage sale. I let the boys choose items they were willing to part with and bring them to me for approval. Carson brought up a few of his Christian videos. He could see in my eyes, I was getting ready to tell him that we might want to keep these. Before, I could say anything, he said "But Mom, there are a lot of people that need to meet Jesus". Okay, who can argue with that? Not me, into the garage sale they went.

Nothing is too hard for God. He can soften hearts. He can bring dry bones to life. Below is a small part of the passage, I encourage you to read or reread the whole story for yourself in Ezekiel 37.

**Ezekiel 37: 1-6 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "