For real

So my friend was watching me change Leah's diaper and says, "Oh, those are so cute.  But they really make your baby pee more.  I mean, you've changed her like 3 times and I've only changed my baby once."

Um, yeah.

Your baby pees just as much.  It's just that the paper diaper changes the pee into those weird little gel beads.  So it doesn't seem like your baby is wet.

For real.

Regrets

My husband remarked the other day that he has very few regrets, while I have many.  It's not that I have made that many more mistakes than he, it is just that he moves on quickly.

I tend to ruminate over past failures and fantasize about what my life would be like if I'd chosen a different path at various crossroads.  If I had faced my opportunities armed with the knowledge I have now instead of the understanding I had at the time. If I had known how much a sin would cost me before I succumbed to temptation.  If I had seen the potential good in certain choices and counted the benefits worthy of the cost.

But I can't go back.  I can't wallow in what might have been.  I can't wiggle my nose and create an alternative reality.

But I can use the regrets of yesterday to make better, wiser choices today.  To act more slowly and carefully.  To heed the still, small Voice that cautions and guides.

And I can serve a God Who makes all things new.  Who is not surprised by my choices.  Whose plan cannot be foiled by my foibles. Whose providence is bigger than my propensity for foolishness.

I think it's a case of casting our Maker in our image again.  I get upset when family/friends/kids "mess up" and it alters my plans.  I have to work around the changes.  But God has foreknowledge.  He already has a plan worked out for me.

He has designed me for His glory and His plans will be accomplished.  And that is something I can revel in.

Altars

So the last two weeks were a gaping void in which I was constantly doing one of two things:  working or coughing.  (Sometimes both.  Because I'm a mom and I can multitask.)

But I'm doing better.  The holiday work-a-thon is over and my pneumonia is clearing.

And I've been thinking about Christmas.  Several of my sweet and well-meaning friends do not celebrate.  They are getting into the Jewish roots of Christianity and have rejected Christmas and Easter, saying that they are just "Christianized" versions of pagan celebrations.  And that they aren't even in the Bible.

Which is fine.  If the Holy Spirit convicts them about this, then who am I to judge?

But for me, both the holidays are altars.

God was really into altars in the Old Testament. 

Every time something super nifty happened (crossing the Jordan, wrestling with God, etc), God told His people to build an altar to remember.  A physical reminder of an encounter with an invisible God.

And if there is anything in this world worth remembering it is the incarnation of our infinite God and the sacrifice He made for us. Two times a year when we should stop and say, "Wow," and just marvel in His goodness.

What other altars would you make in your journey?  Are there any special times when you remember God's amazing acts?   Any times when you've pulled stones from the river and made a memorial to God's intervention?

Birthdays are a big one I think of.  Sure, they can be commercialized, stress-filled celebrations of materialism and white sugar.  But they can be altars too.  Reminders that God intervened in my life and gifted me with six amazing kids.  Reminders that His voice saying "yes" is bigger than any doctor's voice saying "no."

I think our biggest problem with holidays is not that they exist.  It is that we've forgotten what they are for.  Christmas, Easter, birthdays, etc should be days reflecting God's glory.  Where we ponder the provision of a mighty Savior.  As always, it is a heart issue when we really come down to it.