Glorious Togetherness

Last week was one of those weeks where I was too busy doing life to stop and blog about it!  The week was filled with doctor's appointments for both girls, conferences with teachers and all the other stuff like laundry, dirty dishes, meals to prepare, groceries to buy...you get the point.

Speaking of doctor's appointments...

this little stinker had her two year old check-up.  She weighs 26 lbs. which puts her in the 70th percentile for her weight and she is 36 inches tall putting her in the 95th percentile for her height.  JennaBeth's vocabulary is growing every day and she has developed quite a cute sense of humor.

I took those pictures on Sunday before we left for church in an attempt to capture the pig tails!  She doesn't leave them in for long, so I wanted to get the before she got a hold of them.  I thought the little yellow dress was appropriate for the first day of Spring.  Gotta love hand-me-downs!  Thank you Faith for all the cute little dresses you shared with us!!

After a very busy week, we enjoyed a relaxing Saturday. It was a much needed respite from the "gotta be there by so and so time" and the "gotta have this done by such and such time".  Cecily and I had some crazy good coupons for Bath & Body.  With  those coupons and a fun store promotion they were having, we got $100 worth of stuff for $21.00!!  We will be smellin' good for a while!

As you can tell by my oldest's expression, she wasn't happy with Mama snapping pictures while she was strolling through the mall.  I guess I was messin' with her coolness or something!

Now speaking of cool...little miss priss sure thought she was!  She looked too growny walking down the mall with her big "sisa" with her little bag hanging from her arm!  She and her brother had made a trip to the Disney store with daddy while Cecily and I were in Bath & Body.  She would not let anybody else carry that little bag either!

Bentley of course had nothing to do with the "smellin' good store".  He wanted to try out the hurricane simulator; you know tough big boy stuff.

Later on Saturday evening, Mike, Cecily and I observed the Super Moon.  The picture doesn't come close to giving justice to the brilliance of the moon that evening.  The moon was so bright that it was hard to look at for very long.

As I went to bed Saturday evening, I was thinking about how bright the moon was and my thoughts turned immediately to the holiness of God its Creator.  How humbling it is to think that the Creator of such a beautiful and powerful thing cares for me.  But not only that He cares for me, but loved me enough to send His Son to die on a cross to save me from my sins.  But not only did He save me from my sins, but desires fellowship with me.  And not only that He desires fellowship with me, but that He thought before the foundation of the world the things and people that would be part of my life and the works He'd have me do.

Here is Ephesians 2:8-10 in the Message translation:

"Saving is all His idea, and all His work.  All we do is trust Him enough to let Him do it.  It's God's gift from start to finish!  We don't play the major role.  If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing!  No, we neither make nor save ourselves.  God does both the making and saving.  He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join Him in the work He does, the good work He was gotten ready for us to do, work we better be doing."

John Phillips says this in commentary on those verses:

"Good works are part of God's plan.  They are not the price of salvation, but the proof.  The believer is not saved as a result of good works; good works are the result of salvation.  They are the result of God's working in the believer's heart.  They are the evidence that he is alive from the dead.  They are the proof of the glorious togetherness that exists between the believer and the Savior."

I am thankful today that God loves me and that He purchased my ability to enjoy glorious togetherness with Him and has blessed me with the sweetest husband and kids on the Earth!

May you and yours have a blessed week!

Jennifer