Mommy Melody

Hello All!  Its been awhile.  I just wanted to share that Jason and I went to an Apologetix concert in Noble, OK the other night.  Those guys put on a great show!  For those of you who haven’t heard of them before- they are a Christian parody band.  They take popular, secular songs, and write Christian messages to replace the lyrics.  This results in some very annointed music.  God has blessed them with amazing talent and ability when it comes to music and teaching God’s word through it.  Check out their website if you get a chance.  http://www.apologetix.com/

My husband also captured some great pictures of their concert the other night. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fulcostudios/sets/72157607156688059/

Have a great day!

Just wanted to write a post to let people know that our son, Jason Gerald Britton, went to be with Jesus on April 15th, 2008. He was stillborn. He was such a precious little baby, and is and always will be loved and greatly missed by our family. We are trusting God to lead us through this painful and difficult time. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support.

-Melody

Okay…this is a bit silly. Still, it is quite perplexing to me. Any thoughts on this are welcome.

Have you noticed that just about every package of socks you buy comes in a resealable package? And the sock companies are pretty proud of it, too. Some packages have it written proudly on them, “New- Resealable Package!”.

What is up with that? I mean, aren’t you just going to take them all out and put them in your sock drawer anyway? Its not like they are a package of cookies or frozen chicken or something. Does the sock company think that people can keep their new socks fresher for longer?

If anyone has any ideas on why socks come in resealable zipper packs, then please comment on this post. Maybe you can help relieve my confusion.

Just wanted to share some excitement and let everyone know that our new addition to our family is also our first baby boy. This is a wonderful thought for all of us. I hope we can bring this baby boy up to love God and be all that God wants him to be. Thanks for reading!

I know I’m not touching on anything new or unique here. I don’t know a mommy around that does not struggle with feelings of inadequacy or fear of failure. It just comes with the territory, I guess. Its not something you ever think about before you have children, either. At least I didn’t. I was a mother at 19, though, so maybe you have to be older to experience pre-child guilt.

The weird thing is that it seems that those of us that feel the most guilty are the ones who are doing everything possible to be the mommy of the year. You know, setting schedules, paying close attention to what the kids eat, I even think homeschooling feeds my tendency to control sometimes. I am in no way suggesting that homeschooling is negative, it is only that without the proper mindset, I can use it against myself to fuel more guilt.

Anything is like that really though. “Oh, no, they didn’t eat 8 servings of fruits and vegetables today!” ” I am the worst mommy ever!”

Or my usual downfall- bathtime. My kids get a bath about twice a week, unless we will be seeing a lot of people and I have a reason to do it more often. I am plagued with guilt about this. However, when I think rationally about it, its not that much of a big deal. They are happy and healthy this way and it frees up a few more nights of the week to spend with them and my husband.

All I guess I am saying in a way too longwinded way is that we mommies put too much pressure on ourselves to gain the perfect family life for our kids. The only perfect parent is Our Father in heaven, and he is very perfect. Instead of obsessing about everything I am doing wrong, I am going to try to pray more and rely on God to perfect my parenting. Without Him, I can never become a better mommy. With Him, I will become a better mommy and not be consumed with dwelling on my failures.

Thanks for reading. This was just something I felt like passing along to all the other obsessed mommies out there. God bless your parenting.

God is good. We all know this and sing it at church, but for it to really sink in, one must experience hardship. It is easy to acknowledge and believe that God is good when things in our lives are moving along perfectly and we have few problems. However, many of us have trouble believing it when trials and hardship come into our lives. It is in these times, that if we continue to trust in Him and believe that he is good, then we will see how incredibly good that He is. Even in the midst of a life falling apart, God is there molding that life into something beautiful and valuable, using difficulties and troubles to shape it in the way He so desires. Because He loves us, He does not want us to stay living in mediocrity. In His love and goodness, he allows us to experience trouble, so He can mold us and bring us closer into fellowship with Him. In His love and goodness, He has given His son Jesus to die for our sins to make reconciliation with Him possible. Thank you God for being so good to me and everyone that is called according to your purpose.

Ahh, L’Amour… It is so beautiful, yet somehow, so painful. In my short life, I have by God’s grace learned a bit about this alluring emotion. In fact, I have learned that true love is not controlled by emotions or feelings. Let’s see what Love Himself (God) has to say about the characteristics of love. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. “1 John 3:16. Basically, Jesus showed us what true love is when he gave his life for us, even though we did not deserve it. He calls us to love others, even when they do not deserve it and are completely unlovable.

So many people claim that they do not “love” their spouse anymore. However, love is not a feeling that has you walking on clouds and dancing in pixie dust. You may not feel like you love your husband, but you can choose to show him love. You not only can, you are commanded by God to do so.

When your husband acts like a jerk or says something mean to you, remember that God will give you the grace to love him anyway. You have to make the choice to obey God, no matter what your husband does. I know that this is very difficult. My husband has not always acted like a knight in shining armor. But then I remember how Jesus loves me even though I am selfish and flawed to the very core of my being. Somehow my loving my husband seems like a simple and small task, compared to what God has done for me.

Love is not about feeling good. There are lots of times when we have to love even though we don’t feel like loving. God’s grace is sufficient at all times for every situation.

Wow. It has been awhile since my last post. We have been really busy with school, work and family activities. My husband is a man of many talents, and recently I have been able to assist him in one of his favorite pastimes-photography. He really has an eye for taking pictures and making them look phenomenal. We have spent the last couple of weekends at weddings with him taking pictures like the pro that he is, and me trying to help wherever I can. Sometimes I just cannot believe how smart he is! Well, I could go on, but I just wanted to write a little since it has been so long.

My littlest girl is now 14 and a half months and we are finally going to bed without a crying circus every night. I just lay her in her bed and she goes to sleep. Its amazing. She is sometimes sleeping all night and other nights waking up once for a feeding. That’s a lot better than a few months ago. My older girls are now on a summer break and next year Serenity will be starting Kindergarten and Ariana will be in 2nd grade. They are growing up super fast. Well, I better get back to them. I will post again when there is something interesting that I have to say.

I am sorry that I have not posted in awhile. I know I don’t have a bazillion readers or anything, but for those of you who do come and check out this blog, I am truly sorry for the lateness. Anyway, I thought I would let you all know that I am reading a great book right now called Sheet Music by Dr. Kevin Leman. This book is not exactly about music as you may have guessed, but it does have a lot of great ideas for how to make beautiful music with your spouse during lovemaking. I would highly recommend this book to any married person. It has provoked much thought in me.

The thing that I like most about this book is that it addresses the problem that many wives have with meeting their husband’s sexual needs. Most women do not realize that their husband is not an animal pawing at them constantly with no emotion or feeling tied to it. They assume that their husband is defective because all he can seem to think about is sex. Women believe that men should learn to control themselves. What they don’t seem to acknowledge is that God made men this way. God wants men to desire to have sex with their wives often and well. This is not a defect, it is a gift. Even though a woman may not desire sex as often as her husband, she should make a big effort to interest herself in it and make herself available and excited to please her husband. This is, after all, part of what she promised her husband on their wedding day. Loving your husband includes unselfishly seeking to meet his needs in all areas. A husband’s sexual needs are very important, and when they are met by an enthusiastic wife, he will be enthralled with her and ready and willing to cherish her in every way she desires.

Sex isn’t everything in a marriage, but a lot of great sex in a marriage can be an amazingly effective healer to other broken areas of a relationship. This book is definitely a worthwhile read. Very steamy, but also practical. If your sex life with your spouse could use some help, or even if it’s good but could use some spice, this book will help if read and applied to your relationship.

Peter usually gets a bad reputation according to Christians. He is, however, my favorite Bible character, and one that I identify with very well. Peter had so much passion and love for Jesus. It just took him quite awhile to learn to direct that passion correctly. He is remembered for his impulsiveness, fear, and lack of faith. In Matthew 14:28-31, Peter walks out to Jesus on the stormy sea, but then seeing the wind and waves, he is afraid and starts to sink. Jesus picks him up and tells him ” Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?”. But when I read this passage, I see that Peter is the only disciple who walked towards Jesus. The others were too afraid altogether. At least Peter had a little faith.