Prayer of Faith

This morning I was laying in the bed for as long as I was allowed when Luke came in to tell me laying in the bed was no longer allowed. How did these kids get so bossy? I explained to him that I wasn't feeling well because he had given his cold to Judah who had passed it to me. Which, by the way, Judah has another double ear infection and my cold is way worse than Luke's was for the whole two days he suffered with it.

So, I told Luke I didn't feel good and was trying to rest, and after a few seconds he said, "Can I pray to God for you to feel better?" He has many times asked me to pray to God for him to feel better, but he's never been willing to do the praying himself and he has certainly never offered to do the praying. Of course, I said yes.

This is how it went:

"Okay, I'm going to lay my hand on your nose." He put his hand to my nose.

"Thanks, Father. God, would you make Mama's cold well? In Jesus name, Amen."

"Are you better?"

My day could not have started any better than that.

The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. James 5:15

Judah At Eight Months

Judah did some speed learning this month. He has perfected the art of sitting up and is also able to go from laying down to sitting. He pulls up on anything from the couch to his toy basket to my head if I'm laying on the ground. I am training myself to always raise the side of his crib because I nearly had a heart attack the other day when I went in to check on him and found him standing up and leaning over the edge. He can army crawl, or so I've been told by Kris and the nursery workers at church. He won't do it when I'm around. When I'm around and he wants to get somewhere he looks at me and screams, "Get over here, Woman!" I guess that means he has also learned the art of manipulation in this, his eighth month.

We have another big eater on our hands. Lord, help us when these boys are all teenagers! He eats whatever baby food I give him, and he'll eat whatever mashed up table food I give him too. Last night he was the only one of my boys to devour his broccoli. Maybe he'll be a good influence.

He sleeps twelve hours at night and takes a catnap in the morning and a 3-4 hour nap in the afternoon. That's different than what the other two boys did, but it works really well with our schedule.

Sweet Judah! We love you!

Relationships

What a word! What a concept! God knew He wanted relationship with us. So did the enemy of our souls. That is why he has been undermining trust and truth in relationships since the beginning of time.

If Satan can get us to doubt each other; if he can get us to think and expect the worst of each other; if he can get us to love ourselves more than each other; if he can get us to sabotage our relationships with each other by being overly sensitive, secretive, insensitive, too busy, negative, harsh or sarcastic, then sabotaging our relationship with God is a cinch.

Psalm 133 -
"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
2. It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.
3. It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing - Life forevermore."

Not Much to Report

There isn't much happening here. Just trying to keep up with the break-neck pace involved with three boys. We went to DeLeon Springs yesterday and swam and picnicked, but I forgot to take my camera. Even though I left Judah with a sitter I'm so used to not having free hands for pictures that it never crossed my mind take a camera. It's a pity because I could have gotten some great shots. I do have a few pictures of the past week or two.

I'll refrain from showing the pictures of Eli's monstrous nosebleed. I only took pictures so Kris could see them and understand how truly unbelievable it was. I was feeding Judah in his room with the door closed. I had banished the boys because Judah won't stop watching them long enough to eat when they're around. Eli was, as usual, pushing Luke's buttons, and Luke was, as usual, falling right into the trap. It doesn't take great imagination to envision what transpired next, and experience tells me that what Luke gave Eli was earned. However, I was a little surprised to hear Luke saying, "Ooh, Eli. That's a lot of blood! You have blood EVERYWHERE!" Like I said, I won't put the pictures on here, but trust me, it was incredible.

These pictures are much cuter and much less stomach turning.

Eli being Mama's helper. Judah had been crying all the way home, and I had tossed a bottle to him while I was driving to see if he could figure it out. He figured it out enough to keep him from screaming, but by the time we got home he was willing to accept help from anyone. These third babies have to, in the words of my daddy, "Root hog or die." I'm not entirely sure where that saying comes from but it does paint an accurate picture, does it not?

Hanging out with some "big" boys

Judah's first bath with his brothers. I was exhausted afterwards, but a good time was had by all.

I would really love to know what Judah was thinking.

Eli after Mama has had a really long day and has locked them outside on the porch. Trust me, it was for their safety.

Eli after he determined that Mama wasn't letting him back in anytime soon and that he needed to figure out a way to amuse himself.