Thus far has the L0rd helped us....1 Samuel 7:12

Wow...no words will be adequate to respond to my sweet husband's tribute! Clearly, he is the kind of husband that God intends for him to be as best stated in Ephesians 5:25-27 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." He truly loves me with the love of Christ, as One who also loves us in all our imperfections. And imperfections I do have! I'll spare you the list!! :o) Ironically enough, isn't it funny that of course yesterday was a difficult day in regard to 2 of our 3 children and I wasn't at all feeling like a Prov. 31 woman....at the end of the day I couldn't help but cry a bit in a combination of exhaustion/regret at not handling it better/and simple frustration. I'm so thankful that God hears our 'complaints'! :o) But then Noah got back up last night to come and tell me he was sorry he acted badly and then there's Emma...who probably isn't one bit sorry but looked up at me from her stepstool at the washing machine this morning and said "I love you momma" which melted my heart b/c it wasn't at all solicited. Then there was the gentle reminding today of the best way to deal with my 4 year old "Princess" which was much needed. I am so thankful for the many Prov. 31 women in my life, but specifically today Carmen, who listened intently as I shared my frustration of the week with Emma who has decided after 2 years of being potty trained to regress just a bit. She seems to not want to stop what she is doing, as important as it must be, to go to the potty and waits until the last possible second to go and then runs around with damp panties all day or changes them 6 times a day! TMI (too much information), I know...but such is life! I was threatening to buy diapers b/c I was so aggravated that I didn't know what else to do, but Carmen, in her patience and wisdom, stopped me from making such a mistake and encouraged me to patiently enable her to be the big girl that my little Princess truly is. Its a reminder to me of one of the Psalms I've been studying this week in the new Beth Moore Bible study, "Stepping Up". Ps. 121:3 "He will not let your foot slip— " Truly, He does not let our feet slip and uses not only His Word, but godly, wise people to help direct our paths. And boy am I ever thankful for that, else I'd make such big mess of things quite frequently!