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I have been having a pity party for a long time about the fact that I am a working mother, who would prefer to be a stay at home mom. I spend time reading blogs written by other moms - lots of them stay at home moms and moms that get to home school. Finally, I realized early last week that I was allowing my unhappiness with my current position to rob me of joy, when I really should be putting my faith in God. He has me right in the position I need to be right now.

Give thanks in everything,for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things.

Philippians 4: 4-8

Be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.

1 Samuel 12:24

My mind has obviously been in the wrong place. I should be thankful, in this economy, that I have a job that helps to provide for my family. I should put my faith in Christ, that I have this job for a reason at this time in my life, and that everything is working out according to His plan. 

I've decided to stop moping and embrace my current circumstances - to be content. Yes, I am a working mother, but I do have every other Friday off to spend the whole day with my child. I have flexibility in my job that a lot of mothers don't have. While I can't home school her right now, I can teach her certain things on the days I do have, and on weekends, and I will just have to put in a little extra effort on weeknights, no matter how tired I am. 

I would like to start the process of memorizing Scripture with Lily. The last Friday that we had together we finger painted some note cards and then I wrote Bible verses on them. I taped them on the wall near her room. Now when she misbehaves, or gets hurt, or any other circumstance where I can apply one, we walk over and read together the one that applies. She is capable of memorization - I know this for sure because she has so many songs memorized. However, I am new to teaching a child, who is not quite 2 yet, how to memorize Scripture. So far, she is just repeating after me, which I am only capable of convincing her to do half the time. We have started with Genesis 1:1, and we'll see how that progresses. I'm sure I'll learn a lot through this process myself. 

I want her to have a Biblical worldview, with a firm belief in the authority of Scripture, so we regularly read books written by Ken Ham or other Answers in Genesis staff. This is especially important to me since I have a science degree. I want to teach her other things, though. Does anyone else have experience teaching a not-quite-two-year-old? I saw my friend Tiffany posted a picture a little while back of her daughter tracing her name. I tried that with Lily this weekend and she loved it. She can't do it without help at the moment, but she still thought it was a lot of fun. She is young, but SO smart, and needs a lot of stimulation. I would love to home school her, and since I can't, I plan to teach her certain things during the times we do have together, so if anyone has any advice, I would love it!

Now, the pictures!!!
Here are some fun ones of our labor day weekend. Friday night, Lily's friend, Barlow, came over for the evening.

Holding hands to pray.

How cute are these girls?

Lily dancing with her friend, Ariel, at Steak-n-Shake Saturday evening. I'm so glad she has an older friend who is being raised to love Jesus that she can look up to as she grows up.

Labor Day - heading out to go to Nana and Papa's house:

Two Godly men who love her very much - Daddy and Papa.

And I can't forget the most amazing moment last night. Lily, Clay, and I were all sitting on the couch together, and she was very sleepy. She leaned over and put her head on my chest and looked up at me and said, "You have pretty eyes." And I promptly cried. She is so sweet :)