Ups and Downs

It has been a week with many ups and downs... The girls and I spent all night on Thursday baking cookies at my mom's house...flour everywhere but some very good cookies and the girls had a lot of fun and so did mom. Tom started his new job and it went amazingly well. He thinks that they may be training him to manage a center for the environmental lab. Austie has begun to sleep at normal times. Praise God! Such an answer to prayer...it took his daddy getting a job for him to start to feel secure again. So understandable as Tom used to work ten to fifteen hour days..so the loss of work really rocked the kids world. It has been a rough week for me with pain levels. It seems that Lupus is rearing it's ugly head again and I am beginning to have some complications. I haven't been in this much pain since June when I was in the hospital. I am praying that I would be pain free for the rest of the week with Christmas right around the corner....as well as hoping to see grandma. I know she is being taken care of but she needs company and unfortunately everyone is so wrapped up in their own lives she doesn't get too many visitors...and then the excuse I hear is that it is too heartbreaking to visit her~ so I am praying for strength for the days ahead. Tom's mom has been giving our family quite a bit of grief lately...so unfortunate. She can be quite mean and she says it's all in the name of Jesus....I don't understand because although I can disagree with my parents on different issues they are never mean. We were to have dinner with her this weekend and the children refused to go...we decided to support our children...she had said some very unkind words to them and than justified it because she believes it was said with love....I don't understand~ Today at church we were reminded to choose our words carefully and to encourage each other. Really is this not what we as Christians are commanded to do? I always try to remind the kids of this because kids can be tough on each other..especially siblings~ The fruits of the spirit...two of them are gentleness and kindness..I love my children and I don't understand how she can be like this but I have encouraged the kids to not allow themselves to dwell on what has happened..it's no good to let things fester we need to release our hurts to the Lord. I am hoping that they will do that~

"Words of affirmation enhance relationships. Harsh, condemning words destroy relationships."
Gary Chapman

Eph. 4:29
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.