Courtsmith’s Weblog

Let me just say, I hardly ever have a “blog-worthy” day but when I do, I always forget to blog about it. Last sunday night, August 29, 2010 was an exception. Our sweet little #2 asked Jesus into her heart..yay!!!!! For the past few weeks we have been reading from the Jesus Storybook Bible to the girls at bedtime. On this night we were reading about Pharaoh keeping God’s people as slaves and then God killing all of the firstborn sons unless they had blood over their door. This, of course, evoked many hard questions for me to answer. The girls were so giddy beyond reason that I thought it pointless to go in depth at all! #1 started asking questions about heaven which started the whole story about when she accepted Christ 9 months before. We were talking about how we would be in heaven together one day when all of the sudden #2 said, ” I want to go to heaven, too!” She was giggling so hard I didn’t think she was serious. I said, “are you serious? Do you really want to ask Jesus into your hear?” Giggling, she said, YES, Is God a cloud???” I was for sure she was just playing because there have been a few other times we have asked if she wanted to and she would be very quick to say, “NO.”
After a few delirious moments with the girls laughing about God being a cloud and walking on clouds, I went to ask Daddy-o if he wanted to come feel out the situation to see if she was serious. He came in and she got a little more believable. He started asking all the right questions but my favorite part was when He said, “let’s pray” and she started praying herself. She said something like “thank you for today” and then the sweetest part, “and, God, I love you so much!!” I melted! Trev said, “now let’s ask him to come in to your heart.” She prayed after he did and then she yelled, “Is HE in there now??” #1 kept reminding her that they would be together! It was just such a precious moment and I could not be more grateful to God than I have been at those two moments! Praise the LORD!!!
We always have a problem with the girls getting out of bed to come kiss us or for us to pray with them, it’s always sweet things but it’s still disobeying. I left the room saying, “ok, you two little christians, if you get out of bed your disobeying me and God wants his people to obey his commands!!” This has been a good reminder to them of why they are to obey us..it’s great! I turned to Trev and said, Two down, Two to go!!!

When we got married I thought we would live in our 800 sq. ft. apartment for less than a year and then go buy our first house.  Here we sit about to celebrate our 7 year marriage anniversary and we just closed on our home!!  Our rental house we have been in for 5 years, to the day, has served it’s purpose.  It has welcomed three of our four children home and we have had three first birthday’s here.  I’m experiencing emotions I never thought I would have.  I have a love/hate relationship with this house.  I love all the memories we have made here.  I won’t go into the things that drive me crazy about it because it’s just been way too good to us!!

We rented a POD, which I totally recommend, so we could slowly pack.  Chan has become emotionally attached to it.  She has decorated it by cutting out magazine pictures and taped them to the outside of it.  Shanaynay has also become attached to it.  Every time the door is open she runs in and hides between boxes.  One day I couldn’t get her out so I left her in there and then 12 hours later remembered that I had forgotten to let her out..ooops!

So, here we go!!  Starting this move and I’m already ready for it to be over.  I can’t wait to see what memories will be made in this house!!  Here we come 109!!  And, see you later 742!!

My sweet sister, Casey, left today to go back to VA. She, my mom and I hung out today and were able to have deep conversations without any children, yay!!! One of the topics was about blessings. I read The Shack, by William P. Young, last year and it transformed my thinking about the word blessing! Not too long ago I heard someone say, “if your drinking, smoking and doing drugs, God isn’t going to bless you.” Growing up I thought the same until God opened my eyes. It’s all in the way you translate the word. Is a blessing only something good? I think someone who is doing drugs and allowing their lives to spin out of control can be blessed by being caught!!
So, today as we were talking and we were digging deep into what God calls blessings, my ideas were confirmed. Fast forward to tonight…..
Trevis is in Blockbuster, he gets in the car talking on his phone. He was acting weird on the phone like he didn’t want me to know what he was talking about. Finally, I pulled it out of him. He said, “your mom and Tim were at the house and they saw a mouse in the kitchen. Tim didn’t want me to tell you b/c he knew you would freak out.” I immedately began to freak out and we were on our way to buy the traps!!!
When we walk in the door, my VERY messy house that we left was now VERY clean. I started to cry and called my parents. My mom said she came in to do something and got this feeling like she needed to clean up my house. As soon as my dad walked in the door he said, Steph, let’s clean thier house, precious!!! As they were cleaning, the mouse ran around in the kitchen. Then my sweet sweet husband does everything possible and more to catch this disgusting mess of a creature. The girls are helping and I’m sitting in my bed praying that God would help us catch it!!! After about an hour, he is getting the girls ready for bed, I’m feeding little man and I hear a loud noise and lots of banging coming from the kitchen. We have an old space heater that can’t be moved and it had stepped on the sticky board and was beating itself up against that heater. I yelled for Trev, he found it, I called my dad, they talked about what to do with it and Trev “finished the job.” In the middle of all this, Trevis found our missing car key that we had been looking for for months under the space heater. I just started yelling, “the mouse is a blessing!!!!” Chan starts getting a little nervous saying, “momma, what’s a blessin? Why is the mouse a blessin? Does that mean it’s a good mouse??” I guess it didn’t help that we had watched Stewart Little today. It really upset her when she saw that it was brown, she thought it should be white.
So, the point……I was feeling really down about our house. I had been really content with where we are and I was letting a mouse steal my joy so quickly! BUT, when I started thinking about it, if it weren’t for the mouse my car key would still be missing and my house would be a mess! It’s all about perspective!! God can use anything! Sometimes blessings come in pretty packages and sometimes they come in the form of a varment!
So, thank you nasty little mouse. You sacrificed your life so we could have a clean house and two keys to our family car, YOU ROCK!!!

Right now if you go to www.restaurant.com, you can get tons of gift cards for really cheap. We went on last night and got 130.00 worth of gift cards for 9.80. You have to spend 35.00, but you get a 25.00 gift card. So, out of pocket you will be spending 12.00 on a 35.00 meal. In the promo box type MENU and it gives you this cheap discount. whoohooo!! T and I are already planning dates.

On another note, my baby is getting so big. This morning I went in to get him out of bed and he was sitting up just looking at me. I almost cried. It’s already time to lower his bed. I feel like we were just putting it together…amazing how fast it goes! We have to go to kindergarten registration for our oldest in April. I always said that I wouldn’t cry, that I would be way too excited to cry. Now that it’s here, I’ll be the crazy mother in the corner sobbing!! Ok, maybe not that bad, but it’s going to a pretty emotional day for us! I’m not sure how it’s going to be for GA being home without her best friend everyday. It’s going to be a quiet house on T and Th when C is at school and the other two are at MDO. Trev just might be able to talk me into have a dozen kids, who knows!

I am attempting to be artistic. It doesn’t come natural, but it’s a lot cheaper than buying the real thing. My delima now is that I wanted to use this canvas to put a scripture on and then I got a little carried away with the circles. What do you think I shoud do? I have a stensil that I was going to use to write something on in white with. Then I thought about using uppercase living? So, now it’s just on the wall waiting for something, anything…..please help.
I really don’t want to do anything with his name because I already have my other artistic attempt over his changing table. Any tips???

My friend carrie hayes posted this on her blog. I thought it was so incredible and such great truth. I heard so many times during the election, “besides the abortion issue” I like most things about Obama’s politics. Well, it should never be “besides the abortion issue.” We should always hold life so high that it takes precedence over any other issue. I mean really, what is more important than the mass murdering of innocent children? There are so many issues behind the abortion that leads a woman to this decision, but it shouldn’t be a last resort. What can we do on a daily basis to change the minds of more than half of this country?

from carrie:
I just read these 15 truths on John Piper’s blog. They desperately need to be spoken of! You can go here to read them on his blog. But I also am pasting them here as in agreement!

1. Existing fetal homicide laws make a man guilty of manslaughter if he kills the baby in a mother’s womb (except in the case of abortion).

2. Fetal surgery is performed on babies in the womb to save them while another child the same age is being legally destroyed.

3. Babies can sometimes survive on their own at 23 or 24 weeks, but abortion is legal beyond this limit.

4. Living on its own is not the criterion of human personhood, as we know from the use of respirators and dialysis.

5. Size is irrelevant to human personhood, as we know from the difference between a one-week-old and a six-year-old.

6. Developed reasoning powers are not the criterion of personhood, as we know from the capacities of three-month-old babies.

7. Infants in the womb are human beings scientifically by virtue of their genetic make up.

8. Ultrasound has given a stunning window on the womb that shows the unborn at eight weeks sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking, responding to sound. All the organs are present, the brain is functioning, the heart is pumping, the liver is making blood cells, the kidneys are cleaning fluids, and there is a fingerprint. Virtually all abortions happen later than this date.

9. Justice dictates that when two legitimate rights conflict, the limitation of rights that does the least harm is the most just. Bearing a child for adoption does less harm than killing him.

10. Justice dictates that when either of two people must be inconvenienced or hurt to alleviate their united predicament, the one who bore the greater responsibility for the predicament should bear more of the inconvenience or hurt to alleviate it.

11. Justice dictates that a person may not coerce harm on another person by threatening voluntary harm on themselves.

12. The outcast and the disadvantaged and exploited are to be cared for in a special way, especially those with no voice of their own.

13. What is happening in the womb is the unique person-nurturing work of God, who alone has the right to give and take life.

14. There are countless clinics that offer life and hope to both mother and child (and father and parents), with care of every kind lovingly provided by people who will meet every need they can.

15.Jesus Christ can forgive all sins, and will give all who trusts him the help they need to do everything that life requires.

My sister told me about a year ago to join facebook because it was so much better than myspace. I kept putting it off b/c I didn’t believer her. OH, how I was wrong. I am loving it so much and am possibly getting addicted. I love keeping up with friends and feel like I am apart of their daily lives. It just goes to show that God can use anything to glorify Himself. After getting the “25 things about yourself” post, I went and did it myself. I wanted to have record of what I wrote so that I could go back and see where I was at this time in life. So, here it is.

1. I LOVE reality television way too much.
2. If I’m holding a remote I punch my parents phone number in it until Trevis points it out and I have to stop.
3. I love that 3 and 4 make 12. 1234
4. I can’t watch scary movies or shows b/c Im scared that if I watch it, then it will happen.
5. I’m allergic to sulfur.
6. I LOVE anything sweet especially late at night.
7. I stress out over cutting coupons and trying to save money, but then realize how worth it is once I get home and feel a huge sense of accomplishment.
eight. I can’t punch the number eight in b/c channing broke it off our laptop a few years ago and we never got it fixed.
9. I use to be so cold nature that I slept in my HMS (middle school) cheerleading sweatsuit through college. not anymore…i had kids, now I stay hot.
10. I’m not sure what I did before tivo.
11. I miss having someone disciple me.
12. I love decorating my house. If I could make a job out of it I would!
13. I love looking at my children and seeing Trevis in them.
14. I want to fall so much deeper in Love with Christ.
15 I want to know the bible better and be confident in all that I believe
16. Since high school I prayed for God to give me a man who loved sports. He went above and beyond in this area!!
17. I never felt guilty about drinking starbucks latte’s until dave ramsey informed me, through the radio, that they were nothing but hot milkshakes. i never thought coffee counted towards my calorie intake, ugh!
1eight. I hate to run, but love how I feel a few days later.
19. Girl night out’s have a whole new meaning in my life and I can’t get enough of them!
20. I married the most wonderful, godly, honest, passionate, teachable, wise and loving man I have ever met!
21. Desire to stay focused on what matters here on earth and let the “little things” go.
22. my dream home consists of swinging doors that our friends and our childrens friends will always feel comfortable to walk through and that it would feel like a safe haven for all who are scared, hurt or lonely.
23. I pray that I would constantly be changing and that I would not be complacent
24. I want to be intentional through my entire life with friends, family, unbelievers and God.
25. I want to pay off debt, go to Hawaii with Trevis to celebrate and get massages on the beach.

I’m sitting on my couch watching history be made in our country. I keep writing things and then deleting. I’m not quite sure how I’m feeling. It is a great day, but I’m going to miss President Bush and everything he stood for.

My friend, Amanda, has a mentor who challenged her with these questions to think about for the new year.  I LOVE these.  They are simple, but something that I am really having to think deeply about.

Q-What do you want to give to God this Year? (something you need his help with)

Q-What is something you want to thank God for over the past year?

This is also the last year in my twenty’s.  I have eight more months and then there is no looking back, ugh!  So, my friend, Erin, has started making a list of “30 things to do in my 30′s.”  I LOVE this also!  I think I’m going to start my list so when I actually turn 30 it won’t take me a year to come up with a list that I will never accomplish.

I’m starting……..NOW

1. Buy a house (if we haven’t done so in the next 8 months.)

I just have 29 more to go……..

Tonight I was praying with the girls while Trevis was giving Stock a bath.  During my prayer I asked God to save all three of them at early ages.  Channing stopped me in the middle of it and asked how to become a Christian.  I sat down and told her that we pray a prayer asking Him to come live in our hearts.  She told me that she wanted to pray it.  I made her wait so Trevis could be the one to do it.  He came in and sat on her bed and he would say it and she would repeat the prayer.  I was in tears!!!  Then I sat down with her to talk to her about it.  Our convo went like this….

me: Channing, congratualtions, that is so awesome!!  I’m so glad you became a christian.

her:  So Jesus lives in my heart? (as she is patting her chest) But, I can’t feel it.  Why can’t I feel my heart? 

me:  You just can’t, but it’s there.  (i’m bad at answering questions!!)

her:  I can’t feel Jesus either.

me:  He’s there, I promise!

her:  (still patting her chest) So, am I hitting Jesus right now?

me:  No.

her:  Is he deep in my heart?

me: yes

her: reeeeeeaaaalllly deep.  Like deep deep deep deep in my heart?

me: yes

her:  But I want God to live there too.

me:  He does.

her: How?

me:  because they are one. (she looked very confused)

her:  Does he have me in His hands?

me: yes

her: does he have all of us in his hands?

me: yes (now I’m seeing that she is getting delirious since it is almost 10:30 and I’m waiting for her to start singing, “he’s got the whole world in His hands.”

her: Is He going to eat us??

me: Ok, it’s time for bed…………….

So, I am so excited!!  I have been praying this for her since she was born.  I honestly never thought it would be this early and really hoped it would be when I felt like she truly understood what she was praying.  BUT, she has been very inquisitive for the past month about heaven, God, Jesus and becoming a christian.  At first she didn’t want to go to heaven b/c she liked her house on earth. Then she started warming up to the idea of going somewhere that she wouldn’t get in trouble at.  Now she has been talking a lot about christians.  I think once she found out all of her grandparents/aunts/uncles and parents were christians then she wanted to be also.  I guess we should go talk to someone at church with her about her decision?  Who do we talk to?  If anybody reads this and has a  child who asked Christ into their heart at an early age please give me your advice!!!