The Tone of Voice

It's not so much what you say

As the manner in which you say it;

It's not so much the language you use

As the tone in which you convey it.

"Come here!" I sharply said,

And the child cowered and wept.

"Come here!" I said-

He looked and smiled and

Straight to my lap he crept.

Words may be mild and fair

But the tone may pierce like a dart;

Words may be soft as the summer air

But the tone may break my heart;

For words come from the ind,

Grow by study and art-

But the tone leaps from the inner self,

Revealing the state of the heart.

Whether you know it or not,

Whether you mean or care,

Gentleness, kindness, love, and hate,

Envy, anger, are there.

Then, would you quarrels avoid

And peace and love rejoice?

Keep anger not only out of your

words-

Keep it out of your voice.

-Author Unknown

Happy 9th Birthday, Tessa!

Pilgrim's Progress- VBS 2008

Jude's VBS teacher, "Everyone line up. It's time to go hear Mrs. Bailey read to us!"
Jude, "But I thought my mommy was reading to us."

We just finished part 2 of Pilgrims Progress VBS. It went smooth and wonderful! Pilgrims Progress makes such a great VBS. The lessons taught through the story are life lessons for any believer! I would encourage anyone who hasn't read it to read it. We used Dangerous Journey (the story of Pilgrim's Progress) revised by Eerdmans because the origional 1676 John Bunyon version is very difficult to understand because it was written so long ago. Even Eerdman's version uses words hard for young children to understand, so I revised it even more.

To briefly highlight a little bit of the story, Christian has a burden and lives in the City of Destruction. The book that he's reading tells him that his city will be destroyed and he wants to know what he must do to be saved. No one else sees the danger or has a burden. His family and friends don't want him to leave, but Evangelist tells him to go to the wicket gate and there, he will discover how to be saved. He tells him not to leave the path, the Kings Highway. Through the wicket gate, he walks between the walls of salvation up to a cross where his burden rolls off into a tomb. The Shining ones appear an give him new clothes and a parchment which he must not loose or give away until he reaches the Celestial City.
In the story, he makes wise and unwise decisions. Sometimes he leaves the path, and sometimes he is wise and doesn't.
At one point, he must go through Vanity Fair, a fair that never closes and was put up by Apollyon, the prince of demons, in the town of Vanity. He put it there because he saw that all pilgrims must go through this city on their way to the Celestial City. He put it there to tempt them to love the things of this world more than the King. Christian must fight Appollyon at one point as well.
Another chapter is about Christian veering off the path, when he is weary and despairing, to Doubting Castle where he it tortured by Giant Despair until he remembers his Promise key which he uses to unlock the dungeon door and escape.
In the end, he is received in the Celestial City with trumpets and angels because he has his parchment paper with him which shows that he was invited and came on the right road through the wicket gate.

The story allowed each day to have different themes and characters, which made it exciting for songs and crafts and games and Bible verses. We had a wonderful time.

So even though Jude didn't know who 'Mrs. Bailey' was, hopefully he learned a few lesson about the christian life!

Our New Blessing!... And My Birthday Present!

Solomon Booth Bailey, May 12, 6:42 PM, 8 lbs. 2 oz., 23 in. long

She's 2!

Happy
April 1st birthday, Rose! You're 2 now!

Locks of Love

Tessa has been asking me for about 3 months if she could give her hair to Locks of Love. This is an organization that makes wigs for children under 18 who loose their hair because of diseases. I gave her a little time to make sure it was a real desire, but after that long of asking, I told her she could- after Easter pictures. She is very excited about her decision and wrote to Locks of Love and told them that she hoped her hair would go to someone special.

Easter 2008

Sunday, Lance preached on Proverbs 22. Being a mom, I was drawn to verse 6; "train up a child in the way he should go..." Am I doing all I can? I can always improve. Thinking of this, I came upon this Spurgeon quote from the Spurgeon Archives;

Children in grace have to grow, rising to greater capacity in knowing, being, doing, and feeling, and to greater power from God; therefore above all things they must be fed. They must be well fed or instructed, because they are in danger of having their cravings perversely satisfied with error. Youth is susceptible to evil doctrine. Whether we teach young Christians truth or not, the devil will be sure to teach them error. They will hear of it somehow, even if they are watched by the most careful guardians. The only way to keep chaff out of the child's little measure is to fill it brimful with good wheat. Oh, that the Spirit of God may help us to do this! The more the young are taught the better; it will keep them from being misled.

Let's make sure that we fill their measures to the brim with God's Word so that that they will, prayerfully, be kept from being misled!

March snow in Arkansas? Well, we had fun!

The Poor Burmese Children?

During Mission Week at our church, Rob was asked to give a presentation on Myanmar (former Burma) to the children, grades K-6, while the ladies had a luncheon. To start the part about the orphans and the poor children that need care and help, he showed these pictures of our children in the mud. My girls were with me at the luncheon, but my Kindergarten and 3 year old boys were with Rob. As Rob continued to play on the emotions of the kids and the teen workers with these pictures, my boys didn't realize that they were pictures of themselves! The kids and workers had this "poor muddy children!" look on their faces, horrified at the conditions of the children until FINALLY Robert said, "Hey! That's Jude and I!!!". Then, everyone laughed and thought it was so funny. To me, the funny thing was my boys not recognizing themselves!!
As a side note, this muddy fiasco happened 2 years ago when I was recovering from having our fifth child, Rose, and Dad was in charge. No telling what will happen when May 3 comes!

The other picture on this post is a picture Rob took in Myanmar of a t-shirt for sale in the market. He showed this on the power point and first asked a new K or 1st grade reader to read it for them. They couldn't figure it out. So, then he asked a quick learning, avid reading 5 th grade boy to read it. He kept pressuring him saying, "Please explain this shirt to us-'girs for good, hong shang everyone box on opening times to'. Tell us what it means!" The poor guy was very confused and finally said, "Mr. Rob, I don't know what that means!" Then, Rob assured him that it was a joke, there was no meaning! The Burmese just think it is great to have a shirt with English written on it; even if they can't read it and don't know what it means! Everyone laughed then. His point was to show that the Burmese are so excited to speak with someone who speaks English and what a great opportunity this can give you to tell them about the living God who sent his Son as a sacrifice for our sin.
The children left very excited about missions. I wish I could have been there to here my wonderful husband who is on fire for Christ and excited about missions. He has a wonderful gift of communication that inspires others as well. I'm going to write more about Missions Week soon, but tomorrow is the last day, and I want to wait until it is all said and done to write anymore.

The Scoop on the Cooked Cookies and the One Still in the Oven

My sweet husband is always wanting me to have time to do stuff I enjoy like having time to put photo albums together, write memorable things about our precious 'batch', and enjoy other godly women. So, today he came home and handed me his laptop with a 'blog spot ' of my own on the screen and told me this would satisfy for all those things I enjoy! The tough part for me is getting started and figuring it all out. I decided to start with a family update.
Tessa is our first born. She is our 8 1/2 (going on 13) year old third grader. She is an easy, yet hard child to homeschool. Easy in the sense that she is a quick learner, fast reader, and excellent writer. Hard in the sense that she is more focused on everything else in the entire world more than her school work most of the time. She works at it, however, and this is our best year yet.
She is involved in a choir called Servants and Singers this year. She is learning hymns and has had opportunities to minister to the elderly in an assisted living home through this program. She is a wonderful help to me with the family. She loves her little siblings and is a 'second mom' to them. She also helps me with household chores.
Fern is our second child and all the boys are lined up to marry her. She is a fun loving, gift giving, beautiful, clumsy, random mood first grader. She just turned 7 this December, but is the same height as her 3rd grade sister. She is an excellent student. She focuses well and is wonderful in math. She is a big help with the little ones as well. Her main family job is taking care of our little 3 pound Maltese named Jasmine. The smaller the animal, the smaller the bladder, so this is a full time job for her. She is learning gentleness, patience, and perseverance (on cold days) by having this job.
Robert. Robert. Robert- it's a good thing I had girls first-WOW. He is our self- proclaimed handsome 5 year old Kindergartner/super hero/ firefighter in training/ grown man/ violin virtuoso/ duck hunter/ cave man/ protector of the younger siblings middle child. He can be the sweetest, wildest, most dangerous, gentlest little boy. My prayer is that all this energy in him will be channeled into a godly leader some day. He is the reason I pray Galations 6:1 for myself everyday. He is excellent at school, but is a challenge sometimes to teach. He tests my patience, but warms my heart. Watch out girls.
Jude is our 3 1/2 year old sweetie. He is IN LOVE with his little sister- to the point that she gets mad and pushes him away after the 30th kiss. He is our more gentle boy who never harms anyone. His downfall, however is whining and complaining- which he is working on (with the help of discipline). He loves to sing and listen to music. If you ever see him, ask him about the poor old dirt farmer.
Rose (Rosie-Posie) is our youngest child. Her picture is the one you saw when you first came to this page. She will be 2 on April 1, but she acts like a 3 year old. She loves babies, cooking, snuggling, laughing, kissing, and playing with her siblings. Her best friend is her 'lovie' which is a ragged purple blanket with a hippo face for a head. This, however must always be accompanied by a pacifier. She speaks like a 3 or 4 year old and pronounces her words better than our boys. Everyone loves her and she knows it. Her Paw Paw calls her his little Dixie Bell and she loves it. Pretty soon, however, her limelight will be gone because #6 is cooking in the oven.
On May 3, we are expecting boy number three. I am excited about having a little baby around again, but terrified about bringing him into this world. Pray for me in that area, for I have home births and huge babies (Rose was a 10 pounder). Any suggestions for names would be welcomed.
A few more tidbits that include more than one child. The older three are involved in Awana at our church, which helps them memorize scripture on a regular basis. Its like Boy Scouts, except instead of tying knots, they memorize verses. The older three have also begun violin lesson this year. We are thankful for that opportunity for them.
Well, if you've read this far, your probably a grandparent. Otherwise, you know way more about us than you probably want to know. If, however, you are interested, we would love your prayers for our little family. Pray for our children to grow in wisdom and favor with God and man and pray for Rob and I as we disciple these little ones.