When I was in high school, my teachers were frustrated with me. Their job was to prepare me for "life". To encourage me to plan for my future. College mainly.
But I just wanted to be a mom. A wife. A homemaker. After all, I was already engaged when I was 17.
Turns out- I'm not really very good at it.
I am much better at capturing nostalgia in a photograph than teaching a 4 year old why he should obey me.
I can make a killer cup of Java. But I fail everyday at teaching my 8 year old why she should be respectful.
I can turn a piece of fabric into any of a thousand different functional little articles. But at the end of the day,
I am pretty sure I have not done a single thing to properly train up my children.
That is where God's grace comforts me. He just paves the way for us, and asks us to be obedient in the way we go, IN FAITH!
I know that He called me to this job. HE will equip me. I WILL see fruit of my labor! I have seen it for the past 8 years..... It just doesn't show up overnight. I know that.
If I stop and think about His parenting is going.... then my picture isn't so very different!
What a bunch of disobedient, disrespectful, unfaithful kids He has!! And He is perfect at it!
God uses earthly pictures to represent spiritual truths..... and this one is a biggie!
Just like marriage-- our parenting is a picture of our relationship with Him. He lovingly corrects, and redirects- until one day, after much disobedience, He has to outright discipline! I don't know about you, but in my life, He has had to do some serious disciplining at times!
Again,
and again
and again
and again..........
Jude 1:21 "keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life."
Thank the Lord that we have HIS mercies!!
1Cr 10:31 " Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
Col 3:17 " And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. "
Col 3:23 "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,"
Psa 127:3-4 " Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth."
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We had a big week on the Ranch! We had RAIN!!!
On Wednesday, we had a minor malfunction with our pump at the well. A valve broke and so the well water was being pumped into the creek bed instead
of the pila for who-knows-how-long. We only found this out when we had used all of the water that was in the pila already :) So Ryan did what he does
and got it fixed. We turned the pump back on at 10:00pm Wednesday night.
From 2:00am Thursday morning, until the next morning, we had constant rolling thunder, intermittent lightning, and off and on pouring rain.
It was QUITE a show! The kids were loving it! It was 80 degrees out and pouring fat drops of warm rain. AND THEN-
The loudest clap of thunder with simultaneous lightning right in front of my face! The bolt hit a transformer on a power pole
at the edge of our neighbors property- maybe 200 yards from my porch! So we- of course- lost power :)
So we had had a good 9 hours of water pumping into the well, and figured that the power guys would most likely be DAYS before they got all the way out here
to fix it. So we went on water conservation mode (5 minutes showers, no laundry washing, if its yellow..... you get the idea).
We went to the market and got ice for all of the refrigerators, and some groceries. We saw a group of guys on the road pointing flashlights at various power lines, and
Luis was able to tell them where it had hit, and by the time Mem and I got back with the groceries, our half of the
compound had the power back on! After only 5 hours! And a few hours later, the power on the east end came back on too.
So we had ourselves a little scare, but the Lord had mercy on us :). We were beginning to think we might actually learn what "roughing it" actually means ;)
We buy our drinking water, so we would have been fine in that department, but we would have ran out of washing water, and gone without lights, fans, a phone, or internet for a while.
Praise the Lord we have had fairly mild weather the rest of the week :)

Nate left for Acapulco for a week on Sunday, so the past few days have been work days for the students. They are helping get the base ready for the next couple weeks
full of guests, and for this weekend when Pastor phil and Susie get here :-D YAY! SO excited to see them! They are also helping Ryan get our front yards ready to plant
some grass! I can't wait to have grass! A little piece of home, and a barrier for the massive amounts of dust and dirt that get tracked into ours houses!

Taiah, Asa and I have been plugging away at school. Asa is very interested in school this year- which I didn't think would be the case until he was much older. He is learning
the rest of his letters and numbers by sight, and sound. Taiah is doing her work most days without a huge fight ;) We are going to start our study on Uganda soon, and
she is very excited about that. She has also been learning Spanish- and she seems to be picking it up quickly, and teaching it to Asa.

If you didn't get a chance to see the video Nate put together, her is the link to it on YouTube...check it out! (and see if you can find me and Mem in it ;). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P4UCY4opOk

Also, NEW photos up! http://picasaweb.google.com/steffensenfaminmexico/FunInMX?feat=directlink

Hasta a Lunes! ><> Shae