can you look any more like your sister?
I have been told over and over again that Whitley could be a clone of her 2 1/2 year old sister. I did some digging and had to scan a picture of Gracyn at 6 months and posed Whitley in the same bouncy, in the same way - you tell me? I think they could have been identical twins!
The picture on the left is Gracyn. The picture on the right is Whitley.
Get thee behind me satan… God is gonna win this one!
As promised, it is my goal to journal and update everyone about details surrounding my upcoming trip to Kazakhstan. I will back up a week or so and start with the very small roadblocks that trick ol satan has tried to throw my way. You know you can certainly tell when it is God trying to test you or just the devil trying to thwart something awesome that God has in store. Both of these experiences were definately of the thwarting variety.It starts with applying for my passport. Because I am not the world traveler, I have indeed been out of the country twice - once on a trip to Germany with a past boyfriend in college and Read more
About Blogging for Jesus
Hello, my name is Jenny Buttler - I am a mother of three beautiful children -Nathan, Gracyn, and Whitley. I have had my own website (which has changed like 50 times) for about six months. I started out with a working at home website and when I realized that most work at home “opps” called for fees, and lots of unethical hoopla, I abandoned that, and eventually came up with Blogging for Jesus. I am a strong Christian, and it is my ultimate goal in life to see my children and my family not only come to know Christ, but to have a deep, meaningful relationship with our one true God and Savior! To me, there is nothing else more important on earth than my relationship with Him ~ that is why I guess I picked the Proverbs 16:3 verse in the picture above - I am dedicating this blog to Him, and it is my goal, through this blog, to establish a place of hope and encouragement for parents whose goals are to also see their children come to Christ.Parenting is…… well, it is so many things. Somedays I feel only like a maid, a chef, and a butler, other days I feel like a policeman, or firefighter putting out fires or a carpenter repairing the damage of hurt feelings. Other days I am princess or doctor, other days just a burp cloth for someone to spit up on. Many times, I have felt like the ringmaster of a circus and other days a clown, just to entertain the crowd. I have been told that I am unfair and yet the coolest mom in the same five minutes. There have been days that I have felt like a zombie muddling through with no sleep, no makeup, mismatched clothes, and uncombed hair. There have been trips to the hospital and trips across town, spankings at supermarkets, and spilled juice in the car. Field trips, forgotten lunches, outings with no extra diapers, lost pacifiers, lost naptimes, and invented games, teething, potty training, forgotten homework. I’ve answered why and why not, and have had the same questions myself turning to God asking why…. why not….
What I have learned in the nine years of mom-hood is that there are not perfect children, there are not perfect days, and that I am not, nor will I ever be a perfect parent. I am indeed the complete opposite - that I am full of mistakes, I am constantly learning through trial and error and making mistake after mistake. I’ve spent nine years in the trenches and on top of mountains - praising and questioning God, learning to trust Him more and more each day. And that is the key word - learning. I realize that I too have not stopped growing. And as I inch forward day by day, as days turn into weeks and months and years, I have learned to stopped trying to fast forward the lives of my children and try to enjoy the trenches as much as the mountains - I have tried to learn that God is just as much with me in the seemingly meaningless day to day struggles as he is with me singing his praises on Sunday morning. And one thing that left me awestruck - He is also with my children as they struggle. Whew….. one less thing to worry about.
Father, as I raise my children, help me to teach them about You and Your love and your ways - diligence, honesty, integrity. Please Father, give me the grace to let go of my desires so they can achieve Your goals. Let me nurture them, but never take them for granted, If I am tempted to want “freedom” remind me that the greatest freedom is within the boundaries that You have set. Help me to find Your will, and give me the good sense to live according to Your priorities! (And please Father, help me to look up to You when I feel like I’m in the trenches!)
Ok - here we go!
“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” II Thessalonians 2:16-17The purpose of this blog is to be a place of encouragement and hope for each other!
Yes! I’m am finally up and running - I have finished setting up and am ready to roll. For those of you who have followed me - I have move site addresses and have done without a redirect - so I hope you can find me. I shouldn’t say that I have moved - I killed the old site and re-invented the wheel, or I guess I should say have steered in a different direction - totally different. This is a start of a new journey and we will see how it goes.
To find out more about who I am, click about above. I’d love some feedback on how things look, feel, load, etc. I’ve got lots of pictures crammed in here - and if anyone is having trouble loading everything, I’d love any suggestions of what could be done about that. Read more
