Sometimes it amazes me at the opportunities that I let go by to teach our kids about God. When the others were Ri and Elizabeth's age, I read to them from the bible, I taught them the truths of God, I took the little opportunities in life to teach them of God. But, it seems that with the chaos of our life, that has slipped away. It makes me very sad to think of all the opportunities that I have missed out on. A few weeks ago, I was reading from a children's illustrated bible, the story of Adam and Eve. I was intentionally being animated in my story telling, At the end of the story, I emphasized how Adam and Eve had done something God told them not to and how it made him mad and He punsihed them.

Well.... since then, Elizabeth is scared of the bible. She sees the book and doesn't want it near her. Since then, she doesn't like going to sleep on her own and whimpers for me to stay in the room. I have done my best to try and tell her of the love of God... over and over... but when something hurts Elizabeth or something bad happens to her, she doesn't forget it very easily. It can be weeks before she trusts that nothing will happen to her. So... we are facing something I never imagined facing with a 3 year old. It makes me quite sad.

Anyways - for those prayer warriors out there, you can add our dilemma to your prayer list, ok? So, now Mark and I are trying to be very dileberate about teaching truths about God to our little ones, especially the WONDERFUL truths of God's love for Elizabeth and Ri.

Last night, Mark and I took the little ones blackberry picking. They are "berry beasts". Mark loves to pick handful after handful, put them in a bowl and then hold the bowl and watch them literaaly devour it! It is so fun to watch. Here are a few of the pictures from last night. As we picked the berries, Mark reminded the kids over and over how God planted those berries for them to enjoy them. Ri was on Daddy's shoulders and said we needed to thank God. So... Mark and Ri stopped right there and as the sun set, they praised God for the berries.
The picture is great, but the sounds when they devour are hilarious!! It definitely needs to be videod!