A Carlson Update...

Well, Tyler, this one's for you, and well for anyone else thinking what Tyler was only brave enough to say! I can write and update on our family and write of spiritual things simultaniously, because that is how we ought to live. We MUST look into our lives and see God so intermingled within every aspect of them, and if we do not see this, we are not truly living a life consecrated to Him.
You asked for it Mr. Looper! Here are some pictures of us over the last month or so and an update us in general and then more specifically, our quest to enlarge our family...

God desires that we walk in His statutes and all of His promises are true. We have lived in Fort Worth since we were married in 2003 in the wonderful home that my grandfather built in 1952. My father grew up there, I did, and then my parents graciously gave us that home in which to start our own family. Without the provision of God and giving heart of my parents, I do not know where Jim and I would be today. We lived our lives as singles believing the lies the world taught us about money, and we also had begun to carry those beliefs into our marriage. We were in sinning with our money. We were in debt on stuff we didn't need, we were not tithing regularly, and we were living beyond our means, and also not saving. All of these excerises are sin based on the principles of Scripture. God really convicted Jim and myself of these sins, and our merciful Lord granted us repentance. We began studying the bible on these subjects, we started studying Christian financial principles by different teachers and most importantly we began to apply the truths of the Scriptures to our hearts and our lives. We put into action what we had learned. We became "doers of the Word" not just hearers. It has been hard work, it takes lots of prayer and discipline, and we could not have succeeded without the power of God enabling us to do so. We were once in debt to many for things we did not need. We began paying bills one by one, until they were all but gone. We put our old home on the market, and we were able to sell it and purchase a new home within a 6 week time frame. The "old" us would have had all the debt we accrued before and then also a new home payment along with it. But God taught us patience and endurance, and delayed gratification. Thank you, Lord, for that. Our desires were to be able to move into the same town in which our church buidling resides, so that we would live within the community in which we minister and to live closer to family, friends, and our family business. The Lord has graciously provided. His ways are right and true, and if we would have gone about getting our desires on our own we would have failed and we would be in opposition to God's precepts and His will.
Just look at what Psalm 37:3-6 says,"Trust in the Lord , and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord , and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord ; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday."

We have seen the truth in that lived out in our lives. I praise God for giving us strength to obey and eyes to see what is unseen. God gave us the desires of our heart BECAUSE we took delight in Him, and because we delight in Him our desires change from worldly desires into desiring God's will. When your delight is in the Lord, your desires change into godly ones.

So, in June 2008, we moved into our new home just 8 minutes from church! It has been a wonderful blessing. Our wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ were so helpful in moving and painting. They are awesome. God's bride is beautiful and growing ever more precious in our sight. We love them and do not know what we would do without them. We are a body and Christ is our head.

We began homeschooling Dylan over the course of the past year. It has been a tremendous blessing already, in that we are able to bring Dylan to the office with us. The uniqueness of my situation allows me to fulfill my wifely duties as keeper of the home, as well as being an industrious wife (both of which are described in Proverbs 31) who helps in making our family business a successful one. Dylan has a classroom area at the office and we greatly enjoy it. We have a bible time, then I am teaching her to read using a great resource called Teach your Child to Read in 100 easy Lessons by: Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox , and Elaine Bruner. We are on lesson 23 currently and Dylan can read some simple words. We are teaching her that the most important reason to learn to read is so that we may read God's Word. We are reading some abridged classics as well. We will move onto unabridged when she's a little older, at 3 1/2 years it is a little hard. We just started Black Beauty today and we recently finished Heidi. I recently reduced my work week to 4 days and it has already proven productive. Dylan and I are able to spend some great time together and I am able to teach her to do things around the house. She helps me throughout the week as well, but this seems to be our own special time together. We are able to get things done on Friday that allow us to spend our Saturdays and Sundays with Daddy. We will surely use some upcoming Fridays for "field trips". It has been a joy to take part in educating my child. I know that God calls us to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and I pray that as parents we will always take that seriously. As for us, the best way we can do that as a family personally, is to homeschool our child. I am so thankful to the Lord for giving us the unique opportunity to do what we are doing. I am also thankful to my father for providing us ways in which to do so and also catching the same vision as he sees His Lord raising up a godly heritage within his family.

Most of you either know by knowing us or by reading this blog that we have a desire to have more children, but the Lord has not yet granted our petition. We went through 2 miscarriages before we had Dylan and then 2 more after Dylan in late 2007 and early 2008. But most of you do not know we just had another loss that we did not even know about until it was too late. I had an appointment with a new doctor and we have some new treatment options. I have a blood clotting disorder that did not know about until May 2008 and I also have an issue with egg development and hormones. So there are many new medications that are out there to treat these disorders that will hopefully prevent further losses. I would not trade my miscarriages and heartache for anything. I believe my Lord knows best and I believe what 1 Peter chapter 1 says is true. I know that God addresses each one of His children's sanctifcation personally. He gives us various trials so that our faith can be purified. I love my God for that. He does not react to situations, He brings them about. When you are a child of God, there are no accidents and no tragedies. He is Truth and His Words are truth and as a believer, we ought to quietly rest in His sovereignty. I know that without His Spirit it would be utterly impossible to make those statements, so I am thankful He's given Him to us. We still hurt when these things come about, but we also rejoice! We give a testimony about our Lord, we can't help but speak of Him, we can not help but tell others of how He is working in our lives. Well it is most easy to thank the Lord when things go our way, but it is a much more beautiful testimony to sing praises to Him when they don't. Your words seem to have more weight and more richness, and more belief about them when you speak sweetly of Him when things are not all right. Trials are an opportunity to know Him more, praise Him more, and love Him more. Children are always closer and more dependent on their father when they are humbled into KNOWING they need him. Let us not forget in times of plenty that we need Him just as much as in times of want. Do not cry out to God to take this cup from you for your comfort, for He may be giving you this cup so that you may ask for more of Him.

Prayer Requests for us: That no matter what, our focus would not be turned from Christ; that I would not desire more children above my Lord and my desire and petition would be that of Hannah's in 1 Samuel 1 & 2 and that I would not just give sacrifices of praise back to God for granting my desire, but that I would give my children to the Lord fully and wholly. And if the Lord chooses not to grant us more children, that I would praise Him all the more.

I pray that our testimony and update will be a blessing to you, reader, and that you would continue to grow in your love of your Lord and that you will follow Him with all you have. But most importantly, I pray that each of us knows that nothing is more important than to give God the glory that He is due.