Not a Comfortable God

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about a type of false Christ the world believes in. How so many people profess that Jesus was a nice guy and taught us to love everyone. This blog refers to it as the Nice Doctrine. The problem with this doctrine, is that they are limiting Christ to one dimension, and really only backing it up by a few verses of scripture. If you read all the scriptures that teach of Christ, and that includes the Old Testament (we believe Jehovah is Christ), then you would know that Christ taught a lot more than to just be nice to everyone. Yes, Christ taught us to love everyone, but the key is that we are to love as He loved us.

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." (John 13:34)

To fully understand Christ's love, we have to study ALL of His life and teachings. The world has a very different concept of what love is, and they use it to try to convince us that Jesus would never disagree with someone or stand up for something. But that's not the love that Christ taught or lived.

I loved Elder Holland's talk in General Conference. It really summed up my thoughts on the subject. He taught how Christ is not a comfortable God:

"Sadly enough, my young friends, it is a characteristic of our age that if people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much, comfortable gods and smooth gods who not only don’t rock the boat but don’t even row it, gods who pat us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigolds. Talk about man creating God in his own image! Sometimes — and this seems the greatest irony of all — these folks invoke the name of Jesus as one who was this kind of ‘comfortable’ God. Really? 

Now be strong. Live the gospel faithfully even if others around you don’t have it at all. Defend your beliefs with courtesy and with compassion, but defend them."

I believe the love that Christ taught and lived is similar to the love a parent should have for a child. As a parent, sometimes you have to discipline them and you have to tell them "no", because you love them and want what is best for them. Sometimes the child will yell "You don't love me" when we set limits and boundaries. But the truth is, real love is doing what you believe to be best for your child, even when they may hate you for it. It can be hard to do, and it can be uncomfortable, but it is what true love demands.

Sunglasses, Winnie the Pooh, Books, and Cereal

P1 thinks sunglasses are pretty fun. Isn't he styling?

Lately, P1 loves Winnie the Pooh. If I start singing "Winnie-the-Pooh", he'll go grab his Pooh bear and play with him.

 P1 really likes his book about Noah. He loves to open up all the flaps and see the animals. We finally got him to hiss like a snake, and roar like a lion. 

I really don't know when P1 grew up, but he is no longer a little baby. This morning he wanted to eat Raisin Bran like Daddy. He really surprised me with how well he ate the cereal with a big spoon, and he's not even using a booster seat at the table. Who is this big boy and where did my baby go???

17 Months

1 more month until P1 goes to nursery! He's actually very good in church, but I think he will enjoy nursery and it'll be good to have him in nursery once P2 comes along (3 more months!).

P1 has his back molars coming through, on top and bottom. He sleeps like a dream at night. We put him to bed at 8 pm with little to no fussing, and he wakes up sometime between 7 and 9 am. With daylight savings, he has been sleeping in a little longer (closer to 9 am), but he is starting to wake up closer to 7 am again. He takes 1-2 naps a day, but I think we are in the process of losing his morning nap (sigh...).

We try to have weekly play dates with other kids in our complex, and they have been really good for P1. He is still shy, but it's good to see him interacting with other kids and warming up to the other moms.

P1 loves the outdoors. We go on a short walk with him in a stroller most days, and then let him run around the apartment complex. He loves collecting rocks and sticks. His favorite rocks are the tiny little ones that he can barely pick up. He cries when he drops them because he usually can't find them again (and neither can I!). He also loves to see the helicopter and planes that fly by when we are outside.

P1 still is not very vocal. We can bribe him to say Mom and Da-da. He has repeated the words "stick" and "rock" on rare occasion. If he's in the mood, he will tell you that a dog says "ruff ruff." He's much more likely to say it if he actually hears a dog barking. He tries to say "cook" all the time, and he says something very similar to "Amen" at the end of prayers. He constantly surprises me with how much he understands though. Last night, I jokingly told P1 to go get his pajamas. He disappeared into his bedroom, and came back with his pajamas in his hands.

P1's favorite past-time is still cooking. He has a very good imagination. He'll hold his hand over his pretend food to show that it is "hot" and then will blow on it.

"Helping" with laundry:

 Playing with cheerios:

P1 really is the sweetest little boy. He is very happy and easy-going. We are very grateful to have him in our family!

Brushing Teeth and Powdered Donuts

P1 is a pro at brushing his teeth (all 8 of them)! He lets me do the first brush over, and then he gets to try it for himself.

And brushing his teeth is needed because of all the sweet treats he gets. He really enjoyed this powdered donut:

Tender Moment

So P1 has been rather fussy the last few days, I blame teething. Yesterday afternoon/evening were especially bad, I was really tired of the constant whining over everything. This morning wasn't much better, but I had regained some of my patience over night. Finally P1 was content doing something, so I pulled out my Kindle to do my daily scripture study. As I was finishing up, P1 came over wanting to play with the Kindle, so I showed it to him and said "I'm reading my scriptures, I'm reading about Jesus." P1 looks at me, and then goes over to the bookcase and pulls out the Nursery manual, and the Gospel Art Book. He brings them over to the couch and proceeds to look at pictures of Jesus while I finish reading. After I finished, we spent some more time looking at the pictures and singing some Primary songs. Such a sweet little boy. He continually surprises me with his level of understanding.

Growing Up

P1 is growing up so quickly. He really is the sweetest little boy.

Enjoying his first whole chocolate chip cookie, what a mess!

P1 loves the bunnies, and is always laughing at them:

P1 is still the resident chef. He is ALWAYS cooking something:

He loves to pull food out of the cabinet, and I was very impressed with his tower building the other day. He also loves milk, I'm pretty sure he drinks a gallon or two all by himself each week. 

P1 thinks he's a big kid now. He always wants to climb up and down the stairs like an adult, not like a baby. He learned how to pull himself up on chairs, and likes to sit at the table like a big kid. While I was out of sight for a minute, he climbed on the computer chair, printed something off, and pulled all the paper out of the printer! And yesterday he pulled out PE's dress shoes and wanted to wear them. He was quite upset that he couldn't walk in them though. 

P1 loves water, and sometimes will drink and spit water out just to get wet. Silly boy!

  We taught P1 how to give kisses, and it is pretty adorable. Some of them can be pretty wet kisses though. Oh, and it's super funny to watch P1 dance.

Oh no, he spotted the camera!

Project #2

Well, in case you really missed it, we are expecting baby #2 this summer. My due date is June 30, and I am predicting a 4th of July baby. P1 and P2 will be 20 months apart. We are excited for P1 to have a sibling even though I don't think he will be too thrilled about it at first. P1 usually gets upset when I hold other babies, but he is getting a little better about it.

We found out November 9 that I was pregnant. Morning sickness started at week 6 (2 weeks earlier than with P1). The first day I started feeling sick, all the memories of going through it the first time came back and I thought "Oh no, what have I gotten myself into!" I really hate morning sickness. For me it is the hardest part about pregnancy.

At week 8, I had a doctor's appointment, and was able to get a free sample of some medicine for morning sickness. The medicine was a life saver, and it was a tender mercy that I was able to get such a large sample for free. I later had to get a prescription for it, and learned that my free sample would have cost about $500 without insurance. I would say the medicine helped with about 90% of my morning sickness.

Week 8:

We were going to wait and tell family for Christmas, but PE wanted to announce it in our Christmas card. We told our families about a week before Christmas, and then sent out our Christmas cards to let everybody else know.

Week 12:

Morning sickness started abating around week 18 (2 weeks later than with P1). I was off my medicine by week 20. Making for about 14 weeks of morning sickness misery! So glad it's over!!!

We had our 20 week ultrasound this week, and DID NOT find out gender! With P1, the technician totally gave it away even though we didn't want to know. But this time we made it through without any slip-ups! We didn't really get a good profile of the baby, but it was still fun to see the baby. And everything looks good!

Week 20: