Middle of the night ponderings

We had a tornado warning last night from about 2:30-3:30 am.  Everything ended up being fine, but when I laid back down in bed, my mind would not shut off.  

I started thinking about the Boston Marathon bombing and the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas that both happened this week.

As I was thinking about these awful things, I realized that we keep C Girl and B Boy in a bubble of protection from the world for the most part.  We rarely ever have the TV on, and we try not to talk about subjects like this in front of them if we can help it.

I know they are still pretty young, but I've been wondering- am I doing right by keeping them so sheltered? Are they going to see something awful as they get older and it completely traumatize them because they haven't been prepared?

I will work to teach them that awful things will happen and we just have to trust in Jesus.  However, we are all human and we worry.  I don't want them to be worried all the time that something bad may happen to them.

With all of the media in our faces about the awful things, we have to be extra diligent to show our children all of the good that is around us everyday.

I know a day is coming soon that I will not be able to shelter them.  

How do I prepare their sweet, innocent hearts for the reality of our world?

This world is not my home I'm just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh Lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
- This World is Not My Home

Reflections

I haven't been in the space as much as I normally am, and yes, that does make me sad.  I know that I wrote recently about shifting my focus, but things like that do not always happen overnight.  

I still have commitments right now and I am one of those people who follows through with what they say they will do.  I find that to be a great trait until I'm at this point where I was wishing I could just quit!

This week coming back from Spring break has been super busy.  I've not been home much and my house is a mess.  The new has worn off and it is time to clean this pretty new house.  Boo. 

I told y'all how I had not looked at Facebook for a few days last week.  I had actually de-activated my account and really did not want to re-activate it.  I ended up re-activating it and I do like seeing updates from a few people there, but for the most part I just don't care anymore.  I have noticed since re-activating it, I only go on there maybe twice a day.  I cannot tell you how refreshing that is to me.  

I sometimes feel like all the stuff I see and ingest from online "clogs" up my head.  I don't know if you have any idea what I mean or not, but that is the only way I know how to explain it.

I love blogging and Twitter and Instagram, but sometimes, it is just too much.  Too many opinions and too much negativity.  I really do try to weed the negativity out, but it's hard to get it all.

A friend of mine posted a link to this post on Twitter yesterday.  I was torn from wanting to give her a standing ovation to running in the corner and crying from being guilty.  Seriously, ALL of us have posted a photo to Facebook or Instagram and secretly hoped that we get "likes" on it.  When you really stop and think about it, how silly does that seem?   

Or maybe you have never done that, I don't know.  I know I have.

Today is Good Friday.  I wrote this post about Good Friday last year.  When I really sit and reflect on what Jesus did for us, I almost cannot take it.  Every year, I make myself dig deep and really think about what He did.  It's really hard for me to go to a place to experience such emotions.  

What really gets to me the most is that He did not just die for me and for you.  He also died for murderers and rapists, He died for Adolf Hitler and Jeffery Dahmer, and He died for all the other evil people that have walked this earth.  He died for them.  He died for me.  He loves each and everyone of us so much.  We are all sinners.  Even though we see certain people as more sinful than others, the truth is that we are ALL sinners.  

 ^"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8