Free Chickfila!!

This morning at our local Chickfila was Pajama Party Day. If you wore your jammies from 8-10am you received a free entree of your choice. What did the Roland family do? We headed right over in our jammies (all three of us!!!) and enjoyed free food! :-)

There are a number of reasons why I love Chickfila, but one reason is how well they treat customers with food allergies! Take this morning for instance. I usually can't order breakfast from them because all of their breakfast chicken is battered and fried. Since I'm allergic/intolerant to wheat flour, I cannot eat it. Well, this morning I asked if they would be willing to substitute a grilled chicken filet on one of their sandwiches (of which I couldn't eat the bread...haha) and they did, free of charge! So, I not only got a free sandwich, I got a free grilled chicken sandwich! Abigail did too! How wonderful!

This, my friends, is just one reason why they have many satisfied customers! Oh, and have you seen that they now offer grilled chicken nuggets in their kids meals? That's a Mom's dream come true! Especially for me since Abigail has my same allergy!

Thank you, Chickfila, for a fun, family breakfast date! :-)

Trusting The Lord And Our Husbands

Why is it that the grass always looks greener on the other side? Why do we seek to grasp hold of our future, desperately trying to control it and wield it in the way that seems most "perfect" to our understanding? Why do we, as sinful human beings, doubt the sovereignty of God in our lives by not trusting Him to direct our every step? Oh, of course we say we trust Him, but do our thoughts and actions reflect that? Can we say honestly that we have full confidence and peace in His righteous acts and just hand?

Recently the Lord has been teaching me a lot about trusting Him with big decisions in life. I feel that He is always teaching me about trusting Him more, but recently this applies to more than just my average, daily need to trust in "little" decisions. Not only is He showing me the importance of waiting on Him and His will, but the importance of trusting my husband and the Lord to work through my husband. As a newly wed it was easy to say that I trusted my new husband with all of our life decisions. However, the longer we are married, the more I see my sinful tendency to want to control and "shape" his decisions. Of course, there is definitely room for a married couple to discuss and pray through decisions and steps for their family together. Yet there is a point at which the wife must then step back, trusting the Lord, and wait on God's will to be shown to her husband and for him to share the excitement of that with his wife.

What a sweet blessing it is when a wife sees the Lord working and directing her husband! I have had the privilege of watching the Lord work in Kyle's heart in various matters and it is a joy indescribable to observe! I truly believe that the Lord leads and guides a family through the husband! The wife certainly plays a part in decisions but God is the One who turns the heart of the husband, not the wife. Now, if you are a wife like me, even though we believe this, it doesn't mean that it will always be easy to sit back and wait on the Lord's timing as he works in our husband's lives. However, I know from personal experience the frustration of not obediently waiting on the Lord and the distress that it can cause a marriage when the wife tries to take the leadership reigns. Thankfully, I have a loving and forgiving heavenly Father and patient, kind, and forgiving husband! :-) Praise the Lord that I also know from personal experience the immense joy of seeing God's hand at work and knowing that it is fully the Lord, not me, directing my husband!

I believe that the Lord has shown me that in my own life, so much of my struggle with trusting Him and at times my husband's leadership, is due to a lack of contentment in that particular area of life or situation. I want x, y, or z and it tends to become an idol of my heart (idol= anything I am willing to sin to get or sin if I don't get). So instead of trusting God with that situation, I sin in my heart and at times with my mouth when I am impatient and seek to gain control of the situation. Thus, I am acting on my sinful lusts and desires, seeking to control my life and my surroundings (i.e... the idols of my heart).

It's so easy for me to "wash over" this sin by claiming that I am just a "planner" and that I want to be organized and have an idea of how to live life between now and "then..." Yet, God calls me to be faithful in the here and now.... He says in His word that He gives us grace and that we are not to worry about tomorrow, what we shall eat or drink (Matthew 6:25-34). How can I be faithful tomorrow if I am not faithful today? How can I trust God with my future, if I don't trust Him with now?

God does not lead and direct us with vagueness. He calls us to trust Him even when we do not understand how He is working at the moment. He says in Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV) to Israel:

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile."

God has a plan for our lives that He has set forth before the very foundation of the earth. He will fulfill His plan for our lives and He does not need us telling Him how to do it. However, like in these verses, we must be like Israel and come before the Lord, seek Him, pray to Him, and expect to find Him. 

So, in the moment when our sinful selfishness wants to grab hold of a situation in our lives and plan every detail, we need to step back and remember Who is sovereignly in control of every area of our lives, from the great big decisions down to even the smallest of decisions. We must trust in God to lead and direct us through our husbands, knowing that He will bless their decision if they are seeking Him wholeheartedly for His will and direction for our families.

Fellow wives, God has given us our husbands for many reasons. One of which is to protect us by lovingly leading and guiding us. Some days it's easier than others to submit to that leadership but it is definitely worth any prideful "sacrifice" on our part! God does not desire to work through a proud, haughty, and controlling wife. His word says in James 4:6 that He "opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." God desires to bless the humble and submissive wife who yearns to have a heart that trusts both her God and her husband.

So, which wife are we seeking to be? Proud and controlling? Or humble and submissive, full of trust in God?

Bible Reading Plan

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As this new year has begun, I have been slow to work on new years resolutions due to having a pretty crazy schedule since returning from our Christmas trip to Georgia on new years eve. I started nannying full time again in our home and was preparing for the arrival of my parents for a short visit. It was a wonderful week but this week, I am ready to get into the swing of "normal" life again.

Among my resolutions this year is to read the Bible through. I have started this many times yet very sadly have failed to make it the whole way through in a year. :-( However, this year, I really want to make this happen! I am using The Legacy Reading Plan  found here which assigns books of the Bible per month to read. I believe this will help me because if I get behind it won't be so frustrating looking at all the many chapters I need to catch up on. Instead, I can just continue on for that book assigned to that particular month. In the past, I have definitely found my reading to be much more consistent when I took a book of the bible at a time vs. random chapters from various books.

I am really looking forward to growing in this way in the coming year! I know it will take much persistence and discipline from the Lord to make this happen (especially with baby #2 coming in May!!). Thankfully, the Lord's grace is sufficient! :-)

What plans have you found helpful?

Struck by His body and blood; given for me!

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1 Corinthians 11:23-29

 ²³ For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for^[a] you. Do this in remembrance of me.”^{[b] 25} In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
 ²⁷ Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸ Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.


Every week, our church recites this passage before we take communion at the end of our service. When we first began to attend our church, I was hesitant about observing the Lord's Supper every week because I was afraid that it would just become ritualistic and loose meaning because it was just a habit. However, it has become one of the biggest blessings in our lives and marriage. Each week, on our way to church, we know that we will be held accountable before the Lord for our sins for that week. Now, obviously, we know and understand that each and every day, indeed, each and every moment of every day, we are held accountable before the Lord. Going to church does not make it any more important. Because of this, we seek to keep a short account of sins in our home and to be careful to repent daily as sin surfaces. Yet, if there is anything that our sinful heart is holding onto, or something that we have forgotten to repent of to the Lord and/or one another, knowing that we are about to take communion has been so helpful in us communicating and sharing with one another before arriving at church.

Today, as we observed communion though, I was struck so much more deeply than normal about the fact that this is indeed a representation of Christ's body and blood that was shed and given for me and all of the believers in the room. Normally, we just partake. However, today, Kyle and I helped to serve the Lord's Supper. At the end of our services and after a time of heart-searching before the Lord, believers in our congregation are invited to walk to the back of the room where two couples are standing, holding a loaf of bread and a glass of juice. They then take a piece of bread and dip it in the juice. As they do this, the person holding the bread says: "The body of Christ, given for you" and the person with the juice says: "The blood of Christ, given for you."

As Kyle and I stood there holding the bread and juice, saying this, I was moved almost to tears as one by one people came back. I was hearing over, and over, and over again "The body of Christ given for you; The blood of Christ given for you." It somehow struck me so deeply that Christ gave His actual body and blood for these believers. What a beautiful thing we as Christians can observe and remember! Do we even grasp this when we speak of the gospel or when we take the Lord's Supper? I know that my mind is usually so full of repenting of my sin before taking the bread and juice that I leave hardly any room in my mind to really ponder Christ and His humble, self-sacrificing gift for ME... such a horrible sinner! How could I possibly deserve this type of love and grace? Yet, that is the beauty of the gospel! I don't!!!! I don't deserve any of this love and grace. Christ died for me, rose, and lives in heaven; giving me His righteousness. My sin should only drive me to see my desperate need for Him; my utter inability to do any good on my own; and the life I should live in humble gratitude to my King and Savior who gave Himself for me.

I am so grateful that our church places such a high priority on taking the Lord's Supper. We should never move past the fact that Christ shed His blood for us and that we are desperately in need of His loving grace and atonement on our behalf!

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-9

Family Time

My parents surprised us with coming for a short visit to Kentucky this week. We are thoroughly enjoyed having them here! Abigail is loving all the extra attention too and getting to "play" with their dog, Cedie. He is so cute! :-) Here are just a few snapshots so far...


I love my Mom so much and I'm so grateful for her godly example in my life! She is one of my closest friends.


Three generations of girls!

Let's Do 52!

Ok, so like many other people, I am going to try to be faithful to post more to my blog in 2012! One way I plan to do this is by linking up with the blog Let's Do 52 and sharing one photo each week. Now, I am definitely no professional photographer but I see this more as a means to give my readers a glimpse into our daily life. To be honest, there may be some weeks with multiple photos and other weeks with none. :-)

Each week the Let's Do 52 blog posts two themes to choose from for your photo that week. You can do that or post your own theme. For starters, I have chosen to post according to their theme "sharing." So, here it goes...


Abigail sharing her chair with her new baby doll while they watch Kipper.

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