Is Tattooing Taboo?

Recently, someone I know got a tattoo. I have always thought tattoos were wrong because of this verse in the Bible, ""Do not cut your bodies for the dead, and do not mark your skin with tattoos. I am the Lord." Leviticus 19:28 I mentioned my view on tattoos to a friend yesterday and then I started to wonder, "Why did God say that and what were the circumstances around that?" I did some research and found out that this passage in Leviticus, including the surrounding text was dealing with the pagan rituals of the people living around the Israelites. God's desire is to set His people apart from other cultures. The focus was prohibiting worldly, heathen worship and witchcraft. In this same passage in verse 26 it says, "Do not eat meat that has not been drained of its blood," and verse 27, "Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards." Well, many Christians today eat non-kosher meats and get haircuts without participating in the forbidden worship of pagans. Back then these customs were associated with pagan rites and rituals. Today they are not. So, I don't think the main issue is "To tattoo or not to tattoo?" but to ask, "What are my motives?" "Am I seeking to glorify God or draw attention to myself?" "Will this be a source of contention for my loved ones?" "Am I being led by the Holy Spirit?" We should be asking ourselves that with everything we do. I've always thought this was a black and white issue, but perhaps it's not. I haven't really come to a firm conclusion and I don't know if I need to right now. I need to look at my own life and my desire is for my life to line up with this: "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17

Kid Snippets

I came across these short clips today on another blog and thought they were very funny! There are many more on YouTube if you like these ones.

This and That

It’s been a long time since I blogged.  I’ve been a tad bit on the busy side, with moving on Easter week-end and trying to get all unpacked and organized as quickly as possible.  We started moving all of our boxes on Wednesday, March 27, and we did that for 3 days.  Then on Saturday, March 30, we had about 9 guys come and help us move all of our furniture and the other stuff that hadn’t been moved yet.  They started at 8:00 a.m. and were done by 10:30 a.m.  I was cleaning most of the morning and packing up the last of our stuff.  I had 3 ladies come and help me and we were totally done by 11:00 a.m.  By 11:30, we were all at the new house eating pizza for lunch!  By Monday, April 1, I was done unpacking (except for a few boxes in the basement, which will most likely stay there) and everything was organized.  Yesterday, Jared hung up 6 pictures for me and I have 3 more that I want to put up and then I’m all done!  It feels SO good and it’s slowly starting to feel like home.  Since we moved to a different area, Kiera will have to change schools.  At first she was quite upset about that but now she can hardly wait to start at her new school!  We will switch her when school starts again in the fall. 

I will post pictures of the new house hopefully soon.  In the meantime, I’m still behind on photos, so here are some of the things that the kids have been up to:

There’s love in between the fighting.

A couple of months ago, we used the Juppy Baby Walker for Haley to try to encourage her to learn how to walk.  Praise God she doesn’t need that anymore since she is officially walking and almost running!

We had our family Christmas with my parents close to the end of January.  It got postponed 2 or 3 times for various reasons.

They got this train set for Christmas.

I made heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies on Valentine’s Day.

They like to dress up.

Occasionally Blake ends up in a dress.

I think the hat suits him better than the dress.

The kids found the Lite Brite hidden away in a closet (I bought it at a garage sale a long time ago and forgot about it), so we got that out and it brought back memories for me.

I see a lot of these smiles, which are my favorite.

Kiera has been wanting goggles for a long time, so when she saw a 3-pack at Wal-Mart, she bought them.