Snorkelers

Matthew is always finding "creative" ways to play. It often includes things being taped to his face. This was his original snorkel diver look. Then he realized that it seriously impeded his speech, making it hard to play with others. So he redesigned the snorkel gear to what you see below. Emery also decided to join in on the diving fun. They've been wearing their "snorkels" for two days now.


I've also been meaning to make mention of our annual "Lee Family (Adults only) Retreat." Once again the Lord blessed us with a meaningful time of reflection upon the past year; praising God for his goodness to us, His faithfulness to sanctify us and increasing our debt of gratitude towards our Savior. We also dwell upon the hard lessons learned and the lessons we're still in the middle of learning. We look ahead to the next year, set goals for various areas of our lives and the kids' lives, as well as anticipating issues that we may face the following year so that we can ponder upon them and how to best deal with them when the time arises i.e. will Emery go to public kindergarten or be home schooled next August?

Peter and I are two peas in a pod and so we both really love reflecting, planning, and learning through it all but what I love the most about it all is how God has taught us both to communicate effectively with each other in a way that is kind, gentle and sometimes brutally honest. (This was not the case in our first year or two of marriage. Nothing but MIScommunication going on there! Thank God those days are behind us!) But now we humbly allow the other to speak openly into the other person's life. Of course, everybody loves encouragement, how well we're doing in some areas and to hear about their strengths, but it's a lot harder to face the reality that we have some (or a lot of) weaknesses, sometimes serious weaknesses, that need to be brought to light in order to live a life that is most glorifying to our God.

Each year, both of us examine the other person's character over the last year and bring up areas of weakness that we feel the other person should focus on the next year. (We try to give specific examples to help the other person see what we're talking about.) Sometimes it's really obvious and the other person doesn't even try to deny it, but at times in our sinfulness the first response is a temptation to be defensive. No, it's not fun. But the Holy Spirit has been so good each year to help us to receive what the other has to say. Then throughout the year we try to keep the other accountable with gentle reminders and encouragement. I thank God for a man who is humble enough to hear from a "weaker vessel" how he can better lead and love me, grow in Christ likeness and then actually take the advice and embrace it as his own. Yes, we are husband and wife but we are foremost brother and sister in Christ and I'm so thankful for that!