Update on Jackson and What God has taught us This Week:

The above pictures are taken at the many trips to the doctor’s office. I was trying to take a picture of his rash.

• Wednesday he broke out in a rash all over his body and the doctor said I had to come in so he could examine it. Of course Charlie and I try to be doctors online and we read on WebMd that if your child breaks out in a rash after he has the flu that can mean that he has toxic syndrome and certain organs could be shutting down and he could die (but that it is rare and only 5 percent means this)
• The doctor did do a complete examination on him, but he did not take blood work (they did blood work on Monday) Jackson has not had a fever since Monday night and his ears are not infected and they did a Strep test Monday and it was negative. He was actually laughing at the doctors yesterday, and yesterday afternoon he did not sneeze or cough that much. The doctor said at first it looked like the Strep rash. But he concluded that it was just Jackson's reaction to the flu (but that this type of reaction is rare). He is doing so much better, just real tired.
• Jackson being extremely tired and bored is a bad combination. I did everything I could today to keep him entertained. We watched 2 episodes of the Doodlebops, watched a Cedarmont Kids DVD, and watched Mickey Mouse. We went outside and played…we even played kitchen and he made eggs. But, he normally gets out of the house a couple times a day, and I think he is going stir crazy. He even threw himself on the floor at one point!
• Jackson can say “cracker” now when he wants a cracker…yeah!
• He loves to say “boo” and “moo” and tries to make a barking sound when he sees a dog or even a picture of a dog. Every day he communicates to me more what he wants and he is a great helper. He even helps me unload the dishes, put up his toys, and put his diapers in the trash. I learned after sitting in Rene’s Sunday School class that if you expect a lot out of your 1 year old….they will most of the time rise up to those expectations. They understand a lot more than we think they do. I will have to blog about Rene’s Sunday School class. It was unbelievable, and I am hoping that she will teach a seminar on what she does (she teaches the older 1’s).

Two new great discoveries:

1. Cup/Bottle id tags. Go to http://www.inchbug.com/ Have y’all heard of these tags? This is so great especially when your little ones go off to the nursery. They are $11.95 for 4 of them
2. If you need Diaper Bag ID tags e-mail Katherine and tell her what your diaper bag colors are and she will make you a very cute ID tag, and if you are in SC you will get it the next day. They are $4 each and her e-mail is sinclair_t@bellsouth.net.

What God has been teaching us:

1. I guess I have been wrongly dwelling on some people’s weaknesses in churches in general. Well, God spoke to me yesterday through His Word - unbelievable. I had not been reading the last four days because of Jackson’s high fever…but God knew what I needed to read and when.
2. My reading for yesterday was 1 Corinthians 10-13. In Chapter 12, Paul is explaining how the church is one body but many parts. Paul states, “Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body…..If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” Do we really as church members believe that? Do we believe that God has arranged the parts of the body just as he wanted them to be? Some people have gifts of teaching, some have the gifts of encouraging, some administration….but it seems to be that I want everyone to have the gift of teaching or encouraging. But, that is not how God wants it to be!
3. It is interesting that right after Paul speaks about how everyone in the church has different gifts and different roles he speaks about how important love is. I had never really tied the two together. I had made the connection of the use of spiritual gifts and using them in love….but not loving every person in the body of Christ. Do you think I am way off?
4. Paul basically says that if he has faith that can move mountains, BUT IF HE HAS NOT LOVED, HE IS NOTHING. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to flames, but have not loved, I gain NOTHING. It seems that Paul is saying if you have all of these spiritual gifts in the church but do not love you have nothing and gain nothing. If you do not love all the different members in the church in ministry you gain nothing. Instead of focusing on what is wrong with the members of the bride of Christ maybe we should focus on loving them….doesn’t that mean we need to love all of them?…even their weaknesses? Are we, as ladies, really loving everyone in the church? Or are we trying to “fix” everyone? Are we “loving” them when we slander them? I think if we try to help people without loving them we gain nothing. Again, God has arranged the parts of the body just as he wanted them to be./