Celebrating Easter

Coloring eggs

 Although this past weekend seemed very busy, we enjoyed celebrating the resurrection together as a

family.  We had several opportunities to visit with our extended families to share meals and hunt for

eggs. 

The Armor of God (from Dylan's Easter basket)

 Twice, we went through the Resurrection Eggs, which Dylan loves and is a great way to talk about

the purpose of Easter.  Dale used the armor of God (pictured above) in his sermon on Sunday

morning.  Dylan was smiling as big as possible.  The armor was a great addition to the sermon.  I

loved how I was able to picture how we are supposed to use the armor of God daily!

Celebrating Jesus at church on Easter morning.

It's Almost Christmas!

Our Christmas Tree

Wow, I was suprised to discover it had been awhile since I've posted.  Anyway, homeschooling is going great!  We are getting excited for Christmas.  We decorated our tree this week.  That was the earliest I have ever decorated for Christmas.  Dasia noticed some Christmas lights while driving home this evening.  She said now she knows that Christmas is getting close! 

As Christmas draws nearer, the rushing of the season starts to set in with activities to attend, presents to buy and wrap and cards to mail.  I pray that God touches each and every one of our hearts.  That we not only remember the "reason for the season", but talk to God every day.  He loves you, every one of you!

Dasia hanging up ornaments.

T-shirts with a Life Changing Message

Do you love Christian t-shirts as much as I do?  I've always liked the cute sayings on the shirts made by Kerusso.  Check out Kerusso's site to see the many shirts they have available.

Love God with Your Whole Heart?

Lately, I've been reading "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan.  I thought the book was going to be about how much God loves us.  But the last couple chapters that I've read have been about being "lukewarm".  Truthfully, I've never really considered what "lukewarm" might mean.  There are many things from this book (and I'm only a little over halfway through it) that I would like to share.  Here are some of the paragraphs concerning "lukewarm" Christians.  As I write this, I pray that God will open up hearts as He is opening up mine to receive His truth. 

From "Crazy Love"

Lukewarm people say they love Jesus, and He is, indeed, a part of their lives.  But only a part.  They give Him a section of their time, their money, and their thoughts, but He isn't allowed to control their lives.

Lukewarm people love God, but they do not love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength.  They would be quick to assure you that they try to love God that much, but that sort of devotion isn't really possible for the average person; it's only for pastors and missionaries and radicals.

Lukewarm people do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to.  They don't have to trust God if something unexpected happens-they have their savings account.  They don't need God to help them-they have their retirement plan in place.  They don't genuinely seek out what life God would have them live-they have life figured and mapped out.  The truth is, their lives wouldn't look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God.

Did you read that last sentence?  Their lives wouldn't look much different if they suddenly stopped believing in God.  At that, my heart cried out, what are we doing?  What am I doing?  Our lives should be ordered with God as our first priority.  Are we here on earth to build a life of comfort and joy for ourselves?  No, we are here to love God and make disciples.  I don't want to make it to Heaven some day and realize that I missed the point of life. 

Lord, change me!  Make my life what you intended it to be!

Father's Day Gifts from DaySpring

Father's Day is quickly approaching.  (June 17th)  If you are looking for gift ideas, check out DaySpring's Father's Day Promotion- 20% Off.  Use code 20DAD to save 20% on all Father's Day cards and gifts including Courageous items.  I love DaySpring products.  I purchased several of their Courageous cards a few weeks ago from Wal-Mart.  The cards were powerful to encourage the men in your life!

Letting God Change Me

Image Credit

Over the past few weeks, I have felt God leading me to put more structure or purpose, in my daily life.  I am so excited over the progress so far and it hasn't been very long yet.  (I do get excited pretty easily and discouraged when others do not seem to be excited with me.)  I'll share the things that I have started later in the post.  However, I want to share the things that Satan tries to use to discourage me and make me feel bad about myself.  As I have spent some time the past several weeks reading other blogs, I have been encouraged to make some changes in my life, but Satan has used this also as an opportunity to try to discourage me.  Anyway, here are my confessions......I believe that God wants me to be real in this blog, so that others are encouraged and not disheartened when reading about another person's life.  So here it is,

1) I haven't exercised consistently for the past 4 years.
2) I don't eat healthy and have not instilled healthy eating habits for my children.
3) I don't clean my house every week.  When I worked full time, I'm not sure that I even cleaned it every month.
4) My husband and I basically do not save money on a regular basis.
5) We use credit cards often.  However, praise God we do not maintain a balance unless it is a 0% card.
6) I have not been consistent with disciplining my children.
7) I get mad and pout :).  I have an absolute terrible time when my husband is sick.
8) My house is not organized very well.  Our closets are terrible.
9) I thought I was budgeting, but realized this week that I was missing an important part of the picture when it comes to groceries, toiletries, etc.
10) I think everyone else has it all together.  I believe that others are doing all the things listed above correctly!  I'm serious!

So, there you have it.  I have a long way to go in lots of areas!  However, God is helping me and I am feeling my spirit lift as I begin to add small goals to every day life.  Following is what I'm excited about...

1) I have established a goal of exercising 3 times per week for 20 minutes.  Basically only cardio and crunches.  I don't have a desire to push myself very hard in this area.  My goal is to become balanced in my life and not to go overboard in any area.  I'm on week 2.
2) I have started a Bible reading plan to read through the Bible in one year and it is going well.  I'm on day 36.
3) A couple weeks ago, I felt that God was leading me to be very consistent in disciplining my children.  That is going great!  I have noticed a difference in both of them.  My oldest is doing wonderful now cleaning up messes and doing what I ask when I ask her.  We are having some issues that I believe are disrespectful to me as the mom.  That was a large part of the reason that I felt it was important to work on this now.  That is going well too!  I am recognizing the event when it occurs and explaining to her that it is not acceptable, using time outs and having her repeat herself in a calm manner.  My 2 year old is great at cleaning up (most of time, we do have some battles!).
4) This week, I created a basic cleaning schedule for me.  I love it!

With the things that have been established so far, I am feeling like a lot of progress has been made!  More to come as God shows me others areas to begin to clean up in my life.

Comparisons - Is There a Better Way to Live?

Image Credit

I don't know about you, but I have always been one to compare things.  As long as I can remember, I have compared myself to others.  I have compared my looks, size, material things, jobs, marital status, education, number of children, and on and on..... Lately, when the comparisons start, God has been telling me to stop comparing myself.  Until He started saying that, I hadn't given the process much thought.  I have always compared myself to others.  But, that is not God's best for me or anyone else.  What do you gain by comparing yourself to others?  Nothing, but wasting your time.  I know I can find better things to think about than who appears to be doing better than me.  God wants each one of us to be the unique person He created us to be.  He has good plans for me, but the plans are different than the ones He has for you.  For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 When I permit myself to compare my life to the lives of others, I begin to feel bad about myself.  By thinking the thoughts in the first place, I am letting Satan torment me.  God wants me to be who He created me to be.  For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.  Ephesians 2:10  I cannot fulfill the plans God has for my life if I am constantly tormented that I am not like someone else.  Break free from the torment of comparing yourself to others!  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  2 Corinthians 10:5

 

Money and My Walk with God

                                                                    Image Credit

I believe that in order to truly walk with God, you need to give Him every area of your life.  This takes time and as we grow closer to God, we are able to turn over more areas to His control.  As you've probably heard before, God mentions money many times in the Bible.  Since I began truly walking with God when I graduated from college, I began to tithe.  Dale and I have continued to tithe since that time.  We also believe that God has asked us to give to a few ministries on a monthly basis in addition to tithing to our local church.  Throughout this time, God has always provided us for us financially.  We have not always had a great abundance, but all of our bills get paid, we have everything we "need" and we have been able to do fun things with our family.

However, we are not living in the overflow blessing that we believe God has for us.  We are believing and praying that God will put us in a financial position that we will have an abundance to meet needs when He shows us where to give. 

Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce.   Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.  Proverbs 3:9-10

This past year we have done a lot of remodeling to our home which has resulted in some financial "emotional" stress.  As of January, we had acquired three 0% interest balances on credit cards that would be due this summer.  Realizing that we were not in the financial position that God has called us to be, we began to pray that He would show us what to do to get these bills paid off and that He would provide favor to do it quickly.  We are asking God to place us in the position of overflow in order to bless others and give glory to Him.  As of this month, two of those bills are gone and one remains.  Praise God!  

I want to encourage you to invite God into your financial matters.  He cares and has great plans for you. 

Do You Ever Lose It?

 Image Credit

I used to lose it every single day and often every few hours or so it seemed.  Over the past year, the Lord has changed me (and still is, praise God!).  But, on occasion, I lose it!  Friday, Saturday, and today, nothing seemed to go as planned.  We had unexpected difficulties getting groceries, a couple unexpected drop ins on Saturday, an extra shift at work for Dale and a birthday party right after church this morning.  While we were at the birthday party, Dylan (my 2 year old), accidentally peed on me while he was using the toilet.  Anyway, when we finally arrived home today, both of my kids wanted to play outside.  I stayed outside to watch them while Dale went in to take a nap. 

I asked the kids if they were ready to go inside and of course they said no.  I greatly desired to go in the house and do some house work.  Well, we stayed outside.  Dylan then had a potty accident.  As I was helping him take off his clothes, I lost it.  I complained that the kids had stayed outside too long (but I permitted it), I was mad that they had mud on their shoes (but I didn't make them change into their old shoes when we got home) and just irritated in general.  After awhile, I gained control of my mouth and apologized to my little sweethearts explaining that mommy should have made them come inside earlier knowing that I needed some time in the house. 

In the past, I would have "fits" like this and had a difficult time stopping and didn't understand why I was so upset.  However, the Lord has revealed to me that I am in charge of my life.  I can decline invitations if I need to in order to keep my peace.  Just because someone suggests I go somewhere, does not mean that I have to attend.  Being a mommy has helped open up my eyes to this problem area in my life.  Many times, I let the kids do something because they insist and then I am frustrated afterwards because I really needed to do something different in order to keep my sanity (or peace).  Knowing why I got upset, makes it a lot easier to calm down and to make better decisions in the future.  I praise God that although I lost it today, He is setting me free by revealing the truth as to why I "lose" it sometimes.

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”   John 8:31-32

Hearing God

 Image Credit

I started what I would call really walking with God when I was 22.  I struggled with hearing God talk to me, but I definitely could hear Satan.  Almost every time that I was in the car, Satan would talk to me.  I would hear in my head, "just run off the road and then it will be over, no more troubles".  As I studied the Word by reading the Bible, reading Christian Living books and listening to teaching tapes, God's voice became stronger than Satan's.  Eventually, Satan stopped telling me to run off the road.  After listening to Satan put me down for all those years, I was surprised when I had a "good thought".  I remember being in my kitchen one morning and I thought "something good is going to happen to me".  It was strange since I had lived with bad thoughts for so long, but I was excited.  God was changing me by changing my thinking.  He would love to help you too!

Let Me Take Care of That

                                                                     image credit
While driving to my parent's house after church today, I asked my husband, Dale, if he had decided anything about homeschooling or if God had spoken to him yet.  He said that he had thought about it and was concerned about the children having friends if they were home schooled.  I start presenting my arguments and in the midst of that I heard God say that it was not my responsibility to convince Dale, let Me take care of that.  Whatever the decision ends up being, I take comfort in the fact that God will take care of us.  Just sharing my walk with God with you!

My Absolute Favorite Fiction Author

Over the past year, I have become hooked on Karen Kingsbury books.  I love the stories that she writes.  It is so easy to get caught up in each book and I've read several!  But, what I wanted to share today is one of my favorite parts of the books she writes.  At the beginning of each book, Karen writes a Dedication section.  When I first started reading her books, I cried all the way through the Dedication pages.  In that section, she writes a letter to her husband and each of her children.  She writes a little about the activities they are involved in, but she talks mostly about their hearts for God and how proud she is of them.  I definitely can't do it justice, but I feel in my heart that this is very important.  I am planning on doing this for my children.  I thought I would write letters to them and keep them in their Baby Books for when they are older.  I have not started, but I will do it.  At least, one per year, but possibly more.  If you are looking for some different books to read, check out Karen Kingsbury.  In every book, the characters demonstrate their own walk with God.  I love the lifting of my faith that happens as I read through the books.

Read Thru the Bible with Me

Day 2 of reading thru the Bible.  Here's the link to the reading plan I selected if you want to read thru the Bible in one year with me.  One Year Bible OnLine  Praying that everyone who decides to read thru the Bible will be changed powerfully by the Word of God!

Read Thru the Bible with Me

As I felt God leading me to start this blog, I believed that He was asking me to be very open.  I am to share what it is like for me to walk with God.  That includes the things that I do right and wrong.  That being said, I have never read all the way thru the Bible.  I also drink too much Diet Coke and eat an abnormal amount of chocolate chips!

I believe it is very important to know the Word of God.  How can you fight Satan without it?  My favorite thing to do is read Christian Living books from Joyce Meyer and other Christian authors, such as Neil Anderson and Beth Moore.  I definitely learn the Word from those books, however, it is time to finally read all the way thru the Bible.

I am going to start my reading plan today and if you want to read along with me for encouragement and support, here is the link to the plan I selected. One Year Bible OnLine  Remember, spending time in the Word is important in your walk with God.

Enjoy the Little Things

                                                               image credit
Years ago, I felt stressed every day and was unable to enjoy life very much.  I rarely, if at all, noticed the little things that God did for me.  Today, one of the things that God has blessed with me is the ability to get very excited about little things and to take great enjoyment with things others may consider silly (coupons, hair bows, great deals, etc.).  Anyway,  yesterday the kids and I walked in the door to the Kidsignment sale to drop off clothes for the sale.  When I walked in the door, a lady asked if I wanted her to help me put my clothes on the racks.  I said, "You want to help me?!  Yes, I'll take some help!"  I was overjoyed for the help!  Actually, I did not have to put anything away at all.  Usually, it takes about 30 minutes to lay out the shoes and hang up the clothes and keep my two little ones happy.  I felt very loved by God to have been given an extra 30 minutes in my day!  I'm so thankful for the changes God has made in me as I have traveled on my walk with God.

You Are Important to God

I had a wonderful day with my two children.  We spent an hour or so enjoying the weather at a park in town.  The kids loved it.  There were only three other children there when we first arrived.  After a few minutes, Dasia introduced herself to the other children.  They listened to her for a few minutes and then went to the equipment on the other side of the park.  She and Dylan followed a few minutes later and again tried to be friendly to the kids and join in playing with them.  Again, the other children quickly went to the other side of the park.  I told Dasia I was proud of her for being friendly to the other kids.  I told her I noticed that they kept leaving.  She said, "And I followed them."  I felt like she didn't catch on that they were trying to avoid her, which I am glad.  It saddens me to realize how adults and children treat each other.  But, it just makes me more thankful that God loves each of us and desires to spend time with us.  He would never walk to the other side of the park to avoid you!

I believe that in order for faith and dependence on God to be passed on from parents to children, it is important that the children are able to see the parent's faith.  We all know that children watch how their parents behave and hear the words they speak.  Here are a few ideas for sharing a visible faith with your children.

Pray out loud with your children.  I have found that if someone calls me asking for prayer or mentioning a need of someone else, it is a good opportunity to have Dasia and Dylan immediately pray with me.  To me, that is faith in action and something visible that the children can see.  I also try to remember to pray out loud sometimes during the day for the things God lays on my heart.

Read your Bible when the children can see you reading it. 

When the children get upset or hurt, pray with them.

Dasia noticed the scripture cards I had placed in the bathroom the other day and asked me what it was.  What a great moment to share my walk with God with her!

Thankful for the Husband God Gave Me

It seems that over the past year, God has changed many things in me that I did not even realize were there.  A little over a year ago, God made a way for me to become a full-time stay at home mom.  I love it.  It is a dream come true to get to be home with my little sweethearts.  What I did not expect, was that by staying at home God would be able to change me more than He did when I was working.  I was so wrapped up in being busy and blaming circumstances for being rushed and upset, that I could not see that the problem was within me.  Anyway, when I did not have anything to blame for being upset, I could clearly see that the problem was me.  As I asked God to change me admitted that the problem was me, I have been filled with so much peace and joy.  In the midst of that, I have been able to see what a wonderful husband God provided to me almost nine years ago.  I cannot stress enough the importance of asking God to change you.  Your life and walk with God will be so much better.

"Captivating"

Something I thought I would share from the book I am currently reading.

From "Captivating - Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul" by John and Stasi Eldridge -

"You really won't understand your life as a woman until you understand this:
          You are passionately loved by the God of the universe.
          You are passionately hated by his Enemy.

And so, dear heart, it is time for your restoration.  For there is One greater than your Enemy.  One who has sought you out from the beginning of time.  He has come to heal your broken heart and restore your feminine soul.  Let us turn to him now. "


I'm very thankful for the restoration power of God.  I'm amazed at the changes He can make in people's lives when they are willing to receive Him.  Praying that you find this restoration in your life as you walk with God.

Scripture Index Cards

Here are the scriptures I have written on index cards to put up in our bathroom and kitchen to help us keep the Word in our hearts. 

Whatever is not of faith is sin.   Romans 14:23

My faith does not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.  1 Corinthians 2:5

Whoever says to this mountain be lifted up and thrown into the sea and does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him.   Mark 11:23

I am not controlled by what people think of me.  As long as God is satisfied with me, I am satisfied. 
1 Corinthians 4:3-4