biblical motherhood

More on Once Saved, Always Saved and Gifts of the Spirit

2009-02-03T08:41:00.000-08:00

I have felt compelled by God to share a letter I wrote this morning. This was written to a couple who we met last summer through the home church group before it fizzled out. Names have been changed to protect the innocent!

Hi Joe & Suzy:
I hope that your family is doing well. God has laid it on my heart to e-mail you guys this morning. When we met you, we were interested in doing Bible study with you. I thought and prayed a lot and I kept coming back to the place that there were 2 points that we disagree on which would hinder us studying the Bible together.
When I mentioned the issue of salvation as in I don't believe that you can't lose it, Suzy you said that if your daughter was born a Smith (last name), she could never be born anything else. But Jesus said "He who endures to the end shall be saved." Matt. 10:22 and in Revelation He says "Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. But thou hast a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments: and they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy.He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Rev. 3:4-5. In the Baptist church I was in I learned the "once saved, always saved" doctrine. As I shared with you, when I left church, I asked the Lord to strip away everything that man had taught me and to teach me His truth. After that prayer as I read through the New Testament, I saw a different salvation doctrine. I've come up with pages of verses that don't jive with "once saved, always saved".
The other issue was obviously, the gifts of the Spirit. That was another truth that God showed me. I do not agree with most of what goes on in the Charismatic/Pentacostal churches. A lot of what I've heard is enough to keep me away. I was taught in the Baptist church that these things ceased when the Bible was completed. After God showed me that they still exist I went back and looked at the Scriptures. In Acts 2 on the Day of Pentacost, Peter proclaims the prophecy in Joel being fulfilled "And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams: Act 2:18 Yea and on My servants and on My handmaidens in those days Will I pour forth of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy. The question begs asking "When did the last days end?" When did God stop giving His Spirit"?
Another Scripture: 1Co 13:10 but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. 1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. 1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. 1Co 13:13 But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
My bible does not have a face, nor can it know me, I believe this speaks to the second coming of Christ, or when we meet him face to face.
If you go back to 1 Cor. 1:7 - so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting the revelation of our Lord, Jesus Christ, That word revelation is also translated coming.
I've learned over the past year that my life has been transformed since I got filled with His spirit last January, why didn't that happen when I was trying hard for 7 years sitting in church? I thought that I had all the spirit that I was going to get when I accepted Christ. I rejected His Spirit, even though I thought I had it. I couldn't get rid of the sin in my life because I was not walking filled with the Holy Spirit. My life never seemed to make sense because I couldn't live the Christian life the way I was supposed to. I had a form of godliness but denied the power thereof.
I hope that I've not offended you in anyway through this e-mail. I don't claim to have all the answers. You may be right and I may be wrong but I hope that all of us are seeking God and His truth alone because if we aren't we are following a man that taught us what we believe and that is idolatry.

There is a website called http://www.revivalschool.com/. This man preaches repentance like no one I've heard. I've not found anything that he is saying that is against the word of God. If you scroll down on the left side under audio, there is a link called The True Gospel and another Are you walking in Romans 8. I hope that you will ask the Lord for discernment and listen to them. I know Joe doesn't like fluff teachers, and I agree. This guy is anything but.

Again, I felt led to share this and I hope that I, in no way, offended you but this has become a block to us studying the Bible or fellowshipping as a home church with some other people because I feel very strongly about chucking theology out the window and just opening up the Bible and asking the Lord to speak truth. We've not met a person yet, who was willing to pray "Lord strip away what man has taught me and any lies I'm believing and show me your truth."

Have a blessed day rejoicing in our Savior!

That's the end of the letter. Beloved, I beg of you there is a minefield of lies out there in Christianity and Christians who are sound asleep. On judgement day, we will be held accountable for God's truth, not what we chose to believe. WAKE UP AND GET HUNGRY FOR THE TRUTH!!!!! Nobody, including me when I was sitting in church thinks "oh, yes, I'm believing lots of lies"! You will never know unless you ask God, He will not lie!

2Th 2:10 and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error(some translations say strong delusion), that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12 that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

That is scary, scary enough for you to ask God to show you the truth?

Free Copy of Stay At Home Mom's Guide to Successful Ebay Selling

2009-01-30T12:30:00.000-08:00

Suzanne over at Ebay Selling Coach is currently offering a copy of her newly updated book. I just read the earlier edition of it and she has some great information in there. If you've never visited her website you will be thrilled with the selling tips she offers. She makes you think outside the box when looking for inventory. I've been selling on ebay on and off for the last 10 years and I learned some things from her.

Just click on over to her site and get your free e-book.

Win 1 of 11 Prizes from ChristianBook.Com

2009-01-29T10:51:00.000-08:00

Click on the link below for your chance to win 1 of 11 different prizes from ChristianBook.com

Some of the great prizes up for grabs are:

Echos From The Edge, Volumes 1 & 2 by Bryan Davis
Kids Valentine Value Pack
The Greatest Words Ever Spoken autographed by Steven Scott
William & Catherine The Life and Legacy of the Booths, Founders of The Salvation Army!

You'll have to click below to find out what the other 7 are!

Giveaways

Free Fireproof DVD plus Clearance sale at Vision Forum

2009-01-28T13:39:00.000-08:00

If you read my review earlier today and are planning on buying a copy, first go check out the great deals over at Vision Forum during their clearance sale. They are giving away a free copy of Fireproof DVD with every $100 purchase.

Fireproof - Gotta See it!!!!!

2009-01-28T06:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know Fireproof was out in the movies in the fall but for us cheapskates, yesterday was an exciting day. Fireproof was finally released on video or dvd as the case may be. God was with me, I figured I'd be waiting a while to rent a copy. I had to stop at Walmart yesterday morning to buy a bubble mailer to ship a book I sold on Amazon. In the entrance area, they have a Redbox machine and low and behold Fireproof was in. By the way if you never tried Redbox, what in the world are you waiting for? For only $1.00 per night using your debit card, you can see all the new releases. Go to the Redbox website to see if there is a location near you. By the way, they often offer free codes. We don't rent many movies because of the content but at least when we do, we can do it cheaply.
Anyway, on to Fireproof. Up until yesterday, Facing the Giants was my favorite movie but Fireproof definitely competes for the #1 movie. It seemed like everyone we knew went to the movies to see it. Some grown men told us they cried along with their wives. Well, my husband did too! That does not happen often.
This movie will renew your faith in God. It goes beyond marriage, to our relationship with God, forgiveness and how we treat others. Toward the end of the movie when Kurt Cameron asked his mom for forgiveness, it really struck a cord in me. I grew up with, let's say, not June Cleaver as a mom and spent many years bitter and angry. The Lord has taken a lot of that away over the years but still it hit a nerve with me.
Another moment that struck me was when Kurt Cameron was talking about his wife rejecting the love he was trying to show her and his father shared that he was doing the same thing to God, that got to me. No Christian would outwardly admit that they were rejecting God's love but I've seen it in my life when I continue to sin after God has convicted me about it. Also, the times where I have failed to show the love of Christ. When we've done it unto the least of these we've done in unto Him. So, every time I'm snotty or short with someone, I'm snotty or short with Jesus! God forgive me and change my heart.
This movie also will renew your strength to keep going in a tough marriage situation. Even if only one person is trying, it can work. I've seen it at times in my own marriage when we were fighting a lot that when I seek God and try to obey Him it softens my husband's heart. At times, it seemed like my husband's heart wasn't softening but you know, I still had joy because I was obedient to the Lord. Our marriage has gone through the good, the bad and the ugly over the last 20 years but praise God, we are still together. When we were young and first married, we were not walking with the Lord. We were both selfish and self-centered. God has been slowly changing our hearts over the last 8 1/2 years and our marriage is better for it.
Please watch this movie, you will be so very blessed. I'm sure you can find a place to rent it. If not Amazon has plenty of copies available. I just checked Amazon, this DVD is #2 selling. If you're planning on purchase a copy, you may want to do it soon, before they sell out.
By the way, side note, has anyone seen Flywheel, it was the other movie put out by the same producers of Facing the Giants and Fireproof? I'm hoping to purchase a used copy on Amazon when we get our tax refund since there is no place that is renting it around here.

What a Year!

2009-01-27T12:19:00.000-08:00

I had posted an update on how we're doing earlier this month. I didn't feel quite right about how it was worded so I deleted it a week or two later. So, let's try this again!
Last January, I had made my goal to live my life each day on purpose for the Lord. Around the same time, I really started seeking God's truth in His word. This was spurred on because of all the different opinions out there in Christianity. I became very disillusioned by all the authors "expert opinions". Well, God truly honored both of those decisions.
We found out the truth about not being under the law of tithing. A year has gone by now since we stopped tithing and began what we believe is New Testament giving. To us, that means we give as led by the Spirit to people in need, not institutions. Financially, God has truly showed us that He is our provider. Normally, my husband works 6 days a week just to make our budget. His overtime got cut in the beginning of November. So far, our bills are paid, there is food in the house and gas in the car. We really needed to learn that God is our provider and not my husband's job.
I also learned that the gifts of the Spirit are for today, unlike what I was taught in the Baptist church. I was reading through the Book of Acts and I was just so excited at how the Holy Spirit was working through those believers and had already realized that some of what we were taught wasn't true. I prayed and asked the Lord if these things still existed today. Nobody knew that I prayed that prayer. Within 2 weeks, my youngest daughter who has a heart for the Lord, and I had an encounter with God that I will never forget. Yes, God still does work supernaturally through the Holy Spirit with tongues and prophecy. Maybe someday I will share more about that encounter.
I truly renounced all that I had been taught and spent a lot of time in the Scriptures this past year seeking what God would teach me. I no longer believe the "just pray a prayer" or "once saved, always saved". Among many verses that spoke to me was Jesus saying "He who endures to the end shall be saved". That says to me that if I do not endure to the end, I will not be saved. Like I said, there are quite a few verses that made me question what I previously believed and again, maybe another day I will go further into that.
Our home church group kind of fizzled out. There were differing beliefs and some of us were an hour away from one another. So, in the end, we sometimes get together with another family that lives an hour away. We are looking to have a home church group so, if you live in Lehigh or Berks County in PA(we are near the line) and are interested, leave a comment below.
We tried visiting a church a few months ago but we just couldn't do it. After a month of seeing people having financial problems, the church having financial problems and knowing that tithing was being taught, it was too much for us. We tried talking to the pastor but he believes that tithing is biblical and didn't really hear us. The funny part is that the whole church has been gathering on Friday nights seeking God for what it wrong. They pay people for the simplest things, like locking and unlocking the doors yet they have no money to help the needy within the church. The church is surviving off of savings right now.
If there were ever a time for true NT giving, it is now. If all this money wasn't being given to institutions and salaries, which aren't in the Bible, there would be a lot more available to help each other.
So, this is a bit of where I'm at right now. I look forward to what God will be teaching me this year. Praise Him, He is faithful!

Bless Your Home, Bless Your Husband

2008-07-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've come to realize that if this blog is going to get updated I will need to be doing shorter posts. I've got a few posts that I started and never got back to. So, today, I will be brief.
We were at a friend's home last night and he was talking about knowing our God-given roles as husband and wife and working together, not against each other. He said, "When I get home, it's like AHHHHH! The air conditioning, the place is immaculate, the laundry is done and the meals are cooked." This morning I asked my husband if he felt that way and he said, "yes, I should say it more often". I wasn't fishing for a compliment, just information. I will add here that this couple's children are grown. I don't think that we have to strive to never have a speck of dirt in our house but God didn't call us to live in squalor either.
It is easy for us to get our priorities out of order and feel like it doesn't matter anyway. I want my husband to feel blessed when he walks through the door. He works 48 hours per week in a hot factory. Yesterday, it was 95 and humid here and it's even hotter in the factory. He looked like he was going to fall over when he I picked him up from work. In a little bit, he was refreshed by the air conditioning in the car. I want to be that to him, that pick me up at the end of the day. I want him to be so happy here that he can't wait to get back home to us.
If you are struggling with keeping up with your house check out flylady.net. I don't agree with all of her philosophies but she'll help you get organized. I was also recently blessed by reading Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell. It was a great book for me as I just didn't feel like the flylady system was meeting my needs anymore. Jeff Campbell has some help available on his website as well as a monthly newsletter.
Well, I'm off to clean my house. Be blessed and be a blessing!

Growing Outside of The Church Walls

2008-06-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

I apologize that it has been so long since I've blogged. Life has been very busy with winding up our homeschool year and preparing for our evaluations.

For those of you who have been following my story, we have now been out of the "church" for a little over 4 months. We've recently starting meeting with 3 other families in our homes. The fellowship has been a great blessing. I do believe that we need to be meeting together with other Christians. I don't believe anymore that it has to take place on a Sunday morning with 100 Christians, a pastor preaching and a choir singing in an expensive mortgaged building.
The Lord has been growing and changing each member of our family. It is a beautiful thing! I've never been so fully in the presence of the Lord so much of the time. His Word is new and alive and exciting to me. I've come to realize that I used to depend on the pastor for a lot of things that I should have been depending on God for. He is honoring my commitment to Him and my repentant heart toward what I did wrong.
I had made the pastor and the church and idol above Him. Most people would never admit to doing that but I will. I loved my church and my church family and I said that more often than I was saying that I love God. Don't get me wrong, I loved God but truly without even realizing it, I think I looked to the pastor as my spiritual authority or head. There is only one head of the body or church and that is Jesus Christ. Another curious fact is that the Bible talks about the priesthood of ALL believers (never heard much about that). I depended on my pastor for answers that I didn't have, now I'm fully dependent upon the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to me and God is so very faithful when we truly are seeking Him with all of our heart. He is teaching me and growing me and it is amazing!
Financially we are doing better. I know by many comments on my last post, that there are many who support tithing but I just do not see justification for this in the Bible. Malachi 3 refers to those under the law. The tithe went to support the temple priests, the widow, the orphan and the stranger not to pay for buildings and salaries. I see a lot about feeding the poor, clothing the naked, taking care of widows and orphans and supporting those in the ministry who are away from home (but even then, Paul worked to support himself). We are at peace with the Lord to give as He directs. You know, for the first time in years we bought our mothers Mother's Day presents. We couldn't do this before because after tithing we couldn't even meet our own needs. Seems to me that Jesus had something to say to the Pharisees about not honoring your parents by telling them that what they would have gotten was given as a gift to God. We didn't buy our mother's extravagant gifts but we could tell that it touched their hearts. Neither of them walk with the Lord and I believe that these gifts showed them the love of Christ.
I can't believe how much my beliefs have changed over the past few months. I'm closer to the Lord than I've ever been before. I see Him working in my life, like never before. I truly see His word being lived out in my life now. There were so many times in the past that I would read about peace, joy, righteousness, the work of the Holy Spirit, God's provision, just so many things that were not reality in my life and now they are.
I haven't shared a lot of what has gone on since January but at some point I hope to. I thank you for those of you who have checked back in to see if I've posted. I'm hoping to do more of that shortly when school is done.
I would also like to put a challenge to those who have questioned things like tithing, leaving an institutional church setting, etc. to go before the Lord with an honest and sincere heart and ask Him for His truth. For 7 years I readily accepted men's traditions. I never questioned anything because I was taught that this is what Christians do. When I really sought out God and His truth, He flung my eyes wide open. Remember the traditions of men can make the Word of God to no effect!

Hurt Deeply By The Church

2008-03-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I posted. After we found out the truth about tithing, I was really digging into my Bible and was questioning a lot of things. Since my last post, we did meet with our pastor about the tithe teaching. Shortly after that we left the church. That was about the end of January.
I sit here today with tears streaming down my face. When we talked to our pastor, he said that he never taught us to tithe. In the discipleship book (that he made) that he went through with us, there was a lot of teaching about tithing as well as NT giving verses. We were taught that we were robbing God if we did not give 10%. He said all I did was teach what the Bible had to say about money. It was a lie, he wanted us to think we had to tithe. The other people from our church that went through that book confirmed to us that they were taught to tithe. I really believed that if our pastor taught us to tithe then he must believe the doctrine. No, he didn't believe that the Bible said NT Christians must tithe but then he proceeded to say that NT Christians have to give more than 10% because we called to a higher level. I also asked if he was going to tell the people in our church, who tithe and can't pay their bills the truth, and he said, "Why, so they can say 'Whew, I don't have to tithe', no, I will not tell them." It got pretty ugly but we ended on okay terms.
The next day when my husband and I had to time to discuss what was said, we were really angry. There were other things too that made us decide to leave the church. Maybe one day I'll write about that. I just sit here feeling a world of hurt. Things got so ugly trying to leave that our pastor and his wife are no longer speaking to us. The worst part is that our oldest daughter's boyfriend is the pastor's son. As far as other people, I don't know what hurts worse, the people who haven't contacted us in the last 6 or 7 weeks since we left or those who have and argued with us over why we left or what we're doing now.
The other part that hurts is looking at our financial situation. We just kept going further and further into debt while we were tithing. We could never figure out why the Lord wasn't blessing it. It's going to take time just to get caught up. Every time a bill collector calls or a late notice arrives, it's like getting smacked in the face all over again. I saw the Lord bless us when we followed His leading to give to someone in need but He didn't seem to bless our tithing. I'm not saying that He never provided but when we tithed our bill money the money never came to pay the bill. Thanks be to Him, though, that we still have a roof over our heads! He didn't bless it because we robbed from our creditors to give to Him something He never asked us to give. I believe that He will bless us now doing the right thing and I've seen Him work some things out for us recently that could have not worked out so well. I guess I wonder if He's going to help us out of the financial mess that we created while tithing. It's not His fault, it's ours. We trusted our pastor, we followed him, never questioning anything that we were taught.
We are currently at home studying our Bibles. We feel that the Lord is leading us to start a house church. Even though I'm sad over the whole church situation, I've never had more joy and peace. I'm closer to the Lord than I've ever been. People are wagging their fingers in our faces telling us that we are disobedient and that we have to go find a church. Quite honestly, the more I study my Bible, the more I question what goes on in churches. I have quite a few issues surrounding the institutional church. My other big issue right now is how a pastor who loves people so much could stand back and watch us be destroyed and not care. It got progressively worse over the years to the point that we haven't bought clothes for our kids in probably a few years. The girls and I haven't gotten our hair cut in a year. Now that my older daughter works, she has been able to provide for some of her own needs. I still feel bad though, all they have heard for the past few years is "We can't afford it." They had to deal with our attitudes often because we were so stressed out over our financial problems. Meanwhile, we watched our pastor's family go on vacations, always wearing new clothes, signing their kids up for activities, etc.
I think that I've had to repent on a daily basis since we left. I don't want to be angry, bitter and unforgiving. When I keep my eyes on the Lord, I have my peace and joy. When I look at the hurt and the finances, I lose my peace. I know that I just need to keep drawing close to the Lord and He will heal my hurts and that He will provide for us, in His timing, not ours.
I guess that I just needed to vent a little bit. I never realized how much hurt could be inflicted upon you by a group of "Christians".

Modern Christianity vs. Biblical Christianity

2008-01-26T09:10:00.000-08:00

Well, for those of you who follow my blog, you know that last week we learned the real truth about tithing. I have been on a journey with the Lord ever since. The Scriptures have come alive to me like never before. I feel the Holy Spirit working through me like never before. I've come to question a lot of what I've been taught as a Christian over the last 7 years. Some of this was from Christian books, radio ministries, TV preachers and our pastor. Before I begin what I have to say today, I want to say that we love God, we love our church family and we love our pastor. He is a man of God who seeks to teach the truth. I'm not bashing churches just questioning some things.
Do you ever wonder why your Christian life just doesn't seem to work? Did you ever wonder why we are supposed to be saving the lost but we are busy trying to fix our marriages, our finances, our kids, the list goes on but I think you get the point.
We recently learning that tithing is not New Testament doctrine. What is New Testament doctrine is giving to help the poor, needy, widows and orphans and giving freely to those preaching the gospel. What I see in modern day church is that we are tithing, giving 10% to the church, to build and maintain a building. We spend more money entertaining ourselves with church functions than we do helping the poor and reaching the lost. We sit in our comfortable seats each week, hoping maybe some lost soul will wander through the door and get saved. Gee, maybe if we lived like NT Christians, we would quickly get discipled and then be out on the streets preaching to the lost.
We are told that as Christians we are going to go through trials. I looked through the NT passages on trial, trials, and tribulations. Guess what I found? All of them relate to being persecuted for your faith. The running joke in church is that you are either going into a trial, in a trial or coming out of a trial. I sought the Lord for answer which is why I studied those passages. My thinking is that we would experience trials if we were defending the faith and being persecuted, how many of us in America are under direct persecution like these people were? Satan can also cause problems because he is "seeking whom he may devour."
I look at every Christian I know and they seem to have a lot of problems, one look around a Christian bookstore will tell you just how many problems we have. I am convinced that the problems we have are because we are not practicing Biblical New Testament Christianity. As stated in my last post, tithing is an OT law. In Galatians you will see that if you try to keep one part of the law, you are held accountable for all and you have removed the grace of Christ from your life. So, are the problems we are all experiencing related to being persecuted or because we are trying to keep the law. If you try to keep it and fail, you are under the curses of Deuteronomy 28. I can't tell you how many people I know that are Christians and feel like it's not working, like they are under a curse.
Every single Christian had better wake up and search the Scriptures for truth. We are not judged based on what we have been misled to believe, we are judged on what we chose to believe. The truth is made available to every single one of us. If you are being deceived it is your personal responsibility to find out what the Bible says.
I felt the Lord impressing upon my heart to call my niece this morning. This is a young women who is sold out for Jesus. She loves Him, serves Him, witnesses for Him and would follow Him to the ends of the earth. I called to tell her what I learned about tithing. The first thing she said is that this was an answer to a huge prayer. Though she was faithful to God in her heart and serving Him, nothing was going right. She was getting behind on her bills trying to tithe. She was praying for an answer and she said she felt God answering by what I was saying. The same thing happened with my brother.
If you don't believe the truth about tithing and the connection to the law then can you explain why we are such a defeated group of Christians. In the New Testament there were thousands coming to Christ. Have you seen that happen lately? Are we limiting to work of the Holy Spirit because of our disobedience in tithing instead of cheerfully giving to the poor. Everybody who is trying to defend tithing is saying, how will the church be maintained and the pastor paid? Where exactly was it in the Bible that God told us to build a church building and to have a full time paid pastor on staff. I believe that if the church repents and teaches the truth that God will take care of the budget and He will use that church in a mighty way.
Part of me is scared to challenge the status quo. This is what I've been taught to believe but this is what God is showing me and "God be true and every man a liar." We haven't been able to speak with our pastor yet, hopefully this week. I pray that those of you who feel that I'm trying to lead people astray here would pray for God to reveal the truth. I don't ever want anyone to take my word for what God's Word says. Each one of us must search the Scriptures to see if it is true. God bless you in your search for the truth!
By the way, another quick note. I was always reading Christian books, listening to TV preachers (not including the name it/claim it group), listening to teaching on the radio. I could never get enough. I haven't even wanted any of those things in the past week. I finally feel full. All those years I kept feeling like I was missing something and now I've found it. I have a great hunger for the Bible and that's it. God is constantly leading me and showing me things now. I'm filled with His peace, joy, love, and goodness, I need look no further!

Grace or Law: You Can't Have Both!

2008-01-23T04:13:00.000-08:00

For those of you who read my last 2 posts on tithing, consider this a continuation. For those that didn't, please click here. If anyone would have told me a few months ago that tithing was false teaching, I would have thought that they were guilty of false teaching. If you believe in tithing because of the curse listed in Malachi then I'm begging you to read my last 2 posts and then read this one.
Since discovering the truth about tithing last Wednesday, I've been on a mission and an exhaustive study on the subject, searching the Scriptures to see if it was true. God has shown me the truth like never before, my eyes have flung wide open! By the way, each and every single Christian is responsible for knowing the Bible, not just what someone is teaching you that it says. I relied on other people because I felt like pastors, Bible scholars and such knew much more than I but the Bible says that you have no need for someone to teach you:
1 John 2:26-27 - These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true; and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
I'm not going into a thorough study here of why tithing is unbiblical, however, if you check my other post on Tithing and Financial problems you will see links there on the subject. However, I beg of you do not take man's word. It is okay to read those articles but you absolutely must search the Scriptures praying for God to show you the truth.
Now about grace or law. You really can't have both! Did you know that? If you are tithing because of the curse in Malachi 3 you are trying to keep part of the Mosaic law. You cannot only keep 1 part of the law. You must keep the whole law or the curses for disobedience listed in Deuteronomy 28 apply to you. You have removed yourself from the grace of Jesus Christ, yes, even if you accepted Christ as your Savior. And for the sake of your children you had better do some research because you have also cursed your children according to the law!
On Thursday when my husband decided that we would no longer tithe because it was unbiblical, peace filled our souls like we have never known. I thought, "This must be what the original Jews felt like after living for years under the heavy burden of the law and then finding out that Christ died on the cross to free them from their sins under the law". My next thought was "this is what salvation is supposed to feel like."
When we accepted Christ we were set free, praise the Lord. Then as we were discipled we were told that according to Malachi 3 we were robbing God and under a curse if we did not give 10% of our income. I don't want to repeat what was in the last post about the onslaught of financial problems so if you want to read it see my other posts. Not only did we have money problems, we felt under constant condemnation, always feeling like we just weren't good enough. If only we could get rid of every last sin and be perfect then God would take care of us, bless us, give us peace, give us joy, etc. I'm not saying that there aren't consequences for sin but that's not what I'm talking about here. Since Thursday, I've felt His love, peace and joy like I never have before. Also, since Thursday, I've prayed a lot that God would show us the truth as I was reading the Scriptures but I've barely spent any official quiet time with Him down on my knees like we've been taught. Not that that's a bad thing. The funny thing is that I have felt in the constant presence of Almighty God. I can't explain the difference but it's amazing! I have been told so many times that if things are going wrong and you don't have peace and joy it's because you are not spending time with Him.
I've always felt like I should share my faith because I don't want people to go to hell. I was having trouble trying to do it though. Now, my heart is so overflowing I want to shout from the rooftops, "You are under a heavy yoke of bondage because God holds you accountable for the law, but Jesus came and died on the Christ to set you free, you are freed from the law by the blood of Christ."
That is something you would say to an unbeliever who doesn't know Christ, however, how many Christians don't truly know it. Look at these verses:
Galatians 3:10-13 - For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in ALL * things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident for "the just shall live by faith." Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (*emphasis mine)
This tells me, if you are trying to keep part of the law, you have removed yourself from the grace of Jesus and placed yourself accountable to keep the whole law.
This goes so much deeper than money, my friend. It is life or death! There is only death from the curse of the law. For years, I've been trying to figure out why God loved me so much that He sent His son to die for me and that I'm free from the penalty of my sin yet would put a yoke of bondage on me to tithe when I couldn't pay my bills and buy food. Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Tithing was a heavy burden on us because we couldn't tithe, pay bills and buy food and clothes. We were constantly in lack. When we decided not to tithe anymore, my husband and I both said to each other that it felt like a yoke of bondage was finally gone. Imagine my surprise when God showed me this verse:
Galatians 5:1-5 - Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a YOKE OF BONDAGE. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. and I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
In these verses, Paul is speaking to Jews, who though set free from the law, were trying to keep the law along with having Christ. It doesn't work, beloved! You are either free from it all or accountable to it all. I'm begging you, I'm praying, please, please, research this yourself. God will hold you personally responsible for what you choose to do. Just because you believed false teaching does not hold you innocent in God's eyes. We are told not to be deceived. I honestly believe that there are so many pastors teaching this totally unaware of this truth. There are false teachers out there just trying to get your money but the vast majority of our pastors are teaching what they believe is the truth because somebody told them it was. It doesn't matter though because God will still hold them accountable regardless.
Please don't be intimidated about searching the Scriptures, when you are honestly seeking God's truth, He will show up and open your eyes and help you understand the Bible like you never have before. Do it before it's too late, this problem affected our marriage, our health, our children, every single thing in our lives.
We don't feel like we no longer have to give anything, we feel free to give how God teaches. We were not looking to get out of giving, just an answer to our problems. We will now give generously, cheerfully, as we have purposed in our hearts, and as we are prospered. We are praying for God's leading in this area.
We have not felt the least bit cursed since Thursday! By the way, my brother became a Christian about the same time we did and was experiencing a lot of this too. When he decided to stop tithing this week, he felt total peace. If we can ever give what we were giving before, that's great but it will be under the New Testament giving guidelines and not because we fear being cursed!
May God richly bless you in your search for His truth!

Tithing and Financial Problems Part 2

2008-01-19T06:15:00.000-08:00

This is part 2. I had no intention of having a part 2 but there is really something that I need to share. To read the first post I'm referring to click here. That post said that I had nothing against tithing but I was so sick and tired of hearing preaching on the radio and tv saying, "your finances are cursed because you don't tithe." We tithe and have repeated financial problems. Someone commented on that post. Here is what it said:

russkellyphd said...
I think that it is wrong to pay tithes and let your family do without food, medicine and shelter. It violates 1st Timothy 5:8.For a completely different view of tithing I encourage you to visit my web site at www.shouldthechurchteachtithing.com. It began as a PHD dissertation.

I have to admit, I've seen stuff like this on the internet and didn't even bother to read it but dismissed it as false teaching because we were taught to tithe. However, when he quoted that verse, it got my attention big time because my husband has said a lot lately that he has been very convicted about that verse. My husband and I have spent the last 3 days searching this person's website and others, searching the Scriptures and praying for God to reveal His truth to us. We are becoming convinced that we shouldn't tithe.

I was actually afraid to write about this for fear of backlash about false teaching because so many of us have been taught to tithe. You must first hear me out and then search the Scriptures and pray. I don't claim to be a Bible teacher, I've just been sharing, on this blog, whatever is on my heart. My husband and I are born again Christians trusting in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We believe in giving and we take great joy in giving as the Spirit leads us to. We love the Lord and seek to glorify Him. We love our Pastor and our church family. With all that being said, I would like to share our testimony of tithing over the past 7 years.

We got saved at a youth group as teenagers but never fully gave our lives to the Lord. In June of 2000 we really felt led to start going to church. We started attending a Baptist church and it didn't take long to realize that we needed to get down on our knees, repent and fully give ourselves to the Lord. We did. We were baptized that August and joined the church. We went through a discipleship book with our pastor. In that book, it said that we should tithe(using Scripture to back it up). At that time, we had some debt. We had planned to be out of debt in a couple of years. We had a money market account which we put about $100 per week into to pay our property taxes, insurance, etc. This was not just a savings account but more of paying our bills into an account to draw back out of.

We began by giving and then at some point started to tithe. Tithing didn't fit into our budget and we couldn't pay all of our bills. When our property taxes came due, there was no money to pay them. Everybody told us, just tithe and the Lord will provide. Well, we had to take out a home equity line of credit to pay our property taxes, that then became the only way we could pay our taxes each year. We had not expected that the Lord would make us independently wealthy because we were tithing but that He would provide for our needs.

Year in and year out, we have lived in lack. We have lost a few hundred dollars a week in income over the past 7 years. My husband was out of work 3 times, twice for worker's comp. related surgeries and once on disability for 2 months because the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. Also, my husband and daughter developed medical problems. After all that was said and done we were thousands of dollars in debt with medical bills, at one point paying on 25 different medical bills a month. Add on top of that 200-300 per month in prescriptions for them. We went deeper into the hole each month. The first 12 years of our marriage, we had decent running cars that didn't die on us. We have gone through 3 vehicles in the last 7 years and have only had 1 vehicle for the past year when we previously always had 2. Everybody just kept saying the Lord will provide. And I will say, we have food, clothing and shelter.

Here's the thing that we could never quite figure out. We have felt cursed for years. No matter what we have done to make the situation better, it only continued to a downward spiral of being deeply in debt and always in lack. We kept looking at the Bible where it says to pay what you owe and that you are worse than an unbeliever if you don't provide for your family. The Bible says with God all things are possible. If our God loves us so deeply that He would crucify His son on a cross to rescue us from our sins why did we feel like we couldn't possibly please Him because no matter what we did we could not tithe, pay our bills, buy food and put gas in the car. It didn't matter how hard we worked, how much we trusted. We felt like we were under a curse and couldn't figure out why. We got stupidly meticulous about things because we felt that we were missing something. My husband would frequently say that we couldn't afford to tithe. I'm embarrassed to admit that I judged him as having no faith, not putting God first, etc.

We have been really seeking the Lord for the truth over the past few months because nothing made sense. Near the end of December, I was still reading a lot of Christian books(I have admitted to being a book-a-holic) and I noticed how different authors had different views on the same Scripture. I was so annoyed, I said to God, "I am so sick of this, I just want your truth." I must of said everyday for a week, "Lord I just want your truth." Suddenly one day, it was like He said, "You already have it, read your Bible." I was reading my Bible each morning but I have to admit, I spent more time reading books about the Bible then reading the Bible. So, I stopped reading the other books and have prayed that the Lord would just meet me there each morning and reveal His truth to me.

I was reading in Deuteronomy. I noticed that our life looked like the curses for disobedience listed in Deuteronomy, I even commented on this to my husband.

We concluded that we must be really disobedient for God to be putting these curses upon us. Now granted, we are not perfect people but we love the Lord and are growing more Christlike each day. Just how perfect do you have to be for God to bless you? I was praying about this and God showed me the verse that if righteousness came by the law, that Christ died in vain. He showed me that I felt that He didn't love me. I guess I felt that because of all we had been though that apparently we were not good enough for His favor or blessing. Why were we not seeing Him provide for all of our needs? We assumed that God was angry with us.

At this same time, we started studying Malachi in Wed. night bible study. I was looking at the famous tithing verses found there, I look down below to the study notes and there is a cross reference to a verse in Deuteronomy which I had written down when I was questioning the Lord about what I was reading.

Then, when I posted that post earlier this week and this man responded to me with the very verse that was so convicting my husband, I was blown away. I went to my husband and asked what he was most convicted about. Bring your tithes into the storehouse, not providing for your own household is worse than being an unbeliever or the wicked borrow and do not repay? He said providing for his household and repaying debts. Another thing, that really stuck out to me was reading that if you are trying to keep one part of the law, then you are responsible to keep it all. If you tie yourself to the law then you are tying yourself to the curse of law. That made my eyes fly wide open since we were just talking about it.

Since then, we have been researching all that we have been reading by searching the Scriptures to see if it is true. We have also prayed. The other morning after I prayed, the verse "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" came into my mind, followed by "whom the Son has set free, is free indeed." I apologize for not listing the reference for each verse but I'm limited with my time. Please do look them up!

We have had a peace in our hearts over the last few days since we've begun our research that I don't think we've ever had! I was thinking, this must be what the first converts felt like, I'M FREE!!!!!!! The law is no longer a noose around my neck! That tells me something. I have felt an overwhelming sense of God's love as well. I am realizing that He did love me all that time, but I was trying to keep the law and God does not lie, if you're trying to keep it then your are held to it. I wasn't experiencing the peace and grace of God and neither was my husband because you separate yourself from Christ when you try to keep the law. Do you know how many times, both of us on separate occasions have felt suicidal with a pile of debt mounting and no way out?

Believe me when I tell you, we love, love, love to give. We have the most joy when we are meeting other people needs. However, when you're broke, you can't do a lot of it! We saw God bless us and meet our needs when we gave to others with a joyful, generous heart by the leading of the Holy Spirit. We did not see that we were blessed by tithing. Don't get me wrong, He has brought us food, when we had none but never the money to pay bills when we took our bill money and tithed with it. I know that you hear testimonials about people tithing and God providing but I can't see God blessing people for stealing from their creditors to tithe. At this point, we have decided that we will follow the outline of New Testament giving: give as the Lord prospers us, what we purpose in our heart and cheerfully.

We took a good look this week at a lot of things. We have been sad, angry and then filled with God's peace. We are now $50,000 deeper in debt then when we began to tithe. And lest anybody tell us we are irresponsible, out of that $50,000(which was a home-equity line of credit that has now been refinanced into our original mortgage), between $20,000-25,000 is property taxes that were put on the home equity line because we couldn't pay them. I will guess that another $10,000-15,000 is medical bills. Have we ever gone into debt stupidly, why yes, we have? All but one of our 10 year old appliances also died in the last 7 years since, we could no longer put any money aside, we charged them. Maybe we should have waited on the Lord and if so then that's our problem to deal with.

We don't blame God for this, we don't blame our pastor for this, however, we are really praying about what to say to him because we feel that he is a humble man who seeks to teach the truth and would not mislead us.

I just have to tell you this! I took a break in the middle of this post to go check the mail. In the mail was an escrow statement saying that our mortgage payment is going down by $9.00 per month and their was a check for twice what our tithe check would have been. It was mailed on Thursday, the day my husband got paid and we decided that we would not tithe but instead buy food and pay our bills. The funny thing about this is that we just received an escrow statement in November that said our mortgage was going up $14.00 per month because they miscalculated the escrow for property taxes.

It has been a rare occasion when we have not tithed. You know, the first week of January, my husband said that we just could not tithe that week because we absolutely had to pay two bills or else. Well, 3 days later, we received a check for $100. Another time, when we had to get something paid and we chose not to tithe someone at church walked up to me and handed me cash for my husband to go to the men's retreat. When we didn't tithe, we felt like "duck and cover, we didn't tithe, the wrath of God is coming, something bad is going to happen." Those seem to be the times that we have witnessed His grace.

I sit hear just overwhelmed by the love of God. We feel like a yoke of bondage has been removed from us. Didn't Jesus say that His yoke was easy and His burden was light and that His commandments were not burdensome.

I have seen testimonies from tithers and that I cannot explain. I just really wonder if when we were taught about tithing and could have done it without stealing from our creditors if that would have been okay. Like for instance, someone hears about tithing and says I would like to give 10% of my income, let me see, if I cut back here and there I could do it, okay, then that's what I'll do. There is nothing evil about the figure of 10%. That person has thought, that sounds good and it fits my budget, I'll do it. I think the danger is believing that we are under the law. I've seen some people say, "If you can't pay your bills, don't tithe, wait until your bills are paid, then tithe." Where exactly does it say that in the Bible? God commands us to pay what we owe and if you believe in tithing then you believe that God commands you to do it so, either way you are disobeying if you don't do both.

We really wanted to do it and did it cheerfully trusting the Lord. But when 7 years pass and you feel more cursed then blessed, something is wrong. We are seeking the Lord as to the next step. Does He want us to give anything tomorrow? We are not sure because we are still a little behind on our bills. We feel at this point, that we will give as God impresses upon our heart. We look forward to being able to give more than we have ever given before while providing for our family and paying our bills.

I hope that you see my heart in this post and do not condemn me for speaking what we feel the Lord has spoken to us. My husband has walked around feeling like a failure for I can't tell you how long because he felt that he was a failure as a provider. For the first time, in I don't know when we have hope and the condemning voice in our head is gone. The only guilt either of us feel is the fact that our church just finally built a building 2 years ago and basically we need everything that is given to cover the expenses of the building and our pastor's salary. Then I had this thought: On judgement day, standing before the Lord what would He say. Well done thy good and faithful servant, you brought your tithe check to the church every week to pay for a building while you paid your bills late with a check that had a Bible verse on it, stood in the doctor's office confronted about your unpaid balance while in your hand you held a Christian book or maybe a Bible; what a testimony! And yes, you neglected the poor and needy, the widows and the orphans, you couldn't even afford to buy tracts at Christmas to hand out, there were times that you and your husband chose not to eat so that your children could eat the little there because you chose not to go grocery shopping so that you could tithe and pay bills. Maybe that's an exaggeration but I can not see Him condoning what has been happening. And by the way, when we see a need we will do whatever we can to meet it and it's those times when God moves on our behalf.
Our other thought sadly, was what will people think if for the next couple of weeks(until our bills are caught up) we put nothing in the offering plate. What will the church treasurer think when our check isn't there. That has made us wonder if we really just need to be putting cash in plate, doing our giving secretly. We have never given to be seen by men but this sure made me think. I have peace with God but I'm worried about what man will think.

Here are websites that we looked at, I suggest you look at them too. Dig into your Bible and pray for God to reveal the truth to you. He is faithful and He shows up and speaks when you seek Him with all of your heart.

Shouldthechurchteachtithing.com

Tithing, Giving, Sowing and Reaping

Letusreason.org

nomoretithing.org

Tithing: Low Realm, Obsolete and Defunct

SeekGod.ca

What Does the Bible say about the tithe?

The Curse of Tithing

AGAIN, PLEASE SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES TO SEE IF IT IS TRUE, DON'T TAKE MY WORD OR ANYBODY ELSE'S!

Cocaine and Heroine Safer than Prescription Drugs

2008-01-15T15:25:00.000-08:00

I am always blown away by the health information posted on Mercola.com. He is truly an advocate for educating the American public with the TRUTH! I have gotten to the point that I don't believe anything the government, drug companies and food manufacturers say is good for us. I have been learning about the dangers of prescription drugs and don't take them unless there is no alternative. I have seen healthy people start out with maybe some pill for depression. Well, that keeps them up so now they need a sleeping pill, that bothers their stomach so now they need a pill for that, meanwhile this combination of drugs is having an all out assault on their body. They then develop asthma, allergies, fibromyalgia and on it goes. For every new ailment, they need a new pill. The sad part is they don't know any better because nobody tells them. If they went off everything they would probably feel better.

I'm not a doctor so you need to check with yours before going off any medications. My husband starting having severe allergic reactions a few years ago, most likely caused by a massive amount of processed foods in our diet. My husband's asthma which had barely bothered him, really started getting worse after taking 3 different allergy medications (to prevent allergic reactions). One of those medications was a generic of Zantac, it was supposed to help with the histamine blockers in his stomach, that medicine in turn gave him acid reflux. One day he just went off them all and carries and Epi-pen. He has been doing fine. He's happier without all the nasty side affects. Again, check with your doctor before just going off medication.

Here's part to the article that Dr. Mercola had posted on his website today:

While approximately 10,000 per year die from the effects of illegal drugs, an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that an estimated 106,000 hospitalized patients die each year from drugs which, by medical standards, are properly prescribed and properly administered. More than two million suffer serious side effects.For the rest of the article, click here.

Tithing and Financial Problems

2008-01-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard a radio broadcast give a preview for an upcoming show which promised to show you from the Bible the source of your financial problems and what to do about them, only to tune in to hear them say that your financial problems are caused by the fact that you don't tithe and that if you start, everything will be wonderful. I have nothing against tithing. We do tithe and give. What I have a problem with is a constant stream of sermons on the fact that you are robbing God and that's why you have financial problems or even that you don't give to others and that's why. While I listen, I sit there thinking "We've been faithfully tithing for years yet, we have financial problems." There have been many times where we chose tithing whether we could pay our bills or not. They act like tithing is the only thing that you need to be doing or that not tithing and giving is the only thing that causes problems.

If you are tithing, please continue to do so and if you're not, please do! I do believe that God commands us to do that. But please don't stop there! Ask Him for wisdom in how to manage what He has entrusted to you. Ask God to show you why you have the problems and what He wants you to do about it. One thing that He brought to my mind recently is that in the Bible, people sold their belongings to pay their debts. I have sold some of our stuff on ebay and would like to get more listed. We are also looking at ways to earn money on the internet. We are also looking over our budget to see what changes we can make. At this point, we probably just need a little more income because we don't have much more to cut.

The other thing that God showed us was through Haggai 1:6. Though we felt that we were putting God first in our finances by tithing, we were not putting Him first in every area of our lives. Too many times, we get distracted by the things of the world and don't stay focused on fully living for Him in every area of our lives. God has also tested us and grown us by the financial trials that we have had since we became Christians. Sometimes, He has something to teach us that can only be taught through financial trouble. Sometimes, I also think that maybe that's the only way He can get our attention, that or something happening with one of children will stop us dead in our tracks and bring us to our knees or even on our faces together before Him.
I hope that if you know someone struggling financially that you don't just assume that they don't tithe and give. I guess we really never know what God is up to, we just know that He is working it out for our good. We just have to do what we know to do and trust in the sovereignty of God.

Win up to $500 in homeschool curriculum

2008-01-12T04:31:00.000-08:00

Click on this contest link and register to win $500 worth of homeschool curriculum and other prizes. No purchase required, just register. Good Luck!!!!!

The Homeschooling Family - Funny!

2008-01-12T04:02:00.000-08:00

I saw this link on daddyontheroad and had to link to it. You must check it out, it is so funny!

Personal Responsibility

2008-01-11T10:34:00.000-08:00

I woke up with a migraine headache this morning. My headache got my thinking about taking responsibility. It's been on my mind lately due to blog posts I've read and radio shows I've been listening to and obviously reading my Bible.
What does a headache have to do with personal responsibility you might ask? Well, three years ago I was rear-ended in a car accident and since then I've had problems with migraine headaches. After going through physical therapy for I don't remember how many weeks I thought my shoulder and neck were better. The problems flared up again shortly after ending physical therapy. Around that same time, I started having aches in my joints and feeling very tired. I'm not sure if it was the beginning of fibromyalgia or not. It doesn't matter. Anyway, I got desperate and called my friend's chiropractor. That was big for me, I had always considered them quacks.
He started adjusting me which helped my shoulder, my neck and somewhat with my headaches. He taught me a lot about nutrition. He told me to get white sugar and white flour out of my diet. He also told me to drink plenty of water each day and take high quality whole food vitamins. In the process of learning, I started doing research on processed foods, something we were not eating much of at this point due to my husband's and my daughter's medical problems. You can read about that here.
So, as I did all these things plus cut out all processed foods, I felt great. I had less headaches, less aches in my joints, more energy and I started losing weight. When you do all those things and then you eat processed foods boy, do you feel terrible! I began to notice that certain things gave me a migraine. If I accidentally ate something with artificial sweeteners in it, I would get a migraine. Those sweeteners are actually the worst thing you can put into your body. Other patterns emerged with food colorings, chocolate chips, foods containing nitrates, etc.
So, yesterday I ate what I should not have eaten and woke up with a migraine that doesn't want to go away. I get angry when I do this because it's so stupid. There are times when I will get one out of the blue even though I've been eating good. But I know this time was my own doing.
How many of the problems in our life are of our own making? I didn't want to eat right yesterday so now I have a headache. I didn't want to take proper care of myself and now I have less energy and I'm achy. I didn't want to wait for something that I couldn't afford so now I have debt. I didn't want to do the housework so now my house is a mess. I didn't want to obey God's biblical commands to me as a wife so I don't have a good marriage. I didn't want to obey God's commands for child rearing and now my kids are out of control. All of those are not true in my own life but some of them are. Whose to blame? Me! Who can fix it? Me!
Do you get the picture? If we don't do things on purpose to fix the problems in our lives, we will forever be stuck in the same place feeling like a victim. When we actively, on purpose, set out to fix our past mistakes by doing the right thing today, we feel empowered to turn around a bad situation. We are going to eat whatever fruit we plant. Do you want rotten fruit: far from God, in a bad marriage, disobedient children, a pigsty house, failing health, and bankruptcy? Or do you want good fruit: peace with God, a wonderful marriage, children who obey and love God, a clean home, boundless energy and a feeling of well-being and financial stability?
What are you going to change today to have a better tomorrow? As my pastor said recently, "you are creating your past today." Please continue to follow with me on my journey to turn my life around. Subscribe to the feed or bookmark this page.

For further help with migraine headaches and fibromyalgia, please check out mercola.com. If you are willing to change your behavior you can have amazing results!

New Vision for a New Year - Finances

2008-01-09T06:18:00.000-08:00

Welcome to post number seven in this series. Where are you at in your finances? Do you have financial peace or financial nightmares? At this point, we are still working on our 2008 budget. We really haven't had much time to sit down together and go over everything. No matter what mess you have made just start today with what you've got and pray for wisdom and a plan. That's where we are at right now. We got a little behind on some bills due to hubby losing overtime back in September. We've been scrambling ever since. It was the overtime loss, on top of everything going up in 2007, on top of unexpected expenses on top of really not knowing what to do. It's difficult to get back on track when you live on a really tight budget and then something goes wrong. It just seems to have a snowball effect! I think that at some point we gave up hope and just muddled through. That's not good enough. Intentional living calls for us to actively try to fix the situation by earning more and spending less.
I'm not going to go into great detail in this post but I plan to post more in the coming weeks on the subject of stewardship, getting out of debt, frugal living and basically making your money stretch further.
Here are the highlights of our financial vision for 2008:
1. To glorify God in our finances.
2. To tithe faithfully and give generously.
3. To have our bills paid on time faithfully.
4. To be debt free by the end of 2008. (not including the mortgage, but, hey, who knows, miracles happen!)
5. To have money in savings for an emergency fund and irregular bills.
6. To pray harder for wisdom instead of wealth. (God will not entrust us with more if we are not managing well what He has already given us.)
January Goals:
I have more than one for this area because it is more urgent than the other areas of my life:
1. To get caught up on the bills by the end of January.
2. To be ready to file our taxes by the end of January.
I'm really bad at keeping my bookeeping up-to-date for my ebay business so, I'll work 15 mins. everyday this month on getting that done. As long as all of our other statements come in on time we should be ready to file by Jan. 31. I don't necessarily have a daily plan yet for how exactly we are going to be caught up by Jan. 31 but when I do I'll edit this post or address it on another post. The steps we are taking so far are: going back to our cash envelope system for groceries, gas, etc. Making changes in our phone service and other utilities by seeing what we can do without. Like I said, I'll be posting more on this subject in coming weeks.
January Verse:
Ps. 37:21 The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous shows mercy and gives.
I believe that God takes it seriously when we are not diligent in getting our bills paid on time and so, we should take it seriously.
Prayer:
Father, help us to glorify You in our finances. Help us to tithe faithfully and give generously. Help us to never close our ears to the cries of the poor. Help us to live within our means, to get our bills paid on time each month. Help us to not give into the temptation to take on new debt but to work diligently to pay off the debt that we owe. Pour out your wisdom upon us to manage well what you've entrusted to us.

New Vision for a New Year - Health

2008-01-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the 6th post in this series of living life on purpose with the intention of glorifying God in each area of my life. Today, we'll be talking about health. Though I could stand to lose about 20lbs, my goal is not weight loss but health. When I was eating healthy, drinking my water and exercising, I began to lose weight but more importantly I felt great. Sadly, I've really slipped lately. I cannot stay motivated simply with a goal of weight loss. What does motivate me is when I have more energy and feel good and know that I am gaining health.

Here is my vision for health this year:
1. To glorify God in my body by taking care of myself.
2. To have an abundance of energy to serve Him.
3. Feeling great with no aches or pains.

My January goal:
My goal for January is to feel better and have more energy.
My first step in that direction is to drink my allotted amount of water each day.
To figure out how much water you should be drinking, divide your body weight in 2 and drink that many ounces per day. I do very good with this goal in the summer but not in the winter when it's cold out so, this is a challenge for me.

My January verse:
1 Cor. 6:20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

My prayer:
Father, help me to glorify you in my body. Help me to develop good, healthy habits. Help me to drink my water, eat healthy, and exercise at least 3 times per week. Father, please help me to be strong and healthy, abounding with energy to serve You and others.

This One Thing I Do - Busy Days

2008-01-07T15:18:00.000-08:00

Today, I knew, would be a crazy day. It was our first day back to homeschooling after Christmas break, had to take hubby to work, chiropractor appointment, take older daughter to work, younger daughter to drama class, pick up her Bible at house we were at yesterday(1/2 hour away), pick up older daughter from work, pick up hubby from work and in the course of the day, stop by bank, put gas in car and stop at the store. All this on top of the usual, clean the house, do school, ship ebay package, blog, cut coupons, etc. To make things a little more interesting, we got home late last night and then I had to get up at 4:30am.
Many times, when I have a day like this, I give up before it begins. I just figure, I'm not getting much of anything accomplished today. I was so tired when I got back from dropping hubby off, I laid down for about 20 mins. and prayed, I really needed some energy and motivation! I got up and decided to write a little list on a post-it note divided by the areas that I needed to work in today: ebay-ship package, blog-post, cut coupons, school - assignments and correcting papers, and home-my Monday routine.
Then I looked at which areas I could quickly eliminate and be done with for the day, all the while remembering Paul's words "This one thing I do". I got the ebay package done and cut the coupons, two areas crossed off. Then I started on housework. The other thing I have a tendency to do is say, "I have to leave soon so, I don't want to get in the middle of doing that and then have to leave." Well, I reversed that with an attitude of making the most of every moment and challenging myself to see how much I could get done in the time I had to be at home. I'm happy to report that I got my morning, afternoon and evening routines done. I didn't get my zone work done (Flylady.net), or my 27-fling boogie but I was very happy with what I accomplished today. I will try to get those 2 things done tomorrow since I have no where I have to be tomorrow during the day. The girls had their assignments but I didn't get any papers corrected, another thing I'll deal with tomorrow.
The other thing that helped was working as fast as I could and still do a good job at each task. Sometimes, we can suffer from IGAD syndrome (I've got all day) and not move at a steady pace with our work. Well, I'm off to pick up older daughter from basketball and then I'll be going to bed early!

New Vision for a New Year - Home

2008-01-07T14:52:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the 5th post in my series on having a New Vision for a New Year. I have set out to live my life intentionally. My purpose in life is to glorify God and do the work that He has me here to do! Today, we'll focus on the home.

Here are the highlights of my vision for my home:
1. That people would sense the presence of God in our home by the peace and joy that welcomes them.
2. That our home would be a peaceful haven from the world.
3. That we are hospitable. We really need to use our home more for the Lord.
4. That it be clean, clutter-free and organized.

My January Goal:
To stick to my Flylady system, especially the decluttering - get everything done each day or at least by the end of each week.
If you don't know who Flylady is, please check out her website. I don't agree with everything she says, however, she gave me the structure that I sorely needed, it was a springboard, a system for me to tweak to fit my needs. If you just don't know where to start with your housework, she will give you a starting point.
My January Verse:
Matt 6:19 - Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
I don't want my home filled with clutter, that could be blessing others and meeting their needs.
My January Prayer:
Father, help us to glorify You in our home. Help us to take care of it and keep it clean and clutter-free. Help us to open up our home on a regular basis to friends and strangers. Use our home to encourage believers and reach the lost. May your presence always fill our home and may everyone who enters our home sense it.

If you need a little motivation, read my last post about the sluggard, it has kept me moving. Also, this morning I was reading in Deuteronomy and came across 23:14: For the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and give your enemies over to you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and turn away from you. I know that all of these old laws for being clean and unclean don't apply to us today but it made me think that God sees everything, even what we may be able to hide from company. Is He pleased, as He dwells within us, He walks in the midst of our home, is it a pleasing sight? For other posts in this series, click on the Intentional Living link.

Need Some Motivation?!

2008-01-05T16:35:00.000-08:00

I came across this study of the Sluggard in Proverbs on www.bible.org. I was looking for something else but I couldn't help stopping to read this. All I can say is wow! There is not a person on this earth that would want to admit that they can see part of themselves in the sluggard. For the most part (hey, we all have our moments), I feel like I'm going all day, that I'm hard working but boy, did this study speak to me and convict me. You really can be lazy in any area of your life. Do you ever procrastinate, well read on, you sluggard! Just kidding but really, it's a great eye-opening study!

The Sluggard by Bob Deffinbaugh , Th.M.
We should not be mislead by the humor with which the sluggard is described, however. The Book of Proverbs uses humor for at least two reasons. First, the apt way in which the truth is humorously portrayed makes it difficult for us to forget. The teaching of Proverbs on the sluggard has, as it were, “mental hooks” which deeply imbed the truth in our mind. Second, humor is often employed to disarm the reader, setting him up for the full force of the indictment which lies just below the surface. While we are still laughing, we begin to realize that the point of the story is aimed in our direction. By laughing, we have already admitted its truth in principle--at least as far as others are concerned. But now we are faced with the uncomfortable necessity of facing the truth ourselves. For the whole article click here.

New Vision for a New Year - homeschool, Parenting, Children

2008-01-05T06:23:00.000-08:00

This is my 4th post in this series on New Vision for a New Year. You can check out the first 3 by clicking on the links below.
Today, I will be sharing the highlight of my vision in the area of homeschooling/parenting/children. I want with all of my heart to glorify God in every area of my life. That is my purpose in doing a vision for each area of my life and setting goals. In the past, I've written things down but wasn't so good in the follow through!

My vision:
1. That our daughters love the Lord with all of their heart and serve Him and others.
2. That our children are self-disciplined, self-motivated and responsible.
3. That they are prepared to deal with adulthood: being a wife, being a mother, handling finances, running a home; basically all the things that I didn't know when I got out on my own!
4. That they are hard working and diligent.
5. That we consistently lead, guide, and train them.
6. That we consistently hold them accountable and consistently discipline them.

Our biggest issues with them right now is keeping them accountable. I tend to get busy with my own agenda and don't make sure that they get their room cleaning, chores and schoolwork done. This goes for just so long and then I start yelling at them. Not the ideal way to parent for sure. I want it to be different not only because it doesn't please the Lord but because I see major irresponsibility in our younger daughter (second child syndrome?).

My goal for January:
I will teach them to be disciplined by checking up on them everyday in the three areas mentioned above: room cleaning, chores, and schoolwork and disciplining them if these things aren't done.
My husband and I were discussing this last night. We are coming up with a plan of action should these things not get done. Sadly, my last plan in this area fell flat because I came up with it myself (I'm the one with them all day) and my husband didn't totally agree with it and let my younger daughter out of the prescribed punishment. So, better to work it together and present a united front.
My verse for January:
Prov. 13:24: He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.
My prayer for January:
Father, please give us wisdom as we parent these children. Help me to always point them towards You. Help me to disciple them and teach them your ways. May they love you, glorify you and live every day of their lives for you. May they be disciplined, diligent, and responsible. may they have Christlike character and a desire to serve you and others.

You'll notice, I don't have much in the way of academics listed. My oldest daughter is in 11th grade and does great with her schoolwork. My younger daughter is in 8th grade. She struggles with her schoolwork but I think that it is more of a character problem than an intelligence problem. She scored well on her standardized testing so I know that she can do it. She just doesn't want to or can't be bothered to look up the answers. I feel that by working more on the character side, that the academics will follow. The end result that I do want academically, is for her to have a strong foundation of grammar, writing and math to build on through her high school years and be able to do well with in life. To me, those three areas are the most important because everybody uses them in daily life. It's not that I don't care about science or social studies, I just feel that the other three are more of a concern with her right now.

New Vision for a New Year
New Vision for a New Year - Walking with the Lord
New Vision for a New Year - Marriage

Craigs List

2008-01-04T06:59:00.000-08:00

Craigslist.com. Have you checked it out? I haven't used it yet, to buy or sell but I was checking it out this morning. I found a vacuum that powers up but has not suction for FREE!!!! I'm waiting for a return e-mail. Our beloved Kenmore canister that was 17 years old vacuumed it's last in December. I loved that thing, you could tell by the amount of duct tape holding it together. I have not been able to replace it yet. My brother gave me an upright vacuum that is driving me a bit crazy (I think I've got wrong attachments with it) so, if this other one is better and we can unclog it, that would be a blessing.

I also e-mailed about a printer with ink for $10. Our printer bit the dust a couple of months ago. It is really hard with school and ebay not having one. A friend gave us an HP printer without ink. We went to buy the ink and it was $60 for both cartridges. We didn't have the money at the time or since then. I'm still wondering if it would run with just black. I know that you can print without color but we don't even have an old cartridge to stick in it's place. It was funny because as our jaw was dropping at the ink prices, we turned around to see one of those printer/scanners for $10 more with ink. That is what our goal is to have. Our scanner bit the dust this year too, along with our washing machine. I'm only 38 and I often find myself thinking, they just don't make 'em like they used to!

Anyway, check it out, it looks like a great place to buy, sell and give stuff away! I just may start selling there instead of Ebay.

How to Organize Your AOL Favorites

2008-01-04T06:52:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm just thrilled. I've been trying for a really long time to figure out how to organize my bookmarked websites in AOL favorites. It was to a point that I couldn't find the websites that I was looking for. I did a google search last night and found this website. You can go there to read the complete article, you'll need to scroll down the page. The basic instructions are to click new at the bottom of your favorites box, click on new folder, name it and presto, you've got a folder. Now drag and drop which websites you want in that folder. I'm still working on mine little by little but so far I've set up folders for ebay, favorite blogs, homeschooling, cooking, frugal living, coupons, and marriage & parenting. Yeah! One more step on the road to organization!

Updated to add: Half of my folders suddenly became empty. I lost the bookmarked sites that I put in them. I've lost my favorites temporarily in the past due to reinstalling AOL. I'm slightly irritated but hopefully they will show up again soon. Does anyone out there no how to recover them yourself?

New Vision for a New Year - Marriage

2008-01-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

As discussed in my post New Vision for a New Year, I am setting out to live my life on purpose. That purpose being to glorify God in every area of my life. I have written down a vision for 7 areas: my relationship with God/ministry/obedience, my marriage, my children/homeschooling, home, finances, health and business.
Today, I'm focusing on my marriage. My vision for my marriage includes some of the following points:
1. I want God to be glorified through our marriage.
2. I want to be his best friend doing things together that we enjoy.
3. I want to honor and respect him with my actions and attitudes in public and private.
4. I want to submit to his leadership and trust God fully with the consequences.
5. I want to fulfill my role as his helpmeet, to support him and be a wife that his heart can safely trust.
6. I want to look my best for him.
7. I want to have a servant's heart and meet his needs with a joyful heart.

I am making one goal per month in each area of my life. I can't change overnight, but hopefully through a series of baby steps, by the end of the year, I will be more of who God wants me to be.

My goal for my marriage for January is to actively seek to meet his needs. I plan to accomplish this by listening to him more intently to find out what his needs are. Some of his needs, I already am aware of but sometimes neglect; I will be working on that as well. I will also be asking him what is most important to him. I plan to read each day the vision that I wrote down. I will also read my goal, a verse and a prayer each day that relates to this area. If you haven't read my previous posts, check them out by clicking below to see the little book that I'm making to hold these things. I know that if I don't keep these things constantly before me, I will not work on meeting my goals.
Here is my verse for January for my marriage:
1 Cor. 7:3-5 - Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but he husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with the consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Short note here on this passage: If you are not living this, examine yourself to find out why. God's word is our command not suggestion. I have failed in this area myself many times and it was my own selfishness. There are times that I am so tired that I just want to go to sleep. God is so amazing though, when I push through my tiredness and selfishness with a good attitude, I am more awake and energized the next day. When I put sleep first, I am more tired the next day. I hope that nobody is offended by this post but it is a part of marriage and God wasn't embarrassed to talk about it! Meet his needs, and most men have stronger needs in this area than women do but he could be tempted to get that need met in another way if you are not doing your part. According to God's word, the only option he has, for meeting this need, is you and hope deferred makes the heart sick.
My prayer for our marriage:
Father, Help us to bring glory and honor to you through our marriage. Help me this year to keep my husband as my top priority, only second to you. Help me to unselfishly meet his needs above my own. Help me to be his best friend, looking out for his best interest, being the helpmeet you created me to be. Help me to never dishonor him by my words or actions in public or private. Amen

Previous posts in this series:
New Vision for a New Year
New Vision for a New Year - Walking with the Lord

Seek Him and You will Find Him

2008-01-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

I intended to do my next post on New Vision for a New Year but yet again, there is something on my heart that I absolutely must share first.

Last night at Bible Study, we studied Psalm 107. It's too much to type out here so I hope that you will look it up. This Psalm repeatedly talks about people in need crying out to God. Some were in physical need, some had rebelled against God and some were just going about their business doing nothing wrong. Each one came to a place where they saw their need and cried out to God. God delivered them, saved them and brought them out of their distresses. That is followed by a verse of Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! The pattern is problem, prayer, provision, and praise.

The last verse of this Psalm is Whoever is wise will observe these things. And they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.

This passage really spoke to me last night. I'm facing some things in my life right now, feeling like God is never going to show up and help me because I'm a terrible person who can't do anything right. This Psalm shows us that no matter where we've been or what we've done, He will answer our cries for help.

The exciting part was that when I got home last night, I went to look up this passage again but, instead came across Psalm 130. The beginning of this Psalm, verses 1-2 talk about crying out to the Lord and vs. 3-4 state: If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared. That is followed by verses speaking of waiting on the Lord, for with Him is mercy.

I have had people in my life who withdrew from me when I let them down. I guess that is how I've been seeing God. He couldn't love me, bless me or answer my prayers unless I was perfect. Every time I did wrong, it's like I would duck and cover waiting for God's angry response. I know that God doesn't smile and wink His eye when we sin but I was easily forgetting that He has given us grace, mercy and forgiveness when we do sin. God will bless the home of the just, the just shall live by faith. God will bless the righteous, we have righteousness in the sight of God through the blood of Jesus Christ.

As I thought through all of this, I came to the conclusion that no matter where I'm at or what I've done, He will forgive me and send down His mercy and grace upon me. I also remembered that He looks at our heart, are we desiring to be more Christlike and just missing the mark or our we bent on living a life of our own desires? He can't love me any less or anymore than He already does. If he blesses the just and the just shall live by faith then I need to have faith that He loves me, that I am clothed with the righteousness of Christ and that's how He sees me, that He will bless me, have mercy on my and give me His grace. I kept thinking that once I was doing everything right then He would love me, approve of me, bless me and provide for me. That was no different than thinking that you can earn salvation with good works which I know isn't true so I don't know how my thinking got so out of whack with this.

I'm sure that I have heard all this at some point but, it is real to me now, very real. Praise the Lord, He is so good!

The other vs. from Psalm 107 that really spoke to me was vs. 9 For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness. That verse just washed over me and filled with me with peace last night.

I have made up my mind to seek Him more this year, to get to know Him more intimately and to know His word more deeply. This is day 3 of taking unhurried time in the Word to really seek His truth. I can tell you when you seek Him with all of your heart reading His word instead of just something you are checking of your to-do list, He will show up and meet you there. For the past 3 days I have walked away from my Bible time feeling like I have been in the presence of God. This morning, I decided to pray out loud (something a friend mentioned to me recently), most days I pray in my head. My prayer life has just seemed kind of blah! What a difference praying out loud made. I felt like I prayed at a deeper level than I have in awhile.

Have you ever been around someone that talked about God in a way that made you think "I want to know the God that you know?" I have. We are both saved by the same God, the only true God but, they have such a deep relationship with Him that it makes me want what they have. Laine from Laines Letters is like that. She talks about God with such passion that it made me want to know Him as she does. Check out her site, you will be blessed for sure. I hope that you have been blessed by this post, maybe it is something that you already knew but maybe you didn't and if not, I pray that you would seek Him and find Him in a way that you never have before. God Bless You!

My 99 Cent Auctions ending today!

2008-01-03T04:10:00.000-08:00

Check them out! Last Thursday, Ebay had a listing sale and I listed a bunch of Christian books, starting at only .99! Among them are Get Out of That Pit by Beth Moore and Passionate Housewives Desperate for God. Ending in 5 hours, so you better hurry!

My Ebay Store

New Vision for a New Year - Walking with the Lord

2008-01-02T06:43:00.001-08:00

As discussed in my post New Vision for a New Year, I am setting out to live my life on purpose. That purpose being to glorify God in every area of my life. I have written down a vision for 7 areas: my relationship with God/ministry/obedience, my marriage, my children/homeschooling, home, finances, health and business.
Today, I'm focusing on my relationship with God. I won't bore you with all the details of what I wrote for my vision, it is a page long and will probably get added to but here are the highlights:

1. I want God to be able to say about me that I'm "a woman after God's own heart".
2. I want to be so close to God that people can sense His presence when they are with me.
3. I want to be so in tune with the Holy Spirit that I know what He wants me to be doing every moment of the day and be able to operate out of the wisdom of God.
4. I want to obey God immediately.
5. I want to be a blessing to God and others and share my faith on a regular basis.

I have made a goal, yes just one right now to get me off and running. This is my goal for January:
To read the Bible, faithfully, each day and to not be in a hurry but to really soak it in, think about it, meditate on it. I read my Bible almost every morning now, but the day that I run errands I tend to skip it. Also, and this is embarrassing, Sunday is almost always skipped. I justify it by thinking that I'm at church hearing the Word preached and being in prayer. I would like to work on this because time alone with the Lord is different than corporate worship, if you know what I mean.
The other issue with my Bible time is that I tend to be in a hurry to check it off my to-do list and go on to the next thing. There are days where 5 minutes later I couldn't tell you what I read. God's Word does tend to come back to my mind when I need it, so apparently I'm learning it but to me that's just not good enough. I want to walk away feeling like "Wow", I've met with the Lord and He taught me so much. I felt that way yesterday morning and this morning by praying before I read for the Holy Spirit to help me understand the truth and that God would speak to me through it. I read more slowly and thought about what I was reading.

I will read over my vision every morning to keep it fresh in my mind. I am making up a little book to help with my goals. I already use a little photo album with paper in it to hold my daily routines, it's great because it is small and you can use Vis-a-Vis pens and then wipe them off at the end of the day or week. I have another one, I'm going fill with index cards that state my goal for the month, a verse for the month and a prayer for this month. I will have 3 cards for each of the 7 areas all contained within this little photo album.

Here is my verse for January:
Deut. 10:12 - And now, Israel, what does the Lord require of you, but to fear the Lord you God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul

Here is my prayer:
Father, please help me this year to know you more intimately, love you more deeply, hear you and obey you unquestioningly, grow more Christlike with each passing day, reflect your love and light in this dark world, boldly share my faith, be a blessing to you and others, and glorify you in every area of my life. Amen

Remember the Lord Your God

2008-01-01T08:18:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I intended to post on my vision and goals for 2008 this morning but that will have to wait until later on today or tomorrow. I've got something on my heart that I just have to share.

This morning, I was reading Deuteronomy 5-8. If you recall these chapters are filled with commands to remember the Lord your God and keeping His commandments, blessing for obedience, cursing for disobedience. I just kept coming back to the fact that He wants us to remember what He has done for us and also to tell it to our children. Another thing that spoke to me was that He had kept them in the wilderness all that time to humble them, test them and to see what was in their hearts and that it was for their good.

I felt guilt for all the doubting that my husband and I have been doing lately. We are going through one of those times where we feel like God has left the building and our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. We have wondered if the Lord holds true to His promises for those who tithe as we see the finances not being in great shape. I was really struck by the remembering part, though. What do I remember most, what the Lord has done or what He hasn't done? I was convicted to sit down and make a list of all that He has done and provided for me so far this morning. I got up at 6:30am and it is now 11:25am. So, here goes:

I woke up this morning.
I was physically able to get out of bed.
I got a good night's rest in a comfortable bed with warm blankets in a heated house.
I was warm when I got up because I had a warm nightgown and a warm bathrobe to put on.
I had glasses or contact lenses to put on so that I could see better.
I could turn on a light because I have electric and a light bulb and fixture.
I could make coffee to drink because I have a coffee pot and a can of coffee.
I have a computer and Internet service.
I could check out other people's blogs and be blessed by what they wrote.
I can read, understand and comprehend.
I could check on my ebay auctions and traffic stats on my blog.
I had a hot shower because I have running water, a hot water heater and a bathroom.
For my shower, I had shampoo, conditioner, soap, shaving cream and a razor.
I had a clean dry towel because I have a laundry basket, a washer, a dryer, laundry detergent and fabric softener.
I had clothes to put on.
I had mousse, hairspray, a pick, a brush, a hair dryer, and a barrette to do my hair with.
I could brush my teeth because I have toothpaste and a toothbrush.
I could wash my face because I had a clean washcloth.
I could put on make up because I have foundation, blush, eye liner and mascara.
I could eat breakfast because we had cereal and milk.
I could eat out of a clean bowl with a clean spoon because I have a dishwasher and dishwasher detergent.
I could read my Bible because I have one and I have the freedom to read it.
I had a pen to underline with and a bookmark to keep my place.
I could learn from our Lord because He shows up when I seek Him.
I could discuss what I read because I have a husband.
He was there because he has a paid day off because he has a job.
I could do something for someone else this morning because I have children, one who needed my help with something.
I could start dinner this morning because we have a crock pot and a roast to put in it.
My daughter can go into work today because she has a job and we have an insured, registered and inspected car with gas in it and the ability to drive.

Maybe this was more then you ever wanted to know about me! Or maybe, just maybe, you too will realize that we overlook all these things each day and focus on what we do not have.

Deut. 26:11 So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.

One Day Sale at Biblical Womanhood

2008-01-01T05:44:00.000-08:00

Be sure to check out Biblical Womanhood's ebook blow-out sale for today only through midnight (CST) January 1, 2008.
All of her ebooks are greatly discounted.
Her best-selling course, Supermarket Savings 101, is normally $17.97, but today only you can buy it for $5.97. You must check this one out. She shops for her family of 4 for around $35 per week.

All of her other ebooks are only $3.00 each.

Her ebook package featuring over $95.00 worth of ebooks is reduced to $10.00

You will not be disappointed with her books, I've enjoyed everything of her's that I have read.

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New Vision for a New Year

2007-12-31T07:41:00.000-08:00

I've been listening to Intentional Living with Randy Carlson this year on the radio. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the show used to be called Parent Talk. It is on our local station on Saturday mornings but, you can listen online. The point of the show is, "What one thing can you do to be intentional today?" Is there one thing that you can start doing today to improve your walk with the Lord, your marriage, your finances, etc. Another motivator for me this year was reading The Richest Man Who Ever Lived. It's about the wisdom of Solomon found in the Proverbs. In this book Steven K. Scott talks about writing down your dreams, turning dreams into goals, goals into steps and steps into tasks. I wrote down my vision but never followed through on the rest of it. I am bad about hearing and reading but not doing!

Living my life on purpose, intentionally each day has been something I've been trying to do. I've not succeeded as much as I would have liked. Sometimes, it's hard to really sit and think and plan. Everyday there is so much to do and if I take too much time to really plan, I get behind on other things. The funny thing is that I need to plan so that I'm doing the most important things, the things that God has for me to do. Sometimes, I feel like, "Could someone just stop the world for a moment for me to catch my breath and think about where I'm headed." A thought just occurred to me, maybe time for reflection and planning would be a good thing to put into my daily or weekly plan. Wow, duh! moment, there!

As the new year approaches, it makes us reflect on this past year and look forward to a better year ahead. I'm not much for New Year's Resolutions per se or even setting goals and working towards them, but I've been doing much thinking and planning. It's not like I never think about where I want to go in my life, I just don't follow through to make sure I'm heading in that direction. We are still on Christmas break from homeschooling. We are supposed to start back on Jan. 2 but I'm thinking that maybe we will start the following Monday. I really need the break and I think that the girls do, too. I also need some time to think about what changes I need to make in the coming year. Taking down the Christmas tree might not be a bad idea, either!
Today, I'm working on a vision for my life. My starting point is "How can I glorify God in each area of my life?" That's our purpose for being here so that has to be my starting point. My vision for my life includes 7 areas: my relationship with God/ministry/obedience, marriage, parenting/children/homeschool, home, finances, health and business. I've condensed some things together to make it 7. My next step is going to be setting goals for each area. From those goals, I will break into daily tasks or habits that I need to develop to meet these goals. If my life today, is a result of the decisions of all of my yesterdays then I need to start making different choices each day to improve those areas. Make sense? If I want to get out of debt but never make a conscience choice to A) take on no new debt and B) work out a debt repayment plan and stick to it then I will still be in debt this time next year, won't I?

What needs to change in your life? Do you want to be closer to God, have a stronger marriage, lead your children in the right direction, get your home clean, organized and peaceful, get out of debt, improve your health, or maybe start or grow a home business? Follow along with me, as I write my vision and post my plan to change these areas in my life. You will see a lot of posts surrounding these areas this year. I would like to do a series regarding new habits that I'm building into my life so that maybe you can join in and grow along with me in 2008.

I challenge you to write down a vision for your life. Pray while you are writing this out, God will direct you. If you start at the point of wanting to glorify God with your life, it won't take you very long to come up with a vision for what that would look like. If your life could be anything you dreamed it to be what would that look like? It all starts with you, making one little change, one little baby step in the right direction. If you don't start now, you'll have the very same problems this time next year, maybe even worse.

I will also be writing a vision for each of my daughters. I don't intend to show it to them, nor do I intend to run the rest of their lives. Yesterday during an infant dedication at church our pastor challenged the parents to keep 2 days in mind: the day this child will Lord-willing get married and the day that they will stand before the Lord. Those 2 days should direct how we parent. I'm realizing how short I have fallen with teaching my daughters how to manage a house and how to be a godly wife and mother (most likely because, I still feel like a work in progress). I know that they pick things up from me, for good or for bad but there are things that I really need to intentionally teach them and there are some character issues that I need to work on with them. I love them and I want them to be prepared for life when they leave our home.

Side note here: I heard a little snippet from Money Matters on the radio this morning. Howard Dayton quoted Phil. 3:13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. He was talking about forgetting about the financial mistakes that you've made in the past and just focus on going forward. He was so right. The past is the past, you cannot change it but by God's grace today you can make a choice to do what is good and right.

Motivated to Clean by a Mouse!

2007-12-28T14:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been pretty laid back (read LAZY) since Christmas until..........

A MOUSE joined the family. Talk about getting motivated to clean!!!!

I thought that I caught something out of the corner of my eye a couple of days ago but I just blew it off. We built this house 11 years ago and have never had a mouse in the house. Some of the older homes on our street have had major mouse problems but, never us until now! Yesterday, my daughter said that she was out in the living room late at night and thought she heard something that may have been a mouse. Yesterday, while looking for something in the back of my utensil drawer I found more than utensils. The evidence was in, we have a mouse.

I could just throw up. I didn't even want to eat last night or today. That stupid mouse had been in the top drawer containing eating utensils, the second containing cooking utensils and the third containing my dish cloths and dish towels. I keep thinking, how long was this thing running around all over what we were eating off of and using to wash our dishes. I'm getting nauseated all over again just thinking about it. Thankfully, so far it appears not to have gotten into our food. Sadly, all the cookie crumbs in the past two weeks of baking probably kept him satisfied!

Yesterday and today, I've been running utensils through the dishwasher and running towels through the washing machine. My husband bought glue traps last night and put one out where we think he is hiding out. We didn't catch him last night. There are 4 traps in the pack but I told him to wait to put them all out until I mopped today. It's been a bad enough week, knowing me, I'd be the one who gets caught in the goop!

My kitchen did need a good, thorough cleaning I guess but I really could have done without this bit of motivation! If there's anyone out there reading this, please pray that we catch it or them before they get into our food. I just went grocery shopping yesterday and money is tight, I can't afford to have to throw out food. I'm going to put what I can in plastic containers but I know that I don't have enough for everything nor can I go spend money on more containers. Well, wish us luck in our mouse hunt!
Edited to add: We caught the mouse. Hopefully, it was just one. We haven't seen anything else and we haven't caught anything else. I'm still busy giving the kitchen a thorough cleaning and disinfecting!

Ebay 10 cent listings and my 99 cent sale

2007-12-27T05:55:00.000-08:00

If you are looking to declutter your home, today is the day:

Ebay is offering a great deal on listing today. Only .10 per listing. I was already planning on listing some books in my store. We could use the extra cash. The sale has got me a little more motivated. So far, I've listed Passionate Housewives Desperate for God and Get Out of that Pit by Beth Moore. I'm starting my auctions at .99 so, be sure to check them out! Hubby and I are looking around for things to sell.

I was listening to Dave Ramsey online this morning. That has motivated me. If you've never listened to him, you really should. He has written great books on getting out of debt like The Total Money Makeover and Financial Peace. You can listen to his radio show online. If you need help with your finances, he's your guy!

Vision Forum Overstock Liquidation Sale Up to 50% off

2007-12-26T07:28:00.000-08:00

Here is an e-mail that I received from Vision Forum this morning. There are some great deals to be had! Check out their Moody Science videos along with great Christian living books and audio books!

Dear Friends:
On behalf of Vision Forum, I want to thank each of you for your prayers and support to our ministry in the year 2007. We remain committed to the absolute necessity that we, as a people, return to certain fundamental truths of Scripture: love of Christ; love of family; vision for our children; domesticity and the beauty of the Christian home; masculinity and femininity as God-ordained virtues; multi-generational faithfulness; gratitude for God’s providential care over our nation; the Holy Scripture as the foundation for social order; and the ever-present antithesis between Christianity and false religions.
As most of you know, Vision Forum is designed to further these fundamental truths and to engage the enemy at each point in the cultural battle for the heart and soul of the Christian family.
Inventory Reduction Sale — Save Up to 50%
One aspect of our ministry has been to provide families with books, Cd's, videos, and “vision tools” which can be useful in rebuilding the culture of Christian family life and reinforcing the message of God’s providence in history and biblical manhood and womanhood. The many hundreds of letters of thanks we have received from those of you who have enjoyed these resources thrill us to the core.
This year, we are overstocked in a number of these items and are hoping to dramatically reduce our inventory before the end of the year to minimize the taxes we are required to pay on inventory.
For six days starting today, we are offering big discounts on more than 200 items. Discounts range from 25%-50%. If you are the kind of person who likes to plan ahead for birthdays and special occasions, this would be a wonderful time to take advantage of this one a year sale which ends at midnight (CST) on December 31, 2007. Prices are only good on new online orders. This is also a great opportunity to build a library for each of your children at a dramatically reduced cost.
Remember, by taking advantage of this sale, you are doing more than getting a great deal, you are helping to support the work and ministry of Vision Forum. See below for a partial listing of our sale items and current discounted prices. Consult our catalog or visit us online for more information on each item.

Blessings,

Doug Phillips President, The Vision Forum, Inc.

A Priceless Christmas Lesson

2007-12-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

This has been a hard Christmas for us. A few months back my husband and I committed to not taking on any new payments. We really need to pay off the debt that we have from medical and dental bills. The rising cost of everything has made things tight for us. We had lost some overtime a couple of months back and we are still feeling the sting of it because all of our irregular bills like life insurance, water/sewer/trash bill and filling our propane tank all came due between October 31st and November 30th and we weren't prepared.

In previous years when we didn't have the money for Christmas presents, we would get impatient waiting for the Lord to provide and we would use credit cards or part of our bill money. Needless to say, we would be paying for that mistake for awhile. We have had to really stay strong this year in not giving into that temptation. We didn't even have much worth selling nor did I have to time to be listing on ebay because of homeschooling. So, we patiently waited on the Lord to see what He would do.

Last week, we got a $50.00 check in the mail from a friend that said "Use this for Christmas". This friend didn't know that we had no presents for our children. We were very thankful but I have to shamefully admit, I kept hoping that He would provide more. I really couldn't see how we could pull off getting Christmas presents for 2 teenagers for $50.00. Well, nothing else came and we did get them a few small gifts. I felt like an idiot, I was really trying to hold back the tears while we were in the store.

I am really ashamed of myself that I hadn't gotten so caught up in making Christmas something it was never supposed to be. I had a feeling that it was going to be a lean year because the Lord kept laying it on my heart that if there were no presents under the tree this year, could I just be thankful for Him, period? I know that I am truly blessed that I have Christ as my Savior and that my husband and daughters are saved, as well. I look around at the homeless, the hungry, people who suffered the tragic loss of a family member this year and I feel very blessed to have what I have.

Every year, I felt so pressured to pull of this great Christmas because we couldn't afford to do much else for our kids all year long. It finally occurred to me this past year that it was the same situation growing up. There were 8 of us kids and somehow my parents always managed to get us Christmas presents. I remember feeling so much love at Christmas, though not much the rest of the year. I realized today that, although there were always presents, my parents weren't the most financially responsible people either.

I have had to realize that gifts don't equal love. My children know that they are loved even though they don't have perfect parents or a bundle of Christmas presents. The greatest gift that we can give them is pointing them toward Christ on Christmas day. It is no gift to them if we are freaking out from January til June because of the financial mess that we created to buy presents.

As bad as things are financially, I feel more blessed this Christmas than I ever have, I can't say that's been an easy place to arrive at. I've spent quite a bit of time feeling sorry for myself and making everybody else miserable in the process.

I pray that you have a Christ-centered Christmas this year and that you didn't go into debt for presents. I really have come to believe that debt is not God's provision for us. If He wanted us to have more, He would have provided it!

Free Item at Buy.Com

2007-12-18T16:48:00.000-08:00

Buy.com is running a great special! You can get $10.00 off a $10.00 purchase when you use Google Checkout. There are many items currently selling for $10.00. I found a DVD for my daughter. The cost was $1.90 for shipping. Get in on this amazing deal now because it's for a limited time only!

Blessing a Needy Family for Christmas

2007-12-18T15:49:00.000-08:00

Crystal, over at Biblical Womanhood has a post on her blog about helping out a needy family for Christmas. Please check it out! This woman's story will touch your heart!

Give Your Best to Your Husband

2007-12-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

A couple of times recently, we had an appointment with our chiropractor right after my husband got home from work. One day, I sprayed on some perfume and he said "Oh, you want to smell good for the doctor!" Another day, I was fixing my make up right before we left and he said, "Oh, you want to look pretty for the doctor!" He wasn't being mean, just joking around. At those times, I just sort of blew it off.

I started thinking about what he had said. Sadly, I only wear perfume when I'm going somewhere. I actually thought that I was being frugal. I shower, fix my hair and wear make up everyday and I do try to fix my make up and hair again right before he comes home from work. I don't always remember. It just made me realize that I'm not making him feel like he's the most important person (after God) in my life. I really wouldn't have thought that before but I do care more about the way I look when I leave the house then when I'm in the house. It doesn't matter if I'm going the store, church, the doctor, the library or any other place. There are times that I will pull a shirt out of my drawer and think "I can wear this, I'm not going anywhere today."

Maybe this isn't an issue with you. If it is, deal with it. Your husband is gone all day, working hard to support his family. Yes, I know, we work hard at home but it's different. I used to have a little system of fixing my hair and make up right before he came home and then fixing him a cup of tea and a snack. I would greet him with a smile and a kiss. That is my new goal, to get back to what I should be doing. He works in a factory but there are a lot of women there. I want him to think about coming home to me!

The Nativity Story

2007-12-17T10:20:00.000-08:00

Have you seen this movie yet? If not, I urge you to buy it or rent it. It will bless you more than you can imagine! My daughter bought it for me for my birthday this past Saturday and the 4 of us watched it last night.

Mary is so young, sweet and innocent reminding me of my own teenage daughters. If you've ever wondered how her life must have been being an unwed mother, this movie will give you some insight. She was shunned and could have been stoned to death. She truly is a hero of the faith. For her to say "Be it unto me, according to your Word" was risking her very life. Joseph, too, was a hero of the faith, in believing the angel and taking Mary as his wife.

Seeing Mary having to ride a donkey all the way to Bethlehem while being 9 months pregnant made me think about what a strong, young woman she was. And to see the baby Jesus born just like my very own children were was just awesome. God really touched my heart and gave me a deeper understanding of the birth of our precious Lord and Savior through this movie.

It was also a blessing to be able to sit down with my family to watch a movie that was free from offensive material. I would highly recommend viewing this movie during the Christmas season. I think that this will become an annual Christmas tradition at our house. May the God of heaven richly bless you and pour out His peace upon you this Christmas!

Christmas: Where's Your Focus?

2007-12-07T10:44:00.000-08:00

This is something weighing heavy on my heart today.

My daughter needed to stop at Walmart this morning on her way to work. I was feeling more miserable with each passing moment in the store. I was feeling sorry for myself because I didn't have a lot of grocery money this week and because I have no idea if my children will have Christmas presents under the tree. I was really fighting it. I have no right to feel sorry for myself, I have more that a lot of people: food, clothing, a home with heat, a car to drive, a husband with a job and a wonderful family.

She needed to make one more stop after that and I decided to wait in the car. Snow started to fall while I was sitting there. It made me think of those that are homeless and very cold right now. It made me think of a mother trying to keep her little one warm in a house with no heat, if they even have a house. Maybe they have a house but she's wondering where their next meal is coming from. What about a family who has recently lost their house and will be spending Christmas morning in their car, if that wasn't repossessed.

I picked up a newsletter that was sitting in my car. It was a missions update. They built a house for a family in Jamaica. This house was no bigger than most people's backyard sheds yet these homes being built for these people are like castles to them. I sat in my car thinking that I have salvation and a God that loves me and walks me through each day, that is a lot more than many people have. If there are no presents under the tree, isn't that enough? We have the peace of knowing where we are going! As I sat there thinking about all these things, there was an elderly woman putting groceries in her car. I grabbed a tract out of my purse, got out of my car and all I could say was "I'd like to give you this". I couldn't say anything else. I got back in my car and prayed for her.

As I continued to sit there (my daughter is never in a hurry in a store), I watched all the traffic pouring in and out of the shopping center. I knew that the extra traffic was Christmas shopping. I thought about how most people haven't got a clue what Christmas is all about, which is really sad.

Then, my thoughts went to Christians, have we got a clue? Sadly, I think that until this year, I didn't have a clue either. God just keeps impressing upon my heart, "If there are no presents under the tree, could you still be thankful for the gift of Jesus and the family that you have to spend Christmas with?" Is Jesus looking down on us and smiling as we overspend to buy gifts, maybe even use credit cards? Is He smiling as we bake a ton of cookies for a bunch of overfed people as opposed to feeding the hungry? Is He smiling down on us as we spend hours decorating our home to have visitors admire as opposed to visiting a homeless shelter, hospital, nursing home or widow? Do we get so wrapped up in our holiday preparations that we forget what we are here for?

I had all of this on my mind and then I came home and flipped on the local Christian radio station to find an hour long show about gardening! We have really lost our focus or perhaps we never had it. We have Christians making this huge deal about secular companies saying "Happy Holidays" as opposed to "Merry Christmas". Is this really a battle worth fighting? If I go into a store owned by a Jewish person, I really don't expect to hear Merry Christmas. I do like to spend my money at Christian owned businesses when possible. I just find myself thinking that we have so many people going to hell everyday, so many people starving to death and now that winter has hit the northeast region, there will possibly be people freezing to death. You know what, could it be that any of those companies refusing to let there employees say "Merry Christmas" are doing more of the work that Jesus told us to do, than we are?

Don't get me wrong, I get very sick and tired of the politically correct garbage in this country today. I just wonder, are we concerned about the hearts of those who are making the decision to not say "Merry Christmas"? Obviously, they are unsaved. Could our time be better spent praying for their salvation? Could we e-mail them or write them a letter explaining salvation. The funny thing about most of the uproar about these companies is that it is broadcast on Christian radio stations? Isn't that like preaching to the choir?

I hope that you have your eyes fully focused on Jesus this Christmas, He is truly the greatest gift that I have ever received! If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, please check out my testimony of how God has worked in my life and how you can know for sure that you are going to heaven.

Peace in My Heart & Home

2007-12-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

As stated in my last post, I will post as long as I have first taken care of my God-given priorities. My daily list of housework is done and I worked long and hard on homeschooling today. I'm not totally caught up with correcting papers but I worked most of the day and I'm satisfied with what I got accomplished. I also cut this past Sunday's coupons. I have so much peace in my heart tonight. The reason I have so much peace is because I put my priorities back in order. I see God redeeming my time as I obey Him in this area. He is so awesome!

Crystal, over at Biblical Womanhood, is doing a Making Your Home a Haven Challenge. In keeping with her challenge, here is my morning routine:

Check e-mail while I have a cup of coffee (time limit of 30 mins.)
*On mornings that I take hubby to work e-mail time gets skipped and put in later if time.
Shower/get dressed
Make breakfast
Bible/Prayer time
Make bed
Hot Spots - 5 min. pick up (Flylady.net)
Sort laundry/start load
Take out something for supper
Dishes - empty dishwasher if needed or load any dishes from sink into dishwasher
Check Calendar for today
Bathroom wipe down (mirror, sink, vanity and toilet)
2 mins. feather dusting

One of her other challenges was decluttering the entry way. I don't have much of an entry way so it's usually decluttered. This week's Flylady zone is entry way and dining room. I spent 15 mins. decluttering our dining room/eat-in kitchen/school room. With this one area doing double duty, it can get cluttered quickly. I can't take before and after pictures because I don't have a digital camera at the moment.

I'm offering you my own little challenge: If you do not have peace right now, ask God to show you why. I have seen that when I get distracted by other things and don't fulfill my God-given responsibilites first, I have no peace. When I keep His priorities first, my heart overflows with peace. Are you seeking His will or yours?

Home Business Good or Bad Follow Up

2007-12-01T10:56:00.000-08:00

I felt the need to do a follow-up post on the article that I posted last (see Home Business, Good or Bad?). I have not posted very much this week. I have had a lot to deal with in my family this week. The Lord has really impressed upon my heart to stop getting distracted by things that take me away from my top priorities. At this point, I would like to continue on with this blog as time allows. If I'm not caught up on schoolwork (correcting papers, making sure the girls got all of their work done), housework (my daily list) and making sure that my families needs are met, then I just can't spend time blogging.

I hope that you will re-examine your priorities as well. Are you first taking care of that which the Lord has specifically commanded you, as a wife and a mother, to do? Any home business should be done in time left over. Otherwise, you are giving the leftovers to your family.

Home Businesses Good or Bad?

2007-11-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

I came across and interesting article. It was on A Woman That Fears The Lord (a great website). It has made me think about the choices that I'm making. It was a very good reminder of keeping your priorities straight. We always need to be on guard against anything that pulls us away from our husband, children and home! I hope that you enjoy the article. I love her website!

Beware of Home Businesses! (or the danger of a working mother!)

I hope the title did not give a false impression that I'll be giving the ins and outs of how to start and run a home business. What I desire to impart on these pages are the difficult lessons the Lord taught me during the 10 years my family ran Christian Curriculum Cellar from our home. My prayer is that my loss will be your gain.

Before I begin sharing I want to make something very clear. IF you and your husband are currently running a home business and IF your husband has ASKED you or has made his wishes clear that he wants you to CONTINUE running the business then PLEASE do not read any farther.

BUT…

If you (alone) are interested in starting a home business and if YOU(alone) feel that your family could use the extra money and if YOU(alone) think that your children could benefit in helping you run a home business then PLEASE continue reading.

To read the whole article, please click here.

Should have, Would have, Could have

2007-11-26T07:54:00.000-08:00

This morning, I'm thinking a lot about the should, should of's, could of's, would of's, want to's, need to's etc in my thoughts and speech. I've been reading in the Book of Numbers and God has just really been showing me that He is a God of judgement, He hates sin and doesn't tolerate it. We hear so much about His grace and forgiveness these days. Yes, Praise the Lord, He forgives us when we sin! That does not mean that there are no consequences to that sin. It doesn't mean He's pleased with the choices that we are making. This also ties in with something else on my mind. The Bible is a book of commands, not suggestions.

Now, to my point. How many times a day do any of the following pass through your thoughts or across your lips:

I should get up earlier.
I need to get more organized.
I want to start exercising.
I should eat healthier.
I should call so and so.
We should have those people over.
I need to send her a card.
I have to get his house cleaned up.
I need to make a budget.
I need to stick to the budget.
I really have to deal with this particular disciplinary issue with this child.
I need to spend more time in God's Word.
I shouldn't say this but......
I shouldn't eat this but.....
I shouldn't watch this but....
I shouldn't do this but.....
I should have done the dishes last night.
Company is coming unexpectedly and you say I wish that I had gotten the house cleaned yesterday!

I have been making myself aware of these things this morning. It has happened a lot. So far today:
I should have made my daughter stay home this weekend and practice parallel parking for her test on Tuesday.
I should have gotten more housework done this weekend.
I should hang my coat in the coat closet instead of throwing it over the back of a chair inside the back door.
I should get my blog post done!
I need to send an e-mail to my brother.
I need to e-mail my friend.
I need to call this person to arrange carpool for basketball this week.

This could go on all day. I'm strongly convinced that I need to pay way more attention to what I'm doing. If God puts something on my heart then I need to do it. End of story. If He tells me not to gossip and I decide to tell my husband something preceded by thinking, I shouldn't say this but.... It is still gossip, even if it's only my husband that I have told. If it doesn't bless him or anyone else then why on earth am I saying it? Do I think that I'm scoring points with God when I say I know I should but..... or I know I shouldn't but....... Where does that but lead? It leads to direct defiance to Almighty God. If He says do it, then do it. If He says don't do it, then don't do it. When we disobey we are saying "God, I know better than you so, I'm just going to do this my way".
I have determined to take my should list and evaluate it, anything that doesn't matter gets tossed. Anything that matters is going on a list preceded with I will. We hesitate to use that phrase because we are making a commitment and we don't want to make it and break it. What's the alternative, never making a commitment to anything and never growing in our walk with the Lord, never getting our house cleaned up, our children disciplined, our car in for an oil change, never bothering to reach out to others........

I want to make a difference in the lives of those around me, I want to fulfill God's purposes and plans for me. I want to obey God and be the woman that He has called me to be. I will pray for God's leading, I will make a plan and I will execute a plan!

What about you? What should you be doing? Better yet, what will you do?

Trying to Catch Up!

2007-11-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

I haven't had much of a chance to post lately. Wednesday, I had a migraine, sadly, I didn't have the car that day and had no Advil so I didn't get a whole lot accomplished! We went to my brother's house, 2 hours away, for Thanksgiving. Apparently, all that time in the car made my neck, which was healing, act up all over again so, not a lot accomplished yesterday either!

I had pinched a nerve in my neck about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Since then I've gotten very behind on everything. We are enjoying our Thanksgiving break from school. I'm very thankful for the break!! Today, I plan on getting caught up on housework and getting some baking done. So far today, I got an ebay package shipped out, had my morning devotional time, finished my flylady morning routine and now I'm doing this. I'm hoping to bake bread and some snacks. We try not to eat a lot of sweets, however, grocery money is tight these days and my husband and children like to have some type of snack. It is cheaper and healthier for me to make our own snacks.

I've been really discouraged lately. I've taken on too much and I need to make some adjustments in how my time is spent. The house is starting to get too far out of control. Part of that was due to my neck injury, part of it was my daughter's new work schedule and part of it was me spending too much time on the computer working. I went to the Flylady site this morning, I really needed some motivation! There are testimonials on her site from other homeschooling families that are successfully balancing her system of housekeeping and homeschooling. It gave me some needed motivation. I can usually handle homeschooling and keeping up with the house, it's when too many other things get added, that I get into trouble! I really need to keep God's priorities, my priorities, when that gets upside down, my life slowly begins to unravel.

So my plan is to get my house in some semblance of order today. Tomorrow we will go to church and tomorrow night we have plans with our friends to continue on our book study. Monday is the last day of our break so, I'm hoping to spend a good part of that day getting caught up on correcting papers and working on their portfolios. I also want to spend time between now and then re-evaluating how my days are planned. I need to get back to having the girls do chores in the morning before school. If they don't do them in the morning, they seem to not get done at all. When I have them doing a few things, I feel less overwhelmed. Well, I'm off to get some baking done!

Unbelievable $2.00 Sale at Biblical Womanhood

2007-11-21T01:55:00.001-08:00

Hurry over to Biblical Womanhood. She has a fantastic selection of books, ebooks and CDs for only $2.00. You need to hurry because they are only on sale for 4 days! Click on the above link, then on the left side click on Crystal's blog for all the details. Limited quantities available on certain items so get yours before she sells out! You will find ebooks such as Thriving on One Income, Starting Your Own Business, Supermarket Savings and more. This woman is a young mom, who has a beautiful heart for God and her family. She is great at saving money as well!

I have read Thriving on One Income and Homegrown Business and I can tell you they contain great information!

BONUS: She is also giving away a free ebook with any purchase!

Carnal Christians, Are You One?

2007-11-20T07:04:00.000-08:00

I was reading this morning in Numbers 10-12 and then I read Romans 8. If you asked me yesterday if I was a carnal Christian, I would have said no. To me a carnal Christian is someone who goes to church on Sunday, says they are saved but never seems to think about God the rest of the week, just has no concern over how God says they should live their life.

My mind was changed this morning. After reading in Numbers about how the people complained and how God's anger burned against them, it got me thinking. Then I turned to Romans 8. The chapter talks about living in the Spirit vs. living in the flesh. I got to vs. 6-8 - For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

When I was reading in Numbers, the study notes on one of the verses said "When you reject the provision, you reject the Provider". How's that for a wake up call! Between that and what I read in Romans 8, it made me realize that when I complain, the anger of the Lord is aroused. What am I complaining about? In some way, shape or form, it is His provision. That provision could be not enough sleep, not feeling well, my husband, my children, my home, money, He provides it all so, whatever we are complaining about, we are ultimately complaining to God and about God!

Romans 8 made me think that you can be carnally minded if you get so caught up in the everyday stuff of this world that you lose your focus on God. What concerned me more this week, whether or not the gas in the car would stretch until payday or whether or not I was sharing my faith? Was I worried about things of no eternal value or was I busy about my Father's business? As long as I fight against the will of God and do not completely surrender to Him by thankfully accepting what He has so generously provided, I am not living in the Spirit but in the flesh. When I trust in my own abilities or way of working things out, I'm living in the flesh. When I depend more on how much sleep I get rather than the fact that God could keep me going on no sleep at all, I'm being carnal minded and living in the flesh.

I love to share with you the things that God is teaching me. I hope that those who read this blog will never think that I'm coming from a point of thinking that I've arrived, I sure don't consider myself some great theologian. God will be working in me until the day that He takes me home! It is my hope that God will use this to bless you, teach you and encourage you that you are not the only one struggling with an issue! God Bless, have a great Spirit-minded day!

Eternity May Be Closer Than You Think!

2007-11-19T09:23:00.000-08:00

I had a very scary experience this morning. I went to put gas in the car and I was coming back home. I cut across a back road. There is a railroad crossing which has no lights or gates, just a stop sign. Normally, when you stop at the stop sign, any train coming will see you and blow the horn. I stopped at the stop sign and looked, didn't see or hear anything, I proceeded across the tracks. I was on the first set of two tracks and all the sudden there was a train right in front of my car and a horn blowing. It was only 3-4 cars long and it was flying past. I was about 12" away from possibly being dead.

There truly is a very thin veil separating us from eternity. Wow, I was thanking God for sparing my life. My family could have been attending my funeral this week instead of celebrating Thanksgiving. The funny thing is I sat in my car at Wawa recounting the $5.00 in quarters my husband had given me for gas(yeah, I said $5 in quarters, tight week but that's another story). If I hadn't counted them a second time, I could have come over those tracks a little bit sooner and had a different outcome. The Lord really does have a reason for everything, if I'd have had a $20 bill(which was what I was wishing I had) then I would have been on those tracks sooner. When I got home I was shaking and had tears in my eyes. I told my older daughter what had happened, not to scare her but to make her aware as she will soon have her license. My younger daughter overheard and told me that she had fallen asleep while reading when I was gone but woke up about 2 minutes before I came home and prayed that the Lord would bring me home safely. Wow, the power of prayer! Not only that but last night, my husband and I were praying together and I asked for safety taking him to work this morning because of the snow, then I prayed about something else and then went back and said "Lord, please also keep me safe in the rest of my errands tomorrow."

It sure makes me think about coming face to face with Almighty God. I know that I would be in heaven because I have trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior. This morning I've thought about how I've lived since becoming a Christian, would God say "Well done, thy good and faithful servant" or would I be ashamed if I met Him today. Have I really made the most of the time, talent and treasure that He has entrusted to me? He has taught me some hard lessons the last few weeks and there is a lot that I need to change in my life. I want to live it for Him, reflecting His love and light in this world. I get so caught up in worrying about stupid, petty things of this world that I forget that all that really matters is what we are doing or not doing for Him.

Do you know for sure that you are going to heaven when you leave this earth? You can know for sure. Every single one of us a sinner, we have all broken at least 1 of the 10 Commandments. Have you every lied, stolen, lusted after someone who was not your spouse? God sent Jesus into this world to live a sinless life and die on the cross to pay for my sins and yours. It doesn't matter how many you have committed, it doesn't matter what you've done. On the flip side, you might think that your own good works will get you there. Not so! The Bible tells us that there is not one righteous person, the only way to heaven is through Jesus. One sin in your entire life is enough to send you to hell if you don't have Christ as your Savior. God loves you and He offers you the free gift of salvation, knowing for sure that you are going to be with Him in heaven after you die. Not only will you know where you are going when you die, you will find peace and joy while you are on this earth. Life as a Christian is not problem-free but God is with you through your heartaches and your trials.

If you would like to trust Jesus Christ as you personal Savior then you need to pray. Tell Him that you want Him to be your Savior and Lord of your life. Give your life over to Him, tell Him that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness. Get out your Bible, if you don't have one get one and start reading in the New Testament, the first book in the New Testament is Matthew. Start attending a true Bible preaching church. If you have further questions, you can read my testimony here, you can e-mail me or post a comment below. This isn't something that you can do later, you may not have later to do it!

What Are You Thanking God For?

2007-11-18T14:10:00.000-08:00

I was watching a preacher on TV this morning before I left for church. I don't remember who it was but I remember the message. He was saying "We thank God for our health, our family, our finances, etc. but what would you thank Him for if it was all taken away?" The point was that we need to thank God for who He is and what He does. So today, I'm thanking Him for His grace, mercy and love. I'm thankful that He doesn't give me what I deserve but pours out His mercy and grace upon me. So, what are you thanking God for?

Use It Up! - Frugal Food Tips

2007-11-17T05:44:00.001-08:00

What do you do with bread ends, crackers or cereal that nobody liked or are going stale? Use them to make bread crumbs, stuffing and croutons. This was a necessity for me. My daughter has some food sensitivities and the cost of buying these things whole grain are expensive.

1. As you finish your loaf of bread, throw the ends in a ziploc bag or plastic container in the freezer. I have also thrown in corn bread that was to dry to speak of, the last roll in a pack that won't get eaten before going moldy, etc.

2. Either make the bread crumbs as needed or take some time one day and make a big batch and store in the freezer. Again, I use a plastic container or a ziploc bag to store them in. Break the bread in pieces and put it in a food processor or blender. Like I said above, if you have crackers that nobody likes or they are going stale, throw them in as well. One time, I didn't have enough bread to make a batch that I needed to bread chicken nuggets, so, I found some corn flakes in the cabinet and threw some of those in. I also sprinkle in some Italian seasoning, I go by smell, probably a few dashes. Just grind them up and use immediately or freeze.

I don't bother to toast them but you could if you wanted to.

3. Stuffing - Just cube up the bread ends and use in a recipe that calls for bread cubes. I recently did this with wheat bread ends and the cornbread that was so dry, nobody would eat. It worked great in the stuffing because when I added the chicken stock it gave the cornbread the moisture that it needed. This is such an easy thing to make, you're basically taking some chopped celery and onion, sauteing them in butter, adding some poultry seasoning and parsley flakes, the bread cubes and some chicken stock. Much healthier than Stove Top!

4. Croutons - Again, take your bread ends and make your own. They are quick, simple, yummy and cheap! Butter the bread, sprinkle with garlic salt or garlic powder and either saute them or bake them until desired crispness.

Science Experiments, I mean, Leftover Food in the Refrigerator:

Leftover meat, veggies, rice, etc
1. Eat it for lunch, my husband usually packs ours and takes them to work with him so we don't have a lot of leftovers going bad. My girls and I also usually eat them for lunch at home.
2. For veggies and rice, sometimes I will just reheat them and serve again with whatever I'm cooking the next night or two. Even if there is only one serving someone will eat it up. It's sometimes like a mini smorgasbord, which can be fun.
3. Try to use up little bits by throwing them into a stir fry or soup that you are making.
4. Start a container in the freezer for soup. When it's full, make vegetable soup.
5. My mom used to throw leftover pieces of meat in a bag in the freezer. When there was enough she would simmer them in spaghetti sauce and serve with pasta.

Do you have any use it up tips that you would like to share?

10 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Health

2007-11-16T10:43:00.000-08:00

1. Substitute water for soda and other sugar laden beverages.
You should be drinking ½ your body weight in water every day. Edited to add: divide your body weight by 2 and that's how many ounces you should drink each day! Ex: 150lbs divided by 2 equals 75 so, drink 75 oz. per day! Thank you to the kind poster who pointed out my mistake!
2. Substitute natural sweeteners such as honey, maple syrup and Sucanat for white sugar and artificial sweeteners.
Artificial sweeteners and white sugar are some of the very worst things that you can put in your body.
3. Substitute whole grain wheat flour for white flour.
White flour is worse for you than white sugar.
4. Substitute oatmeal for your sugar laden cold cereal or little packets of instant oatmeal.
Use ½ cup old fashioned or quick oats, 1 c. milk, 1 tsp. butter and a few dashes of cinnamon. You can also put in a natural sweetener. You will feel amazing. I don’t feel as full or energized even when eating a small packet of organic instant oatmeal.
5. Substitute a salad with olive oil, vinegar and some Italian seasoning and a little protein such as a hard boiled egg or leftover chicken for your sandwich on white bread.
I have more energy in the afternoon when I eat a salad for lunch then when I eat anything else.
6. Substitute mixes from scratch for mixes (such as taco seasoning, gravy mix, cake mix, etc.) made from quality ingredients.
I still eat tacos, gravy, cookies and cakes, however, I use my own quality ingredients like whole wheat flour, natural sweetener, and spices with no msg.
7. Substitute whole foods for foods that need a rocket scientist to understand the ingredient label.
Always read the label. If you don’t know what an ingredient is, don’t buy it. Packaged foods are loaded with artificial colors and preservatives, as well as, harmful things like msg and artificial sweeteners.
8. Substitute nuts for your potato chips, Doritos and Cheese Doodles.
Nuts are filling so you won’t eat as much and they have great health benefits that you will not get from those other snacks.
9. Substitute an attitude of food being fuel to energize, nourish and heal your body for an attitude of it tastes good so I’ll eat it.
God made our bodies to heal most of the ills that we suffer. If we are eating only junk we will have no energy, will get sick more and won’t even look very good.
10. Substitute 10 minutes of exercise for 10 minutes of computer or TV time.
Believe it or not, if you exercise 10 minutes. in the morning and 10 minutes. in the afternoon, it will give you energy and you will lose weight.
If you are lacking energy and don’t have a general sense of well being, it is probably what you are putting in your body. I know that it is hard to make changes. I was one of the biggest junk food junkies around. My husband and daughter started having severe allergic reactions and almost died when we were eating a lot of processed foods. I really believe the food caused the problem. We went from eating just about all processed foods to eating just about all whole natural foods. When we are eating well, they are problem free and we all feel good. When my daughter eats something with white flour, she gets a migraine and sometimes facial swelling and a few hives.

Two of my favorite websites for health information are Mercola and The Weston A. Price Foundation. I will forewarn you, some of what you read flies in the face of what modern medicine is saying, however, if it makes sense to me and I feel better (healthier) doing it, then I do it. If you have Diabetes, heart disease, Fybromyalgia, IBS, Migraines, Depression and just about any other health problem, please take some time to see what help is available to you.

Great Sale at Biblical Womanhood until Midnight Tonight

2007-11-15T15:35:00.000-08:00

I just received the e-mail below from Crystal at Biblical Womanhood. I thought that I would pass it on, she has such wonderful books in her store and now is carrying a new video.

Dear Friends:
When we first saw the film "Heartstrings" at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival (where it won two awards, including the prestigious Audience Choice award!), we were not only touched by the story but incredibly impressed that it was produced by two young men who are not even twenty yet.We got our own copy of "Heartstrings" and it has become a well-loved film at our home. In fact, Kathrynne enjoys this DVD so much she requests to watch it everyday - sometimes multiple times per day!We've never carried family films before, but we enjoyed this film so much that we decided to break tradition and add it to our store. We know your whole family will enjoy this well-done, humorous, and meaningful film. Buy your copy today for only $16.97!

PSST! Don't forget that until midnight tonight, you can save 15% off your entire order by using coupon code SAVEMORE when you check out. Be sure check out all of the excellent new products we've added to our store here:

Temporarily Out of Commission

2007-11-14T09:37:00.001-08:00

I have a pinched nerve in my neck. I will post when I can.

Should Your Daughter Go To College?

2007-11-12T09:57:00.000-08:00

Just pondering this question lately. I don't have an issue with my daughters going to college, it's more the debt I worry about. I've been talking to other Christian moms. There seems to be a few schools of thought about it.

1. Even if she plans on getting married and staying home, maybe she won't get married and will need a career to support herself.

2. She could use that time period (college age) in her life being trained by you to be a great stay at home mom (I'm still working on getting my own act together). You would be able to teach her to keep house, be hospitable, serve, etc. She may learn plenty of other things at college but they may not be the very things that she will need the most.

3. She shouldn't go and acquire a boat load of debt which may prevent her from staying home later.

I'm sure that when the time comes the Lord will lead them. I really don't know how I feel and so it's hard to encourage them one way or the other. I try to present both sides so that they can make an informed decision. We don't have a college fund for them. I don't want them to get into so much debt that they can't stay home if they have children. I don't know what will be available to them as far as grants and scholarships. I guess we'll have to check into that. My oldest daughter is in 11th grade this year. What do you ladies think? And why?

Passionate Housewives Desperate for God

2007-11-11T14:11:00.000-08:00

You will soon find out if you track my blog for any length of time that I am a book-a-holic. I absolutely love to read so you will be subjected to me sharing my recent reads on a regular basis! I recently won a copy of this book from Biblical Womanhood. This was one of the best books that I read this year. It made me laugh and cry. It made me cry out to God in repentance. It encouraged me to keep pushing forward to become the woman of God that He is calling me to be.

You won't find a bunch of housekeeping and organizing tips in here. They even point out that being a keeper of the home is not just about housework. What you will find is Scriptural truth. They make no apologies for confronting you with the truth of God's Word and what He says we, as women, are to do and be. The subject of feminism and it's affect on today's Christian women is also addressed. You will be blown away by their candid look at a "me first" attitude. They will also confront ideas such as you must have time to yourself, you must have quiet time with the Lord every single morning, regardless of how many young children you have.

This is one of those books that when you are done with it, you won't be able to decide which one of your friends to lend it to first. You might not even want to lend it out yet because you want to reread it yourself! This book will encourage and equip you, it will convict, comfort and challenge you. I highly recommend this book. It has 5 stars on Amazon.com.

Internet Freebies

2007-11-10T10:21:00.001-08:00

I found some great freebies online today and I thought that I would share:

Free samples at Walmart: Nicorette, Sunsilk, Loreal Pro Nutri Gloss, Degree Deodorant, and Color contact lenses

Free Samples from Dove: Dove Pro Age, Dove Cool Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner, Dove hair care sample

Free Samples from True Lemon: samples of True Lemon, True Lime and True Orange

Olay: Free feminine products for your daughter

Metamucil: Free Sample of Berry Burst

Sensodyne: Pick one of 2 different samples of toothpaste

Greenies: Free dog or cat chew for fresh breath

Aveeno: Free sample of Positively Ageless

Airborne: Free Sample Airborne Power Pixies

Pollen Power: Free Sample of Bee Pollen

Pure Essentials: Free Sample of Pure Essential from Tide, Downy, and Bounce

Coffeemate: Coupon for a free jar of Coffeemate up to $3.99

Bragg: Free Samples and Health Info pack

Jergen's: A selection of moisturizers

Free Homeschool Reading Resource

2007-11-09T06:19:00.000-08:00

I was reading my Homeschooler's Notebook newsletter this morning and they had a link to a great site for homeschoolers. It's called BookAdventure. It has reading comprehension quizzes for children K-8. A child can find a recommended book for their reading level, read it and then take a quiz. It's not a Christian site but you can select religious. I tried selecting a book for my 8th grader from religious and it gave me for 4 good recommendations. It's free and kids can earn points to redeem for prizes. I already have located a book that my 8th grade daughter is currently reading. I'm going to have her take a quiz there. The site is so cute and colorful I think that kids would enjoy going there to take there quiz rather than a plain old black and white worksheet page. I think the prizes would be an added incentive for them to want to take the quiz! By the way, if you are interested in the newsletter that I was reading. Just visit her site familyclassroom. The newsletter is free and I have found it to be helpful. You can even write in with your own homeschooling questions and other readers will answer. I hope that these resources are a blessing!

So Tired I'm Yelling at a Fly

2007-11-08T12:49:00.000-08:00

Did you ever have one of those days where you felt like "Stop the world, I want to get off!"? My daughter had her semi-finals for volleyball last night. I drank caffeine to keep me awake through the game sadly, it didn't really kick in until I was trying to sleep last night.

I was up at 4:30am to take my husband to work. I ran my errands, took my daughter back and forth to work and then picked up my husband. We got home about 3:00pm. I was so tired I couldn't see straight. I got one of those cases of the giggles where you just laugh at nothing and everything. My husband took my younger daughter to her guitar lesson and my older daughter left for basketball practice. I knew that if I didn't squeeze in a quick nap, I wouldn't make it through dinnertime.

I thought that I would lay down for a short, peaceful catnap. I was just praying that I could sleep for about 20 minutes and wake up refreshed and ready to finish the day. Well, God and a fly had other plans. There is one fly in this house and don't you know, he decided to join me, only he didn't plan on sleeping. That stupid fly just kept buzzing around my head. I groaned at it quite a few times but it didn't get the message. I felt like screaming, all I was asking for was just a little nap, was that too much to ask? That fly just kept up and kept up. Finally, I let out a loud groan, threw off the covers and yelled "Thanks, thanks a lot!" I'm really glad that nobody in my family was home to witness that one!

So, now I find myself back to the giggles over screaming at a fly and I'm still tired. Tonight is the first night in two weeks that we don't have to run anywhere. I would not admit it to my daughter but I'm kind of glad her team lost last night because if they had won they would be playing tonight. I told my husband before he left that I was declaring an "it's okay to go to bed at 7:00 night". I'm actually counting down the hours until bedtime. I'm figuring that the way the day is going, the caffeine that I drank to keep me awake today, will kick in at about 8:00 tonight and the fly will probably be having a party in our bedroom tonight! Thank the Lord for His strength when I am weak, I can't imagine how tired I would be right now without Him!

As I think about this day, I'm glad that I was yelling at a fly and not a family member especially after I did that Titus 2 post yesterday! Well, off to start dinner. Did I tell you that I can't wait for bedtime?

Titus 2:3-5 Living It Out

2007-11-07T08:46:00.000-08:00

Titus 2:3-5 the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things - that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

What do these verses mean to you? A couple of weeks ago, I started trying to memorize these verses. Praise the Lord, I've finally got it. Scripture memorization is not my strong suit. Anyway, lately everywhere I turn there's these verses. God has really been speaking to my heart about them.

He holds each and every woman and young woman responsible for living this out. Every single one of us has something to learn and something to teach. When you think of an older woman this could be a woman who has been a Christian longer than you or a Christian woman who is older than you age wise. I even tell my teenage girls that they need to be sure that they are setting a good example because the younger children in the church really look up to the teenagers.

I've been a Christian for 7 1/2 years. For a long time, I felt that I had so much to learn and nothing to teach, sometimes I still feel that way because growth is a long process but God can use anything, our failures and our victories, to teach the next generation and even a previous one. Are we encouraging other young moms to love their husbands and their children? This is a choice, not a feeling and they need to know that. Are we showing them that we are human, that we've made mistakes and that they can learn from them? There is nothing sadder than a woman who feels like she is a complete and total failure because everybody else has it all together but her.

If you don't have a lot of time before or after church to encourage another lady then invite her over for lunch, write her a note, send her a card or give her a call. There is a 60 year old woman at our church who took it upon herself to encourage a 19 year old young lady. This woman leaves her anonymous gifts and cards and prays for her. Now, this young lady has gone off to college so this woman is sending them. What a wonderful idea! God will show you who needs you if you ask Him or maybe who you need to learn from. This can be in the context of a mentor that you meet with regularly or just simply saying to a young mom "Enjoy and embrace this time because, though it seems that they will be little forever, it goes so quickly. This is a verse that I clung to during that time in my life."

Try to find someone this week to reach out to. Try to find an older woman this week that is willing to have her brain picked by you. Even little girls need to be taught to be chaste, discreet, pure and holy, get involved in the life of another person's child.

Why should we do all of this: so the Word of God may not be blasphemed. That's a good enough reason now, isn't it? It will bring shame and dishonor to the Word of God when we are not living this out, that includes teaching as well as living out these things. It could cause people to speak evil of His precious Word.

If you aren't teaching maybe it is because you feel like you are failing at this yourself. First of all, God can use ANYONE! Not one of us is perfect. I fail everyday in some way. Repent, ask for forgiveness and help, and get up and keep going. If you aren't living out any of it, you really need to take a good look at your life and see if you are living for God or if you are living for you. Lay down your life for Christ, serve your husband and serve your children. I feel more joy when I serve my family than when I'm whining about getting my needs met. You meet their needs and God will meet yours. Are you pursuing a life of holiness and purity? Are you submitting to your husband as unto the Lord? Are you taking care of your home? Are you cooking for your family? Let us get busy being about our Father's business and bring glory and honor to His name!

Praise the Lord for His Provision!

2007-11-05T14:23:00.000-08:00

It has been a crazy day... homeschool co-op this morning, my in-laws were over late this afternoon to help my husband fix something, older daughter has basketball practice and a volleyball game tonight so I don't have much time to write. Today is our 19th wedding anniversary and it has been a blur. We are planning on finding something to do this Saturday night while our daughters are bowling with the youth group. Anyway, just wanted to give a quick PRAISE THE LORD!!!! As you recall in one of my recent posts, our microwave and printer died within about a week of each other and on top of that there was something that needed fixing in the basement. Well, my in-laws came over yesterday to see if my Father-in-law could fix it. He said he would come back today and help my hubby fix it. While they were here, I offered my Mother-in-law a cup of tea. She said to just make it in the microwave because it would be quicker. I said "No, can do!" They showed up with a microwave today and said Merry Anniversary, this is your anniversary present and part of your Christmas present. So, we have a microwave and the problem in the basement is fixed.

Ladies, we serve an awesome God! This wasn't even a need, it was a want. We were so tempted to just charge one. We have been tempted quite a bit lately but we felt that we needed to do the smart thing and do without unless the Lord provided. I stand in awe that God cares whether or not we have a microwave.

The other day I read about keeping a blessing journal/notebook of how the Lord provides outside of your husband's pay. Well, low and behold, on Sunday my Secret Prayer Sister at church left me a gift and wouldn't you know it, it was a journal. So, I have plenty to go write in it! Praise God, He gives us much more than we deserve!

And The Winner Is..............

2007-11-03T07:54:00.000-07:00

Sarah_Carol is the winner of Biblical Roads to Financial Freedom. Congratulations!!!!!!!!!

Please contact me with your shipping information.

Thank you to all of you who participated. I really wish that I had more copies to give out. I feel bad, there seems to be both a need and a desire for this book. I said a prayer for all of you today, that God would provide for your needs and give you wisdom in your finances.

By the way, if you would like to purchase this book there are used copies on Amazon fairly cheap. Thanks again and keep checking back, I'm sure that I'll be doing another giveaway soon!

Thank You Lord for Modern Conveniences

2007-11-02T15:14:00.000-07:00

Could you live as a woman in Colonial times? I was just reading about how modern women complain about not having enough time to cook or how much work it is yet, these women had to make every single thing from scratch. I cook a lot from scratch but this article made me realize the things that we take for granted. For instance, I make spaghetti sauce from scratch. My scratch is a can of tomato sauce, a can of diced tomatoes. garlic, onions, pepper and some dried herbs. This goes on top of cooked whole grain noodles(from a box). I never thought about the fact that for a woman back then to make the same meal she would have to gather tomatoes out of garden and process them to make sauce(sadly not quite sure what you do because peeling a tomato doesn't sound like fun to me so, I've never tried). She would also have had to grow those tomatoes, as well as, the garlic, onions, green peppers, and herbs. She would also have needed to grow wheat, make flour out of it and then make noodles from the flour. On top of all this, she would have had to start a fire to cook on and then heated up water to clean the dishes with. Have I told you lately, that I love my gas stove, dishwasher and most of all indoor plumbing?

It's funny, we look back and think that it would have been nice to live in simpler times back then. I don't think so! My microwave died last weekend and I'm lost! I'm trying to remember how my mom reheated stuff when I was a kid. Today I reheated last nights chili and rice on the stove for lunch. My daughter wanted the leftover corn bread warmed up. I put foil over the pan that the leftovers were in and put it in the oven. NOT GOOD! This was the first time I tried this corn bread recipe(if you have a good, moist corn bread recipe, by all means, help my family out and post it in the comments). When we ate it for dinner last night it was dry, butter seemed to help it a little. Lunchtime reheats were even drier. Then tonight I made a chicken and noodle casserole. I put the leftover corn bread out with dinner(not reheated). My husband ate a piece and started making funny noises. When he could finally speak, all he said was "dry, very dry".

I think that we imagine some romantic sort of life back then. These women didn't have all the distractions that we have today, life was so simple back then. I think that these women worked from sun up until sun down. They had tiny homes in comparison to ours, which we all complain are too small. How romantic was their relationship with their husband in a tiny house with one room and a bunch of children? How about the fact that they didn't have showers daily and the benefit of deodorant? They probably fell into bed exhausted at the end of the day from all the physical labor. As much as I sometimes feel out of place with this culture, I take my modern conveniences and thank the good Lord that He put me here at this very time, in this very place to impact the lives of those around me.

PS: I just had to put a PS on this. I started laughing while writing this thinking of the fact that my printer died a couple of weeks ago and GASP!! I have to write things down by hand instead of pressing a button. I actually thought, what in the world will I do, I have to print out the forms that I use for home school records. It took me a couple of days to realize that I could write out with pen and paper what I need to record. Oh ladies, the things that we so take for granted today. Our great-grandmothers would laugh if they could see how dependant we have become on technology and how incompetent we are when it breaks!

6 Biblical Priorities for Christian Wives and Mothers

2007-11-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

This is a list that I keep on hand to remind me about keeping my priorities straight. I keep it with my little book of household routines. This was shared by Nancy Leigh DeMoss on her radio show for Christian women called Revive Our Hearts. She was discussing the subject of whether or not a Christian wife and mother should work outside the home. She said that you need to be taking care of the first 5 before you think about having a job.

1. Your relationship with the Lord
2. Your husband
3. Your children
4. Your house
5. Ministering to others
6. A job - this is where I put my home business

Who Are You Trusting In? Blog Challenge

2007-10-31T06:35:00.001-07:00

Did you ever have one of those moments when everywhere you turn God is speaking the same thing to you in different ways? That has happened to me in the last 2 days. He has brought me to Bible verses, preachers on the radio and an ebook that just made me cry. What an adventure it is to walk with the Lord. He never stops teaching us, growing us, stretching us.

We are going through some things right now that are really testing our faith. It seems like every time we turn around something is going up in price, or something has broken or there is just some extra expense to deal with. Quite honestly, things have been a little tense around here. We are trying to figure out what we should do. Sometimes, it is really hard to keep trusting and having faith that the Lord will provide when your circumstances are screaming otherwise! It was maybe about 2 weeks ago that I posted that the Lord will provide and yet the past few days my faith has really been wavering. I feel like the double minded man that James speaks of. Wow, I just looked up that passage, here is James 1:6-8 - But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Are we believing when we ask?

It occurred to me that if my children asked me all day long are you going to feed us today or if you drop me off somewhere are you going to pick me up, it would really annoy me. Why would it annoy me? I have a proven track record of making sure that they are fed and that I'm always there to pick them up on time. Has God not proven Himself to us repeatedly, does He not have a good track record of providing for our needs? We have a roof over our heads, we have food to eat and we have clothes to wear. Why then, do we doubt Him?

Did you ever have one of those moments where you were feeling desperate and just said "God, give me something from your Word" and just opened up your Bible? Yesterday morning was one of those for me. I ended up opening my Bible to Psalms. I am searching my Bible but I can't find the verse, I thought that I put a bookmark there but apparently not. It had to do with trusting the Lord. It was just what I needed, then this morning I was thinking about a verse that a friend shared with me once: Deuteronomy 26:11 - So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the LORD your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you. It made me realize how truly blessed we are and we take it for granted in this country. I had a comfy bed to sleep in last night with blankets and heat that kept me warm. That's more than a lot of people in the world have.

The ebook that really spoke to me was not even the one that I had purchased, funny how God works. I purchased Homegrown Business ebook from Biblical Womanhood the other day, I had been wanting it for awhile and found that I had enough in my Paypal account to purchase it. It's a book of stories of homeschooling families who run home businesses and I was looking for some tips on how to balance things. I have not been able to really sit down and read it but the couple of pages that I did read, I enjoyed. The funny thing is though, is that there were 2 free bonus ebooks given with it, one was The Merchant Maiden, the other was Thriving on One Income. The Thriving on One Income kept pulling at me. I only read the first page or so yesterday. This morning I decided to go back and read a few more pages. WOW!

She talks about how she took a leap of faith to quit her job to be home with her children. They believed that they couldn't live on her husband working less than so many hours per week at this particular job. Well, he lost his job and his new job was less hourly and less hours. She shares how God taught her that He expects us to be diligent in our work but that we need to trust in Him as our provider. I sat here and cried. I cried because I have been struggling with a decision to get a part time job. I don't want to and my husband doesn't necessarily want me to but we feel like we need to do something to make things a little less stressful around here. I cried because I have been wearing myself out checking out things on the internet that might be able to give us some more income instead of spending more time with the Lord, seeking His guidance and just resting in Him.

I don't think that there is anything wrong with having an internet business but my point was that I was trusting more in my own ability than in God's provision. He is glorified when He provides and we tell others about it. The Bible says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11). The Bible also says that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11). We just really need to have faith no matter how hard it may be and no matter how impossible a situation may look.

I have seen so much online lately of stay at home moms really struggling with their grocery bills rising. We need to band together and pray for each other to see God miraculously provide for our needs. Don't be shy sharing how God has provided for a need in your life. What testimony is it, if I'm talking to my unsaved neighbor and agreeing with her that I don't know what's going to happen if prices continue to rise. What if instead, I said "I don't worry about it, it's in God's hands, He is so good, He has always provided for our needs and I believe that He will no matter what is happening with the economy." It is our peace, trust and joy in the Lord that will save people, not just our knowledge of Scripture!

CHALLENGE TO CHRISTIANS: Here is my challenge to you ladies out there:
1. Say a prayer for your sisters in Christ, that God would meet their needs.
2. Look for something that you can do to meet a need in someone else's life (doesn't have to be material, even a word of an encouragement means a lot to someone).
3. Post on your blog about how God met a need in your life, it can be physical, spiritual, emotional, whatever you want to share. After you post it on your blog, come back here a post a link to it in the comments area. Let's blog to the glory of God. May He be honored and lifted up.

CHALLENGE TO NON-CHRISTIANS: I don't know if there is anybody out there reading this blog that does not know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. If you don't know for sure that you are going to heaven, if you have never given your life over to God, then I challenge you to go read my testimony and then pray the prayer at the end. If you make a decision to accept Christ as your Savior, come back here and leave a comment about it.

Free Christian Finance Book

2007-10-30T05:41:00.000-07:00

Bloggygiveaways.com is having a special giveaway this week. You are to giveaway something on your blog and then go over and put a link on her site. I thought this was a great idea so I decided to participate. I look forward to signing up for all these giveaways too. I recently won a copy of Passionate Housewives Desperate for God and I can't wait to receive it.

Anyway, I am giving away a free copy of Biblical Roads to Financial Freedom; Simple Steps to Prosperity on Earth and Treasures in Heaven by Robert W. Katz. I have read a copy of this book and it was very helpful so I decided to give you your very own copy. I am only opening up this giveaway to those in the US as international shipping is very costly. All you have to do to enter is post a comment below. A winner will be chosen on Saturday November 3, 2007 and the winner will be posted here.

Praising Him

2007-10-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

I wrote a post on here this morning which was not overly encouraging, actually, it was depressing. The more I though about it, the more I thought that I did need to delete it. We are going through some things here right now and we are just really trying to trust God and look to Him for His guidance. After I deleted the post I turned on the radio and this song was on. The Lord really used this song to keep me going last year when my husband was out on Worker's Comp. after he had surgery on his elbow. It encouraged me again today and I hope that it encourages you, too. Hopefully this link will work because apparently the first try didn't work. Casting Crowns - Praise Him In This Storm

Seasons of a Mother's Heart

2007-10-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share one of my favorite authors with you. Her name is Sally Clarkson and if you are a homeschooling mom you just have to read her books. Earlier this year my friend lent me The Mission of Motherhood. It was life-changing. That book totally changed my view of being a homeschooling mother. It melted my heart and made me see how important my role as a mom is in my children's lives. The same friend showed me a book that Clay Clarkson, Sally's husband, wrote called Our 24 Family Ways. It, too, was wonderful and if I had smaller children I would have bought it.

This same friend approached me recently about doing a book study of Sally Clarkson's Seasons of a Mother's Heart. I flipped through it and immediately agreed. I haven't regretted it. My friend and I are on Chapter 3. Mrs. Clarkson shares her joys and struggles of being a homeschooling mom. Chapter 1 was on contentment, who doesn't need that one? Chapter 2 she talks about laying down her will and surrendering to God's will. She struggled to make the decision to lay down a homeschooling newsletter than ministered to many homeschoolers but took too much time away from her own family. Chapter 3 talks about our need to make time in our life for God, yourself, and friends and also time to enjoy the beauty that God has put around us. That's all you're getting from me, I haven't started Chapter 4 yet!

Seasons of a Mother's Heart is a rubber meets the road, this is where I live kind of book. I could relate having to purposely choose joy when I was ready to scream over something one of my children did. I could relate about having to lay down what I wanted vs. what God was telling me to do. One example of how practical this book is: Sunday afternoon, I was working on the book(waited until 2 hours before I had to be at her house, wasn't that smart?) and I was answering a question. The paragraph was about Christ's sacrifice and about sacrificing our own self-interests and the question was "What is the place of humility in motherhood?". I kid you not, I am right in the middle of writing down "We sometimes need to lay down our wants to meet a more immediate need of our children." I didn't even finish the sentence when my older daughter comes to me and says "I only have 2 days until my driver's test, I really need to practice parallel parking now". Just as I was about to say "I've gotta get this book done and then I need to cook dinner", what I had just written was screaming to me "Live it out". What did I do? I put the book down, helped her for the next hour, made the fastest dinner in history and then off to my friend's house to explain why I hadn't done my homework!

I would strongly encourage you to get one of her books and go through it with another homeschooling mom if you can. Not only have I grown from the book but it is so nice to sit with my friend and discuss our challenges and triumphs. We pray together for our families. While we are in one room, our husbands are in another doing a different book study. I feel so refreshed after we are done. Even if you read it alone, like I did with Mission of Motherhood, it will bless your life!

If you have a chance, check out her website!

Making Your Home a Sanctuary

2007-10-26T05:19:00.000-07:00

Last night was our night to clean our church building. We are on a rotation with the cleaning ministry and we clean the upstairs of our church - the sanctuary, foyer and bathrooms. My husband and I were a little cranky when we got there. Normally, our daughters are there to help us but the older one was working and our younger one was sick so we knew that it was going to take longer and we were tired. We were heading up the steps with the cleaning supplies with a "Let's get this over with so we can go home attitude". I hated that I felt that way but we have been running all week and I just wanted to be at home. My husband said "We should not be feeling like this, we are cleaning the Lord's house, we are serving Him." I then remembered a note in an e-mail from the person who oversees the cleaning ministry: "Let's clean to the glory of God!" My attitude improved, thankfully! I think that this is an attitude that we should have with our homes.

As I vacuumed the sanctuary my heart was filled with peace and joy. I thought about the fact that I wasn't just "cleaning", I was preparing the sanctuary for all those who would be worshipping there this Sunday. As I looked at the large wooden cross behind the pulpit, it reminded me of my Savior's sacrifice for me. As I dusted the sound booth, I noticed a picture of a baby, that baby is the sound person's new niece. She is beautiful and her family is a wonderful Godly example of Christian living. As I vacuumed near the piano and microphones I thought about how the choir blesses us and ministers to our hearts each Sunday. One of those people is my oldest daughter, I smile each Sunday as I watch her serve the Lord in this way. As I surveyed the rest of the Sanctuary, I was filled with memories of smiles and hugs of a loving church family.

I laid in bed thinking about all of this last night and it was on my mind this morning. I want my home to be like that peaceful sanctuary. What was about the sanctuary that I most want in my home, what feeling am I trying to capture? Well, first of all, it is beautiful, there is no clutter (no shoes and socks abandoned, no laundry basket of clothes waiting to be folded, no jackets strewn onto a chair inside the door), just well placed beautiful things. I enjoy the beauty and that it has a clean, neat look. I want my home to be more like that. I want to look around and see beauty, not a stack of papers on my desk to be sorted, not a pile of schoolbooks left on the table, just clear surfaces and things that are beautiful.

The more I thought about it, though, I realized that what I won't most is "that feeling". God's presence, peace, joy, warm memories, etc. There are days that I feel that in my home, those days when the girls and I have giggled through most of our home school day, when the house is neat and clean, when there is bread baking in the oven and dinner simmering in the crock pot. One of those days when my husband comes through the door and gives me a kiss and says something smells good, thank you for all of your hard work. I want my husband to be glad that he is home, in a peaceful, joyful haven from the world. Sadly, there have probably been more days when I was tired, cranky and stressed out when he walked through the door. Days when nothing went right and everything is a mess.

I want our home, like our church to be ready to welcome visitors and to be prepared to minister to them. I want those who come to our home to feel God's presence here, especially to an unbeliever. Do they need to see framed Scriptures on the wall to know that we are Christians or can they just sense that there is something different about our family and our home? Or can they sense the tension of harsh words being spoken just before the doorbell rang?

Tomorrow I have the house to myself. My husband is working and my girls are going to a Missions & Ministry conference. On Saturday, I usually get caught up with any housework that didn't get done during the week and I will do that tomorrow. I will also be taking some time to really look at my home. Is there clutter that needs to go? Is there something I can do to make it more cozy? What little touches can I put on each room so that no matter where I go in my home I can see beauty?

I also realize that my attitude really does set the tone in my home. If I get up in a bad mood and don't deal with it right away, I will snap at one of my children, who will then usually snap at the other and we have a terrible day. If I'm in a stressed out, cranky mood when my husband comes home, we usually don't have a very nice evening. I think that sometimes setting the tone can be putting a smile on our face whether we feel like it or not. That being said, God said that He makes us a joyful mother of children. We are to have peace and joy and reflect his love and light to the world, how much more to those within our home. Jesus said "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you." When I don't have it, I ask God to show me where it went and to help me find it again!

What special things do you do to make your home more cozy and inviting? Do you have a special little nook in your home that you created just for you? I'd love to hear your comments.

You Call That Homeschooling?

2007-10-25T03:59:00.000-07:00

This is an article that I read awhile back and I laughed so hard I cried. I hope that you enjoy it! This is reprinted here with the permission of the author. Please visit her website. She has some very unique home school curriculum. I love her Apples Spelling for my 8Th grader who is still weak in spelling.

You Call That Homeschooling???

(c) 2006 Schoolhouse Publishing

Let me tell you the true story of a real "homeschool" day that happened in my life back when I “only” had six kids.

It all started one Monday morning in March. The start of a peaceful day was shattered with: “Mom! Mom! Stephen was ‘helping’ to load the dishwasher and broke a glass!”

Sigh. He had indeed been my “helper.” There ensued the typical, “Don’t move, guys! You’ve got bare feet! Joshi, bring me the vacuum! No, no. Mommy doesn’t need help picking up those razor-sharp shards…” etc. We cleaned up the glass without further incident, and I was able to go back to other morning chores. The next thing you know…

“Mom! Mom! The basement toilet overflowed!”

Great. I quickly finished transferring two quarts of grape juice from a large cooler to a smaller pitcher when the phone rang. We were expecting some important calls that day, so through quick mental calculation, I realized the toilet-water damage was already done, so I might as well answer the phone. I left the juice pitcher on the counter to take the call, which took about five minutes. I finally hung up and headed for the basement. As I was going down, another son came running up, eyes like saucers…

“Mom! Mom! The water in the bathroom is this deep!” (indicating the depth by holding his hands about two inches apart…) The bathroom was sunken one step lower than the rest of the basement. I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was serious! The entire time I had been on the phone, the toilet had continued to run. It just kept flowing…and flowing…filling the sunken bathroom area with water. What else could I do? I waded in, little bits of flotsam and jetsam floating about my ankles, grabbed the plunger and plunged with all my might to shouts of, “Ew! Gross! She’s walking it it!”

“Well, excu-use me! Unlike Peter, I haven’t learned to walk on water!” I piously (and a little sarcastically) returned.

After 30 seconds of frantic plunging, and two additional gallons of water on the floor, it dawned on me that if a rattled the toilet handle, it would stop running – which I did, and it did. And finally the toilet unclogged with a satisfying slurp. Now for the mess.

Thank the Lord I had just shampooed the living room carpet two days earlier, and had not yet put away the wet vac. It was conveniently sitting right by the bathroom door. Just as I grabbed the vac, one of my boys hollered down the stairs…

“Mom! Mom! Stevie just pottied all over you livin groom carpet!”

Gr-r-r-r. Oh, well. I grabbed the wet vac, started the engine, and tackled the basement flood (one flood at a time, you know…). That vac gulped water so fast, the hose was bucking all over like a fireman’s hose! The kids were enthralled. I had barely made a dent in the water when the motor shut off, indicating a full tank. We bailed it out (it was too heavy to move), emptied it, and started again. After a second and third tank, we finally sucked up all the water. I quickly scrubbed and sanitized the bathroom, then ran upstairs to tackle my livingroom carpet – again. As I was working on that mess, I was interrupted by…

“Mom! Mom! Stevie tried to pour himself a drink!”

My little apple-cheeked dumpling (said through gritted teeth) was again trying to be Mommy’s little helper. He had poured a whole quart of purple juice all down the front of the cabinets, into the drawers, all over the floor, and all over himself! My pruned and waterlogged ankles took on a lovely shade of purple as I waded over and started in on that mess. And we hadn’t even started school yet!

Finally everything was caught up. I had run the race. I had fought the good fight. I hadn’t even lost my temper – just got a little tense and annoyed. True, we lost an entire morning of school (we could make it up later in the afternoon), but we had survived. With satisfaction we sat down to lunch and made it through without mishap.

We were expecting company shortly, and they were right on schedule: my sister, her 7 kids…and no!...it couldn’t be!...her big, mentally deficient, black lab! Sigh. The kids (and dogs) had a blast, and we commenced our visit. One of my sons poured himself a big glass of purple juice, then left it sitting (as kids are apt to do) untouched on the kitchen bench as he ran off to play. Our peaceful visit was shattered with…

“Mom! Mom! Stevie knocked over my juice!” Oh, come on! My precious-poppet toddler had toddled over and knocked over that glass of juice! Unbeknownst to me, there was another unattended cup of juice on the table, but I was down on my knees cleaning up the juice mess when these words drifted to my ear…

“Mom! Mom! Stevie spilled more juice!” My little angel-faced darling had climbed on the bench and knocked another abandoned cup of juice all over the table and the mail!

Just then, (I realize this is hard to believe, but I assure you it is true), the door burst open and I heard: “Mom! Mom! The dogs are chasing cars, and so we need to keep them in the house!”

I turned jut in time to see my sisters big, mentally-deficient black lab and my own equally challenged golden retriever trot across my living room carpet. They had been slogging through our backyard swamp, up to their bellies in mud! These two proud animals stood there, swishing their great, mud-laden tails back and forth, big grins on their ugly faces, looking as if they had done something noble.

As I’m standing there, gaping in dismay, watching as mud is spattering around the room, the door bursts open and another son excitedly yells: “Mom! Mom! The chickens are laying again! We got four eggs today!” And so saying, he ran across the kitchen floor, and…he dropped an egg!

Did I fail to mention this was 2 ½ weeks before my due date with my 7th child?

As I stooped to clean up the embryonic mess, a malicious thought popped into my mind, which I quickly formed into a prayer:

“Lord, Lord! If you really love me, you’ll cause my water to break right here and now all over the floor. Then, as I’m running out the door to the hospital, I can turn to my kids and say, ‘Have this mess cleaned up by the time I get back!’ that would indeed be the ultimate revenge…er, I mean character-building lesson, wouldn’t it, Lord?”

I guess the Lord didn’t appreciate the character-building qualities of my plan, because I wasn’t granted so much as a single contraction.

Later that evening, after Dale came home and I had related the day’s events to him, he considered me with compassion in his eyes and said, “Honey, repeat after me: ‘Children ARE a blessing from the Lord. Children ARE a blessing from the Lord. Children ARE a blessing from the Lord.”

How many of you have had “school” days like that?

I want to encourage you to remember that your primary life-goal as a mother is build strong moral character in our children to ultimately bring them to Christ and glorify Him. I am increasingly aware that homeschooling is just as much about me changing and growing in Christ-likeness as it is about my kids and their studies. I am realizing that even if I have the perfect curriculum and use the perfect teaching method and have the perfect set-up in my home with the perfect schedule, all perfectly organized, my homeschool will still be a mess if I’m grouchy, impatient, joyless, irritable, nagging, sarcastic, harsh, and rude. On the other hand, I am really beginning to understand that if I allow God to work in my heart…if I yield myself to God and strive (through His grace) to grow in grace, love, joy, patience, gentleness, and kindness, my kids will learn and grow in all the ways that matter (by leaps and bounds) – even if my curriculum is cheap, my methods are imperfect, and I am an inadequate teacher.

Rejoice In Your Life’s Sacrifice

God has called us to be joyful mothers of children. Every act you do for your little ones is making a loud and clear statement about God. This is part of God’s grace in your life. Yes, it is a sacrifice, but in the sacrificing God is changing us. Sometimes it is so hard – there’s so much pressure in our lives between housework, homeschool, motherhood and being a wife. But these are all used as tools in the loving hand of God to perfect us. He is bringing circumstances to bear on us to reveal our sin and perfect us. When you are homeschooling, interruptions and distractions will come. It’s inevitable. But we have a choice, don’t we. I can choose to handle the frustrations with anger and impatience, or with grace. And, by the end of the school year, I’m going to look different than I did at the beginning of the year, depending on the heart choices I have made. By the end of the year, I will either be a stressed out, angry, bitter woman, or I will have grown in grace and patience, and kindness. As a Christian, with God's abundant grace available to me, the choice is up to me.

By Susan Kemmerer
(c) Schoolhouse Publishing
www.shpublishing.com

A Day in My LIfe

2007-10-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

I think that most of us probably wish that we had more time in a day. I am usually on the lookout for ways to better manage my time. In this post you'll find some of those things mentioned. If you have found ways to make better use of your time, please leave a comment. I think that God intended for us to learn from one another (remember Titus 2:3-5).

I thought that I would share with you a day in my life. Maybe you will find some good ideas or maybe you can leave a comment on some ideas that you have for scheduling your day. I used to get up at about 5:30-6:00 pretty faithfully each morning and be in bed by 9:00 In the last year we have had a few changes and thus the change in my schedule. We went from two cars to one and our older daughter got a job and works at night. On the days I need the car I get up at 4:30am and drive my husband to work. Hopefully, on those days or the night before I get to bed by 8:30pm. That does not always work out though because my daughter sometimes doesn't get off work until 10:30pm. She also plays volleyball one night week.

I was going crazy trying to still get up by 5:30-6:00 on the days that I didn't take the car. I like to be in bed early and get up early. I finally realized that it is okay to need to sleep until 7:30am on a day like today where I haven't had much sleep the past few nights and I had to pick up my older daughter from work last night. I got home and couldn't fall sleep right away and then after I finally fell asleep, my younger daughter woke me up at about 1:30am. She was really upset about something. We talked and prayed together(at this point, though, I can't quite recall the conversation). I have just resolved myself that this is a season in my life that I can't count on going to bed and getting up at certain times so what follows is my solution.

In the morning, while drinking my coffee, I sit down with a piece of notebook paper and figure out how many hours I have to do what I need to do, for instance today I got up at 7:30am and I have until 6pm when I need to get ready for church. I have 101/2 hours. I divide my day based on these categories: home and food prep.(4 hrs.), homeschool(2 hrs.), couponing(1 hr.), business(2 hrs.), and free time(or time with God)(1 1/2hr.). I got this idea from the book Body By God by Ben Lerner. He suggests this method of drawing lines around that time and using it only for that purpose. It's a little bit harder as a mom, but it does help! You may wonder why I break up my day the way I do, why I don't just do all my housework at once, all my computer work at once, etc. I have problems with my neck from a car accident and I can only stay in the same position for so long before it acts up. My chiropracter advised me to keep changing positions throughout the day so I do some of this and then some of that. I already have a weekly, daily system in place for each area of my life.

A Day In My Life

7:30-9: Free Time - get up, make coffee, check favorite websites and e-mail, shower, get dressed (clothes, hair and make up), Bible & Prayer time and planning my day

9-10 : Home - carryover Bible time (not done before 9), work on morning routine: breakfast & vitamins, check calendar, make bed, take something out to thaw for supper, unload dishwasher and reload, had my older daughter wipe down the bathroom counter, sink and toilet. At this point, I would have started laundry, however, my daughter reminded me that we had library books due yesterday (forgot, we were so busy the last 2 days), so I went online to renew our books and realized that I had borrowed a new book so that was due a week earlier. That's probably .80 or more in fees, still cheaper than buying it. Oh, well, they are all renewed now.

10-11: Business - work on this blog post and check e-mail

11-12: Coupons - I have a system for this one: Monday - cut coupons, Tuesday - file coupons, Wednesday - make grocery list, Thursday - grocery shopping, Friday - record items in pricebook (if you've never done this, I strongly suggest it). I also suggest checking out Hot Coupon World, many people post there and it will save you time finding deals in your local stores. I stopped about 11:50 and made a sandwich.

12-1: Homeschool - My daughters are older. I don't really spend time teaching. If they are having a problem, I help them, otherwise, they have their assignments for the week and they work independently. I use this time to correct papers, record points (I need my older daughter's GPA since she is in high school and the younger one likes to know her grades), work on their portfolios(PA law is such that you must turn in a portfolio of their work at the end of the school year), write out weekly assignments, etc. They start their school day at 9am, take a break from 12-1 and then work until they are done. That is why I do my "school work" at this time because they are not using their books so I can.

1-2: business - I am writing this post and updating my squidoo lenses. I had created one on healthy eating on a budget at the beginning of last week. It needed more work but something happened and I couldn't get back into edit it. Supposedly it is now fixed so I really need to work on it today. Okay, I just checked and though they said it was fixed, it isn't so I guess that's one thing off of my To Do List for the day!

2-3: Homeschool - I will see what they have done so far today and correct what I need to, basically, more of the same that I did earlier.

I ended up working on this blog post until 2:30 so I will only be doing 30 more minutes of school today. I usually use Friday to catch up on correcting papers if I get behind.

3-6: Home - Finish morning routine: start laundry, hot spots (if you don't know what a hot spot is check out Flylady). I normally would have finished this routine in the morning but since I had to deal with the library books, I ran out of time. Then onto my afternoon routine, which I normally start anytime after lunch: put laundry in dryer, 5 min. room rescue(another flylady thing), empty trash, start supper: my routine for this is about 1/2 hr. before I need to start dinner, I check the sink to see if there are dishes that need to go into the dw, then fill the sink with hot, soapy water, wash anything that needs handwashing that was used for breakfast and lunch, wipe down counters(sometimes my daughters leave part of their lunch mess, it's a work in progress), and then I begin food prep.

After dinner, my husband or I do dishes and clean up the kitchen(I so totally love when he does this!) . The rest of my evening routine is 5 mins on my hot spots, my older daughter folds laundry and my younger daughter swiffers the kitchen and bathroom, check the calendar for tomorrow and tell the girls to fill in the chore chart (we use this to keep track of who got their chores done). If I have time in the midst of these 3 hours I will do some other tasks such as: Zone Work, 27 Fling Boogie, update checkbook, and clean out my refrigerator (again, check out Flylady if you don't know what zone work and a 27 fling boogies are). She has one of the best systems for home organization. I don't agree with everything she says but every other home management system I have tried just doesn't seem to work for me. If you have one that works great for you, please leave a comment, I would love to hear about it!

I have only filled in my schedule until 6pm because we have church tonight. I need to start getting ready at 6 and then leave by about 6:30-6:40. I won't get home until 9:00 and by then, the only thing I will be doing is going to bed. Any weekly household tasks like cleaning out the refrigerator, zone work or 27 fling boogie that doesn't get done today will probably be pushed off until Saturday. That tends to be my catch up day.

If you have a similar post on your blog that you would like to share, please leave a comment with a link to your site.

You Cannot Give Away What You Do Not Possess

2007-10-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't had time to post in a couple of days. I've been busy with my older daughter, teaching her to parallel park. She went for her driver's license test this morning. Sadly she didn't pass. The parallel parking got her. My husband and I don't know how to parallel park very well because we never have to. When I was teaching her I kept thinking about how our Pastor always says "You cannot give away what you do not possess". The context of that statement was regarding our faith. I realized that this statement is very true in many ways. Are we expecting things from our children that we don't live out.

When I was trying to teach her I was reading from the book and trying to explain it to her instead of teaching out of my own experience. Finally, I got behind the wheel myself to try to figure it out. I thought that if I could do it then I could explain it to her. It was at that point that I realized I was misreading something in the book. Then we both finally got it. That poor kid practiced for probably 3 hours in the last 2 days. She was very upset but then realized that maybe God had another plan right now. It occurred to her that now she would have the money she needed to play basketball for a Christian school because she won't have to pay car insurance this month. In PA you have to make an appointment so she can't take the test again until the end of Nov.

So, the end result was we both learned how to parallel park and we both learned some lessons along the way! Let's be intentional about living the Christian life in front of our children, not just teaching it out of the Bible or a book!

Super Savings Saturday

2007-10-20T07:36:00.000-07:00

Crystal over at moneysavingmom is doing a Super Savings Saturday over on her blog. She is posting about the deals that she found and having other bloggers post theirs and link them to her site. So here we go.

Well, I was up bright and early this morning. Actually, early but it wasn't quite bright. I needed the car today so I had to get up at 4:30 to take my husband to work. I took my older daughter to a local high school to take her PSAT. I dropped her off at about 7:45. After that I ran a couple of errands and thought that I would share my finds. My first stop was at Redner's Warehouse Markets. They had boneless, skinless chicken breast on sale for $1.88lb for the famly pack. I got just about 4lbs for around $7.00. My next stop was a nearby Giant. I was there on Thursday and got the ground beef they had on sale for .99lb. I ended up with about 11lbs. of ground meat for around $10(I had a coupon for $1 off $5 meat purchase). Anyway, they also had split chicken breast on sale for .99lb. but they were out of them when I was there Thursday. So, I when I went back today I got about 11lbs of bone-in chicken breast for $10(I had another coupon). In all, I this week, I ended up with 26lbs. of meat for about $27.00, Praise the Lord!

I wanted to add a couple of frugal tips regarding the meat. I take a few split chicken breasts(bone in) and through them in the crockpot. I sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. I put a little bit of water in the bottom of the pot. I then add some large chunks of onion, celery and carrot. After they have cooked most of the day, the meat just about falls off the bone. I set the chicken aside to cool. I strain out the broth that is in the pan. Now I have free homemade chicken broth. I put that in a container in the refrigerator, then the fat will rise to the top and I will skim it off. I then measure out the remaining liquid by the cup into plastic containers, label it and freeze it. You could also freeze it in ice cube trays. Back to the chicken: pick it off the bone, discard skin and bones. I then store this in the refrigerator for sandwiches at lunchtime, it is a lot cheaper than deli-sliced lunchmeat. Most of the stuff that you buy at the deli counter is very unhealthy and extremely overpriced. This chicken is very healthy and only .99lb.

Next, onto the boneless chicken. When I make a dish like Chicken Picatta or another dish where you flatten out the chicken breasts, I use less. If I weren't flattening them, I might feel obligated to have 1 per family member, which in my case is 4. However, depending upon the size of the chicken breast, you may be able to use just 2 or 3. If you make a grilled chicken salad, you can get away with using 2 for a family of 4. If you would like a recipe for grilled chicken salad, scroll down to the bottom of this post. Every little bit helps. Another tip here, instead of just sticking them in a ziploc bag together, I first lay them out on a cookie sheet, leaving space between them. I put them in the freezer. Once they are hard I throw them all in one big bag and take out only what I need, when I need it.

After I left Giant, I went to CVS. They have an Extra Care Bucks deal in October. Buy 1 Crest Pro-Health and get $3.29 in ECB. I had a coupon for Buy1Get1 free. So I paid $3.29 and got back $6.58 in ECB to use on a future purchase. You've gotta love it when you get 2 free tubes of toothpaste and make $3.29!

Then on my way home, I stopped at a yard sale. I got a brand new Brita pitcher with 3 unopened filters for $3.00. We have a Brita pitcher and we normally pay $14.99 for 3 replacement filters. That made my day!

By the way, in case you are wondering about the gas I used chasing down bargains, these stops were all on my way home and thankfully the stores are close together. We have become pretty stingy with our gas money with the prices they are charging right now. We don't really go places unless we need to and then we combine errands.

Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad

This is something that I saw Rachel Ray make on her show 30 Minute Meals. I printed out her recipe from the Food Network website and tweaked it with my own frugal substitutions. And let me say here, unless, you are Rachel Ray, this will take you more that 30 minutes! Some of it can be done early in the day.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1lb.)

2tsp olive oil, plus 2 Tbsp.

1 tsp. poultry seasoning

4 lg. eggs

8 slices of bacon, chopped 1/2" pieces (optional)

3 hearts of Romaine Lettuce (my frugal version - whatever lettuce you have in the fridge)

2 lemons (if you don't have lemons just use lemon juice)

salt & pepper

2 ripe avacodoes - halved, scooped & diced (see below)

2 tomatoes - seeded & diced (see below)

1 red onion, chopped ( again, here's the frugal part for these 3 vegetables, I put in whatever vegetables are in the refrigerator)

2 c. cheddar, Monteray Jack or crumbled blue cheese (again, whatever you have in the refrigerator)

1. Flatten chicken breasts if they are very thick. (I pull out a long sheet of waxed paper, fold it in half, put a chicken breast in between and pound it with a rolling pin until it's an even thickness. Great stress reliever at the end of a long day!)

2. Heat a grill pan or nonstick skillet over med-high heat. Coat chicken with 2 tsp. olive oil, poultry seasoning, salt & pepper. Grill or pany fry chicken 6-7 mins. per side. Remove from heat and let rest 5 mins.

3. In a small pot, cover eggs with cold water. Place over high heat and bring water to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, cover the pot and turn off the heat. Set a timer for 10 mins. After 10 mins. cool eggs under cold water. Peel & chop. (By the way, her method turns out perfect hard-boiled eggs)

4. Brown chopped bacon over med-high heat. Drain.

5. Chop lettuce and place on a large platter or salad bowl. Dress chopped lettuce with the juice of 1 1/2 lemons. drizzle with 2 Tbsp. olive oil. Season with salt & pepper.

6. Toss diced avacadoes with juice from 1/2 lemon to retard browning.

7. Halve chicken breasts and chop.

8. To serve, arrange rows of chopped chicken, egg, bacon, avacado, tomato, red onion, and shredded cheese on top of lettuce.

This recipe feeds my family of 4 with a little leftover.

This salad is just beautiful and would be a nice summer dish when company is coming. Everytime I make this it is different because I just use whatever I have on hand. Enjoy!

Trials and Testing

2007-10-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

During my quiet time with the Lord this morning something came to my mind that I would like to share with you. I was sitting on the couch in the living room and I could see the overcast skies through the kitchen window. By the way, there are times when I am down on my knees and sometimes on my face but other mornings, I prefer to sit on the couch with my cup of coffee. I like to think of it as just having a conversation with God. I believe that He does expect reverence from us but I think that he cares more about our hearts than a list of religious formalities. Besides, we have a beautiful entertainment center in our living room that our friends gave us 2 months ago. They were getting rid of it and we were in need of one. When I look at that it reminds me that God cares and that He provides not just our needs but some of our wants too!

Anyway, back to my original thought. Looking at the skies, I was thinking about what a dreary day that it was going to be. We all just love the sunshine but I don't know too many people who get up and think wow, it's foggy, dreary and they are predicting severe thunderstorms, what a great day this is going to be. How many of us though, love the flowers and green grass? If it weren't for the rain the flowers and grass would shrivel up and die. And so it is with us, in our walk with the Lord.

If we only ever had mountain top experiences and never spent anytime in the valley, we, too, would shrivel up and die. God is doing a work in us and through us - Phil 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Maturity as a Christian is a process, not always pleasant and usually painful but what is the alternative? My husband and I could right a book on the trials we have encountered over the last 7 years since giving our lives to Christ, however, we could also write a book on the lessons that God has taught us and they ways that we and our girls have grown through it.

I have been in miserable pits of despair at times over the last 7 years. Those times where you can't even stand to be around yourself! Over the last few years I have noticed that when these times come (I like to refer to them as growing pains), God is just about to teach me something. What awesome joy there is when you finally realize why you were miserable and that you have now grown more Christlike and become closer to the Lord.

Is there one person out there who would say that they became perfect the day that they got saved and, therefore, there is no need for God to test, try and teach them? Personally, I know who I was before God got hold of my heart and it wasn't pretty. I look at where I was and see how far I've come and I realize that I have so very far to go. The only way that this is going to happen is to submit and surrender myself to His will and not mine and learn what He wants to teach me. Remember, Heb. 12:11 - Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Notice, peaceable fruit of righteousness comes after learning from it. If you don't learn from it you won't have joy, peace, and righteousness, you will just get bitter and angry at God.

Embrace the valley, knowing that the mountain top is coming. Embrace the rain, knowing that the sunshine is coming!

Numbers 6:24-26
The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you;
And give you peace.

Homeschooling Makes a Difference

2007-10-18T15:37:00.001-07:00

Today my youngest daughter went to take her standardized test. It is required in 3rd, 5th, and 8th grade in PA. I was nervous. This is the first time that she's been tested since we began homeschooling. She was in public school until the beginning of 6th grade. So, like I said, I was nervous. What if she tests below grade level? What if I have failed her? What if she hasn't learned all that she should have in the past 2 years? I calmed down after I dropped her off because I realized that whatever it is, it is! If she scores low then we will work on her weak areas. Why do we get ourselves wound so tight over things like this? Like the world is going to come crashing down if we can't "prove" that we are doing a good job!

I was sitting here tonight reflecting on the day and the previous two years of our homeschooling journey. Our older daughter has only been homeschooling for one year. During this time, I have seen my children become closer to God, my husband and I, and each other. I have seen them taking time to do daily devotions. Most of all, I have seen them develop a heart for God and bearing fruit in their lives. They were 6 and 9 when we began our walk with the Lord. They were in public school. Although, they accepted Christ and got baptized, I didn't see a huge change in their behavior.

I remember back to the year before I began homeschooling. Many days after they left for school, I would take my Power of a Praying Parent book into their room and pray and quote Scripture. I remember one day feeling such despair over my older daughter and saying "there is so much of the world in her, I don't know how I'll ever get it out". When she came out of public school she was totally career-oriented. Recently she backed off of that and talked about homeschooling her own children someday. I seriously doubt that this would have happened had she stayed in school. First of all, I didn't even have very much time to talk to her so I had no idea how she felt. Second of all, after becoming closer to God, I think that she understood when I said that "If God blesses you with children, He expects you to raise them." Some may not like that comment and I know there are some exceptional circumstances out there but I really believe that this is Biblical.

God has made an amazing difference in our family through homeschooling. We all have our down days and up days but we need to remember that we are planting seeds in our children that will take time to root and grow and bear fruit. We also need to remember that we are not in this alone, we have the God of the Universe on our side! One of my favorite verses my first year of homeschooling was 2 Cor. 12:9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness". Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. This verse gave me great comfort. We need to trust in Him and do this through His strength!

UPDATE: My daughter's test scores came in. I was amazed! She scored in the 91st percentile in the country in reading! Why did this amaze me, you ask? She struggled so much with her reading all the way through elementary school which caused her problems in every subject. When I brought her home she absolutely hated reading. She begged me not make her do a Literature book. I told her that she had to read for 30 minutes each day but that she could read whatever she wanted(within moral boundaries). She went from whining her way through 50 page books in 6th grade to reading a 700 page book in 7th grade. She reads so much now, I just about have to tear the books out of her hand so that she will do her other subjects. This is just awesome progress.

The other wonderful outcome was that all these years she felt like she was stupid because the kids would pick on her because she couldn't read as well as they could. When I told her what her scores were, her face just lit up, it was so cute. She also was above average in her math and grammar, though not as high as her reading score. I know that their walk with the Lord is more important that being the next National Merit Scholar but it is comforting to know that we are doing okay. I was scared to death when I pulled her out of school but God is faithful and He will bring you through what He has brought you to!

My new Squidoo Lens

2007-10-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

I've been busy this morning creating a new Squidoo Lens. Please drop by and let me know what you think. I would love to hear your comments. It is still a work in progress. There are more things that I would like to add to it, however, the site is not working correctly right now. I hope that this new lens is a blessing to you and that you learned something from it. It is a challenge to eat healthy on a tight budget but it can be done!

God Really Does Provide

2007-10-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

This may be similar to my last post but I really cannot resist sharing this story. In my last post, you'll recall that we were having a very tight week financially. Well, it got worse and then better. I had a little bit of money sitting on my dresser. I had told my husband that it was all we had left until next payday. It was supposed to be for gas. Well, I went to a baby shower on Saturday. I came home and my husband and youngest daughter weren't home. I walked into the bedroom and saw that most of the money on the dresser was gone. I think there was like $16 or $18 there originally, now there was about $6.00.

My husband and daughter returned. He told me that he had given her the money that she had earned doing chores for the week. I was so upset, I thought that I had told her that she would have to wait until next week. At this point, the money was already spent on non-returnable items, I'd like to say that my first reaction was a peace-filled heart, trusting in God. It wasn't, in my mind I was starting to freak out. How would my husband get back and forth to work until he got paid again?

Well, thankfully, God brought me to my senses rather quickly (I am amazed at the progress God has made in me). My husband and I prayed together that He would provide gas money and stretch the food that we had until payday. The next morning, I realized that somehow (I really think that my kids know), we were already down to the last roll of toilet paper from the pack I had just bought on Thursday. Again, I prayed, Lord please provide some toilet paper from somewhere and make everything else stretch.

At church that morning, one of my husband's friends told him that there was a bag in the kitchen with our names on it. When we were leaving my husband went to the kitchen and grabbed these 2 bags. When we got to the car and looked into the bags we just couldn't believe our eyes. There was 1 bag of food and 1 bag of non-food items with, yup, you guessed it 5 rolls of toilet paper among other things. In the bag, there was also a $100 grocery store gift card, a $25 gas card, a $20 bill and a sheet of postage stamps. Praise the Lord, He truly does exceedingly, abundantly above all we can think or ask when we put our trust in Him.

It was funny, in the past I have spent a great deal of my time worrying about what was happening, what might happen, what it looked like would happen. That is a sin, I'm well aware of that. I've just had a tough time trusting God sometimes. God is so truly rich in His infinite grace and mercy. He is always teaching me something new about Him and about me. When I prayed on Saturday night and Sunday morning, I had such peace. I just knew that He would work it all out. The closer I become to the Lord, the better I get to know Him and His Word, the more peace and joy I have found in my life.

I do hope that if you are a Christian that you are putting your trust in Him. We Christians rack up debt when we fail to trust God to meet our needs. When we have a pile of debt, we have little money to support His Kingdom work on this earth. Trust Him, He will not fail you!

And by the way, I later found out that one of my friends, who had known from the previous week that we were short on cash, gathered some of the homeschooling moms in our church and told them what was going on. I have the most wonderful, loving church family. I hope that if you get the opportunity to bless someone like this, you will do it. Be obedient, give what you have even if it isn't much. Little is much when God is in it! Remember the feeding of the 5000 started with one little boy sharing his lunch!

High Grocery Prices? God Will Provide

2007-10-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

Grocery prices keep going up, weekly it seems. But no matter what, God is in control and He will provide for our needs. I having been having a very hard time sticking to our grocery budget of $70 a week. That is for a family of 4 and includes pretty much everything from food to light bulbs to paper products and health and beauty items. We try to eat healthy, organic when possible. We rarely buy processed foods.

I have noticed recently that as we try to do the right thing (sticking to our budget) and honor God, He provides in unexpected ways. I was at my friend's house Sunday night and we were talking about the grocery prices going up so much. I was telling her that last week when I was grocery shopping, I was so frustrated at the fact that I was already $10 over my grocery budget and I couldn't find any shampoo on sale. I didn't buy any, even though I knew what we had wouldn't last all week. I was hoping that on Sunday when the new ads came out there would be shampoo free after coupon somewhere. Before I left her house that night she gave me a bottle of shampoo. She is such a sweet, generous wonderful friend! Praise God for His provision.

We are having a very tight week this week. I had less than my usual amount to go grocery shopping with. I just knew that I needed to trust the Lord, that He is faithful and that He will provide for our needs. I went shopping and pretty much just got what I absolutely needed. My daughter had asked me to pick up a new toothbrush for her. I couldn't find any that were free or close to it with a coupon. I told her that I would check Dollar General to see if they had any cheap. I was planning on going on my way home from getting my husband at work. Something told me to look in the cabinet under the bathroom sink. Sure enough, there were 2 new toothbrushes still in the package under there. God is so good, I had totally forgotten about them!

Then today, my mom brought by a bag of groceries. Her neighbors are moving out of state tomorrow and they were emptying out their refrigerator. She didn't know that we were tight for grocery money but she wasn't going to use it. Again, praise the Lord!

For all of you ladies out there trying to stretch your grocery budget beyond where it will go, please remember to pray before you go and while you're at the store. Trust in God, not your grocery budget. Even if you can't buy everything you need, God can supply it in other ways. Also, pray that He would give you creativity. It comes in handy when you don't have what you need on hand! Also, google search for substitutions if you don't have what you need. The Internet is such an incredible resource. You can make many mixes and sauces from scratch using recipes found on the Internet.

By the way, in case you are interested on what we are eating this week on tight funds, here is my menu for the week (starting with Thursday, that's my shopping day)

Thursday - Philly Cheese steak pizza - homemade crust, homemade sauce, mozzarella (on sale for $1.45), small pack of chipped beef ($1.46, I was happy), green pepper (.15 at local farm), red onion (.50), plus some oregano and parmesan cheese(funny, I bought some and then there was some in the bag that my mom brought). I was really excited that I found everything cheap to make this. My husband loves Domino's Cheese steak pizza but it is a rare occasion that we order pizza. He said that mine was better!

Friday - Ham and Egg Fried Rice - basmatti rice (1.29 lb), almonds (had on hand), frozen peas (had on hand), piece of cooked ham (lunch meat ends .96), eggs (1.25 dozen free range eggs from the farm)

Plan for Saturday - Pancakes - I had to buy flour for the pizza crust and bread I will be baking (5 lb.s for $2.00), and milk ($3.25 raw milk from farm) and I have the other ingredients on hand. We put some butter on the bottom pancake and then peanut butter (gives some protein to the meal), then more butter on top one and maple syrup. Sounds weird, but it's yummy! This will be a quick meal, as well, good because I have a baby shower to go to.

Plan for Sunday - Eating at church. Once a year we have a potato bake. The church supplies the potatoes and everybody brings a topping. Again, praise the Lord, I signed up for sour cream (.50 after coupon)

Plan for Monday - Cube Steak, salad, rice - Cube steaks on hand. We had no steak sauce and I couldn't buy any this week so I was trying to figure out what to do with them. Well, guess what, the bag my mom brought today had a bottle of A-1, again, God is so good. As for the salad, we had lettuce on hand and I got some tomatoes for .30 each at the farm.

Plan for Tuesday - Spaghetti (whole grain pasta on hand), can of diced tomatoes (.64), tomato sauce and spices on hand. We will probably have home-baked bread and leftover salad with it.

Plan for Wednesday - Potato soup - Everything I need on hand.

Thursday - grocery shopping day

I have started baking my own bread. I found an absolutely wonderful recipe at UrbanHomemaker.com. Most bread recipes are good for bread to serve with dinner but not very conducive to eating sandwiches on. Hers is a great sandwich bread and it tastes great. I've also tried her pizza crust recipe and her tortilla recipe. They were also very good.

I hope that this post has inspired you! Don't give up! God is in control! If you have any comments on how your are stretching your grocery budget, I would love for your to post them!

Can We Do It All?

2007-10-06T17:10:00.000-07:00

I was thinking a lot today about trying to do it all: being a godly wife and mother, keeping a clean home, cooking from scratch, researching to find the best bargains, homeschooling, running a home business....the list goes on. I don't know that there is a problem with trying to do it all. I think that the problem is with our expectations. Do we honestly expect that we can do it all and that all of it will be perfectly done?

We can totally overwhelm ourselves by perfectionism. I read somewhere that God will give us the strength to do what He has called us to do each day, not necessarily what we have decided to do. I came to the realization today that even if I wasn't trying to do as much as I am, that everything still wouldn't get done perfectly because that's just how life works. Can we, as moms, make peace with that?

Is there anyone out there that has had a perfect day where everything went as planned? Even though my children are older, there are still plenty of times when they need me and I have to remember that they are my priority, not getting one more cleaning task marked off my list. I would rather sit and listen for hours when my teenage daughters want to chat with me than to have a clean house any day of the week! Yes, I know having a clean home is important but let me assure you, if you don't have teenagers yet, it is an amazing thing when a teenager wants to just chat about life, the Bible, and whatever else is on her mind with her mom for an extended period of time! Let's not lose sight of why we are at home.

I have been trying a multitude of different ways to organize my life lately but I think it's just a matter of accepting the fact that it will always be a juggling act. I'm trying to embrace this time because in a couple of years our oldest will be going off to college and her younger sister a few years behind. The time has absolutely flown by. When the house is clean and quiet, I will miss these days! I pray almost daily(not perfect, remember?) that God would help me to joyfully embrace all that He has given me to do. I want to live my life full of joy and peace, reflecting God's light and love in this dark world.

If you have any comments on how you balance things at your home, please post them, I would love to read them!

Coupon Clipping Can Be Dangerous To Your Health

2007-08-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

I used to be a coupon queen. I could go to a store doing triple coupons and come out with about $300 worth of groceries for about $30. We ate a lot of processed foods, probably breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. A few years ago, my husband started having severe allergic reactions to things he had ingested before. He suffered anaphylactic shock a few times. Within a year, our daughter started breaking out in hives, which then progressed to her face swelling. I almost lost my husband and was afraid I was going to lose my daughter. They suspected that my daughter had food allergies, it turned out to be more like food sensitivities.

We ended up having to basically eat only natural foods, nothing processed. I started doing a lot of research on processed foods. It was scary. Those so called food items are loaded with chemicals that are extremely hazardous to your health. Since we now eat mostly natural foods, when I eat junk food I really feel the effects of it. Last month, while away for a few days, we ate a lot of junk food. Within a couple of days of returning home my joints ached so bad I cried. When you eat this stuff everyday you don't realize what it is doing to your body. It can cause cancer, diabetes, obesity, ADD, ADHD, migraines and many more problems. I still cut coupons but it's rare that I buy any processed food anymore. We are on a limited budget and it has been hard to eat healthy with what I have to spend but somehow the Lord works it out. Save your coupon usage for cleaning supplies and health and beauty items but don't buy boxed food even if it's free after coupons. You will pay for it in many other ways down the road.

Getting Out Of Debt

2007-07-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

This subject is heavy on my heart today. We took on a few new payments recently. Our daughter needed her wisdom teeth taken out. Our Blue Cross no longer pays for this to be done. So, we took on a debt by having it done without cash in hand to pay for it. Around this same time, our washing machine broke down. We replaced it, along with our ailing dishwasher which didn't really clean anything anymore.

Many of our friends are telling us well, you needed these things. Well, yes and no. We could have waited to get our daughter's teeth done and prayed that God would keep her mouth from being messed up(she had braces and the orthodontist wanted these teeth out before they came in and messed up her straight teeth). All we could see is the fact that we had already invested probably $5000 in orthodontics and we didn't want her mouth being a mess all over again.

As far as the washing machine, we didn't even wait 24 hours after our washing machine died before going out and charging a new one. Maybe if we had prayed, God would have shown us someone who had one that they were getting rid of or maybe provided in some other way. What makes the story worse is that we didn't just buy the cheapest machine that would do the job. We got talked into buying a more expensive front-loading machine. I believe they are great machines and will save us money in the long run, however, this wasn't the smartest choice for us at this time. We could have spent hundreds less and still had clean clothes.

And then we have the new dishwasher, which I love. It actually cleans my dishes, imagine that! But here again, it was not a true need. I didn't want to have to wash dishes by hand everyday. I homeschool my daughters and with 3 of us here all day, cooking from scratch, we dirty a lot of dishes in a day. We reasoned that this was smart because the store gave us a deal by buying both appliances at one time, plus the dishwasher had a $75 rebate on it.

We are truly lamenting the decisions. Now, there isn't money for other real needs (our own and others) because we are making payments. This morning I was watching Life Today on TV. They drill water wells in villages where people are dying due to contaminated water. Would I absolutely love to be able to donate, yes! Can I, no! The Bible tells us that God gives us an abundance for every good work (2 Cor. 9:8). Why are we so set on using any abundance (read balance in checkbook after bills are paid and food bought or even using the perceived abundance of a credit card) we have to spend on our pleasures. We are not supposed to stop at tithing. We should be giving above and beyond but due to poor money management, we Christians are not giving to God's Kingdom like we should. There is a lost, hurt and needy world out there.

My husband and I have determined that we will cut back to make the budget work and that we will sell off what we can find around the house to help pay our debts. The Bible has not one good thing to say about debt. I think that we, as Christians, need to lead the way in living a debt free life. I have listed some helpful links below. Some of these people are really gifted teachers in the area of Biblical finance. Pray about what the Lord would have you to do! As for me and my house, we are getting out of debt!

DaveRamsey.com This is a great help, Dave Ramsey is very wise and pulls no punches with the truth about debt.

Crown.org This ministry has been a great blessing to me, they share a lot of financial wisdom from the Bible.

Join Me on My Journey as a Christian Wife & Mom

2007-07-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog. This is my first attempt at doing this so please be patient :) Through writing this blog, I hope to help and be an encouragement to other Christian women. I'd like to introduce myself. I'm a Christian homeschooling wife and mother. My heart's desire is to be at home taking care of my family. I have had an ebay business for 8 years. stores.ebay.com/jts-books-n-more It's not as active as it used to be. I don't have as much time to devote to it as I used to. I also sell books on Amazon. We try to eat healthy. We avoid processed foods as much as possible. I am a frugal shopper as right now, we basically live on one income. Hopefully Ebay will pick up soon. It helps with extras. In upcoming posts I would like to share my heart with you, maybe some devotional writings, as well as tips on frugal living, healthy eating, recipes, homeschooling, homemaking, being a Christian wife and mother. You can view my testimony of what God has done in my life here: squidoo.com/keeperofthehome