New Beginnings...

Sorry for the major gap between blogs.  These last few months have been crazy, to say the least.  We thought about and decided to sell our house (kind-a out of the blue to me) in a weeks time, then put it on the market and sold it as well as bought a new home in 6 days. 6 weeks later we moved during that time we were also taking Foster Parenting classes as we are intending on becoming foster parents soon!  Also trying to continue the boys activities and have some summer fun. 

 But busyness is not what this post is about today.    It is about new beginnings and the fear, work, worry, stress, fun, excitement, joy, new memories, etc...that can bring.

So it all starting innocently enough.  Keith and I were talking about  few different things.  New flooring (I had white carpet in my dinning room...I have 3 boys) and trying to figure out how to configure bunk beds in a 10X10 bedroom in order to fit the said 3 boys when we receive a foster child.  We only had 3 bedrooms on the main floor and weren't ready for anyone to be in the basement bedroom.  So as we discussed this my Dear Husband said, "I wonder if it is even worth the money to put flooring in (I'm thinking...yes it is, do you see the white carpet) let me call the our Realtor and just see what homes are selling for in our area."  We had been seeing pretty low prices and didn't want to put much more money into our home.  We had just finished the basement.  Anyhow, the Realtor came out and much to our surprise homes like our were selling very well.  So after mulling it over for a week or so, mostly me coming up with reasons we shouldn't and Keith coming up with reasons we should, we decided to put it on the market and see how it would do.  I was just trusting God knowing if he didn't want us to move, our house wouldn't sell.  We really gave the whole situation up to Him.  And boy did He ever take over!!!

So after calling our Realtor to let him know, we were going to go for it, he came out and did his thing and it went up Tuesday morning.  I will never forget driving by my house that Monday night after he had put the sign out.  I was sick!!!  I really really did not want to leave my home.  The home I have brought all of my babies home to.  All the birthday parties, late night feedings.  All the work in the BASEMENT!!!  I was still trusting God.  Not joyfully though, that's for sure.  Between showings and having to have the kids out of the house and keep the place perfect (Did I mention I have 3 Young Boys) I had had it.  I lost 6 lbs. in a week.  I was a wreck!!!  We had 6 showings in 4 days and hadn't heard anything.  I wasn't sure what to think and then it happened...Sunday morning 8am.  Of course we are getting ready to head to church and our Realtor calls.  Someone has placed an offer.  I left this part up to Keith, so I can't give to many details.  But after talking it over with a few people at church, praying and talking some more, we decided to go for it! 

In the meantime, the Saturday before I had found a home I really liked.  It was what we were looking for minus 1 bedroom.  But the bedrooms were significantly larger.  It was our favorite we had found in the perfect area etc...so we figured, hey if we are selling our house today, we might as well buy one too, right!  And that is just what we did.  God really did work out all the details!  The moves went smoothly, thanks to everyone that helped!!!

Through all of this I was; however, still dealing with the yeah God really just did an amazing thing, but I still don't want to move.  I liked my house.  We could fit 3 boys in a 10X10 room.  It would be fine!

God kept bring me back to this verse:

Genesis 12: 1-4

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

² “I will make you into a great nation, 
    and I will bless you; 
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.^[a] 
3 I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse; 
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you. ”^[b]

⁴ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. ⁵ He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

I was reminded that God made this work, we left it up to Him and we said we trusted that it was what he wanted us to do then who am I to sit and complain.  God has blessed us with a beautiful home.  One that I hope to be content in for many year, unless he tells us to move on.  I am trusting that He has great plans for us in this home He has given to us and I pray that we take advantage of every opportunity he gives us.  

And hey, getting to come up with new decorating and organizing ideas for our new home and cooking in a much larger kitchen ain't so bad either.  God is good!  To bad I had to throw my little temper tantrum before I figured it out!  

Hopefully I will be able to show off some great before and afters soon!!! 

Until then!

I know I know...

Okay, so I have been gone for a month...so sorry.  Life for me has turned a bit upside down lately.  We have decided to sell our home and move due to the fact that we are planning on becoming foster parents and a bit more space could be useful.  Anyhow, blogging has slowed down
A. because I have been quite busy with moving stuff and
B. I haven't had to much creativity going on. All my stuff is getting put in boxes.
We have completed letter "C"; however, I have not gotten that posted yet.  I've been going really slow.  Sorry.

My reason for posting tonight is just an amazing thing God taught me today.  I love the way God works.  My husband and I are taking our churches membership classes.  Today they were talking about "quite times" etc... and the man that spoke did a nice job.  He keep hitting on a point that I knew well; although, I am very poor at applying like I should.  The point being, we need to TAKE TIME; BE STILL and BE QUITE and spend time with the God of the Universe.  How hard that is.  But WHY??? HE IS THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE!!!  I am bad a making time in a quite place where I can be still so I can not just talk to God, but truly have a conversation with Him, meaning I listen too.

Moving on to this evening as I was putting my boys to bed it was raining and thundering a bit and we were laying in bed listening with windows closed.  It wasn't raining hard and I was telling the boys that in order to hear the rain you need to lay still and be quiet.  As I was saying it, it hit me...Yeah, just like we need to do in order to hear God. What a great example it was to me.  God wants to have a conversation with us and wants us to delight in Him and spend time with him; but if we are to busy shifting around, talking and just not taking the time to listen to what He has to say we are missing out.  How often the noise of the world around us can also drown out Gods voice if we let it.  As we were listening to the rain, the air conditioning turned on and we couldn't hear the rain anymore.  Only if I would have turned it off could we have heard it.  I often feel like I can just "tune stuff out", but I need to realize I should just  turn it off or go somewhere else.  It also realized tonight it takes focus and concentration to listen to gentile rain.  I need to apply that to my quite time.  So often my mind wonders to so many different things because I am not focusing on Him, but on my needs, wants and what I think is important.

This was such a fun lesson to work through with the boys.  I tried to explain this to them as well as we were listing.  Telling them that we need to take time to be still before God and just listen.  I'm not sure how much soaked in, but I am excited to use this lesson again soon.  This summer I am going to start working through the Kids of Integrity information that was recommended to me by a friend of mine and I am going to begin with attentiveness, so what a great thing to bring back up to remind the kids about listening.  And what a great reminder for myself...

As I am going through this moving situation (I didn't really want to move, but apparently God wanted us to) I have been working through some serious emotions, so I really need to take this to heart and apply it daily to my life, not just through this situation, but continually!

Psalm 46:10
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” 

Tonight

So sorry for the absence.  I am recuperating from our spring break trip to Florida.  We had a wonderful time while we were there.  The drive was a bit sketchy with my youngest having the stomach flu on the way there and the middle boy having it on the way home, but we all survived.  Anyhow, I also had a blog all ready for last night and somehow, my computer lost it...so I'll recreate that one later.   So, on to tonight:

As I am guessing most of  you know, tonight is Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday.  The night Jesus celebrated the "Last Supper" with his disciples.  Tonight at our Church service our Pastor spoke on the time Jesus spent in the Garden in Prayer.  He spoke on the agony he was in and how he was fighting the battle in prayer even before he headed into what he knew was before him.  Jesus knew what was coming and went to God in prayer and asked Him if he could do it any other way; but, I believe, in knowing that this was the only way, he prayed that Gods will be done. 

How hard that is for us to do.  Knowing that many times God's will is not our own, we desire our selfish wants, but if we would just trust in God's plan and truly believe that it needs to be His will and not our own, what awesome things will be ahead of us, that only He could provide.  This world is not our final destination and that is something I often have to remind myself.  When I think in those terms, praying for God's will becomes a bit easier.  He has a plan that goes far beyond what we will ever see here.

I know this is not my best writing (not that I have any stellar writings); however, I just simply have enjoyed reading over the verses below and pondering what must have been going through Jesus mind knowing all he knew and still trusting his father and following through with His plan to bring Glory to Him and to save us!!!  

I just hope that we remember the truth about Easter when celebrating this year!!!  

Matthew 26: 36-46

 ³⁶ Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

 ³⁹ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

 ⁴⁰ Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. ⁴¹ “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

 ⁴² He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

 ⁴³ When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

 ⁴⁵ Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶ Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

  

Priorities...

I have been thinking a lot about priorities this year.  It was my "New Year's Resolution" if you want to call it that.  Anyhow, I am doing a study of "Lies Women Believe and the Truth that sets them Free" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and the chapter this week is on just that, Priorities.  It was encouraging and convicting all at the same time.
  One of the lies talked about was not having enough time to get everything done that we need to.  There's just not enough time in the day.  I have to say I believe and live by this lie daily.  I often leave out some of the most important things to get the not so important things accomplished.  God knowingly gave us 24 hours in a day.  The book talked about the fact that we need to focus on those things that God has called us to do and to be a priority, not to do all things! Psalm 90:12 says:

Teach us to number our days, 
   that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 

We need to use our time wisely, but how...

 This gets us to the second lie that was very convicting.  Believing that we will be okay if we do not spend time with Him daily.  I know in my mind and heart that this is not true, but due to putting other things higher on the priority list (which really don't belong in a higher place) I find myself "running out of time" in the day to do everything, including spending time in the word and in prayer.

I know that if I spent more time communicating with God, in the morning especially, about what my priorities should be for that day, I would find more than enough time to do all the things I have been called to do that day.  Taking the time to seek out what God has planned for me and making that my priority is how I need to focus my day.

I also need to remember what season of life I am in.  I am a wife and mother to young children and I have been fortunate to get to stay home daily with my boys.  I have been called to be a Proverbs 31 women.  I get to raise children that will one day be men of God if it is His will.  In this time I am called to be show hospitality, wash the feet of the Lord's people (I'm hoping there is something else I can do equally loving) , help those in trouble and devote myself to all kinds of good deeds.  What awesome things I have been called to.

I better get praying and see what great things God has in plan for me, so I don't start trying to make my own To Do lists and run out of time for the really great stuff!

Thinking...

After my post last Thursday, it got me thinking that I don't take the time to think.  There are so many times that I come across a question that I feel, if I only had time to really think about that...  Whether it be at church, small group, while reading and doing my quite times etc...  I need to take the time to think about the information that I am studying and process it so I can apply it to my life more relevantly.  So often I think to myself this verse:

Proverbs 31:27 

She looks well to the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness.
 

But I need to remember this also:

Psalm 1:2-3

² But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. ³ He will be like a tree firmly planted by ^[b]streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its ^[c]leaf does not wither; And ^[d]in whatever he does, he prospers. 

So I looked into this word, idle.  In my mind it meant being still, not active, etc...which is true to an extent; however; the way this word is used in its original context of Hebrew, translates to laziness; meaning a lazy lifestyle.  I then looked into the word meditate and it said "serious contemplation".

I need to take the time to sit and meditate on what God is teaching me and remember that this is not a lazy act, but something I have been told to do many times though out scripture.  I am going to try to take one thought or question a week, because I know baby steps for me work so much better than trying to think of anything and everything I have ever wanted to ponder.  I am not a good thinker, I am easily distracted and discouraged, so I will be leaning on the Holy Spirit for understanding.  How glad I am to know I have God with me always guiding even my thoughts if I just trust and ask Him to lead.

We will see how this goes!  Oh, my brain hurts...I better go to bed, I'm going to need more rest if I plan on thinking more...

Trying to be more Mary...

I feel very blessed in my life and the role I get to play as wife, mother, daughter, friend, etc...  I love that I am able to stay home and care for my family, do activities with my boys and cook for my husband; however, I find that often I forget that I am first a follower of Christ.  How easy it is for me to get wrapped up in all I "have" to do that day.  I struggle taking the time to sit and be still, listening to what my Lord has to say to me.  My "quite" times usually take place with the sounds of boys getting ready in the morning and the hurriedness that brings.  I have felt the Lord saying to me, as he said to Martha in Luke 10:41...

But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things...(NASB)

After reading the entire text in context Luke 10:40-42

⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with ^[a]all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” ⁴¹ But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; ⁴² but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (NASB)

I feel that I am often so busy with preparations, that I do not take the time to choose the good part.  I know that God is not calling me to stop all I do and spend the day sitting in silent pray.  He has called me to be a wife, mother, daughter, friend, etc..., however, He has first called me to follow Him.  I know that I need to get back into the way of getting up early to spend time in truly quiet prayer, meditation and study.  Only then will I be able to truly hear what he is saying.  I also need to slow down and talk with Him throughout the day because all the preparations in the world will not mean a thing for eternity, but, taking time to listen to God and serve Him as he has called me shall not be taken away from me.

I truly wish to have the small goal of just getting up 30 minutes earlier a day as a start.  Hopefully this will spur on a more proper perspective of my other roles and allow me to be more effective in all my Martha-ness.
 

Training Up Children

One major thing that has been on my heart lately, well, really for over 6 years now - how to raise up children who truly love the Lord.  I know, even in this question, I have to trust God that he will reveal Himself to them, but I also know what Proverbs 22:6 says...

Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. (NASB)

So how do I do this???
Sorry, this post is not going to answer that question, but hopefully give some encouragement.  I'm going to tell you about my 5 year old (soon to be 6...I have to add) and the encouragement he has been to me in this major quest.

For a few years now, I have felt that God was working in the heart of our little guy.  I could see things clicking, as much as they could for a child his age, in his understanding of God's plan of salvation.  I will never forget reading the Disney version of the Christmas Carol (in the summer, might I add) with him and he being so worried about being like Jacob Marley (in chains forever).  He understood that he was not always good (that he sinned)  and that he needed help.  Well, that was about 2 years ago and as I have watched him grow in understanding it has been so exciting.  We do Awana and he learns all his verses and listens to Bible stories and attends Sunday School and Children's Church.  But I was wanting to make studying God's word, more of everyday thing in our home with the boys, especially, the oldest.  Getting into that routine and knowing what and how to study with children so young was challenging for me, but what kick started it was Christmas.

I really try hard to make sure the boys truly understand Christmas for what it really is and not just for all the gifts, etc...  Don't get me wrong.  I LOVE Christmas.  I enjoy it and most of what goes with it, but most importantly, it's remembering that it is about Jesus coming to earth FOR US.  I am guilty of falling into the trap of commercialism, but I wanted to try my hardest to teach the kids the truths of Christmas.  So I did a daily bible study with them and we read from the "real" bible, not a children's bible and then we would discuss it.  (I'm not going to go into detail on this now, if you wand more information I posted it on my family blog site with each daily activity.)  My oldest loved this and just ate it up.  He wanted to know more every day.  He actually asked, so what will we be studying in January?  So it began, in January we studied prayer.  I did not do anything real formal.  We would just get out my bible and read what it had to say about prayer and then discuss what we felt God was trying to teach us.  No rocket science and because I'm teaching a 5 year old I didn't feel like I had to be a theologian.  Again, he asked, so what are we studying in February, "I really want to learn about Love"?  Well, I said, that sounds like a good topic for February.  And so we are currently studying what the Bible says about love (Song of Solomon excluded).

He is just drinking in God's Word and what it has to teach him.  I can see what he is learning, playing out in his life and attitude.  He wants to get out and tell others about Christ and desires to continue to grow and learn.

He asked for a bible like mine for his Birthday, which is coming up next month.  What a joy it is to see God grab a hold of a 5 year old's heart.

I have been shown so many things through this experience...

• Trust God, he can do amazing things
• Do depend on your own capabilities, let God take care of the details, just do what He has told us to do 
• I am reminded of the feeling of joy when I first understood God's plan of Salvation and the desire I had to read and learn more and more...and why do I not ALWAYS have that joy.  His truth hasn't changed!
• Pray, PRAY and continue to PRAY!!!
• Study His word so I can continue to learn what He wants from me
• Have discussions with my children...it's amazing what God can teach me though them!!!

Joy...

As I begin this new blogging venture I figured I would start out with one of the things that has been a work in progress in my life for a while now.  Thinking on how to experience true joy in the Lord is something I desire for myself as well as my family, and I know it is what God desires for me.  So...  


What is true joy and how & when do we we experience it? 1 Thessalonians 5 v. 16-18 says; "be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus." So the true question is how do we be joyful always? I mean, what does true joy look like? I find "joy" in many things, a lot of them quite silly. A clean bathroom, an organized cabinet, yes, cleaning brings me joy. Watching my children laugh, accomplish something new or just give me a hug and tell me they love me, joy. I know God wants us to take joy in all these things, but I believe there is something more that He wants us to take joy in. It is simple and complicated (at least to me) at the same time. He wants us to take joy in Him. Sounds simple enough. So now, how do we do that? I can take joy in things He has created and in abilities he has given me, but how do I take joy in Him?

So, I'm thinking that in order to do this, for starters, I need to be serving Him more. Going out and being fishers of men. Those, that we are able to partake in their being lead to Christ, should bring us so much joy. There are so many ways in which I can do this - it's just getting out there and doing it. Why don't I do this more? I do feel fortunate that God has allowed me to have 3 wonderful boys.  I get to work on this every day with them and I do have joy in this! Watching them this morning sitting on my bed, they each had their own bible looking at the stories and asking me questions. This bring me true joy. Knowing that God is working in those small boys lives and that he is allowing me to be part of that! I just pray more and more every day for the ability to "be joyful always"! This is just the tip of the iceberg and I pray that God will continue to show me how I can be a part of advancing His kingdom and receiving the eternal joy that is a part of that, and, seeing the simple and silly joys that God has blessed me with every day!