In Good Times and Bad

Marriage is one of those relationships where you choose your partner, and you have to choose each day to stay with them.  Our vows say for better or worse, in sickness and health.  Do we really mean that at the time we say them, or are we starry eyed and dreamy?

I’ll be the first to tell you all, our marriage is not perfect.  Some days it’s a trainwreck complete with an explosion.  We are opposites, both stubborn, and then throw in children who act like us into the mix, and we have a perfect wreck.  Hubbs will yell and take things out on inanimate objects.  I will yell and go clean something.  There’s been times most of our house has been spotless in a short time, and I’ve joked that to get it done very fast, make me mad.  I think there’s times he takes me up on it.

There’s two options for us.  Stay and work things out, or let the marriage go.  Hubby is on his second marriage (I’m wife #2), I’m on my first and only.  Each day we choose not to go to a divorce lawyer.  Instead, we go visit our pastor weekly for counselling.  Some weeks are better than others.  When we put God in the middle and focus on Him, our week goes so much better, we are cordial to each other, we don’t set each other off in tirades that go nowhere, and there’s less stress.  When we forego our bible reading, praying, etc, the train derails and there’s mass casualties.

If your marriage needs help, don’t be afraid to go to your pastor and seek counselling.  Sometimes it takes an outside view, from someone who has a biblical view and knowledge, to help.  That outside view, along with biblical insight, can help diffuse situations, help us take a look at things in a different light.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

God created marriage, between woman and man.  He must be the center of your marriage, or it won’t be the marriage it can and should be.  Picture it as a triangle, with husband and wife at opposite side of the base.  If we focus on God, we can’t help but come together.  If we don’t focus on Him, we’re going to stay far from each other.  It’s up to us to decide what we want.

I am not a perfect wife.  I have many flaws.  I am stubborn.  I am strong, to a fault at times.  I see in black and white with no real room for gray.  I have high expectations, and there’s times my husband cannot (or won’t) live up to them.  I can growl and bark with the best of them.  Oh there’s more…believe me there’s more….

It’s taken some drastic things to make me step back and say..”help..”  There’s been occasions that I would walk away if I had chance.  But the Lord will not let me.  Instead He finds ways to encourage and build.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help.  Don’t think that all marriages are perfect, based on the outward view from the pew or blog or anywhere else.  We are human, with lots of room needed for growth.

Stay focused on the Lord, and He will guide you.

Finding Peace In Chaos

Chaos seems to be all over.  You’ve seen it, in the newspaper, on tv, heard it on the radio.  You’ve heard of the “Occupy” movements that leaves parks cluttered and creates an unruly bunch of people demanding something for nothing.  You’ve seen the people who choose to take a weapon to a public locale and kill/wound others.  You’ve heard of the global economic situation.

It  all runs together and creates a big chaotic mess.

The devil loves it!  He loves seeing people killing one another, hoping to bring more to hell with him.  He tries to keep people from focusing on the Lord, from enjoying the peace of God, the comfort and joy of knowing the Love of the Lord.  Satan rejoices the more the world declines.

But do not be deceived….Satan won’t be happy forever.

Jesus has already defeated Satan.  He did this a long time ago.  Jesus defeated death and hell.  He withstood all the things the devil threw at Him in temptation.

Dear friend, don’t feel like a failure if you don’t withstand each temptation.  The devil tries hard to keep a Christian from living for Jesus, and uses any means he can concoct to keep us from doing just that.  He knows our weaknesses and plays on them.  Something you’ve tried hard to overcome and with Jesus, you have–the devil will use that very thing to work at you, to try to put a divider between you and Christ.

The devil is working overtime right now, he knows his time is nearly over.  He knows how the story ends better than many Christians, and he wants to take as many of us with him as he can.  He creates chaos in the world around us to keep people in upheavel, to get people to curse God, deny Jesus.  He wants us Christians to turn away from the Lord.

No matter how hard life gets, no matter how much chaos in our lives…don’t turn away.  Stay with the Lord and Savior, and He shall take care of you.  Life isn’t perfect and easy as a Christian, regardless of what the health and wealth crowd teaches….but Jesus didn’t promise and easy life.  He just promised to be with us through it and all the way through eternity!

We’re sharing our post at:

Growing Pains

A few weeks ago Miss Jess brought home a little cutting of a plant.  The little thing had 3 leaves and no root system, but it was lodged in a cup of soil and ready to start out.  Miss Jess left it on her dresser for a few days and didn’t mention she had it, but I found it when putting away clothes.  I put some water in it and set it in the kitchen window.

2 weeks later, we had doubled leaves!!  YAY!  Miss Jess was excited as can be to see her little plant growing.  4 weeks later, we have the plant above…with more leaves than before.

As I watched this little fledgling plant grow, it made me think of not only growing physically, but also growing in God.

Growing and blooming in the Lord is much like this little plant growing in the cup.  This little plant needs nutrients, water, and sunlight.  We need nutrients, water, which we get from the Bible and good solid preaching, and Sonlight, which is pretty obvious where it comes from.

Growing in the Lord also comes with growing pains.  We get where we are comfortable in our lives, or we get stuck in a rut and spin out.  We get festered in an area and need healing.  We get a sin boil that needs tended to.  It hurts, it gets inflamed, just like the real thing.

God the Great Physician takes care of the sin boil, taking away the sin and forgiving us.  He takes the infection and heals, making us whole again.  If He didn’t, we wouldn’t heal, we’d get more infected, and get sicker and sicker.  Just look at an unsaved person refusing God…how well do they look in their lives?

The Lord has worked on me as well, and I’ve had my own growing pains recently.  There’s been a lesson I needed to learn, and God put me in a position to learn it whether I really wanted to or not.  It hurt.  A lot.  But once the Lord tended to the infection in my heart that was winding its way through to other areas in my life, I feel a lot better.  The infection affected how I treated my family, how I handled things, etc.  With healing, I am better.  That sin boil is gone!

Growing pains come with being a child of God.  God wants us to look just like Jesus.  He’s crazy about His Son, and wants us to be like Him in all manners.  He will mold us, chisel away at us, take out what needs taking away, adding what needs added, in order for us to be more like Jesus.  It’s not always pleasant, but it’s worth it.

Much like watching this plant grow…

Home Sweet Home

It’s late at night and the house is quiet.  Not a creature is stirring, except for the little Blue Russian kitty.  The wind is blowing hard outside, up to 45 mph gusts that shake and rattle the house.

I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

I had opportunity to spend some time this weekend endulging in some Waltons dvds, and noticed the ongoing theme of how mom (Olivia) and Grandma were home bodies and tended the home and the needs of the family.  They made home cooked meals, washed on a washboard (til John Boy worked his hiney off and bought mom a second hand wringer washer), made their dairy products with milk from their own cows, ironed clothes, made clothing on a treadle sewing machine and by hand, etc.  The 2 women stayed busy all day tending their home and family.  No going and gossiping with the local ladies, no chatting on a phone (or computer) all day long.

Ok, I know that the Waltons is a fictional series.  But there’s somethings that can be gleaned from even the fictional lives played out there.  We’re in a society that tells us women we have to go out and work 80 hours a week at a job we don’t like for a boss we hate and then come home and work on maybe throwing a take out meal together and sleeping.  We’re told to hold off on families, to limit the number of children we should have in order to keep climbing “the ladder”, and if we get pregnant, to abort that interfering child.  We’re told that we’re liberated, that we should wait until later to marry, but go ahead and test drive some men from our teen years on up til marriage.  Our society even tells us to go ahead and test drive a woman or two as well.  We’re told we need to be a size 6 or smaller, we just have to have all the latest fashions on the catwalk, and if we don’t look like an anorexic runway model, we’re too fat for any man out there.

What happened to the days of old?

I hate to say it, but not too awfully long ago, I was too of the mindset of this world.  I was one to hold down a full time job and a part time one as well to earn as much money as I could.  I didn’t NEED it, nor did I have dependents that needed me to earn.  I just WANTED it.  I also fell into the false theory of test driving the car before buying, only on a dating scale.  I bought into the feminist lie that you must go out with and even sleep with many in order to find that elusive “one”.  I bought hook, line, and sinker, every single lie of the world, that things make you happy, children are a burden, and work work work work and build the bank accounts first and foremost and make that an idol.

NO more!

Today, I am blessed.  I am able to stay at home, to cook home made, from scratch meals for my family.  They may not all like what’s fixed, but there’s hot food on the table.  I am blessed to have constant dirty dishes, as they show that I have food to eat and family to sit around my table and enjoy a meal.

I am blessed to be able to stay home.  I do not have the desire or drive to work multiple jobs and long drawn out hours away from home.  I can go days without leaving home if need be.  There’s plenty of work to be done around the house, it is in itself a full time job.  Sure the monitary pay is minimal to none, but the rewards are more than money can buy.

I am blessed to have the family around me.  Some days they drive me insane, and the thought of spending a nice relaxing vacation at the local psych unit has crossed my mind, but they are my family nonetheless.  Had I stuck with the mindset I had, I would not have them.

I am blessed to have a husband who doesn’t care that I am not a size 6 or below and am absolutely not anorexic.  I do not have to be a stick thin model for him.  I can have curves and padding, an imperfect non-airbrushed body that real women have.  He doesn’t expect me to be the epitome of fashion as well.  I don’t have to have high end clothing and 100 pairs of shoes to have what I need.  A simple dress and pair of shoes suffices.

We really need to look back behind us, to the women who came before us.  We’d do good to learn from the days gone by, from the Depression era when women had to stretch everything to make ends meet.  We need to learn to do more on our own, from cooking to sewing, to homemaking and being there for our families instead of out of our homes.  The lies of the feminist movement have taken so much from us, but we women don’t have to believe the lies.

I fear I’ve rattled on….  It’s late into the night and morning comes so soon…  You all have a blessed night and good morning to come!

 

 

Peace Like A River

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Ah, I love this hymn….”It Is Well With My Soul”…  It is so..well..peaceful.

It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul. 

In all the turmoil that surrounds us, in our every day lives, this is an excellent reminder!

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul. 

Such peace in these words…  Christ shed His blood for me!  And for YOU too!  That someone would love me so much as to die for me and take my sins upon him, that brings much peace to the soul!

Won’t you today find the peace that only comes from Jesus?

Happy New Year!

It’s now 2012, and time to set goals for the new year.  I don’t say resolutions, as those tend to be tossed by the wayside so easily.  Goals seem more attainable, if that makes sense.

My goal list is very simple–to minister more to my family in the coming year, with more peace and joy in my heart that also shows toward my husband and children.  It may mean not taking on many (if any) outside the home projects on my own.  It may mean putting my own desires aside more than I already do.  It may mean holding back a temper that seems to flare under many conditions.

It may mean doing things outside of my comfort zone.

This year I pray I can be in church with my family more.  Not just myself, not just myself and children, but myself, hubby, and children.  I pray all three children can handle what is taught, handle the movement of children around them, and be attentive to their teachers whether they want to or not.  I pray that the people at church are more sensitive to their having autism, MR, bi polar, severe adhd, etc diagnosis and not just lump them in with everyone expecting the same outcome as everyone else.  I also pray that my own heart will once again be more joyful in being in services.  The soil of my heart has started drying up for all the happenings in the past year on the homefront and otherwise, and I pray for the spiritual drought to end.

Another goal is to one day have the entire house clean at the same time.  Even if it only lasts 15 minutes..to have it all totally clean, before someone makes yet another mess.  I would like my family to get the chance to see the entire home clean and sparkly before they run through and trash it yet again.

Next goal is to raise a beautiful garden and put away the fruit of it.  My goal is taking over the front yard (best sun light) and plant many tomatoes, peppers, squash, a few okra, and line with pretty flowers and herbs.  Then, can what I am able to or freeze the produce.  I pray hubby finds work and is able to purchase the canning supplies in order for me to put away plenty of food for the coming year, to best stretch our food budget and give us a healthier diet.

My last goal is to work harder on our shops.  It was a tough year, with little done in the shops. I’m praying that I am able to sit and work on skirts, blouses, jumpers, dresses, etc to offer in my Artfire and Etsy shops.

The one thing I pray for most of all…for Jesus to take us believers all home–in that moment, in that twinkling of an eye, when the dead in Christ rise first, then those of us awaiting His call to go home.  This old world grows more evil by the day, and I grow so weary in it.  This world is not my home..I’m just a passin’ through.

Is this your prayer, that you should see Jesus today?  If you don’t look forward to seeing Jesus, if you don’t know where you’d be if He would come today and take His children home, you should read here–The Gift of Salvation .  It is free for the offering, if you’ll choose to accept!

The Value of Compassion

The value of compassion cannot be over-emphasized. Anyone can criticize. It  takes a true believer to be compassionate. No greater burden can be borne by an  individual than to know no one cares or understands.

===Thomas Merton

Content In My Own Skin

I was thinking this morning (yes, even before the coffee pot heated up!) about contentedness.  Not just in the things that I have, but in the body I’m in, the house that we call “home” for now, and the life I live.  How do I look at these things?  Do I want for more (notice I said want, not need)?  Do I want to significantly change what I have to be like everyone else?

Let me tell you–I’m not above an occasional pity party.  You know the kind–why me?  Why here?  Why can’t I have nice things without the kids/hubby/cats tearing them up/breaking them/destroying them?  Why can’t my body lose this weight and keep it off?  Why can’t we move to a house that isn’t old and drafty and doesn’t even remotely resemble the ones in Better Homes and Gardens?  Why can’t my kids be like normal kids?  Face it–you’ve had a thought similar to those at some point in time in your life too–just go ahead and admit it and then ask the Lord to forgive it and let’s go on.

I’ve had my share of those pity parties.  As things get a little (or a lot) tighter financially, as the children grow older and have more problems related to autism and adhd, as my own body grows older and has more aches and pains and problems (you’d think I’m old by how I talk–I’m only 34), I tend to slip up and throw a pity party for 1.  I have had times of not being content in my skin.

This is a sin.

Paul speaks about contentedness in Phillipians 4:11

  Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

This comes from the man who started out as a Pharisee, blinded on the Damascus Road, found Salvation in Jesus Christ, and joined the very people he’d been persecuting.  He found contentment in being imprisoned for Christ, being nearly killed many times and suffering for Him.  He didn’t complain about not having a pretty house, perfect children, a perfect body, food to eat.  He counted all his inadequacies as a way to glorify God and serve Him more!

In I Timothy 6:8, Paul writes:  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

Convicting, isn’t it?  I know it sure is for me!

This morning, I want to lean the most on Hebrews 13:5, which says:

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

That promise of Jesus being with us no matter what…regardless of what we have, whether the things we have/are/want measure up to the world around us…that means more than having the perfect house, perfectly well behaved children, a size 6 body, or whatever else the world deems as “perfection”. 

We as believers have Jesus…THE only Perfection we need. 

We as believers don’t need to play “keeping up with the Jones” with the world around us, or even other believers.  If Jesus wanted us to be like the Jones family, He’d have made us all Jones (no offense to anyone reading this who has Jones for their name). 

He may have put us in a not so fancy house in a lower income neighborhood knowing that the rent and utilities would fit better into a tight budget than that fancier house across town.  He could well have foreseen a dramatic loss in income, an illness, something to make the lesser cost of the home a necessity at some point. 

He may have given us the children we have with the special needs they have knowing we’d have to lean on Him more than if we’d had life without those special needs.  He knew to give us the strengths and experiences ahead of time to handle those individual needs that many normal families find strange….

He may have given us the aches and pains for us to appreciate the pain free days, to appreciate the finer things, like breathing and sitting upright without assistance.  Like having extra padding to be able to handle the famine in the feast and famine times in our families.  I found that being fatter, when we go through the lean times (like in November when our income was pretty small and nothing to buy groceries with), I can go down to one meal or just a snack and give what I would normally allow myself to the family…I can keep going on my stored energy bank…keep doing the washboard, keep doing the scrubbing, the outside work, without having to fill up with more, and continue to feed my family.  Now I wouldn’t mind dropping off some of the storehouse I’ve got built. 🙂

He has given us a life He wants us to live.  It’s up to us to find contentment in it.

Book/Video Review: Hermie-Who’s In Charge Anyway?

I have been privileged to view this video from Tommy Nelson!  In fact, our whole family has viewed it..many times.

We like it so much, we purchased a few more in the Hermie series!

This particular DVD is a “greatest moments” styled show, with the learning moments for some of the major characters in the Hermie series.

Flo, Antonio, Hermie, Wormie, and the other characters share flashbacks of the way they were, their inadequacies, and where the Lord has brought them to.  They all share how God has made them and put them where they are in the Garden.

My children enjoyed watching this, and did so–over and over and over and over.  I enjoyed hearing Tim Conway and Don Knotts, whom I’d grown up seeing on tv and in videos and movies.  I like how the Hermie video is easy for special needs children to follow.  And based on that one video, we purchased 4 more!

I’d definitely recommend this dvd and the whole Hermie series!

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

 

The hymns we sing through the Christmas season have more doctrinal base in them than many people realize.  Stop and read the words of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”:

 

It came upon the midnight clear,

That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth

To touch their harps of gold!

“Peace on the earth, good will to men,

From heaven’s all gracious King!

The world in solemn stillness lay

To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come

With peaceful wings unfurled

And still their heavenly music floats

O’er all the weary world;

Above its sad and lowly plains

They bend on hovering wing.

And ever o’er its Babel sounds

The blessed angels sing.

 

Yet with the woes of sin and strife

The world hath suffered long;

Beneath the angel-strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not

The love song which they bring:

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing.

For lo!

the days are hastening on,

By prophet bards foretold,

When, with the ever-circling years,

Shall come the Age of Gold;

When peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendors fling,

And all the world give back the song

Which now the angels sing.

Jesus came to earth as a babe in a manger, born in a way one wouldn’t expect the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  He gave up all the glory of Heaven for 33 years, starting at the manger, to be the sacrificial lamb offered back to God for our sins.  Angel heralded His birth, Angels attended to him in His ministry, and Angels are there with Him now.

While we right now celebrate His birth, are you prepared for when He calls His chosen back  home?  If you died right now, would you go to Heaven and be with Jesus?

Romans 3:23  “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” We all have sin in our hearts. We all were born with sin. We were born under the power of sin’s control. – Admit that you are a sinner.

Romans 6:23a  “For the wages of sin is death…” Sin has an ending.  It results in death.  We all face physical death, which is a result of sin.  But a worse death is spiritual death that alienates us from God, and will last for all eternity.  The Bible teaches that there is a place called the Lake of Fire where lost people will be in torment forever.   It is the place where people who are spiritually dead will remain. – Understand that you deserve death for your sin.

Romans 6:23b  “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Salvation is a free gift from God to you!  You can’t earn this gift, but you must reach out and receive it. – Ask God to forgive you and save you.

Romans 5:8,  “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” When Jesus died on the cross He paid sin’s penalty. He paid the price for all sin, and when He took all the sins of the world on Himself on the cross, He bought us out of slavery to sin and death! The only condition is that we believe in Him and what He has done for us, understanding that  we are now joined with Him, and that He is our life.  He did all this because He loved us and gave Himself for us! – Give your life to God… His love poured out in Jesus on the cross is your only hope to have forgiveness and change.  His love bought you out of being a slave to sin.  His love is what saves you — not religion, or church membership.  God loves you!

Romans 10:13  “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” – Call out to God in the name of Jesus!

Romans 10:9,10  “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” – If you know that God is knocking on your heart’s door, ask Him to come into your heart.

Jesus said,

Revelation 3:20a “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” – Is Jesus knocking on your heart’s door?

Believe in Him.

Ask Him to come in to your heart by faith, and ask Him to reveal Himself to you.

Open the Bible to the Gospel of John and read what God says about Jesus, about you, and about being born again.

God will help you.  He loves you.

You need to look for a local church where God’s word is preached.  The Bible says that we are to desire God’s word like a newborn baby desires mother’s milk.

Aren’t you hungry to know the truth?

Water baptism is one of the ways you first show that you have been joined to Jesus.  This is an action, and actions will not save you.  However, it is an act of obedience and a symbol of commitment.

The symbolism is this:

When you go down in the water you show that You have been crucified and buried with Him, And when you come up out of the water you show that you have been raised to walk with Him in newness of life. (See Romans chapter 6)

You have been born again. (See John chapter 3)

Your body has become God’s temple. Your heart is where He lives.

Forgiveness is yours in Jesus. And you belong to Him.

You were sin’s slave. But now…

You are a child of GOD! John 1:12

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”

Romans Road found at KJV1611