Lesson from Monopoly

The other night my family decided to play the never ending game of Monopoly. I am not sure how it happened but my husband called me out on my lack of integrity. Okay, so maybe I do know how it happened. I had told him that if a player didn't notice that you landed on their property, you didn't have to pay them. He frowned at me. Can you believe it! A frown! "I'm not a child", I thought. I quipped back, "but it is just a game. That's how I was taught to play." As his words sunk in, I realized that integrity hadn't truly taken root in my life. Lord, even in the little things, show me YOUR way.

So, thank you, Brian for pointing me toward God's way.

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. (NLT)

Summer's End

Well, here I am again after another summer has come to an end without posting a SINGLE thing. I guess blogging and summer don't go together for me :)

The end of summer has brought along a few changes for us. First of all, we are DEBT FREE!!! Secondly, we are moving into a new home. And lastly, we are starting a new homeschool curriculum called Classical Conversations. We are so excited about what God has in store for us this year. I will be teaching a Spanish class and couldn't be happier to be using my degree, Finally!

This brings me to a prayer request that I have to bring before you. Our CC director's 9 year old son just had a brain tumor removed and is awaiting the biopsy results. Please pray for God's perfect peace to rest on the family. Please pray for healing and most of all pray for our great God to be glorified.

for HIS glory!

Adam and Eve

So today was an interesting day for one particular reason, God made the story of Adam and Eve come to life for me. I was watching preschool kids at church. I was able to take the kids outside because it was such a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine. It had rained the day before so unfortunately the slides were still wet. The other teacher and I repeated a few times that the kids should stay off of the slides. A couple of the kids even seemed a bit irritated because we kept repeating ourselves. About five minutes later we see a little boy going down the slide. We told him to come over so we could "talk". He explained that he wasn't at fault, it was the "girl" who made him do it. She told him to go down the slide. Wow! Doesn't that sound so familiar? That is exactly what happened in the beginning. The Bible is so amazing. The stories in it REALLY do apply to our lives today. God is such a good God that He gives us His Word to guide us as we try to navigate our way through this life.

for His glory!

Forgiveness

It hit me like a ton of bricks last week. I AM the man in the parable who was forgiven a large debt by the king. Like him, I struggle to forgive the man (or child) who, in turn, "owes" me. Usually it is my girls who face "my" justice side with little to no mercy. Why? Why do I rejoice at the forgiveness God has given me and then turn right around, indignant at my children's mistakes? They ask for forgiveness and I look at them as though they have three heads. Forgive? I have a hard time forgiving them because I have a good memory. I know that just a minute ago they committed the same offense against me and now they are doing it again. There is a pattern of wrong in their lives. But am I any different? How many days do I also turn to ask for forgiveness from my Heavenly Father and confess the same sins? Often. Too often. Lord, help me to be as forgiving as you are. Thank you, Lord for your amazing grace! Help me be an example to my children of You and Your forgiveness-and remember the trespasses no more!

for HIS glory!

Willingly amputate?

I started writing this post almost a year ago. I haven't published it until now because I felt like it needed some revising so here goes; Marriage was designed by God as extremely important, it should be highly valued and should be kept beautiful because it represents the unconditional love God has toward us, his image bearers.

After talking about marriage as beautiful it might seem strange to have given this post such a strange title. I guess amputation and marriage don't really have a clear connection but in my mind they do. A few times over the last week or so (or year) I have been talking to friends or listening to someone talk about marriage. While we were talking I realized just how literally I take the verse from Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife; and they shall become ONE flesh. (see also Mark 10:7-9) I realized that most times I feel like my husband and I ARE one. Our names are usually said together. When people think about one of us, they immediately think of the other. Marriage partners are like two peas in a pod. They are individuals but they belong together because they are housed in the same "pod". Okay now I'm getting to the amputation connection. If we are one flesh in God's eyes, is it okay to divorce? In Mark 10:9 it says, "What therefore God has joined together, let NO man separate." Does God really mean what He says? Are these words truth or just empty rhetoric? Going back to the pea pod example. If we take the two peas out of their pod, they are no longer whole as a pea pod. They are just two little peas. I see divorce as willingly amputating a part of our self. God has brought two people together or allowed them to marry, thus, they should stay married. "...for better or for worse".

Here is a link to an interesting article on the damage divorce has caused our country.


for HIS glory!

Freedom?

So the last few days I have been struggling. Struggling with freedom. God has given us freedom in Him; freedom to eat what we want, freedom to make choices for ourselves, freedom from sin (I like that one). Yesterday was the final day of a 40 day fast and I feel sad. Sad that I now have to make MY own food choices again. I liked dedicating my food choices every day, every meal to HIM. Eating only what I promised Him I would eat. Now I have freedom again. Freedom is great but I am a rule follower. As a rule follower, freedom is hard. Couple that with no self control and I can have problems. If food is there, I eat it. Thank you, Lord for freedom. Help me to make wise choices when it comes to food and to life. Lord, thank you for these past 40 days to connect with you in a different way than I have ever done before.

How about you? Is freedom a blessing ALL the time for you or can it make things difficult because of your flesh?

Great God

Today I have been mulling over our great God. He truly is amazing. Every night I pray for my kids that they will know how great it is to have Him as our God. I mean, think about it. He made the world and everything in it. AMAZING! He has no beginning or end! INCOMPREHENSIBLE! He sent His Son to earth to save us, even though we are sinners, HUMBLING! We get to have a personal relationship with Him when we ask Him to be our Savior and Lord. WOW! You amaze me God. Thank you for being my GOD. Help to serve you all my days!

for His glory!

Little Child

Matthew 18:2&3 He(Jesus) called a little child to him, and placed the child among them(disciples). And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

This point was so truly spoken to my heart today. My oldest daughter has been saving her money from the tooth fairy, collecting donations from friends and Daddy with the desire to purchase Bibles for those you don't have one. Today was the first day she was able to buy one and she was thrilled. We walked into Lifeway, picked out a nice Bible, and she went up to the counter with her dollar bills and coins. It was so precious. When we got out to the car we prayed together for the person God had appointed to receive the Bible. I asked Ginny which way we should drive to "find" our gift recipient and we were off. We found a man holding a sign asking for "anything" so Ginny decided to give him the Bible along with a bottle of water and a gift card to McDonald's. I pray I will "become like" her.

Thank you, Lord for Ginny's heart for the lost.

for His glory!

Debt, the way of the world?

Okay, so some of you are definitely going to think my family is crazy but we are about to embark on a new adventure. You see, about two years ago I graduated with a BA in Spanish. That was a pretty exciting time to me since I was was almost 10 years overdue. Most people graduate at 21 but I was at the ripe old age of 30. Well, to make a long story short, we are STILL paying for my schooling. We try to be wise and frugal with our money but we have not been able to pay off this debt and it is weighing heavily on us. My husband and I made the decision (with the permission of my parents) that we would move in with my Mom and Dad for about 6 months so we could hit our debt hard. Brian and I have been listening to Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University CDs which have lit a fire under us to get going on our debt. We pray, with the Lord's blessing, that we will be able to pay off my school loans in six months. As Dave Ramsey says, "Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else!"

My family covets your prayers as we pack, move, live with my parents, try to pay off our debt and look for a new home.

Debt free, here we come!!!!

for His glory!

Measuring up

Have you every set up "rules" for yourself when starting something new and failed to follow them? I did. I quit after I saw that I couldn't keep up with my made up rules or with others who participate in the same activity, blogging. Everyone else seems to write so well. Everyone else seems to write so often. Everyone else seems to have better topics. Everyone else... Over the past few months I have had so many good ideas for a blog entry but have ignored God's call to write them because I feel like a failure. God has used a few things in my life to bring me back to this blogging thing He has called me to. The main thing He used is the Daniel fast. My husband and I are on our 17th day of a 40 day fast (from just a few food groups). God has been AMAZING over these days showing us things from His Word and through prayer. God showed me through His Word that He can use anyone. He chose Moses even though he stuttered, He chose Rahab even though she was a harlot, He chose Joshua even though he was really old, and the list goes on.

I am so blessed to serve a God you can use "failures" or those who don't measure up!