Our Hearts

We are going to talk about our hearts.  What is really in your heart?  How do we know if what’s in our heart is a desire from Christ or a desire of our own selfishness?  The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace has a lot to say on this subject!

We are going to address our day-to-day heart’s devotion. Everyday we are worshiping something.  Is it Christ?  We worship what we “serve, speak about, sacrifice for, seek after, spend time and money on, and trust in”.

“You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 26:1 ESV.

We have to be brutally honest with ourselves.  We can not hide from God what is in our hearts.  Is your devotion completely and totally on Christ?  Idols and lusts are wild in our hearts.  We set our eyes and hearts on something and want to attain it so badly!  Think about this for a minute… do you “lust” after that new Coach bag?  Do you desire to keep up with the Jones, not seeing all that God has blessed you with?  Do you put your facebook time ahead of time with God?  Do you watch your favorite television shows before spending time with God?

God wants (demands that!) our focus to be on Christ and Christ alone.  We as believers have a God-given capacity to have a pure devotion to and worship of the Lord, but we also frequently struggle with other “gods”.

Martha gives us a list of Common Idols (“False Gods”) we might be struggling with:

1. Good Health.

2. Physical Appearance.

3. Having a Christian marriage.

4. Being treated fairly.

5. Having a hurt / pain-free life.

6. Worldly pleasures (drugs, alcohol, sex, etc.).

7. A child or children.

8. Another person (man or woman).

9. A material thing.

10. An ideal (“pro-life movement”, “peace movement”).

11. Money.

12. Success.

13. Others’ approval.

14. Being in control.

15. Having your “needs” met.

Do any of these look familiar?  Did any of these surprise you?  As you read the list, did anything touch your heart?

When things are going well in an area you have you heart on, you feel like everything is right in the world.  But when things don’t turn out like you hoped, or you are beginning to struggle, you begin to get frustrated.  The desire is so great!  You will do anything to get it all back on track again!  Your mind begins to struggle with “what can I do to make this right?”  I know I’ve been there!  We’ve all been there if we are being completely honest with ourselves.  We begin to think that we have all the answers, we can do this!

I wanted a relationship built on trust and love.  I was in a relationship that was anything but.  I put so much energy and thought into making it into what I thought it should be.  It consumed my thoughts.  When troubles would hit, I would make excuses and try that much harder.  I know now that the relationship I imagined was an idol.  Had I been a Christian then… things would have been so very different.  I’m sure you have examples too.

I never thought during my struggles that maybe, just maybe, God was trying to break up my relationship with my “idol”?  I know now that He was… over and over again.  (Isn’t hind-sight wonderful?)

God wants devotion, our thoughts, our energies on Him!  He is a jealous God after all.

“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” Matthew 22:37-38 ESV.

God must be our deepest longing, desire and refuge.  Our thoughts should be on glorifying Him, not on our heart’s desire.  We need to be like David, the Psalmist!  Let’s read Psalm 119 together.

Psalm 119  The Message (MSG)

119 ^1-8 You’re blessed when you stay on course,
    walking steadily on the road revealed by God.
You’re blessed when you follow his directions,
    doing your best to find him.
That’s right—you don’t go off on your own;
    you walk straight along the road he set.
You, God, prescribed the right way to live;
    now you expect us to live it.
Oh, that my steps might be steady,
    keeping to the course you set;
Then I’d never have any regrets
    in comparing my life with your counsel.
I thank you for speaking straight from your heart;
    I learn the pattern of your righteous ways.
I’m going to do what you tell me to do;
    don’t ever walk off and leave me.

^9-16 How can a young person live a clean life?
    By carefully reading the map of your Word.
I’m single-minded in pursuit of you;
    don’t let me miss the road signs you’ve posted.
I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart
    so I won’t sin myself bankrupt.
Be blessed, God;
    train me in your ways of wise living.
I’ll transfer to my lips
    all the counsel that comes from your mouth;
I delight far more in what you tell me about living
    than in gathering a pile of riches.
I ponder every morsel of wisdom from you,
    I attentively watch how you’ve done it.
I relish everything you’ve told me of life,
    I won’t forget a word of it.

^17-24 Be generous with me and I’ll live a full life;
    not for a minute will I take my eyes off your road.
Open my eyes so I can see
    what you show me of your miracle-wonders.
I’m a stranger in these parts;
    give me clear directions.
My soul is starved and hungry, ravenous!—
    insatiable for your nourishing commands.
And those who think they know so much,
    ignoring everything you tell them—let them have it!
Don’t let them mock and humiliate me;
    I’ve been careful to do just what you said.
While bad neighbors maliciously gossip about me,
    I’m absorbed in pondering your wise counsel.
Yes, your sayings on life are what give me delight;
    I listen to them as to good neighbors!

^25-32 I’m feeling terrible—I couldn’t feel worse!
    Get me on my feet again. You promised, remember?
When I told my story, you responded;
    train me well in your deep wisdom.
Help me understand these things inside and out
    so I can ponder your miracle-wonders.
My sad life’s dilapidated, a falling-down barn;
    build me up again by your Word.
Barricade the road that goes Nowhere;
    grace me with your clear revelation.
I choose the true road to Somewhere,
    I post your road signs at every curve and corner.
I grasp and cling to whatever you tell me;
    God, don’t let me down!
I’ll run the course you lay out for me
    if you’ll just show me how.

^33-40 God, teach me lessons for living
    so I can stay the course.
Give me insight so I can do what you tell me—
    my whole life one long, obedient response.
Guide me down the road of your commandments;
    I love traveling this freeway!
Give me a bent for your words of wisdom,
    and not for piling up loot.
Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets,
    invigorate me on the pilgrim way.
Affirm your promises to me—
    promises made to all who fear you.
Deflect the harsh words of my critics—
    but what you say is always so good.
See how hungry I am for your counsel;
    preserve my life through your righteous ways!

^41-48 Let your love, God, shape my life
    with salvation, exactly as you promised;
Then I’ll be able to stand up to mockery
    because I trusted your Word.
Don’t ever deprive me of truth, not ever—
    your commandments are what I depend on.
Oh, I’ll guard with my life what you’ve revealed to me,
    guard it now, guard it ever;
And I’ll stride freely through wide open spaces
    as I look for your truth and your wisdom;
Then I’ll tell the world what I find,
    speak out boldly in public, unembarrassed.
I cherish your commandments—oh, how I love them!—
    relishing every fragment of your counsel.

^49-56 Remember what you said to me, your servant—
    I hang on to these words for dear life!
These words hold me up in bad times;
    yes, your promises rejuvenate me.
The insolent ridicule me without mercy,
    but I don’t budge from your revelation.
I watch for your ancient landmark words,
    and know I’m on the right track.
But when I see the wicked ignore your directions,
    I’m beside myself with anger.
I set your instructions to music
    and sing them as I walk this pilgrim way.
I meditate on your name all night, God,
    treasuring your revelation, O God.
Still, I walk through a rain of derision
    because I live by your Word and counsel.

^57-64 Because you have satisfied me, God, I promise
    to do everything you say.
I beg you from the bottom of my heart: smile,
    be gracious to me just as you promised.
When I took a long, careful look at your ways,
    I got my feet back on the trail you blazed.
I was up at once, didn’t drag my feet,
    was quick to follow your orders.
The wicked hemmed me in—there was no way out—
    but not for a minute did I forget your plan for me.
I get up in the middle of the night to thank you;
    your decisions are so right, so true—I can’t wait till morning!
I’m a friend and companion of all who fear you,
    of those committed to living by your rules.
Your love, God, fills the earth!
    Train me to live by your counsel.

^65-72 Be good to your servant, God;
    be as good as your Word.
Train me in good common sense;
    I’m thoroughly committed to living your way.
Before I learned to answer you, I wandered all over the place,
    but now I’m in step with your Word.
You are good, and the source of good;
    train me in your goodness.
The godless spread lies about me,
    but I focus my attention on what you are saying;
They’re bland as a bucket of lard,
    while I dance to the tune of your revelation.
My troubles turned out all for the best—
    they forced me to learn from your textbook.
Truth from your mouth means more to me
    than striking it rich in a gold mine.

^73-80 With your very own hands you formed me;
    now breathe your wisdom over me so I can understand you.
When they see me waiting, expecting your Word,
    those who fear you will take heart and be glad.
I can see now, God, that your decisions are right;
    your testing has taught me what’s true and right.
Oh, love me—and right now!—hold me tight!
    just the way you promised.
Now comfort me so I can live, really live;
    your revelation is the tune I dance to.
Let the fast-talking tricksters be exposed as frauds;
    they tried to sell me a bill of goods,
    but I kept my mind fixed on your counsel.
Let those who fear you turn to me
    for evidence of your wise guidance.
And let me live whole and holy, soul and body,
    so I can always walk with my head held high.

^81-88 I’m homesick—longing for your salvation;
    I’m waiting for your word of hope.
My eyes grow heavy watching for some sign of your promise;
    how long must I wait for your comfort?
There’s smoke in my eyes—they burn and water,
    but I keep a steady gaze on the instructions you post.
How long do I have to put up with all this?
    How long till you haul my tormentors into court?
The arrogant godless try to throw me off track,
    ignorant as they are of God and his ways.
Everything you command is a sure thing,
    but they harass me with lies. Help!
They’ve pushed and pushed—they never let up—
    but I haven’t relaxed my grip on your counsel.
In your great love revive me
    so I can alertly obey your every word.

^89-96 What you say goes, God,
    and stays, as permanent as the heavens.
Your truth never goes out of fashion;
    it’s as up-to-date as the earth when the sun comes up.
Your Word and truth are dependable as ever;
    that’s what you ordered—you set the earth going.
If your revelation hadn’t delighted me so,
    I would have given up when the hard times came.
But I’ll never forget the advice you gave me;
    you saved my life with those wise words.
Save me! I’m all yours.
    I look high and low for your words of wisdom.
The wicked lie in ambush to destroy me,
    but I’m only concerned with your plans for me.
I see the limits to everything human,
    but the horizons can’t contain your commands!

^97-104 Oh, how I love all you’ve revealed;
    I reverently ponder it all the day long.
Your commands give me an edge on my enemies;
    they never become obsolete.
I’ve even become smarter than my teachers
    since I’ve pondered and absorbed your counsel.
I’ve become wiser than the wise old sages
    simply by doing what you tell me.
I watch my step, avoiding the ditches and ruts of evil
    so I can spend all my time keeping your Word.
I never make detours from the route you laid out;
    you gave me such good directions.
Your words are so choice, so tasty;
    I prefer them to the best home cooking.
With your instruction, I understand life;
    that’s why I hate false propaganda.

^105-112 By your words I can see where I’m going;
    they throw a beam of light on my dark path.
I’ve committed myself and I’ll never turn back
    from living by your righteous order.
Everything’s falling apart on me, God;
    put me together again with your Word.
Festoon me with your finest sayings, God;
    teach me your holy rules.
My life is as close as my own hands,
    but I don’t forget what you have revealed.
The wicked do their best to throw me off track,
    but I don’t swerve an inch from your course.
I inherited your book on living; it’s mine forever—
    what a gift! And how happy it makes me!
I concentrate on doing exactly what you say—
    I always have and always will.

^113-120 I hate the two-faced,
    but I love your clear-cut revelation.
You’re my place of quiet retreat;
    I wait for your Word to renew me.
Get out of my life, evildoers,
    so I can keep my God’s commands.
Take my side as you promised; I’ll live then for sure.
    Don’t disappoint all my grand hopes.
Stick with me and I’ll be all right;
    I’ll give total allegiance to your definitions of life.
Expose all who drift away from your sayings;
    their casual idolatry is lethal.
You reject earth’s wicked as so much rubbish;
    therefore I lovingly embrace everything you say.
I shiver in awe before you;
    your decisions leave me speechless with reverence.

^121-128 I stood up for justice and the right;
    don’t leave me to the mercy of my oppressors.
Take the side of your servant, good God;
    don’t let the godless take advantage of me.
I can’t keep my eyes open any longer, waiting for you
    to keep your promise to set everything right.
Let your love dictate how you deal with me;
    teach me from your textbook on life.
I’m your servant—help me understand what that means,
    the inner meaning of your instructions.
It’s time to act, God;
    they’ve made a shambles of your revelation!
Yea-Saying God, I love what you command,
    I love it better than gold and gemstones;
Yea-Saying God, I honor everything you tell me,
    I despise every deceitful detour.

^129-136 Every word you give me is a miracle word—
    how could I help but obey?
Break open your words, let the light shine out,
    let ordinary people see the meaning.
Mouth open and panting,
    I wanted your commands more than anything.
Turn my way, look kindly on me,
    as you always do to those who personally love you.
Steady my steps with your Word of promise
    so nothing malign gets the better of me.
Rescue me from the grip of bad men and women
    so I can live life your way.
Smile on me, your servant;
    teach me the right way to live.
I cry rivers of tears
    because nobody’s living by your book!

^137-144 You are right and you do right, God;
    your decisions are right on target.
You rightly instruct us in how to live
    ever faithful to you.
My rivals nearly did me in,
    they persistently ignored your commandments.
Your promise has been tested through and through,
    and I, your servant, love it dearly.
I’m too young to be important,
    but I don’t forget what you tell me.
Your righteousness is eternally right,
    your revelation is the only truth.
Even though troubles came down on me hard,
    your commands always gave me delight.
The way you tell me to live is always right;
    help me understand it so I can live to the fullest.

^145-152 I call out at the top of my lungs,
    “God! Answer! I’ll do whatever you say.”
I called to you, “Save me
    so I can carry out all your instructions.”
I was up before sunrise,
    crying for help, hoping for a word from you.
I stayed awake all night,
    prayerfully pondering your promise.
In your love, listen to me;
    in your justice, God, keep me alive.
As those out to get me come closer and closer,
    they go farther and farther from the truth you reveal;
But you’re the closest of all to me, God,
    and all your judgments true.
I’ve known all along from the evidence of your words
    that you meant them to last forever.

^153-160 Take a good look at my trouble, and help me—
    I haven’t forgotten your revelation.
Take my side and get me out of this;
    give me back my life, just as you promised.
“Salvation” is only gibberish to the wicked
    because they’ve never looked it up in your dictionary.
Your mercies, God, run into the billions;
    following your guidelines, revive me.
My antagonists are too many to count,
    but I don’t swerve from the directions you gave.
I took one look at the quitters and was filled with loathing;
    they walked away from your promises so casually!
Take note of how I love what you tell me;
    out of your life of love, prolong my life.
Your words all add up to the sum total: Truth.
    Your righteous decisions are eternal.

^161-168 I’ve been slandered unmercifully by the politicians,
    but my awe at your words keeps me stable.
I’m ecstatic over what you say,
    like one who strikes it rich.
I hate lies—can’t stand them!—
    but I love what you have revealed.
Seven times each day I stop and shout praises
    for the way you keep everything running right.
For those who love what you reveal, everything fits—
    no stumbling around in the dark for them.
I wait expectantly for your salvation;
    God, I do what you tell me.
My soul guards and keeps all your instructions—
    oh, how much I love them!
I follow your directions, abide by your counsel;
    my life’s an open book before you.

^169-176 Let my cry come right into your presence, God;
    provide me with the insight that comes only from your Word.
Give my request your personal attention,
    rescue me on the terms of your promise.
Let praise cascade off my lips;
    after all, you’ve taught me the truth about life!
And let your promises ring from my tongue;
    every order you’ve given is right.
Put your hand out and steady me
    since I’ve chosen to live by your counsel.
I’m homesick, God, for your salvation;
    I love it when you show yourself!
Invigorate my soul so I can praise you well,
    use your decrees to put iron in my soul.
And should I wander off like a lost sheep—seek me!
    I’ll recognize the sound of your voice.

David had a passion , a longing to know God, to follow His ways, to obey Him.  David wanted what God wanted, no matter what the cost.  We can have that same passionate desire and delight in the Lord, too!

We need to focus our thoughts and hearts on what God is like and how He is working in our lives.  All we need to do is ask and seek Him through His Word, in prayer with Him.

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4 ESV.

A lot to think about…A lot to pray about….

Until we meet again… In Love

Understanding A Wife’s Role

God, as always, has a perfect plan for our marriages.  We are beginning to understand that being a “helper”  is the task that God has assigned to us in our marriages.  Our goal is to glorify God.  Now is the time when we will get into God’s perspective of what this means.

Martha Peace gives us some ideas in her book The Excellent Wife:

God’s Perspective

1.  Men and women are created in the image of God.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27 ESV.

We agree that we are created in God’s image, don’t we?  So each of us have certain tasks we must complete.  For example, we are to be in charge of God’s creation to glorify God in all we do.

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26 ESV.

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

We are also accountable to God by making responsible choices.  The right choices putting God first.

“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.” Romans 3:19 ESV.

Every moment of every day, we have  a big decision to make …Will I serve God?  Will I follow Christ? When we make the decision to serve God, we also make the decision to come to Him and let the Holy Spirit guide us in our decisions.  In that way, we learn to make responsible choices.

“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

2.  In the order of creation, man was created first.

“For Adam was formed first, then Eve;” 1 Timothy 2:13 ESV

The order of creation is important and not something that should just be cast aside.  Adam (man) was created to rule over the earth.  Eve (woman) was created to help Adam in the role that God gave to him.  Though both were created in God’s image we each have different roles and duties to do for God.

3.  Woman was created for the man, not man for the woman.

“For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.” 1 Corinthians 11:7-9. ESV.

Paul is telling us about God’s original intent ~ man is to glorify God and the woman is glorify the man.

Martha elaborates by using the Trinity, in which there is perfect harmony,  as the example.  “Within the Trinity there are three distinct roles:

The planner who makes the plans – God the Father.

The one who carries out the plans – God the Son.

The who also carries out the plans as well as keeps and empowers Christians – God the Spirit.”

All are satisfied with their roles, there are no “power plays”.  Also, look who gets the glory?  God!  Jesus glorified the Father by doing the Father’s work. We are to also glorify the Father by glorifying our husbands.  We were created for him.

4. The effects of the fall of man.

God created man (husbands) as the rulers over the earth.  God created woman (wives) to be their helpers.  (Yes, I need to keep repeating it because it’s important!)  There was harmony between them, each were fulfilling their roles as God intended them to be fulfilled.  Life was sweet! Then Eve ate that apple (shaking my head) so God pronounced judgment on both of them.  Part of this judgment was a power struggle between them.  Both, Adam and Eve, wanted to be the one in charge (that control issue again).

“To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.  Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” Genesis 3:16 ESV.

“Rule over” are you kidding?  That’s just what I thought when I read that!  I’m sure many other women feel the same way (go ahead admit it).   Now, let’s just take a deep breath and think about this for a minute.  If we were not Christians, if we did not love our husbands, if we did not want to glorify God then “rule over” would be a huge deal!  I’ll give you that!  But we are Christians, we do love our husbands, we do want to glorify God “rule over” isn’t quite as scary as we first thought, is it?

5. The husband was and still is to be the head of his wife (and his home).

 “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.”1 Corinthians 11:3 ESV.

 “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”  Ephesians 5:23 ESV.

God tells us in His word that our husbands are to the ones in charge.  Being in charge isn’t being dictatorial, condescending, or patronizing because Christ was not.  Martha takes this a bit further…

a. The Model of Christ and the Church.  Wives are to model (“act out”) the church being submissive to and glorifying Christ.

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” Ephesians 5:22,24,32 ESV.

Our role is a model of the church’s relationship to Christ.  Therefore, we should submit to our husband’s authority and use our talents and energies to glorify him.

b. Christ’s Response to the Church.  Our husband’s role is to model (“act out”) Christ’s response to the church. 

1. Christ die for the church, a sacrifice of self.

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Ephesians 5:25 ESV.

2. Christ loves, nourishes, and cherishes the church.

“In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Ephesians 5:28, 29, 33 ESV.

It is only by living and fulfilling our roles as God intended that our marriages will consist of unity and harmony.  What was lost when Eve ate the apple can now be regained through Christ.

QUESTION: It’s easy to see Eve’s role, but what about your role?  How, can you carry out your God-given role in your marriage?  How can you be a helper to your husband?  How can you glorify your husband and Christ?

Til we meet again… In Love!

Understand How to Reproof

We are beginning to understand more and more about relationships, our marriages, aren’t we?  I know I am!  Yet, as much I’m learning, I need to apply it!  God has given me so many opportunities to apply what I’ve been learning in the past few days.  I’m seeing relationships fall apart, angry words between friends.  I’m seeing first hand how this also affects those around them.  I’m seeing the “worldly” reactions when if we are walking in Christ we should be seeing Christian reactions.  Let us remember going forward; the purpose of all relationships is to glorify our Father, to walk like Jesus.  1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

So how do we point out sin in our husband’s (or another’s) life?  Martha Peace gives us some guidelines in The Excellent Wife:

1.  Choose the right time.  We don’t do it when we are in front of others; this is downgrading and treating him like a child.  We don’t do it when we have a sinful attitude; this will backfire! We don’t do it when we are angry and want to lash out at him. Our hearts must be open and loving.  We don’t do it when they are not giving you their undivided attention. We must pray about the situation, look in the Word for God’s direction in the situation.  We must be in complete control of ourselves and not angry, disappointed or focusing on the things he’s been doing wrong.  The right time is when you are alone together, when there is plenty of time to talk.

” For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; …”  Ecclesiastes 3:1-7 ESV.

2. Choose the right wording. We must know what we want to say.  If it makes you more comfortable, you could write it out and then practice saying it out loud.  We must have love in our voice.  This may be difficult, I know it can be for me

“The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.” Proverbs 15:28 ESV.

3. Comfort him as you correct him.  In His letters to the church at Ephesus, Jesus repoofed the church members for losing their first love.  He threatened harsh discipline if they didn’t repent.  However, before He reproffed them, He comforted them by telling them the good things they were doing.  I’m sure it made it easier for the church to accept the reproof.  In the same way, as Jesus taught us, we should reproof.

“‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.” Revelation 2:2-3 ESV.

4.  Be specific.  Sometimes it feels more comfortable to us to be vague rather than being straight forward and honest.  Most people are oblivious to vague indirect hints, especially husbands.  Speak the truth in love.  Ask if there is anything you can do to make it easier for him.

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” James 1:19-20 ESV.

5.  Communicate a spirit of unconditional love.  Show him this love by being patient and kind.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

TASK

Yes, I’m going to give you a task today.  I want you to print out or bookmark Galatians 5:22-23 (“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”)

I want you to read this Scripture throughout the day.  I want you to begin to see where you are not producing good fruit.  When you see you haven’t exhibited these fruits ~ STOP and Repent immediately.

I promise you, you will see changes immediately!  You will begin to feel God working in your life more.  You will be producing the kind of fruit God wants more and more.  Try it you’ve got nothing to lose!

Understanding Sanctification

The definition of sanctification is:  the state of growing in divine grace as a result of Christian commitment after baptism or conversion.

Sanctification is coming to a place of death… a point where we can be reborn, to be new creations in Christ.  sanctification is something we will fight with everything we have in us.  I did and I know you do, too.  We struggle with this daily… moment by moment ~ the struggle against what we want and what Christ wants for us. Luke 14:26 ESV,  “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

We are getting down to the nitty-gritty of who and what we are.  Jesus has told us, “I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” Matthew 10:34 ESV.  We don’t understand this point, our God is strict and He requires us to do whatever He directs us to in His Word.  There is no  choice if we truly want to be holy, to be all in Christ.

Maybe this is what took me so long to come to Jesus.  I wanted to love God and have God love me.  BUT I wanted to do things my way with His blessing. We all know how well that worked for me!  How is working for you?  Are you willing to reduce yourself to just you?  Are you willing to get rid of all of the thought of what other people think? What you think?

To be holy means that we must hand ourselves completely and totally to God… not one place can be denied Him.  This is a control issue.  I  know, I know. Yet, once we let go we are free, free to be everything that God created us to be.  Once my knees hit the ground, once I understood that my life was not my own but His, is when things began to change for me.  It wasn’t easy and it still isn’t!

In the beginning, I began to see myself in some ways like He saw me ~ that was amazing!  I gained strength and confidence, which was sorely needed at that time in my life.  Then the work set in… work (why is this all about work?)  The more I walked the more I wanted what God wanted.

I would ask God to guide and direct my paths.  What I got I didn’t expect…I got the answer to my prayers, yes, I did ~ God began to show me the sin I had in my life.  I wasn’t prepared for that!

Martha Peace in The Excellent Wife shows us how God shows us our sin.

1. By convicting you when you read or hear God’s Word.  “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 ESV.  The more I read and studied God’s Word, the more God pointed out my sins to me.  My heart would ache at certain scriptures, the scripture would stay in my mind leading me to admit and confess my sin.  Have there been scriptures that have spoken to you?  How did you react?

2. By having someone tell you.  “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.” Proverbs 27:6 ESV.  Oh yea, who are we kidding… it hurts to be told you are sinning!  No joke!  Once we get over the hurt, the humiliation of being told it’s how we learn from it that counts.  We have a choice, we always have a choice…responding with a heart full of pride in embarrassment, angry, defensive, resentful or worse vengeful or do we respond with a grateful heart, confessing our sin and turning away from it?  Free will… your choice.  Proverbs 13:10 ESV “By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom.”  It is never fun to see our blind-spots but responding in an ungodly way makes it worse.

Another confession, for about three days I had been speaking with a friend about some problems she was having in her relationship.  These problems seem to repeat over and over again.  In fact, I’ve been very concerned about her welfare. It seems her man had done the usual yet again … she claimed to be done finished.  We discussed it, we prayed about it.  Then within two days, they are back together.  I’m confused!  I’m scared for her!  He posts a comment that just gets right under my skin about the whole situation… to be honest, I didn’t wait a second before I spilled my thoughts out.  Cringe, hangs head.  He called me out immediately… cut me straight to the bone.  I had a choice… I could continue this argument or apologize.  I’m proud to say I took the high road.  My heart ached for what I had done…. it still does.  My actions has now stopped my friend from speaking to me.  I only pray that God touches her heart…

Martha also tells us there are three main categories of sanctification taught in Scripture:

1. Positional Sanctification.  It occurs at the moment of one’s salvation.  It is all the work of God.  God draws us to Himself.  God gives us a desire to seek Him.  God convicts us of our sin.  God cleanses us of our sin and saves our soul.  “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” 2 Thessalonians 2:13.  This is when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, when we allow Him into our lives.

2. Future Sanctification.  This too is all the work of God.  It will happen when Jesus returns for His church.  When Jesus takes His church home to be with Him.  In that process, we will be given a new, sanctified body that is pure and holy.  Jude 24 ESV “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.”

3. Progressive Sanctification. This aspect begins at the moment of salvation and ends when you go to be with the Lord.  This is the work of God as He convicts, disciplines, and helps us in our journey but it’s our work too.

We are responsible to do the following:

                 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” 2  Peter 3:18 ESV.  Grow is an imperative verb here…it is a command not an either or.  We can’t grow if we don’t study His Word.  We can’t grow if we don’t pray.  We can’t grow if don’t follow His ways.

We are to pursue love “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” 1 Corinthians 14:1 ESV.  I’ve written about love…right love (https://letitbeginanew.wordpress.com/category/love/) and wrong love (https://letitbeginanew.wordpress.com/category/wrong-love/) so I won’t get into the specifics on love.

We are to “for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” Romans 8:5 ESV.  To live life in the spirit is to let go of earthly things, of self-indulgence, of self desires.  To live in the spirit is to know that you belong to God, His child.

We are to “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” 1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV.  I think you understand this, pretty straight forward.

We are to “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;” 1 Timothy 4:7 ESV.  Do not waste time arguing over  ideas and things that don’t matter in eternity, instead use your time and energy for God and His ways.

We can see this will take work to be like Christ.  But here’s the good part, we aren’t doing this alone!  God is with us to help us grow spiritually by the power of the Holy Spirit.  God is working to mold you into His image through everything you go through.  Everything we do, we go through, is an opportunity to grow.

Understanding Marriage

     I posted about the vows we took when we married the love of our lives in The Vow Matters (https://letitbeginanew.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/the-vow-matters/) so I won’t go into all again.  Today, we are going to begin to understand what marriage means to God.

      For Christians, our marriages are to go beyond the worldly definition of marriage.  Marriage to God is a divine picture of the relationship between Christ and His Bride, the Church.  Marriage is a spiritual representation of our relationship with God.  As I read this I began to understand more, to see more about myself and my marriage.

      Think about it, when we haven’t spent time in the Word, when we haven’t prayed, when we are not about the Lord’s work… what happens? We don’t have the guidance we need, the love within us.

      I want you to take some time and think, really think about what a day looks like when you begin it with God.  Now I want you to think about a day when you didn’t begin your day with God.

     WOW!  I know that light bulbs are going off everywhere right now!  See how our relationship with God is so important to our marriages, our relationships, our lives.  When I don’t begin my day in my  Quiet Time with God, studying scripture, praying, praising my day is all over the place!  Things that I thought I had a handle come back up!  I wonder “where did that come from?”  I know I stress all the time to begin your day with God… before anything else… it’s because it’s so very important!  It’s the foundation for the day.

      Our goal in our marriages (yes, there should be a goal, who would have thought?) is to have a oneness, a loving, spiritual and physical bond between each other.  A bond that glorifies God.  This oneness is obtained when each of us helps the other to become more and more like Jesus. This oneness is not something that we will  ever be “complete” but something that needs to be worked on each minute, of each day.  We set goals every single day of our lives, but how can we forget to set the goal of the most important relationship (under God) of our life?  It just makes sense but we just don’t see it as a goal.  I know I didn’t until this study.  I was just going along my merry little way… praying and hoping but not working it!

       Martha Peace tells us in her book The Excellent Wife that there are four biblical ways to achieve the goal of oneness and spiritual growth.

1. Make your marriage a matter of faithful prayer.  Pray for your marriage.  Pray your marriage will glorify and please God.  Be specific.  Be humble.  Let God know where you are weak, confess your sin and ask God to change your weaknesses into strengths.  Do the same for your husband.  Even if you don’t see instant results ~ don’t give up!  God hears our prayers always and will answer according to His will, in His time.

2. Commit to a biblical course of action.  Simply make a plan based on the Word.  You begin this by taking personal responsibility for you.  Look at you first, not your husband.  Study the Word and see for yourself what God wants your marriage to be.  Try writing those scriptures on index cards, or type them into your phone so you always have easy reminders of what steps you should be taking in your marriage.

3.  Take a personal responsibility for your own failures and repent.  “In their testimonies to the Lord, many Christian husbands express gratitude for the influence that their wives have had on them.  Even if your husband is an unbeliever or is uninterested in spiritual growth, you can still glorify God and have a positive affect on your husband.”  How cool is that!  I can relate to this completely.  When Hubs and got married, our faith was important but it wasn’t something we went all out about.  Then I got serious about following Jesus.  I began to speak differently, I began to express my feelings, I began to talk about (all the time) what I was learning, experiencing.  How could it not effect Hubs?  Soon we were discussing the Word, we were praying together, and our home is as Joshua says in 24:15 ESV, “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

      I have a little story about this… This past Thanksgiving, Hubs mom and sister came to celebrate with us, we hadn’t seen them in over a year.  Hubs and I had started a tradition of getting a pumpkin and putting all the reasons we were thankful on it.  As we read the pumpkin Thanksgiving day, his mom read what Hubs wrote, “I’m thankful for my wife who has been brought me closer to God.” Tears people, tears.  I had no idea how much my faith had changed him!  His mom said, “So, that is the wonderful change in my son!.”  So what I’m getting at is that even though I thought Hubs may not have been all in, he did see the changes in me, and they did affect him more than I knew!

4. Submit to and participate in the process of sanctification.  This is the biblical process of helping each other become as much like Jesus as possible.  We know our husbands are the spiritual leaders of our homes (or should be) so he should be helping us to grow and mature in Christ.  We are his helper so we are to be doing the same thing.  I’m blessed that Hubs has stepped up in the past year to take over as leader of our family’s spiritual growth. I thank God everyday that he has.  It has given me more time to focus on Hubs and building him up.

      We all have work to do to become more like Christ, it takes work no easy way to go.  This is where the talk meets the walk.  Are you willing to work this?  To walk the walk not just talk the talk?  If you are then let’s let Martha gives us some ways God helps us to become more like Christ:

Testing or Pressure:  Getting along with your husband. 

Scripture References:  Ephesians 4:1-3 ESV “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Potential Character Qualities:  Humility, forbearance, love, diligence, patience.

Scripture Reference:  Philippians 4:2-3 ESV “I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.”

Potential Character Qualities: Living in harmony.

Testing or Pressure: Suffering for the Lord’s sake.

Scripture References:  1 Peter 4:12-13 ESV “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”

Potential Character Qualities: Joy, gratefulness, deeper trust in God.

     *  On a note, here.  Remember, as we get closer to God, as we walk more like Jesus there will be fiery trials!  The Devil is trying to gain a foothold in you and in your marriage!  Don’t let him, don’t give up!  Draw closer to God and He will draw closer to you!  Be prepared!

Testing or Pressure: Other’s Sin (Possibly your husband’s.)

Scripture References: 1 Peter 3:8-9 ESV “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”

Potential Character Qualities: Harmoniousness, sympathy, brotherliness, kindheartedness, humility.

Testing or Pressure: Financial Pressures

Scripture References: Philippians 4:11-12 ESV  “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”

Potential Character Qualities: Contentment

Testing or Pressure: Daily Work

Scripture References: Colossians 3:23 ESV “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”

Potential Character Qualities: Working heartily from the heart.

Scripture References: 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 ESV “And to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.”

Potential Character Qualities: Behaving properly, financially responsible.

Testing or Pressure: Illness (Due to Sin)

Scripture References: James 5:14-15 ESV “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”

Potential Character Qualities: Repentance

Testing or Pressure:  Trials (Temptations, Testings)

Scripture References: James 1:2-3 ESV “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”

Scripture References:  James 1:12 ESV “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

Potential Character Qualities: Joy, endurance.

Testing or Pressure:  Providentially Hindered

Scripture References: James 4:13 – 16 ESV “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

Potential Character Qualities: Mindful of God’s sovereignty.

Testing or Pressure:  Death of a Loved One

Scripture Reference: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ESV “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. …”

Potential Character Qualities: Hopeful in the Lord.

Testing or Pressure: Bearing Each Other’s Burdens

Scripture Reference: Galatians 6:2 ESV “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Potential Character Qualities: Love.

Testing or Pressure: Admonished by Others

Scripture Reference: Romans 15:14 ESV “I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.”

Scripture Reference: 1 Thessalonians 5:14 ESV “And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.”

Scripture Reference: Colossians 1:28-29 ESV “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”

Scripture Reference: Colossians 3:16 ESV “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Potential Character Qualities: perseverance, patience, wisdom, diligence, gratefulness, humility.”

     I know that we probably have more testing or pressures in our marriages, in our lives right now than just these.  What are yours?  What Scripture reference speaks to you?  What potential character qualities can you gain from this lesson?

Understanding Relationships

I’ve learned a lot… about God, sin, myself reading The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace, have you?  I was thinking this morning, though this book is about becoming an excellent wife, which we all want to be,but I’ve come to understand this book is not just about becoming an excellent wife… it’s about the relationship we have with God, ourselves and others, not just our husbands.  I know… slow on the take maybe, but still.  So let’s continue our journey…

God designed us for relationships we are not to walk in this world alone.  As much as we want a relationship with others, relationships aren’t easy.  They aren’t easy with our husbands, our children, our family, our co-workers, our friends.  Let’s face it ~ relationships are hard! They hurt, they make us mad, they disappoint us.  I’ve been thinking about relationships the past few days a lot (thank you, Martha!).  About the relationships I have with others.  I’ve come to understand that most of the “hard” comes from my own expectations of what others should be, what others should do.  I expect Hubs to pick up after himself, I expect him to know my needs without speaking them to him.  I expect my family to love Jesus like I do.  So when my expectations are not met, I have wrong, sinful thoughts.  When I have these wrong, sinful thoughts, I thrust my desires on the other person.  More often than not, it backfires on me.  My desires are not their desires.  I get upset, I get angry.  I’m worried about my own desires.

God doesn’t want us to live for ourselves, but to live for Him. On this journey, we are to be witnesses for Christ, sometimes I forget this.  The words that come from my mouth matter.  Colossians 4:6 ESV, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”   How I behave and my actions matter.  Titus 2:12 ESV, “Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”  These things are for the world to see, especially in our relationships.  I forget that these things are the outward expression of Jesus in my life.  I forget my journey (our journey) is honor and glorify God in all we do, to live for Him.  This is a struggle we all face… to stop living for ourselves.

God wants us to be and act like Jesus in all our relationships.  John 17:22-23 ESV tells us, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”  That means thinking like Jesus would.  Jesus didn’t think about what the “other person” was doing but what He was doing. Jesus built up those around Him without expecting anything in return.  Can we?

Martha gives us God’s pattern for overcoming the “me” in relationships.  The Godhead’s relationship is the model for all our relationships.  The Trinity. The Trinity will result in perfect harmony and intimacy in our relationships.  God has given each of us these characteristics it’s how we use them that matter in all of our relationships.

Characteristics of the Trinity:       Tender, compassionate, and merciful.

Characteristics of Fallen Man:      Not gentle, unmerciful, and cruel.

Characteristics of the Trinity:      Open and transparent.

Characteristics of Fallen Man:      Closed, private and self-protective.

Characteristics of the Trinity:      Goodness towards the other shown by glorifying each other.

Characteristics of Fallen Man:      Malice towards each other shown in tearing the other down to build up self.

Characteristics of the Trinity:      Love – sacrificial actions for the other.

Characteristics of Fallen Man:     Self-seeking ~ actions for self.

Characteristics of the Trinity:     Perfect communication with each other.

Characteristics of Fallen Man:     Hurt each other by not communicating biblically.

Characteristics of the Trinity:      Honest and truthful, commitment to a righteous standard.

Characteristics of Fallen Man:     Deceitful, lying, and committed to self.

Characteristics of the Trinity:      Perfect knowledge and understanding of each other.

Characteristics of Fallen Man:      Limited knowledge and revelation of each other.

Characteristics of the Trinity:      Reliable and faithful in their relationships.

Characteristics of Fallen Man:     Unreliable, unfaithful, and lacking in trust due to the conditional basis of their relationship. (“If you will, then I will…”)

Characteristics of the Trinity:     When working on a task, there is order, purpose and voluntary subordination of the Son and Spirit to the Father. (No power play over “my rights”.)

Characteristics of Fallen Man:     Likely to manipulate with anger, tears, threats to have own way. (May desperately cling to “my rights”.)

As I read these characteristics, I realized why some of my relationships failed!  Light bulb moment to be sure.  Can you?  I can’t count the number of times I closed myself off to others, or the number of times I said things to make myself look better than the person next to me, or how about the times I didn’t say what I was really feeling.  Geesh, the list can go on and on.  As I look at certain failed relationships, I can see exactly why they failed.  If only…

Martha says, “As you can see, the Trinity has perfect unity and harmony. In fact, the three members of the God-head are so inter-relational, they appear to be one person, when in truth, they are three.  Since the three members of the God-head are our perfect example, take some to read carefully the following explanation of how the members of the Trinity relate to each other.

The Trinity is a relationship in which three persons (each being perfect in character and totally equal in being, power, and glory) reveal, know and love each other tenderly and perfectly for the other’s good within the context of an eternal commitment.  When they decide to set and accomplish a goal, for the purpose of order and economy, God the Son and God the Spirit voluntarily subordinate themselves to God the Father in order to function according to their perfect plans.  As they work together, the are totally unified in desire, thought and action until the goal’s completion.  Thus, they are plurality within a unity.”

Why do we may struggle with all of this… can you guess the reason?  SIN!  Our natural tendency is to “self”.  A sinful man does everything to protect the “self”.  A sinful man seeks to be isolated, in order to not be hurt, to not share the”self”.  A sinful man seeks to be in control that way nothing can hurt the “self”.  A sinful man seeks to hide, cover-up so there will be no pain to “self”.  A sinful man is always in “self” protection mode.  A sinful man is always thinking about “self”.

How do we come out of “self” and into all that God has for us?  Get into God’s Word!  “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  Hebrews 4:12 ESV. The more we get into the Word the more the Holy Spirit can convict us on the changes we need to make in our “selves”.

In all your relationships, (especially with your husband), God wants us to communicate in love.  God wants us to experience a righteous intimacy through sharing thoughts, present and future desires, goals, to discuss the struggles we are facing and the spiritual insights we are gaining.  God wants us to be open, and honest ~ to allow the other to see us as we truly are.  God wants us to build up others through our words and actions.  Our tasks are to be done with God first, others second, for God’s glory.

“For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” Romans 8:7 ESV

Understanding Thoughts

Are we understanding?  Are we understanding what sin is?  I know reading The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace my heart has been convicted!  Father, forgive me!

So we’ve come to understand that sin begins in our hearts.  We’ve come to understand that sin is because we want, we desire, we are selfish.  We may be somewhat successful at changing our outward behavior but the only real way to embrace your Christian life, to glorify God, is by thinking according to His Word.   “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”  Romans 12:2 ESV.  The only way to know the heart of God, the only way to embrace your life in Christ is learning the Word of God and following, obeying to bring you into deeper understanding of God, His ways and how our sin affects everyone and everything around us.

I want to learn more and I’m sure that you do too!  You want to be the best that you can be.  You want to hear these words at the end of your earthly journey as much as I do “Well done good and faithful servant.”  I want to be an excellent wife to Hubs… but still there are thoughts that invade my mind, thoughts that send me to repentance more often than  I would care to admit.  How do I overcome these thoughts?  With the help of the Holy Spirit, of course!

We must learn put off wrong thoughts and put on new thoughts.  Just as we took off our old selves and put on our new selves, so must we do the same with our thoughts.    Changing our sinful thoughts takes work, I never said this new life would be easy and neither did God.  So it’s time to get to work!

We have to understand thoughts that are selfish, unloving, vengeful, bitter, angry or any way not beneficial or uplifting.  You may say “these are my thoughts and I’m entitled to them”.  Really?  Seriously?  If our thoughts can harm others why would we want to hold on to these thoughts?  Just because you don’t say the thoughts out loud doesn’t mean they aren’t heard.  Our thoughts manifest outward in our attitude!  I know when I’m irritated with Hubs, he knows… I don’t have to say a word.  He will avoid me at all costs, knowing that in time I will tell him, but until that time comes stay clear.  I know if you open your heart and be honest with yourself you’ll see it too.  We do it with our husbands, our children, our friends, everyone around us.

Let’s imagine, picture, Jesus.  Imagine you are there, hearing Him teach.  Imagine His face.  What does it look like? Do you see in His face, love?  Do you see in His face, gentleness?  Do you see in His face, peace?

Let’s imagine, picture, ourselves.  Imagine you are going through your day.  Imagine your face.  What does it look like?  Do you see in your face, love?  Do you see in your face, gentleness?  Do you see in your face, peace?

Understanding?

When we recognize thoughts that are wrong, sinful thoughts ~ you’ll know, the Holy Spirit will let you know, as well as your own heart ~ repent!  Confess those thoughts and feelings, let God know that you know the thought was sinful and just plain wrong.  Since repentance requires us to “change our minds” we must change the thought.  This is going to take work, I’m not kidding, a lot of work but day by day you will feel and see a change ~ God promises. Remember you are being trained for the purpose of godliness (1 Timothy 4:7).

Martha gives us some examples to start with:

• Wrong, Sinful Thought: “I hate him!”  Now change to the Right, Godly Thought: “I don’t feel love for him right now, but I choose to love him by responding in a kind way.”
• Wrong, Sinful Thought: “There is no hope for this marriage!”  Now change to the Right, Godly Thought:  “If he repents, there is nothing that I cannot forgive and we cannot work through.”
• Wrong, Sinful Thought: “I can’t be what God wants me to be because my husband is not a righteous man.”  Now change to the Right, Godly Thought: “He may be a complete failure before God, but I do not have to be.  I can be pleasing to God whether he is or not.”
• Wrong, Sinful Thought: “I can’t take it anymore!”  (My personal favorite!) Now change to the Right, Godly Thought: “I can take the pressure since “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV.
• Wrong, Sinful Thought: “I don’t date tell him what I am thinking.  If I do, he will think badly of me.”  Now change to the Right, Godly Thought: “I can learn to speak the truth in love.  God will give me the grace to respond to his reaction whatever it is.”
• Wrong, Sinful Thought: “I wish he would leave me alone.”  Now change to the Right, Godly Thought: “Thank You, Lord, for a husband who does want to be with me.”
• Wrong, Sinful Thought: “If he loved me, he would be romantic.”  Now change to the Right, Godly Thought: “It (love) does not insist on its own way…” 1 Corinthians 13:5.  What can I do to show love to him?

What are some of your Wrong, Sinful Thoughts?  How can you change them to the Right, Godly Thought?

When I’m having those wrong, sinful thoughts… I (try) to remember to look up scripture about what I’m thinking, God will tell me (and you) just how to deal with the thought.  I’ll write the verse down (I’m a big fan of index cards, notes on my phone and laptop screen, etc.), humbly confess the sin of my thoughts and memorize the verse.  I’m understanding that by memorizing the verse, when the wrong, sinful thoughts pop into my head… God’s answer is already there!  Even if I don’t get the memorization just right, the right, Godly thought is still there!

Martha says in the summary of this chapter, “Only, the sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ, could have provided a means to satisfy God’s righteous demands against sin.  God does all of the work of man’s salvation.  Salvation is by His grace, not based on any merit (however “kind”) within man.  God’s provision for sin begins at the cross and continues with “grace to help” us grow and mature as Christians (Hebrews 4:16).  With God’s grace, we can work diligently at “putting off” wrong, sinful thoughts and “putting on” biblically right thoughts and actions.”

“And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,”  1 Peter 1:17 ESV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Understanding Sin

When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them the ability to think, feel, respond and know right from wrong; He created them in His image.  Since Eve ate that apple there have been sin in all our lives.  Our sin affects every area of lives.  We may not think that just one little sin hurts us but it does!

In The Excellent Wife, Martha Peace gives us the four characteristics of sin.

1. Sin is universal.  No one is exempt.  Let’s make sure we understand that NO ONE is sinless!  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,.” Romans 3:23 ESV.  There is only one person, ever, to be sinless, Jesus Christ.
2. Sin may be open and obvious.  Paul tells us in Galatians 5:19-21 ESV, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  I will admit those sins are pretty obvious to those around us, don’t you think?
3. Sin cannot be hidden from God.  “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 ESV.  Our heart is where sin begins with our desires.  We may be good at acting like a Christian…going to church, tithing but that’s not the same thing as living from our hearts,it’s our heart that God looks at deeply.
4. Sin is justly penalized.  “For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.” Colossians 3:25 ESV.  No sin will ever be overlooked, not big or small.  We deserve death for our sins.  You may be saying well, “it’s just a little bad” well God doesn’t say in His word that one sin is worse than another ~ anything that goes against God’s Word is sin.  This clicked for me when I realized that a small lie is just the same as murdering someone.  Makes you think, doesn’t it?  Think about it… if there were level’s to sin we would sin all the time!  We just wouldn’t do the sins that had the worst  punishment!  If there were, there would always be sin lurking right behind the door. 

God gives us the process for change in Ephesians 4:22 – 32 ESV:

“to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,  and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.  Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.  Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.  Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.  Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”  Paul leads us to change!  He gives us the steps to make lasting changes in our lives.

In order for us to change we need to forget who we were before we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior ~ that life was evil and against God and His ways.  We are to remember who we are!  We are God’s children created in His likeness.  We no longer have to pretend to be who we aren’t!  What a liberating thought!  You may be like I was, pretending to be something I wasn’t.  Keeping up appearances when deep inside I was being eaten alive.  We don’t have to feel that way anymore.  We now can be all we were meant to be in Christ.  We don’t have to sin anymore because we have God’s grace to lead us through.  Our hearts are open to receive and to give to others, joyfully.  Think about your past, the things you regret, the things you are ashamed of… this has been washed clean by the blood of Jesus.  It’s gone… you’ve been blessed with a new start, a new you, a new life!

(If you have never trusted Jesus, if you haven’t surrendered to Him, if you haven’t accepted all He has waiting for you; bow your head in humble repentance before God.  Ask the Ruler over all creation to have mercy on your soul, confess your sins (seen and unseen) and ask for forgiveness.  In your own words confess Jesus as Lord, Master of your life starting now.  If you have surrendered all to Jesus, you are no longer under the wrath of God.  Your sins have been forgiven ~ past, present and future. The Holy Spirit is with you now, loving you, guiding you… Amen.)

I want to talk a little about past sins here.  Thoughts of our past sins can grind us to a halt, believe me I’ve been there.  There have been days that I have thought about who I was before and feel as if I can’t function in this “new” life with Christ.  What I came to understand last year (remember my word was faith) was that I needed to have faith in everything God says in His Word ~ not just faith in parts of it!  I came to understand that my thought of my past sins, kept me from having faith in what God says is true…about who He is and what I am though Christ. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV.  Believe this! If you continue to hang on to the sins of your past, you are giving the Devil a foothold into your life.  He will do everything in his power to make you believe that you “aren’t good enough” to be saved by the blood of Jesus.  God has told you through His word, through His promises, you are good enough!  You are His child, He loves you and He will lead you through everything!

We’ve come to understand sin affects every are of our lives, our behaviors and our relationships.  We’ve also come to understand sin grieves God.  We are not going to be perfect, don’t even think that you will or can be, just not going to happen; it’s what we do after we realize we have sinned that will change your life, that will bring you closer to God and to others, especially your husband.

Repentance is the key.  When you realize you have sinned, when your heart aches, repent immediately.  Don’t wait, don’t let it linger.  Offer up your humble repentance to God so He can deal with it.  God wants you to admit to Him your sin.  By admitting your sin to Him you begin to understand sin and the control it can have your life.  I used to wait until the end of the day, during my evening prayers to confess my sins… but do you know what?  I know I would forget half of the sins I’d done that day.  I would forget that I got angry with Hubs for leaving his models stuff all over the table.  I would forget I shook my head at someone, thinking I was better than them.  God doesn’t want you to forget… He wants you to give it up to Him.  Try giving up your sin as soon as the Holy Spirit convicts you… see what changes it will make in your life.  See how fast you grow in God.

Repentance takes work.  It’s not a one time confession.  Don’t get discouraged when the same sin keeps popping up again and again.  God is leading through.  We are instructed in the Word “…discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” 1 Timothy 4:7 ESV.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2 ESV.

 

Back to Basics – Hospitality – Day 3

Matthew 25:34-40 NIV “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,  I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’’

I have moved house a lot and as a result I have visited many churches. It is no wonder there are so many people who have given up on the church. I have been to churches and not a single soul has said hello. The Church is where you should feel God’s love, a warm welcome, genuine concern for your well-being, feed and clothe those that need it. Church should be a place where there is no judgement, a safe haven for those that need it.

Feeding someone is a gift, showing Gods love by providing the comfort of a warm meal, cooked with love is a blessing to both the person who receives and the person that gives.

Does your church have a bank of frozen meals for those that are in need?

Do you have regular potluck/ covered plate dinners?

I believe that teaching Hospitality is perfect for young woman in the church, an opportunity to learn the kills from the older ladies also giving them the skills to cook for a family when they marry. The churches are full of lonely older ladies who are just crying out to feel useful and younger  ladies who are just crying out to learn these skills. I feel this area of Hospitality is undervalued.

At one church there was a young family with 3 small children and they were late to church every Sunday. This young mum sat there and you could tell she was barely holding it all together. The minister’s wife had an idea, what if she arranged for an older lady from the congregation to help the young mum. This was a perfect arrangement, the young mum was so happy to get some help. The lady came early and fed and bathed the children and kept them occupied the parents were able to shower and get ready for church with no pressure. They arrived at church on time and the older lady sat with the family with a smile so big, she felt useful she felt wanted. I am not sure who got the most from this arrangement. I know that a lovely friendship came from helping each other.  This experiment was repeated time and time again. The older ladies were like extra grandparents.

Maybe try inviting someone to church back to your home after church. Show Gods love, spend time getting to know people, you don’t need to have a fancy house and gourmet food. The blessings will flow.

Make a visitor to your church welcome, show them God’s love.  If you show hospitality to someone you will find a more receptive heart to hear Gods word.

Have a beautiful day.

Created for the Gift of the Home by Nicole Clarke

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Back to Basics – Hospitality – Day 2

 

^{How simple is it to be really resentful when you are doing something you don’t want to do. You said yes to a request when you really should have said no, and now you are stuck, doing something with resentment in your heart, and you think no one notices. Sorry, but they do!!!   If you look at the areas of Hospitality you need to get your heart right with God first, pray beforehand, that you will make a difference in someone’s  life that through your actions they can be left with no doubt that it was God’s love being shown to them. I have been too many churches where the intent was to minister to those in need, but they forgot God in the process too busy with the practicalities of the event.}

^{1 Peter 4 speaks to us about this, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.  If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.  If anyone serves, they should so so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.  To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”}

If you are finding it difficult to show God’s love to those that have fallen on hard times, I ask you to pray and seek God.

Many years ago I worked as a bank teller and I loved the old ladies, I always smiled and had a little chat with them. One day a lady asked to speak with me, I had no idea who she was. She introduced herself as the daughter of a lady I served every week. She wanted to let me know that her mother had passed away. She also wanted me to know that her mother was so touched by my kindness and the fact I always smiled at her and made time for a chat. I made her feel important and it was her visit to the bank that was a highlight in her week.

Tears came to my eyes, because I didn’t think that I had done anything out of the ordinary, I only spoke to this precious woman for maybe 3-4 minutes each week, but that was enough to show God’s love by my actions. I thanked the daughter for taking the time to meet me and gave her my condolences. From that day forward, I prayed that Gods love would shine from me to help all those who needed it. You may never know how your actions may help someone. God does though.

It is easy to be nice to the sweet old ladies and the mothers of young bubs, but is sometimes a little confrontational to show God’s love to the homeless, drug addicts and alcoholics.

I really like this song by Collin Raye. What if Jesus comes back like that. It really makes you look at your heart. You don’t know the difference a kindness can make in a person’s life.

Are you judgmental?

Do you look away and pretend you haven’t seen someone who is hurting?

Ask yourself,” What would Jesus do?”

God loves us all, each and every one of us. He loved us so much that gave us Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins. It is God’s love that will make all the difference in this world.

Have a beautiful day.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjlbCBCjoEQ

What if Jesus comes back like that by Collin Raye

Created for the Gift of the Home by Nicole Clarke

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Back to Basics – Hospitality – Day 1

You know that excitement when you visit with someone who makes you feel truly welcome. The dictionary describes hospitality as: The friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Hospitality is not just a lovely meal in pleasant surroundings. Hospitality is generosity and kindness and the perfect way of showing Gods love. You will always remember the way an interaction made you feel, good or bad. I remember to this day visiting a great aunt, the house was always so cold, bitterly cold, she swore like a trooper and in a tone that scared me half to death, her dogs would bark and nip but she never put them outside, I sat on my father’s lap with my legs up, too scared to move & counting the minutes until we could leave. I did not feel welcome at all. I would hate for anyone to feel that way in my home. I grew up in a very multicultural area of Sydney, Australia. Our family was the only Australians in the street. This is where I learnt about European hospitality. These lovely woman were only too happy to teach me their recipes and there ways of doing things. I remember to this day that whenever you visited, you were made feel welcome and you were given something to eat, they wanted to chat with you. It was a joyful time to visit with them. I always learnt something new from these wonderful  woman. I was watching Toni Morrison on Oprah and she said something that changed my heart from that day. “Do your eyes light up when a child walks into the room?” How do you answer that?  When people visit your home do your eyes light up? Or are you so busy with all that is going on and presume they know you are happy to see them. I would like us to really take the time to really take notice of how you relate to people. How do you greet your husband when he comes in from work. The 50’s notion of a perfect house and an immaculately dressed wife and clean and bathed quiet children ready with his slippers and a martini in hand as he walks in the door, is a fantasy. But how do you greet your husband?  I try to open the door to my husband so that he knows that I am happy to see him. If I am busy at the stove I usually sing out, “I am just so happy to see you, but I just can’t leave the cooking” so when he greets me in the kitchen I am happy to see him and I always look him in the eye. He knows I am happy to have him home. Take note when you next visit with someone, Do their eyes light up when you walk into the room? How did they make you feel? I read a wonderful post on hospitality this week from What Christians want to know by Derek Hill –  http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/what-does-the-bible-say-about-hospitality-a-christian-study/ If you would like to see Toni Morrison on Oprah discussing “do your eyes light up when your child walks into the room” this is the link.   http://www.oprah.com/orahs-lifeclass/Lesson18-Do-Your-Eyes-Light-Up-When-Your-Child-Walks-in-the-Room.   Created for the Gift of the Home by Nicole Clarke Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

 

 

Back to Basics – Homemaking Day 5

PRAYER WALK

Today let’s do a prayer walk through our homes.

Turn on some quiet, background praise music.

Seek God’s guidance on how to best clean and organize your home.

Ask for God’s strength to accomplish what HE (not YOU) wants in your home.

Thank Him for the Gift of the Home.

Look around your home with gratefulness.  Seek to replace thoughts of discontentment, frustration or envy about the homes of others.

Surrender your possessions and your relationships to God.

Be willing to give up items that don’t serve a purpose in your home.

Request that He touch others who live in the home to help in its upkeep.

Repent of any known sin of your own, especially regard to your home and family relationships.

Spend some time in Scripture, perhaps claiming some verses for your home and family.

Notice God’s handiwork in your yard, your pets, artwork, etc.

Thank Him for all the blessings He has bestowed on you.

For each room: Starting at the entrance, slowly stroll through the room and pray as follows:

1. That God would be honored by the activities in the room.

2. Ask God to help you make the room reflect a sense of peace and order.

3. Demonstrate God’s grace and forgiveness in rooms that have tension in them.

4. Spend a few moments in thankfulness for the room and what it represents, and the people who often use it.

5. Spend a few minutes of quiet listening in the room.

6. Do one simple, task in the room: dust one table, straighten a pile, put something away. Remember you are in prayer walk so just do something simple.

Now sit down and prayerfully make some goals for getting organized. Set your goals within the mindset of worship and dedication to the Lord.

Set your goals within the mindset of worship and dedication to the Lord.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” ~Matthew 9:19-21

When we let go of all the excess in our lives and choose to live life more simply and led by God, our gain is far greater than our loss.  When we clear the clutter from our hearts, minds, and homes, we are free to live more fully and experience joy more abundantly.

By removing what clouds our vision, we are able to see God’s purpose for us.  It is within the walls of our home that we nurture a marriage that can be a testament to the beauty of God’s marvelous design and a model for our children to follow.  It is here where we nature our children’s hearts giving them a thirst for knowledge and a hunger for God and his word.

As homemakers, our primary ministry is within our homes.  We have the awesome privilege of making  a home that is a sanctuary.  How well we do that will reflect our perspective and priorities and how firmly we are grounded in the foundation of Christ.

I believe God wants you to know that …your home is sacred.  Where you live makes a big difference. Every little thing in your home influences you through its colors, shapes, textures, smells. Take a look around your home, – what can you change to transform your home into a place of communion?

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

 

Back to Basics – Homemaking Day 4

MANAGING OUR HEARTS TO USE TIME WISELY

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21

We tend to put our hearts into what we value the most.  What do you consider to be your treasure?  Is that truly where your heart is?  I’m sure most of us would say our relationship with God, our husband, our children, etc.  Our intentions are pure and I’m sure we truly desire in our hearts to keep these as our greatest treasures… but does the way we manage our time reflect that those are our top priorities?

There is not a one-size fits all for this.  God has called each of us to do a wide variety of tasks for Him.  It’s important that we explore the possibilities of what it might look like to use our time effectively to further God’s purposes today.  Truly, isn’t that the true heart of time management?

If we really want to understand how we should be wisely managing our time, we need to let go of the idea that we need to “have it all together”.  That’s never going to happen.

Have you ever tried to take a picture of a group?  Some will be smiling, some looking in different directions ~ never will everyone be looking at the camera at the same time.  Our life and the way we manage our time is like that.

Healthy, wise, and effective time management has little to do with our organized we are, how clean we are able to keep our homes or how many tasks you can accomplish in a day.

We need to ask ourselves these questions each day: What has God-given me to do?  In what ways does God want me to serve?  Who are the people in my life God has called me to care for?  What, then, must I do to accomplish this?

Having a clear picture of God’s calling in our lives will help us with our time management more than anything else.  God has given us 24 hours in a day – not too many, not too few – just enough.  How we chose to spend that time is up to us.  Are we using our time for His purpose and glory?  If not, it’s time to consider what changes need to be made.  Ask Him, “What do you want from me God?  How do you want me to spend my time for you?”

“There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven…” Ecclesiastes 3:1

It’s important for us to recognize that each season in our lives bring changes in the ways we serve and the ways we manage our time overall.  We need to embrace God’s calling for us at this time.  Embrace the season that you are in now.  Don’t waste time longing for a different season.  Don’t feel guilt over what you aren’t accomplishing because of this season.  God has given us a purpose for His kingdom right now.  What are you doing with it?

Reflections for Today:

1. Share a little about the season of life you are currently “celebrating”.

2. What would you consider to be the biggest treasures in life?  Do you feel you are doing a good job keeping those treasures your highest priority?  What do you need to change or adjust in your schedule so that your treasures remain at the top of your list?

3. Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  When do you find yourself weary?  What have you found to be an effective strategy to fight against weariness?

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Back to Basics – Homemaking Day 3

REFLECTING OUR ORDERLY GOD BY KEEPING AN ORDERLY HOME

 “…lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”~ Matthew 6:19-21

 An orderly, well-organized home allows us to be more efficient as wives and mothers.  An orderly, well-organized home allows us to be more effective.  An orderly, well-organized home provides comfort and a safe haven.

Organizing is key for a homemaker.  It’s a blessing!

DE-CLUTTER.  This is a “must do” not a “should do”.  Once we’ve cut back on non-essentials you’ll be able to clearly see what we need to organize.

RETURN MISPLACED ITEMS.  Simply go through each room and put back items that have been misplaced.  Focus on one room at a time and don’t let yourself get side-tracked.

CLEAN UP.  Not a deep clean … just a sweep and vacuuming of the floors, clean the counters and tables, and put the clean clothes away.

 Try this motto “I don’t want to spend my life moving things around.”

 TAKE INVENTORY.  Write a written list of what areas are in need of organization.

We are learning to make a home a tool that can be used for our purpose, for His purpose – not the other way around.

Reflections for Today:

1. Do you see yourself as the manager of your home?  Why or why not?

2. In what ways can being more organized simplify your homemaking?

3. What has been keeping you from consistently organizing, purging and keeping an orderly home?

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Back to Basics – Homemaking Day 2

TENDING THE GARDENS OF OUR HOME TO THE GLORY OF GOD

 “She looketh well to the ways of her husband, and eateth not the bread of idleness.” Proverbs 31:27

As women seeking to follow Jesus, we must start to think our homes as our gardens.  With our hands we either build up or tear down our homes.  We have been given to our husbands as helpmates.  We serve a God of order.  When we organize and care for our homes, we are bearing His image.

In cheerfully seeking to keep our homes for God’s glory, we are doing great work.   We are keeping HIS house.  Let’s do it excellently and with cheerfulness.

In cleaning our homes there are three things we should strive for in all our tasks… excellence, efficiency and enjoyment.

EXCELLENCE. is when we do our daily tasks unto the Lord.  Seek to go the extra mile when doing our tasks.

EFFICIENCY. We need to seek more efficient ways of doing things.  We can’t let ourselves waste away valuable time.

ENJOYMENT.  If doing our tasks do we have a grumbling spirit, then it’s not really unto Him.  Sing, praise him, and pray while you work.  It will make it much more pleasant.

As our sweet, friend at New Things Springing Forth has posted, “What a sweet reminder to do our work joyfully, as unto the Lord. “”Bees hum while they work. They don’t whine.” You were designed with a gift to do something… Like the bees.”

Reflections for Today:

1. What areas in particular with your housekeeping can you begin to shift your focus from “chores” to “kingdom building”?

2. How can your family tend your garden to the glory of God?

3. Memorize a verse that could encourage you in your daily tasks.

4. What area in your home can you specifically focus on doing things with more excellency, efficiency and enjoyment?

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Back to Basics – Homemaking Day 1

HOMEMAKING IS….

“By wisdom a house is built… by understanding it is established; and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.”  Proverbs 24:3-4

Homemaking is an opportunity to … invite God into our lives, our homes as we care for those who you truly love by creating a comforting calm space, a safe haven from the storms of life and increasing our ability to help others and feel peace by being prepared, orderly and organized.

It’s not about the decorating of our homes that determine if our homes are warm and inviting, it’s the Spirit of God that lives within our home.  People will sense the Spirit when they walk in the door whether they know it or not.

Homemaking is inviting the presence of God to reside in our homes.  It’s asking God to help us care and arrange our homes in a way that is a comfort and a blessing to the people who live there, as well as those who visit.  It’s asking God to give you wisdom, understanding and knowledge that can only come from Him.

Our homes reflect a glimpse of our hearts.  As Christian women, the foundation for everything in our lives should flow from Jesus Christ.  Our lives flow from His death and His resurrection.  His blood provides the only way we can be saved.  Our real home is in heaven.  Here on earth, our homes can be the closest thing to either heaven (or hell), and by God’s grace, He can help our homes to reflect His kingdom and His life with eternal fruitfulness and joy.

The heart of simplicity is a heart of worship.  Rather than striving in the flesh, it’s a heart of abiding in Christ and allowing God’s presence to flow through us.  Jesus said, “Abide in me and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit; for without Me, you can do nothing.” John 15:5

By renewing our vision and focus on making new habits, we can start to live more simply and more fully for Christ.  By surrendering our will to God and choosing to walk in the Spirit daily, we can be free from these burdens and able to complete the work He has equipped us to do.  When we shed the excess in our hearts, our minds, and our homes, we can more clearly heart that still, small voice and pursue God in all we do.  Then we will find true joy and genuine peace.

All of us have the opportunity to change our lives and the lives of those around us if we will commit our whole life to serving the King.  If we don’t invest the time in this amazing relationship, not only are we foolish, but we are suicidal, for the very health and life of our bodies, minds, and spirits are dependent on the health of our relationship with our God.

When we drench ourselves in His Word, we grow in knowledge and grace.  “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.  But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  2 Peter 3:17-18.  This grace gives us the power and desire to live lives that are alignment with the ways of God.  We must send time with him – putting on Christ every day.  Put your Bible where you can grab moments of reading here and there ~ it is life ~ breathe it!

Reflections for today:

1. If you could describe the foundation of your home at this moment what would it be?

2. What are some time-wasters that you have a hard time letting go of?

3. Why is vision and faith so important when it comes to growing in your prayer life?

4. Is spending your time feeding your soul on His Word daily as much a priority for you as brushing your teeth, showering?  If not, why not?

 

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

MINI CHALLENGE TEACHING CHILDREN TO HANDLE MONEY IN A GODLY MANNER DAY 5

Now the fun part. We have established our family budget, and helped our children to establish their budget. Now be certain about what you have decided, because once you see what is about to happen you might feel the need to change what you have already decided. But remember, please, that this is NOT ABOUT HOW MUCH MONEY THEY GET, IT IS ABOUT TEACHING THEM RESPONSIBILITY OF MONEY. TEACHING THEM TO BE GODLY WITH THEIR MONEY!

We are going to break down their allowance. Get ready, hold on, and be prepared, because this is a little out there, but it is the truth!

Here’s how it will work. You have decided on the payday. You are going to lay out their money (will be in coins and bills). You will tell them here’s your allowance. 

Tithing 20%

I’m going to use 20%. You can change this %, but the way I am teaching my children is to immediately put 20% aside to give back to God. That can be to the church, towards a mission trip, or charity. You can separate it into however you want, but 20% gives you plenty to play with. This is tithing towards the church and also covers any charitable organizations they want to contribute for, or shopping and getting food/clothing for the local food bank/homeless shelter.

Taxes: 20% 

Mark 12:17 ~ ‘Then Jesus said, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”.
We need to prepare our children for taxation that will happen when they start to work in the real world and get that first pay check. They need to understand that it is taxation is a Biblical principal. Yet just like the taxes we pay the government gives us back our money through roads, education, and so forth. We are going to use this tax money to help us be able to match or contribute to what we discussed on day 3! You will need to be very diligent and not use this money for anything other than what you have said you will use it for. Split the tax money up or keep it together, but this money will go towards their future finances, helping to eliminate your future financial children stress.

Living Expense: 20%

Again I know you are thinking I’m crazy charging my kids a living expense. But remember the goal is for the children to learn to live within their means. They are going to know if this is how much I get paid from my paycheck this is how much money I can use for my rent, gas, food, electric, ect. This money will be separated into their envelopes that they have set up. Yes, even little children should have an envelopes for living expenses. Their clothing, their food, ect.

*I also encourage you to tell any child that is working and receiving a paycheck that as long as they are living in your home you require them to use that paycheck the same way that you have been teaching them. That you see them do this. I encourage you to make them pay at least one of their bills in full or partial. So if they have a car, they should be paying insurance (all or partial). Maybe chip in for the electric or grocery bill. You can always put this money aside and return it to them at a later date. But having them pay a bill shows them responsibility other than their breakdown of living expense bills. You can also put whatever is left over after paying the bill you have decided they are responsible for into an envelope to give back to them at a later date. Use this money towards their wedding, down payment for a house, deposit when they first move out, ect.

10% Emergency Savings
10% Savings 

This will leave them with 20% for their immediate gratification or for them to use the way they want to.

I know it seems insane. But did you know that according to a Cambridge study done on children and finances that children have established their treatment of money! Yes, they are already learning their own spending habits by SEVEN YEARS OLD! Now that’s scary!! Do you see even though it seems crazy and a little absurd; in the long end you are giving your children lifelong financial freedom! No matter how much money they earn they will never feel financial stress or debt. That’s what God wants for all of us!! 

Breakdown again:
20% Tithing
20% Taxes
20% Living Expenses
10% Emergency Savings
10% Savings
20% immediate gratification

So if their allowance is $10/allowance day that’s:
$2 tithing,
$2 Taxes, 
$2 Living Expenses, 
$1 Emergency Savings, 
$1 Savings, 
$2 immediate gratification

If you have decided to do $1/allowance day that’s:
20 cents tithing
20 cents taxes
20 cents living expenses
10 cents emergency savings
10 cents savings
20 cents immediate gratification

Created for the Gift of the Home Group by Jennifer Cangiamila

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

MINI CHALLENGE TEACHING CHILDREN TO HANDLE MONEY IN A GODLY MANNER DAY 4

Getting your children ready for the envelope system.

Step 1: What financial things are your children going to be responsible for? Now this is going to depend on their age. For elementary aged children will they be responsible for half or some of their friend’s birthday presents? Teenage children will they be responsible for gas for their car, insurance (some or half), ect. Look at your family dynamic, the ages of your children, your personal financial place, expectations you place on each one of your members, ect. and decide which is best for your family. It’s important that you know regardless of their age they still need to get the envelop going. If they are three have them be responsible for saving for a birthday gift or Christmas gift for the entire family. Re-evaluate yearly the envelopes with the kids.

Step 2: Sit down with your children and give them envelopes, large gallon Ziploc bags, or piggy banks for each individual thing they will be responsible for. Label each one for the specific thing they will be saving or responsible for. For example, clothing/gas/gifts. This will be important for them later on, once we start giving them their money. They are going to have to decide what percentage of their allowance they are given will go into each envelop. Will they be taking a % out of each payday or every other one. This is going to help teach our children to be prepared for the monthly and yearly things that come up. Add in 3 more envelopes/piggy banks/Ziplock bags for saving. You will have one for the following: tithing/giving, emergency and future saving. Eventually these will go into the bank and to the church or an organization that you believe God is leading you to tithe too.

Created for the Gift of the Home Group by Jennifer Cangiamila

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

MINI CHALLENGE TEACHING CHILDREN TO HANDLE MONEY IN A GODLY MANNER DAY 3

Now that you have made a few decisions on the amount of money you can place into budget for your children and why you are going to give your children money, it’s time for you to sit down with your spouse and discuss your children’s future financial goals. You are going to need to need to make these decisions with your children or with your spouse depending on the age. As parents we often stress about what the future is going to hold for our children. Will we be able to buy them their first beat up car? How much will we be able to help them with their college fund? Are we going to be able to afford a wedding or honeymoon for them? Will we even be able to help a little?

Our goal with this mini challenge is to help our children learn to work hard, sacrifice, and live DEBT FREE ~ which all goes back to the Biblical way God wants us to live our life with money. So now it’s time to look at those questions and figure out the answers in a Biblical light.

Step 1: First, let’s look at a car. We could go out and finance a car allowing our child to make payments, or ourselves making payments. But is this really teaching our children to work hard, sacrifice, and live debt free? NO! So here’s a solution. Tell your child that when it’s time to purchase a car you will match how much they have saved, so if they have saved $8K, you will match that $8K. Now before you panic on me thinking what if I don’t have $8K, I can tell you that you will if you continue to follow this plan. I will explain how later! So if your child has saved up $8K and you give them $8K that’s $16K they will have for a car! If they save up $1K you give them $1K and that’s $2K they have saved up!!

What about their college? You can do the same with that. When they get to their teenage years they are going to look at going out with their friends and spending $20 as that’s $40 towards getting a car! Their wedding, honeymoon, moving out, ect. It doesn’t have to be I will match you, it could be I will give you $100 for every $1K you save, or $20 for every $60 you save. Whatever you feel comfortable with. Let’s take some stress off of our future finances and teach our children early how to gain control of their finances! Personally I want to take my children anywhere in the world that they would like to go for their 16th birthday. Now my children are 8 (turning 9 in Nov.), 7, & 6 right now so I have time to save for this, but that is my goal. Well, they know this desire I have and they want this more than a sweet 16th party. They will need an envelope for their saving for this trip because they will want to buy souvenirs and other things when we are there.

Step 2: Get an envelope and label it for each long-term future goal.
Our goal for our children is for them to never have a credit card. We will teach them to live within and under their means. The credit card that they will have will be a secured one.

Created for the Gift of the Home Group by Jennifer Cangiamila

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

BACK TO BASICS FINANCES DAY 3

Budgeting Part 2

Ok, so we have all our bills, figured out the amounts, and asked ourselves why on the amounts.  Now, let’s start the budgeting thing. 

Isaiah 55:2 “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.”

Let’s take a look at one way of doing a budget.  My Dad, who is the wisest man I know, always has great advice on budgeting.  His advice is this: never spend more than you make, and don’t get yourself into a debt you cannot get out of.  I see you nodding your heads in agreement!  I told you my daddy is smart!  He also always said, you pay before you play.  What does that mean?  I am so glad you asked!

If you bring home say, $20/week, and you have a bill that must be paid, and it costs $10, but your friend has invited you to a concert that only costs $15 dollars.  Do you go?  Or maybe that cute pair of shoes (my personal weakness) is finally on sale, for $19 AND you have a 10% off coupon, do you buy them?  Remember, the bill MUST be paid, or you will incur finance charges, so what do you do?  According to my Dad, you pay the bill.  Is it as much fun as the concert or those shoes?  Maybe not, but you won’t have to pay more on the same bill for not paying it in the first place.

Personal testimony time!  I got myself into some trouble about 17 years ago with credit cards.  I ran up a lot on just one, but never looked at the total, only the amount due.  Have you done that?  The problem with it is you can keep spending more on your credit card, and the minimum amount due only goes up a little bit.  Needless to say, when my husband found out (no I did not tell him, he found out when we were buying our home in NY), he was not a happy camper.  So now, I only use credit cards for gas, car repairs, and prior approval from him.

Why did I bring up my credit card abuse to you?  Because too many of us do it!  We don’t have the money to buy what we want, so we charge it!  Ane then when we max out one card, we can get another one so we can keep buying stuff we do not need.  We may want it, but we do not need it.  Remember that old expression rob Peter to pay Paul?  I know people who use one credit card to pay off another one.  It’s sad, because the debt mounts and the frenzy continues.

Ok, so maybe you are thinking what’s the big deal?  I only ran up $1,000 on one card, and I pay the minimum every month, and haven’t charged anything else on it.  Ok, good for you, but did you know, depending on the interest rate your credit card company charges you, just by paying the minimum, it will take you 10 years to pay it off!  That, my friends, is crazy.  My dad calls that fools money.  I am not saying you shouldn’t have a credit card.  What I am saying is if you use one, pay off the entirety each month.  If you can’t, then cut that card up,do NOT get another one and do your best to pay it off.  Too many people have lost their homes and sometimes their marriages all due to credit card debt.  Nothing is worth that, nothing.

 Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Ok, so back to budgeting.  The first thing you need to do is designate the amount of money that goes out each week/month.  The ones we cannot do much about is mortgage, rent, and utilities.  The rest we can.  I am going to borrow the envelope system from Dave Ramsey.  No, I am not telling you to go out and buy his books I am just using it as an example of how to get yourself and your family on a strict budget without overspending.  Ready?  Let’s begin.  (the following is taken directly out of Dave Ramsey’s Guide to Budgeting book)  (as an aside, this budgeting plan does not include the use of credit cards.  We are trying to stay out of debt remember?)

Use the envelope system for items that tend to bust your budget.

 Common examples include:

• Food (grocery store)

• Restaurants

• Entertainment

• Gasoline

• Clothing

You don’t have to save up any money to start using  the envelope system. Here’s how you do it. Let’s say you have budgeted $500 a month for groceries. When you receive your paycheck, write yourself a check for $250, cash it, and put the cash in an envelope. On that envelope, write “groceries.” No money—and we mean NO MONEY—comes out of that envelope except to pay for food at the store.  If you go food shopping and leave the envelope at home by mistake, turn the car around and go back to the house to get it.

Make sure to take enough money to cover your groceries for that trip. If you take $150 and you tally up a bill for $160, take some things out of the cart. Bring any change back and put it in the envelope. When you get paid again, write another $250 check. That’s your $500 for the month for food. If you want to go to the store but don’t have enough money, then raid the fridge for leftovers.

Getting a Reward

If you have money left over in an envelope at the end of the month, congratulations! You came in under budget for that item that month. So for that, it’s all right to celebrate (within reason). Reward yourself if you’d like by going out to dinner or rolling the money over to the next month so you have an extra big food budget.

Getting that reward is important because it keeps your spirits up. It’s tough to live on a beans-and-rice lifestyle. But you’re making it work! Great job!

 Don’t Cheat on Your Envelopes!

Be careful not to borrow from other envelopes. When it comes to the envelope system, it can be very tempting to borrow cash from one envelope to fund some other activity. For example, if you use up all your “eating out” money, don’t be surprised if some inner voice tells you to reach behind that envelope for the one that’s marked “clothing.”  C’mon … just a little … it won’t hurt you. You must remember that the very purpose of the envelope system is to curb your spending and teach you discipline. When you run out of grocery money, you eat leftovers instead of going food shopping. If you see your gas money is slipping away faster than the remaining days of the month, then limit your trips or even carpool. If you have a crisis come up in the middle of the month or something happens and you absolutely have no other choice but to shift envelope funds around, then call an emergency budget committee meeting with your spouse. Talk to each other and figure out the best course of action, adjust the budget, and be in agreement on it. Both of you must be involved; it’s a committee decision.

Seems simple enough doesn’t it but budgeting is not going to be easy, if it were, everyone would be doing it, and we would not be in the financial shape we are in.  Remember, God wants us to be good stewards of all the gifts He has given us, and that includes our finances.  And remember, getting that pay raise, or winning the lottery will not change your finances, it will only increase your spending.  Get on a budget and stick to it!  I’ll be praying for all of you for financial wisdom!

 Ecclesiastes 5:10 “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.”

  Questions

1. What do you think is going to be the hardest part about doing a budget?

2. Where do you see yourself overspending and how can you curb that?

Created for the Gift of the Home Group by Kirsten Dreiling

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

 

Mini Challenge Teaching Children to Handle Money in a Godly Manner Day 2

Step 1: Change how you talk about MONEY! This is a HUGE one and will be difficult. How many times have you heard yourself say, “We don’t have the money for that?” “No, we can’t afford that.” “We are tight this week!” “We are so poor!” I’ve been guilty of it, and I’m sure that you have had it slip. If you haven’t, well, you are lucky! But that still doesn’t mean that you don’t need to change your thinking or speaking about money! From now on you are going to say, “God provides exactly what we need. We have the money to get this, but if we get this, we need to take the money from somewhere else in the budget. So should we take the money from groceries, gas, rent/mortgage, etc?” Do not be afraid to talk to your children about how much you spend on groceries, electric, etc. Talk to them and let them understand that God has provided the money for you, you have worked hard, but now you have a choice to make, going out to eat, getting the toy/video game, ect or pay the bill is important. Teaching your children to trust and have Faith that God will always provide is so important. Looking at money as you controlling it and it not being the one in control of you is essential! It is a step towards FREEDOM!!!

Step 2: It’s important that your children understand that money isn’t going to always be handed to them, but that money is EARNED, that they must WORK for it. Now I know yesterday I told you that we give our children an allowance strictly so that they can learn the value of money, not contingent on their behavior, grades, or chores; instead they work around the house doing things as a way to serve the family.

So now it’s time for you to evaluate as a family or as a couple what will be servant hood chores and what will be the chores that the children receive for money. For example, putting your dishes in the dishwasher in our home is a servant chore, while scrubbing a toilet would be a chore that would get some money. Other servant chores: cleaning your room, making your bed, picking something up that you see laying on the floor (even if it is not yours). Money chores: mowing the grass, weeding, washing and/or cleaning the inside of the car. For us a chore that might be a little struggle for them, take extra time, or is really something that is helpful to keeping the family going but not a necessity would be a money chore.

Having the kids come together with you and discuss will help them to see and understand that in something’s in life we simply do to help make life easier for others (servant hood) getting nothing in return, while other things in life are done because it is WORK and you will get something from it.

You will also need to figure out home much each work chore will cost. Remember it isn’t about the amount of money that they are getting, rather it is about the lesson you are teaching and they are learning. You are not going to change your budget that you decided on yesterday, instead you are going to take that budget and figure out the worth of each work chore from there.

Step 3: Decide when you are going to pay your children. Will it be monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly.

Created for the Gift of the Home Group by Jennifer Cangiamila

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

 

Back to Basics Finances Day 2

Budgeting Part 1

Today we are going to talk about my least favorite part of money: budgeting.  Why do I think of this as my least favorite?  I like to buy stuff.  All kinds of stuff.  Remember that song material girl? That  was me not so long ago.  Ok, I admit it, I still am, but God is working with me on that.  I also want to let you all know, I am in no way a financial person, just letting you all know what I have learned through the years and works for my family and I .  So, let’s take a leap of faith and dive right into budgeting.

Ecclesiastes 7:12 “Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have it.”

 Ha!  Fooled you!  Before we can talk about a budget, we have to know where we are spending our money.  Why is this important?  If you don’t know where the money is going, how can you know what or how to budget?  This is the time for complete honesty not only for yourself, but your family as well.  The first thing we need to do is find out how much money is coming in.  Unlike looking at the gross amount for tithing, now we need to look only at the net after all that fun stuff like taxes, social security, etc.  Now, let’s get those bills ready to look at, and I mean really look at, not glance at, grimace and move on.  We all have similar bills each month such as:

• House payment or rent
• Electric
• Gas/fuel oil/coal/wood (however you heat your home)
• Phone
• Trash
• Water/sewer
• Homeowners or renters insurance
• Food

Ok, now let’s look at the other bills you may have:

• Car payment/insurance
• Gas for car
• Maintenance on car
• School supplies/fees
• College tuition
• Medical insurance
• Medical bills (hospital/doctor/prescriptions/etc)
• Credit cards
• Miscellaneous

Now, list any other bills you have that I have not mentioned.  If you have pets, write down the cost of their food, vet bills, and medicines if any.  Make sure that you write down EVERY bill you have with the amount you pay each month, and don’t worry, I am not going to ask you to tell me how much it all comes to. That is strictly between you, your family, and God.  Remember, tithing is not included in your bills.  Next, add it all up and put the total amount at the bottom.  Subtract the bills total from the net income total.  Scary number isn’t it?  Take a deep breath, and relax.  That was one of the hardest things to do wasn’t it?  To be totally honest about the bills you pay each month and what you are bringing in.  The final thing I am going to ask of you today, is to really think about these 2 questions before you answer them.  No judgments here, we are all in the same boat, but like I am so fond of saying we cannot change what we do not acknowledge.  Ok, here we go with the questions:

1.      If your bills are higher than your income why?

2.      Are you willing or able to change that?

Congratulations!  You made it through part one of budgeting!!! Go you!

Created for the Gift of the Home Group by Kirsten Dreiling

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

 

Mini Challenge Teaching Children to Handle Money in a Godly Manner Day 1

This is my first shot at leading a mini challenge, so ladies, bare with me, I am learning! I’m excited to help you, as well as myself, bring our children into understanding how to handle money, the value of a dollar, and how to use their money in a Godly way!

Step 1: Look at your own personal finances. Do you have a budget? If not, you are going to want to make one. You need to lead by example. You are going to need to budget in the children’s allowances. Some of you might be giving your children allowance, and other this might be all new. You can start this as early as 3 years old! It’s never to early to start teaching your children about money.

Step 2: Decide if you will have requirements for allowance or just give them a flat amount. Personally in our home allowance is not earned, it is given as a tool for our children to learn how to manage their money in a Godly way. They know that they will always get money regardless of the grades or chores. Chores in our home are not rewarded by money; instead chores are our children’s privilege to serve the family. This way they understand that everything that is done around the house is a way of serving one another, just like Jesus came to serve us!

Step 3: Decide the amount of money you will be giving your child for allowance. Here are some ideas for those who want to give a flat rate to their children: a dime/quarter/dollar for each year they are, a flat $10 for the week.

Created for the Gift of the Home Group by  Jennifer Cangiamila.

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Back to Basics Finances Day 1

“Money, money, how we love thee how we need you more and more.”  Ah, money….those pretty little green pieces of paper cloth that we all know and love.  Some of us have a lot, and some not so much, but we have it.  We even have money in metal!  Good old quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, and let’s not forget about 50 cent pieces, silver dollars…sigh…money….We do love our money, don’t we?  Come on, be honest with yourselves here!  We, especially here in America, covet money.  We put people who have a lot on pedestals for us all to see.  Don’t believe me?  How many rich people can you name right now?  Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, actors, sports figures?  Now, how many poor people can you name…See, money in today’s world is important.  It is what defines us..it separates the haves from the have nots.  So, is money bad?  Let’s dive into God’s Word and see.

Money is a root of all kinds of evil.

Oops!  That is not so good, is it?  We all know that scripture, and have heard it repeatedly from pastors of all walks of life, but is it true?  Nope!  How do I know? You ask?  Because this is the most misquoted verse of all scriptures.  Let’s read it in its entirety:

1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. …” 

Aha!  Now that makes more sense!  Money itself, is not evil, but the love of money is.  We could dive into a theological discussion here on this scripture, but I am not going to.  Instead, we are going to look at the money we have, and how we spend it.

We need money today.  We need it for food, shelter, clothing, and many other things.  God also asks us for money.  Why shouldn’t He?  It all belongs to Him, doesn’t it?  He provided us with the job that brings money in, the blessing of money from someone else originated from God, so it’s only natural that He wants us to give some back to Him.  He doesn’t ask for much, unlike the governments, He only asks for 10%, our tithe.

Leviticus 27:30   “‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.”

That seems easy enough, doesn’t it.  Just give God 10%.  But then the second part of Timothy comes into play:

1 Timothy 6:10  “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Oops.  Ok, have I lost you here?  Let me explain what I mean.  Back to tithing, how much does God ask us to tithe?  It’s 10%, but 10% of what?  Is it ten percent of the gross amount, the net amount, or after the bills are paid?  Is it after we buy that cute outfit, or killer pair of shoes first, after our vacation?  If you answered yes to any of the above, we have a long road ahead of us.  God wants 10% of our first fruits.  That means if you gross $10, He wants $1.  Not after you pay or buy everything else, but first.  I know it’s not easy, but there is something we all need to understand.  God does not need our money.  He owns everything, so He doesn’t need it.  Then, why does He want it if He doesn’t need it?  To teach us.  To show us that He is in control of everything including our finances.  He is the Great I Am, not the Great I Need.  He wants us to fully rely on Him for everything.  By tithing, you are honoring God with, for some of us, is the most important thing in our lives.

I have heard some people say, “If you tithe to God, He will give you more money in return.”.  He might, but that is not the way He wants you to tithe.  He wants you to tithe with the right attitude.  He wants you to be a joyful giver with no thoughts on how He is going to give back to you.

What if you don’t have any money?  What if you are married to someone who does not believe in God, or does not believe in tithing?  Should you tithe anyway?  Yes.  You can tithe with other things besides money, you can tithe your time, your love, anything that God lays on your heart to tithe.

Let me tell you something of my own experience with tithing various things to God and how it worked out for me.  When I was working, I always thought to myself, I will tithe this week IF (insert any if here you like, if I have enough for bills, if that book I want isn’t here yet, if that pair of shoes isn’t on sale) if, if if.  Was God blessing me?  Yes, but there was something in my Spirit that was not at peace.  When I started to tithe, I started with 10% of the net after bills, and God blessed me.  Then it was 10% before bills, and still He blessed me.  I finally started to tithe the gross, and BOY!  Did He bless me!  Sometimes with money, yes, but mostly in other ways.  I would love to go into how He did and what, but it’s personal for each person.  I then tried to outbless God with my tithing, and I couldn’t do it!  No matter how much I blessed Him, He blessed me more!  My spirit was at peace, and was rejoicing over it all!

I no longer work, but I still tithe my time and anything else God asks of me.  Tithing is so important to me and to God.  He does not command us to tithe, but why would you hold back something from God that is His in the first place?

So for day one on back to basics money is tithing.

Ask yourself these questions, and be honest!  We cannot change what we do not acknowledge:

1)      Do I tithe to God?  If so, out of what bounty am I tithing?  Over what is left, or out of my abundance.

2)      If I don’t tithe, why?  What is holding me back?

3)      If you cannot tithe money, in what other ways can I tithe?  Where would God see me tithe?

Tithing is like  a prayer to God, saying thank you to Him for all He has given you.  You probably won’t get rich when you tithe, but you will be blessed and at peace in your heart.  So let’s start tithing and see what God does with it!

Created for the Gift of the Home Group by K.D.

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Back to Basics Ourselves Day 5

KEEPING ACTIVE

 

 

 

For some of us, an active lifestyle is easy but for the rest of us it required genuine effort and intention to make it happen.

Staying physically active (not just getting up from the computer to get something to eat) has many benefits.  How good are you at making a consistent part of your daily routine.

Here’s some motivation:

• It increases your overall sense of well-being.
• It gives you more energy.
• It helps you sleep more soundly.
• It helps keep your weight in check.
• It reduces physical aches and pains
• It produces long-term benefits; improved circulation, heart health, reduced risk of serious illness, builds strong bones, etc.

Here are some ideas for getting your exercise in a more natural way:

• Family walks- whether it’s just around your neighborhood, at a local park, taking a hike in the summer, or anything else that you enjoy.
• Playing sports or games outdoors with your children (soccer, basketball, etc.)
• Bike rides.
• Swimming.
• Gardening. Hoeing? Tilling? Raking? It all counts, for building muscle and getting your heart pumping.
• Power cleaning.

When we look at fitness in these every day ways we start to see how we can fit it into our schedules.

Questions for Reflection:

 1.  When is the best time for you to exercise?

2.  In what ways are you going to incorporate fitness into your daily routine?

3.  How do you think that adding fitness to your schedule will help you in the long run?

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

 

Back to Basics – Ourselves Day 4

HEALTHY HOMES  

SIMPLE CLEANING

Remember our two main goals: Good Stuff In/Bad Things Out.  Our goal here is to avoid dangerous cleaning chemicals out of our homes.

Some ideas are:

• Baking Soda.  For scrubbing and freshening.
• White Vinegar.  For mirrors, windows, and odors.
• All- Purpose Natural Concentrated Cleaner.
• Essential Oils.  Adding to things like vinegar.
• Natural-brand dish soap and dishwasher detergent.
• Gentle laundry detergents.
• Borax. For stubborn stains and hard-core cleaning jobs.

GENTLE BEAUTY

 

Our skin is the largest organ in our body, so if something goes on your skin it ultimately makes its way into your body, and into our blood stream.  Toxins accumulate in our bodies and can contribute to health concerns.

Here are some healthy ideas:

• Castile soap or natural bar soap.
• Coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil.
• Toothpaste.  You could try making your own with baking soda, coconut oil and essential oils and flavorings.
• Hair Styling Products. There are more natural hair care lines on the market today, so look for the best option for you.
•  Makeup: Mineral make-up has very few non-toxic minerals.
• Deodorant/Anti-Perspirant: The first recommendation is to entirely forego the anti-perspirant in favor of a deodorant-only product. No, that’s not going to happen even though Our Creator designed sweating as one of the ways that toxins would be flushed from our bodies.  Instead let’s try to replace it with a gentler one.
• Moisturizing: Coconut oil is a great alternative.

Questions for Reflection:

1. How can you replace your toxic cleaning supplies with better alternatives?

2. How can you replace your toxic beauty supplies with better alternatives? Yes, this one will be a toughie!

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Mini-Challenge – Calm Your Closet – Day 4

Deal immediately with the other piles.

Take the maybe pile (I hope you kept this pile small) and put it into a box or two. Label it maybe, with today’s date. Store it somewhere out of sight, and don’t open it for 6 months. Toss the stuff in 6 months. Take the toss pile, and put it into boxes — stuff you’ll donate to charity, stuff you’re going to give to friends, maybe other stuff you’ll sell in a yard sale or on eBay. Throw the actual trash away, or recycle.  It’s best to get rid of that pile of give away straight away, you don’t want to keep it any longer than necessary.  If the items are in good condition:  Ebay…  I am not an Ebay expert, but hear how great some people do with Ebay selling.  Then, you can also call a charity that does pick up, they often come when you call within a few days.  I would suggest you keep these give away charity items – don’t keep in your closet, put somewhere where you won’t have to worry about the temptation, to unload it and keep – then you end of repeating the cycle.

Outstanding progress and job well done!

Created for the Gift of the Home by Leanne Glezen Bell.  Thank you, Leanne!

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

 

Back to Basics – Ourselves Day 3

HEALTHY CAN BE SIMPLE – BASIC NUTRITION

If we focus on making choices that work with the two focus points – 1. Put the good stuff in.  2. Keep the bad stuff out, we’ll be closer to healthy living than we think.

Remember we are taking small, easy steps; each step is an important foundation to build on for the next step.  We don’t have to do this perfect; we only have to try our best and trust the Lord with the results.

We also can’t allow this to become an issue of idolatry either.  Keep our eyes on Christ.  Keep our ears open to hear His voice.  Keep our spirit thirsty for the leading of His Spirit.  He will show us what to do.

What does it mean to eat basic, nutrition serving whole, real foods?

• Eating as little as possible from a can, box or frozen package.
• Using basic ingredients, like whole grains, meat, eggs, fish, dairy, fresh fruit and vegetables, herbs and spices, and healthy fats and oil.

Don’t get all flustered by nutrient content, reading labels.  Just put your effort into buying whole foods and preparing meals from scratch.  Try eating a wide variety of foods.

Shop the perimeter of the grocery store, rather than the inner aisles where there are more pre-made things.

Let’s talk about the food groups.

*Grains. Nothing refined, but only whole grains, like whole wheat, oats (not quick, but rolled or steel cut/Irish oats), Kamet or spelt (ancient grains, similar to wheat), rye, barley, millet, quinoa, brown rice, wild rice. Fresh ground flour.  Pasta, choose a whole grain or brown rice pasta over white. Breads should be home baked, or choose freshly-made whole grain bakery breads without

Preservatives (sprouted or sourdough is best). Hot cereals like oatmeal are ideal for breakfast, and homemade granola or muesli make a nice and easy cold alternative.

* Meat, poultry, and fish. Stick with basic cuts of chicken and beef, and pork.  Fish can be wild, fresh or frozen.

* Dairy and eggs. Eat real butter, unprocessed (and preferably un-dyed) cheeses, and plain yogurts or kefir made with genuine bacteria cultures.

* Vegetables and fruit. Organic or unsprayed produce is wonderful if you can get it. Some vegetables and fruits are higher in nutrients than others–cabbage, broccoli, dark leafy greens, blueberries, winter squash, pomegranates, orange foods like carrots, sweet potatoes and

squash, onion and garlic and too many others to possibly mention them all. Try to eat a “rainbow” of produce colors over the course of each week. Eat them often, with lots of variety, both cooked and raw.  Leaving them un-peeled (when practical) offers extra nutrients and fiber.

* Beans and legumes. These super foods are a wonderful, frugal way to boost the protein in your diet. Take advantage of their cost-effectiveness by buying them dry and in bulk. Start soaking in water overnight and cook the next morning or afternoon. It’s so simple, it stretches the grocery budget farther, and they’re packed full of fiber and minerals.

 * Fats and oils.  Don’t be afraid of consuming fat! Saturated fat is an important component of a nourishing diet. For higher-temperature cooking and baking, good choices are butter, coconut oil, palm oil, and old fashioned animal fats like rendered lard and tallow. For cold use, extra virgin olive oil, flax oil, and small amounts of unrefined (cold-pressed) vegetable oils like walnut and sesame are best.

 * Sweeteners. Use sweeteners minimally and use in their unrefined state. Avoid all white and brown sugar, corn syrup (especially high-fructose corn syrup), and powdered sugar.

* Condiments and spices.  The less that you can rely on store-bought the better. They’re simple to make yourself.  Buy simple spices and herbs to dress up your cooking and mix them yourself.

 * Beverages.  Go for water first.  Keep juice as a treat (although fresh juicing at home is a healthful idea).  Avoid pops and other sugar-laden drinks. I won’t try to convince you to ditch your coffee and tea, but try to keep your caffeine levels to a minimum. Herbal teas are a wonderful alternative.

Questions for Reflection:

1.  Look through your refrigerators, freezers and pantry’s.  How much processed food do you have?

2. Why do you think we eat so much of it?

3. What one small step could you do today to eat healthier?

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Mini-Challenge – Calm Your Closet – Day 3

Clean, then put the keep pile back, organized.

OK,everything sorted? Clean out the closet nice.  Wipe it down, vacuum, mop.  Dust down the racks, this is your closet and you want to make it feel and smell nice.     Put the keep pile back in the closet (unless the stuff belongs elsewhere). Put it back neatly, organized. This doesn’t have to take long. Leave spaces between things if you can.  I have a t-shirt section, sweaters, jeans, etc.  I try to limit my hanging section:  40 max of items to hang up.  I only hang things that will wrinkle easily, dresses, you know what I mean.

Created for the Gift of the Home by Leanne Glezen Bell.  Thank you, Leanne!

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Mini Challenge – Calm Your Closets – Day 2

Take everything out, empty it into a pile.

Yes!  All of it. Alternatively, you could choose to do this one section at a time, which could be less overwhelming — but it’ll take a few extra steps, as you’ll have to repeat these steps for each section. Either way works, do what YOU need to do at YOUR comfort level.

Then…  the real fun begins:

Quickly sort into 3 piles. Do not dilly dally, or sit on the fence. Here are the choices: keep, toss, or maybe. The maybe is only if you really, REALLY really have a hard time deciding — you’ll put these in a box and store them for 6 months, getting rid of them after that time if you never needed them.   You will need to think if you want and can make the time to go back to this box/bag after 6 months.  Sometimes we over think things and we need to just be free of things.  I find that if I think too long about something in cleaning or de-cluttering, I leave it for longer than 6 months and have to repeat the cycle.  The maybe is something that you may say:  I am losing weight and will fit into it, I may wear that at a Christmas party…  the ideas that cross in your mind…  this alone is overwhelming too.  You can leave your maybe box for the end of the week.  That is okay too.  You need to remember:  Do what is right for YOU!  The keep pile is for stuff you really love and actually use — if you haven’t used it for 6 months, put it in the toss pile. OK, 12 months for seasonal clothes (such as winter coats). If you have trouble getting rid of things for sentimental or other emotional reasons, see how to let go of possessions. That is another thing to think about.  But…  for now, we are going to focus on our closets.

Created for the Gift of the Home by Leanne Glezen Bell.  Thank you, Leanne!

Come join us for encouragement and support athttps://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Back to Basics – Ourselves Day 2

 OUR BODIES

The human body is a masterful creation, made by a masterful Creator.  The body has very real needs in order to function as it was designed.  The body also possesses an incredible ability to heal itself.  We should be in awe of God who made us so intricately and made a world that is capable of nurturing us in health and wholeness.  Most of us don’t experience that… we are tired, sick, achy, and uncomfortable.

It’s our responsibility to care for our bodies; it’s the temple of the Holy Spirit.  There is a biblical case for being concerned about health and how “naturally” we live:

* The Leviticus laws are full of suggestions intended to preserve the health of God’s chosen people, from dietary restrictions to sanitation measures that prevented disease. God’s laws were given to His children in kindness, to keep them from the diseases that were frequently known by the other nations around them. (Leviticus 11, 13, 14:33-57, Exodus 15:26)

*God’s blessings of abundance for His people were frequently referred to in the context of wholesome foods and fruitful harvests (lands flowing with milk and honey, barns full of cattle and oxen, fruitful harvests). (Exodus 3:17, Deut. 6:3, Deut. 30:9, Lev 2:4-6)

* Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and they are not our own, but we are to glorify God with them. (1 Cor. 6)

*We are to do all- eating, drinking, everything to the glory of God. (1 Cor. 10:31)

The way we care for ourselves is another opportunity to bring glory to Him and manage the blessings He has abundantly given us.  We shouldn’t be pursuing better health out of fear but for the love of God and thankfulness for what He has graciously given us.

The heart of it all is stewardship.  Stewardship is the conducting, supervising or managing of something especially the careful and responsible management of something entrusted into one’s care. (Merriam-Webster dictionary) So, even though we have been graciously given this earth and our bodies to live in and have dominion over, it’s not ours. It’s His.

Stewardship should be a huge concern for a Christian, particularly for the mother, wife, and homemaker.  The choices we make daily from the foods we serve, the things we buy, and even the soap we use ALL have an impact on our health.

When we make our health and our families’ health a priority we are conscientiously honoring God.  Yet there are benefits to us:

It will lead to a general sense of physical and emotional wellness.

• It helps us to function more efficiently. We can wake up ready to go, have less aches, pains and illnesses, have more energy to be productive and get through our days with joy.
• It will stabilize our moods, our demeanor and calm our emotions.
• Opens our brains to think more clearly, learn more readily.
• Frees us to serve wholeheartedly and energetically and do the things that God calls us to do.

This isn’t rocket science.  The major goal is to bring the heart back to a place of simplicity in God.  God isn’t asking you to do the impossible, He only asks us to be faithful.

There are 2 basic things to focus on for better health…

1. Put good stuff in

2. Keep the bad stuff out. 

Questions for Reflection:

1. What bad stuff do you need to keep out?

2. Have you made a plan to stop anything that could keep you from being all that God created you to be?

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Mini- Challenge – Calm Your Closet -Day 1

Let the Closet Calming Games Begin!

 Set aside some time, and get some boxes/bags.

You might need a couple of hours. Or a few, if your closet is huge. Set aside an evening, if you have time in the evenings, or part of day if need be. Get boxes/bags ready. You might need half a dozen or more, depending on how much junk you think you have. Also think how ruthless you want to be with the things in your closet. Think what you want to achieve, baby steps – do you want to de-clutter or organize or both? After you have your boxes/bags. Step back and analyze… Please, don’t think too much about things at this point. You will get overwhelmed. You are going to be categorizing tomorrow. Keep, Maybe and Give Away. Scan your closet for these categories. Tomorrow is a big day…. so gather those boxes and bags and let the real purge happen tomorrow.

Created for the Gift of the Home by Leanne Glezen Bell.  Thank you, Leanne!

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Back to Basics – Ourselves Day 1

STARTING THE DAY

I understand that many of us aren’t morning people.  If God wanted us to enjoy His magnificent sunrises they would come about 9 o’clock in the morning.  The Bible is filled with evidence that successful men (and women) of God rose early in the morning to worship the Lord. Genesis 22:3 (Abraham), Jacob (Genesis 28:18), Moses (Exodus 8:20), Joshua, David, Job, Isaiah, Daniel, the women who came to the empty tomb of Jesus, even Jesus rose early to worship thee Lord and spend time with Him.   “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed” (Mark 1:35).

Getting up early doesn’t make you righteous.  Many Christians are guilty of giving God what’s left over at the end of the day. Most of us have jobs that require us to be up and moving at a certain time.  We grab the coffee and start rushing.  Life is routine.

Christians should rise early, so they can have a spiritual routine… our soul’s salvation depends on it!   “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high

time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11). Christ is the morning light that will shine on us: “Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light’” (Eph. 5:14).

There is no better way to start your day than with a smile.  Psalm 118:24 in my mind, “This is the day which the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.” No matter how bad it was yesterday, today is a new day. “Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning” (Ps. 30:5). Wake up with a smile ready to shine your light for all to see!

How successful can a Soldier of Christ be if he crawls out of bed half-naked and unarmed? We need to mentally dress our souls for battle by putting on the Belt of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness; next the feet are shod with the Gospel of Peace; then the Shield of Faith; next the Helmet of Salvation; and finally the Sword of the Spirit.

 The old saying “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” For a Christian our morning devotions are just as important. Jesus Himself had a habit of morning devotions with the Father. “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed” (Mark. 1:35).

Lysa TerKeurst says “Is it really important to spend time with God every day?  With all the demands of everyday life it can be hard to set aside time with Jesus. But I can tell a big difference in how I handle things on those days when I’ve done this as opposed to those days I haven’t.  Spending time reading the Bible and praying gives us the exact instruction and comfort we need to handle all God sees coming our way today. It’s the perfect way to receive His peace. Then with great expectation we can face the day and everything in it.  Because of the time we’ve spent with Him, Jesus has already impressed on our hearts how we should act and react in every situation. So, instead of being a slave to our emotions and reacting based on feelings, we can be prepared no matter what.

God commanded His servants to get up and obey Him first thing in the morning.  As Christians, we are commanded to communicate with our Master through prayer. This must be done daily, because Christ commanded us to pray for our daily needs. “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11).

Paul told us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Th. 5:17).

Questions for Reflection:

1.  What keeps you from getting up and obeying Him first thing in the morning?

2.  How do you think your day would go by obeying?  Would you shine your light?  Would your day go smoother with Him alongside you?

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Mini-Challenge Once a Week/Month Cooking / Freezer Cooking Day #4

Step #1 Get all your supplies out that you need, bowls, food processors, spices, etc.

Step #2 Wash and chop all the vegetables that you are using.

Step #3 Start cooking!  If you are planning on cooking then reheating this is the time to do so.

Step #3 If you are planning on using the slow-cooker, now’s the time to put together the meals for it.

Step#4  Hints.  If you are using freezer bags, be sure to press as much air as possible out of the bag and cool before freezing.  Do not use foil or plastic wrap until the food has cooled down.  Label each package with what it is, how to cook it (heat up or slow-cooker, etc. and the date it was made. Frozen cooked meat, poultry in sauces, sauces and soups will keep 5-6 months.  Freeze as flat and thin as you can to make stacking in the freezer easier.

Ta da… feel efficient!

 

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Mini-Challenge Once a Week/Month Cooking / Freezer Cooking Day #3

Step #1 Go Shopping.  It’s better to do this before the actual cooking day because you want to focus your attention on just cooking when it’s cooking day.  Don’t forget to look for the best “deals”.

Step # 2 If you have bought meat, etc. in bulk, when you get home don’t forget to separate it into the portions you need.

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

 

 

Mini-Challenge Prepare a Weeks/Months Worth of Meals in 1 Day – Day 2

Step # 1 Gather those grocery store flyers or check your grocery stores website to see what’s on sale.  The purpose of making these meals is to save time and money, but seeing what’s on sale you can plan your meals accordingly.

Step # 2 Now’s the time to plan those meals.  Make sure to include every item you will need to cook these marvelous meals.  Make your grocery list.

Here are some places to start:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Cooking-Style/Freezer-Meal-Recipes

http://www.southernliving.com/food/whats-for-supper/easy-freezer-meals-00400000009133/

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/recipe_slideshows/healthy_freezer_recipes

 

 

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Back to Basics – Children

Hello Dear Mommas!  Before I begin this I have a confession to make…when I was asked to do this piece I thought “great I got this.”  Well is our God not funny in the ways he chooses to correct us or grow us up!

As I started reading, praying, and writing about how God sees our children and our parenting I have been convicted in many areas. I am still searching my heart and seeking the areas in my parenting that God wants to change.  I am not at all to the point that I can say I have come to understand it all or that I live by it but these are God’s truth and his view of our parenting.

I pray someday I will be able to say “yes Lord I get it” or “yes Lord this is how I do it.”  The process of growth and change does not happen over night and can not happen unless we turn our hearts towards God’s truth.  So join with me to hear some encouraging, instructive, and corrective instruction from God!

I have broken the pieces down into three sections and each section covers three different topics on parenting God’s way.  Take time to read them, meditate, and pray about each one.

Monday and Tuesday

Commitment in truth

Dedication to the Lord

Reflection of God

COMMITMENT IN TRUTH 

Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed. Psalm 16:3

First lets ask ourselves before we had kids how many of us had an idea in our minds of whom they would be? Anyone laughing yet? You know where I am going with this right?  Well we all found out pretty quickly that the image of what we thought our kids would be like was not at all reality. Why is this?  Let us ask ourselves this where did we get this view of who our kids would be?

For most of us we had a second-hand obscure look into parenting and who are children would be. We babysat, had siblings, we read books, watched TV, and listened to the adults around us talk about their experience’s of parenting.  While these may give us a taste of parenting nothing can prepare you for who YOUR child would turn out to be.  We have all hear the saying “kids don’t come with instructions.” While it is true they don’t hand you a manuscript on your child in the nursery there is a book that DOES give you all the instruction you will need.  This book tells us who our kids are, what they will need, how to love them, how to correct them, and where to turn when we are unsure.  Okay ladies say it with me that book is the…..BIBLE.

Now some of you may have turned to this book before having kids. I certainly was not one of them. I like a lot of unprepared mommas thought that each child would be raised differently and individually. Now it is true that each child does have their own needs and personalities and meeting them can take us on different paths; but God has set clear fundamental guide lines on how to raise our children a base from which we all must start and stepping-stones along the paths of their lives.  One view I had of my children before starting this that was not fully seen in the truth was that they were ONLY beautiful creations of God.  Now they of course are but I was missing one important view of them.  They are sinners with a sinners nature.  I would passively dismiss their behaviors as “just being kids.”

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of correction will drive it away. Proverbs 22:15

Before we have children God wants us to commit in marriage to one man.  Then two flesh become one.  This is not just a spiritual fact but a physical manifestation made real in the birth of our kids.  We must commit to raising these kids, we must commit to loving these kids, and we must commit to correcting these kids.  Now we do that right? We love them, we feed them, and we hold them when they cry.  But what if we looked at the commitment to our kids the way God sees his commitment to us.

How did commit to us? Why did he commit to us?  How does he stand firm in that commitment?  If we have a view of our children the way God sees us before coming to Christ then some of us would be nuns right now.  The sobering truth is this.  Our kids are sinners and are headed toward destruction. Oh sure they are cute little balls of Joy when we have them but this is not of their choice.  God makes them that way (I think so we don’t eat them) but we are in this flesh from sinners; headed toward eternal separation from God; and true the moment we are born.  Now don’t start throwing verses out there that speak on the loving formation in the womb.  Yes yes this all true but who did that?  Did your child? Did you? Nope that is an act of God it is his power and will.  Our birth right-handed down to us from the fall of man is sin.  Why should we look at kids this way; because the beginning of all wisdom is the fear of the Lord.  When we decide to have a child and start preparing ourselves for their arrival we need to keep in mind their eternal lives.  We need to pick up that guide to kids that God has given us and start praying over them right from the beginning, speaking truth and forgiveness of sins from the moment they enter the world, and live with the Holy fear that their eternal souls are being battled for by our enemy.  God tells us to commit whatever we do to him this includes our parenting.  We are so apt to forget that this too is part of the “whatever you do.” Our right view of God’s sacrifice for us, love of his creation, and commitment through all seasons is the beginning of setting our own minds toward the raising of the child God gave YOU.  No mistakes each child was formed specifically for you.  They were known by our father as he knows all creation.  We must not assume that our kids will be what we expect them to be because there is only one who truly knows them.  Ask God who they are, seek his understanding on their lives; seek his word for the ways he wants us to raise them. One of my favorite quotes is “learn to love the kids we are given, not the ones we wanted. This is one of the biggest commitments we as moms must make to love them for them, to fight for their salvation, and to speak the truth in love.

” The tongue has power of life or death and those who love it will eat its fruit.  Proverbs 18:21″

Dedication to the Lord.

“For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there. ”   1 Samuel 1:27-28

“Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”  Exodus 13:2

Okay ladies now it seems quite obvious why we dedicate our children right?  Let us dive a little deeper into God’s wisdom and understanding as to why this is necessary.

When we have our children how many parents do you think of when you think of those that will be raising them.  For some of us there is a mom and a dad.  For some of us we will be raising our children as single parents; if you are one or the other the same is true for both there is another parent involved in their lives and he is the most important one of all.  When we are willing give over our children to God what does this say?  We are saying God “God they are yours, your will for them is right, and we are willing accept that you are their Father.”  Now obviously we can do this from birth or any time throughout their lives but an open dedication in front of men is what God not only wants but requires.   In the Old Testament the first of the sons born to any couple was brought to the temple and presented to the Lord and the people.  It was not only for the parents to show their children but to openly proclaim that these children belonged to GOD.  Now God does not desire that we only dedicate our sons but ALL of the children we have.   Here are three reasons why dedicating our children to the Lord is so important to God

#1 We are openly acknowledging God’s superior presence as their Father before men.

#2 We are committing to the Lord and before men that we accept God’s will for their lives.

#3 We speak against the plans of the enemy for our children.

Remember the scripture life and death in the power of the tongue?  When we openly dedicate them we are doing just that speaking life into them and on them.  We are binding plans of the enemy and fully submitting to the will of God.  The enemy hates when we dedicate our children because in doing so we place a hedge of protection around their very souls.  Open dedication also accepts that their very lives and the length of their lives is up to the Will of God.  For some of us this is a hard thing to think about.  No one wants to imagine that their children could be gone from this earth before us.  The fact of the matter is that God gives and he takes, death is not impartial, and accidents can happen.  When we fully grasp the understanding that these kids will not be free from death just because we choose not to dedicate to the full will of God then we can fully see the need to dedicate their lives to the Lord.  Remember God loves them more than we do; there is no place that he is not there, and he has a plan and a purpose for all.  Dedicate your children to God allow him to be honored for the blessings he has given, and speak God’s will onto their lives.  One last point to make Dedication is not baptism.  A dedication is just as important but a baptism is something our children will choose to do on their own when the Lord has called them.  Yes there are mainly similarities to the two but the first is a choice of the parents the second is a choice of the child.

 Reflections of us reflect God.

 “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Mathew 5:16

“Be Holy as I am Holy” 1 Peter 1:16

“Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is.  From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” John 14:6

“Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. 11 Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do. 12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14 Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” John 14: 9-14 

Okay ladies this will be the hardest of these three for us to take in.  If we open our hearts to the conviction of God’s love and desire for his children to live a holy life than we will make it through.  Okay so I have heard it said from society world view “you should not expect your kids to be like you.” “They should not reflect you.” If I am the only one that has heard these then I am in shock. In one form or another we all have told that our kid’s decisions and actions should not reflect who we are as parent’s right?  Well wrong again is the world’s view.  As CHILDREN, FOLLOWERS, and REPRESENTATIVES of God we are not only but required to reflect who our Father is.  We are his chosen messengers on this earth.  The world watches us and the enemy accuses us.  He is the one speaking into the minds and hearts of unbelievers and believers alike (yes even Christians watch other Christians.)  Jesus told us that if we believe in him and choose to follow him we must follow God because there is no separating them.  When did Jesus ever say “well my father said this but I do this instead but still you should follow my father because he knows what is right.”  No that would have been foolishness and would not have fulfilled the righteous sacrifice that God required.  Praise you Jesus you did what was the will of the father!

Christ MIRRORED the father.  The father’s will was his will, the father’s heart was his heart, and the father’s love was his love.  In the same way we are to live our lives.  Jesus tells us to not be of the world but to be transformed through the renewing of our minds.  If our lives reflect who Christ is then the testimony of our walk will reflect who God is. If we are walking in our ways as believers then we are not reflecting who God is an in fact are leading others astray by representing a false view of whom God is.  Now let us get to the hard part here. In the same way our kids reflect who we are.  Our children learn and live what they are taught.  The ways you choose to spend your time, money, blessings, words, and abilities will teach our children what is important in this life.  Anyone feeling convicted yet? I sure am.  Sometimes as a mom and my kids are behaving in a way that I find annoying or is obviously wrong I think to myself “where did you get this?:” “what is wrong with YOU?”  The best answer is this what is wrong with ME?  What are my actions speaking to my kids? What areas of my life am I failing them?  If I am a grumpy self-seeking individual it should come as no surprise that my kids will be the same.  If I am constantly going through mood swings; then what am I to expect of my children?”  The hard bottom line truth is this that we are teachers and good or bad these kids are learning their behaviors from us. It is right that God expects us to follow him and it is right to expect our kids to follow us following him.   Now let us not freak out and start going through every bad choice they made see where our faults lies (a self-check is needed) but we must also remember that these kids also have what we have. That is FREE WILL.  Our kids like us are given the choice to follow or not to follow. We must look at the life we are living to be sure that our life style does not reflect the idea that their choice of rebellion is okay or acceptable.  We need to always be aware that we are students in need of wisdom and teachers always teaching. Come before God and seek his wisdom for he gives freely and we need to teach this wisdom to our kids.  If we walk before God reflecting to the world who he is then we teach our children to do the same.  Will we always get it right? No in this world we will fail but we must continuously strive toward Holiness.

End of part One ladies!!!

Question:  How does seeing God’s instruction on parenting change the way we choose to parent??

Submitted by CF for the Gift of the Home

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

MINI-CHALLENGE – COOK JUST ONE DAY FOR A WEEK – DAY 1

This is an incredible way to save money and time each week!  It’s pretty simple – you cook all your meals for a week (or month ~ okay, so that’s just a little bit ambitious!).  It may sound overwhelming but if you do it right, it’s pretty simple.  The trick is to plan your time, plan your meals (check out Mini-Challenge – Meal Planning in the files), and plan your grocery list.  The more you plan before you start the more efficient and economical you will be.

Step #1 Pick a Day.  Pick a day that you can devote to just cooking.  A day when you will have the least interruptions and the least amount of commitments.

Step # 2 Clean out your freezer.   Make room in the freezer for all these yummy meals you’ll be making.

Step # 3 Make a list of all the supplies you may need.  Not a grocery list but a list of things you need (you may already have most of them) to put your meals in.  You could use freezable Tupperware, Ziploc freezer bags.  Now, don’t run out to buy anything until you check what you have on hand!  I would recommend Ziploc freezer bags so you can layer them in the freezer without taking up a lot of room.

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Office Space Challenge Week 3

 Clear Out the Cobwebs

Lord, Luke says “and when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.” (Luke 11:25)  I pray that You would bless everything I do.  Help me to see everything you would have me accomplish and enable me to do it to the best of the abilities you bestowed upon me.  Bless me with a great attitude, help me to have a clear sense of Your purpose in my life as I do my chores, to have a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment knowing that I want to do what pleases you.  Amen.

“We just have to put together a clean game.  When we do that we usually do well.”  ~  Todd Pridy

Remember the Rules.

I shall not get organized at the cost of my family’s budget or losing my sanity!

This is the week we’ve been dreading. There’s no way to make your space special if it isn’t clean.

If you can, open the windows to let the stale air out and let the sweet air in.

Turn on your favorite music.

Gather together all your cleaning supplies, so you won’t have to keep leaving the room for something forgotten.

Gather up rugs, slip covers, throws, curtains ~ anything in the room that needs to be washed.  Get a load of laundry going.  If you can, hang them out in the sunshine to dry.

Start your cleaning at the top and move down dusting and cleaning.  If you can, open the windows and let the sweet air in!

Overhead light fixtures             Ceiling Fans                                      Corners                                                  Beams              Drapery Rods

Window Frames                          Cornices                                              Door Frames                                       Walls                Light Switches

Bookcases                                     Shelving                                               Furniture                                             Lamps             Baseboards

Vacuum Furniture, if necessary                                                             Sweep and Mop Floors, if necessary                   Vacuum, if necessary Vacuum Furniture

Finish the room’s laundry and put away/re-hang.

I know how proud you feel right now!  The smell of clean in the air.  Express to the group how you feel about what you have accomplished.

 

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Back to the Basics – Husbands

Well ladies, we have had quite the journey together haven’t we?  We have gotten to know each other (except for the few beautiful ladies who are remaining mysterious 😉 , prayed for each other, encouraged each other, and have done some challenges together.  Now it’s time to go back to the basics.

Today, and everyday, we are going to focus our hearts and minds on our husbands.  (It’s always God first remember!).  Let me explain why.   Genesis 1:26-27 “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, …So God create man in His own image, in the image of God he created him…”  God created man first, and then He created his helpmate, Eve.  God did not want Adam to be alone, so He gave Him Eve.  Eve is Adam’s equal, but Adam is still the head of the home.  Paul explains in Ephesians 5 this way:

 ” 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. “

The world definitely does not agree with this.  The world would have us believe in order to be happy, we ourselves must come first.  Not true!  This does not mean your husband is greater than you or has total control over you.  It means your husband must follow Christ and lead in His example.

How do I put my husband first?  I am so glad you asked!

• By praying for him (not for God to change him, nice try), for God to touch his heart, and lead the family in the direction which God would have you all go. Ask God to change YOU for your husband and His service.
•  By being submissive to him.  Aha!  Lost a few of you didn’t I?  We do hate that word don’t we?  The world calls submission letting someone have total control over you, being a doormat.  Not in God’s definition!!!!  God defines submission to our husbands as a loving acknowledgment of another’s value as a person.
• By doing little things to bring him joy.  Not talking about sex here, that’s later.  I’m talking about leaving him little love notes each day, setting out his comfy clothes to change into when he gets home from work, telling him “I love you” as often as you can.  Let God lead you on what would bring your husband this joy.
• By not with-holding sex from him.  Denying your husband sex should never be used as punishment.  The Bible is very clear on this subject.  Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 7 this way:

“3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”

Sex between a husband and wife is a beautiful thing!  God created us to be one flesh, and that only happens when we submit to our husbands and lovingly, freely make love with him.  This will strengthen your relationship with each other, with God, and a closeness that comes from it cannot be equaled by anything else.

• Do not bad mouth your husband to anyone at any time!  We are to build him up, not tear him down.  Again, God is very clear on this subject.

Proverbs 12:4  “A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.”  and again in Ephesians: “29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

This does not mean if you are having difficulty you cannot seek help, but go to God and your husband first, not to your friends or Facebook.

• Do not go to bed angry. It solves nothing and causes a huge rift between you and your husband.  Do not send him or yourself out of the room to spend the night elsewhere.  God brought you together, DO NOT tear it apart.

Ephesians 4:31″ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” and again in verse 26-27 “26 “In your anger do not sin”[a]: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.”

Marriage is a partnership with God, your husband, and you.  If you keep all this in perspective, and follow God’s Word on marriage, I promise you, your marriage will only get better!  It will not be perfect, because we are not perfect, but it will be better.  Come on, what have you got to lose?  Let’s love our husbands!!!

“4 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

Question: What is one thing you can do to be submissive to your husband? Remember God defines submission to our husbands as a loving acknowledgment of another’s value as a person. So what is it that you can do to show this submission to him? Be honest…we cannot change what we do not know. Ask God to search your heart on this one.

Question: What is holding you back from being the wife God has called you to be? If you are unsure, ask God to reveal to you what walls you have placed between you and your husband. Remember, honesty is very important here.

Question: What is one area in your marriage you struggle with, and how are you going to overcome it?

Our journey together this week has been a long one. We have put our marriages at the forefront of our thoughts, and for many of us, it’s the first time in a very long time. We have answered some pretty tough questions, and been honest with ourselves. Our hearts have been moved, often to the point of tears, as our sisters here have shared their personal journeys with us. We have been so supportive of each other, and have joined in unity to ban satan from our marriages. This will be the last question of the week on our husbands. I am asking you all to pray and seek God before you answer it. Make a list of all the things you do on a daily basis, and put them in order of importance. Be very specific on this..for example if every day you exercise list it…if you call your mom..list it. Even if it’s something as simple as taking out the trash, list it. Now, look back on that list….where is your husband on it? Did you remember to list him near the top? He should be, right under God. If he isn’t near the top, or he isn’t on your list at all…why not? How can you re-priortize your daily life to include your husband? I would like to leave you all with something my Grandy told me a long time ago when I was pregnant with my first child. I was living in Ohio at the time, and my family was all in Colorado. They had a baby shower for me, and went around the room on film asking people to give me advice on being a new mom. Grandy’s advice is the only one I remember, and it still rings in my head. She said, “Don’t forget your husband.” be blessed, be loved, and remember, don’t forget your husband.

Submitted by KD for the GIft of the Home Group.  Thank you!

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Office Space Challenge Week # 2

Lord, thank you for gifts of provision that you have so generously bestowed on me.  May I show appreciation for them always remembering that they come from You. May I not be attached to the things of this world but to follow Paul, when he said “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are of the earth.”  (Colossians 3:2)  Amen.         “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” ~ Hebrews 11:6
Remember the Rules.     I shall not get organized at the cost of my family’s budget or losing my sanity!

 

Review all you dreamed about your office space notes.  By reviewing them you’ll stay on track with your vision for your space.  It will keep you from getting off track this week.  This will be the most time-consuming week.  I’m sure that you have papers that you have accumulated and thought you would take care of later.  Guess what?  Later is here!  There will be thoughts and feelings attached to many of these papers.  Be bold, make choices without hesitation.  Don’t put this off any longer!

This week get at least four boxes (more if you think you need them) and label them:

“I Use”                 This box is for things that you actually use but you want to put in a different place.

“I Move”   This box is for things that should not be in your space.  Things that should have a home in other rooms.

“I Share”  This box is for things that are in good condition and you know you won’t use them.  You don’t want to throw them in the trash so donate them to a church, childcare center, scout troop or other organization that uses crafting supplies.  You’ll be giving back to the community and giving yourself more room in your space.

“Useless”  This box is for things that are no use to anyone and are ready to be discarded.  Be honest with yourself.  Clutter breeds more clutter!

“I File”

Take an inventory of your office supplies and tools.  Think about how often you really “use” each item.  Do you really need all the pens, pencils, markers, highlighters?  Streamline, Ladies!   Touch each item once, only once.  Add to one of the five boxes.

✞As you add items to the “I Use” box, take notes about where the item is stored, where it would be more convenient for you to have it for use.

✞As you add items to the “I Move” box remember that every item has a space, just not in this one.

✞As you add items to the “I Share” box, remember you are giving a gift to another.

✞As you add items to the “Useless” box, be ruthless.  Each item in our lives takes a space.  By giving up things that are useless you creating space for the things you really love.

✞As you add items to the “I File” box, keep a list of what important papers you need to keep.  A list can be found in the file section of the Gift of the Home.

Remember that organization is all about ease of use.  It doesn’t matter how “pretty” something is if it’s not a natural space for an item. When you are done taking an inventory of your items do the following:

✞Keep the “I Use” box in the room. These items will be put in their own space. Take the “I Move” box out of the room.  Put every item in it where it will be used most.  Don’t put it off, it just may not get done.

✞Take the “I Share” box and put it somewhere where you will remember to take it to your chosen donation site.  Schedule a day to take it, don’t just let it sit there, remember to share blessings within with others.

✞Take the “Useless” box to the trash.  Not just in a corner, or in the garage, to the trash.

✞Take the “I File” box and it’s time to file.  Really think about how you want to create a file system.  Do you want to use file folders?  Binders?  Scan them to your computer.  This is the time to create a system that works for you and your family.

Express to the group your thoughts and feelings about releasing items that are no longer in your life.

I hope that by completing this week you will feel lighter, more open and more humble as you have seen all that God has blessed you with.

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Office Space Challenge Week 1

   Choose to Open Yourself to New Ways

Lord, Thank you for creation itself and the incredible gifts and talents you so generously entrust to me. May I appreciate and develop these talents, always recognizing that they come from you and remain yours…  Guide me in using them for the benefit of everyone that I touch, so that they may be more aware of your creative presence and develop the creativity entrusted to them for the good of others. Help me also to use your talents to bring a creative spark and new possibilities to your world, living out my call to be an integral part of your creative force. Amen.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24

This Challenge will be a team effort!  It’s time to get the family on board!  Do the best you can, ladies!  This is a space that will be used by the family, not just you so it’s important you that you make this fun for all of you.

•  Choose your Room/Space.
  • Every home needs an office room /space, it’s a place where the actual running of the home occurs. 
  • If you don’t have a separate room for an office, consider sectioning off a part of a room for this purpose. You could use bookshelves, dressers that could double as a divider between your work station and the room.  Try and choose a location that can serve as a permanent workspace.  It doesn’t do any good to use the kitchen table and then have to move everything just to have dinner.
• Once you’ve chosen your space, I’m sure you want to rush right in ~ moving, decorating, trying to make it look pretty ~ we all have that tendency.  But don’t!  This is where it becomes a little tricky…who uses this space?  Is it you alone?  Your Husband?   Your children? Now’s the time to spend some time in the space and find out what the needs for this space are.
  • Remember the actual purpose of the office space ~ It is meant to be a place where you and your family can be productive and feel good when you come into it and leave it.
  • Express what everyone’s desires for this space are, how you want to feel, what you want to achieve with this space.
  • Write down what comes to each of you, what you envision your space to be, what bothers you, dream a little. Do you need to devise a plan for papers that come in?  Do you need to come up with a system for filing?  Do you want to paint?  Do you need a table with a different height?  Is the chair comfortable?  Do you need shelving? How is the lighting?  Where are the electrical outlets?
• Now look through your office supplies (no organizing, just look!).
  • Think about your supplies and how you use them.  Which ones do you use together?  Are they in a place that is easily accessible to your needs?
  • Determine what office supplies you may need to make this space work.  Make a list so you’ll have it handy.
• Now let’s let our imagination take control ~ you have written down all you need and want in your space.
  • Sketch out your dream space.  You may not be able to draw, I can’t, but you know what you are looking for to make this space your own. Don’t make “rules” for your furniture and storage containers, be open to new possibilities, and see things with new eyes.

Let the group in on what your family is dreaming.  Tell them what you are lacking.  What you need help with.  The purpose is to use what you have, to let other’s help you see things in new and interesting ways.

 

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Menu Planning Day 5

Matthew 25:21 “His master replied, ‘Well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” 

Ah the final day. It’s bittersweet isn’t it? We’ve been on this journey a long time. When we started this week, we all waited until the last possible second to pull something from the fridge or freezer for dinner, and then throw together a hodge podge meal just to make it look as if we planned it and stressing ourselves out needlessly. And now! Look at us! We have an entire week planned ahead of time! What an accomplishment! What an incredible job we did! We conquered that mountain called meal planning! Is that all? You say? Isn’t there more to this menu thingy than what we’ve done so far? I am so glad you asked! And the answer is a big, fat YES!

Day five: Putting it all together

Remember those beautiful index cards we wrote up on Monday? I sure hope you saved them, ‘cause we are going to use them again! Relax, tho’ you’ve got this! Put them all back into the bowl you used earlier, and mix ‘em up again. WAIT! DON’T PULL ANY OUT! I didn’t mean to scare you, but right now you have a choice, you can either continue with writing them on your calendar for the following week or you can do something different. Find one new meal you haven’t tried before. (don’t be scared, it will be ok I promise), just one we are not going overboard on this. Now, write down that meal on another index card, and throw that into the bowl. Mix, pick, write, sticker, search, shop, done! Isn’t this amazing? You have another full week of food planned for, AND now have an extra one! Woo hoo! Don’t worry if your family didn’t like the new one, just toss that card out. If they liked it, keep it! Keep adding one new meal every week, and pretty soon, you will have enough meals for an entire year!!! I am so proud of each and every one of you! Pat yourselves on the back, get the (you guessed it) lemonade, sit down and smile! Congratulations! You are all now menu planning aficionados!!!!

(This post was created for the Gift of the Home by Restoring to Health ~ Thanks KD!)

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

                                                                                     
   

Menu Planning Day 4

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 NIV

I do apologize to all you wonderful gals who are doing this challenge, and were wildly anticipating getting started on day four. Good for you! I’m not! I must confess this is the hardest one for me yet. “Why?” you ask. I’ll tell you. I really, really, really, really hate looking for food in my house. I would much rather just go to the store and buy it all, than search. Who’s with me on this? No one? Hmmm, we shall talk about lying later. Ok, hang onto your girdles girls, we’re going in!
Day Four: Checking pantry/cupboards/refrigerator and freezer for food
Told you it was going to be a search! Ok, let’s be brave. We can do this, just check one area at a time. Why are we doing this? So we can save money on grocery bills. I don’t know how many times I have bought stuff at the store only to come home and find the same thing in my pantry! I’m great (sorta) at cleaning out my fridge once a week, but the rest…not so much. So, you have your list of menus for next week, now start searching! Anything that you do not have for your menus (only, no extras!) write it down. I keep a notepad on my fridge and write down stuff I ran out of/need for a recipe or two. Ok, now that that is done, RUN! Grab that lemonade, grab your critter, slam down hard on that couch and congratulate yourself! You survived the food search!!!!

(This post was created for the Gift of the Home by Restoring to Health ~ Thanks KD!)

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Menu Planning Day 3

“Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness.” Proverbs 14:22

Great job everyone! We are turning into menu planning machines!!!!! Look at how far we have come! From no idea how to plan, to index cards, to calendars to, to, um, let’s see oh ya! That’s the surprise for today! Don’t worry, tho’ this one will be much easier that the other two. Ready? Because here we go!

Day three: checking for supplies! Not my favorite thing to do, but alas, it must be done. Be brave my friends, be brave! Ok, since you have written down your meals for the week, now is the time to see if you have any of the supplies on hand. How do I do that? You ask? You just roll up your sleeves, set your mind to it, and start searching! Search everywhere food might be found! Check the pantry! Check the fridge! Check the freezer! If you have all the supplies for a meal, put a star on the calendar under the meal. This way you won’t buy what you don’t need. If you don’t have any/all the supplies, put a check mark under that day’s meal. Whew! We did it! We can conquer anything we put our minds to! We are invincible! We are getting carried away! Remember that lemonade from yesterday? Go have two glasses today! You’ve earned it! See you all tomorrow!

(This post was created for the Gift of the Home by Restoring to Health ~ Thanks KD!)

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Menu-Planning Day 2

Menu planning for your family

Day Two 

“There is a time for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven.”  Ecclesiastes 3:1 

 Hi my fellow menu planners!  How did your day one of this challenge go?  Did you all get your index cards done?  Good!  Now, throw them away!  Teehee!  Just kidding.  I know many of you have wonderful ideas on how you menu plan, but this is how I am going about it for me.  I really do not like to cook or plan cooking, so join me on this fun??? Ok, get ready for day two!!! It’s going to be quite a ride!

Day two: making it visible!  Ok, here we go!  Take said index cards, put them in a bowl, and shake em up!  Pull one at a time out, the first will be day one e.g. Sunday, then write that meal on the calendar for Sunday!  Congratulations!  You have one meal planned ahead of time!  Give yourselves a hand!  Now, continue until all 7 days are filled.  For you overachievers, go ahead and keep on writing.  Make sure the calendar you are writing the meal plans on are visible, or this will all be for not.  (I sound so English don’t I?).  That’s it for day two.  I know, it’s a lot, but just think, soon we will be meal planning aficionados!  Now, go grab yourself lemonade, put your feet up and smile!  Another job well done!

(This post was created for the Gift of the Home by Restoring to Health ~ Thanks KD!)

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Menu Planning Day 1

Menu planning for your family

Day one

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”  Galatians 6:10

 Welcome ladies to the first ever (on Gift of the Home) Meal Planning Mini Challenge!  I know you are all excited to be here.  Me too.  Ok, not really.  This is one area I am absolutely terrible in, so that is why the admin team has pushed I mean allowed me to do this challenge.  The goal of this challenge is simple: plan a week’s worth of meals ahead of time so you are not running around like a chicken with your head cut off at 4pm trying to figure out what you can throw together to feed the hungry masses.  Ready to begin?  Ok, let’s start!

Day one: recipes/ideas:  This is where we shall begin. Get yourself some index cards.  They don’t have to be fancy, but if you prefer fancy, go for it!  This is for you so make it your own.  Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be too hard.  Make a list of meals your family loves.  Write each meal on one index card.  Make sure you add sides/drinks/desserts on it too.  Just start with 7 favorites you can always add more later.  See?  That wasn’t too hard, was it?

(This post was created for the Gift of the Home by Restoring to Health ~ Thanks KD!)

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Accountability & Responsibility

It was a difficult night; a decision had to be made.  A decision that the administrators and myself did not want to make.  A decision that would hurt one but would keep many others from heartache and resentment.

T.D. Jakes says “Christ has given every one of us grace according to the measure of the gift of God. There’s a part of that gift in you and there’s a part of the God-given ability in you. All of us have a role for which we are responsible and with that role comes accountability.”

The administrators and I are responsible for the good of the group.  The group is growing in Christ more and more every day.  The women are sharing from their hearts more and more every day.  It was one of the reasons why the group was formed.  The group should be a place of love and understanding in all things, without judgment.  The rules of the group are clear; we are to be encouraging and uplifting.  To do unto others as you would have them do onto you.

It was become more and more noticeable that this person was trying to do her own thing, to undermine the intent of the group.  I, personally, had spoken to her on more than one occasion regarding her comments.  I had, personally, on more than one occasion, deleted inappropriate comments.

“These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.” ~Jude 1:16

The decision may have been easier had this person not had a prominent place in the group.  Yet she did not act in the role for which she was responsible for with accountability.  She picked and chose among the group what she would do for them when they came to her.  She told others things that were not truth about the group.  She took actions in regards to her position that were not in line with the group’s intent.

We knew, from experience, that one bad apple could spoil everything for everyone.  “You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.” ~ Matthew 7:16-17

Were we doing the right thing?  There were rules; the rules had been broken on more than one occasion causing heartache and resentment to others.  There had been warnings.  Were we just doing this because of our personal feelings?  We were looking at the pros and cons, trying not to allow our personal feelings to interfere.  Were we doing what God wanted us to do in the situation?  We were praying.

The decision was made causing heartache and pain but we knew in our hearts that this was the right decision for the good of the group.  I believe we handled the situation in a Christian way.  This person is not evil but she does not have other’s interest ahead of her own.  My heart aches that we caused her pain from removing her from the group yet I know in my heart it was the right decision

Craft Space Challenge Week 4

Gift of the Home   Craft Space Challenge 

                                                         Week # 4        Make Me Happy

Lord, Grant me inward happiness and the serenity which comes from living close to You.  Daily renew in me a sense of joy.  Let the eternal spirit of You dwell  in my soul, filling every corner of my heart with light and grace. I give thanks to you, Father, always and for all things. Amen.

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

I’m fulfilled in what I do… I never thought that a lot of money or fine clothes-the finer things of life-would make you happy. My concept of happiness is to be filled in a spiritual sense.  ~   Coretta Scott King

Remember the Rules.

I shall not get organized at the cost of my family’s budget or losing my sanity!

This is the week we get to put our ideas into action!  The week that we make our space a place of happiness.  We get to make our space a place that makes us feel creative, happy and calm.

All the things that have been sitting in the back of your mind covering boxes for storage containers, hanging shelves, make dividers for drawers, make labels ~ this is the week to do it!

Put each item away in an organized, functional way that works for you, not something you saw on pinterest but what will really work for you.

Group supplies into common themes that are meaningful for you., remember this is your space and should be based on your personal crafting habits, wants and needs..

Group your tools by how often you use them.  Those you use most often should easily accessible.

Don’t forget your crafting library, organize it in the easiest way for you.

Bring in things that make you happy, that bring a smile to your face, that foster your creativity.

Now is the time to show the group what you’ve accomplished these past four weeks!  Express to the group how you feel about your space and why it makes you happy.

May today there be peace within you.  May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing that you are a child of God. Let His presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, and to bask in the sun. It is there for each and every one of you.

Come join us for encouragement and support at https://www.facebook.com/groups/GiftoftheHome/

Comfortable

To be honest I was comfortable in my life a month ago.  I loved taking care of Hubs, Kiddo and our home.  I was comfortable studying the Word.  I was comfortable blogging when the words would come.  I was comfortable playing Facebook games and chatting with friends.  I was comfortable.

Yet, it seems God had other plans for me.  God started slowly, tugging on my heart teaching me to listen to His quiet voice.   This in turn caused me to blog more, to open myself up and share what I was learning about Him day-by-day.  I was comfortable.

Then God began to put new people in my path.  Believers who struggled as I did.  Believers that caused me to open my heart and mind wider.  I was learning so much more about Him.  I was comfortable.

I began to see that some things I was a part of were not as uplifting and encouraging as I once thought they were.  I know it was God showing me that the things of this world are slowly not part of me anymore.  I began to see things that caused my heart to hurt, for others and for God. I began to talk about what I was feeling with others, what could I do?  I was uncomfortable.

God touched my heart quickly, start a group for other believers.  Doesn’t that sound like a good idea?  I obeyed.  The Gift of the Home was created.  I truly thought that this would be a fly by night group.  We would get some members and it would slowly fade.

“And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”  Mark 16:15

God surprised me!  He had a plan, even when I didn’t.  As I worked with the group, writing challenges, posting devotionals and bible study.  I came to meet and love the most amazing women in Christ.

It has been a month, the group has grown, the friendships growing stronger everyday, love growing deeper.  Hearts on the line without fear of judgement, of critical words.  Just love.  God has touched and blessed each and every one of us!

A dear friend said “God is so amazing, and I don’t think we will ever realize just how much He loves us, How much He wants for us, and how much He wants to do with us! It’s mind-blowing if you think about it.”

Everyday He asks more from me to lead, I struggle with this.  I don’t want to be second guessing Him.  I want to do everything I can for Him.  I want to make Him proud of what He’s blessed me with.  This same dear friend said when I told her my fears “a friend once told me “God does not call the equipped, He equips those He calls.” true words. You are ready!”

The group is now growing in new directions, wonderful directions, directions that will bring our walks with God so much closer.  Everyday I obey Him.

Am I comfortable?  To be honest, not so much, so much of this new path makes me uncomfortable.  Will I continue to obey Him?  Without a shadow of a doubt!

“Whenever an opportunity comes your way, challenge yourself to first thank God and then quickly follow-up with the question, “God, who else is supposed to be blessed by this connection or opportunity?” ~ Lysa TerKeurst

This one’s for you, KD, the encourager.  I love you!