Walking on egg shells...In other words, A Spiritual Battle.

 Some of you may know this felling...

You feel you can no longer be yourself in that person presence,

You fear their reaction whenever you speak,

You fear you may upset them due to their weak interpretation of your words,

They may not realize it, but deep in their heart they already think the worst of you so they are on the defense,

You try to defend your every breath to someone you thought knew you and loved you unconditionally.


Inauthentic...fake...counterfeit...defensiveness...rooted in the fear of man...lies that came from the evil one and they were believed.


Its not about everyone seeing eye-to-eye on everything but that you can see differently and still love each other.

I love this!  I got this off of Dawn's blog and I am sure most of us feel the same...I know I do.  (thanks Dawn for articulating so well)

"How is it that a large portion of the people think I'm a self-righteous uptight narrow minded know-it-all black or white no shades of gray debbie downer biggot...... while an equally large portion... thinks I'm the biggest loosey goosey go with the flow neither here nor there luke warm whateverfloatsyourboat compromiser hypocrite heathen?

Then, there's those who know me." 

Interesting (pause music player) .....re-post

My last video was not working for some reason??

One of my favs...

I can't tell you how much I love this picture!!!  It makes me laugh so hard.  This is my life and I seriously love it!!  A 5 (almost 6) year old who really thinks she knows it all...A 2 year old who is constantly testing her boundaries and a 4 (almost 5) year old who is happy go lucky.  It truly would be a privilege to have more.

SERIOUSLY LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!!

                                                  (REMEMBER TO PAUSE MY MUSIC PLAYER)

                

I Love Stuff Like This!!! And it's so Important to Understand it.

 Oh my gosh how much do I love this article!!  Be sure to read the comments that follow.  #3 made me bust out laughing!  and my Calvinistic friends will appreciate #7.  The rest of the comment are good and worth reading.

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2010/09/inviting-jesus-into-your-heart/#more-5814

Ecclesiastical corpses lie all about us, the casket in which they repose are lined with satin and are decorated with solid silver handles and abundant with flowers.  Like the other caskets, they are just large enough for their occupancy with no room for converts.  These churches have died of respectability and have been embalmed with self complacency.  If by the grace of God your church is alive, be warned to our opportunity or the feet of them that buried thy sisters will be at the door to carry thee out as well.  ~ Dr. AJ Gordon to the spiritually dead churches

Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lamp-stand out of it's place- unless you repent.  Revelations 2:5

Blessed Handprints

Some see a dirty mirror...I see an answered prayer.

Some won't think twice and will go for the window cleaner ...today the camera seemed to be the better choice.

For some it's a chore... to me it is a reward that will be gone within a blink of an eye.

I never want to forget how this tiny hand print made me feel today.  It warmed my heart to the very core. 

Lord, help me to continue to see my blessings even when life gets messy.

 

It's all about Family

Dawn recently posted this article on her blog.  Good and convicting.  It's a great site, I visit often.

The article made me think of this...

 

and then I came across this quote... 

"You cannot control your children, you say.

Then the Lord have mercy on you!

It is your business to do it,

and you must do it,

or else you will soon find they will control you.

No one knows what judgment

will come from God

upon those who allow

sin in children

to go

unrebuked."

~ C.H. Spurgeon

(Ouch) 

Which made me think of this...

If you are not familiar with family worship here is a great guide for that.  Of course Voddies book, Family Driven Faith, is always a great option!!!

Totally Depraved!!

God revealed to me that I still don't get it!!! (not that I thought I did...get it).  The other night at home fellowship we spoke about dieing to self.  Luke 9:23&24

A gal was sharing about how her feelings were hurt due to something that was said to her.  She said that if she could truly die to herself, she wouldn't have gotten upset and experienced the emotions she had.  And I said  "Yes but", ("yes but"...meaning I'm just about to justify this one), "God is the one who gave me these emotions." (aaaand there you go, my justification. Sure, blame it on God why don't ya). Wait I wasn't done there, it gets worse.  I then proceeded to say... "And when I am feeling like an emotional beast I have to work myself through those emotions" (as if I, with my entitled attitude, had the right to experience my fleshly emotions and as if I could actually work myself through them).  Yes, I do realize I deserved a spiritual spanking.  Thankfully someone then lovingly reminded me that those emotions are of the flesh and that is when self control comes in.  And then someone else reminded me that with self control we are to "take every thought captive"  2 Corinthians 10:5.  

I am of course talking about those sinful, not thinking the best of each other, angry, frustrated, impatient, entitled, I want to give my piece of mind, it's all about me, selfish type of emotions.

Funny cause, as I am writing this, this came to mind..."It's my party and I'll cry if I want to..."  poopy on the culture! 

It's amazing how much I have in common with my 2 year old.

 

  

 

  

"Love me when I least deserve it, because that is when I need it the most."


This summer was fun with all of our travels but it has made one of our daughters spiral out of control which then affects everyone else. I have tried not to lose my witness but I have failed.  The discipline is wearing me out.


The joy of the Lord is my strength
The joy of the Lord is my strength
The joy of the Lord is my strength
Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

http://www.rockhay.org/midis/joyofthelord.mid 

 

Just Passing It On...

A great new God honoring search engine. Pretty cool, check it out.

http://www.seekfind.org/

The Girls Vocab Word...Consider

I was reading someones else's blog  and came across this paragraph... "No one likes to be told they are wrong. Correction and critique are things we go out of our way to avoid. Those who can ask the tough questions about your life—probing deep when they suspect some spiritual sickness—are often not welcome friends. We don’t pick up the phone when they call. We avoid them at work. We don’t return their emails. Why? Because they can tell us the skinny about our life and we don’t want to hear it. We are prideful people who, like the priest, choose to walk far around the problems in our life, and we ask others to do the same."

Funny, because earlier today I was thinking about how grateful I am that I have certain people in my life who lovingly speak truth to me.  I am grateful they do not shy away.  I am grateful that they love me enough to not please me and "tickle my ears."  I am grateful for the pastors who fear God and not men.  I am grateful for the ones who have the gift of discernment and humbly share what they have discerned so that I may go and search my heart. 


Whenever you are confiding in someone about a situation of course our flesh cry's out "please take my side and make me feel better."  I am grateful for the ones who have pondered/ considered their answer and have been obedient to challenge my emotions and thoughts.  Those are the ones to be trusted.


One of the vocab words this week for my girls is, Consider.  Definition: To think carefully.
The memory verse I am having them memorize along with the word is...

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

Mission Statement

I recently read something that suggested writing a mission statement for homeschooling, that way I will have a clearer picture on what my goals are and what I would like my end result to be.


I thought it might be a good idea for me since I find it is easy to get sidetracked by someone's comments or enthusiasm.  It is also tempting for me to make choices based on others opinions or values.


I am so new and insecure about educating my children that it gets in the way of why I chose to do it in the first place. 


One thing is for sure, I am going to do it at a snails pace. 


I am not sure how to write a mission statement, I guess I could google examples but really don't care to do that.  So I am just going to humbly go at it. If anything....it will be interesting to look back on this post years from now and see how things turned out. (I pray the Lord comes first)


Home School Mission Statement: 


To try to grasp every opportunity there is to educate my children and to use the gifts and abilities God gave me in doing so.  Whether it be math, science, relationships, art, health, mothering, cleaning, history, etc... I want the endless possibilities of educating my children to keep me up at night.  We would like to make home school a family event, not only Hubby and I teaching, but we would like the older ones to learn how to become good teachers as well by helping the younger ones. I want be able to share in all of their daily experiences and to be the one who influences them in those experiences.  To have them see the world of academics and learning through Gods eyes.  For them to receive their Christian education at home and then Church.

It is a deep passion of mine to really get to know my child, this child that God knit for me and chose for our family.  I want to study and experience the special details God has placed within my child; to really get know Gods good work and His great design in and through them. 

It is important for our family that education is flexible so that we can educate when we are away from home, just laying around or when we are driving in the car.  Some structure and organization is good and needed but I invite the organic days, in which I have seen so much education come out of.  I do not want my children to stress over homework assignments, how many papers they have to write, or late night deadlines.  Character training is very important to us so that when they do have a paper to write or a homework assignment is required, they would be diligent in doing what is required of them.  Having said that, it is also my desire that my girls would do all things and do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not to men. Colossians 3:23.  And together we will learn how to do that daily.

It is my goal to encourage and help my children use their God given gifts to their best ability, to challenge and give them a little push when needed. It is my prayer that God would bless me with creativity and to encourage their creativity and ideas,  (that I would be daring enough to try some of their crazing ideas) so that they would not loose heart.  

I trust that I will be stretched, my weaknesses will be revealed and that through it all I would be strengthen while educating my children.  Also, it is my hope that in my weakness and failings He would be glorified in their eyes.  


My home school scripture verse is Matthew 22: 37-40


And I'll end with a quote that motivates me and one that I absolutely love...


"Allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and 'spiritual' life of children, but teach them that the Divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their Continual Helper in all the interests, duties and joys of life."   Charlotte Mason