Ephesians Bible Study!

I am so excited to be starting a Bible Study in Ephesians! My womans Bible study let out over the summer and hasn't resumed. I was meeting with some other people from church, but my kids weren't handling it well. Both of those studies were during the day and with homeschooling they would be difficult to swing. I would be willing to work it out, if they would resume my regular Bible study, and my kids ever got done being sick!

But for now I am doing an online Bible study in the book of Ephesians. Part of it is being done as a book study with the ladies at The Homeschool Lounge and part of it is being done as an inductive study over at Biblical Families on Circle of Moms.

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you!

Biblical families on Circle of Moms

Cleaning day!

Saturday is cleaning day at our house. We usually... well we plan to go to the park on Saturday mornings, but we rarely ever make it. One thing or another always goes wrong. Today it's pink-eye. When we went on vacation a few weeks ago we picked it up from my sisters children and it has been cycling through my family ever since. We finally thought we were finished, and yesterday my younger boy came down with it. Bummer! So no park today, but we can still clean! I have to admit that I am very thankful that we are homeschooling so the kids aren't missing any school because of this!

Back to Saturday being cleaning day. We/I have big plans for today. The kids get to help, even though they are less than thrilled about it. They love that there is no school on Saturdays, but Saturday's have been cleaning days for what seems like forever around here, so they are use to it (but they still don't like it). They have come to terms with the fact that if they get their cleaning done sooner rather than later they get more play time though. :)

So what are my big plans? Last week we re-arranged the girls bedroom (It looks fabulous!) and shampooed their carpet. We also started re-arranging the boys room, but didn't get finished. So today, I'm hoping to finish the boy's room and detail clean the rest of the upstairs, and the actual stairs themselves... although I'm not sure how I'm going to clean the carpet on the stairs, I just know it needs it! Along with our normal Saturday chores of getting caught up on the laundry, dishes, cleaning the living room, kitchen, and well the rest of the house :) Did I mention that my kids love Saturdays? We really do have a pretty small house and it isn't THAT messy. I do the kitchen, bathrooms, and most of the laundry, so their part really isn't that much either. But it is possible to clean the whole thing in less than a day (Minus the detailed cleaning and re-arranging). I love our house!

The girl's room that we re-arranged last week:

Thankful Thursday

What better way could there be to follow a Word-filled Wednesday than a Thankful Thursday? Today when I was browsing blogs during Recess, I came across a Thankful Thursday posted by McMama over at her blog Ruby Slippers School. I loved the idea and thought I would jump on board with it. So now, following Word-filled Wednesday will be Thankful Thursday.

So for this Thankful Thursday I am thankful for McMama, her blog, and the idea for Thankful Thursdays!

Word-filled Wednesday!

For todays Word-filled Wednesday post I wanted to share a prayer with you from Ephesians. It is one of my favorite prayers from the Bible, Paul wrote it in his letter to the Ephesians. Today it is on my heart to pray it for all moms everywhere. With that in mind:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21 (NIV)

I hope and pray that you have a wonderful Word-filled Wednesday!

Thinking ahead!

I just found out about a great challenge for November. I know it's only August, but this particular challenge for me is going to require some thought and I thought I would share it with you now in case you are the same way and wanted to join in.

The challenge is to give, in some fashion, everyday in November. Keep a list (not to brag, but to be accountable), and blog about it or check in on their website to inspire others and share what you are doing for Christ.

You can read about last years challenge at Keeping the Kingdom First blog: The 30-day Giving Challenge.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. -- Galations 6:9

Change...

When I first moved to Colorado 5 years ago, I never thought I would be ready to leave. And I guess part of me isn't. I really do love it here. I love looking at the mountains, and I love it even more when we get the chance to go hiking in them. I could go on for hours about all the things I love about Colorado... However, I am ready for change. Maybe it's not so much that I am ready for a change, but I am sensing that God is planning a change for our family, and He has been gradually preparing my heart for it.

God has been changing small things in our family over the past year, and I'm now wondering if they were changes for the better, or just changes so that we were out of our comfort zone and more willing to make a bigger change. First He put it on my heart that we should change churches. Which was a big deal for us because we absolutely loved our church! There were little reasons that led me to believe a different church would be better for us, and then my husband said something along the same lines without me saying anything. So I knew it was from God. He led us to a new church that we love. My husband isn't attached to it, but I love it there. I have a wonderful ladies Bible study, homeschool support group, and many wonderful friends. However, I would be willing to leave to find one where my husband was willing to get more involved.

Other changes that have happened over the last year is that I have became a full time stay at home mom. I was working extremely part time (2 nights a week) for Pizza Hut, but when my boss retired I just couldn't work under the new conditions. They were promoting ungodly attitudes and feelings in me and while I tried to work through them it was just too much. It became a place of gossip, malice, judgment, and hatred. Even as I write this post almost a year later those feelings are fresh in my mind. I thank God for granting me the ability to remove myself from the situation. With this change we lost a small amount of income, but it was income we relied on. This was made up less than 3 months later when my husband got a wonderful job offer for a new company. We prayed about it a great deal and while he turned down the original job offer, they offered him an even better one that he did accept. This new job has not been a walk in the park, but it was a change and I believe it is most certainly what God wanted for our family.

Another change is that we are homeschooling this year. Last year at this time of year had you asked me about homeschooling my children I probably would have laughed at you and thought you were absurd. But God changed my heart about homeschooling over the past year and we are less than a week away from our first day.

All of these work together to lead me to believe that God has a bigger plan for us than where we are right now. I think that He was trying to get us out of our comfort zone, which I truly believe that we needed. So here we are, farther out of our comfort zone than I ever believed possible, and now I want to go further. I want to move to another state. Something inside of me screams Texas, but I don't know if that is my flesh because Paul's parents are there and I know they have simple homeschooling laws, or if that is God prompting me in which way to go. I will wait on Him for His guidance. He has never let me down before, and I'm sure that He won't start now...

I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope. -- Psalm 130:5

Birthday flop!

So I posted earlier today about my wonderful husband's birthday... which has been not so wonderful. I mentioned earlier that I didn't get to leave the cake when I took it down this morning, well I didn't think to put it in the fridge, and all the frosting melted off the sides of it. I lost my recipe that I was going to use for supper but was excited when I found a better one. However, I am horrible at following directions and I used too much lemon juice, it turned out really good as long as you don't use too much (or any) gravy. Not that Paul would know, because he got stuck at work and still isn't home. But I fed the kids and thought that maybe we can have a nice candle light dinner later this evening? Then our plans for tomorrow have fallen through as he is now required to go to work. Sigh.

God has blessed my family in so many ways. It's easy to look at days like today and want to get discouraged, but the Bible tells us that trials make us stronger. I can let these things get me down, or I can look at them as opportunities. I don't get many chances to have candle light dinners with my wonderful husband with four small children running around. It might be reheated, but let's not get into details! I would have never found this new recipe if I hadn't lost my old one (and now I know not to over do the lemon juice...). God is good, all the time! Not just when things are going smoothly.

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; -- 1 Peter 1:6-7

Garlic and Rosemary Chicken Recipe

Happy Birthday, Paul!

Today is my wonderful Husband's birthday. However, this is his year to forget birthdays, and in keeping with the rest of them, he forgot his own birthday. He is working today, all day. I thought I would surprise him by taking him a cake and a card to work (which I do every year), but when I got there he had 4 of his bosses in his store plus some marketing people. So that didn't go so well. I ended up brining it back home. I will send it with him later so he can share it with his crew (he is a general manager for Quiznos). He has a great crew, and I would hate to leave them out!

He will be home around 5 tonight and we are planning on having a nice supper ready for him and the boys are helping me bake a cake to keep at home(the other was store bought). Then he has to go back to work to help them install a new computer system...

On his next day off we will do a combo birthday celebration for both him and our oldest son who will turn 8 on Monday. I don't know what we are doing. I think Paul wants to go swimming, but I'm really not up for that as I don't have a modest bathing suit yet... Last year we visited the Wild Animal Sanctuary and the year before we went swimming. It's always fun!

Modesty Checklist

A friend of mine shared a post about feminism with me today, that post in and of itself wasn't anything to write about, but it had a link to a Modesty Checklist! How cool! It really made me think. I just thought I would share it with you. It's pretty detailed. More so than I have ever thought about... and I do think some things towards the end are debatable... but still a great list! I loved her idea that her check list should start from the inside and work it's way out. That is so true! Kudos to her!

I think it's interesting to read different peoples opinions on modesty. The Bible doesn't give us a uniform that we must wear, just guidelines. Everyone interprets those differently. Like the woman in this article obviously wears makeup, where as I don't. I don't think it's wrong, but if I believe I am God's perfect creation, why cover up my face with a man made product? It just doesn't make since to me. (Plus, it steals valuable time that I think is better spent doing other things, among other what I consider practical reasons...)

Word-filled Wednesday!

I have been feeling slightly (or not so slightly) nervous about homeschooling the children. Our official first day is less then a week away and there are just things that are causing me to become nervous. I have been pretty confident up to this point. I have had a few points where doubt has crept in, but God has stepped in and reassured me with His word! I love it when He does that! And that is exactly what He did today on this wonderful Word-filled Wednesday!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. -- Philippians 4:6

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. -- Romans 8:28

My Writing: Then and Now

This post comes just as most of mine do, my mind has been focused on my writing. As I mentioned in a previous post I volunteer writing devotions for teen girls for FindYourTrueBeauty.com, and the first edition of the devotional book was recently published. These devotions have been available for free online for sometime now, and I love that I am able to help these teen girls and I really just enjoy writing them.

I originally started writing them because I volunteer with another website Circle of Moms, more specifically their Christian Mommies community, and a mom had asked for recommendations for devotions for their teen daughter. Well, after an internet search I found nothing that was really suitable for a teen girl! I found tons of sites saying they were devotions for teen girls, but after reading a few I thought back to my high school years and they really would have been boring and not relative to me at all. I was already volunteering for Shelley's ministry, and suggested to her that she added a devotional segment to her website. I never dreamed that she would ask me to head it up! I have been working with her on this project for about 6 months now, and it has been wonderful. I haven't been able to put nearly the amount of time into that I want to, but I am hoping that with homeschooling I will be able to schedule time for writing into my day.

That's where my writing has been, now where is it going? I have this growing desire to write devotions for moms. The more I write for teens, the more my desire to write for moms grows. Much like my search for teen devotions, I have been searching online, and in book stores for devotions for moms that I can refer other moms to who have been asking me, and I am coming up short. I have found a few that are okay. I have a book that I am enjoying that came with my homeschooling curriculum, but it would only work for homeschooling moms. I get several devotions e-mailed to me, and they are all wonderful and different days, however I rarely have time to read through all of them to find the one that speaks to me. I guess that is the problem with devotions. You have to find one that is a match to you, and I haven't found one that works for me. So my solution is to write my own. I haven't started yet, but I am seriously thinking about it. My husband is encouraging this idea. He thinks that I am an amazing writer (though I'm not sure if he has ever read anything I have written, lol). It's wonderful to have his support.

I would love to hear your thoughts... Do you know of any good devotional books or sites for moms?

To read a sample of a devotion for teen girls that I wrote click here and scroll down.

My Pink Porch

We live in a rental house, and this past summer they re-sided it. Which was fantastic. When we moved in the house was this pinkish color... Anyway, we loved the location, layout, and back yard so the color really didn't matter. Well, when they re-sided it they changed the color! We were so excited! Not only did they change the color, but it is now green, my favorite color, bonus! And it has white trim... Anyway, so after they were done with the siding we spoke with the landlord about the front porch... it was still pink. She totally agreed that it needed to be painted white, as did the main maintenance lady that was here with her that day.

So we have been waiting, and waiting, waiting, all summer. (This was back in April.) Well they finally showed up yesterday to paint our front porch!! Woo hoo! I am not a nosy person, so I didn't look out the window until close to 5 to check on them, and only then because I wanted to check the mail. Anyway, to my surprise our porch was freshly re-painted pink! AHHH!!! I called my husband almost in tears, and he asked me to go out and ask them if it was suppose to be white. Good idea.

So I went out onto the porch and mentioned that I thought they were going to be paining the porch white, and they said no, the primer was white... So I clarified, that the reason I thought they were painting the porch was because they re-sided the house and it was now green with white trim and having a pink porch made no since. The lead painter replied that he thought they were painting the porch 'beige' because the paint was chipping and peeling off, and he thought it was a great accent color... Sigh, I went back in the house, and my husband said he would call the landlord. She came out and spoke with the painters. But at this point they were basically done. She said she would speak to the maintenance office in the morning and see about having it re-painted again... white.

God has really been speaking to me about this today. I knew yesterday that I was more upset about it then I should have been, but today, God has just really shown me that I have been coveting a white front porch. I honestly think He had a hand in the painters painting it the wrong color. I need to learn to be content in whatever the circumstance of my front porch... I thought that I was, but I wasn't. I was only content because I was looking to the future. They might come out and paint it white next week, or next year, or never. What God has really shown me today is that in light of eternity the color of my front porch is insignificant. It doesn't matter at all, perspective changes things.

Modesty stumbling blocks

Most of the time when we think about modesty being a stumbling block for someone, we automatically think of someone of the opposite gender. But is that always the case? What about the fact that my body type and build are completely different than that of other woman’s and clothes that look perfectly modest on me, would be 100% immodest on someone else? By wearing clothing like that are we being stumbling blocks to our sisters in Christ? I think the answer is sometimes yes.

For instance, I use to believe that it was okay for me to wear spaghetti strapped tank tops because I have a very small chest. It shows zero cleavage, and my husband agreed that they are very modest on me. However they are not modest on most women. (I have since come to realize that they probably were never really that modest on me either because they still show off tons of skin up top, even if it isn’t cleavage.) I’m sure there are other clothing choices that are along the same lines though.

I know we can’t go around wondering how everyone in the entire world would look in every outfit we put on, that would be absurd, but I think that I personally need to be a bit more sensitive to those who surround me. Modesty isn’t about me, it’s about pleasing God. It would please Him more if I wasn’t only concerned about the opposite gender, but also my fellow sisters in Christ. If I was able to be a good example not just for those with the same figure as me, but for all who share my desire to live modestly.

I would love to hear of any outfit or clothing choice that you know of that would fall into the category of modest for only one body type.

Wordless or Word-filled?

It's Wednesday and here in cyberspace that usually means seeing tons of Wordless Wednesday posts, but one caught my eye today. It wasn't a Wordless Wednesday post, but a Word-filled Wednesday post. This is something that this woman had done in her blog every week, and I love it!

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13) On this wonderful Word-filled Wednesday!

Adam and Eve and Modesty

I have been reading a ton of articles and blogs about modesty lately, and I found one that brought up the question: does God care about what we wear? (You can read the article here) Her thoughts took her back to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had just realized they were naked and sewn themselves loin coverings out of leaves, God comes on the scene and says this won’t do, He makes them garments out of animal skin to cover them. Why? Because God does care! That was where she skipped to the next topic. My mind doesn’t move that quickly, and I can’t help but dwell on this situation with Adam and Eve.

In the past I have often said that modesty was relevant to what culture you lived in, but when I think about this event with Adam and Eve that doesn’t make any since. At this time there is one man, and one woman on the face of the earth. If the “culture” was all that mattered, than I’m sure that their leaf outfits would have been perfectly acceptable. Or for that matter, I know cultures that run around ¾ naked and don’t think anything of it. Why didn’t God just tell them that being naked wasn’t an issue? Because to Him, it is. Once we gained the knowledge of good and evil, and sin entered the world, modesty became an issue that God took serious. Which is why, I believe, He went so far as to make clothing for Adam and Eve. He didn’t just instruct them on how to do it, He did it for them! That tells you how important this was to Him.

I have been thinking about it for a while now, little things bring it back to my mind. Once it was while I was down town with my family. My husband runs a Quiznos in the heart of down town Denver. I saw this girl walking down the street and I couldn’t help but wonder if the clothing that Adam and Eve had sewn out of the leaves had looked something similar to the outfit that she had on… That’s the way that our society is headed…that’s what our husbands, sons, and other men have to see every day when they go out of our homes. I am deeply saddened that I use to be part of that problem. The fleshly part of me is grieved by the thought that with everything that my husband sees every day that he has to come home to someone as boring as me, but one quick conversation with him eased my mind. He is very thankful that first and foremost that he doesn’t have to share me with the world’s eyes, and secondly, he doesn’t find me boring in the slightest! I love my husband!

I don’t know what your stand on modesty is, but I know that God is working in my heart. He wants me to make sure that my clothing choices are what He wants them to be. Choices that don’t cause others to stumble in their walk with God.

Author of humility

Yesterday I officially became a real published author. (I had a few poems published back when I was in school, but I really think they published all of them that were sent in, so I don’t think they count…) I volunteer writing devotions for teen girls for FindYourTrueBeauty.com and yesterday the first edition of the devotional book was published. I have mixed emotions about this. Part of me wants to jump for joy and shout from the roof tops… and part of me knows that I don’t write these devotions for me, but because I enjoy writing, and I want to share about what God has taught me with others. The mixed emotions come in because of the fact that I could want to take any credit for this at all. All the glory for this should go to God. It is for Him that I write these devotions, but at what point are we allowed to take pride in our earthly accomplishments for Him? Then again, it is not me that is truly accomplishing anything good, but Christ in me. Do you see where I am?

This great accomplishment for Christ is being overshadowed by a battle of the flesh. My flesh wants to take credit for something that it doesn’t deserve. Christ deserves all of the credit and it is so humbling to step back and realize that I could write a million books, and become a top selling author, and the credit would still belong to God. So I must admit that I pray that never, ever happens. I never imagined that having the devotions published would be such a humbling experience for me, but it has been. However, it has also been rather freeing, now that I know where the mixed emotions are coming from, and to know that it isn’t something crazy going on in my head. The world may think so, but we are not to be of the world, just in it.

God is truly the author of humility. I can write anything, but He can use anything to teach us what He wants us to learn. Today my lesson was humility. This isn't a new lesson for me. It's something that I have struggled with over the years. Each time I think I have it mastered it seems to come up again... It's funny how that works isn't it?

He leads the humble in justice,And He teaches the humble His way.
Psalm 25:9

You can see a sample of my devotions online by clicking here or click here to purchase a copy of the book.