Find Your True Beauty... In Christ!

I am amazingly thankful for FindYourTrueBeauty.com! When I started volunteering for Shelley several years ago, I never dreamed of where it would take me or how much fun I would have along the way! I have shared my personal testimony of my work there several times, so I'm going to keep this post strictly about the ministry itself.

FindYourTrueBeauty.com is a website designed to help today's teen girls discover that their true beauty doesn't come from the outside appearance. It also offers support for girls that are struggling with eating disorders, cutting, have suicidal thoughts, sex, dating and modesty. It is such an amazing ministry, I can't tell you enough good things about it.

Besides the website, Shelley also travels around speaking to teen girls. She has been ranked up there with Leslie Ludy as far as making a positive impact on teen girls.

If you visit her website there are a number of free tools available for download. You can get a free PDF copy of her book "Mirror Mirror... Am I Beautiful?" when you sign up for her newsletter, and of course our "Teen Devotionals... For Girls!" are available for free there as well.

Ministry Month: Mom's In Touch

I cannot tell you how thankful I am for Mom's In Touch International (And for the mom who told me about it a few weeks back!).

The goal of Mom's In Touch is to have a group of mothers praying for every school around the world. Groups of women get together for 1 hour each week, just to pray for the schools that their children go to. There are groups for individual schools, community groups, and groups for homeschooler's. I am just extremely impressed by this ministry!

When praying with MITI(Mom's In Touch International-pronounced Mighty), moms follow the four steps of prayer: Praising God for who He is, Confessing our sins, Thanking God for what He has done (or is doing), and then Interceding for children, schools and MITI.

There isn't a group for the school that the boys go to yet, I am considering starting one if God brings me another mom to pray with. However, for the time being I am praying by myself. So, while it is a rule that what is prayed in a MITI prayer group stays in the prayer group, since I don't have a group yet, I did blog about my first prayer time, you can read that post here. Or if you would like to watch a short video that outlines the group prayer time, here is the one featured on their website:


If you have a child in public school, I cannot recommend this ministry enough! Even if you don't have a child in public school, our kids need all the prayer they can get!

Ministry Month!

Each December bring tons of new support for ministries. Some people are trying to donate before the end of the year so that they can write it off on their taxes, others are just in the charity mood. People donate money, food, time, and energy to all kinds of ministries during this month. For others, on December 31st when they are making their New Year's resolutions, they decide to be more giving in the coming year. For all of these reasons I have decided to feature some of my favorite ministries here on my blog during this month. I do hope you will join me, as I am involved in each one of these ministries in someway, and totally believe in their causes.

The first ministry that I want to mention is Thankful Thursday! While this isn't your donate money, serve the community ministry, it is still a ministry. It is a ministry of encouragement, a ministry of hope, and a ministry of community. It's so wonderful to come together with other believers and just be thankful, to praise God for what He has done. The ministry of Thankful Thursday has been so encouraging to me, and I am so thankful for it. I'm thankful for Iris at Grace Alone and Laurie at Women Taking a Stand who both volunteer to host this link-up. And I am thankful for each one of you who take part as well, giving your time to write a post about thankfulness, or to visit a blog and leave an encouraging comment. I am just so thankful that we can come together each week, and be thankful together!



Obviously, this Thursday I am thankful for ministries. I'm thankful for the people that volunteer their time and resources, just to help others. I'm thankful that in the self-centered age that we live, there are people who still know how to give without recieving. I'm thankful that there is the opportunity to help people that we may never meet, or even know that we are helping.

If you have a ministry that you would like me to mention, please e-mail me at heatherhart84@gmail.com

Oh! And don't forget to hop on over to Iris's blog and check out the other Thankful Thursday posts :D

Confessions of a non-homeschooler

Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ~Ephesians 5:19b-20

Earlier this week, I read something about trust that really hit me pretty hard. In my Women's Devotional Bible author Susan L. Lenzkes wrote that "STOOP-shouldered, foot-dragging, sighing resignation is not trust." That is exactly how I had been feeling about putting the boys back into public school. I know that it's what God wanted for our family, and I kept saying that I trusted Him with the situation, but I was very unhappy about it. So for the rest of this week, I have been working hard at being thankful for the situation.

Mrs. Lenzkes went on to write that "Real trust bounces on eager toes of anticipation- laughs with pure delight of knowing in whom it believes- rests easy knowing on whom it waits." That's what I should be doing. So, here is my list of the reasons I'm thankful that the boys are in public school.

I'm thankful that I was able to clean my house this week. I confess that it was a really great feeling to be able to clean during school hours and not feel guilty about it.

I'm thankful that I was able to play with my toddlers. I felt they were being a bit neglected while I spent time schooling the boys, so it really just felt great to slow down and play with them!

I'm thankful that I got to spend my husband's day off with him, actually spending time with him. It was incredible. When homeschooling was a priority if his day off fell on a school day, I didn't get to spend a lot of time with him. It felt good just to take the day and be with him.

I'm thankful for the wonderful lady that told me about Moms In Touch. While I am still learning about it, and trying to put a group together for the boy's school, it's wonderful to think about how much I can do in prayer for them. It will really help me learn to trust God in this situation, and to really put the boys in His care.

I'm thankful that Mr. Amazing's job schedule allowed me to attend my first PTA meeting. I have a lot to learn about how all of the stuff talked about works, but I now know what questions I need to ask, and a little bit more about how things work.

I'm thankful that Kainen loves school. He always has, but it's nice to hear about how much fun he had, and hear his teacher tell me how awesome he is (which of course I already knew!).

I'm thankful that the school pays for free tutoring. Even though I had the boys almost at grade-level from when they were both over a year behind when we pulled them out at the end of the school year 2 years ago, it's nice to know that they really will get the help they need to not stay behind, or get farther behind again.

I'm thankful that the boys eat both breakfast and lunch at school, and our grocery budget was just cut by over half.

I guess that I'm learning that while there were many, many reasons that I was thankful for homeschooling, and many more reasons why I don't like the public school system, I can still praise God in any situation, and trust Him to know what is best for my family.

What are you thankful for this week? Why not link up with Thankful Thursday over at Laurie's blog, Women Taking a Stand.

Tired

I'm tired. My mom says it is a side effect from being a mom that she is just now getting over. She says that it will only get worse as my children grow, and wont subside until well after they are married and living a minimum of 30 miles away. This does not instill much confidence in me. However, the Bible tells me that God will refresh the weary, and satisfy the faint (Jer. 31:25). That gives me hope. Even when I almost fall asleep while the speech therapist is here working with my children, I know that God gives me just the amount of strength that I need to get through each day. He gives me the strength I need to accomplish the tasks that He has set out for me to do. I'm thankful for that.

The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. ~ Isaiah 50:4

You can read more Thankful Thursday posts over at Lynn's blog, Spiritually Unequal Marriage

My Camera

This week for MamaKat's writer's workshop, I am responding to prompt #2 "Who is the last person you spoke with on the phone for more than 30 minutes? Write about one thing you talked about."

The last person I talked to on the phone for more than 30 minutes was the customer service department for Samsung. The lady that I spoke to was named Kimmiaco (what a neat name!) She was super helpful. You see, the display screen on my camera is going out. There are new black spots appearing everyday, and existing ones are growing larger. Thankfully, it is still under warranty. I just received my shipping label so that I can mail it in and have them fix it, and then send it back. This will mean that I will be without it for over a month. :(

Kimmiaco and I talked about the fact that I reported this problem over 2 weeks ago and was required to send in my proof of purchase, which I did, but I still hadn't heard back from them. I ended up having to send it in again, and I finally got a shipping label so I can get it fixed!

So! I am thankful for warranties. I really am. It's a love, hate relationship really. If you know anything about me, you know that me and my camera are connected at the wrist (literally) most of the time:

I use my camera to capture pictures of my beautiful children, God's creation, and anything else that finds it's way into the view screen :) I use it to document our homeschooling journey and the children's growth. I can't imagine being without it for that long, although I know that I could live. Thankfully, I have a back up!

This is my old camera. I loved this camera. In many ways I liked it more then the one that I currently have even though it is considered a lesser model. However, I got a new camera for a reason. My old camera doesn't charge anymore. We had to buy a battery charger to be able to continue using it:

At the time I was thankful for the cheap solution, and thankful that I could still use my beloved camera. However, it wasn't long after that, that my precious camera got left in the van on a hot summer day. After that, it started taking pictures like this:

and like this:

Granted, it did take normal pictures sometimes, I just never knew when to expect good pictures and when to expect not so good pictures... Thankfully, when I took it out this morning and charged it up, this is how the picture came out:

I'm thankful for that. This time without my good camera might not be to bad after all. And I am very thankful that I can get it fixed for free. So, I'm off to the UPS store to ship it in for repairs. It will be missed!



I am linking this post with both MamaKat's writer's workshop and Thankful Thursday. I hope you have a blessed day!

By the Grace of God

Today I have just been meditating over everything that God has done in my life over the past several years. In 2009 I signed up to volunteer for the website FindYourTrueBeauty.com authored by Shelley Hitz. It is such an amazing ministry for teen girls that I was excited to play a small part! Well, not too much later than that a woman on a site that I was volunteering for for Christian moms asked about devotions for teen girls. I told her that I knew of a fabulous ministry, but I didn't know if they offered devotions. So, long story short, I asked Shelley about it and they didn't, but she asked if I would be interested in helping her get some started, and I have been writing devotions for her ministry ever since (you can see them here).

Over the past couple of years this has grown from volunteering as a prayer partner, to writing and editing devotion, to doing freelance work for Shelley's other website self-publishing-coach.com. Which indirectly led to me getting hired by another woman to do editing for her. I would have never dreamed 2 1/2 years ago when I signed up to pray for her website, that it would lead me to where I am today. God has used this exponentially in my life, and the life of my family. I got to meet Shelley and her husband last fall when they were on a ministry trip and passed through Colorado. You can read about that here.

Well, this week she has hired me on to help her with a higher level of commitment. I'm excited for the new opportunity and just amazed at how God has allowed me to help support my family financially while still being able to be a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom! It truly is amazing! I am so thankful for the way God has provided, and continues to provide for all of our needs. I am also thankful that the work I do for her on her self publishing website is helping her to be in ministry full time! Her and her husband are Christian speakers that travel all over speaking to teens and adults. They have been doing this part time since before I met them, but God has just now blessed them with the opportunity to do so full time. It has been such a joy to watch their ministry grow!

What are you thankful for? Write a post and link up with Lynn over at Spiritually Unequal Marriage!

God is amazing!

On this wonderful, amazing, perfect thankful Thursday, I am so happy that I will probably cry. I found out yesterday that a little boy I use to babysit was moving back to town, and today his dad is here staying with us while he looks for a place to live and a job.

To understand where my heart is, you have to understand the situation. You see, many years ago (okay, 3 years ago) my husband had an employee who was from Florida that was in a custody battle for his son. When he was granted custody, his son moved from Florida, up here to Colorado to live with him. I thought the Christian thing to do was to offer to babysit his child (whom I had never met) for free. As a single dad with no family in the area, he didn't really have any other options. I should tell you that 3 years ago, I wasn't the worlds best Christian (obviously, I'm still not, but I have came along way in the past few years). While I was trying to do the right thing, I saw this extra child as baggage who got in the way and always foiled our plans. I almost insisted that he find a new sitter, but God was working in me. I started to grow in the Lord, and see many things differently. I asked many people to pray for me, and for this little boy. I knew that I wasn't loving him the way that God wanted me to.

Long story short, my prayers were answered. God really laid it on my heart that I was the only type of mother this little boy had. He was with us 5-6 days a week for most of the day sometimes. I started to love him as my own. But, he wasn't my own. Less than a month after I had developed this deep love for him, something came up and his father and him moved back to Florida to live with his dad's mom. I was heart broken. I cried and prayed, and prayed and cried. I wanted the best for this little boy and did my best to entrust him into God's care, but I have missed him so very, very much.

When I saw his father's facebook status that said he was coming back to Colorado, I had to contain myself not to instantly ask about his precious boy. I had to restrain myself not to cry tears of joy before I knew for sure. I had to attempt not to get my hopes up, as I really had no clue what was going on. I didn't dance. I didn't cry. I just waited and prayed.

Well, today his daddy showed up on my doorstep and filled us in. He is back, looking for a place to live, and a job. Once he finds those he will go and get his son (who is still at his grandma's house) and bring him back into my life. He wanted to store some stuff at our house while he went to get a room at the motel. By God's sovereign provision I had spent the last 2 days cleaning the basement (you can read that post here), so we had room to keep it. It turned out that the motel was full, so he ended up crashing here tonight (again, by God's grace we have a clean space for him to sleep!).

I'm just so thankful for the way this seems to be happening. I'm thankful that this precious little boy will be coming back into my life. I'm thankful that we are able to provide hospitality to his father, and hopefully share the love of Jesus with them. God is soo good!!

I LOVE THIS BOY!!!

Answered prayers

"Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God." ~Titus 2:3-5

I am so happy to be able to report that I now have a mentor! I asked the pastor's wife at my church a couple of months ago if she would be willing to help me find one, and she did! It has worked out so perfectly. The area I need help in the most is being self-controlled and busy at home, basically, homemaking. The woman that she asked to meet with me has those areas as one of the things I admire most about her, she is an amazing homemaker! I didn't specify when I asked the pastor's wife, so I know this is totally from God! Moreover, the woman that I am going to be meeting with is such a sweet woman that I will look forward to seeing. She is already a friend, not just some face from the congregation. Her wonderful daughter babysits for us, and her son is almost the same age as my oldest boy. She is a fellow homeschooling mom, and just all around wonderful!

We are hoping to meet together tomorrow morning. We actually got together last week for a play date (which is when she told me that the pastor's wife had spoken with her). We discussed what I was looking for and decided she was the perfect match. Tomorrow we will be able to discuss things in more detail. I am really looking forward to it.

I must admit I was extremely nervous when I asked for this, worried that I would be paired with someone who expected too much, or was condescending, I didn't trust God. I was secretly hoping (and praying) that it was this kind woman, while trying to remember that God's will is better than my own. But I wasn't fearlessly trusting.

I am very thankful for this opportunity. I am thankful that God worked it out so wonderfully, and I'm thankful for this wonderful woman! This is something that I have been praying for for a long time, and it is just so awesome to see this prayer, and Scripture, fulfilled.



This week I'm linking up with both Thankful Thursday at Grace Alone, and The Imperfect Housewife's Thursday's Homemaking Link-up.

Thankful for my Savior

On this Thankful Thursday, I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for my Savior. It's just so amazing to me that He would willingly leave heaven and come to this Earth! Most of us hate life in this world, He chose it willingly! Not only did He choose to live in the world, He made that choice with the knowledge that He would be put to death for our sins. He didn't choose an easy life, but probably the hardest life at all, living the entire time knowing that a painful, unjust death lie ahead of Him. Yet He endured it all, all the scoffing and all the pain, not for anything that He deserved, but because we couldn't handle our problems without His help. He knew that without everything He endured, we would spend eternity in hell, without Him. He didn't want that. He gave His life for us. He lived for us, and died for us. He did it all so that we could be forgiven, and spend eternity with Him.

I am also thankful that He didn't stay dead. On the third day He was raised! Today He is alive and well. Preparing a place for us in Heaven, and someday soon He will come to call us home. I am so thankful for His love!

Thankfulness

We are arriving at another thankful Thursday and I am yet again finding myself overflowing with thankfulness. I have been noticing lately how thankful my family is. And while at times it can get a little annoying, like at supper when all four of my children take turns thanking me for their food, then they go around the table again thanking me for their drinks, then their forks... Of course I have to say your welcome to each individual child for each item. But I really am thankful that I have such a thankful family. It's easy to feel taken advantage of and unappreciated in today's world, and I love that my children actually voice their thankfulness.

I am also thankful that I am sitting here writing this in my newly set up office. God has been been fulfilling so many life long dreams lately, that it about brings me to tears with how much He has given me. I have always dreamed of being a writer and an editor, and as of last month I truly am a freelance writer/editor. It still seems so surreal that someone will pay me to do something that I love, but it's true. God is just solidifying His plans for me by having the pieces fall into place around me. It truly is just amazing. I have no other words to describe it. Just because I am so thankful, I wanted to share a picture of my office with you:

I am also thankful that my husband had today off. I got so use to having him home that I am missing him terribly now that he is working again. The kids are feeling it too, and it was just such a blessing to have him here today.

Are you overflowing with thankfulness this week? Why not take some time to write about it and share your blessings with us? Don't forget to link up over at Lynn's blog Spiritually Unequal Marriage by clicking the button below:

Thankful Thursday

On this wonderful Thankful Thursday, I am just overflowing with thankfulness for all that God is doing in my life. I shared part of it last week, but I thought I would go into a little more detail this week. However, with everything that God is doing in my life I was led to start a new blog just to track that area of my life and the things that I am learning (I don't want that to become the focus of this one). You can visit my new blog by clicking here, and read today's thankful Thursday post about all that.

I am also thankful this Thursday because so many things are happening at our church! In the past we have been meeting in a rented building on Sunday mornings, but anything during the week has to be held either at the small church office (that we also rent) or at someones home. God has recently blessed our congregation with it's own building. We haven't been able to move in yet (it needs a few modifications first... something is wrong with the bathrooms I believe), but it is still amazing to see God provide.

Now that we have our own building, we are preparing for all the ways that we can use it. Most of the things we will do are already happening just in various peoples homes or the office, but it will also enable us to do new things as well. I am thankful to be part of what God is doing in our church. We have started vision groups for various ministries to help us know where we are and where we want to go. Last week was the women's ministry vision group meeting after church. This vision group has 2 parts, the women's ministry to the church, and the women's ministry to women. I am part of the vision group for the women's ministry to women. We are planning on re-starting our Priority Living group next year. This started out as a group for young moms that did book studies, but it ended up as a group for all women that did inductive Bible studies. We are still trying to solidify what we want to start it up as again. I was the back-up leader last year, and will either remain as the back up leader next year, or take over as leader if no one else steps up. We are also going to officially start a Titus 2 ministry. Apparently our church has had one for a while, but it wasn't really official, just a if you ask, we will set it up kind of thing.

Next week is the meeting for the vision group for the youth ministry, which I am also hoping to be part of. I have always had a heart for teen girls (hints me volunteering with FindYourTrueBeauty.com)

God has just given me so much to be thankful for it's like I'm bursting at the seems! Do you have something that you're thankful for this week? Write a post and link up by visiting our host for this week, Iris, at her blog Grace Alone.

Thankful Thursday!

Hello blogland, I'm back!



On this thankful Thursday I am thankful for so much! I better just do a list:

*I am thankful that my mom got to come visit us last weekend.
*I am thankful for all of the wonderful time I have spent with my husband during the past month and a half.
*I am thankful for all of the ways God has provided for our family, and continues to provide.
*I am thankful for the new opportunities that God is brining into my life.
*And, I'm thankful to be able to tell you that my husband started his new job yesterday! I'm sad to see him go, but it is so amazing sitting on the sidelines and watching God do His work!

I could probably write a blog post on each one of those things, and who knows, maybe I will. But for now, I am just overflowing with thankfulness!

To read more thankful Thursday posts, you can visit Iris over at her blog Grace Alone.

Thankful Thursday!

On this wonderful, thankful Thursday I have so much to be thankful for!

I'm thankful for that I have such a wonderful family, and children to take care of.
I'm thankful for the extra time I'm able to spend with Mr. Amazing.
I'm thankful for all of the people who are praying for our family.
I'm thankful for people offering to help us in whatever ways they can. Some of the offers that have been made to us have brought me to tears.
I'm thankful that I know that I have a God that provides for all of our needs and can be trusted with our lives and lively hood.

What are you thankful for this week? You can link up or read more Thankful Thursday posts over at Women Taking A Stand.

*On a side note, I'm hosting my first giveaway tomorrow. I will be giving away a children's DVD. Be sure to check it out!

Foam bath and chopsticks

This week for MamaKat's writer's workshop I'm responding to prompt #4 A memorable date. I was so thankful this week, because our church was doing a fundraiser for one of the missionaries by providing child care Monday night so that couples could go out on dates. This is awesome in so many ways. Mr. Amazing and I hardly ever get to go on dates, and we have NEVER went on a date on Valentine's day before! I am so thankful that they put this together, and for the date itself!

Mr. Amazing and I had a wonderful time. We started out by going to get a foam bath... for the car :) I just thought it sounded more romantic to refer to the cycle rather than the actual place. I always love the colors in the wax that they put on. I thoughtfully took a picture. :)

After we finished our fun adventure through the car wash, Mr. Amazing took me to P.F. Changs. Just so you know, I am NOT big on Chinese food. I put most of this on the fact that I don't like veggies, needless to say I wasn't expecting a whole lot. We were greeted by a cranky hostess, who informed us we had to wait an hour for a table. This was fine by us, I mean it was Valentines day, the whole world was going out to dinner! When we were finally sat they put us at a drafty table near the door, it also happened to be the ONLY table that the candle had burnt out at. Sad. I was trying to stay positive, and so was Mr. Amazing. I had found their dinner for 2 special and we were totally excited about it, that made up for the draft, but not the candle...

We ate our soup with mild conversation. Then when our dinner came and I unrolled my silverware I discovered the chopsticks. Oh yeah. I had never eaten with chopsticks, but it sounded like fun. And hey, I'd seen enough movies that I knew what I was doing! Mr. Amazing gave it a go too, but gave up when I told him he didn't have to. I on the other hand, ate my entire dinner with chopsticks! It was a blast. I even ate my desert with my chopsticks. Even the waitress was impressed. It was probably the funnest dinner I have ever eaten, and I informed Mr. Amazing that I would require my own set of chopsticks to play, I mean eat with at home. He agreed, however by the end of the dinner he was threatening to take them away...

I am so thankful that we were able to go out together, it was so much fun! I'm thankful that I have such a wonderful, fun loving husband. I'm also thankful for chopsticks! Too fun! It was certainly a date that I will NEVER forget!


To read more thankful Thursday posts, you can visit Laurie over at her blog Women Taking A Stand.

Thankful Thursday

What are you thankful for this week? Write about it and link up over at Spiritually Unequal Marriage.


On this blessed Thankful Thursday I am so thankful that I have been given the opportunity to serve the Lord. My prayer this morning was that God would use me for His glory, and not allow me to be a stumbling block. Being a mom is hard. There are so many opportunities to become a stumbling block to my children. Every choice I make can either point to Christ, or turn them away. They have no doubt that I love God, so it's extremely important what kind of a life I lead in front of them. I must admit that I didn't realize this soon enough. I've always known that leading by example is the best way to do things, it has the best results, and isn't hypocritical. However, it just really clicked yesterday that they are watching everything and all of my actions either point to Christ, or they don't. I want my children to see Christ in the way I speak to them, not just the words, but the tone. I want them to see Christ in the way I serve others, I even want them to see Christ in the breakfast I serve them (not literally of course)! I don't want them to see life as something that just happens, but as a gift from God and an opportunity to serve Him. I am so thankful for this eye opener, and for the opportunity to serve my God and Savior by letting everything I do point to Him.

Thankful for you

On this Thankful Thursday we have been prompted by Lynn at Spiritually Unequal Marriage to write our post about who our best online friend is. While I don't normally like ranking the people in my life (it can cause hurt feelings), I will this one time. First you must understand that most of my closest friends are all online friends. Most of my closest online friends I met through the Christian Mommies community that is part of the online network called Circle of Moms. Victoria, Anne, Tam, Kristie, Robin, and Stephanie (along with a few others) have been on my facebook friends list for almost longer than I can remember and I have never met any of them in person (though several of us exchanged Christmas cards this year). I almost got to meet Anne this Christmas, but a snow storm and car trouble got in our way. As she comes to Colorado every year for Christmas we are hoping that God will allow us to get together next year. Back when I was the admin of the Christian Mommies group I asked Anne to be my moderator. Around a year later we asked Victoria to come on to help us out as well. Eventually I handed the community over to Victoria as my migraines were growing in intensity and the medication they put me on effected my ability to think clearly. Through this adventure we have all become very close friends and I am very thankful for them both.

I am thankful for Tam who led an online Bible study for moms on Circle of Moms. She taught me so much about the things we studied and helped guide me to a better understanding of how to not only apply the Bible to my life, but understand it as more than words on a page.

Stephanie is such an inspiration to me. It is so fun watching her faith in Christ and the knowledge of Scripture grow. I am so thankful for her!

Kristie, well she's just Kristie! She's wonderful just for being her and being a servant of Christ, and I am thankful for her friendship. :)

While all of these dear women hold a special place in my heart I must say that over the years Robin and I are the closest. God has brought us through some of the same trials and we are able to help each other through. We share the same views on pretty much everything, we are both bloggers, and stay home moms. She truly is my BFF, and I am thankful that God has brought us together through the internet.

I am very thankful for all of my online friends. My lovely blog readers that encourage me, my facebook friends, my Circle of Moms friends (even the ones that I only communicate with there). God has truly blessed me through my computer. These ladies that I may possibly never meet on this earth have touched my life in ways they will probably never, ever know. God is amazing!

It's always great to encourage others! If you would like to write a post about how thankful you are for your online friends go ahead and link up with us this Thankful Thursday over at Lynn's blog.

Thankful Thursday

Last night was my Women Discipling Women group. I always love meeting with them, it is such a wonderful group of women and I am ever so thankful for them! Together we are all reading the book Women Counseling Women. Some of us are also going to read the book Unpacking Forgiveness. I have heard both good and bad things about it.

I am so thankful for these women for lots of reasons. They are all open, honest, and humble. They are great models of biblical women, even though they are not perfect. I am thankful for all of the encouragement they offer me, and one another. I am thankful for their prayers. Most of all I am just thankful that God has brought each of them into my life. I might not have a personal relationship with each one, but each one has still contributed to my life in a way they will probably never know.

What are you thankful for this week? Write about it and link up over at Spiritually Unequal Marriage.

Thankful list

What are you thankful for this week? Write about it and link up over at Spiritually Unequal Marriage.


This week I have much to be thankful for (as always), however it's been a really stressful morning. So just a list of things that I am thankful for:

I am thankful that God loves me!
I am thankful that I have a roof over my head
I am thankful that I have an amazing husband
I am thankful that I have four beautiful children
I am thankful that I am not sick
I am thankful that I have this computer
I am thankful for the internet!
I am thankful that we have working appliances (stove, oven, refridgerator, washer and dryer)
I am thankful that we have running water
I am thankful that we have a working heater to keep our house warm during the winter
I am thankful that it is suppose to be warm outside today
I am thankful for God's Word
I am thankful that Jesus came to die so that my sins could be forgiven, and I can spend eternity with Him!

Thankful Thursday

I am ever so thankful for this man. My own personal Mr. Amazing, because he IS amazing! He is an amazing husband and father. How many other guys do you know that will take their kids sledding, bruise their tail bone, and in order to please their 3 year old daughter (who loves sledding) resort to going down the hill on their belly. :) I'm pretty sure he is the best dad EVER, and I love him so very, very much. I am very thankful for my husband. I am thankful that he is the man he is, I am thankful that he has this week off from work, I am thankful that he loves me, and I am thankful that God brought him into my life.



What are you thankful for this week? Write about it and link up over at Grace Alone.