…for a new week.
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.”
1 Corinthians 12:4-6
Have I mentioned we’re STILL getting frost at night? Have I mentioned that we’re beating record temps for this time of year? Have I mentioned I already planted my garden? Have I mentioned we live in FLORIDA?
Have I mentioned I’ve planted “round 2″ seeds indoors to replace some that were frostbitten?
I know I’ve written about this book before, but I just can’t tell you enough just how great it is. It’s titled, “Diapers, Pacifiers, and Other Holy Things” and was loaned to me by a great friend when we first moved here last year. I’ve taken my time reading and get SO much from it each time I open it! If you have little ones at home, it’s MUST read devotional! And it’s SO cheap on Amazon- you really won’t regret it!
Today I opened it up and read a page titled, “What am I- your servant?” and it really hit the nail on the head regarding something most young moms feel.
“Before having children, I did not acknowledge my self-centeredness. After all, I did nice things for my husband, helped my co-workers with their struggles, and volunteered at church. But any serving I did was because I chose to serve at a time that was convenient for me. When my children were born, my ability to choose died. I was thrust into the role of on-call servant, like it or not. Much of the time I did not. I stomped around the house, picked up toys, made beds, folded laundry, and growled at my husband and children, ‘What am I, your servant?’ They ignored my complaints. God didn’t. Yes, Lorraine, He affirmed. You are their servant. Great! I wanted a little sympathy, a little help, a little cooperation. Instead, I got conviction.”
She goes on to explain further that Jesus says we should all aspire to be servants. And not just on our own time-table.
“Selfishness is ugly. Fortunately, God is teaching me something beautiful through Galatians 2:20: ‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.’ That helps. When I am unable to find it within my heart to serve, I order my sinful nature to sit in a ‘time out’ and let Christ in me serve. When I want to look at a magazine, but my kids want me to make Play-Dough worms, my selfish self goes to time out and Jesus in me molds the dough. When I want to go for a walk but my husband wants to go play racquetball, Jesus in me packs his bag.”
Great stuff.
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.” Mark 10:45
If I could buy this book for every mom I knew, I would! Please check it out!
Finally! Sorry for the 2 month delay, but life is busy to say the least! 
I’m showing you everything but the dining room area because I’m waiting to enlarge some new family picture prints for the walls. We’ve also yet to paint but we’re still kind of enjoying white walls! If you have ever seen our home in Ohio you know that there wasn’t a white wall in the place! So it’s a nice change for us. Maybe next year!
This house has been such a blessing from God- it came at just the right time and is even more than we could ever have imagined of getting.
Below are a few highlights, but HERE is the link for the complete tour.
Coming up soon I’ll show some before and afters of a few of my projects and also share some pictures of our garden!
And the next one is more on the “realistic” side of things- what you’ll be SURE to see if you come for a visit!
…for a new week.
“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us aNEW in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
Ephesians 2:10
We’re so blessed to be a part of the church which we are.
Our senior pastor, Matthew Hartsfield, does an amazing job making deep theology seem so simple to comprehend. He finished up a series called “Courage Camp” today and just as each week that preceded it, this week was amazing. I wanted to share a few of his major points because I really feel that they are so vitally important to our outlook on life as Christians!
We looked at Numbers 13 and Deuteronomy 1 and the accounts of Joshua and Caleb scouting the promised land that Moses had asked them to. They went with several others and all saw the same things. But when they returned to Moses and Aaron they had different accounts. Joshua and Caleb said that the land was beautiful and that there were powerful people and fortified cities there but that they could certainly take them. The other men suggested that they couldn’t possibly attack them because of their size and strength.
Points:
* All saw the same thing but only Joshua and Caleb saw the blessings. Ie: “The Joshua/Caleb mindset”.
* We tend to do the same thing as the other men- see the obstacles rather than the blessings.
* It was as simple to Joshua and Caleb as the fact that the Lord was with them and therefore they had every confidence that they could do it! However for us it’s different since Jesus has entered the story! We as Christians have the Lord IN us- not just WITH us! So we should have that much MORE confidence!
* It is an issue of identity- who am I? Who does God say that I am? In Numbers 13:33 the other men declared that they looked like mere grasshoppers to these big strong men. We cannot allow the world or even ourselves to identify who we are- ie: the “grasshopper mentality”.
* The only One allowed to give us our identity is the One who created us in the first place! Ephesians 2:10 says that we are a “masterpiece” created by Him- also translated as a “poem”; the story He’s telling. Isn’t that cool?
* To close, did He create you to have the grasshopper’s mentality of, “Oh no, we’re nothing but helpless prey to them (or to your financial situation, your job, any other stress or worry, etc.) or did He create you… His masterpiece… to have the mindset of Joshua and Caleb saying, “THEY (all of my problems and worries) are the helpless prey because my God is with (IN) me!”
What a great lesson! It’s nice to get these reminders from Scripture that prove to us that we’re not the first ones in history to have something that we didn’t quite plan on come at us! But how are we handling that stress? Like we have Christ IN us? Great food for thought!
**Thank you to Matthew for allowing me to share his message points!**
As mentioned before, one of my passions is taking care of our beautiful creation called Earth. I learned a long time ago that you can not respect the Creator if you do not respect His creation. So this not only applies to people (Genesis 1:27) but to ALL of His creation in the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1-31). He has entrusted it to our care (Genesis 1:28-29) and so what we do with it does matter!
One simple way to do our part is to recycle. If you have curbside recycling then this is super simple! Just gather the appropriate materials in your designated container and put it out on the curb on your assigned day. If you don’t, then this may take a little more work. You’ll need to find a local recycling collection place to bring your recyclables to on occasion. Try to find one on your way to work or to the grocery store so that you don’t have to go too far out of your way. We’re on both sides of the fence as most items are collected curbside but one is not.
In our garage we have some large blue storage containers where we throw our plastic, glass, and cans after we’ve rinsed them. Those we put out to the curb once every two weeks for collection. Our paper is not collected so we have separate paper grocery bags (one by my desk and one by the kitchen trash can) where we automatically toss all things paper into instead of the trash. When it’s full, we trade it out for a new one, and place the full one in the garage in a box. When the box gets full we’ll take it to a place that accepts it.
Is there effort involved? Well, if you consider rinsing out your salsa jar effort. Is this effort worth something? Absolutely! Look at the life lessons you can teach your children through this! How we, as Christians, can practice what we preach in regards to respecting our Creator and therefore His creations!
Every little bit of recycling helps! If you think you’re just one household so what difference can you make, then I would ask you if you vote? One person/one household of trash does matter!
Try it!
Usually when I speak of being proud of something it involves my husband or my children. But this one is for myself alone. I conquered something that I have tried to do for probably 20 years- Something my mother has tried to teach me and something I tried to teach myself when I was younger. Something I had an irrational fear of (maybe because I’d mess up?) for many years.
How to sew.
You see, when we moved into our new home, I desperately wanted to cover all of our old nasty throw pillows with some fresh (and CLEAN) fabrics to give our couches a boost. I found some great remnants at the local fabric store as well as in my closet and cut out all of the squares I needed. I was going to have a friend help me sew them but our schedules didn’t line up for a few weeks. So one day I just broke down and bought my own machine. I’ve been wanting one for a while now and figured it would be a worthy investment. I found a good one on sale and it didn’t cost nearly what I thought it would. I excitedly brought it home, unpacked it from it’s box… and then proceeded to stare at it for at least 2 weeks. Last night, I had run out of excuses as to why I hadn’t attempted to use it yet and why I hadn’t covered all of my old throw pillows which no longer even matched our new home’s decor. So I brought it out to the table, plugged it in, watched the dvd that it came with (VERY helpful!), and step-by-step followed the instructions for how to get it ready. Then I took a deep breath, very cautiously pushed my foot down on the pedal and slowly guided the fabric through- hoping with all hope that I wouldn’t break this machine on the first attempt! By the time Dan came home from Wednesday night programming, I was giddy in love with this new machine and my NEW-found skill… and had covered 8 pillows! Today I added 1 more large one, a slipcover for a diaper-box-turned-baby-doll-bed, newly designed skinny jeans from an old pair of bootleg (which I’ve yet to decide if I can rock), and I’m looking for more projects I can do! I don’t want to put it away! I feel such a sense of accomplishment that I can now mend/hem/create for my family without having to ask someone else!
And it all started with a single deep breath.
Looking forward to making THIS for Elle!
A year ago today, we left the above picture for the one below. Oh the perks of moving South in the middle of winter!
Has it really been a year since our big move? In some respects it feels like all of that craziness just happened last month- and in essence we DID just move again last month so it was very reminiscent of the one a year ago. In other respects in feels like we’ve been here all along- especially in terms of our new friends and our church. Both feel like they’ve been a part of our lives forever- not just one year!
What a year is has been! It’s had so many ups and downs but the ups have been soooooooo much better than the downs and we’re sooooooo grateful to our Father in heaven for that! He has taken us on such an amazing journey- not just in moving us to a new state- but also in our own walks with Him, the path of our family’s future, and so much more! He is an awesome and mighty God! Gratitude seems like such a small word for the feeling that we have- to know that He is working through us for His plan… wow. Words cannot explain.
To all of our friends and family who have been a support for us and encouraged us along the way- THANK YOU! You have each been a vital part of this journey and it would not have been the same without you. Thank you for your love and your kindness to us during this past year!
We can’t wait to see what He does in our second year here!
So I’m not the best at articulating the thoughts and feelings that are scattered throughout my brain and my heart but I’m going to do my best to try to share some with you.
God is doing some pretty major work on me right now and is just proving that the word He gave me for the year, NEW, is indeed the perfect fit. This is a NEW year indeed! In just the past few weeks He’s been hard at work teaching me NEW things, tearing down old walls, reNEWing my mind, and revealing His plans for me in my new state (which has been a prayer of mine since the beginning of the year). I’m so humbled to be hearing from Him so clearly that it just brings me to tears.
I’m writing this post as fair warning that this blog is going to be changing right along with me. He’s made it perfectly clear to me that I am to take a big step back from Twitter and Facebook so if you see less of me over there, you’ll know why. I’ll still be around from time to time, but that’s it. And as for the blog, no longer will I be trying to gain a greater readership in an effort to boost my business. That’s no longer a priority. I will still share updates on my family for out-of-town friends and family as I see fit (no longer do I feel the need to share every detail), share things that I’m passionate about, some projects I’m working on, and encourage- but all much less frequently.
I’m so excited to see how He continues to grow me as a daughter of His, a wife and a mother and hope you understand why I’m taking a step back from the “online” world.
Blessings!
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Romans 12:2 NLT
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life- your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life- and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Romans 12:2 The Message
