New Home

I know some of you just started  following me, but I have a new home. This blog will eventually close down. I will wait a couple of weeks to be sure people can find me. You can find me at my new location: Growing Families God's Way.

I decided to change because I have sort of narrowed down my focus. It is still a work in progress so bear with me as I figure out how to use wordpress since I have only used blogger.

I hope you are all having a fabulous fall!

Forgiven, Restored and Used for Service

I talked about Jesus predicting Peter's denial on Tuesday, but today I want to talk about when he actually denied Jesus.

"But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, "This man was with him." "But he denied it. "Woman, I don't know him," he said. A little later someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them." "Man, I am not!" Peter replied. About an hour later another asserted, "Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean." Peter replied, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about!" Just as was speaking the rooster crowed.  ~ Luke 22:55-60

Look at how a course of a few hours really changed Peter's life. According to my life application Bible, Peter's experience would change him from a halfhearted follower to a repentant disciple, and finally a person Christ could use to BUILD HIS CHURCH!

Wow! I think that is amazing. What Peter did was pretty bad, but with a repentant heart he was forgiven, restored and used for service.

In verse 57, he denied knowing Jesus
In verse 58, he denied being one of His followers
In verse 60, he denied even knowing what they were talking about

Peter's denial grew as he was questioned. He denied knowing Him until finally he didn't even know what they were talking about.

Like Peter, if we continue to leave sin unchecked, it has a way of growing.

We are human and can fall at any second. We need to be aware of our breaking point and not become OVER-CONFIDENT or SELF-SUFFICIENT.

We must be sure our full trust is in God and God alone. We are not strong enough within our self to do what God has called us to do. We must have His strength, His Word, His direction flowing through us. He must be the One guiding us. We can lead ourselves off course really quick.

We must remain humble and realize that it is ALL FOR HIS GLORY!

Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial

How many of us would knowingly deny Jesus?

It is easy to say we would NEVER deny Jesus, but we do. We deny him many times a day!

Luke 22:31-21 says,

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."

~ these are the words of Jesus
~ Jesus allows satan to sift Simon
~ sift means to break down
~ Jesus says He has prayed for Simon: that his faith would not fail
~ when he had repented and turned back to God, he wanted Simon to strengthen his brothers

This passage is when Jesus was predicting that Peter would deny him. Peter said that he would never do that.

Peter was one of Jesus' 12 disciples so he was on the inner circle. If Peter can fall, we can fall.

We deny Jesus when...
~ we have a critical attitude
~ we snap at our children out of frustration
~ we say things to our spouses that tear them down
~ we don't follow the instructions of Jesus because we have our life mapped out

Jesus allowed this because He knew that it would strengthen Peter and he would in turn be used to strengthen his brothers in Christ.

What is it that the Lord is trying to teach me?
How am I being sifted?
How will I use it for the glory of my Father?
Who is Jesus wanting me to strengthen?

Just as Jesus prayed that Peter's faith would not falter, He is praying our faith will not.
He went BEFORE Peter and He will go before us.

Things may look rocky, but rest assured He is going before us and we have to use it for good.

Peter was renewed and became a powerful leader.

If God can use Peter after he denied him publically, He can use us. We have to be willing to get up, dust off the pain and regret and get about the Father's business.

Dreams ~ God-Sized Dreams

How many of you have dreams of where God wants to take you? How many of you are walking in a God-sized dream right now?

I see myself doing many things for God. I have many dreams that I am not yet walking out. I have other dreams I am right in the middle of right now.

One thing I have learned is when we have a God dream, it takes over our world. It doesn't matter if it's a small or a big dream, it takes over.

I have been reading You're Made for a God Sized Dream by Hollie Gerth and it is a GREAT read.

"God-sized dreams are not controllable. To believe any different is to tell yourself that a bucking bronco in the rodeo ring is no different than a sweet pony at the petting zoo. The reason we can't tame our dreams is because the One who gives them to us is wild. We want God predictable -- especially when we're doing what we think he wants." ~ Hollie Gerth

Let's stop right here~

I think many of us stop short of God-sized dreams because we are scared of how it will alter OUR life, OUR plan. We stop because we don't see a "blueprint" before us. It is a faith walk AND that scares us because for us to succeed, we are NOT in CONTROL, but GOD is in CONTROL. We have to give up our rights and we have a hard time doing that!

Why are we so scared to let God be in charge?

~It might mess up our perfectly grafted plan
~It might put us in places that make us uncomfortable
~It might make us look crazy
~We can't control EVERY detail

But how many times has Jesus let us down?

NEVER~ not once! He is faithful! We CANNOT fail with God!

We must be faithful to follow. We must put our faith and trust of our unknown future in our All-Knowing God.

Rest assured, He has our best interest at heart.

No matter what, remember:

"...whoever is really in control is responsible for the results."

"Our part is not control. It's not results. IT'S OBEDIENCE. It's intimacy with the One who asks us to trust Him even when nothing makes sense." ~Hollie Gerth

Letting Go of Control

OK, I know! I have not blogged in forever. I may not even have ONE person read this post and that's OK.

I have felt an overwhelming desire to blog lately, but I'm SCARED. I know that sounds crazy. BUT I'm not much of a writer, but I have an overwhelming desire to share what God is teaching me in hopes that some things I write will resonate with you. 

What exactly am I SCARED of? 

1. I will let you down. 

2. I will not represent God properly. 

3. It will consume too much of my time. 

4. I will have writers block. 

5. Control: If I'm not careful I control things. Hint: I am a firstborn. Once it's on the web I have put myself out there and I can no longer control where it goes and what happens with this information. 

6. Who am I to share and write about anything? I'm the same as you. I'm no different. Why me?  I'm only a sinner .... Saved by grace!  

7. Writing grammatically correct is not always my strongest attribute. 
8. I will sound like I have it all together when in fact I don't!
 

That being said... I have to follow God. I don't exactly know what that looks like. I don't and that's what scares me. 

But 2 Timothy 1:7 states

 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

So because I know FEAR COMES FROM THE ENEMY, I am going to follow God! He has given me power, love and a sound mind. BECAUSE of that I can be a voice piece for Him. I can do it without fear. He will guide me EVERY step IF I CHOOSE to follow Him! 

My ONLY desire for this blog is to follow Him as best I can in hopes that the people who read it are drawn closer to Him.... Grammatically correct or not, whether I let you down or not, whether I'm as consistent as others would like. It doesn't matter when it's all for HIS GLORY~ not mine. 

And I'll leave you with one of my favorite verses: 

 

"He must increase, I must decrease." ~John 3:30

So for this to work, He has got to increase and I have got to decrease! 

Education is a mandate, not a choice

I LOVE Sally Clarkson and her wisdom! She has homeschooled her 4 children and comes with a ton of wisdom. If you have not read her blog, you should. She was one of the co-authors of Desperate along with Sarah Mae. I have written about this book a couple of times on my blog.

I wanted to share what I read on her blog recently. It is entitled Education is a mandate, not a choice. It is really good! Pleast take time to read this.

Whether you homeschool or not, there is still a responsibility to educate our children. I love the way she puts this. I have tons of friends and family who do not homeschool, but I do believe they invest into the minds of their children. I would not be the Mom I am today without, first God, but also their investment into my life. I have great people surrounding me who invests in my family. For that I am grateful.

Loving God and Loving Others

"One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "of all the commandments, which is the most important?" The most important one," answered Jesus, "Is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." ~Mark 12:28-31

When we look at God's Word, there's two simple things He tells us to follow and they are the most important: love God and love others.

When we love love God with our ALL of our heart, soul, mind and strength; we will love others. When we love God in this way, we will begin to have a heart like His because we will spend time with Him reading His Word, praying and listening to Him. We will be transformed and love others as He did.

The love of Christ should rule our thoughts, decisions and actions.

There are a lot of hurting people in this world. How are you choosing to be intentional about first, loving God and then loving others.

Love is a choice and it involves both choice and an action.

We  must do more that say we would love to help this person and that person. We must put action with our love, it is love in action.

Who is God bringing your mind to at this moment? Who do you need to love on today? Who needs to hear your voice telling them they are worth it?

Don't deny the voice of the Father!

Books Books and More Books

I love books and reading. Anyone close to me knows that fact. I never thought I would come to the point in which I would have to MAKE myself pick up a book and read.

These days I am seriously tired. Tired from what, you may say. Life is hard. The day to day upkeep of the home, juggling being a mama, homeschool mama, children's minister, wife, sister, child of the King....and the list goes on. But I must keep my focus. My focus must be Jesus so that He can lead me in my daily endeavors. I desire to bring glory to His Name!

As I told you earlier in the year, I would be reading "Desperate" by Sarah Mae and Sally Clarkson. I finished it up some weeks ago. It was a wonderful read. If you have not read it, I encourage you to read it. When I read the title I did NOT THINK I was a Desperate mom, but I in fact am.

If you are looking for a book that really reads your mail as a Mom, this is the book.

I love how Sarah Mae writes first. That is how I feel at this stage in motherhood, but Sally follows up with such wisdom that comes only from a woman who has been there done that. It is a booked PACKED with wisdom.

I have read several books in between but they are health books. They were very good reads.

I am now reading "Lead Your Family Like Jesus" by Ken Blanchard, Phil Hodges and Tricia Goyer. I bought the book after I heard them 2 days in a row on Focus on the Family. I will give you an update once I am finished.

By His Grace

As I think about my children and what I want them to become one day, I desire for them to be people who LOVE the Lord with their entire being and share Him with each person they come in contact with. I desire for them to love others as Jesus did, be a reflection of Him at all costs.

But you see, the problem with that is: I am their mom. I love Jesus fully but not so fully.  I am an imperfect being who makes many mistakes so therefore my children will pick up my weaknesses as well as my strengths. They will live out the way my husband and I train them now. We have to train and discipline now with the future in mind. But we are flawed humans, so we MUST rely on the Father to do the ultimate work in their hearts and lives. I am only the tool that God allows to direct my children in the way they should go.

I do not desire for my children to be well behaved and responsible, but not have Jesus. I do not desire for them to marry the right person, have the perfect job, but not have Jesus. I want Him to be first and foremost in theirs lives.

Don't get me wrong, I want my children to have nice things, enjoy live, but more than that I want them to have Jesus because that is where true contentment is found.

So, my challenge today: Are you training your children with methods that create "behavior modification?" Meaning you do things that will change their behavior for a desired result. OR Are you training your children in a way that reaches the heart and leads them to Jesus? When we train the hearts of our children then, we will see true results. It is then that they realize they cannot live apart from Christ and will desire to follow Him completely.

The Harvest is Plentiful

This week in my Good Morning Girls Bible study, our challenge was to "Choose one way to show Jesus' love in action to a "neighbor" around you this week.

Our Memory Verse was: "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Luke 10:2 (NIV)

S: "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves." Luke 10:2-3

O:

• The harvest is plentiful
• The workers are few
• Ask the Lord to send out workers
• Go!
• We are being sent out like lambs among wolves

A: There is plenty of work to be done in the Kingdom of God. There are few workers, but we need to pray and ask the to Lord to send out workers. We need to earnestly seek Him and ask Him to prepare people's heart for Him and furthering the ministry.

He says to GO! He does not say Go if you feel like it or if the time is right, etc. BUT to GO!

He says that we are being sent out like lambs among wolves. We will not always be accepted because of our hope in the Lord. We need to arm ourselves for battle. We need not give up because others come against us. We are told to Go! and it says nothing about go until it gets too hard and then give up.

As I was so wonderfully reminded last week, God will provide for our every need. That is not just talking about finanial, but spiritually and mentally. He will meet our emotional needs and help us get through the opposition.

P: Lord, I pray that You would prick the hearts of people who do not know you. I pray that you would prick the hearts of people who are not involved in Kingdom work. Lord, soften their hearts and help them realize that true fulfillment comes when they are in direct allignment of Your will. Help us all to be strong when we face opposition for Your Name-sake and help us to remember You said GO! and that we must stay strong no matter how hard it is. You are our source for all things. In Christ Name. Amen.

What is God nudging to you to do today for His Kingdom? Remember, His Word says GO!

The Microphone

We have an alarm system in our home and a few a weeks ago our front door flew open with the wind and set the alarm system off. It was in the middle of the day and I knew exactly what it was and that no one was breaking into our home.

It took me longer than usual to get to the keypad to punch in the code. Because it took me so long, the lady came over the speaker in our hallway to talk to me. She wanted to be sure that we were ok...and of course we were. She even had the security company call me later just to check on us.

After we finished up our little conversation in the hallway, I kept feeling like someone was listening in on us. I guess it sort of made me uneasy just knowing that someone could hear us if they chose to. I knew they are not, but it was still in the back of my mind. I kept catching myself being very careful of what I said and the kind of attitude I had with the kids. I even told the kids, "you better stop because the lady in the hall can hear you."

We had had a very stressful morning (Monday morning) and it was sort of crazy in our home at the time. I was finding myself being short with the kids and in turn they were even more irritated with me.

At the end of the day, as I reflected: I thought about how in life we are someone we are not when we are in front of people. We put on a good "show" and really live a lie. Sometimes we are super sweet to our kids in front of people when we would bite their head off at home if that were to happen.

I know! I have caught myself doing that very same thing.

Why do we do that?
Because we are human and we are tired Mamas. We are imperfect beings in need of a perfect Savior. We cannot be at our best 24/7, but we sure can rely on the Father to strengthen us and guide us. We can ask our Father to forgive us and ask our children to forgive us as well. We can go back and make things right.

I should not have told my children to stop because the lady could hear them. I should have said to stop because God can hear and He is not pleased with that. (He was not pleased with my behavior either!)

But to make it all worse, my daughter heard ME and started using MY attitude and tone.

What if I would have chosen to be patient and kind throught the stress.....

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:26

I am so glad we serve a God who loves us dispite our imperfections. AND that our children are usually pretty quick to forgive.

GMG: Jesus Meets my Every Need

We are back in session for our 2nd Good Morning Girls (GMG) Bible Study of the year. We are studying Luke 9-16: Living and Leading Like Jesus. I am so happy to be back in session. I did not join a group last session and studies on my own, but regretted it. This session I am in a group with other homeschool moms from many different places. I am super excited to share this journey with them. I find that I learn so much more sharing the study of Scripture with others.

I will be sharing at least one day a week from my Luke study. If you are not familiar with the GMG Bible study method, they use the SOAP method.

S: Scripture / O: Observation / A: Application / P:Prayer

S:

He told them, "Take nothing for the journey--no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them." Luke 9:3-5

O:

• We should not worry about the things we need-Jesus is our source, our provision and meets our every NEED.
• He gives us instructions on what He wants us to do and all we have to do is listen and obey.
• "Shaking the dust off" would show that the disciples were not responsible for how the people responded to their message. Neither am I responsible if I have carefully and truthfully presented Christ, but our message is rejected. Like the disciples, we must move on to others whom God desires to reach. (Life Application Bible)

A:

I do not need to worry about the how and way because Jesus guides me step by step and He has the way figure out. All I need to do is faithfully obey. He has made the provision and will give all that is needed to complete the task. It doesn't matter who rejects, I am to be faithful to the call and not let that stop me.

P:

Lord, I pray that I would be faithful to Your call no matter how hard it may seem. Let me always bring glory to Your Name. Amen.

I'm Back

I never intended to take a break from blogging for nearly 2 months, but it happened. I simply needed a break. I was at the point of burn-out and I could feel it strong.

It has been a great year so far and God is doing amazing things in my life and the life of my family. I can surely say I am not the person I was January 1st and that is a good thing. I know that God is up to something good!

I will be blogging on Tuesday and Thursday each week. I hope you will join me.

Resources in Review

Since I have been so sporatic in posting due to our church relocating to a much larger facility, I will post all of my resouces here in one post to make it easy. I had intended to post them back to back but that did not happen so I kind of need this.

1. The pure Word of God. A daily intake.

2. Write in my Gratitude Journal. This is easy. I simply list 3 things a day. I'm also in the process of making a Gratitude Wall (in the thinking stages of exactly how I want to do it).

3. iChoose 2 Love my Life: 52 Week Guide to intentional/purposeful living.

4. Luke Bible Study with Good Morning Girls (current Bible Study, this will change several time this year). I love GMG because I can dig deep and you can allow God to give me revelation. To me this is a HUGE plus. I am passionate about people learning to APPLY the Word to their lives and this study does just that.

5. Siesta 2013: I will be memorizing 2 Scriptures a month using my handy little notecard holder. This is a big part of our homeschool already so this is sort of a continuation of that. I am posting my Scripture every 2 weeks for accountability on the website I ordered my notecards from.

6. I will read numerous books this year. I will be starting Desperate by Sarah Mae and Sally Clarkson. I will be starting that at the end of January. I am not EXACTLY sure what other books I will read this year. I will post some of those as well.

7. I am in a Bible Study on Friday mornings and I am not sure what we will be doing this year. I have missed the last 2 weeks due to church relocation, but will be there this week. Excited to get started back with this great group of ladies.

***I thought I put this to post Tuesday morning, but did not...so it's running a day late and I did find out that our Bible study group will be doing iChoose 2 Love my Life. YAH!

2013 Continues

I said that I would share with you what I would doing in 2013 so...here's a few other resources I will be using.

I will be reading Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe by Sarah Mae & Sally Clarkson. I will be joining the group at the end of January. Click here to find out more information and you can also click to order your book. I got mine in the mail 2 weeks ago and can't wait to get started.

 I love to read and I make it a daily discipline to read a little each day after I have read the Word of course. Nothing could ever replace the Word of God. I challenge you to read something of worth each day. I have found that God often uses books to help me step up in what God has called my family to.

I will also be memorizing 2 Scriptures a month using my Siesta 2013. For your own Siesta 2013 click here. This is a part of Beth Moore's ministry. I am super excited to do this. You have to post on the 1st and 15th what Scripture you will be memorizing. I purchased the spiral notebook that is super cute to write my verses in. You carry it with you with the verse(s) you are memorizing. I am a huge advocate for Scripture memorization and we focus a lot on this at home and at church.

I decided a few weeks ago to choose One Word for the year of 2013. I pondered this for weeks. I LOVED Ann Voskamp's word "IN." I was tempted to "copy" and use that BUT I knew God needed to speak to me. As I sought God, He said "CHOOSE." So choose will be my word. I am not exactly sure what all that entails, but I feel like God will continue to reveal Himself to me on this word. I do know that I have so many things going on and there are so many great things my family could get involved in, but we must CHOOSE the best that God has and not settle for less than the best. I can't wait to gain further revelation.



I am super excited about what God has in store for 2013! I know it will be good! I am excited about all the new people I have met through blogging these few months. I am blessed to be apart of the iBloom team and love having that group to share with and get great ideas from. I have been blessed since joining them in November.

Again, it is not too late to order your iChoose 2 Love my Life book. I have enjoyed my first 2 weeks! But of course I am passionate about intentional/purposeful living. This pretty much sums up this 52 week guide!

Child Training Bible (CTB)

OK I am a little behind in posting on the CTB, but we did have a 2 week break for Christmas for those who are studying the CTB as a group.

I know I have said this before, but I love reading through the Scripture each week because it is helping me to more effectively use the Bible in the way it is tabbed. At first, it felt so foreign to me in this method, but now it is very easy to use. I encourage you to read through your tabs and become familiar with them so that you can easily use it. The more familiar you are with the format, the more easily you can use it as a tool in talking with your children. I have found that I am more at ease and can allow the Holy Spirit to prompt me on what to say once I have studied that tab. I also know what is at my fingertips, so I know exactly where to go. I would encourage you to become familiar with the information on the back of the card as well.

If you just got your CTB, it can be a bit overwhelming, but I would say tab and study one section a week. I did mine in a couple of sittings, but you could break it down if you needed to AND if you would like to read and study the tabs, we are in the middle of studying 1 tab a week. You could join the facebook group to study them or you could do them on your own. I use the SOAP method for each Scripture.

I worked very hard over Christmas to make 2 for other people. It was a lot of work, but well worth the effort and time. Lives will be CHANGED because of the Word of God! I do not regret one minute I worked on those Bibles.

If you do not have your materials, I would encourage you to follow the link on my sidebar and get your today. This was a major part of our 2012 and will be a major part of our 2013. I desire "heart transformation" not "behaviour modificaiton" when I discipline my children and this resource does just that.

I will continue to share what resources I will be using in 2013, but my posts will continue be a little hit and miss for the next week or so. We are in the process of moving our church to a bigger facility so I have been swamped with that lately. Our first service will be this Sunday, so if you read this blog, PLEASE pray for us as we expand to impact the world for JESUS CHRIST!

Gratitude

I am super excited about 2013 and all that it has in store. I just know that God is going to do great things despite the way things are in our world. We just have to trust and CHOOSE to look to Him.

For Christmas, I made everyone who got gifts, "Gratitude Journals" and some sort of devotion. I got this inspiration through Ann Voskamp's website, A Holy Experience. I just love her site. I love to look around and listen to the music playing in the background. It is so peaceful and calm.

I printed off her free printables and put them into each journal. I found the perfect journals at Hobby Lobby that said, "Be still and know that God." They did not have as many as I needed so some people got a different one. I made all the kids one as well. There's were a little more fun looking.

I chose to do this because everyone around me has everything they need or want. I wanted to give a gift that would change their lives and have eternal value.

This year, as I start 2013, I am going to list 1000 gifts as she challenges us to do. I am so excited to see what God has in store. It is a challenge when you think of 1000 gifts, but all you have to do is list 3 gifts a day. She even created a list to follow, such as, list 3 things with noise you are thankful for. I think that is pretty neat.

I do believe that it is easy to get caught up in life and forget how blessed we truly are. I CHOOSE to be grateful and full of joy that comes from Jesus.

Will you join me in 2013 by listing your 1000 gifts?

 All you have to do is grab any blank notebook and IF you want to, you can print out the free pages and tape them in your notebook AND go to work.

Starting 2013 with Purpose

I am very excited to start 2013 off with a new book I received in December, iChoose2 Love My Life.





It is a great book that is divided into 52 weeks. That means that you do ONE a week and they are NOT very long (most are 2 to 3 pages). I love the fact that it is short enough yet long enough to challenge you AND leads you to take action steps through questions and coaching. Each week focuses on a different area of your life. Some of the topics include: iChoose2 Live intentionally, manage my time, surrender, encourage, operate in my strengths. This is just a few! There's one thing you can do by going through this book: BECOME A BETTER YOU!

I "accidentally" found iBloom last year and signed up to get their emails. I liked what I saw on the website and sometimes I actually read them and sometimes I didn't. They have videos to go along with each week too. I watched some of those. But when I really got excited about iBloom was when I heard about the opportunity to become an Ambassador for them. I applied and got accepted. I was shocked and excited to be chosen. So, then I began finding out more and more about what this has to offer and LOVE it! You will too!

The book is KEY. If I would have ordered the book last year when I found the website, I would have actually read the iBloom emails and made progress with each of their challenges.

I desire to be a different person when I look back at my life this time in a year. That is a desire of mine each year. I can say that 2012 held lots of changes for me and I am pleased to say MOST were good. There is always room for improvement and we will never be ALL that we desire to be this side of heaven.

I have several tools I will be using in 2013 to make me a better Amanda. I desire to be who God created me to be and tap into my strengths and bring glory to Him in all I do. I will be sharing some of the tools I will be using in the next few days.

I would love to hear how you are cultivating your spiritual life and becoming a better you! Please share!

AND...if you would like to order your copy of  iChoose2 Love My Life please follow the link. You will be glad you did. There's a lot more this website has to offer.