Thankful Thursday

Today, I am thankful for the ladies in my Bible study group. I am thankful that He brought us together so that we could share together in laughter, friendship and love.

 

This week as I have been writing on discouragement I have been reminded of all the times these ladies have had an on time Word to help lighten the load. As we share from our heart what God is showing us, we are building each other up in the faith. I am so thankful for these ladies and how God is working and moving in their lives.

 

One thing I love about this group is that we are all different yet we have one common link and that is we desire to know God more. We desire for Him to work through us as we train our children, as we go about our daily tasks, as we encounter others. We love Jesus and that's what counts. I can truely say that by being around these ladies, I have become a better person. I have learned so much from each of them. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us! This group of ladies is definitely a God thing!

 

And...I wish I had a picture of these beautiful godly ladies, but I don't.

Discouraged: Part 2

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

Weary means exhausted in strength, endurance, vigor, or freshness. Having one's patience, tolerance, or pleasure exhausted. Exhausted means to tire extremely or completely. Become means to come into existence.

How many of you can say that you are all of the above or have been at one time? The responsibilities that we carry from day to day can make us weary in doing good. Sometimes I wonder how many more times will I have to tell my children to pick up their toys so we do not fall on them, please wait until we say the blessing before eating, be kind to your brother/sister, please talk one at a time so I can hear you, on and on and on.

God gave us these blessings and knew that we could handle the task before us. Will it be easy? No, but we have a responsibility to train our children. I love the part that says, "in the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."  We have to persevere even in the hard times of parenting and disciplining our children. We must keep working and TRUST GOD for the results.

I have learned that it takes work to discipline my children. When I go to sit down on the couch to relax I have 2 choices when a problem arises: really deal with my children in disciplining them or just allow them to keep on because I do not feel like getting off the couch.

So today, I encourage you to not become weary, you will reap a harvest in due time!

Discouraged

2 Corinthians 12:9 says, "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest in me."

 

A little background on this passage: Paul had a thorn in his flesh. His thorn was a messenger from Satan sent to torment him. Paul pleaded with the Lord to remove the thorn. Although God did not remove Paul's physical affliction, He promised to demonstrate His power in Paul.

 

I want to point out a few things here:

 

1. "My grace is sufficient for you."

Grace is unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.

Sufficient means enough to meet the needs of a situation.

 

This means that God's "divine assistance" is enough to meet the needs of my situation.

 

2. "For my power is made perfect in weakness."

God's power is perfect or without defect when I am weak.

 

3. "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest in me."

Boast means to "the act or an instance of boasting:brag." How many times do we hear people "brag" about their weakness? Not so much! Maybe it's time we start so that Christ can do His perfect work through us!

 

So many times, we get discouraged because we cannot make something happen the way we want it to happen, but Paul is saying it is a good thing to be weak. When we are weak, God's power is made perfect. We are better to be weak and relying on God and His PERFECT power than ourselves.

 

As a parent we have SO many decisions to make from what to eat for dinner to discipline that it is easy to get discouraged when we do not see immediate change. We have to rely on God and His perfect power to step in and do it's work. We cannot do this alone. If we want to see lasting change, we have to rely on God to transform our hearts and our children's hearts' from the inside-out.

 

 

 

 

 

Defiance Wrap-up

Proverbs 21:19 says, "Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife."

WOW! The Word of God says it is better to be living alone than to live with a wife that is quarrelsome and ill-tempered. That's strong and I am convicted!

Quarrelsome: apt or disposed to quarrel in an often petty manner

Ill-tempered: ill-natured, quarrelsome, have a bad disposition: cross, surly (arrogant)

WOW! How many times have I been ill-tempered and had a bad disposition because I was sooooooooo tired? Well, guess what? My husband had a long day and was tired too! Who am I to be ill-tempered toward him? When we are ill-tempered, we easily become petty and it can easily become all about "me, me, me!" When we are in this way and we become willing participates to "fight," we are acting in defiance. WOW! Before this study, I would have not considered myself very defiant...but now. WHOA!

As moms, we set the tone in our homes. If we are ill-tempered, have you noticed the rest of the family becomes that way? If you are in a cheerful mood, they become that way to? I believe that is one reason why this is directed at wives first. We do have a hard task before us, whether we stay at home or work outside the home, but we are still instructed to have the attitude of Jesus.

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Chrsit Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on the cross." Philippians 2:5-8

My attitude is to be the same as Christ Jesus. He was in very nature God, but did not consider Himself equal. He made himself NOTHING and became the nature of a servant. He humbled himself and it lead to His death on the cross AND He did it all so I could have my sins wiped away and live with Him in eternity!

We serve our family everyday and it can be a very difficult task. As hard as our days may be, they will never compare to what Christ took for us on the cross. We can persevere and have the attitude of Christ because He is alive in us, working through us IF we allow Him to!

I challenge you, take time for yourself and simply sit in His presence and allow God to refresh you! This is true refreshing! Many times, when I get a break I want to run get a pedicure or do something nice for myself, after all I tell myself I deserve it. When I go and do those things, they fade away. Last time I messed one toenail up before I even got home! But when we allow God to refresh us from our core, we are getting the best rest and refreshing we can get. We are doing more for ourselves than we ever realize! AND we can do more than we ever realized because God is doing it through us! Sidenote: I still love my pedicures! :)

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for my two wonderful children. This is them on vacation last week on a nature walk at Pickney Island. It was a really fun nature walk; I guess that is obvious by the way Noah is posing and cheesing! He normally does not stand still for me to take a picture, but lately he is "posing." Not sure what's up with that or how long it will last. LOL

 

 

 

 

Anna Grace is a one fun little girl. She is a typical first born. She is always taking care of others and always making a plan. She is more serious than her brother, yet laughs easily. She loves to read and play with her babies. She is such a nurturing little girl. She love Jesus and has a huge heart for other people. Anna Grace ask Jesus into her heart when she was 4 years old. I know that is young, but she was ready. When we were praying, you could see the transformation immediately. You could just feel the weight of sin come off of her life. It was amazing! AND I had the opportunity to lead my own daughter to Jesus.

 

Noah - he is one lighthearted fun guy! He is so silly and full of energy. He love to play tricks and say, "trick you." It's funny...when it's not in the middle of the night. He is determined. He has church ALL the time. He is either preaching or leading worship. I have countless pictures and videos of this. I can't wait to show him when he gets older. He has a Bible and microphone handy most of the time. He loves to play with his cars and "ball." He is so lovable! He just won't sit still long! So, you better get it while you can.

 

I cannot wait to see how God uses these two for Kingdom impact. My desire is that they would have a heart for Jesus and purue Him passionately.

 

 

 

 

Defiance

Defiance is the act or an instance of defying: challenge. Disposition to resist: willing to contend or fight.

Defiance is the WILLINGNESS to fight. We have to being WILLING to be defiant. It is a choice we make. God does not make this choice for us, but when we turn a deaf ear to His Word, we cannot help but to be defiant in all areas of our lives. BUT when we are open to God's Word and His correction in our lives, we are open and readily recognize the people He sends into our lives to challenge us!

Proverbs 12:1 says, "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hate correction is stupid."

Wow, I gain knowledge when I am willing to be disciplined. I do not desire to be a "stupid" person. When we want to be taught, there is no end to what we can learn. Being taught means that we are willing to accept learning things from others, whether it be books, conversations, things that challenge us. LISTENING to others and realizing that we do NOT have all the answers is being open to things that God may have for us. When we stick our heals in the mud, so to speak, and refuse to change, we will see very little difference in our lives. I desire to be open to what God has for me, but that means I have to accept His Word and the people He sends into my life to challenge me. When gaining knowledge, I may not like everything I am learning, but I have to be willing to change even when it is hard. When it's beyond me, I have no choice but to have total reliance upon the Father!

***One thing I am finding helpful to me in studying my CTB in this way, it is making it easier to use! By studying the specific Scriptures, it is just a natural part of my conversation. It is amazing how we are challenged in each of these areas each week! I am seeing great results by going directly to God's Word and I love it!

Tuesday Talk

Sorry I missed Monday! I had great intentions of posting, but did not have a chance. We went on vacation last week to Hilton Head and it was WONDERFUL! We had such a great time! Of course, when you get home; the to-do list hits you in the face and you can get behind before you even get started!

We had a fun week of family time. Monday we did not really do much of anything. I think we were SO TIRED, all we could do was hang out and I got TONS of reading done. Of course, Jason (my husband) just had to do something so he took the kids for a long bike ride. I can't believe he did it considering he had to pull 100 pounds! We spent a lot of time on bikes and outside. We barely drove our car the entire time because everything we really needed was within bike distance.

We were able to get 2 homeschool days out of it, which was great! We did not focus on any actual school work, but we really had 2 days of complete nature walks and were able to identify some cool things. I learned alot myself!
It was so refreshing to just pull away and spend time with my family and have plenty of time in God's Word with nothing else really expected of me. Hopefully, I can get back on track and post from my CTB tomorrow!

Here's a picture of my children I took on the beach. It was pretty cool outside, but we went to walk and take pictures of the kids one evening. I have lots of great ones!