tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17598720928870291912024-02-08T08:35:23.087-06:00Christian Mom at WorkA blog by a Christian Mom who is trying to balance family, church, friends and work.Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-11868866153080442642011-10-31T19:55:00.001-05:002014-09-22T17:31:09.774-05:00Moving to a New SpaceHi Everyone!<br />
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I want to thank you all so much for following my blog! I also want to apologize for not posting anything for awhile. We've been keeping pretty busy, but I should be able to be more faithful to posting now.<br />
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I have also been working on building a new website: <a href="http://www.christianmomatwork.com/">www.christianmomatwork.com</a><br />
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My blog is now located at: <a href="http://www.christianmomatwork.com/">http://www.christianmomatwork.com</a><br />
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Please come check out my new site and let me know what you think!<br />
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God Bless!Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-23511152056320372292011-08-02T22:23:00.001-05:002011-08-06T10:34:56.707-05:00What Must God Think?Ok, I've been thinking again! Today I was thinking about the first house that my husband and I bought together when I was pregnant with our first child. It was a ranch with an unfinished basement. Over the course of the next five years, we managed to finish quite a bit of the basement. We did a family room with a gas, vent-less fire place. It was simple, but we loved it. After our second child was born, and the kids started getting bigger, we realized that we were quickly out-growing our home, and we decided to sell our house.<br />
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Now we are two houses later (our 2nd house was too big), and settled in nicely to a home that fits our family size and lifestyle nicely. Even though we are very happy where we are, my husband occasionally yearns for our original, much lower, house payment. When this happens I always remind him that we moved from there because the house was too small for us, and that we live where we do now because we love the school system. This usually brings him back to our reality, but I can usually still see the dreamy look in his eyes as he imagines what our budget would look like with our old house payment!<br />
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A couple of years ago, we were visiting friends in our old neighborhood, and we had the opportunity to see the inside of our old house. As it turns out the current owners were friends of my husband's cousin, so they invited us to take a look around. We jumped at the chance! They had done some nice updates on the main floor, but it was nice to see they left some of the personality. By "personality", I mean, the woodwork that our mild-mannered, wouldn't-hurt-a-fly, but had-extreme-separation-anxiety, golden-retriever mix destroyed soon after we acquired her! For whatever reason, neither they, nor the people prior to them, had replaced the woodwork!<br />
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During our tour, I found myself realizing that our old house was smaller than even I had remembered. I couldn't wait until we finally got to see the basement! I was so excited to see if they were still enjoying the space we had created. Well, my excitement waned a little bit when the wife mentioned that we needed to keep in mind that the basement was mostly used as a guy space. Ok, I thought to myself, I can handle that. Probably not very well kept, maybe a little cluttered, that's ok though. Oh, by the way, I should mention that our kids were with us, which is key to the rest of the story. So, what she MEANT was that they "guys" had displayed their artistic side on the walls with some graffiti! I took a deep breath and kept my mouth shut for about seven seconds. Then I turned around and saw the POSTERS. Posters of women, and not so much the dressed versions, I might add! Before my husband could even react, I directed everyone back upstairs. We put our hands over our kid's eyes and we were back up those stairs pretty fast!<br />
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I knew it was irrational, but I was pretty devastated by how the basement looked. That house hadn't been ours for five or six years, yet it was so disappointing to see what we had created so lovingly treated so carelessly and even deliberately defaced! It was this that I was thinking about today, and it made me wonder what God must think about what He created. We have this awesome planet, and we have filled it with garbage and pollution. We have completely destroyed entire ecological systems, depleted natural resources, and caused entire species to become extinct! How must God feel about what we have done? As I continued to ponder this, I realized that our bodies aren't any different. We fill them with junk food, cover them in tattoos and coat our lungs in toxic substances. What does God feel when He looks at our planet, when He looks at us? I can't pretend that I know what God thinks, but I can only imagine that it must make Him very sad.<br />
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We need to do a better job with our Earth, and our bodies. The Bible calls for us to be good stewards with all that we have. I personally am going to try to do better!<br />
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God Bless!<br />
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<i>Genesis 1:31a</i> ~ <i>"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold it was very good..."</i><br />
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<i>Genesis 2:15 ~ "And the Lord God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it." </i><br />
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<i>Psalm 24:1 ~ "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." </i>Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-9051225753667343502011-07-19T21:05:00.000-05:002011-07-19T21:05:35.630-05:00The Scariest Book of the BibleI'm not sure why I started thinking about what book of the Bible I thought was the scariest, but I didn't even think about it very long before I realized that Job scares me more than any other book. I know some people might think that Revelation is the scariest, which I understand. Of course, Revelation should only scare you if you or your loved ones are not saved, since it describes the Tribulation period, but it has some pretty dark and confusing imagery that might be considered troublesome. No, Job is definitely the book that makes me the most uncomfortable.<br />
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If you are not familiar with the story, here's the short version: God and Satan are talking and Satan tells God that Job only loves God because he is very blessed, and if that were to change, Job would curse God. Job has a large family and is very wealthy. More important to this story is the fact that Job was a very upright and "perfect" man who lives a righteous life. Of course, Job isn't perfect, in the sense that we think of today, but he was well-respected, avoided evil, and feared God. God tells Satan that He will allow Satan to have power over Job's circumstances and Satan arranges it so that Job has an extraordinarily bad day. He loses his children, his wealth, and eventually, his health. Through all of this, Job does not curse God even though his peach of a wife actually tells him, "Why don't you just curse God and die?"! He does do his share of whining, however!<br />
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Job has conversations with various friends who are not very helpful, and in fact, spend some of the time trying to figure out the sin that he committed to cause all of the terrible calamity that had befallen him! All in all, Job's earthly support system is highly questionable. Towards the end of the book, Job has the opportunity to chat with God (out of a whirlwind, no less!), and God reminds him of who He is, and how He has power over everything. Finally, as the final chapter headline of my Bible states, "Job submits to God", and then, "God blesses Job". Job received "twice as much as he had before". He also lived a long life of about 140 years!<br />
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So, why do I think this is the scariest book? Here Job was, living a pure life, worshiping God, and generally going about his day to day business, when all of a sudden it is all snatched away! If it could happen to Job, could it happen to me? I certainly don't think that I'm living the best life that I can for God, but I do try. What did Job do wrong? Why did God allow those terrible trials in his life? I love God, and my life has been pretty uneventful. We had some trials during my pregnancy with our daughter, but that all turned out well, and she is now a wonderful, healthy tween! During that time, we knew Who was in control, and gave it all to Him. But even though that was very hard, it was nothing like losing all of your children and everything that you owned!<br />
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After I read the caption for Job 42 about Job submitting to God, I wondered if that was the key. I wondered if even though Job did it all right, maybe he didn't have the right heart attitude about it. We know that everything starts in the heart, and maybe not having the right attitude was going to cause Job to veer off course. I really don't know, and it still scares me a little when I think too hard about it. But then I take a deep breath and remember Who is in control and know that I really have nothing to fear on this earth. But I also remember how important it is to guard my heart!<br />
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If anyone else has any comments on this book of the Bible, I would love to hear from you! <br />
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God Bless!<br />
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<i>Proverbs 4:23 ~ "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life</i>."<br />
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<i>James 4:8 ~ "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."</i><br />
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<i>1 Corinthians 10:13 ~ "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."</i>Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-38405199165892543062011-06-12T21:25:00.002-05:002011-06-12T22:47:38.933-05:00Catching UpI have been lax in my blog posting! I'm not sure what happened, but I think the end of the school year almost did me in! We had end of the year school projects, programs and awards ceremonies. We had a crazy storm (straightline winds around 110 mph) that took down some huge branches in our yard, and did quite a bit of damage all around our town and surrounding communities. We're still cleaning up from that, but feeling very blessed! We are going to have to remove two huge, established trees that were seriously damaged, but we didn't have any major property damage. Then we got to spend some time with my mom while she stayed with us for a few days. Now, here we are, back to the normal that we know. <br />
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So, now that school is out, I need to find a new routine because the kids just refuse to go to bed before dark! During summer break, I can usually go into work early, and get off a little earlier. Unfortunately, this year may be different because we may be short-handed in my department at work soon, so I may be working longer hours. I hope to still have time to enjoy the summer with my family and blog at the same time!<br />
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I feel like I'm at a bit of a crossroads with work, and I've really been struggling with my role there. I've also been struggling with my time with my family. Trying to balance the two, while keeping the focus on my family has been a challenge. So, if you wouldn't mind, I would greatly appreciate some prayer about all of this.<br />
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I'm trying to keep the following verses in the front of my mind, especially over the next few days:<br />
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<i>Matthew 6:33 ~ "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness and all these shall be added unto you."</i><br />
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<i>John 14:27 ~ "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."</i><br />
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<i>Romans 8:26 ~ "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."</i><br />
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<i>Romans 8:28 ~ "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."</i>Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-60498938743078002942011-05-14T13:12:00.000-05:002011-05-14T13:12:30.944-05:00I Canoe, Do You?We recently celebrated Mother's Day, which made me think about canoeing. That's how my mind works - from Mother's Day to canoeing. I do this to my husband all the time. We'll be having a discussion on one topic, and I will jump to another topic entirely different. When he gives me that "How did you get THERE?" look, I feel compelled to drag him down the winding path of my random thoughts. I'm not sure that he enjoys these journey's, but I think he has finally resigned himself to the fact that he's destined to go!<br />
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Anyway! During Sunday School we discussed the Proverbs 31 Woman. She is awesome! She does it all! She is so not me! Actually, I would love to be her one day, but that would be a slow process and I would require a LOT of remodeling! During the course of Sunday School, and on into church I kept thinking about this woman and her many roles. This always leads me to start thinking about my role as the woman in our marriage. I sincerely believe that woman was created to be a helper to man, <i>Genesis 2:18 ~ "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him."</i> I also sincerely believe that woman should respect and support her husband's leadership in their marriage and family, <i>Ephesians 5:22 ~ "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." </i>Now, I know that "submission" is a hot topic, and all I'm going to say about it in this blog is that I have never read in the Bible that to submit means to be "subservient" or a "slave", and I don't believe that either of those is the proper Biblical definition of "submission".<br />
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Now, back to my meandering mind-path! The next thing that popped into my mind after all of this pondering is that canoe trip. Now, we had successfully canoed together before with no problems, and we had a wonderful time! This time we took two canoes, one for his mom and dad, and one for the two of us. Dan and I were pretty newly-wed and hadn't had either of our children yet. We brought some sandwiches, drinks and snacks for a lunch break during the trip. His mom and dad put their canoe in and glided peacefully down the stream. We watched for a moment as we looked forward to putting in next. We loaded the coolers into our canoe and pushed it into the water. I stepped in and sat down in the front. My husband gave us a little push and climbed into the back. We grabbed our paddles. I noticed a large rock to our right, and mentioned it to him. Immediately the canoe tipped over and dumped us and all of our lunch materials into the water!<br />
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We stood up, shocked that this had happened, and embarrassed that we were still close enough to the launch point that several people saw the whole thing. Shall I mention that no one ELSE dumped their canoe over? We watched helplessly as all of our stuff floated down stream. We later learned that his mom and dad collected all of it as it floated towards them. We were very grateful for that! So we went about the process of righting the canoe and getting back in. Somehow, when I stood up, I managed to get myself between the very large rock, well, boulder; and the canoe which was now submerged and laying on it's side. We had to turn it over and dump all the water out before we could get back in. Dan started rocking it, and as he did, it banged up against the boulder. Well, it actually banged up against me, because I was in between it and the boulder! Every time he rocked it, it knocked me into the rock hard enough to knock me off balance and back into the water! Thankfully it wasn't deep, but deep enough for me to be nearly submerged with each of his efforts to right the canoe.<br />
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He was rocking it pretty quickly. I'm sure it was equal parts of anxiety about trying to retrieve our missing belongings, and embarrassment because we were still on display for all of this. In any case, he was rocking that canoe as if our lives depended on it, so we had a pretty good rhythm of rock, slam, dunk, rock, slam, dunk! After a few rounds of this, he finally shouted at me, "Why aren't you getting up?!" Spluttering from my repeated dunkings, I managed to yell back, "Because my leg is trapped between the rock and the canoe!" "Oh!" He says and stops long enough for me to get back up on my feet and get my balance back. Once we were able to work together, we were able to get the canoe back up and emptied, and we were soon on our merry way. Well, it probably took us a little while to get merry, but we did have a good laugh at the whole thing later on.<br />
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It turns out, we finally figured out, that as in our marriage, we have specific roles that we need to find and embrace as we canoe! Dan needs to be in the front of the canoe, watching for obstacles and guiding me with directions on how to avoid them. I need to listen to his directions and help to steer around them. When I was in the front at the beginning of this trip, I didn't give good directions. "Hey, there's a big rock!" isn't very helpful if you need to know WHERE it is to effectively steer around it! We also discovered that he needs to be aware of my needs so that he can take the proper steps to keep me safe and perhaps not repeatedly slamming me into a huge boulder, in the process! <br />
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Also, I have discovered that when it comes to traveling together, he is the one looking around, enjoying the scenery, and looking at the big picture and sharing it with the rest of us. I am focused on the road, our refreshment needs, travel times and potential potty stops. Without him, our trips would be very structured and boring. Without me, children would be hungry and whining about needing to go potty NOW! Now that we have found the roles that we are comfortable in, and more importantly, that honor our God-given marriage roles and personality traits, we make a good team, he and I. I came home with a pretty good bruise on one of my legs after that trip. But I didn't mind too much. We learned a lot during that particular experience about each other and ourselves. Oh, and one other thing we learned: when we mess up, his parents are there to lend a hand and catch our lunch if necessary!<br />
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God Bless!Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-56072764128208232452011-05-07T22:30:00.000-05:002011-05-07T22:30:36.987-05:00Define "Strange"I have been taught that when you are studying your Bible, you should really take note if something is repeated in a passage that you are reading. When God really wants us to take something to heart, when He really has something to tell us, He repeats himself. I think that God does this in our lives as well. I recently had the "opportunity" to learn some lessons about being a kinder person, a better witness and more patient with others. Those lessons left me feeling like I was failing as a Christian. In the last couple of days, however, I had the opportunity to learn another lesson, but this one was a little more fun!<br />
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I was talking to a coworker about garbage. Yes, garbage! As a family, we usually only have one bag of garbage and one recycle bin to put out each garbage day. We compost and recycle everything that we can. It's good for the environment and the added bonus is that we save money by not using as many kitchen garbage bags. His family has several full bags of garbage each week. During the course of the conversation, my coworker laughed and said, "You're not normal!". The funny thing was, I wasn't offended at all! We are the family that composts, built rain barrels, has only one vehicle and watches limited television. We go to church regularly and strive to live our lives in ways that will please God. We really do try to <u>not</u> be a "typical" family. <br />
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I like to think that we are on the right track. People notice that we are different, but they don't seem to be offended by it. My hope is that this will give us more opportunities to witness about Jesus. Since our children currently attend public schools, I have often wondered if our "differentness" creates hardships for them at school. While they do have video games, we are very selective about the games, and the amount of time, that they play. We don't keep up with popular music and television stars, latest trends or hot styles. Most of these things seem to draw people farther from God. My son has commented that there is a group of boys that seem to spend most of their time discussing a particular video game, and that they don't seem to want to talk about anything else. I have asked him if he minded and he said he actually likes being different! I was very proud of him! Of course, when the conversation turns to cell phones, and how "all of his friends have them", he might feel differently!<br />
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Back at work the day after the garbage discussion, I was talking to a different coworker. During the conversation, I made a comment that made her laugh and say to me, "You're just strange! Not in a bad way, but strange!" I figured if I had to be told that twice in two days, that maybe I needed to ponder on it and see what God might think about it. In my previous lessons, I believe that God was showing me some things that I needed to change. Maybe this lesson could be to show me something that I was doing right? <br />
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<i>Acts 5:29 ~ "...We ought to obey God rather than men."</i><br />
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<i>1 Corinthians 6:20 ~ "For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."</i><br />
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<i>Proverbs 18:1 ~ Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.</i><br />
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<i> </i>Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-5889826875320022282011-04-28T23:10:00.000-05:002011-04-28T23:10:49.837-05:00Confessions and LessonsIt's been an interesting week of education for me this week. Not "education" like I get to learn new and interesting things, but rather "education" like "Hey, look what you just learned about yourself!" and not in a good way! Lately I've been in one of those modes where I think I know what's going on. I think I'm handling things well. I think I pretty much have it together and that I am being a good Christian witness. Well, thinking don't make it so!<br />
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Lesson One: On Monday, we were short-handed at work and it had been a <u>very</u> long day. I was just finishing up on the last item that I needed to get done for someone else, and was getting ready to start on some of my own work when one of our employees brought me something that I needed to do for him. I told him I would take care of it, but my tone was very curt, and probably rude. The next morning, after taking some time to think about it, I realized that I needed to apologize to him. After all, everyone where I work knows I'm a Christian, and I didn't think I was a very good witness during that particular interaction. I needed to rectify that! I was all proud of myself for realizing my mistake, and being willing to own up to it. After I got to work, I called him and told him I was sorry for my rude behavior. There was a pause, and then he laughed and said, "I didn't notice that you were rude." Whew, I thought, that's a relief! My relief turned to something entirely different though when he said, "I guess there might be a problem if you are rude to me and I don't even notice it, huh?" I didn't understand what he meant at first, and then the lightbulb went on! He wasn't saying that he didn't notice that I was rude, he was saying that he didn't notice any difference from how I normally acted! Yikes! Did that mean that I was always short, curt or rude to people? <u>That</u> certainly isn't a good witness! I definitely needed to do some analyzing!<br />
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Okay, yes, I can be preoccupied with a project. I like to call it "focused", but one of the ladies the that I work with calls it "distant". Yes, I do like the "Reader's Digest" version of things; why say in 200 words what you can say in 10? (Funny thought coming from a woman who's blogs certainly can't be labeled 'short and to the point'!) And, yes, I can be short with people. Sigh. Lesson One: Be more patient with people and think before I speak. <br />
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Lesson Two: On Tuesday my son had an interaction with a person that just annoys me. I could list a hundred reasons why this person annoys me, but none of them are really valid. This person annoys my son too, which is key to this lesson. One day, my son was going out of his way to be nice to "Jane". His actions could truthfully be labeled, "service" to that person. For some reason this bothered me. Why was he going out of his way to be nice to "Jane" when "Jane" was often not nice to others? Later, as I was telling my husband about this incident, I'm sure he could hear in my voice how I felt about it. As I was telling him how our son had gone out of his way to serve "Jane", I realized how wrong my feelings were about this situation. Our son was doing <u>exactly</u> what Jesus would expect us to do. He was showing kindness to someone who did not (in my mind) deserve it. Sigh. Lesson Two: Treat others kindly whether I think they deserve it or not.<br />
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Lesson Three: Also on Tuesday, I had a meeting that I was dreading. I was mostly dreading the meeting with the person rather than the topic of the meeting. The meeting was brief and relatively painless. I was glad when "Bob" got up to leave. After we said our goodbyes, he got to the door and turned around and said, "How was your Easter"? I answered rather generically about dinner with my family and with my husband's family. I asked about his. He mentioned that his church did a Passion Play and that it was good. He asked me if I had watched Mel Gibson's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Christ-Widescreen-James-Caviezel/dp/B00028HBKM?ie=UTF8&tag=christ086-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Passion of the Christ </a>and<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Christ-Widescreen-James-Caviezel/dp/B00028HBKM?ie=UTF8&tag=christ086-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=christ086-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B00028HBKM" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> I told him that I had not. We talked about it for a few moments, and after "Bob" said that the movie really made you reflect on what Jesus had done for us, I asked him if the end of the movie left you with the understanding that you needed to make a decision. We continued to discuss the movie and Christianity in general. He shared that he was saved as did I. It was a good conversation, and I was ashamed that I had dreaded his visit so much! Lesson Three: Don't be so quick to judge others, and be quicker to witness to them! <br />
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I know that I have a tendency to give quick, not very thoughtful answers to questions. I also know that I have a problem with small talk in general, and never know how to start a conversation with people about Jesus. Easter is the perfect way to do that, and I totally blew it! My new goal is to be a better witness for Christ in my words, actions and daily conversation. God showed me three very important lessons (there were probably more and I just wasn't smart enough to catch them all) in 48 hours. All three were very closely related and I have to believe that God is showing me certain areas that need a LOT of work. Sadly, I have a long way to go, and I had thought I was already there! <br />
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God Bless!<br />
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Here are some verses that have been on my mind as I thought about each of these interactions:<br />
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<i>Proverbs 25:21-22 ~ "If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink. For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee."</i><br />
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<i>1 Timothy 4:12 ~ Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."</i><br />
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<i>Mark 16:15 ~ "And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." </i>Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-52074785360135303352011-04-23T18:02:00.002-05:002011-04-23T18:49:32.410-05:00EasterWhat if a loved one was convicted of a terrible crime and had to go to jail for 30 years? Would you be willing to take his or her punishment? What if they received the death penalty? Would you be willing to die in their place? What about a stranger who murders someone? Would you be willing to take <u>their</u> place? I often ask a version of this question to children at church. I ask them if they would be willing to take the punishment for a sibling, even a spanking, if their brother or sister did something wrong. It is very rare that any one will volunteer that they would take the punishment for their sister/brother. Romans 5:7 says, "<i>For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die."</i> In other words, some people might be willing to die for a good person, but what about everyone else? Thankfully, Romans 5:8 tells us something wonderful, "<i>But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." </i>Regardless of how "good" or how "bad" we are, Christ took the place for each of us; to take the punishment for all of our sins. <br />
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Try to imagine the weight of your own sin, and the actions and thoughts that you are ashamed of. Now multiply that by every person who is, was and ever will be. Imagine the pain that Jesus felt under that burden on the cross. I've often wondered why He died so quickly. Crucifixion is a long, slow, painful death, yet Jesus died in a relatively short time. I now think that it was because of the tremendous burden that He bore that day. The overwhelming misery must have been crushing!<br />
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We remember Good Friday because of Jesus' death on the cross for our sins. But we celebrate Easter because He rose again! Our God is not dead! 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 tells us: <i>"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures." </i>Just as was prophesied in the Old Testament, Jesus is alive today! Because of His sacrifice and resurrection, we can live with Him in Heaven if we believe in Him and accept Him as our Savior!<br />
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Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross that day to provide you with the gift of eternal life with Him in Heaven. Romans 10:9 tells you how to accept that gift: <i>"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." </i>If you have not already accepted Jesus as your Savior, please don't wait any longer! <br />
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God Bless!Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-11246787213422381322011-04-18T22:04:00.001-05:002011-04-18T22:36:01.145-05:00What's in a Name?When we were expecting each of our children, we took quite a bit of time choosing a special name for each of them. It wasn't easy to agree on names. For one thing, we each had our own notions about each name that we came up with. After being careful to avoid family and friend names, past girl/boy friends, arch enemies; we eliminated a lot of possibilities from the name pool! We didn't spend a lot of time looking up the meaning of names; we were more concerned that the names sounded nice and didn't bring up some sort of bad memories, or didn't somehow "label" them from day one! With our first child, we had a hard time agreeing on a boy name. I finally got so frustrated with disagreeing about the names that I told my husband that if we didn't agree on a boy's name, that when it came time to deliver the baby, I was going to send him out of the room and I was going to name the baby "Bubba" while he was gone! Of course, I wouldn't ACTUALLY have named the baby "Bubba", but I did want to make up a name that was shocking enough to get us back on track in the baby-naming department. I don't know if that's what did the trick, but we did finally agree on a very nice name! <br />
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I recently heard about a Names list that is circulating on the Internet. The list contains the top 10 Boys and Girls names that fall in three categories: Naughtiest, Brightest and Most Popular. I first heard about this while listening to a Christian radio station. I was surprised at myself as I listened intently to see if either of my children's name was on any of the lists. I secretly hoped that neither name would be on the "Naughty" list, and that both would be on the "Brightest" list. I really didn't have an opinion about the "Most Popular" list. As it turned out, one of my children was on the "Brightest" list, and neither was on either of the other lists.<br />
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I spent some time in the days after that broadcast pondering this topic. Now, these lists were compiled by teachers who say they can tell how the pupils will be in their classrooms based on their names. I have had some experience with this and have found that I have certain expectations that go along with certain names. Sometimes it only takes two people with similar qualities in your life for you to start saying, "Well, you know how 'Mary's' are...". I know this isn't fair or rational, but it still happens!<br />
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Then I started wondering if it was possible that a child would walk into a classroom, and a teacher would already have a preconceived notion about how they would behave. It seems like it would be a good thing to be on the "brightest name" list, but if they have a "bright" name, would they get the help that they needed if they struggled in some subjects? Would they get treated fairly if they have a "naughty" name? Would they be isolated from the others if they had a "popular" name? I am sure that all depends entirely on the teacher, and I would hope that no child would miss out on a positive learning experience because of it.<br />
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The more I thought about it, the more I found to think about. If you look through your Bible, you can find lots of instances where a lot of importance is placed on names. Some people were given a certain name by their parents because of something that happened before the child was born. When Sarah was told that she was going to have a baby even though she was very old, she laughed. When her baby was born, she named him "Isaac", which means "laughter". Some expectant parents were told by God that their baby had a special purpose or commission and He told them what to name their coming baby. Joseph was told by an angel to name the baby "Jesus" because "He shall save His people from their sins." "Jesus" means "Savior/Deliverer". Some people of the Bible even got their names changed by God after they were adults. These name changes would often show that something had changed in that person's life, and God had a special promise and plan for them. Abram's name was changed to "Abraham" which means, "father of a great multitude". Jesus changed Simon's name to "Peter", which means, "rock" and then told him that "upon this rock I will build my church;"<br />
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Even God has many different names throughout the Bible, and each one reveals something different about each of His many awesome traits! So you ask, what's in a name? Quite a lot I would say!<br />
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God Bless!<br />
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<i>Isaiah 9:6 ~ "...and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."</i><br />
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<i>Matthew 1:21 ~ "...and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins."</i><br />
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<i>Philippians 2:10-11 ~ "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth:and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."</i><br />
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<i>Romans 10:13 ~ "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."</i><br />
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<i> </i><i> </i>Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-61941219890798252002011-04-05T20:53:00.001-05:002011-04-05T20:57:37.612-05:00CampingThe weather is warming up and that brings camping to mind! This is a favorite activity for our family, and we look forward to "camping season" every year! Camping Season will probably start a little later for us this year than it has in the past. We have found that while the days might be nice and warm, the evenings and nights are NOT! We have found that while you can survive sleeping in 35-40 degree weather in a tent, and it's not as bad as you might think, it's not all that comfortable! Also, the late night potty runs are no fun at all! So now we are trying to watch for at least 50-degree nights before we jump into it this year.<br />
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Every time that I mention camping to my boss, he always asks me why I like it so much. If you really think about it, there is a lot NOT to like: bugs, community showers, bugs, hauling water, cold, bugs, heat, bugs, noisy neighbors, and did I mention bugs? Actually, of all those things, the only things that I really mind are the bugs! What I DO like about camping is that our family gets away from "life" together. While we are camping, there is no house or yard work beckoning to us. We get to do things like play games, chat, read, hike; that we don't normally get to do. Yes, we have work to do such as cooking, washing dishes and hauling water; but somehow, we all seem to pitch in together and the work passes quickly and easily. I think the reason that I enjoy camping the most is that we get back to basics. We have a couple of changes of clothes, a few dishes and a roof over our heads - and that's ALL we need to survive physically! When I get home from camping, I look around at all the "stuff" we own, and just sigh. We really don't NEED 98% of it, but there it is! Of course, I have yet to come home and get rid of all that "stuff", but that's for another blog!<br />
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I also love camping because we are outside all the time. I don't love this during extreme cold and thunderstorms, but we have been very blessed to not have experienced much of that during past camping trips. I wasn't sure why I loved being outside so much, but after I got to thinking about it, I think it's because it feels like there is less between us and God. There's something about being in the middle of nature that helps me to remember that God is always there. I should remember that all the time, but I think the "stuff" of everyday living clouds my mind and keeps me from being tuned in to God.<br />
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So my thoughts are definitely on camping now! I'm praying that the warm weather gets here soon!<br />
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God Bless!<br />
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Here are some verses that came to mind as I was working on this blog:<br />
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<i>Psalm 105:24 ~ "Oh Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast though made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches."</i><br />
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<i>Psalm 139:7 ~ "Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?"</i><br />
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<i>Phillipians 4:19 ~ "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."</i>Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-75417763721947437232011-03-28T23:15:00.001-05:002011-03-28T23:42:31.658-05:00Start PrayingSo how many of you have a "difficult" person in your life that you have to interact with on a regular basis? You could be in this situation with a person from work, church, circle of friends or even your family. I have one of these people in my work life right now, and I'm finding it to be quite a challenge!<br />
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Do you remember when you were in elementary school, and your teacher would write nice little comments on your report cards? I would often get little notes that said things like, "Kelli is a hard worker!" or "Kelli is very quiet." One of my favorites was, "Kelli gets along well with others!" I used to think that last one was still true about me. I try very hard to treat everyone equally, to not hurt feelings, and to generally interact well with others. However, if that was a criteria for a current job evaluation these days, I'm not sure that I would score well on that line!<br />
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I'm not sure what I originally did to get things off on the wrong foot with "Kathy", but I just can't seem to win. I really do not go out of my way to aggravate this person, and in fact, I try to keep my communications with her to a minimum. Which by the way, was one of her latest complaints: I was recently told that I need to communicate with her better! Yikes!<br />
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It didn't take long for me to realize that my way of handling things isn't the best way. First, I prayed about it: For patience, "Lord, please help me to keep my temper!" For understanding, "Lord, help me to understand why she acts this way!" And For wisdom, "Lord, please help me to know how to handle this!" All to no avail! So I turned to my Bible. Why I don't always do this to begin with, I don't know! I thought maybe I wasn't praying right, so I looked up a few verses on prayer, and one in particular stuck out to me: <i> </i><br />
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<i>Matthew 5:44 ~ "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and <u>pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you</u>;"</i>(The underline is mine)<br />
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When I read this verse, the words themselves were not at all difficult to understand. When I began to try to transform these words into actions, though, it was another story altogether! This is Jesus, Himself, speaking to us, and He intends for us to take this to heart and follow through on it. All this time I had been praying for myself, and maybe I should have been praying for HER!" My first thought was to pray that she stop being so mean, but then I revisited another part of the verse, "Bless them that curse you". Am I supposed to pray for BLESSINGS for her? For this woman who has been so difficult to me, as well as to other employees? For the woman who already seems to have it all? For this woman?!<br />
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At this point, I took a deep breath. I knew I could do this. I strive to be a godly woman. I fall very short of the godly woman that I should be, but I do try. I am a grown-up, and I am mature enough to put my own feelings behind me. But it's HARD! Sure, I can say the words, but I am pretty sure that Jesus wants me to MEAN them! I took another deep breath and tried again. I prayed for blessings for her and for her family. I could actually feel some of the tension release from my shoulders as I prayed. It was not an eloquent prayer, but I believe it was sincere. I know I can't stop there. I need to keep praying for her, and I do. Some times are easier than others, and sometimes, in the heat of the moment, I forget to, but the next time I try a little harder.<br />
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I found some other verses that I'll share with you at the end. I do recommend that you try this. You are praying for someone else, but I think you'll reap many of the benefits yourself! You know, this kind of puts a different spin on the phrase, "I'll be praying for you!", doesn't it?! ;) <br />
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<i>Proverbs 25:21-22 ~ "If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat: and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee."</i><br />
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<i>Romans 8:26 ~ "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."</i><br />
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<i>James 5:16 ~ "...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."</i>Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-69704118107992108322011-03-07T21:20:00.000-06:002011-03-07T21:20:35.977-06:00Christian ResourcesWell, it's been a little while since I've been able to sit and get some thoughts down. I do apologize for that! I always think that after the holidays are over that I will have all of this free time. But then I realize that is just not the case! February and March are full of doing taxes for friends and family and basketball practices and games for the kids. Add to that mix a hubby who is coaching a second and third-grade basketball team, and various parties and get-togethers with family and friends, and you have a very busy family! I don't really have an excuse for January, although we did get our bedroom painted that month.<br />
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Thankfully, things are starting to wind down for us some now. All the taxes for friends and family are done, and this is our last week of the basketball season. I really do hope to get back to blogging much more regularly. At least that's the plan for now, until the next whirlwind of activities is upon us!<br />
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I have several things on my mind to share, but I think what I want to do is share some information on some Christian Resources that I have been using/following lately. We have been directed to some of these resources through our church. One thing that our pastor believes in is getting good, Christian materials and information into our homes. I have added some links to my side-bar that I hope you will take a look at. They are great resources full of vast amounts of information. <br />
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Obviously the Bible is our final authority, but you can learn a lot from others who have done in-depth studying, and who have a different perspective. We often have very informative visitors at our church who help to give us a Christian perspective on everything from dinosaurs to politics! The world today is so secularized, that I think we often forget to go back to the basics and look through everything with a Biblical point of view rather than the worldly view that we are so used to. It is amazing to me how clear things become when you go back to the Bible basics!<br />
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One resource that I am especially excited about is <a href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/">Answers in Genesis</a>. They recently did a fabulous conference at our church. Talk about information overload! I could go on forever about all of the interesting things that we learned, but you can take a peek for yourself if you visit their website. I personally have never believed that the Earth was millions of years old, and I've only recently learned how the dinosaur fossils fit into the Creation equation, but these people really spelled everything out for us. The fact of the matter is that we need to go back to the first 11 chapters of Genesis and hold them up to everything that scientists are trying to tell us. If you do some research, you will find that scientists come up with new theories all the time. Other scientists will challenge those theories, or even debunk them. We need to remember that they are, in fact, theories and guesses, and often proven wrong. Christian scientists will show you how the fossil record, the ice age, and other major events on the Earth fit very nicely into the events surrounding Creation and the Great Flood. They have a wonderful quarterly magazine that you can subscribe to as well as some terrific books and dvd's that you can purchase. It really is some very exciting stuff!<br />
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On the flip side of all the excitement, however, is a much darker side. If your children are in public schools, as ours currently are, take a look at their Science books. You will, most likely, find several references to "millions of years ago", but that just does not fit Biblically. Watch cartoons on television, and you find references there too. Popular science magazines publish article after article based on new research and tout speculation as fact. What is a little bit frightening to me is how we all just accept it. The train of thought that the Earth is millions of years old has really only been around since the 1800's, and it really is nothing more than a theory. Why then, is this what is being taught to our children, and why is it everywhere, and accepted as fact? The purpose is to take us farther and farther away from God. If you study your Bible, you already know that the farther away from God we are, the easier it is for our enemy, Satan, to defeat us.<br />
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There are other scientific theories that are damaging not only to a Biblical worldview, but even to a secular worldview they are very dangerous. Some theories, such as humans being descended from apes, open the door to many ugly thought-processes. If we choose to consider people to be nothing more than animals, then things such as discrimination, abortion and euthanasia could become commonplace, acceptable and even encouraged. That may seem like a big jump in from one topic to the next, but take a look at some of the things that are going on in the world today. Does it seem like life is highly valued based on the news reports we see daily? The farther we get from God as our Creator, the uglier things get in the world.<br />
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I am not very well-versed in all of this, but if you want to be more educated, I highly recommend this website. Their explanations are very down-to-earth and easy to understand. They have wonderful resources for adults as well as children. I would love to get some comments from those of you who check it out!<br />
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God Bless!<br />
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Here are some verses that I have been thinking about lately:<br />
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<i>Genesis 1:1 ~"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth."</i><br />
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<i>Genesis 1:26 ~"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every thing that creepeth upon the earth."</i><br />
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<i>2 Timothy 3:13 ~ "But continue thou in the things which thou has learned and hast been assured of, knowing of who thou hast learned them;" </i><br />
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Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-5108986119348593742010-12-24T14:07:00.003-06:002010-12-24T14:11:47.610-06:00Peace on EarthChristmas is here, and this is the season where you start seeing people with even the toughest shell start to soften just a little bit. I'm still waiting for this to happen to a lady at the corner drugstore in my town, but it could happen! As we try to teach our children to be compassionate to others, I find this is a hard concept to teach. Part of the reason that I find this difficult to teach is because I often think of compassion as something you <u>feel</u> rather than something you <u>do</u>. You <u>feel </u>bad when you see the child with the worn coat and no gloves, or the little old lady counting out pennies to purchase bread, or the homeless dog in the parking lot. But unless you <u>do</u> something about it, is it truly compassion or just pity?<br />
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At Christmastime it does seem easier to show our children what compassion looks like. It's a little easier to be kind to someone who is crabby. We try to explain to our kids that we don't have any way of knowing what is going on in that person's life, and that we may be the only person who is kind to them that day, week, or even year! So we give that person an extra special smile, or a sweet "God bless you!" But then one day, when WE aren't having a good day, we are crabby right back. Then we have to go back to square one with that particular lesson! We should be compassionate ALL the time, not just when we're having a good day, right?<br />
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In another lesson of the Christmas season, we buy gifts for the less fortunate. The kids seem to enjoy this part, and we try get them involved in the purchase. It never fails though, that we start to see them gravitate towards the things THEY would like to have instead. I sigh a big sigh when this happens, and wonder if they really understand the concept of not having enough. Then I yell something like, "Hey, get back here! This isn't about YOU today!" There goes another lesson. I sigh again, this time about my own shortcomings in this department!<br />
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Why do I so quickly forget what it means to be compassionate? <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Websters-College-Dictionary-Fourth-CD-ROM/dp/0764571257?ie=UTF8&tag=christ086-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Webster's New World College Dictionary</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=christ086-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0764571257" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> defines <i>compassion </i>as "Actively sympathetic concern for the suffering of another: mercy." So, as I said earlier, true compassion involves an action. Looking back at my own epic failures in this area, it makes me all the more grateful that I don't have to rely on my own ability, or inability as the case may be, to get to Heaven. If getting to Heaven was about always doing the right thing, or being a good person, I would never get there for sure. But because Someone has already done the Ultimate Compassionate act, we ALL have the opportunity to get to Heaven. If you ever doubt what true compassion looks like, then look at God's compassion on our sinful world. Even though we certainly don't deserve it, He made a way for us to live with Him forever. God sent his Son to be the Savior for a lost and dying world. Jesus chose to die on the cross for our sins, even though he did nothing wrong. If you knew someone who was going to be executed for a crime, would you be willing to show compassion to that person, and if possible, take their place? I don't know if any of us would be willing to do that. Yet that is exactly what Jesus did for each of us!<br />
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I know that I can't remember all of the unkind, uncompassionate and un-Christian things that I have done. I probably can't remember all of those things that I have done this <u>week</u>, let alone in my lifetime. When I think of those things, I am so ashamed, and I always vow to do better. But then I start to see all the injustices that are done to me, and I find myself in retaliation mode. We get angry when we feel that we aren't treated fairly, when we think that people are using us, taking advantage of our kindness, or even just not responding to us when we are compassionate. We decide that they don't deserve our kindness, or compassion. I thank God that Jesus is my example and not I His example. When I stop to really think about what He did, I can hardly bare the weight of my guilt. The Good News is that instead of being devastated by the wrong that we have done from being uncompassionate, selfish, and outright disobedient, we have a way out of that awful cycle of sin. We also have a way out of the punishment that we deserve, eternal separation from God in Hell. First, we need to acknowledge that when we do wrong things we are sinning. Once we understand this, and are sorry for what we have done, we need to ask for forgiveness for those sins. Then, we can ask Jesus to be the Lord of our life. By doing this, we accept the Gift that He offers to each of us, which is eternal life in Heaven. <br />
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Before Jesus' death and resurrection, He gave us many examples of true compassion: <i> </i><br />
<ul><li><i>Matthew 9:36 ~ "But when He saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them..." </i></li>
<li><i>Matthew 18:33 ~ "Shouldest not thou also have compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?"</i></li>
<li><i>Matthew 20:34 ~ "So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him." </i> </li>
</ul>So, just as Jesus had compassion, so should we. Of course, we probably aren't going to be healing the blind, but I know that there are many other ways that we can show compassion to others. After Jesus ascended into Heaven, the apostles continued to preach and teach the truth that we should be embracing. They give us more instructions on compassion: <i> </i><br />
<ul><li><i>Jude 21-22 ~ " Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference."</i></li>
<li><i>1 Peter 3:8-9 ~ "Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous</i>: <i>Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto the called, that ye should inherit a blessing." </i> </li>
</ul>That last verse caught my attention: "...that ye should inherit a blessing." I think the blessing that we will receive is Peace: <i><u>John 14:27~ "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you...</u>" </i>As we celebrate Christmas this year, I think of another verse that I have found to be a little confusing. While the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks, the familiar verses of Luke 2:13-14 tells us about the multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, <i>"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."</i> I know that when Bible verses seem confusing to me, the problem lies within me, not the verse, so we need to study the verse a little more closely and with others verses. Even though today's world certainly seems very far from Peace on Earth, we just need to go back to John 14:27, and we can see that true peace comes from Jesus, and we receive that peace when we follow His example as we show 'good will' toward others.<br />
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May your Christmas be full of many blessings, but most of all the blessing of Peace!<br />
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God Bless!Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-88362156334153441032010-12-16T22:45:00.002-06:002010-12-16T22:57:22.972-06:00Wonderfully MadeMy husband, Dan, was making bread in our bread-maker the other day, and I started thinking about how interesting it is that just a slight change in ingredients, or in the amounts of the ingredients, can give you very different types of bread. A little more or less flour, and add a little bit of this or that, and you have french bread, potato bread or cinnamon raisin bread. Then I started thinking about how people really aren't very different than bread. Even though they have the same parents, the gene mix is a little different, and voila'! You have very individual people!<br />
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I look at my own children and see vast differences in their personalities. They have the same father and mother, the economics of our family hasn't drastically changed, and everything else in their world has been pretty uneventful. Yet they are very different people! I have to admit that I love their differences, though when you see a trait that you like in one, and would love to see the other embrace as well, it's very tempting to say, "Why can't you be more like _____?" We do avoid this, but it's not always easy!<br />
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Our son, Zac, is almost two years older than our daughter, and has always been very outgoing, self-confident and athletic. He doesn't have a problem asserting himself, even when it is inappropriate (aka disrespectful). His grades are okay, but that really depends on how hard he feels like trying. He can be very thoughtful and kind, and he will go out of his way to make people laugh. <br />
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Becca often second-guesses herself, and doesn't want to stand out from the crowd. She worries about her grades and doing well (to the point that she used to make herself sick over it), even though she doesn't really need to worry because she gets good grades almost effortlessly. She doesn't make friends easily, and will play by herself for hours without any complaining. She can be very nurturing, and really seems to enjoy the chores that involve taking care of our various pets.<br />
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How can two kids with so much in common turn out so differently? The first thing that comes to mind is this verse: <i>Psalm 139:14 ~ "I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." </i>I don't understand how someone can look at their child and not <u>know</u> that God is their Author. God has fashioned each of us to be an amazing individual, and we should be praising God for that! What I love about people in general, and my children specifically, is the quirkiness that makes us special.<br />
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For example, Zac never seemed to have a problem going off too school, but our daughter, Becca, is another story altogether! For the first couple of years, dropping her off at school each day was a terrible trial of tears and begging on her part. The only thing that seemed to make it better was when her brother agreed to walk her to class each day. I was very proud of him since I was sure that, as a boy, it certainly was NOT cool to walk your little sister to class. But he didn't seem to mind, and he was very faithful in carrying out this daily task. Until one fateful day when his sister made him very angry, and he told her he wasn't going to walk her to class anymore. The next thing we knew, she was in the bathroom throwing up! We explained to him how much it meant to her that he walked her to class and he had compassion on her and told her he would still do it. She made an immediate and complete recovery! He continued walking her to class until she finally decided she would be okay walking there on her own.<br />
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Now, another side of Zac is his inventive and adventurous side. He's always trying some new way of doing things, and a year or so ago, he really outdid himself! Taking things to a whole new level one day, he decided to rig up a zip line. A very cool idea, his dad and I agreed, but there was one major flaw in his logic. He got a rope, tied one end to the huge weeping willow tree in our yard. Then he tied the other end to their play-set. He had the rope nice and taught, and everything looked good. The problem? Once he got to the end of the line, he would come to a <u>very</u> abrupt stop at the play-set because he had tied the line in such a way that there was a nice board right in the way! Fortunately, this didn't turn out to be a problem because he hadn't quite worked out what he was going to use to actually slide down the line. He chose a nice thick stick. There was plenty of room on each side of the rope for him to hold onto it. Sadly, the combination of his weight on the stick, and the friction of the rope caused the stick he was holding on to to snap about halfway down the line. He probably fell about eight to ten feet. We were very blessed that he wasn't hurt, but he was <u>mad</u>! He was very angry that he had not thought his plan through a little better.<br />
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We should have seen things like this coming since he was always climbing, and trying to do things faster and scarier (at least scarier to me)! One day I came home and found him standing on <u>top </u>of his swing-set. Dad was right there and I wouldn't have been too worried, except he was probably only about two years old at the time! His dad's response? "Oh, he's been doing that all day!" Then there was the time that he skateboarded down the slide in his <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tonka-TS4000-Steel-Dump-Truck/dp/B003552MKS?ie=UTF8&tag=christ086-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Tonka Dump Truck</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=christ086-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003552MKS" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. Dan did put a stop to that, thankfully. The best one was when he was sledding down the slide of his swing-set. Not too scary, except at the end of the slide was a huge rock and then a koi pond on the other side of the rock. Here was my proof as to why God intends for children to have a father AND a mother. Mom was the one who pictured the following scenario: Kid slides down slide on sled. Sled dumps kid out onto the rock and kid is knocked out. Kid continues over the rock and into the pond! All Dad saw was his kid laughing his head off and having a great time. <br />
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Now our daughter is not very adventurous at all, although, year by year, we can see her slowly stepping out of her shell. However, she definitely has a soft spot for animals, real or pretend. People, real ones anyway, are not necessarily her forte. We're working on that with her. But in the meantime, you can see her nurturing and caring side when she plays. All of her little animals have lives, and are cared for very gently. She will occasionally play with Barbie dolls, but they don't hold her interest for very long. Except for one. When I was growing up, I had <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Collector-2010-Holiday-Doll/dp/B0037UT1LY?ie=UTF8&tag=christ086-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Barbie</a> dolls, including a Ken doll. For some reason Ken's clothes never fit over his head, and my solution to this was to pull his head off, put his shirt on, then put his head back on. After I grew up and moved out, my nieces often played with my old Barbies when they visited my mom's house. After a couple of decades of pulling Ken's head off to dress him, it just started randomly falling off during their playtime. Someone was always crying for help to put poor Ken's head back on! Then my nieces finally got too old to play with the old toys, and they got packed up and put away.<br />
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Fast forward another decade or so, and we were helping my mom go through some of her things that she had in storage. Our kids were there, and growing increasingly bored. When I ran across the case with the Barbies in it, I gave it to Becca to amuse her. She played for quite awhile with one Barbie and one now-headless Ken. Ken's head had finally become permanently separated from his body! Becca didn't seem to mind, in fact she seemed to have a very special bond with Headless Ken, but I was just happy that she had something to do so we could finish our task at hand. When it was time to go, I told her that she could choose some of the Barbie outfits, but since she already had plenty of her own Barbies, she didn't need to keep the beat up, headless ones. She did not argue at all, which caused me to be immediately suspicious. Once we were ready to go, I asked my husband to search the van, I was sure that Headless Ken had been smuggled in. He did a thorough search and came up empty. I was impressed, but still mildly suspicious. She had given up too easily. It didn't take long for me to put it out of my mind though, but only for a short while.<br />
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A couple of months later, Dan was going through some things in Becca's room. He came out of her room with a closed-up shoebox, and a very amused look on his face. He handed me the shoebox, and I opened it slowly. I was sure there was a toad, baby bird, huge bug, or some other sort of contraband that I knew that I did not want to see! I opened the box and their lay....Headless Ken! I was right! She had smuggled him home! To this day, we have no idea how, or even why. Since it seemed so important to her, we quietly put Headless Ken back in her closet and never mentioned to her that he had been discovered. I couldn't shake the feeling though, that we were raising our own version of Wednesday from the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Addams-Family-Values/dp/B000FIHN52?ie=UTF8&tag=christ086-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">The Addams Family</a>!<br />
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Whether we are raising future Evel Knievels or little Wednesdays, we love their quirks, and the wonderful way that God has fashioned them. Among the many prayers that we pray for them is that they continue to love God and always desire to do His will. <br />
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Psalm 139 is a wonderful chapter to read if you ever forget how wonderful you are, and how special you are. Some additional verses that are on my heart today are:<br />
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<i>Psalm 139:2 ~ "Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off."</i><br />
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<i>Psalm 139:15 ~ "My substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth."</i><br />
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<i>Psalm 139:17-18 ~ "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with Thee."</i><br />
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God Bless!Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-49411700751909162232010-11-25T10:38:00.000-06:002010-11-25T10:38:13.042-06:00ThanksgivingWe are actually in the process of getting ready to be on our way to be with our families for this Thanksgiving holiday. I wanted to take a moment to tell all of you that I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I can never count my blessings often enough, and can never tell God enough, "Thank you for all that You have done for me." Sometimes it's hard for me to see or remember the blessings during times of trial, and that's when I need to remember this verse: <i>Ephesians 5:20 - "Giving thanks always for <u>all</u> things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."</i> (the underline is mine)<br />
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You are all in my prayers , but especially during this holiday season. This is such a hectic time as we try to accomplish it all! May your travels be blessed with safety. May you keep God's bountiful blessings in mind as you do your shopping. And may any difficult times be a place for God to reveal Himself to you or through you.<br />
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God Bless!Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-87153024035233268512010-11-17T07:38:00.002-06:002010-11-17T16:38:48.125-06:00What Does God Want?There have been many times when I am in the process of making a big decision, in the middle of a difficult situation or just at a coasting point in my life, that I have asked, prayed or cried, "What does God want me to do!?" I have wished (begged) for God's "Play Book" for my life so that I could know what choices to make. Should I take this job, or that one? Should I go back to school for my degree? Should I teach Sunday School or work in the nursery? Is this the man God wants me to marry? Is it time to have kids yet? Do we buy the white house or the yellow one? I could list THOUSANDS of questions that I have asked of God, but I'll spare you all that! I was always willing to do what He wanted me to do, I just wanted him to tell me clearly WHAT He wanted me to do.<br />
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Now there have certainly been times in my life when I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, what I was supposed to do. When I was about 18, at a Christian rock concert, the Holy Spirit convicted me to ask Jesus to be my personal Savior. I KNEW without a shadow of a doubt, that I needed to follow Jesus, and I wanted Him to be first in my life. After we are saved, the Holy Spirit has a way of convicting us of right and wrong. Unfortunately, we have to be willing to listen to His guidance, and we can't let the noise of our lives drown Him out. I am very sad to say that the first part of my 20's were very noisy. Too many jobs, too much fun, and definitely not enough God, Bible or church in my life at that time!<br />
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Looking back, I can say that I did hear a faint whisper during that time. Somehow I knew that it was time for me to apply for a new job. I literally got up, went there and filled out an application. I got that job, and a few years later, that's where I met my future husband! I am so grateful that I was able to hear His guidance then! That is the only time that I can think of during my early 20's that I could really feel the Holy Spirit's prodding, or at least when I was willing to pay attention. <br />
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I can tell you though, the exact moment in my life when things started turning around for me. I was filling in in the church nursery during the Sunday School hour. I had finally started going to church regularly again. They were always looking for nursery workers, and I had decided to commit myself to working in the nursery every Sunday. Moments after I made that decision, the lady in charge of the childrens' programs came in. I told her what I wanted to do and she asked me to teach a childrens' Sunday School class instead! I was a little taken aback. Teach Sunday school? I knew NOTHING (you'll see the truth in this in a moment) about the Bible, and not much more than that about teaching children. I did agree though. I know that the turning point for me was when I decided to serve the Lord. I was willing to make a commitment to His work. As is His custom, He always seems to have bigger plans for us. You see, to work in the nursery, you need to show up and love the babies. This is, of course, still service for Him, and very valuable. However, in order to teach Sunday School, you need to show up, love the children, and KNOW STUFF ABOUT THE BIBLE! This is where I had a distinct disadvantage.<br />
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So, I called my future husband, Dan. At the time he and I were just friends, but he was the one friend that I knew who was actively going to church. I would not have Sunday School materials available to me on my first day of class, so I needed to come up with a lesson on my own to teach. I was at a total loss! I was definitely second-guessing the sanity of agreeing to teach a Sunday School class. I was searching my brain for any Bible story that I could remember and finally came up with Jonah. That was great, but now I needed to find it in the Bible. So I asked Dan, "Where do I find the story of Jonah in the Bible?" There was literally a long pause before he said, "Possibly in the book of Jonah?" I felt like such an idiot! But a grateful idiot none-the-less! <br />
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Getting saved was the first right thing I did. Agreeing to serve Him was the second right thing I did. The third right thing that I did was reading the Bible. When you teach a Sunday School class, you need to read and study the lessons. To do it right, you also need to read and study the Bible passages that go along with the lessons. I was not a stellar Sunday School teacher. I often only had one student in my class. Together, we learned about Jonah, Jericho, Jesus' birth, His crucifixion and how to begin living for Him. I began reading my Bible more frequently, I found myself making better decisions in my life. And in all of God's Grace and Mercy, things began falling into place like giant puzzle pieces. It's hard to see at the time, but when you look back, you can see what wonderful things God has done in your life!<br />
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I often think of the Israelites and how they wandered in the desert. God told them everything that they needed to do to receive the Promised Land. He gave them the Ten Commandments and said, "Here's what you need to do!" He showed them amazing miracles, provided everything that they needed and lead the way. Yet, they disobeyed Him repeatedly. Finally, we see in Psalm 106:14-15, that they miss out on so many of God's blessings: <i>"But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul." </i>The pastor pointed this verse out last Sunday during his sermon, and it really struck a chord. I have been amazed at how stubborn and disobedient the Israelites were. After all they saw God do for them, and despite his promise to them, they did whatever they wanted to! Then I had a "Yikes!" moment! Are we any different today?<br />
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The fourth right thing that we need to do is apply God's Word to our lives. We have His instructions for us right in our hands. The Bible tells us very plainly how God wants us to live, and yet we want our own way. We think certain parts of the Bible don't apply to us, or that it is old-fashioned and doesn't apply to the world today. But it does! We have God's "Play Book" and yet we want our own way, not His Way! If you think that understanding the Bible is hard, then try studying with a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/James-Study-Bible-Thomas-Nelson/dp/0785209301?ie=UTF8&tag=christ086-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">King James Study Bible</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=christ086-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0785209301" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. A good study Bible will have additional notes to clarify passages as well as additional references to give us a bigger picture of how something can apply to our own lives.<br />
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How many blessings do we miss out on because we are disobedient? He really isn't asking us to do anything hard, but it seems hard because following His commands often means that we need to change. We need to rethink our relationships, our desires and the paths that we choose. But if we take that verse and really look at it, we can see that we <u>can</u> have whatever we want, but if it's not what God wants for us, or if it's against His Will, we will miss out on the bounty that God wants to give us. I don't know about you, but I would MUCH rather be blessed with God's bounty than to live with His leanness! Being a Christian is a journey, not a destination. We make wrong turns, say wrong things and still have "idiot" moments, but what matters is our heart. Proverbs 4:23 tells us: <i>"Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life."</i><br />
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Here are a few more verses that God has put on my heart:<br />
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<i>Matthew 6:33</i><i> - "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."</i><br />
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<i>2 Timothy 2:15 - "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."</i><br />
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<i>Hebrews 10:25</i> - <i>"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."</i><br />
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<i>James 4:8a -"Draw nigh to God and he will draw night to you..."</i><br />
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<i>Matthew 22:37-39 - "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."</i><br />
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God Bless!<i> </i>Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-13599555097766006162010-11-09T07:51:00.002-06:002010-11-09T12:02:26.654-06:00RestWhen I first started working on today's blog, I wasn't sure what topic I wanted to write about. I started off with "multi-tasking" and then moved on to general "busy-ness", then I realized that I wanted to cover both of those topics under the title of "Rest". I have said, more than once, that I wish that there was just a few more hours in every day to get everything accomplished that I would like to accomplish. The funny thing is, when I was single, I had that extra time.<br />
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I remember very clearly one day when I was still single and I was dusting. I didn't have a busy social life, and I had only just started serving the Lord by teaching Sunday School at my church. It was the first time in my adult life that I didn't HAVE to work two jobs just to survive. So there I was dusting and thinking. I was thinking about how there had to be more to life than going to work, going to church and cleaning my apartment. Since I was finally at that place where I didn't have to work two jobs, I really didn't want to go back to that. So the next logical thought was that I might as well go back to school and get my degree. That's how it all started! <br />
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Once I started school, my schedule became very full! I was working during the day full time, going to school in the evenings full time, studying for school and preparing Sunday School lessons. This wasn't too bad, but then I met that special someone and threw in dating, planning a wedding, getting married and getting pregnant all before I graduated! Whew! I wanted to fill up my time, and I certainly accomplished that!<br />
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Fast forward to today, and I'm still trying to find time to fit it all in. I know I'm not the only one. Most of my friends are also working moms, and some of them are even busier than I am! Why do we do this to ourselves, and should we be? If we are too busy, how do we break the cycle? It is this particular topic that is on my mind a lot as I consider whether I should be working outside the home. At this point, I am praying for God's direction on that. In the meantime, I'm trying to balance it all.<br />
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Our ladies' Bible Study is currently focusing on the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lies-Women-Believe-Truth-that/dp/0802472966?ie=UTF8&tag=christ086-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Lies Women Believe: And the Truth that Sets Them Free</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=christ086-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0802472966" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. One of the lies that she says we tend to believe is that "I don't have enough time to do everything I'm supposed to do". The truth that sets us free from that is that there is enough time in every day to do the things that God wants me to do. I will share one secret with you, and sometimes I forget this myself. When I put my focus on God and others, there seems to be enough time to accomplish things, and time left over to rest. I don't know why I can't seem to remember that!<br />
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One of my favorite passages in the Bible is about the Proverbs 31 woman. Proverbs 31:10-31 describes the ultimate Supermom, a mom that I would like to say that I strive to be, and yet fall so far short. Her husband and children call her blessed, she makes her own clothes, she brings in food from afar, she takes care of the poor, her family is dressed warmly, she makes fine linens and sells them, she is wise when she speaks, she buys land and plants vineyards, she is not idle, the list is extensive! If you get a chance, spend some time reading about this amazing woman! After reading this passage, I feel a little sheepish about any complaining that I have done about being too busy or overworked! How does she do it all? For me to accomplish even half of what she does, I would need to acquire a whole new set of skills! I think if we focus on one verse near the end of this passage, we have the answer: <i>Proverbs 31:30 - "Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: <u>but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.</u>" </i>This woman is a woman of God, and He has greatly blessed her and her home.<br />
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I know many amazing women who love and serve God, yet they are still worn out! Why? Are they doing something wrong? I don't think so, but I do think that there are important concepts in the Bible that we put aside, and by doing that, we throw out the balance in our lives. In Luke, Jesus teaches an important truth about service. He is visiting at the home of Martha and Mary. Martha is being Superhostess, fretting about the details. This passage makes me wince a little bit. I have found myself very guilty of fussing over the details, and not spending time with our guests! I think women have a special gene that makes them do this. Gasp! What will people think if I let the dip run low, or there is a mess on the counter? The horror! Jesus teaches two important things here. We need to spend time with Him (in Bible study and prayer) and we need to spend time with others (in fellowship). He tells Martha, "<i>...Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." </i>Sigh. Why can't I seem to remember that?<br />
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The Bible teaches us something else important that we often forget to do. Rest. Psalm 90 teaches us that we only have so many days in our lives, about 70 years or so. We need to be aware of this and use our time wisely. We need to spend time resting in God's Word and in prayer. We know that God rested on the seventh day after creating the world and everything in it, we know that Jesus often left the multitudes to be alone in prayer with the Father. If God and Jesus took the time to rest, what makes us think that we don't need to? <br />
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So, to all of you awesome, overachieving women (and men), who are overworked, stressed out, and dare I say, unbalanced; our friend in Proverbs 31 is an excellent example in that she loves God, her family and others, but don't forget to follow the awesome examples of our God and our glorious Savior and get some REST!<br />
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I am taking some time to consider the following verses, I hope you do too!<br />
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<i>Genesis 2:3 - "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made."</i><i> </i><br />
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<i>Psalm 90:10-12 - "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."</i><br />
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<i>Matthew 14:23a - "And when He had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray..."</i><br />
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God Bless!<i> </i><br />
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</i>Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-77050762461429605612010-11-06T19:05:00.001-05:002010-11-06T19:10:51.204-05:00The Stuff OverflowethWell, I have to share with you one of the biggest issues that we have with our children. I have to say, it's been driving me crazy for years, and I am tentatively announcing that we have conquered it! Well, I guess, if I am going to tell the complete truth, we have conquered it for a week, and that is better than we have ever done before! The issue? The issue that makes otherwise, somewhat, calm parents yell, scream and turn red in the face? The issue that makes us want to cancel birthdays and Christmas for our children and to throw everything in their rooms away? Ah, there you have it! Clean rooms! A parenting nightmare, at least in our house it is.<br />
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We try to keep things simple as a family, so we tend not to go too far overboard on birthdays and Christmas. We generally buy only essential items, such as clothing, outside of the traditional gift-giving periods. We don't let the kids randomly spend their money on whatever catches their eye. I actually prefer candy to toy treats, because candy gets consumed and goes away. Don't even get me started on fast food kid's meal toys!<br />
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For the most part, our children are well behaved and decent human beings with many talents and kind hearts. Sadly, though, one despises work and the other is a hoarder! Now, our son, the work despiser, does tend to keep his room picked up. Unfortunately, his version of "picked up" often means that things are shoved in his closet, behind his dresser, or under his bed, only to be found later by a soon-to-be screaming, red-faced parent. Our daughter, the hoarder, has millions of little people and animals! The very one that she will need, the one that will make her playtime perfect, will ALWAYS be the one on the very bottom of the storage drawer or tote. Naturally, this means the drawer or tote will be dumped out, rummaged through, and the rest of the contents abandoned in a heap on the floor. These piles are usually discovered right about bed-time as we enter her room to tuck her in for the night. Usually an ugly, not-good-for-sweet-dreams scene ensues.<br />
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So, after several years of an ebb and tide of yelling and cleaning, we came to a turning point about one week ago. It was a lovely Sunday morning, and I had just woken everyone up. Our daughter asked for help picking out something to wear to church that morning. This was a nice moment because, being the independent young lady that she is, she usually doesn't want my help. So I opened her closet door, and started to reach for a dress. At that moment, a Social Studies school book slid out of her closet and plummeted to the floor! It landed right on my left foot, complete with a blinding flash of pain that coursed through my whole body. It's not nice to drop large, heavy objects directly onto your feet from three feet up!<br />
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Once I was able to open my eyes to assess why this had happened, I discovered that the offending book, along with a couple of others, had been perched on top of a toy hamster, which annoyingly enough, was still making little electronic noises. I hated the hamster as much as the book at that moment. Of course, by this time, my husband and son came to see what all the noise was about. My daughter even had the senses to apologize, though at the time, not heartily enough to make me feel better!<br />
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In an effort to not make a bigger deal out of it than it was, I limped off to make breakfast. I know she didn't want me to smash my foot on purpose, but that didn't really comfort me at that moment. WHY was a book in her closet? She has plenty of bookshelves! WHY was the hamster sitting on top of the totes in her closet? She has plenty of storage options for her toys. And WHY were the books on TOP of the hamster?! I will never understand the thought-process behind things like that. I can only guess that there <u>isn't</u> a thought-process and she was just caught up in yet another "shiny-quarter" moment!<br />
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In any case, after several hours of stewing and limping, a brilliant idea flashed before my eyes. After I discussed the brainstorm with my husband, we decided to invoke a new household rule: Nightly Room Inspections! (Insert evil laugh here) I honestly expected some resistance from the kids when we presented the idea, but they were actually excited about it! Here are the rules:<br />
<ul><li>Inspections are every night at 8:30 p.m.</li>
<li>If they pass, they get a check for that night</li>
<li>If they get five checks for a week, they get a treat on Sunday afternoon</li>
</ul>To pass, they need to adhere to the following: <br />
<ul><li> Books MUST be on bookshelves</li>
<li>Floors MUST be free of toys</li>
<li>Nothing can be hidden in closets, under beds, etc.</li>
<li>Desks must be neat and usable</li>
</ul>Those are the starting rules. As they pass inspections using these rules, we add more rules as we discover other problem areas. I have to say, tonight is the final inspection night for Week One, and I am pleased with the results. Their rooms are decent-looking, and we haven't screamed at them once the whole time. Well, not for messy rooms anyway! As long as our daughter passes tonight's inspection, they will both receive treats tomorrow after church.<br />
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So, the project will continue another week, and I hope it's just as successful. Of course, we want their rooms to be aesthetically pleasing, but more importantly, we want them to appreciate and take care of the "stuff" that they have. I am praying that this project extends to others, and somehow makes them better people for it. I pray that this also improves our parenting style, and brings a stop to all the screaming!<br />
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Here are the verses that came to mind as I was typing this, I hope they are helpful to you as well!<br />
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<i>Genesis 2:15 - "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it."</i><br />
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<i>Proverbs 22:6 - "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."</i><br />
<i> </i><br />
<i>Ephesians 6:1 - "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."</i><br />
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<i>Ephesians 6:4 - "And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."</i><br />
<i> </i><br />
God Bless!Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-90593822737362811442010-11-02T07:45:00.002-05:002010-11-06T15:46:01.416-05:00"Dieting" RulesYou might deduce from my title that I'm going to take this topic lightly, and yet not. I will be the first to admit, and those of you who know me may say it's obvious, that I hate the word, "diet". Not because I'm against healthy eating, but because "diet" has so many ugly connotations attached to it. There are so many different diets out there that I couldn't keep track even if I wanted to! I did a little research on the Internet to see what kinds of statistics are available on dieting. While I knew that the statistics wouldn't be favorable, I think I was even a little shocked at some of them:<br />
<ul><li>Young girls are more afraid of being fat than of cancer or losing their parents</li>
<li>One study reported that by 13, 53% of girls were unhappy with their bodies, and by 17, this number increased to 78%</li>
<li>In teen magazines, 37% of articles included focus on appearance. In women's magazines, this number increased to 75%</li>
<li>Americans spend over $50 billion on dieting and related products each year</li>
<li>In 1970, the average age of a girl who started dieting was 14, by 1990, that age dropped to 8</li>
</ul>It's these types of statistics that make me hate the word "diet". Americans, especially girls, put such a strong focus on weight and appearance, that even eight-year-olds are putting themselves on diets! According to Hollywood and the fashion industry, the "ideal" woman would be 5'5", weigh 100 lbs and be a size 5. I don't know about you, but I don't think I know <u>anyone</u> who fits that image!<br />
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Dieting, and body issues are not just a "woman" thing either. I personally know some young men in high school who have gone through some ridiculous measures to either gain or lose weight for various sports activities. Some of the things that they did to accomplish their goals could NOT have been healthy!<br />
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So, while I do not want to make light of a potentially serious topic, I do want to share some of my desired "diet" rules.<br />
<ol><li>If you want to eat a candy bar (snack cake, ice cream, etc.), and you don't, you should automatically lose 1 pound.</li>
<li> If you go for a nice robust walk, especially if you gasp for breath by the end, you should automatically lose 5 pounds.</li>
<li>If you go out to dinner at a restaurant, and take any part of your meal home, you should automatically lose 3 pounds. </li>
<li>If you work out, and get all sweaty and gross, you should automatically lose 15 pounds </li>
<li>If you're tired and don't feel like making dinner, but pass up the fast food restaurant and make dinner anyway, you should automatically lost 10 pounds. This one would be a bonus because it applies to your whole family. Unless of course, they're already at nice healthy weights, then YOU get to lose 10 pounds for yourself and every person that eats the home cooked dinner with you that night. </li>
</ol>If number 5 was a real rule, you can be sure that I would pass up that fast food restaurant, and start calling all of my closest friends to join us for dinner! By the time that meal was over, people would be telling me, "You know, you really need to put on some weight!" I'm euphoric just thinking about it!<br />
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Sadly, I don't get to make the diet rules. But I do know, and am trying to put into practice, some things that might help us replace the word "diet" with "healthy eating". <br />
<ol><li>Avoid processed foods, even if they are low in fat or calories, they are probably loaded with salt, preservatives and artificial colors and flavors</li>
<li>Shop the perimeter of the store, stocking up on fruits and veggies, meats (in moderation), and dairy products</li>
<li>Get plenty of rest, I have seen many statistics that show that the more tired we are, the more likely we are to overeat</li>
<li>Drink lots of water to keep yourself hydrated. If you are thirsty, you are already a little dehydrated.</li>
<li>If you get a craving for something unhealthy, try to hold out for 20 minutes before indulging, it will probably go away. See number 4 to help "quench" your craving</li>
<li>Avoid making any food "off-limits", you may end up overeating it later </li>
<li>Avoid fast food! I think that one's a no-brainer! </li>
</ol>I am not an expert; again, obvious to those of you who know me, but these are some tips that I have read in various sources, and they make sense to me. I'm working on it, but number five is a killer for me. Especially at work! Although, I have found that if I don't pack extra snacks in my lunch, I don't eat them. Shocking, I know! Whenever I am doing "routine" tasks, which pretty much encompasses my whole workday, I have this overwhelming desire to snack! Bad news for the waistline and overall health to be sure! Sleep has always been an issue for me too. There's just too much to do, not enough hours to accomplish it all!<br />
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Well, there you have it, it's out there, so now I'm going to try to live it!<br />
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Here are some verses that I want to keep focused on. While they may not deal specifically with body or health, I think they are still appropriate: <br />
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<i>Romans 12:1 - "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."</i><br />
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<i>1 Corinthians 6:19 - "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and are not your own?"</i><br />
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<i>Colossians 3:2 - "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth."</i><br />
<i> </i><br />
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God Bless!Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-28087295724992676982010-10-30T12:28:00.000-05:002010-10-30T12:28:22.378-05:00PlansBig Sigh! Reality has set in! After pondering (I do like to ponder) the past couple of weeks' events, I have come to accept that I'm probably not going to be fired (see previous days' blogs for more details on that). Also, after more discussions with the hubby, who was kind enough to not actively hyperventilate when the topic of my becoming a stay-at-home mom first came up, we've decided that this needs to be a process rather than an event. That's actually kind of a relief. I can't even say that I'm actively disappointed right now, I'm pretty sure that I knew, deep down, that this wasn't going to happen overnight! I do think it can happen though!<br />
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One of the big deterrents right now is honestly just too much debt! We are in the process of paying this down, and are actually making some headway. I wish that it wasn't such a slow process, but it just is. It would go faster if the kids would quit growing out of their clothes, the vehicle never needed maintenance or repairs and large appliances never died, but alas, that is a fairy-tale land that we just don't live in. Of course, I can't even freely complain about any of those seemingly money-sucking things. We have been blessed with so many things, and really want for nothing. We have all come to accept the relatively simple life that we lead. Even the kids are good about not wanting, out loud anyway, crazy things. We all know Christmas is going to be a simple affair, and I think we're all okay with that. We cherish the decorations, traditions and the time with family and friends, and that makes Christmas special for us.<br />
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So, I have come to terms with the fact that I must keep on keeping on. I have to say, one the many blessings that we can claim is my job. I do have a lot of freedom at work, and while I can't come and go as I please, I do have a lot of latitude with my time. I can leave early, and take vacation days off for all of the important stuff, and I really do work with a pretty good group of people. My husband's job is a blessing as well. It's close to home, so though he rides to work with a coworker most of the time, he can walk if he needs to. This works out really well since we only have one vehicle. <br />
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People look at us like we're out of our minds for having one vehicle, but we have done this for five or six years, and it really hasn't been an issue at all! Besides the lack of a second loan payment, we have saved money on gas and maintenance and repairs. This has been a big help to us in our quest to pay off the debt. I think that having only one vehicle has been an issue for us about five or six times over the course of time. Quite honestly, the issues that we did have were easily solved.<br />
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We do dream about having a second vehicle one day. My husband would like to go back to school for his teaching degree, and I can see where the vehicle needs may overlap there. Mostly though, we would like one for fun and convenience. When there's a foot of snow on the ground, and his ride to work calls off, I'm sure he would appreciate not walking to work! He would like a convertible, and I want something that will handle well when the roads are bad. We've agreed, and the kids love the idea, on a Jeep. Of course, that's another future goal. No debt first! <br />
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So here I am, back from my jaunt out of reality. I'm ok with that though. Now I just have to find a few more hours in my day to fit everything in. We're starting to be more active in our church, and of course, the holidays are coming up. I know we're going to have to be choosy about the activities that we take part in so that we don't overdo it. All in all, we need to remember to seek God's will and keep everything balanced in our lives. <br />
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Here's a couple of verses that are on my mind today:<br />
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<i>Matthew 6:33 - "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."</i><br />
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<i>Phillipians 2:13 - "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."</i><br />
<i> </i><br />
God Bless!Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-77483581115486510382010-10-28T07:53:00.002-05:002010-10-28T22:29:09.187-05:00Reading MaterialWell, I received some very nice feedback on my blog! Thank you so much for all of the encouragement! The saga continues at my "real" job as we dig into all the reports to see what else might be going on with our software. Suffice it to say, that it's going to be a long road and I'll spare you all the boring accounting details!<br />
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So, now on with my quest for Stay-at-Home Mom-ness! Where do I begin? First, let me share with you that on my blog, I've added some links for Amazon.com. One is for the Amazon store in general, so if you're going to be purchasing any books, music, etc., you can go straight to Amazon from my blog site. If you purchase anything, I will earn a small percentage. I find it hard to believe that I can earn money by blogging, but if it gets me closer to my goal, I will certainly give it a shot! I have also added some links for books, music and dvds that I enjoy, and that can be purchased through Amazon. The Blog people also include some ads on my site, which are supposed to go along with the general topics on my blog. If you see anything inappropriate, let me know so I can have them remove it! Let me also say that, please, please, PLEASE don't buy anything unless you were already planning too! All I'm saying is that if you go to Amazon from my blog, it will help me out. Thanks!<br />
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I have so many things on my heart to share, and I don't even know where to begin! I mentioned in my previous blog that I would like to be a writer, and one of the things that I believe that God has placed in my heart is writing for children/tweens/teens.<br />
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My family was at a well-know bookstore one day, and I was looking at the choices that our children, and especially teens have for reading. The children's books aren't too bad, in fact, there are often a lot of the classics available for them to purchase, and my family has enjoyed many of them. The Anne of Green Gables series is a favorite. There are a few series of "chapter books" that they also enjoy, and that we don't mind them reading. But I have noticed that even though these books seem harmless, they all but ignore the existence of God. There are quite a few board-books, and pre-school level books about God or Heaven, but once the kids start reading on their own, their choices are greatly diminished.<br />
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Then I got to the teen section! I know that the current rage is vampires, but it seemed like ALL that I could see in the teen section was about the occult in general, and vampires specifically. I make it a practice to steer clear of this type of reading, but I did look at some of the books to see what they were really about. Sometimes the cover of the book will just be "bait" to lure them in, but the books that I looked at were pretty sensual. I don't know how far things go in those, but shouldn't we be steering our children AWAY from these things, rather than towards them? I think that's seed for another day's blogging!<br />
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Of course, there's always the the school library. Yikes! Children in our area are required to read a certain number of books per quarter and take tests on what they've read. I think this is a good practice, and our children do well with it. The list of books that they can read is HUGE, they just have to read at or above their grade level. They can check out books at the school library or the local library. However, the kids kept complaining that they couldn't find books at the school library that they were allowed to read. When we went to an Open House shortly after school started this year, I made it a point to check out the library. They were right! Of course, I couldn't look at all of the books, but the most noticeable books were the "popular" books that are everywhere today. Most of which deal with witchcraft, vampires and various other occult themes. I was very disappointed. <br />
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Even at the popular Christian bookstore in my area, the choices are limited for kids over the age of six! Surely there must be quality Christian literature out there for our kids. We can find things for them to read, that have clear moral lessons, but the choices that deal positively with Christianity, at least from my point of view, seem very limited!<br />
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I am starting to feel like this is something that God has put on my heart: to write short stories or books for children/teens. I just don't know where to begin! Even once something is written, how do you get it published? There are TONS of ads on the web for book publishing, but I suspect that 95% of them are not necessarily legitimate. Not only that, but I have done some research on some of the current popular titles. Here's some food for thought: The titles that "everyone" is reading today are so popular, in part, because the media drove them that way! It all starts when "they" tell you that "everyone" is reading a certain book, and voila! we all want it! I'm not saying they aren't well written, or entertaining, but the frenzy gets started because advertising giants tell us that there is a frenzy BEFORE there is one! My point behind all this is that "someone" determines what gets published, and what becomes popular, and aside from the Left Behind series, a lot of that is NOT Christian (or even Christian-friendly) literature! So please pray for this endeavor!<br />
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If you happen to have some good, clean books that you can recommend for our family to read, please let me know, I would welcome any input!<br />
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As I was writing this morning, several Bible verses came to mind:<br />
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<i>Philippians 4:8 - "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue</i>, <i>and if there be any praise, think on these things."</i><br />
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<i>1 Thessalonians 5:22 - "Abstain from all appearance of evil."</i><br />
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<i>Ephesians 6:12 - "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, agains</i>t <i>powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."</i><br />
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God Bless!<i> </i><br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=christ086-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B00175GAHE&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><br />
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<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=christ086-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0842342524&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe>Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-10387062061140269522009-12-26T15:14:00.000-06:002009-12-26T15:50:56.101-06:00The Day After ChristmasI hope everyone had a wonderful, blessing-filled Christmas! Ours was overflowing with blessings of family, food and of course, gifts! We didn't get a White Christmas - we did get some rain and icy roads, but we made it home safely! It's snowing like crazy now, I think we are supposed to get 1-3 inches today. I love the snow! <br /><br />I want to share one of my favorite dreams with you - to get snowed in! I know that sounds crazy, but of course it's MY dream, so I have stipulations: There's plenty of food in the house, the power doesn't go out, and everyone that we know and love is safe and warm! Then comes the lovely part: We play games, we watch family movies, and there is no arguing! There are no responsibilities except the very basics and we just get to relax and enjoy each other's company! <br /><br />I think the main reason that this is a dream (fantasy) of mine is because of the lack of responsibility part. No work, no school, no plans of my own making, just relaxation without guilt! Of course the beauty of it is that if you are snowed in, it's not your fault if you can't do the things you are "supposed" to be doing! Right? Guilt-free relaxation! <br /><br />Of course, during that relaxation time, I'll enjoy time studying my Bible, and my new Bible Maps (which I just got for Christmas), and I'll get to have wonderful moments with my husband and kids! So you see, it's not all selfishness! Why DO we feel guilty for taking time to relax? We always schedule and fill up all of our time with things to do. I know there must be millions of blogs and devotionals dedicated to how important it is to follow the lead given to us in the Bible. We should use Sundays to rest, as God rested on the seventh day. They even let the land rest every seven years! Our Sundays are always comprised of two services totaling over three hours. Plus the travel to and from church (a half hour drive for us each way). We sometimes add choir practice, family get-togethers, lunch with friends, last minute shopping, work around the house, etc. Why do we do this to ourselves? Instead of starting out on Mondays feeling reconnected and rejuvenated, we are already on day two of over-scheduled and stressed out! <br /><br />What I find ironic about this all is that while we are attempting to follow the Biblical Precepts - church, family,and all, we find ourselves ignoring others, such as the day of rest! How do we balance it all? How do we do all the right thing such as witnessing for Christ to those around us, helping others in need (even if it's just a relative who needs help with their computer), teaching others about Christ, attending all the church services, leading the children in Sunday School, singing in the choir, rasising your children, growing in Christ with your spouse, working full time, fellowshiping with friends, and that's just to name a few! How do you do it all, and find time to relax and have a wonderful Christ-like attitude! My question is, how do you "do it all" without hurting anyone's feelings or ignoring your biblical responsibilities? Does anyone have any input?<br /><br />God BlessKellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1759872092887029191.post-57294035866792040742009-12-19T21:14:00.000-06:002009-12-19T21:44:29.081-06:00New BeginningsHello Everyone! <br /><br />I'm going to give this blog-thing a shot! I've been thinking about this for quite some time now, and Dan (my husband) was showing me a site he has been following. We checked out how to set up a blog with blogger.com and had no idea it was so easy! So now its all set up, just the bare bones though. We'll have to work on personalizing it as we go!<br /><br />Some things I want to write about on this blog is basic stuff about raising children in a Christian home, the challenges about being a working-outside-the-home mom (or dad), and the joys, heartaches and humble moments of teaching children (your own and others) about Christ, the Bible and living in a way that is pleasing to God.<br /><br />I probably won't be able to post every day, but I do hope to make it several times a week! I'm looking forward to feedback from readers - well, actually, at this point, I'm just looking forward to having readers! If you have any suggestions as to what you might like to see discussed, please do let me know!<br /><br />I'm really excited about all the possibilities that lay ahead of me! I pray that this blog will be a blessing, and above all, receives God's Blessing!<br /><br />God Bless!Kellihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08400635295670584828noreply@blogger.com0