Commitment

Are you committed to your marriage?

I mean really committed?

What does commitment mean?

What does it look like?

Do you find yourself currently caught in a paradigm..a pattern...of taking more than you give?

“There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you
accept no excuses – only results.” (Kenneth H. Blanchard)

I once heard a joke about Commitment. It compared the egg and bacon in a plate of breakfast. According to the joke, the argument went, who was more committed? The chicken or the pig, when it came to the meal?


 The chicken contributed something she had produced. The pig on the other hand had laid down his life for the meal. I would say the pig was the sold out one!

Does this sound familiar to you? It brings to mind a Sunday School story for me. Remember the one about Cain and Abel?

Cain was furious that God had liked his brothers sacrifice and did not accept his.

Trouble is...Cain's did not look very much like a sacrifice.

It was more of a contribution. What can I spare, what can I do without?

Abel knew what a sacrifice was. He offered the best he had of his flock upon the alter of sacrifice.

What makes us think our spouse is any different from God? I mean, weren't we all made in His image?

Why do we expect our spouse to be okay with receiving our leftovers, when God isn't okay with receiving our crumbs?

Next time you are tempted to skimp, or maybe hold out, on going all out for your spouse, remember the difference between the chicken and that selfless pig!

OINK OINK!

Accept no excuses...only results!

Can't you just smell those wonderful breakfast scents now?

Linking up with....

The Embrace of Grace!

My pregnancy with my daughter Zoe was a different one. I was not married! I have always been married when I was pregnant. I experienced a type of bullying of sorts from my boss where I worked, and also my freshly ex-husband, along with total strangers and people I had once considered friends.

My heart started to become tender towards people who are different or aren't following a socially acceptable way of life. I realized how much easier it is to be judgemental than to sit down and get to know a person before jumping to conclusions.

.

And then I started to become sorrowful. How many times had I turned a judging eye towards someone, because their life was at a crossroads? Did I stop to think there may be a story that led to them to that place?



I placed my trust, my acceptance, my everything in the hands of the One who doesn't throw stones. I knew I had made a poor choice. The consequence of mine happened to be more visible than others. I really did not need constant reminding of my poor choice. I needed love, acceptance, hugs ,grace, and forgiveness.

I started not attending church anymore because of the judging and harsh looks. I was made to feel like a giant ministry need, with a great big bulls eye target on my back. It was easier to stay home.

The things my ex would say to me, when I would pick up my kids from him on our weekly exchange, were appalling although spiritually immature. I learned to chalk it up as yet another reason I was glad it was over between us. God has since performed a miracle in that area, but that is a whole different story that I will share later on.

My dreams seemed to be put on halt. My life as I knew it and had planned it had to be changed in order to accommodate this miracle of life growing inside of me. Why did so many not focus on this aspect...that I had chosen life? I will never understand! There were sacrifices I made, directions I took that I did for the survival of myself and children. A lot of pride was stripped away during this process.... Spiritual and religious. It was replaced with a healthy pride. Knowing that even if others could not see it, God saw my heart. He saw my repentance. He saw the change. He saw my resolution to.....

Quietly, I endured disrespect. The angry eye brow look of the high and mighty. And when the disrespect came to me in my own home, following through visitors, after the birth of my daughter...I felt "IT".....the Embrace of Grace!...

I have never experienced such comfort, such warmth, such unconditional love. I had just been rejected, yet He was accepting me with open arms! Wrapping me in his arms, letting me know He saw what I was going through and I was not enduring it alone! I knew my Daddy was proud of me, the labor, the graceful responses to rudeness! I looked around, and no one was there, oh but Someone was! He saw that as much as I could do in my present situation, I was trying to stay at peace with everyone. I did not want the word of God to be evil spoken of!  God honored me, with a spiritual hug that I will treasure for a lifetime.

We are married now. The former things have been done away with to be remembered no more. Behold He is doing a new thing ( Is. 43: 16-19).  I treasure all the lessons I learned, in my heart..... as Mary did. The lessons of rejection and acceptance were bearable, because I knew He was with me.

 Zoe is now a beautiful little 2 1/2 year old  girl with a heart of gold. I could not be more blessed. She is healthy and smart! She learned to sign at an early age because loud noises frightened her. She hated her own cry! She wanted to communicate, be loved and praised for her accomplishments! She didn't want to be scolded for falling down while learning to walk! There is more to her than her foibles....so much more..that I am blessed with a lifetime to discover.
                                                                www.hopeflourishes.com

Linking up with .....

Ten Ways to find Miracles In Your Life!

1. Ask! The word clearly gives a road map. Ask, seek, and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened to you. ask him for a miracle..if you need one, be specific and leave the rest to Him!


2. Seek! Seek His face. Go to the word and see what He has to say about miracles! This will not only increase your faith, but will also give you fuel for prayer, He loves to hear us remind Him of His word!

3. Knock! Get out of your house and go forth, and believe! And be encouraged.....God will confirm His word to you because it never comes back void!

4. Expect! You have just been implanted with the Living Word of God. By spending time in His word and focusing on what He has done in the past, the present, and wants to do in the future. You have sowed seed into ground! Expect a harvest!

5. Wait, Tarry! Wait on the Lord and He shall renew your strength! Serve Him while you are waiting, praise Him while you are waiting.

6. Prepare! What farmer at the end of the drought reaps the Harvest? The one who prepared His fields even though everything looked impossible! Take a lesson from Noah, who after hearing the Lord's word, spent His entire life preparing for a flood, even though rain had not fallen for years!

7. Perfect, Excel, cultivate your talents! actively pursue your dreams talents wishes. Enroll in a college course, finish that degree, write that book. Do what you can do and have the serenity to know the difference between what you can't and can change.

8. Mature...Grow....complete yourself in Him...be the whole person God has created you to be. Find and make the time for fellowship with God, rest, work, family, play.

9. Inspect your output! make sure you are doing things with the right attitude, and objective and the results you are getting are the ones you want. Otherwise you may have some tweaking of your methods to do.

10. Sit back and watch as you are astounded by the miracles that come your way! Never stop believing that He is not done with miracles today..He has even more to bless us with now that His Spirit has been unleashed in our world due to the death of our Saviour.

Please visit my WOW Book page on my blog to learn more about Modern Day Miracles and how you can share yours with a world hungry for a Living powerful God!

(Linking up with http://www.manylittleblessings.com/ )

http://wholehearted-home.blogspot.com/2012/10/wholehearted-home-wednesdays-linkup-14.html

http://katherinescorner.com/

Love in Action and Happy Tears.

POW...."Mommy...why did that truck do that ? Why did it hit us Mommy?

ME....Screaming...feet on the dashboard trying to brace myself...."He didn't honey ! That was our tire popping like a balloon!"

My husband, as he swerves to the side of the road, "oh man, oh man, oh man..."

Frazzled, Mike gets out and begins trying to access the spare...He starts SCREAMING! A pain scream! My adrenaline is on super charge like an espresso just hit my blood stream! On the phone with highway patrol...I am yelling now..."What happened????" Standing next to him lying on the ground next to speeding cars....My mind is racing...did he get hit, burnt, what ?

"It won't come off...it won't come off!" (talking about the spare)....My poor hubby! We were up until 1am last night moving our stuff from one storage unit to another. We have downsized our stuff and needed less space! I could almost touch his stress, it was tangible!

A car is stopping...a man gets out and walks towards us. He instructs his wife and son to take his and Mikes back, so traffic would be aware that two men were in a vulnerable situation.

My two year old is in tears!" Help me...help me!"...she wants out! I realize her terror and rush to comfort her!

The man begins to talk to me, asking me if I am okay...I tell him I am, I have just been in my share of wrecks and I tend to overreact! He assured me that he and his wife had also seen there fair share of road mishaps. His wife had wanted to come check on me but could see I was shaken, and she was shaken as well...they had witnessed it all! She did not want to magnify it, so she did not.

As I sat on the floorboard of the passenger seat comforting my daughter, Mike and the man came over smiling...everything was in place. We could resume our journey. Mike was calling highway patrol to let them know, we were good. The man leaned over and said "Here" and stuck some money in my hand, "Our kids are grown, please..we want to be a blessing!" I squeaked out a thank you and he walked off as the tears began to well in my eyes! Hot tears streaming down my cheeks, my chest began to heave as uncontrollable healing waves of sobs poured out of a deep place inside of me! As I let out each sob a comforting peace would infill my being more and more! Mike dropped the phone when he saw me! "What happened???" His turn to be startled, he noticed enough cash for a brand new tire in my hand and he too sobbed the same sob as I! We both stood there and wept as we realized we had been ambushed by God's love in action at a time where we both NEEDED to be!

My daughter asked her Daddy why we were crying, and he said...."We are just in awe at God's miracles, honey! Happy Tears!"

 

 

linking up with.....http://extraordinary-ordinary.net/

Anti-Bullying PSA: The Price of Silence

 

We have had a wonderful start off to our Anti- Bullying Month.
First We asked some questions about Acceptance which is our character trait of the month.
The kids each defined it as they understand it.

They then each gave us what they believed to be the opposite of Acceptance...Rejection.
We then asked them to write down if they had ever been rejected and if they had ever experienced rejection.

They also had to think of someone they knew who exemplified acceptance and also rejection to them.
We then had them read the scripture for the month.

Romans 15:7

Accept one another,then, as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.


We sat down in front of the computer and watched a you tube video.
make sure to check out this video. (above)

We also wrote out the word MEAN in huge letters on a dry erase board as we had our discussion.
Next week we will continue the dry erase board thought and also work on some great slogans and posters for our home. I have a few more videos and songs selected as well. I am getting some great feedback from the kids and am very happy with the way it is causing them to open up their thoughts to me as well.

Spiritual Leader

I remember when Mike and I were going through pre- marital counseling and the topic of Spiritual Leader came up...I honestly told him..." I don't even know what that looks like..." You see..... it fell to my mom, by default because of the long hours my dad worked, so when my first marriage became like my parents..long hours...Well, I naturally filled the spot my mom always filled!

I have never seen a man as Spiritual Leader in action. But that does not mean it does not exist. I am having to step aside in this role and watch as my new husband fills that role. He is growing in to it slowly, awkwardly, but growing. What endears me the most to him through this is that the kids are so patient with him. The enemy lies to him and tells him that they are not going to be interested or feel it is relevant, but he is always surprised that they connect and interact.

I have not stepped away. I help. I prepare lessons. I make it easy for him to be who God has called him to be. Sometimes I even lead, when he asks me to. Sometimes the kids lead, when we ask them to.

I can no longer say I do not know what a man as Spiritual Leader looks like. I can say that I am watching as it transforms before my eyes, a wonderful miracle metamorphosis!

Please Pray!

Please keep the cover of the Wow Book Of Miracles in prayer. There is only an hours worth of work to be done on the cover. She and her family are currently passing around a virus that is keeping her from being able to do the necessary tweaking of the book cover. Thank you and God Bless! Also pray that the stories that God wants to be in the book will be made known to the ones who are carefully deciding.

OH THE jOY OF GROWING UP!

Zoe is growing so maternal lately. She has taken to a baby doll and mothering it like a little mother hen...just in time for Mothers Day! She kisses, squats and picks it up like we do her..kisses its hands , feet, cheek and head. She also claps its hands and makes it wave bye bye! Although she started going to bed lately without a lot of fuss...I see how kissing her baby and tucking it in aids in her nightime transition! I love the way she looks at me with those brown eyes for my approval of her mothering instinct and it melts my heart I might add.

Shop FamilyLife - Passport2Purity® Getaway Kit - Version 3

Shop FamilyLife - Passport2Purity® Getaway Kit - Version 3

I have teenagers! Two as of July 24th! The above resource will come in handy as I navigate through this uncharted territory! I hope and pray that God gives me wisdom...double wisdom. If you have teenagers and have had a getaway weekend with them please share how it went and any helpful tips you might have discovered along the journey!

A good marriage!

A good marriage is one between two good forgivers!...Ruth Bell Grahm.

Wow! When I saw this quote, I paused and reflected on the profound truth of this simple statement!
I spent 15 years in my first marriage.
Trying to earn forgiveness.
Trying to seek a way to rectify my mistakes from the past.
Trying to hide from the truths I had willingly shared with someone I never thought would try to use these truths against me!

How freeing these words seem to me now!
I am free to forgive his unforgiveness!
Does that even make sense?
It does to me!
It allows a person to go on with their life.
It allows one to allow room for human error.

Yes I have battled with trust issues.
Trusting again was very hard in the beginning.
I don't think I can ever trust another human being on the level I innocently did in my first marriage.
I was young, naive, and very misguided on the whole subject of Christianity.

I have discovered there are some Christians you can trust with these truths from your past.
And then there are others that will pick up your grave clothes that you just shed...
and throw them back in your face.
Not the picture of God's Grace I pictured every Christian possessing!

Yes I am a work in progress.
God isn't finished with me yet.
Thank Goodness!

October....Anti-Bullying Month

This is a subject that is delicate yet needs to be addressed. We are such a sensitive bunch... us humans. Yes... Words do cause damage... regardless of what you have heard. Nonacceptance and rejection abound today and the repercussions on our society are felt every day. Teenage suicide is at an all time high! This should not be! We started our devotions out by viewing the movie Hidden In Silence. It is a true story about a teenage girl who hid Jews in her attic during the Holocaust. The intolerance displayed in the movie was a hard one to bear, but necessary to fully understand the impact it has on society!

WOW Book of Miracles

We are just waiting on a few tweaks regarding the cover of the book then it will be available for purchase. I have had a couple stories contributed by friends and family and they are remarkable! I can hardly wait to see them in print! I am excited and also can not wait to see more stories about God and His wonders! He never ceases to amaze me!