April Showers of Blessings…

On this 3rd day, I feel so blessed to live in a place where it is not forbidden to openly worship God and to be able to teach my girls about Him. It saddens me that there are so many that take that for granted. If our children are the most important things in our lives, then shouldn’t it be more important to teach them about God than it is to teach them about sports, fashion, popularity, and money? Why do we invest so much time on things that only matter temporarily on this earth when we should be investing in their spiritual eternity? In the end…what is more important?

The Cost of Faith… Thought for the day…

What does our faith cost us? Once upon a time I had no problem telling someone at a ticket booth that my child was a different age to save a dollar. I saved a lot of time by paying bills while I was at work instead of at home. Oh! And just think of all that extra time I had on Sunday morning because I didn’t “have to” get up & go to church…not to mention all that money of “mine” that I saved by not tithing. So my faith has cost me some money here & there…..well actually it hasn’t! Since we accepted Christ & started tithing we are in better financial shape than we’ve ever been. Mainly because we realized that we have nothing. Anything we are blessed with comes straight from God. He is just entrusting it to us. So my faith hasn’t really cost me any money. But surely it has cost me time. Actually no! It hasn’t even cost me time. You see…because Christ shed His blood on the cross…I now have everlasting life! So when you really look at it….it’s not faith that costs. It’s the lack or faith that has the big price tag hanging from it.

“I can’t catch a break”… Thought for the day…

I was listening…ok eavesdropping…on a conversation last week. Not purposely but people shouldn’t talk so loud…lol. Anyway…this man was saying that he knows that God is going to take care of him and that he keeps studying the word and working for God but he just doesn’t understand why he can’t catch a break. Now I’ll be the first to say that I just don’t understand why so many bad things happen and why some people’s lives seem so much harder than others. But what I do know is that if you place your complete trust and faith in God, then regardless of your circumstance, something good will come from it. Problem is that it also sometimes takes complete faith to see the good after the storm because, thanks to Satan, we tend to dwell on the bad. Now as far as trying to catch a break…maybe that is the problem. We must learn to give God all the glory without expecting anything in return. We know He is going to take care of us because His Word tells us that. But we must accept Him and honor Him simply because we love Him and we want to, and stop saying, “look what I’ve done for you….now what are you going to so for me?” because the fact is, He has already done everything for us.

See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they? Matthew 6:26World English Bible (WEB)

Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5World English Bible (WEB)

March Winds of Change…

March winds of change are blowing! On this 16th day, I feel the change from winter to spring! Oh how I hope that stays this way while the kids are out for spring break. Don’t forget to thank God for the sunny warm days AND the cold dreary ones. For without the dreary ones, we wouldn’t appreciate the beautiful ones.

Thought for the day…

We all want to get ahead in life but what we fail to ask ourselves is, ‘Which life is it more important to get ahead in? Our temporary life here on earth or our life with our Father in heaven?’ I was watching a game a while back & overheard a mom getting upset because one of the players wasn’t playing by the rules. Eventually she was upset enough that she told her son that if the other kid wasn’t going to play right then he shouldn’t either. This has really nagged at me. In essence, she basically told her kid that it’s ok to cheat if someone else is. Let me be clear that I’m not judging her. And if I’m being completely honest….I was tempted to tell my kid the same thing. That is one of the things that has gone so wrong in the world today. The world has set in place its own moral guidelines & so many people have accepted them regardless of whether or not they align with the bible’s moral guidelines. I know this because the world used to be my moral compass. I was a “good person” because I was basically a nice person & had never murdered anyone. Fact was & still is that sin is sin & I was a sinner & still am. Only difference is that now I’m a forgiven sinner saved by the grace of God. So when we’re guiding our children…even when we feel someone else may not be doing what’s right…we need to make a huge effort to teach our child the right moral path…not according to what the world says…but according to what the WORD says.

Thought for the day…

I was cleaning house the other day & noticed that my breakfast table & chairs had dust on the legs. Now when I was working 40+ hours a week, this is something I would have filed in the “I’ll do it when I have more time” folder & went on about my rat killing (That’s an old southern term so don’t panic! No rats were actually harmed…lol). There were so many things that I filed because I was just too busy to do them. I made time for work…as much time as I could with my family….a little time with friends…and then of course all the things that I thought ‘had’ to be done. But how much did I file away for later? Discipline would occasionally get thrown in there because I was too tired to make my kids mind. Reading anything, even my bible got tossed in there. Teaching my girls to cook, clean, monetary responsibility… all filed away. Much needed time with God in prayer, in worship, in praise…all filed away. The thing is, once it’s filed away, you never have enough time to clean out the file. So what I finally realized, is that the problem wasn’t just my filing system. It was also my time management & priorities. Yes I’ve given up many things that I used to enjoy. But I don’t miss them. My priorities are God, Todd, girls, family, friends, and then everything else. In that order! And amazingly, now that I’ve cleaned the dust out of my life, I have more time to clean the dust off the furniture.