I have been reading The Mom Walk by Sally Clarkson and I would like to share a couple quotes with you.

"I realized that one of the roles God wants me to play in my children's lives is a conductor of joy, happiness, and celebration. After all, God designed our need for these things into our hearts. We were made to enjoy life and our Creator, and we were meant to choose to live in His beauty and provision.
"This doesn't mean I won't have difficulties or times of depression. But I do have choices I can make as a mom that will determine the environment in my home." (Sally Clarkson)

This does not only apply to the role of mother, but also of wife. When I am joyful and cheerful, looking for opportunities to praise God, the whole atmosphere in my house changes. We don't have children in the house just yet (although Little One is frequently reminding me that it is on it's way :) ) and I can only imagine how much my attitude will effect the environment of our home, because I know that it does now, and once the children are coming along it will only be even more important and vital that I am not always downcast, focused on all my "duties and responsibilities" instead of focusing on the gift of my children and all that the Lord is doing. Now is the time to be practicing this because it is just as important and vital that we look at our responsibilities with delight, especially for the sake of our Husbands (or families if you aren't married yet).

I will end this post with one more quote:

"To neglect enjoying God and His own wonderful ways in my life is to not really know Him or grow in Him. For at the very basis of His character are love, life, beauty, and joy. To know Him is to know goodness. To walk with Him is to walk in lovingkindness, pleasure, and delight." (Sally Clarkson)

Just Stuff ~ Part 4

Hello to all my blogreaders! Well, our time in Missouri is just about over. I have re-packed all of our suitcases and all that is left is devotional stuff and the usual toiletries (oh, and food) which I will pack tomorrow morning before we leave. Our goal is to head out between 9 and 9:30am. We shall see how well we do with it. Our destination: Tennessee, where we will be staying with author Bryan Davis and his family. Scott stayed with them for a short time almost 2 years ago and I am greatly looking forward to meeting them!

We have greatly enjoyed out stay in Missouri. Although we didn't have any official events, Scott got to meet author, L. B. Graham and I got to get some lots needed rest. We also have greatly enjoyed getting to know our hosts and I've enjoyed playing games with their 2 daughters. At first we were a little afraid that even when it's my first time playing a game, I am unbeatable. But yesterday one of their daughter beat me twice at Uno! Very impressive! I was glad because I was starting to feel bad because I was winning every single game we played. But it was lots of fun!

The past couple days my pregnancy sickness hasn't been quite as bad which I think is due to getting lots of rest. It's either that or the fact that I'm getting a little more used to it. :) I have been experiencing lots of "twinges" as the baby is growing.

On another note, I am just about done with studying A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George. It has been a great study and will go into my special stack of books that go everywhere with me because I should always be reading them. I am greatly looking forward to doing a study on 1 Peter (using Putting On a Gentle & Quiet Spirit by Elizabeth George).

I want to leave you with an interesting and encouraging quote from A Woman After God's Own Heart that I came across in my reading yesterday:
"Very few things in life call for an instantaneous decision on your part. Keep your cool. Make delay your first strategy for avoiding chaos and crisis. A good rule of thumb to remember is that most things seem more important in the present than they actually are. Wisdom waits. Will you?"

Come What May

For Christmas, Scott bought me this movie, Come What May which I had been wanting to see for some time!
I was very eager to watch it, and finally last night, Scott and I set up our computer, on our bed and watched it before going to sleep! It was an excellent movie, and very well done, considering that none of the actors are "professionals". You know what I love? Movies like Come What May, done by a group of Christians (such as Flywheel and Facing the Giants) are all better than all the movies that come out in every single movie theater across the nation! The hilarious thing, is that the better movies aren't done by "professionals". Why is it that all the movies done by "professionals" are never as good as the movies done by "non-professionals"? I am so glad that people don't stop when they realize that they aren't professionals, but keep going, because I honestly believe that our poor country is worse off because of the focus on "professionals". They lost sight of what's good and right and it is so sad to see what is considered a "good movie" now. I highly recommend Come What May! Both Scott and I really enjoyed it!

The Bread of Idleness

I know it's been a while since I shared something with you from my study on A Woman After God's Own Heart, but the truth is, over the last couple weeks, I haven't been doing that study much, as I was just doing some great reading in God's word and a lot of writing in my Prayer Journal. But today I went back to my study. Of course, not even a full minute went by before the Lord was taking me deep inside my heart to take take an honest look at myself.

The chapter I am on is A Heart That Watches Over The Home. Proverbs 14:23 says, "In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury." (Penury = Extreme poverty or destitution)

There is profit in labour.

Proverbs 31:27 says, "She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness."

The Proverbs 31 woman, does not eat the bread of idleness.

From these two verses, we gather 2 very important pieces of wisdom, that go together. If there is profit in labour, than what is there in idleness? Nothing. Nothing at all. Think about it, what does our attitude become when we are idle? I know for me, I get a little miserable, and I have a pretty bad attitude toward everything and everyone around me. Sometimes it only shows itself in the most subtle of ways, but at other times, it is not so subtle.

In the chapter of Elizabeth George's book that I was studying today, she talks about how she applied this to her life, and is always busy, doing something, all day long. Yes, she would give herself time for a break, but she always knew what she was doing thereafter. One thing that really spoke to me, was how she said that when her girls were young, she worked hard to instill that principle in them. For example, they didn't watch TV unless they were doing something productive at the same time.

As I reflected on all the thoughts that came rushing to my mind, I remembered a time when I was always doing knitting or crocheting when I was watching something (I would even take it to the movie theater with me), because I could not justify spending a couple hours or so just sitting doing nothing, when I knew I could find something to do. I'm sorry to say that I've lost that principle, and I intend to get it back!

Elizabeth mentioned that as a result of the above, none of them derived much pleasure from watching TV. They could take it or leave it. That is how it should be. The TV is just an entertainment "gimmick" to keep us lazy, eating from the bread of idleness. As Christians, there is so much more to our lives. We have so much to live for, in Christ. We should not be able to be entertained by the TV for hours, doing nothing, without feeling very guilty. There is NO profit in idleness!!!!! This post is not all about the TV, that is just an example, and one that is very dominant in our culture. How many people do you know who have their TV on all day, and whenever their kids start to get in their way, they tell them to go watch a show or something? I know more than I should.

In addition to focusing on the fact that there is profit in labour (even if we don't always see it), we need to be working on eliminating idleness. I would like to share with you a list of "time robbers" that Elizabeth shared in her book:

• Procrastination


• Inadequate personal planning and scheduling


• Interruptions by people without appointment (This includes interruptions by way of the telephone. And please note, your children are not interruptions - they are your greatest work and the best investment of your time)


• Failure to delegate


• Poor use of the telephone


• Reading junk mail


• Lack of concern for good time management


• Unclear priorities

I encourage you, along with myself, to take a few minutes and examine areas in your daily life where there is idleness. Then, work on eliminating them. And remember, to trully eliminate something, even just to begin working on it, we must first take it to the Lord.

Organization ~ Choices

It is true that I have only been married for just over 3 months, and I have had my own home for just as long. Therefore, I can't say that I am qualified to give out advice to other wives/mothers, but I can at least share what I have learned, and actually, this can apply to anyone, regardless of age or marital status. But one thing that I have learned (and it took me 3 months to learn it, at least as far as having my own home is concerned), is that as long as your bedroom is clean and organized, the rest of your home doesn't look so bad and you'll be surprised how quickly you can get it all into order. Of course, as we all know (from lots of experience) that when you clean and organize a room, it doesn't take long before it get's disorganized again. And when you develop a method, or the Lord gives you insight to see how something might work better for you one way compared to the way it was before, it doesn't always just go the way you want it to. It takes time, and discipline, as well as habit. My Dad once told me that it takes 21 times of doing something, for it to become a habit, but only 3 tmes of not doing it to break the habit. That is so true.

My new goal is to always keep my bedroom in perfect order, and not to let anything hinder me in reaching that goal. I know that it will not always be in perfect order, and I am going to have to work to keep it organized and straightened (as well as dusted and clean :) ), but I know it is worth it. I have never been one to always have my bedroom a total wreck. As a matter of fact, for the most part, I have always kept my room in very good order. Even since I've been married and half of my room is my Husband's "office," I have kept it "in order" in a general sense. However, there is such a thing as "ordered clutter." I have never set out to have "ordered clutter" in any space, but nevertheless, that does happen when I allow moments of laziness to just "straighten" everything instead of de-clutter. This is true in any space, not just the bedroom. I can be a spot on the table, or an end table in the living room.

I know that I took a while to get here, but it all comes down to choices, little choices that we make, sometimes unconsciously, every minute of the day. Without even realizing it, we make the choice to just straighten something rather than taking just a few moments more to actually discover if maybe this item goes on the shelf 5 steps away, or maybe it can even go into the garbage. If we just purpose to take a few extra moments to actually think about what it is we're straightening, than maybe things won't get to the point of being so cluttered, we look around and ask ourselves, "how did I let this get this bad?"