Giving

This is one of the recent things we have done. We donated a bag of clothes for a baby. I even got the opportunity to make a hat and add in a few handmade headbands.

Giving is such a blessing, not only to the one who is receiving, but definitely to the one who is giving. My family is truly being blessed by our Labours of Love.

 

Dates for Couples and the Entire Family

For my husband’s birthday this year, I gave him a box filled with envelopes containing different dates. Some are just for us for when the children are in bed. Others are for the entire family.

The instructions were to open 1 envelope as often as he liked and we would do that date no later than a week from the day he opened the envelope.

So far he has opened 2 and he loved them both!

Well I have decided to share these dates on a page called Dates for Couples and the Entire Family

Every time he opens an envelope I’ll post it on this page. Hopefully some of these will be good ideas for strengthening relationships, both between spouses and and between parents and children.

Be Happy in EVERY Situation

This morning I was up since 4:10 am since a little person that I know decided to get up at that time and not go back to sleep. I am completely exhausted! I have been trying to reclaim my home after more almost 2 years of not being well enough to do things as I believe they should be done. I spent week most of the week cleaning like a machine and yesterday I was scrubbing floors, all the while taking care of the children.

I am beat!!

When I got up I was extremely frustrated, disheartened as I just envisioned a LONG day with lots of downs.

But, then Philippians 4: 11 came to my mind

…for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am in. (New American Standard Bible)

I thank God for bringing this text to my mind and changing the tide of negative feelings that were about to completely engulf me. Now I am content in The Lord despite being tired, over- worked, mentally worn…

And now I can thank God that I am able to be up at this ridiculous hour and start breakfast and lunch before 6am. And I remember that around this same time last year I was not in a good state health wise. I had complications from my c-section,a punctured bladder, a clot that had moved into the lower lobe of my left lung and a myriad of health problems that were plaguing me.

Oh I Praise God for my present circumstances!

Thank you God for making me CONTENT this morning!

Plugged In

My son is fascinated with charging things. When the battery runs down he runs to my husband or I and says “_____ needs charging!” So we get the charger and set up whatever device it is that needs charging.

Everyday, at least 5 times a day we are bombarded by him insisting that these things need charging. So then it hit me. We are like those devices and God’s word is our charger. If we do not plug into God’s word we cannot receive His power to accomplish anything.

I know that I have far too many times when I struggle with doing God’s will. But I have found that when I am plugged in- studying God’s word, praying- I have power to overcome my trials.

This doesn’t mean that it is not hard to do. It just means that I have the power to overcome in God.

Every morning I have time to do my devotion when I am putting my daughter down to for her morning nap.I read my devotion to her. Even though she does not understand I still read it to her and she seems to enjoy listening to me read it to her. Every mid-afternoon, I have committed myself to being plugged in to God through prayer. I spend this time praying for my family and myself.  These are two great blessings for me and I know only eternity will tell how wonderful these things have been for me.

I thank God for allowing me to daily plug into Him so that I can receive His strength and power to overcome. And for my son who taught me that I must always be plugged into God if I am to be fully charged spititually.

It’s NOT the End!

Today I felt like I was stuck in Romans 7- trying to too good, patient, loving… But you know what happens in Romans 7?

¹⁴ For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh,sold into bondage to sin. ¹⁵ For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessingthat the Law is good. ¹⁷ So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. ¹⁹ For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. ²⁰ But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.²¹ I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. ²² For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, ²³ but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

Today was a day of big struggles and lots of failures. I had big plans for today.

BIG plans!!

But they were my plans. And so I failed. I was grumpy, miserable, overwhelmed and a whole slew of other things.

And then I cried out to God and He gave me His peace.

So I know that I don’t have to continue in my Romans 7 experience today or any other day.

Why?

Because God has given me victory!!!

Romans 8:1-4

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who arein Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. ³ Forwhat the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

So right now, rather than continue in my Romans 7 failing experience, I choose to allow God to be in control and free me from trying and failing, which is the only thing I can do apart from Him.

We all fail. It is our nature. We are all sinners and that’s what sinners do- sin! But God has made a way in Jesus so we do not have to sin anymore! We don’t have to fail anymore! We don’t have to be disappointed in our reactions anymore!

I thank God that Romans 7 is NOT the end, but that He made a way for me to live above these failures, a way for me to be victorious and that way is by allowing HIM to do it through me!

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