Devotionals

I am horrible about keeping this blog up.  UGHHH!!!  I had good intentions starting off the year but I just can't seem to keep up.

Well, we have been continuing our devotionals and, we have been doing at least 3 a week which was my goal for us this year.  Most weeks we have been able to do more but we haven't made it every day.  Not yet at least. 

The kids are really chipping in on them also.  All but one that is.  Our little 20 minute devo time sometimes runs into 45 minute conversations.  I love that!  I get as much out of them, if not more, as they do.  Several times they have brought me to tears.  That is just sooo unlike me.  The younger kids laugh and the older ones just have this "what just happened" look.  They have been great and I will try to do better at posting about them.

In the meantime, something that has really been on my heart lately is Satan and how he is so rampant and in so many places.  Our family is, and has been, facing some tough times.  I have always known Satans presence but I am now fully aware of how infiltrates every place.  Our Christian schools and businesses, churches and friends and acquantences that profess to be "Christian" are being taken over by the Devil.  So many people in leadership positions and they are clearly NOT following Biblical principles.  It is hard to see your children and your family persecuted for taking a stand and standing on the side of the Lord and in return they get no support from those that should be supporting them most.  (I can't imagine what true persecution would be like as those that face it knowing their lives may be in jeopardy!?  I can only imagine how it was for Jesus as his was so much more than ours is.)  The grey area that so many people live in and then want to justify.  Wanting to be "Christian" on Sundays and when it suits them best.  I pray that we train our children to be true Bible, Jesus following Christians.  I pray that we are the same. 

Please join me in praying for our churches, schools, friends, families and communities.  Pray that they will not be taken over by Satan and that Christians will stand up for Christ.  Even when it is not comfortable to do so.

Please pray for our family that we can be living examples of the Word and for open doors wherever it is that God may lead.

Most of all, just pray.

Devotionals: Week 1, Day 2

Jeremy lead our devotional tonight and we looked at Phillipians 1:19-26.  James 3 came up again as did Romans 10:10-12. 

Did you know that to succeed, truly succeed, at something you have to put in 10,000 hours of work toward it?  10,000 hours!  If you start today and worked at it just 1 hour a day it would take you 27 years to master it.  Okay, lets speed it up and work 3 hours a day at it.  Now you are down to 13 years.  WOW!  We talked with Joshua, Codey and Brogan about what they want to do.  What are they interested in or want to excel at?  Where are they at heading towards the 10,000 mark?  We encouraged them to find one thing that they wanted to excel at and start working towards it today.

We also gave them a mission going into the first day back at school.  Find someone to lift up or encourage that you don't normally talk to.  They will be asked who they lifted up and how.  This is going to be hard for them the first few times I'm sure.  Praying they have the strength and courage and that they find just the right person!

We reviewed Proverbs 13:3 (Brogan almost has it down) and Brogan and I closed us with prayer.

Simplifying: Day 2

Yesterday I worked in our bedroom starting with all of the plastic bins that line our walls.  Some of them need to be put in the attic but most of them are for the upcoming garage sale.  I moved them all over to the corner and stacked them neatly and the room already looks cleaner.  Today I was working again in our bedroom when I got a call from Jeremy that he had locked his keys in the car.  New mission: find the extra remote so we didn't have to pay $$ to get in.  After an hour of looking and thinking to myself "This is why I need to clean and organize!" I looked in the desk drawer, the last place Jeremy said it might be.  I didn't actually look.  I figured if I was going to have to rummage thru the drawer I might as well clean it so the entire drawer was dumped onto the floor.  You know what I found?  The extra remote!  Yippee!!! 

Now, I know this sounds silly to some but the kids and I prayed over that remote that it would work just once to open the doors.  The whole reason Jeremy wasn't using it anymore was because it needed a new battery and, while I know batteries don't cost as much as paying someone to actually unlock the truck, we just don't have an extra penny to our name right now.  We made it to the school and pulled up to the truck.  "Ok, here we go.  Let's pray that this works."  As I said it Joshua pushed the button and the doors unlocked.  "Thank you, Jesus!"  and "Yeah!" was heard and we texted Jeremy that he could get into his truck.  "Now don't touch it again."  I laughed to Joshua and he responded with a laugh and "I'm trying not to, Mom.  Now hurry and get out of the parking lot before I hit the wrong button!"  Thank you, Jesus for saving the day!

Later this evening I finished the drawer.  It looks so much better and the goal is to keep it that way!

Devotionals: Week 1, Day 1

Tonight we had our first family devotional of 2012.  We have tried to make this a regular part of our evenings but we always get busy and sidetracked with all  of the things that the kids have going on.  It is not an excuse, it is just the facts.  One of my 10 goals for 2012 was to have a family devotional at least 4 times per week.  I tried to write "everyday" but just didn't think that would be realistic right now for our family.  Hopefully, we can work up to that by the end of the year but for right now, four times a week is our goal.

So, our first one of 2012 was reviewing the sermon from today.  I actually took quite a few notes today so I had something to look back on as my memory is not so good when it comes to scripture (another of my goals).  We also talked about taming the tongue and what James 3 says about the subject.  This is something that we have seen our kids really need to work on when it comes to each other.  It seems this year has been a really bad one for how they speak to each other.  While they are great with others and their friends, when it comes to each other they have very short fuses.  And, it isn't just them.  I have found that I have been that way also.  So, we are all working on taming the tongue.  Hence, our first family memory verse is Proverbs 13:3 "The one who guards his mouth preserves his life; The one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin."  In addition, we asked the kids how they felt they rated compared to one year ago.  Had they grown spiritually or are they on a backslide?  How did they rate themselves?  Then I went child by child and told them what I had seen, good and bad, and what I see that they need to work on.  I then encouraged them to pray about where we are as a family and where God wants us to be.  Are we where God wants us?  What do we need to do to get there?  This has really been on my heart over the last few months but it has been heavy on my heart over the last 2 weeks.  I feel we are supposed to make a move.  Not necessarily moving cities, though it may be.  I don't know.  Just a move somehow.  Church home, job, city, country?  I hope pray they are praying for God's direction for themselves and our family.  We ended with the boys praying and encouragement for each of them.

Simplifying: Day 1

Yesterday was spent cleaning the kitchen.  The entire kitchen!  The floor was swept, the lower cabinets were cleaned out and organized and vaccuumed out, the floor was swept, the upper cabinets were cleaned out and organized, the pantry was cleaned and organized, the refrigerator was cleaned out and cleaned, the floor was swept, the windows, window sills and counters were cleaned, the drawers were all cleaned out and, the floor was swept one last time.  I got plentys of items for our upcoming garage sale, 2 full bags of trash, and the kitchen looks so much better.  Best of all, I already feel better.

I also cleaned out our medicine boxes.  I had one box for kid's medicine and one for adult medicine.  I went thru the boxes and threw away all of the expired medicines (some from 2008!) and medicine spoons and cups.  Yes, you read 2008 right.  Thankfully, we have been blessed with healthy kids and rarely ever get into the medicine box.  Thank you, Jesus!  Needless to say, after cleaning that out I was down to just one all inclusive box of medicines with room to spare.

Here is to a year of cleaning, organizing and simplifying!