Success depends on whether you get your laundry in the washing machine before the mildew sets in on your clothes.
I laughed hard at this quote when I read it. SOOOO true! At least in my household!
God is so good! All the time!
I'm working on a process right now. I was given a task by a close friend of mine...to fall in love with the Lord.
How do I fall in love with the Lord?
I can honestly say that I love the Lord, but to fall in love with Him...hmmmmmm.
I want to delight in the Lord, which means that I want to desire to be in His presence all the time.
And to be in His presence all the time...that's the big quandary right now.
There are times when I feel the almighty powerful presence of the Lord thru the Holy Spirit and I desire to feel that ALL the time, but it doesn't happen. But that is my utmost desire...to feel His presence ALL around me ALL the time.
I need to develop a deeper relationship with my God. I need to delve into His Word and feel His mighty power thru my finger tips and in my heart.
I guess it's time for me to delight in the Lord every single day before mildew sets in on my Spirit. That would be my ultimate success!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Enemies of God???
Okay, I'm gonna relate what happened to me a couple of days ago.
I was driving home from a nearby town. I had run across a very eloquent prayer on a plaque at a bookstore. It was so wonderful, that I purchased that plaque for my secret sister.
It read:
Lord,
please fulfill the promise by your Son
and
send the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds in wisdom
and
our hearts in compassion
and
lead us to know in experience who we are in truth.
So, on my drive home, I started praying, Lord, please expose my heart to the truth.
And then I started praying that the Lord would fully expose my heart to the truth about all this sports turmoil in our lives. And as I peeled back the layers, the Holy Spirit revealed to me what was at the root of all this turmoil in our lives surrounding sports. And to be honest, I did not like what I saw lying at the root of my heart.
I'm gonna make a long story short.
When we first got involved with sports, it was just me, the Mom, who took all our sons to the sports practices and sports games for t-ball, baseball, soccer and beginner's basketball. It wasn't until football started that my husband took an active role in participating in the responsibility of taking our sons to all these events.
So, I was tickled pink that he was participating...taking some of the pressure and load off of me. And when he started coaching, I was absolutely tickled pink.
And in the beginning, I enrolled our sons in all these sports because I was thinking that I would open the doorway for them. So, that when the time came and they decided to quit playing, at least they would be making an informed decision to quit playing. They would be educated enough in the sport to make an educated decision or a wise decision about quitting, if that be the case. Rather than having them just watching the sport from the sidelines and stating that they never wanted to play without giving it an effort.
That was what was in my heart, at the beginning.
But somewhere along the way, that reason changed. And I don't know exactly when it changed, but it did.
When my husband started coaching, I was tickled pink that he was participating in our son's activities. But somewhere along the way it changed to the fact that I was tickled pink to be a coaches wife.
And also, he would come home after 2 years of coaching, stating what a turmoil he was in about coaching and being exposed to all those worldly and fleshly competitions and angry parents and angry boys and yada, yada. My husband was basically asking me for permission to quit and I never granted him that permission. I didn't do that consciously, but now I know if I had just said, "Randy, God is directing you another way, please quit," he would have jumped right on that opportunity. But I never granted him that out. I just said, "Randy, you are the only Bible that a lot of these boys will have the opportunity to read." And also, "Randy, you will be letting down our boys if you quit."
So, even though I didn't do it intentionally, I was the driving force that kept our family involved in sports.
So, on my drive home, I asked God to reveal to me why I was wanting so bad for our boys and my husband to be in sports. Why was I driving and pushing them to stay in sports?
When I was in high school, it was all the boys that were enrolled in the advanced math classes, advanced science classes, all the advanced college prep classes with me and were also involved in sports, football, basketball, baseball that were very popular. I was NOT popular! I was the valedictorian of our class, voted most likely to succeed, but I was NOT popular! I was more of the geeky, nerdy type. I did not have a large group of friends, I was NOT a social butterfly! Here I was, as a Mom, pushing my family into sports because I was seeking popularity for them!
And then the Holy Spirit slapped me in the face with the following: Those who are liked, loved by the world, those who are popular with the world, are enemies of God!
I, as a mother, as a child of God, as a virtuous woman, was training my boys to be enemies of God!
The devil had beguiled his way into my life in such a manner that I had no idea that I was doing that!
So, when I got home, I got down on my hands and knees and begged God to please forgive me! I so desperately want my boys to be friends of God and to talk to Him everyday just like a friend!
And ladies and gentlemen, you will not believe the sense of relief, peace and joy that I have gotten from officially quitting our basketball commitment for this summer! I feel from God that He is saying, "I was wondering when you would realize what was going on in your lives!" For if we are in God's will, then we will not feel at turmoil nor trouble every time we commit to do it. It will give us a great sense of peace and joy!
Thank you, God, for Your daily revelations in my life! I love You with all my heart, my might, and my soul! Thank you, God, for simply loving me back!
I was driving home from a nearby town. I had run across a very eloquent prayer on a plaque at a bookstore. It was so wonderful, that I purchased that plaque for my secret sister.
It read:
Lord,
please fulfill the promise by your Son
and
send the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds in wisdom
and
our hearts in compassion
and
lead us to know in experience who we are in truth.
So, on my drive home, I started praying, Lord, please expose my heart to the truth.
And then I started praying that the Lord would fully expose my heart to the truth about all this sports turmoil in our lives. And as I peeled back the layers, the Holy Spirit revealed to me what was at the root of all this turmoil in our lives surrounding sports. And to be honest, I did not like what I saw lying at the root of my heart.
I'm gonna make a long story short.
When we first got involved with sports, it was just me, the Mom, who took all our sons to the sports practices and sports games for t-ball, baseball, soccer and beginner's basketball. It wasn't until football started that my husband took an active role in participating in the responsibility of taking our sons to all these events.
So, I was tickled pink that he was participating...taking some of the pressure and load off of me. And when he started coaching, I was absolutely tickled pink.
And in the beginning, I enrolled our sons in all these sports because I was thinking that I would open the doorway for them. So, that when the time came and they decided to quit playing, at least they would be making an informed decision to quit playing. They would be educated enough in the sport to make an educated decision or a wise decision about quitting, if that be the case. Rather than having them just watching the sport from the sidelines and stating that they never wanted to play without giving it an effort.
That was what was in my heart, at the beginning.
But somewhere along the way, that reason changed. And I don't know exactly when it changed, but it did.
When my husband started coaching, I was tickled pink that he was participating in our son's activities. But somewhere along the way it changed to the fact that I was tickled pink to be a coaches wife.
And also, he would come home after 2 years of coaching, stating what a turmoil he was in about coaching and being exposed to all those worldly and fleshly competitions and angry parents and angry boys and yada, yada. My husband was basically asking me for permission to quit and I never granted him that permission. I didn't do that consciously, but now I know if I had just said, "Randy, God is directing you another way, please quit," he would have jumped right on that opportunity. But I never granted him that out. I just said, "Randy, you are the only Bible that a lot of these boys will have the opportunity to read." And also, "Randy, you will be letting down our boys if you quit."
So, even though I didn't do it intentionally, I was the driving force that kept our family involved in sports.
So, on my drive home, I asked God to reveal to me why I was wanting so bad for our boys and my husband to be in sports. Why was I driving and pushing them to stay in sports?
When I was in high school, it was all the boys that were enrolled in the advanced math classes, advanced science classes, all the advanced college prep classes with me and were also involved in sports, football, basketball, baseball that were very popular. I was NOT popular! I was the valedictorian of our class, voted most likely to succeed, but I was NOT popular! I was more of the geeky, nerdy type. I did not have a large group of friends, I was NOT a social butterfly! Here I was, as a Mom, pushing my family into sports because I was seeking popularity for them!
And then the Holy Spirit slapped me in the face with the following: Those who are liked, loved by the world, those who are popular with the world, are enemies of God!
I, as a mother, as a child of God, as a virtuous woman, was training my boys to be enemies of God!
The devil had beguiled his way into my life in such a manner that I had no idea that I was doing that!
So, when I got home, I got down on my hands and knees and begged God to please forgive me! I so desperately want my boys to be friends of God and to talk to Him everyday just like a friend!
And ladies and gentlemen, you will not believe the sense of relief, peace and joy that I have gotten from officially quitting our basketball commitment for this summer! I feel from God that He is saying, "I was wondering when you would realize what was going on in your lives!" For if we are in God's will, then we will not feel at turmoil nor trouble every time we commit to do it. It will give us a great sense of peace and joy!
Thank you, God, for Your daily revelations in my life! I love You with all my heart, my might, and my soul! Thank you, God, for simply loving me back!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Back Seat Drivers
Okay, I've gotta relate a pet peave of mine...back seat drivers or even passenger seat drivers.
I sit on my side of the vehicle when I'm a passenger and never let a word pass my lips in reference to the driver's driving capability. I always let them handle the red lights and merging into oncoming traffic and their braking abilities when approaching a vehicle in front of them and all the bells and whistles associated with driving.
So, why can't I be treated with the same respect when I'm driving when somebody is riding shotgun on the passenger side?
I won't name names, but let's just say that our automatic seat adjuster stopped working the other day and his legs are too long to be driving my mini van. So, on Easter, we took a family trip down to my Mom & Dad's.
Needless to say, I bit my tongue the whole trip down and the whole trip back while I was sitting in the driver's seat. I didn't once say, in a catty response, "Yes, I see that the stoplight is changing to red or yes, I see the car in front of me braking or yes, I see that approaching vehicle while merging onto Highway E." I actually physically bit my tongue every time I felt a catty response surfacing.
For what is it in the grand scheme of things? Why fight over something that was soon forgotten about when we got home?
But, I just wanted to forewarn anybody that rides with me in the future, I won't say a word about back seat driving, but I may end up with a bloody tongue in the process, though!
I hope that everybody that reads this has an abundantly God filled day today!
I sit on my side of the vehicle when I'm a passenger and never let a word pass my lips in reference to the driver's driving capability. I always let them handle the red lights and merging into oncoming traffic and their braking abilities when approaching a vehicle in front of them and all the bells and whistles associated with driving.
So, why can't I be treated with the same respect when I'm driving when somebody is riding shotgun on the passenger side?
I won't name names, but let's just say that our automatic seat adjuster stopped working the other day and his legs are too long to be driving my mini van. So, on Easter, we took a family trip down to my Mom & Dad's.
Needless to say, I bit my tongue the whole trip down and the whole trip back while I was sitting in the driver's seat. I didn't once say, in a catty response, "Yes, I see that the stoplight is changing to red or yes, I see the car in front of me braking or yes, I see that approaching vehicle while merging onto Highway E." I actually physically bit my tongue every time I felt a catty response surfacing.
For what is it in the grand scheme of things? Why fight over something that was soon forgotten about when we got home?
But, I just wanted to forewarn anybody that rides with me in the future, I won't say a word about back seat driving, but I may end up with a bloody tongue in the process, though!
I hope that everybody that reads this has an abundantly God filled day today!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Digital Scrapbooking Freebie
Okay, I'm gonna post a freebie. It's been a loooooong time since I've posted a freebie! We will see if anybody's been watching my blog for updates on digital scrapbooking or not!
http://www.4shared.com/file/254761779/5f97387a/ChampTitles.html
If you want to leave a comment, please do so on my blog and not at 4shared. Thanks!
Enjoy!
There will be a time limit on this download, but I don't really know how long! Maybe a week, maybe two weeks, maybe 3....don't really know!
Like I said, I'm very seriously considering starting my own website to post a lot of my sports page kits that have been discontinued from scrapbook-bytes.
This little freebie was the last thing that I was gonna post at scrapbook-bytes, but unfortunately I never got around to it. So, I'm offering it as a blog freebie for those who have been watching my blog.
I got the inspiration to do this from one of the t-shirts that my baby was wearing. It includes champ titles from baseball, softball, bowling, fishing, swimming, tennis, golf, bicycling, ballet, cheerleading, soccer, football, dodgeball & volleyball. There are also a couple of blank sewn champ titles.
Here is the weblink for them to be downloaded:
http://www.4shared.com/file/254761779/5f97387a/ChampTitles.html
If you want to leave a comment, please do so on my blog and not at 4shared. Thanks!
Enjoy!
There will be a time limit on this download, but I don't really know how long! Maybe a week, maybe two weeks, maybe 3....don't really know!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Maidservant to Oxen
Okay, I've almost beaten myself up with this one: I am a wife and a mother, but not a maid!
In order to keep a clean home, you've gotta live with people that care about the cleanliness of their home. That means picking up their own dirty clothes off of the floor to place them in the laundry hamper. That also means not leaving dirty glasses, bowls or plates on end tables or window ledges rather than in the dishwasher or even the sink! That also means when making a new pot of coffee, just simply rinsing all those coffee grounds down the drain so that they don't dry in the sink and leave an icky mess! And it also means peeing directly in the toilet rather than all over the wall or floor! I think almost half of my housekeeping duties is spent in picking up after other people or constantly cleaning the bathroom!
But, as my pastor pointed out in his sermon this past Sunday, my house is alive with people!
When there are no oxen in the barn, it is a clean barn! It is sparkly clean and actually smells good! But when you add oxen to that barn, it gets to be busy and full of messy "stuff" and icky smells! But it's a sign that that barn is alive with activity!
So, albeit my house may not be the tidiest in the neighborhood and be full of sticky, gooey messes on the floor, dirty dishes whose home was found on a window ledge or bathtub ledge or dirty laundry on the floor, it is alive with people!
And as Christ so eloquently states in the Bible, we should be servants to people.
So, I don my little skimpy maid uniform and hat, trepse around the house and continue serving my oxen!
Mooooooo! Oh man, that one just made a big mess on the barnyard floor!
In order to keep a clean home, you've gotta live with people that care about the cleanliness of their home. That means picking up their own dirty clothes off of the floor to place them in the laundry hamper. That also means not leaving dirty glasses, bowls or plates on end tables or window ledges rather than in the dishwasher or even the sink! That also means when making a new pot of coffee, just simply rinsing all those coffee grounds down the drain so that they don't dry in the sink and leave an icky mess! And it also means peeing directly in the toilet rather than all over the wall or floor! I think almost half of my housekeeping duties is spent in picking up after other people or constantly cleaning the bathroom!
But, as my pastor pointed out in his sermon this past Sunday, my house is alive with people!
When there are no oxen in the barn, it is a clean barn! It is sparkly clean and actually smells good! But when you add oxen to that barn, it gets to be busy and full of messy "stuff" and icky smells! But it's a sign that that barn is alive with activity!
So, albeit my house may not be the tidiest in the neighborhood and be full of sticky, gooey messes on the floor, dirty dishes whose home was found on a window ledge or bathtub ledge or dirty laundry on the floor, it is alive with people!
And as Christ so eloquently states in the Bible, we should be servants to people.
So, I don my little skimpy maid uniform and hat, trepse around the house and continue serving my oxen!
Mooooooo! Oh man, that one just made a big mess on the barnyard floor!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Where Am I?
I've gotten several e-mails asking where I've disappeared to. That I've got a fan club, both for my blog and for my designs. Ya know, I didn't think anybody read my blog at all since there was no comments made. I didn't know that I was touching other people's lives.
I need to stop writing to try to make me look smart. I need to just write from my heart. And most of my blog entries from the past are that way, but there is some other "stuff" in some of the entries also. So, I start anew, once again. Not to impress anybody at all, just to write what's inside of me. And let me tell ya, sometimes it aint pretty. It isn't flowery or flowing with poetic language, at all. It is simply me!
I just want everybody to know that I am now officially internet free at my home. So, it's gonna make it tough to let everybody know what is going on in my life. But I will try.
I'm kicking around the idea of starting my own designing website to sell my sports page kits. I need to incorporate the help of my bro-in-law for that one. We will see if that comes to fruition, or if it is an ambiguous yearning on my part, as a lot of my ideas lately have become. I come up with great ideas, but when put in action, they putter out, needless to say. I'm a busy stay-at-home Momma. I am not a bon bon eating, soap opera watching stay-at-home, Mom, either...I'm raising 4 boys and they keep me on my toes needless to say.
My lesson for today is wait...wait...wait...wait...wait...wait...wait on the Lord. God's timing is the best! You've simply gotta wait on His direction and His plan! Cuz if you go forth on your own, it will end in a flop! I've gotta wait on the Good Lord!
That, boys and girls, is the lesson for today!
See ya!
Me
I need to stop writing to try to make me look smart. I need to just write from my heart. And most of my blog entries from the past are that way, but there is some other "stuff" in some of the entries also. So, I start anew, once again. Not to impress anybody at all, just to write what's inside of me. And let me tell ya, sometimes it aint pretty. It isn't flowery or flowing with poetic language, at all. It is simply me!
I just want everybody to know that I am now officially internet free at my home. So, it's gonna make it tough to let everybody know what is going on in my life. But I will try.
I'm kicking around the idea of starting my own designing website to sell my sports page kits. I need to incorporate the help of my bro-in-law for that one. We will see if that comes to fruition, or if it is an ambiguous yearning on my part, as a lot of my ideas lately have become. I come up with great ideas, but when put in action, they putter out, needless to say. I'm a busy stay-at-home Momma. I am not a bon bon eating, soap opera watching stay-at-home, Mom, either...I'm raising 4 boys and they keep me on my toes needless to say.
My lesson for today is wait...wait...wait...wait...wait...wait...wait on the Lord. God's timing is the best! You've simply gotta wait on His direction and His plan! Cuz if you go forth on your own, it will end in a flop! I've gotta wait on the Good Lord!
That, boys and girls, is the lesson for today!
See ya!
Me
Monday, October 5, 2009
Gotta
Gotta love life as it comes hurdling at you at a screaming speed!
I'm learning to turn the power off on extraneous noises and soak up the Lord!
Life is like a roller coaster! Up and down and all around! At least mine is! But I'm learning to land on solid ground, now!
Jesus was the one who loved me enough to let my sins nail Him to the cross! Who else in the world do I know would do that for me???????
I'm learning to turn the power off on extraneous noises and soak up the Lord!
Life is like a roller coaster! Up and down and all around! At least mine is! But I'm learning to land on solid ground, now!
Jesus was the one who loved me enough to let my sins nail Him to the cross! Who else in the world do I know would do that for me???????
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