One grand prize winner will receive:

• $50 gift card to Erin Condren Shop (Your one-stop-shop for all things awesome!)
• $50 gift card to Victoria’s Secret® (For something pretty.)
• $25 gift card to Bath & Body Works® (For a little spa treatment.)
• 2 Sets of Cravings – The Devotional (For you and a friend.)
• Scentsy Plug In and 2 Bars (A lovely scent for your space.)

Hurry, the giveaway ends on 5/12/12. The winner will be announced 5/14/12 on Carey’s blog!

Just click one of the icons below to enter! Tell your friends about Carey’s giveaway on FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning.

Good luck!!

I’m still processing how I’m going to blog regularly during this season of nausea and sickness, so things may be kind of scattered for a bit longer….for that I apologize.  I DO have things I want to share, but finding free time when I’m feeling well enough to be coherent has been difficult.  Another couple of weeks and if this pregnancy goes like the last, I should feel better!  (Oh, how I hope so!)  I hope that you guys will stick around with me and be patient while I muddle through this….it is certainly appreciated!

Of course, my emotions about all this have been nutso – I feel like I’ve let you guys down, my mom and husband down (who have been SO supportive from day ONE!) and even the Lord, who has granted me this opportunity to share my heart feelings.  I must remind myself that everything is a season and that nothing catches HIM off guard.  He knew I would be sick….and sick….and sick…..so this is no surprise.  He will use this blog and bless it according to His purposes and I must remember that I am just a small player in His grand orchestra.  May I play my part well in every season!

So, to close up – would you stick around for me to feel better?  I sure hope so!

“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Proverbs 29.18

Do you ever lose sight of why you do what you do? Being a homemaker, a mother, a wife, isn’t always an easy task. We wear so many hats that our job descriptions could fill up a whole page! I know I often have to refocus, gain new perspective, and remind myself that I’m told to be “a keeper at home” (Titus 2.5). I have to have vision.

Image: Jeroen van Oostrom / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

My Pastor did a sermon where the key phrase was, “Where there is vision, there is division.” I don’t know of any place where that is more true than in the home. This is our battle ground. This is where our fight takes place, for our marriage and for our children. What we teach them here will help shape who they are as adults. I want my children to be God-fearing, to love people, to help meet the needs of those around them, to share the love of Jesus. They will learn that here in the home. That’s what makes what we do more than just “a job.”

I love what 3rd John 4 says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” Who will teach them that truth? We will! That is our responsibility. This is where the vision begins. Knowing that we are the greatest influence on our children. No, we’re not perfect. There are times where we will make mistakes. In those times, we ask forgiveness. We humble ourselves to our children. We are showing them humility. We can’t just say “Ask Susie if she will please forgive you.” We have to demonstrate it to them. When they see our actions matching up with our words, is when they will see what genuine Christianity is.

I want to encourage you today, and everyday, to have a vision for your home. Think about what your goals are, short and long term. Make a list of things that will help you accomplish them. Write down the things that hinder you from them. Revise it as necessary. Remember that we are the keepers of our home and our children. We need to love them and love their daddies, respect their daddies – that’s going to teach them a lot. They are watching every move we make and listening to every word we say. Let our vision be to raise our children up to walk in the truth. What great joy that day will be to see them serving our Lord!

I leave you with this verse of encouragement,

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” Galatians 6:9

Image: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Don’t lose heart, dear mother! For what we are doing, is good. Keep a fresh vision for your home, your children, and yourself. Anything that is not helping you to fulfill that vision, cut out! It’s okay! “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

I hope this will encourage to keep on keeping on and to have purpose in your home!

Blessings!

My name is Gail and I am the self-proclaimed “Imperfect Housewife.” I know I have flaws and struggles, and I am trying to work those things out! I seem to work things out better when I can *talk* them through, and so became my blog, The Imperfect Housewife.  I strive for my relationship with Christ to be the first and foremost priority and relationship in my life.  My dear readers are why I write in the first place!  May God be glorified!

Hi!  I’m Amanda from My Heart’s Desire Blog, and it is such a privilege to be guest posting at Abide at Home  while Rhonda is away at Blissdom!

Today, I’m sharing a delicious recipe for Apple Cinnamon Bread that my neighbor, Morgan, introduced me to a few weeks ago. 

Apple Cinnamon Bread is a great gift for a new neighbor, a new mom, or just because!  One recipe is enough for one large loaf pan or  three mini loaf pans, which are the perfect size for a “happie” to give away.

Apple Cinnamon Bread

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 t. baking powder

1 tsp of vanilla

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. cinnamon

1 stick salted butter, softened

2 eggs

1 cup refined sugar

3 peeled, chopped Granny Smith apples (very small pieces)

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Baker’s Joy cooking spray

Mix first six ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.  

In a mixer, blend together butter, eggs, and sugar.  Gradually add flour mixture and mix until blended thoroughly.  

Add chopped apples and pecans (if desired).  Mix well.

Spray the inside of a 9×5 loaf pan or three mini loaf pans with Baker’s Joy.  Pour batter into pan(s). After batter is in the pan(s), sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top of batter.  (No measuring here, just sprinkle enough for a little extra taste).

For 9×5 loaf pan, bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.  

For three mini loaf pans, bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  

**Oven cooking times vary, so be sure to test your bread before the timer rings.  You may need more or less baking time.  

Remove bread from oven and turn out loaves onto a cooling rack.  Slice to serve!

Amanda is a mom to three kids and has been married to David for 13 years.   She has a passion for cooking, journaling, blogging, authentic relationships, and making her home a “haven.”  You will find creative ideas for your home, recipes, and an authentic place to be yourself at www.myheartsdesireblog.com.

So, this is my first time to guest post and I am so excited! I have gone over and over what I wanted to write about, what I wanted to share with you. I am a little bit of an over-thinker and analyzer , but I really felt God pushing me to speak straight from my heart. From a place that is still a little wounded, a place that is still in the process of healing. He is still working on me, showing me the way…His way.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  Jeremiah 29:11

The plans I have for you…plans are His to make. Not mine. {Yes we plan, but always in the light that His plans are sovereign over ours, written with eternal ink, we write ours in pencil with a big eraser.} Life, this beautiful gift doesn’t always go like we plan, it shifts and moves with the wind of His spoken word, for this is His spoken world. Oh, how could I forget?

I live in a story.

A whole story, a fairytale written by God’s fingers as Hans Christian Anderson said. It is true. It is a beautiful story, I know even if it doesn’t look or feel very beautiful to me because I know He only writes beautiful stories… He is only capable of beauty.

But, I look around sometimes at where I am at in His story and I can’t see it. I am blind, blinded by sight, by the eyes of my inescapable nature. Beauty isn’t even relative here in this part of the story because I can’t see how the story ends. I am so wrapped up in myself and my own script that has been turned into ashes in the blazing fire of life that I have forgotten that I am not the writer.

We are but loved characters spoken into this world, proper nouns {grammar anyone?} given a divine place in His story. How can I forget that He has already written the story with His eternal ink and that He dearly loves each and every character He has spoken into existence? He can be trusted as the author of my life.

And whatever you may be going through whether it is a major life change like I just went through or maybe it is a small one you will soon forget. You can trust that your story is a part of a bigger story written and spoken by an Author who loved His characters so much that He became one of them and died for them, the Word spoken into existence of His own story.

Oh, I pray this encourages you wherever you are at in the Story… like it has for me. How amazing to know that we are living in a Divine Story full of hope, hope for redemption and packed full of purpose. Never forget this! Remember that you are living in the greatest story ever written ever lived and the best stories are the ones we live… So as we live in His beautiful story, as the world turns and the pages flip may we strive to live with our eyes wide open to His story and trust the Author of our lives. Oh, I am learning everyday that He is worthy and can be trusted!

If you have a testimony of God’s faithfulness in your life, would you share a piece of your story with us today?

Kelli is a mother to 4 beautiful wild souls and a wife to her husband Rick of 11 years! She lives in a ”fairytale written by God’s fingers” as Hans Christian Anderson said, one that is destined to have a happily ever after because of the everlasting love of Jesus. She is an artist trying to get over her insecurities and to live brave on the edge, chasing grace with which to paint her world colorful, a woman on a mission to capture the magic in her ordinary days, passionate about filling her home and the hearts of her children with His love in hopes of it spilling over into the world… She is on a journey to change the world from the inside out!

But the fruit of the Spirit is ¹love, ²joy, ³peace, ⁴longsuffering, ⁵gentleness, ⁶goodness, ⁷faith, ⁸meekness, ⁹temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Wouldn’t it be nice if we really did live on the proverbial Cloud 9?

I picture Cloud 9 as a place where there are no problems. Where we can relax in our ignorance of evil. Where storm clouds never darken the skies. A lot like the place where a tub full of Calgon would take you. Not that I’ve been there. But a girl can dream.

Did you know that we as Christians can live on Cloud 9? Of course it won’t be a place free from storms, we will be faced with evil, temptations will be around every corner, and there will be problems, sickness, and even death. But if we live and walk in the Spirit continually, we will be as peaceful and grounded as if we were living on Cloud 9. There simply is no better way to walk through life.

It is easy to think, I’m a Christian, I read the Bible, I go to church. Doesn’t that make me automatically have the Fruit of the Spirit?! Well, if you join Weight Watchers and become a paid member, attend every meeting, and subscribe to the magazine, will you suddenly begin to lose weight? I wish it were that easy, Amen!? Living a fruit-filled life is very similar. Yes, we become a new creature when we become a Christian, but we have to purpose to draw close to the Lord, while we practice the Fruits, then it will eventually become our nature to think, act, and be Spirit-filled.

And being Spirit filled is the closest we’ll ever get to living on Cloud 9 here on earth.

So, what are these Fruit of the Spirit? I’m pretty sure we are all very familiar with them. I don’t think any of us have a problem with not knowing what they are, but choosing to do those things that actually develop them and then making ourselves actually practice them.

Sometimes we just want to be mad, we want to be critical, we want to have a sour mood, we want to be offended, we want to do what we want, feel what we want, eat what we want, etc. The Devil wants nothing more for you to just do what you want. But we have to want what the Lord has for us to live a victorious Christian life. We have to want to be the person that will help another Christian to walk close to the Lord. We have to want to be that Christian that will bring a lost soul to Him.

Really, it’s not a foreign concept. I will again use the analogy of weight loss. I have a few friends and acquaintances that have lost 40+ pounds recently. They exercise daily, study on the right foods, the right exercises etc. Their whole day is dedicated to thinking about and working towards their weight loss goals. Imagine if we put that much effort into drawing close to the Lord, studying His Word, praying and in turn developing, growing, and practicing the Fruit of the Spirit!? Can you imagine how our churches would flourish? How our homes would be a place of love, encouragement, and peace? Our marriages would be heavenly! We would all think we were living on Cloud 9!

And sweet Sister, that is exactly what we have to do. Don’t think about it as an option. As Christians we are called and commanded to love and serve one another. That is our calling. However, we can’t do it without the Spirit. We have to have the Spirit living in us, let Him control our thoughts and our actions.
If the Spirit is at work in your life, the fruits will be evident.

The fruit of the Spirit is in just one word – love. Joy is love exalted; peace is love in repose; long-suffering is love-enduring; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love in school, and temperance is love in training. And so you can say that the fruit is all expressed by one word – love. –D.L.Moody

Amanda is a minister’s wife and a second-generation homeschooling mom of six children. She has blogged at Better Is Little for 4 years, where she blogs about the joys of living a life with less. She believes that one of the keys to an abundant life in Christ is striving to keep life simple – in the kitchen, the school room, the ministry, and all areas of life. Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith.

So, we’ve identified some trends within the young Christian community, I’d say!

(Photo Credit)

There are ups and downs to these figures.

The good news first:

Our Christian kids WANT their parents’ input about who they date!  Wow!  We’ve personally heard countless teenagers tell us that their parents avoid the subject or don’t want to “go there” with them – but the thing is – they WANT their parents to care enough to voice their opinion…..and generally, teens are even willing to take those opinions seriously!

The figures surprised me a bit, frankly about how much say they DID want their parents to have….it’s a LOT higher than I anticipated.

I was pleased that 80% didn’t believe in love at first sight…..that’s a bunch of nonsense.  The “right” couple meeting at the “right” time might be seem like love at first sight, but true love is SO much more than warm fuzzies……

The neutral:

Many teens in our youth group think they are ready to date far earlier than I personally would advocate.  Every parent has to make that decision for themselves, and I’m not here to judge.  It is my concern that where purity is concerned, there’s only so many bases to home…..and the earlier you begin to allow temptation into their lives, the longer they have to maintain purity during the most hormone-driven years of their lives…..when they are also most affected by peer pressure and the desire to fit in (sometimes at any cost).   Fifteen or sixteen may be the accepted cultural “rule” – but it is worth considering on a child-by-child basis what their personal maturity is, what the “point” of beginning dating is, etc.

(This gets into a whole different discussion regarding the pros and cons of dating versus courtship and I’m not prepared to deal with that adequately in this post……I will say that I dated, and that it wasn’t the best experience ever and we hope to do something different with our daughter…)

I was a bit concerned about the fact that 70% of those surveyed believe that there is ONE PERSON out there for them and basically, if they miss it, then they are doomed to a life of marital misery.  I think that takes God out of the equation and makes it more of a “crisis point” that they find THE ONE.  Movies and media certainly emphasize this notion, but it would seem to be much healthier to understand that God has our best in mind, and that HE directs our paths if we acknowledge Him!

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

And although I was pleased at the responses given overall of the essential parts of a healthy longterm relationship, it bothered me that more students didn’t mention that a mutual relationship with Jesus is a MUST!  I think they know that cognitively, but many students still don’t understand that a common faith is KEY! Which leads me directly into the next segment…

And now the bad…..

Almost 40% said they would consider dating an unbeliever in order to win them to Jesus……really?!?!  That’s truly scary!  Why?  Well – look at Solomon for a perfect example!  Solomon, the wisest man ever turns away from God because of his idolatrous wives….how can our teenagers expect better of themselves??  They DO NOT understand the gravity of this subject.  (Even though I know we’ve harped on it over and over and over and over and over….)

It’s the old analogy of how much easier it is to pull someone OFF a chair than it is for them to pull a person standing on the ground up ONTO the chair with them….

Finally….

So, there you have it!  Lots of fodder for some good family discussions… pray that God will open up opportunities for you to talk openly, pray that your child’s heart will be open and receptive, pray for the proper (not overbearing) words that will stir your child’s spirit and help them to be better prepared for this precarious life experience!  We know our God is faithful and we must be diligent to train our children – because if we don’t, the media and the culture will be HAPPY to train them for us!!

Linking up at:

Okay, so yesterday and today we are talking love.  Real love versus manufactured, syrupy, romance-movie infatuation.  Any of you that have been married more than, like, fifteen minutes know that there IS a difference!  True love…..well, here’s the best definition I can think of:

2 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient and kind;

love does not envy or boast;

it is not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way;

it is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

and then in verse 13

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

What a standard!

So, back to yesterday’s post – I did a survey in our very-sheltered, run-of-the-mill Christian youth group.  I’ll pit this group against any – they are GREAT kids!  (Not perfect obviously, but they consistently impress me and give me hope for my little one(s)!)

I asked seven questions about love, dating and the role of parents.  It was intended to be easy and could be finished within two minutes.

Here’s the results of our very-unscientific, but very telling survey:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Wow!

Now, there are some ups and downs of these results – and I want to get into those – but I’ll save the analysis for the next post!!  What are your thoughts so far??

Update: For Part 3, click HERE!