SomeGirlsWebsite

How to Prepare Your Heart

2015-07-30T18:48:47Z

Well, did you happen to look up any of the September 2015 stuff? There’s some really crazy stuff out there, but also some things that make you think…

The night I started looking into all the stuff being said about September I stayed up reading and watching videos until 4:30am (oh my!)… I was floored by what I was finding and finished my time with a prayer of distress, “Oh, Father! What can I do to prepare??!” Instantly I heard the whispered thought of God say, “Prepare your heart!” I’ll confess that’s not what I wanted to hear. I had in mind, “Get a year’s worth of food,” “Buy land,” Go to the mountains…” But, “Prepare your heart.” That was hard to wrap my mind around.

Since then I can’t say that I’ve been good at heeding that advice… True confessions here: Instead of preparing my heart, I’ve spent time thinking, “Ooh, if something’s coming I need to buy extra food and supplies.” Not a bad idea to be prepared for times of need, might I add. Other times I’ve spent way too much time surfing the internet for “insight” into what lies ahead in September… Wondering why we need to “be in Texas”?? And, on top of it all, I spent the first month and a half of summer trying to find a camper and get our travel plans in order for a modified trip from our original Civil War/East Coast one planned for the fall – to no avail, by the way. (For some reason every door we pushed on wouldn’t budge… it became almost comical that we would find a camper we liked, call on it, and the answer would almost always be, “someone is here buying it right now…”)

Finally, we gave up on our dream of a long road trip with our family and decided to jump to “our” next plan…

a. sell home and 16′ camper

b. move to townhome near school to have as a “base” for travel

c. buy a larger camper

d. travel the east coast and French-speaking-Canada for a year!!! (road schooling along the way)

e. get that bug out of our system and buy a large plot of land (that you don’t have to mow) with animals and ATVs

f. settle down in the country (near a big city) and enjoy nature together for the last few years we have with our kids at home (can you believe my older one turns 13 this Saturday?).

So… it made sense to us that we were just to skip on to the land we had wanted…

But, as has been in fashion for our lives this past year, the doors haven’t budged in that area yet either. Then, just a few days ago, I started finding things online that over and over again said, “Prepare your heart.” “Prepare your heart.” “Prepare your heart.”

I started to get the message… but, “How?”

“Lord, please show me how to prepare my heart,” has become my prayer and prayer request these past few days… and, Thanks be to God, He has shown me so much! (Why did I wait so long to ask?)

With a newfound commitment to be more obedient to those nudges of the Holy Spirit (you know the ones where you sense deep inside that God wants you to do something… offer to pray for someone, share the Gospel with that lady you just sat down next to, turn on a different road than normal, or as in this morning, wake up now and read your Bible), I woke up at His urging and went downstairs with my Bible to read.

1 Thessalonians came straight to my mind as where to start. So, I opened my Bible and began devouring each word in a new way, as an answer to my prayers, “Lord, please show me how to prepare my heart.”

Filled with the word of God, I wanted to go get my journal and make my list for myself of all that I learned and gleaned from chapters 1-5 of 1 Thessalonians on how to prepare my heart.

Then I sensed that nudge again…

“write it on your blog.”

I wrestled a moment with the fact that I had a family to attend to, and one of the admonitions was to “lead a quiet life,” and I don’t think hardly anyone reads the blog anymore since I’ve been absent for so long, but decided it was something I needed to follow. (I also prayed for quiet time to be able to write and can you believe no one is up and moving around in my household yet? – although I’m just starting to hear some stirring upstairs)

So, for whoever God chooses to send these words out to, here is what I gleaned this morning from 1 Thessalonians on How to Prepare Your Heart:

Have the courage in our God to declare the gospel of God in spite of opposition
We are approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so declare it, not to please people but God, who examines our hearts.
Live in a way worthy of God who calls you to his own kingdom and his glory
Accept God’s message, which is at work among you who believe
Pray the Lord will cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all, so that your hearts are strengthened in holiness to be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Love one another
Aspire to lead a quiet life, attend to your own business, work with your hands – in this way you will live a decent life before outsiders and not be in need
Encourage one another with these words: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.”
When they are saying, “There is peace and security,” sudden destruction will come on them like a thief in the night, but you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would.
Stay alert and sober.
We must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation.
God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining salvation.
He died for us so that whether we are alert or asleep we will come to life together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, just as you are in fact doing.
acknowledge those who labor among you and preside over you in the Lord and admonish you – esteem them most highly in love because of their work.
Be at peace among yourselves.
Admonish the undisciplined
comfort the discouraged
help the weak
be patient toward all.
See that no one pays back evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all.
Always rejoice
constantly pray
in everything give thanks.
For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus
Do not extinguish the Spirit.
Do not treat prophecies with contempt.
But examine all things; hold fast to what is good.
Stay away from every form of evil.
Pray that the God of peace himself will make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. – He who calls you is trustworthy, and he will in fact do this.
Pray for others, too.
Have this letter (1 Thessalonians) read to all the brothers and sisters.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

(Perfect timing, my family just came down a couple of minutes ago.) :)

May God be glorified in the sharing of His words from chapters 1 – 5 of 1 Thessalonians (NET bible translation).

Love,

Michelle

“Be in Texas in September.”

2015-07-17T14:57:22Z

Let’s see, where was I? Oh yes, the boys had just finished the last few weeks of the year at their new school…

In the time that we realized our older son needed a new form of education and while we hunted, prayed, and had them switch, our little town of Keller, Texas started to boom. People were moving in like crazy and the real estate market was sky rocketing. Being the entrepreneurs that we are (and after spending several weeks of driving nearly an hour each way to drop off and pick up from school – where we knew our older son would need at least another year) we entertained the idea of jumping on the market and making a nice profit on the sale of our house.

At the same time, as many of you know from the past, our little family of four LOVES to travel! We developed this wonderfully exciting idea… what if we did a few things to bring our house to top-notch standards, found an inexpensive townhome near the new school, and then took a year out in-between school years to TRAVEL THE NATION?! Very quickly we found the cutest little townhome on an old pecan orchard. It had just been flipped and was remodeled to look almost exactly like a smaller (half-size) version of the home we had loved and were thinking about selling. Along with a few other buyers (since the market was that hot) we made an offer the first day it listed and won the bid. Immediately we began construction on our home with the hopes of being done and listed by early June (sold by July – it was moving that fast) and on the road, with the townhome as our base (and future residence for a following year of Key School).

Well, as often happens in life, “we” set a great plan, but God directed our course in a different direction… Construction took longer than expected (that probably doesn’t surprise anyone, right?). By the end of June/beginning of July we were ready to list our house. After 5 or 6 of the LONGEST weeks I’ve probably ever experienced, we had an offer on our house. By the time our negotiating and their examination was over it was time for school to start. We were not set to close until the end of October which was going to put a big hiccup in our traveling plans since we wanted to be back home for the fall/winter holidays. So, we decided to go ahead and enroll our oldest in the Key School and homeschool our youngest with the help of a lovely university-style co-op. We could always take the second half of the year off and go out and about right?

Hmmm… “we could I guess, but the boys have already been through half a year and would benefit from finishing out the rest of the year”… and the “school ends just a few months after Christmas break.”

So… we decided to wait and finish out the year. But “while we wait we’ll find a great RV for our travels!”

Long story short, the school year ended very well for the boys, but no matter what my husband and I did to find a great RV for our travels the doors closed and opportunities fell through.

In that time of hunting for RVs, planning our year-long Civil War History roadschooling tour, and praying about what is best for our boys as far as schooling goes – somewhere around April – I woke up in middle of the night (as had become common the few days or weeks ahead of this night). Normally I would wake up and think and pray about what to do and go back to sleep. This time was weird. I woke up droggy and made my way to the bathroom without hardly opening my eyes or awakening my mind. Then, as clear as a loudspeaker in my head, I hear what some people call “God whispering His thoughts to yours” but it wasn’t a whisper it was a firm, loud command that simply said, “Be in Texas in September.” (The punctuation probably should have an exclamation point, but I’ll leave it as a period – a strong, sharp period.)

The next morning I told my husband about “the message” and something to the effect of, “I don’t know what we’re going to do with our travels and schooling, but we need to ‘be in Texas in September!’” Thankfully he didn’t think I was crazy and decided to entertain the idea.

Of course our mind started to turn over different scenarios about what was going to happen in that coming month… we still often wonder about September. We wonder even more after a teacher at the homeschool co-op asked us if we were ready and excited about our Civil War adventure?! As I told her the story of our shortened trip due to the whole “Be in Texas in September” message, she replied, “Ooh, that gives me chills. Have you heard all the stuff people are saying about September??” (I hadn’t until then. Have you?)

Be back soon to tell how I’ve come to understand that my plea of “Here I am send me!” has been answered with a whispered, “this is where I’ve sent you, now I want you to stay.”

A Long Awaited Answer

2015-06-18T22:08:45Z

Oh, what a rotten place to have left my blog over a year (and almost a half) ago… Sorry about that!

It seems like forever ago now that I struggled with the question of what to do for my boys’ education (particularly for my oldest, who had just been diagnosed with dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and severe anxiety).

Long story short (but not as short as experts say a story on a blog post “ought” to be)…

From just before I last blogged until about mid-March of last year, I tossed and turned, prayed and sought God, talked, cried, dreamed, and contemplated every educational option under the sun. Somewhere in that time my husband and I developed a strong urge to travel around the eastern half of the US and make it a year-long Civil War Roadschool journey – It sounded so dreamy and great! But… I just didn’t have peace about any of it. So, I blogged here and prayed A LOT. Many nights I would wake up around 2 or 3 in the morning and seek God on the whole issue. Then one night I woke up and prayed, asking God to please give me direction on what to do…

(Have you ever had one of those times when you ask God a question and almost immediately a thought pops into your head with the answer? One of my friends calls this “God whispering His thoughts to yours. That’s what happened…)

Immediately the whispered thought came, “Send the boys to the Key School.” Now, the Key School was one of the options we had checked out. And it was definitely NOT one of the options I liked. It was rigid and stiff. A school for children with dyslexia and other learning differences, which focused solely on academics and had no time or space for anything remotely “fun.” I knew that thought had not come from me… I mean, the Key School? No, thank you. But, the whispered thought was so strong that I couldn’t ignore it.

Soon after, in April last year, we signed our boys up for a 3 day trial at the “dreaded” school. I prepared them for how tough the days were going to be, coming from a Montessori-like project-based private school I figured the long day of pencil/paper, desk work was going to really drain them… to my surprise they LOVED it! By the second day my oldest was asking if he could finish out the rest of the year there… WHAT??!

I couldn’t believe my eyes or ears. He was beaming with joy at the end of each day and gladly gave up even saying goodbye to his former classmates and teachers to move over to this school. Because of the cost (which is more than I could ever imagine, but not too much for God to have provided), we only let our oldest switch schools at that time. It was tricky for our family as this new school was a good 45 minutes away, and a good hour between our youngest’s and oldest’s campuses. This made for quite a trying time as my husband and I worked together to shuttle boys around each morning and afternoon. Then, one evening I was woken in middle of the night again with a still, small voice whispering in my head, “Send BOTH boys to the Key School.” “Oh, God, if you want both boys to go to the Key School, you’re going to have to speak to Steve to let him know. Make it abundantly clear to him [as it is SO expensive].” I prayed a bit more and went to sleep. First thing in the morning, as I was in brushing my teeth, my husband came in and to my surprise said, “I think we need to send BOTH boys to the Key School.” [Once again…] WHAT??!

For the last month of the school year BOTH of our boys went to the same new school. Our oldest blossomed and our youngest started to wilt and I learned a wonderful lesson… as an educator I have known and taught how important learning styles are, but I guess I’ve never fully grasped the weight of the importance. My oldest certainly needed more structure and repetition in his learning and was drowning in anxiety at the free-spirited school we had him enrolled in. And my youngest – who I thought was so flexible that he could learn anywhere – my youngest one’s little free-spirited, creative heart was drying up and hardening. Thankfully, it was a short lesson learned for him. Too bad it took me so long to learn that lesson for my older one.

So, we did it. We obeyed God and sent BOTH boys to the Key School, which coincidently (if you believe in coincidences) used one of my husband’s stock photos to advertise in our local Child magazine… every few months over the course of the past several years we would get a copy of the new Child magazine and would see Steve’s photo advertising this little private school for learning differences called the Key School. And can you guess which model was used in Steve’s photo? Yep, you guessed it: our oldest son. Each time we looked in the publication we saw our son’s face looking at us smiling from under the banner of the Key School, just waiting for us to finally get the message that he needed to go there. ;) (Doesn’t that remind you of the scene in that Jim Carrey movie where he asks for a sign and the truck pulls in front of him saying “Turn left” or something to that effect…?).

Now, if I haven’t bored you to death, tune in soon when I tell you about how we decided to sell our home and move into a townhome in order to travel the nation… and how God taught us a little bit about His plan not always being the same as ours. :)

Oh, let me add that, after a year of having my oldest son at the Key School, I LOVE it!!!! And can’t recommend it any more highly for students with learning differences! God has used it to make a WORLD of difference in the life of our smart, formerly-frustrated, learner. Thanks be to God and Mrs. Key!

Another note: Because the tuition is SO incredibly high (and because God seems to be calling us to go somewhere with another learning difference school in the area) we are not enrolling our son in the same school this next year, therefore I feel comfortable openly sharing the name of the school he’s been attending. :)

Oh my soul, do you not know?

2014-02-25T20:54:34Z

Oh my soul, do you not know that today is a gift from the Lord and tomorrow, let alone next year, is not promised?

Why do you worry yourself with questions about the future when you know The One who has ordained your days and written each one of them before any has come to be.

You can trust in Him.

He holds your future and will guide your footsteps.

He will fight for you, you need only to be still.

Be still, oh my soul, and know

that He is God.

(Written after countless hours of thinking, worrying, researching, praying, and seeking the Lord’s guidance in education choices for my boys, one of whom was recently diagnosed with Dyscalculia and Dysgraphia. Thank you for any prayers you might pray on our behalf. I sure do appreciate them! How can I pray for you? Let me know in the comment section below.)

YOU were created for a purpose

2014-02-23T00:25:02Z

So, I was going to write a post about how God whispered His thoughts to mine yesterday morning, reminding me to ease up and be patient with myself. And then I found this post in my drafts folder… Guess my past self needed to preach to my present self today. Hopefully you will benefit from these words, too. ♥ Michelle (aka SomeGirl)

…………………………………

You know that person that you wish you were more like… she probably wishes she was more like someone else, too.

And did you know that there’s most likely someone right now wishing they were more like you?

It’s true. And it’s a never ending cycle.

None of us are perfect.

We all have things we wish we could do better, and we’re all insecure (even the ones that don’t seem like they are… many times they are the most).

Instead of trying to be like someone else, learn to be content with who you are.

God made you to be YOU… in all of your uniqueness!

It’s easy to focus on what you don’t do well, or what someone else does better, but stop that.

You were created for a purpose and your purpose is carefully tied to the way God made you.

If you keep comparing yourself to others and trying to be like them, you’ll miss out on cultivating the “you” that was “designed” to do great things… GREAT things!

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” – Ephesians 2:10

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” – Dr. Seuss

Mom cannot live on grocery shopping alone…

2014-02-07T20:39:42Z

Hey there, sweet friends! It’s your long-lost blogger, Michelle (aka SomeGirl).

I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year-and-a-half since I wrote my last real-post, “You Can’t Get The Time Back.”

Now, that my boys have both gone to school full-time and I find myself twiddling my thumbs (or finding creative ways to avoid dishes and laundry – wink), I’ve come to the realization that I could use a personal outlet and a place to form some sort of accountability.

What better place, I asked myself, then here at SomeGirl’s Website? I know I haven’t been around in a while, but I swear it was for good reasons…

one of our “fraddling” opportunities at a Living Water International drill site in El Salvador

One of these days I’ll take the time to share everything that’s gone on since we last met.

For now, my plan is to set aside some personal time each week that doesn’t involve grocery shopping, meal planning, or researching” how to best parent a tween-age boy” (if anyone has good suggestions on the last item, I’m all ears!), and to spend a good hour each day or week writing here at the blog. Hopefully those hours will end with a decent post to share with you guys. :)

I hope you’ll join me as we delve into whatever the spirit leads in those hours to come. I’m looking forward to getting back into the blogging saddle!

With much love,

♥ Michelle (aka SomeGirl)

By the way, I’m looking to set up/and be consistent with a chore system for my boys. If anyone would like to come alongside me as an accountability partner, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below! I’m a little ADHD and being consistent in this area has been HARD for me. Prayerfully I’ll find something that will work and be enjoyable (as enjoyable as chores can be, that is).

Photography Classes Coming Soon!

2013-09-04T19:20:08Z

Wow, time flies! It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly a year since I last posted… but what a sweet year it’s been.

My little one (who’s not so little anymore) and I had some great “just us” days while my oldest was off at school.

My oldest progressed greatly with his reading and was deemed no longer needing vision support with prism glasses.

I learned lots of new recipes as we found out our food allergies/sensitivities through an iGG blood test. Unfortunately we found egg both boys are highly sensitive to eggs (yolk and whites) so we sold our sweet chickens. :(

Btw, once we took all of our sensitive foods out of our diets aches and pains we didn’t even realize we had disappeared! I had no idea my little one was having headaches most days and my oldest one’s eyes were burning near continually. Thanks be to God for this new found information!

And to top everything off we went on a wonderful journey around the midwest this summer… 6 weeks exploring Estes Park, The Black Hills in South Dakota, Yellowstone, Salt Lake City, Moab (which was HOT, HOT, HOT), and Gunnison, Colorado. One of these days I’ll get on here and share vacation photos, but if you’re interested to see some now check out my instagram account and scroll down just a bit. :)

Now… both of my boys have started back to school and left me at home wondering what to do with all of my free time (other than dishes, laundry, errands, and cooking). I contemplated coming back to blogging on a regular basis (and I still might do that). But, God has laid upon my heart to use my giftedness (teaching) and my interest (photography) to serve the Thirsty and further His kindgom.

So, I’ve decided to offer private or small group lessons on “How to move out of Auto on your DSLR” in and around the DFW area in an effort to raise money for Living Water International (you know how much I love their work of providing clean water and sharing the Gospel all over the globe, right?).

If you know anyone who might be interested, send them this post!

I also wouldn’t be opposed to video chat lessons, if you’re interested in that or know someone else who might be. :)

Thanks for helping spread the word!

I haven’t determined a price yet (suggestions are welcome), but I do know that all proceeds from my lessons will go directly to Living Water International.

I’m super excited about spending an hour or two doing what I love in order for others to hear the Good News and have life-giving water for generations!

Here are a couple of referrals I’ve received from former students (more to come soon…):

“Michelle makes complicated photography jargon simple and easy to understand. She gives clear, useful directions and encourages you to practice what you’re learning while she teaches you in a conversational, hands-on style. Friendly, helpful, and eager to teach, I highly recommend Michelle Debenport as a fantastic photography teacher for both beginners and more advanced photographers alike.” – Michelle from Intentional.Me

“Michelle patiently explained the exposure triangle in a way I could understand while giving me some rules of thumb to remember for different settings. Her quick, easily absorbed tutorials changed my photography game, as evidenced by immediate results!” – Michelle from So, I Married a Mennonite

Yeah, Michelle is a pretty popular name. ;)

“When my camera was so new, and my skills so poor, it was Michelle who first took me under her wing. She made complicated concepts easily understandable, empowering me to capture pictures with light and beauty in a way I hadn’t been able to before.” – Jacque from Mercy Found Me

…………………………

Turning my passion for teaching AND others’ desire for learning how to use their DSLR camera INTO clean water and The Gospel message being shared around the world!

Let me know if you’re interested in a “How to move out of Auto” DSLR class. All proceeds will go directly to Living Water International – providing clean water in the name of Jesus. || Private lessons offered in and around the DFW area.

You Can’t Get the Time Back

2012-09-11T02:09:46Z