The Blogging Pastors Wife

The Gift

2012-12-04T09:57:00.001-05:00

Hello Friends!

I have been gone such a long time from blogging world but I haven't completely dropped off the face of blogging world. December is here which means I am starting Random Acts of Giving/Kindess again. This simple act at Christmas time has changed my Christmas's forever. I received one of the best gifts I have ever received this year and would love to share the story. It starts back in August on my birthday.

I received a very unexpected package in the mail from an Uncle of mine.

When I opened up the package there were two small packages. The first gift was to be used for me in any way I wanted, and the second gift was to be use to bless someone else in anyway I felt led.

If you could have seen me you would have seen that I was beside myself with excitment and joy. I might have even did a little birthday dance around the room. I am telling you this was my absolute favorite gift ever! I loved all the possibilities of what God could do with this money. I immediately started praying asking Him to send me people and ideas to use this money to glorify Him the most. After I had been praying a while He impressed on my mind to use this money specifically for Random Acts of Kindness and so I have been waiting patiently since August to use this for now.

So today it starts! Random Act of Giving December 2012.

My first purchase was at Bath and Body Works. One of my favorite Random Acts last year was cashier gifts. So I purchased 30 antibacterial hand sanitizers to add to small gift bags for all of my cashiers. I will add other things as well and post later on this week what will make up these gifts. These are normally $1.50 a piece but with coupons and sales they cost only $.66 a piece. Can you guess my all time favorite scent? It is in this picture...

I would love to hear of your Random Acts this year. So many of you were also doing random acts and would love to hear all your stories and post them here on the blog! Much love to you this Christmas Season!! May Christ be the center of all our giving and celebrations.

Valerie

August Calendar 2012

2012-08-01T10:28:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. I can't believe that the kids will be going back to school this month. There is definitely a sense of excitement and sadness at the thought, but I am ready! If I have to say stop fighting one more time I think my head will bust. I am sure some of you can relate. All kidding aside...we have had a very eventful summer. This is the summer of broken things for us. It seems like everything in life is breaking it started with my cell phone at the beginning of July to my computer blowing up last week with a few things in between (including our car).

I took my computer in last week to be fixed and the Best Buy associates said there was no chance of saving it. So today I get to use my new computer. Having a new computer is a lot of fun, but losing all of my design work, pictures, fonts, graphics, etc. is not fun at all. So I am starting everything from scratch!

Because of my limited inventory at the moment I am sharing only one calendar design this month. Over the next few weeks I will start designing again so check back often for new fun designs and pictures of our family!

Enjoy the last few weeks of summer,
Valerie

Click to Print

Design info:
I create and design the layouts and content of my projects, but I do get digital paper packs and fonts from outside sources. This project features a Mally Mac Digital Design paper from a free paper pack, and The Blue Cabin font downloaded from www.kevinandamanda.com. Amanda creates amazing fonts that are completely free. I always want to make sure I give proper credit to these amazing designers who have spent a lot of time creating for others.

Printable July 2012 Calendar

2012-06-30T23:04:00.003-04:00

I was hoping to get these to everyone before today but yesterday brought tons of adventure for our state. A huge storm went through last night leaving many without power today. During the storm we were at a friends house and on the way home after the storm had died down I begged Mark to drive around town so we could see the results of the storm. The sad thing about me is that I wanted to be out in the storm while it was storming...well in the safety of the car. I know there is something really wrong with me. While driving around we saw tons of damage to homes, property, and roads. We were without power for just a short while, but many are still without power. I am reminded over and over in these days that it just takes a moment for life to be turned upside down.

Let's not take any time we have here on earth for granted! This month let's live in the freedom that we have. Not just the freedom that we have being American citizens, but the freedom that Christ has given us through the salvation that only He can bring to life. We don't have to live in bondage anymore! We can be FREE!

Click Here To Print

Printable June 2012 Calendar

2012-05-30T23:14:00.001-04:00

Click here to print

I hope you enjoy these calendars!

This month I am aiming to be a good blogger and blog more often. Now that I am home and in the swing of summer I have no excuses.

To Be Honest

2012-05-06T12:44:00.003-04:00

I am having the most wonderful time leading the senior class from our Christian School on a missions trip. This trip has been life changing and eye opening for us. We just finished up our 3rd night of VBS with the Indian children from the Lower Brule Indian Tribe in South Dakota.

Honestly Thursday and Friday night were very tough for us. Tough because the children need so much love and attention yet only few of them show their need for love. They have put walls up to protect themselves and they are not yet in third grade. We felt a little inadequate and in our own strength were not able to do anything.

We were very prepared for some aspects of this trip, but we were not prepared for the way these children acted. There is no respect for adults among many of the children and so they do not listen well at all. Many of the children told us over and over “you are not my boss!” There is not much that will hold their attention and we were very discouraged after our VBS last night.

After sitting down and evaluating a few things I determined that we were allowing God to take control like He needed to be. There wasn’t one of us that could change the situation but GOD could. We decided to hand everything over to Him and follow His direction instead of our own.

This afternoon before going over to the church we sat and prayed through Psalm 34:8-10. Psalm 34 is my favorite chapter in all of Scripture. We came to Him asking that He do a mighty work and tonight things turned around 100%. There weren’t as many kids but that’s okay! The children were quite and respectful. They all listened every time we spoke. God was ever present answering our prayer in such a powerful way.

WHY???? Why do we ever try to do things in our own strength? I was humbled. God brought me to my knees yet again and showed me that I need to put Him first in everything!

The most awesome part of situations like these is that they are impossible for man…BUT everything is possible for God.

Last night after VBS I wrote in my journal this entry:

I am seeking you God to do the absolute impossible tomorrow night that only You can do. We need you so desperately and there is no way we can do this alone again. Lord, You hear the prayers of Your children life Psalm 34 says and You answer them!

He did answer. Praise God!

An Adventure

2012-05-06T12:44:00.001-04:00

This morning I woke up to the sound of thunder. I love thunder storms so I was pretty thrilled when I saw a nice thunder storm out my window. I quickly checked my phone to see what the weather channel had to say about the storm and stayed in bed to watch.

It wasn’t long before I heard the sound of pings on the roof and realized that it was hailing. My first thought was rental car!! It was out getting pelted with hail and of course I didn’t buy the extra coverage for the car. I hurried out and moved a couple of things in the garage so I could pull it in to safety.

This is our first small pelting with hail this morning. They weren’t very big at all. Some got as big as a small gumball.

After the storm let up I decided to run down to a local gas station to buy a cup of coffee and check the tire pressure in the rental car because last night a pressure gauge light went off warning that the pressure was getting low. I was hoping that a little air in the tire would do the trick. Nope! When I got out at the gas station I could hear the tire hissing. I knew that was not a good sign so I went in the store hoping to find fix a flat. They did have it but something inside told me that I needed to call the rental place so I did. After a pleasant phone call I took the car to the only place that fixed tires in the small town of 169 people to find that a HUGE bolt was stuck in the tire.

Everything was fixed and back to normal in no time. I was really enjoying myself and the adventure of the morning until I headed home.

On the way home I hit yet another hail storm that released hail bigger than quarter size drops onto my car. Silly me thought I should drive as quick as possible to get back to the lodge where it will be safe. I had no idea until later that it could have caused more damage, but I prayed all the way back to the lodge that the Lord would save the car from damage. I honestly thought ice was going to come through the windshield it was hitting so hard. It sounded like someone was hammering the top of the car.

When I got back to the lodge I couldn’t get out of the car to open the garage doors so I honked and honked until Morgan came to the door. The garage door must have been worn out from opening for me earlier because it decided not to work! But it ended very quickly after that and there wasn’t any major damage done to the car. Hallelujah!! (We heard this evening that surrounding towns got up to tennis ball and egg size hail.)

I didn’t get any pictures of the bigger hail but I did find out that the rental car can indeed go 60 miles an hour on a dirt road which hadn’t yet gone over 30.

Adventure. That’s the life for me!

South Dakota Missions Trip – Reliance

2012-05-05T13:15:00.001-04:00

We made it to our first destination (Reliance, SD) last night around 9:00pm. We had a long but very enjoyable day. We had a fun evening unpacking the groceries for the VBS we will be doing, recapping the day, and telling fun stories. These Senior girls are so much fun and I am so thrilled I get to spend the next week with them.

Here is just a small recap of our day…

We visited 3 states: Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. *Interesting fact – I have lived in two of those states.*
We saw how flat Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota are compared to Virginia. We actually got to see a complete sunset as we drove down the interstate right into it. (Our mountains at home hinder us from seeing a complete sunset on the horizon.)
The Missouri river at the Interstate 90 junction in South Dakota was beautiful. So far it has been our favorite place on this trip. I think we will picnic there sometime this week.
South Dakota has some beautiful rolling hills and nooks in between lots of flat land.
We learned that gas stations in the middle of no where close really early. Praise the Lord we still had plenty of gas to get where we needed.
We ate at a new restaurant on our way here called Jimmy Johns. It is a sub and sandwich shop. Very tasty! We all loved it.
We haven’t seen any buffalo yet, but we have seen huge buffalo statues in the weirdest places.
I found out that neon was in style…where have I been??? I am not ready to jump on that bandwagon yet, but the girls still have 7 days to convince me.
I almost forgot my phone in my own car before leaving for SD.
AND…we got trapped on a parking garage entrance ramp at the airport. The lot was full and wouldn’t let us in, and when we backed up we found out it had blocked us in as well. We pulled forward again (still to a full lot sign), but God intervened and opened the bar for us so we could get out.

We are learning that life is all about missions and service. We are keeping our ears open and asking God to show us small and big things that He would have for us to do.

This is the hunting lodge that we are staying at while in Reliance. There are Pheasants everywhere. The lodge has many pheasants throughout the house and I get the idea that this is what the hunting lodge is for.

This is our rental car. We got an amazing deal on this car and I now know that God was working all things out. This car was actually cheaper than the cheapest car available so I grabbed it up. Now that we are here a smaller car would not have worked at all. We had to stock up supplies before getting to the lodge because there are no stores near by. Everything we needed plus our luggage would not have fit. Poor Johanna had to sit in the back barricaded by groceries and luggage.

Almost everywhere we look is flat lands. There aren’t a lot of trees…or anything. Right around the house are a few trees but other than that there aren’t many. It is beautiful in its own way. We have really enjoyed getting to see a different part of our beautiful country.

South Dakota Missions Trip– Airport

2012-05-05T13:14:00.001-04:00

We made it to the airport and are sitting in the terminal waiting for our plane. For those of you who do not know, I am leading the Senior Class at our Christian School on a missions trip to South Dakota. We are so excited to start this adventure that we have been crash planning for a little over a month.

I have nothing to do for the next few hours. What a nice feeling!! No kids. No meal prep (at least for today). No fighting, fussing, or complaining. Just ministry!

Garrett and Lexi went to a friends house this morning just until school started. They were so excited about going to Mrs. Lisa’s that they weren’t too sad that I was leaving until next Thursday. Garrett told me not to get eaten by bears and Lexi told me that I should. What a great send off!

Breanna rode with us to the Airport which was 2 1/2 hours away and was completely silent the whole way. She didn’t know what to think of the girls (our Missions Trip team) in the car with us. She was too shy to talk which was probably a blessing since she usually is fussy on long road trips.

I will keep updates on the blog as often as I can so that my kids, family, friends, and everyone who is interested can see what we are up to. Please pray for us! These senior girls have never been on a Missions Trip before and I am hoping that God does some amazing and impossible things through our time in South Dakota.

Printable Calendars For May 2012

2012-04-29T17:10:00.001-04:00

I am sorry I have been absent the last few weeks. I leave Wednesday for a Missions Trip to South Dakota. I have been planning and preparing for travel while at the same time trying to spend as much time with my kids as possible.

I will keep everyone updated during our trip. I hope to put together a daily post. Our team will be putting together a VBS program for the Indian children on a South Dakota Indian Reservation. We are really excited and can't wait for Wednesday to get here. I have so much to do before Wednesday comes, but I know I will get everything done. Please pray for us as we minister to these children.

Here are the May calendars. I only had time to make two different designs. Next month I will try to get back into my routine. I am guessing I will have a little more time. :)

Click Here To Print

I hope you enjoy these calendars!

Who Among You?–Malachi 1:10-14

2012-04-19T05:00:00.000-04:00

10“Who is there even among you who would shut the doors,
So that you would not kindle fire on My altar in vain?
I have no pleasure in you,” Says the Lord of hosts,
“Nor will I accept an offering from your hands.

11 For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down,
My name shall be great among the Gentiles;
In every place incense shall be offered to My name,
And a pure offering; For My name shall be great among the nations,” Says the Lord of hosts.

12 “But you profane it, In that you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled; And its fruit, its food, is contemptible.’

13 You also say, ‘Oh, what a weariness!’ And you sneer at it,”
Says the Lord of hosts. “And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; Thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?” Says the Lord.

14 “But cursed be the deceiver Who has in his flock a male,
And takes a vow, But sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished—
For I am a great King,” Says the Lord of hosts,
“And My name is to be feared among the nations.

Malachi 1:10-14

Who is there even among you?

My mind immediately raced to the account in Genesis 18 where Abraham is pleading with God to save the city of Sodom. Is there even 10 men who are obedient to God that He should save the city of Sodom? But, there was not even 10.

It is a sad day for a nation where none can be found that have a heart for the Lord and a desire to do His will. Malachi had a tough task. He had to preach to a people who’s hearts were cold toward God.

Noah was also faced with this situation in Genesis 6. He was the only righteous man of his day. Can you imagine being the only one to stand up for truth in the midst of a horribly wicked people. It can be very hard and lonely standing up for truth when no one else is. I am saying that yet I have never even encountered what Noah did nor to the extent that he did. What a powerful testimony!

Sometimes we fall at the slightest adversity. Imagine Noah’s resolve!

John MacArthur states, “God, speaking in the first person, desired for someone to shut the temple doors, thereby preventing the useless, insincere presentation of sacrifices. It would be better to stop all sacrifices than to offer insincere offerings.”

His statement almost sounds like a verse in Revelation that says,

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth…”

Revelation 3:15-16

This is so applicable to our lives. God doesn’t want us merely going through the motions of what we should be doing as Christians. He wants us to be sincere! We shouldn’t be Christians by mouth only, but through our obedience (full wholehearted obedience) to Christ. We should have a resolve like Noah’s that says no matter what we encounter or who opposes us we will obey.

Let’s end with some great news. No matter what we may face here on earth there is coming a day when God’s Name will be great among every nation, every tribe, and every people. We might not understand everything fully right now, but there is a reason that God wants our full obedience (even when it doesn’t make sense). I am sure to Noah building an ark didn’t make complete sense at first.

Verse 11 points us to a future day when the Lord will reign victorious. We don’t want to look back then and wish we could have been more obedient. Let’s take Malachi’s words to heart (even though they are for the Israelites) and be obedient to what we know God has told us to do.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Romans 12:1

A Second Chance–Malachi 1:9

2012-04-18T05:00:00.000-04:00

9“But now entreat God’s favor,
That He may be gracious to us.
While this is being done by your hands,
Will He accept you favorably?”
Says the Lord of hosts.

This verse holds great news for the Israelites. Let’s break it down to see how it applies not only to the Israelites, but also to the modern day Christian.

In verse 9 we see God’s provision for a second chance. Recently I finished up a study on Jonah. In Jonah there is a theme of second chances throughout the book not only for Jonah, but also the Ninevites. It is very Biblical that God gives us second chances…Praise God! In the person of a prophet we see God’s provision of a second chance. A prophet proclaims God’s truth which directs people to turn to God…thus giving us a second chance.

entreat – in the Hebrew means to: be rubbed or worn, to be sick weak or afflicted, be sorry, make sick, beseech, be grieved, be wounded…

In other words our sin should make us so upset that we wear out a path to God. This doesn’t just apply to the Israelites even though this book was written specifically to them. God wants each of us to wear out a path to Him seeking His forgiveness and deliverance. May we be like the Psalmist who said,

I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; Be merciful to me according to Your word. Psalm 119:58

We know that God is merciful and that He does hear us when we call unto Him…unless…

Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. John 9:31

The end of verse 9 is a wake up call for any follower of Christ. We cannot be in sin and ask God to bless us. How many of us are guilty of this? I know I have been. The Bible shows us that sin is such a hinderer between us and God. There is no way that we can be living a life of sin and ask God to over look something so wretched in His sight. That is the whole reason for the sacrifices in the previous verses. Sin separates us from God and only a perfect sacrifice can bring us back into communion with Him. How can an imperfect sacrifice work? It can’t and that is why God is not able to look at them favorably.

Although God is very upset with imperfect sacrifices He is giving His people an opportunity to make things right…the second chance! One other observation that needs to be pointed out is that we cannot deal with sin our own way. God has a specific way and plan all perfectly laid out and it is up to us to align ourselves with His plan. If we follow the course of our own plan it only leads to destruction.

Are we trying to ask God to bless us while at the same time living our life the way we want? Are there things that we need to entreat the Lord about so that He can show us favor?

God is a God of justice, but He is also a God of blessing and favor. God wants to bestow His blessing upon His children.

I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. Ezekiel 34:26

Easter Dresses Take Two

2012-04-17T16:42:00.001-04:00

Every year my parents buy the kids Easter outfits. This year they had so much fun shopping that they bought more than one outfit for each of our children. On Sunday I put the kids in the second set. I am determined that Sunday mornings are the worst time for pictures. When I mentioned the word “pictures” everyone all of the sudden turned grumpy. I did get a couple of good pictures and Breanna was a little better this week than last. I don’t know how professional photographers get good pictures when the subjects are acting up so horribly, but I am determined to find out!

Garrett is being a little goofy. I don’t even know how many times I told them both to just look at me and smile until I get a good one of all three of them.

Now its Lexi’s turn to be silly. I can’t remember why she is acting so silly, but I do remember it being hilarious!

Breanna’s hair is finally long enough to put it in a barrette. I still cannot pull it up into a ponytail, but we are at least getting somewhere. I spiked the back and put a small clip in the top!

You can’t tell by the pictures, but Lexi and Breanna’s dresses match. I love matching the girls even though it doesn’t happen as much as I would like!

Enjoy this beautiful weather!!

Valerie

A Faulty Sacrifice–Malachi 1:7-8

2012-04-17T05:00:00.000-04:00

7“You offer defiled food on My altar,
But say,‘In what way have we defiled You?’
By saying,‘The table of the Lord is contemptible.’
⁸And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice,
Is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick,
Is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor!
Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?”
Says the Lord of hosts.

The Bible talks a lot about Sacrifice. From the Old Testament to the New Testament we see Sacrifice scattered all throughout the Scriptures. Before Christ came as the perfect and complete sacrifice believers had to offer up burnt sacrifices to the Lord as atonement for their sins.

There are many passages that give guidelines for how these sacrifices were to be made and any Jew would have known the guidelines. The Israelites are completely in disobedience and by their actions they are showing that they aren’t giving much regard to God or His law.

We have house rules in our family. Normal house rules that probably every family has like; no hitting, no biting, no throwing the football in the dining room, no muddy shoes on the carpet, etc. Not too long ago my sweet son decided to tell me that he didn’t know that he shouldn’t wear muddy shoes in the house. He did know! He was just too lazy to do the right thing. It was an inconvenience much like the Israelites. They did know what the law said, but they were slacking off. Maybe God wouldn’t notice if their offering had a small blemish. Or like my son…maybe mom won’t ever know that I wore muddy shoes on the very light carpet. We all have our own examples of times when we knew the right thing to do, but pretended that we didn’t just because it was an inconvenience.

I can almost here the Israelites saying, “I didn’t notice that lamb was sick.” or “Someone must have swapped animals because that one is not mine!” God says, “Is this not evil?” Would you dare offer these sacrifices to your Governor? He points out.

Imagine that you are having the President (past or present) over for dinner. What would you fix? Wow, that is a tough one for me! I love to cook, but even with my best recipes I wonder if anything would be good enough to make for the President of our country. I guess I would figure out what his favorite foods were so that I wouldn’t make something he didn’t like. Then, I would go about finding the absolute best recipe for his favorite foods. I would then clean my whole house top to bottom 100 times over, get sitters for the kids, buy new place settings, and make everything perfect for his arrival. To make a long point very short…I would want it to be perfect!

Isn’t it funny how I would want every thing PERFECT for a mere human, but when it comes to God we serve Him things less than perfect. This passage is so convicting to me. I know exactly what He wants, but yet I try to serve Him everything else.

In what ways do we serve God our imperfect sacrifices?

Revival Week

2012-04-12T16:17:00.000-04:00

This week has been such a wonderful week! We are enjoying the Encounter Revival Ministries team here at our church. I have not been able to post the Malachi Bible Study the last few days because of everything going on here, but I will pick it back up Monday morning bright and early.

Breanna is growing out of her needy stage! Hallelujah!! She has become more and more independent over the last few weeks and it is a breath of fresh air. She now has a desire to play by herself. I can't seem to forget a gentleman telling me that their little one cried and was fussy for the first two years of life and I thought there is no way "our" child would do that. Ha! I was really really wrong. She is now almost two and she has been the neediest child by far than our other two. Her personality is really starting to bloom and she can be absolutely hilarious. She is almost a completely different person now and we are all thrilled with this new phase.

The other day we were in the store and she ran up to an older lady in a check out lane. She stood beside the lady and looked at me like "mom, you can go now" and waved at me. She now loves people and is not afraid of going to anyone. She now has such a soft heart. When she sees someone crying she will go over to them and give hugs and kisses. She doesn't like seeing anyone cry. If Mark chases her or tickles her she says, "silly daddy." It is way too cute. We could really get used to such a sweet, kind, compassionate, cute, and silly girl. :)

God is doing a great work this week in the lives of our children and adults. We have heard some awesome testimonies of Gods amazing work. We have two more evenings of meetings and I am so excited to see what God is going to do in the lives of His people. May we be totally yielded to the Spirit that He may use us in whatever way He chooses.

Valerie

Our Easter Weekend

2012-04-09T17:01:00.001-04:00

On Friday morning our weekend started by taking Lexi to the hospital for a little bit of oral surgery. Everything went great and Lexi had the time of her life. She was super brave and now has an adventurous story to tell all of her friends.

Lexi had never received real flowers before so she was pretty excited when she received two bouquets in one day. Garrett picked out some pink roses for her to have when she came out of surgery, and her wonderful teacher sent a balloon/flower bouquet. The whole experience was such a fun one…to her!

On Saturday we welcomed Encounter Revival Ministries to our church. They are going to be with us for a whole week. We are keeping two team girls and have had a wonderful time so far.

We had such a wonderful Easter Sunday. We had so many visitors and are marveling at the wonderful working of God! It was a special day where God showed us that He still uses that same power that raised Him from the dead so many years ago! Praise God for choosing to work in our lives and in our midst!

Before church we had to take a few pictures. You will notice that Breanna DID NOT want to cooperate at all. I couldn’t get any good pictures of the three of them together. Breanna refused to wear her bow, refused to keep her hair straight, refused to be held, refused to say cheese, and so on… I am going to try to get some more pictures throughout the week. Hopefully she will be a little more cooperative.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!!! Praise God for the resurrection. Without it our faith would be in vain!

Malachi Study–Malachi 1:6

2012-04-09T05:00:00.000-04:00

“A son honors his father,
And a servant his master.
If then I am the Father,
Where is My honor?
And if I am a Master,
Where is My reverence?
Says the Lord of hosts
To you priests who despise My name.
Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’

Giving honor to whom honor is due:

If you were to look up this word honor in the Hebrew you would find that it means, “boast, honorable, nobles, promote, be rich…” and it continues on.

We are all familiar with the commandment that says, “honor your father and mother…” Exodus 20:12. As a mom this verse is quoted a lot in our household. As a parent we expect our children to treat us with the honor that is due to us as a parent.

God also desires the honor of His children!

I had a few thoughts as I was studying this passage…

1) I know for a fact that I have not been truly honoring my father or my Father as is stated in the Hebrew. I have not been boasting, promoting, or making much of either one like I should. I try but I think I had a false view of what honor meant. Honor is an action. I was treating it more like a passive suggestion.

2) In the Hebrew it states that a person who is to be honored is honorable. There are so many people who have dads that are not honorable which can make it very hard to treat him with honor, but God is 100% honorable. He is worth every bit of praise, and boasting we can give Him. It may be hard to honor our human fathers (even though we are still commanded to), but we should never be at loss for words when it comes to honoring our Heavenly Father.

3) We can never give God too much glory or honor, but we can give Him too little.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if we were to get this same kind of message that the Israelites received? Wouldn’t it be sad to get to the end of life an realize that we spent way too much time honoring the wrong person or things?

“A son honors his father,” – the point of this passage is leading up to our honor due to God, but while this phrase is in here may we evaluate how we are treating our own father. How is your relationship with your dad? Is there a way that you can better honor your father?

“and a servant his master,” – again the point is not about the servant master, but are we honoring our employer like we should? Are we giving our best to the job we have so that it brings honor to our boss? I once heard a Pastor say that how we treat people is an indicator of how we treat God. If we aren’t honoring our employer or our own father than what makes us think we are honoring God our Father?

“If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is my reverence?”

God says, “I am THE Father.” Sure we have a dad, but God is THE Father. He wants our honor. He wants our respect and reverence. He wants the glory due His Name.

Today lets seek to make honor an action by boasting, promoting, and making much of THE Father. He is worth every ounce of praise we can give Him.

Malachi Bible Study–Malachi 1:2-5

2012-04-06T05:00:00.000-04:00

2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord.
“Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’
Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?”
Says the Lord.
“Yet Jacob I have loved;
3 But Esau I have hated,
And laid waste his mountains and his heritage
For the jackals of the wilderness.”

4 Even though Edom has said,
“We have been impoverished,
But we will return and build the desolate places,”

Thus says the Lord of hosts:

“They may build, but I will throw down;
They shall be called the Territory of Wickedness,
And the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever.
5 Your eyes shall see,
And you shall say,
‘The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.’

Today we are studying a pretty tough passage. This passage has many differing views. Most likely there will be some reading this post that also have differing opinions.

Because this is such a tough passage I am going to share just a little on the topic, but let you do further research to find a good balance for you. Many great Pastors and Scholars view this passage entirely differently. Keep in mind that there are things in Scripture that will not be known fully until we meet our Savior face to face. This possibly is one of those Scriptures.

To really grasp this passage we might want to look further into the lives of both these men. If you are not familiar with Scripture these two men are twins. Esau is the older of the two, but before birth it was known he would serve his brother. You can read their account in Genesis chapters 25 – 36 and beyond.

1:2b – Jacob have I loved.

What do you know about Jacob?
Who did Jacob marry?
Who did Jacob become?
Did Jacob follow the Lord?

We know that although Jacob made some pretty bad decisions he had a heart bent toward the Lord. We know that it was through his line that our Messiah came and he was the father to the well known Joseph in the Bible. Even his parenting skills had huge issues, but we see that God loved Jacob. Isn’t it wonderful to know that God loves us even when we make wrong choices or even mess up.

Yesterday we wrote down on paper how we knew that God loved us. My first response was because He sent His Son to die for my sin even though I did not deserve His favor. Because I realize this need for a Savior I see how much I should depend on God for everything.

God chose me and I chose Him! This is the same with Jacob. God loved and chose Jacob and Jacob loved God and chose to follow God’s path for his life.

Now let’s look at Esau.

1:3 – Esau have I hated.

What do you know about Esau?
Who did Esau marry? Genesis 28:6-9
What were Esau’s people called? Genesis 36:9
Did Esau follow the Lord?

Psalm 137:7

7 Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried,
“tear it down to its foundations!”

Obadiah 1:8-14

⁸ “In that day,” declares the LORD,
“will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,
men of understanding in the mountains of Esau?
⁹ Your warriors, O Teman, will be terrified,
and everyone in Esau’s mountains
will be cut down in the slaughter.
¹⁰ Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
you will be covered with shame;
you will be destroyed forever.
¹¹ On the day you stood aloof
while strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
and cast lots for Jerusalem,
you were like one of them.
¹² You should not look down on your brother
in the day of his misfortune,
nor rejoice over the people of Judah
in the day of their destruction,
nor boast so much
in the day of their trouble.
¹³ You should not march through the gates of my people
in the day of their disaster,
nor look down on them in their calamity
in the day of their disaster,
nor seize their wealth
in the day of their disaster.
¹⁴ You should not wait at the crossroads
to cut down their fugitives,
nor hand over their survivors
in the day of their trouble.

Now that we see a little more background on Esau we understand that he did not love God nor did he want to have anything to do with God. His decisions opposed God even down to his marriage to a non believer. His actions were of his choosing and like I said they had nothing to do with God.

In the Hebrew the word hated in verse three carries along the implication that it is an enemy. We know by what we read that Esau was certainly an enemy of God. Esau chose to be an enemy of God. When we choose to be enemies of God then we also choose to be punished as a consequence of our rebellion. Edom – Esau is being punished for His rebellion.

Why bring this up to Israel?

I wonder if the Lord is bringing these two brothers up because they have a choice in front of them. They can either rebel and receive God’s great punishment or they can obey and receive God’s great blessing.

1:5 – Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, “The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.

God can be magnified through punishment or judgment! When we see God’s punishment on the enemy it reminds us to fall into step with God’s plan. We are to fear God and respect Him for Who He is. We are not His equal. It is easy to think of ourselves as greater than God when we fall out of fellowship with Him. We might not say it, but our actions speak so loud that our way is better than God’s way!

May we take notice of our own path. Are we following God’s plan and will for our lives or are we veering onto our own path that will lead us to destruction. It might not right now, but just like the Israelites it doesn’t take much time to wander farther than we ever wanted to go!

Malachi Study – Malachi 1:1-2a

2012-04-05T05:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday in our study we read through the whole book of Malachi to get an overview of the book. Today we are going to dig right in and break apart this book verse by verse. Some important questions we will think through are: Who is this talking to and about? What is it saying? Where? Why? When did this take place? and How does this apply to me?

First we need a little back ground to get started with this study. It is believed that Malachi was proclaiming as a prophet around 450 BC. Malachi was believed to be written in 430 BC. It is also believed that Malachi was a prophet during the time of Nehemiah. Malachi doesn’t mention time, heritage, or anything personal so we do not know much about the person writing this book. It is very possible that Malachi was not the name of this book writer. Malachi means, “My (God’s) Messenger.” With a title like that it is very possible this is just what people knew him as.

Malachi 1:1-2a

¹ The burdenof the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

²“I have loved you,” says the Lord.
“Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’

1:1 – Burden.

What was the burden?
Why do you think it could have been a burden?

My mind immediately goes to Jonah. Jonah definitely felt that burden of the Word, but in a different way I am sure. So different that Jonah did not want to carry out the task before him. A burden of the Word shows that this message was not an easy message to give. Have you ever had to carry the burden of the Word to someone. Maybe someone you know is in sin and needs to hear the truth of God’s Word. This truth isn’t always easy to proclaim, but truth and only truth brings true healing. We can all probably recall times when God has asked us to do something that is very hard to do. Imagine being in Malachi’s shoes. Not only is the message that he is brining burdensome, but it is possible he is also burdened by the message. His people are in sin and in great need of a message, but I am sure many of them did not want to hear the message Malachi is preaching.

Is there someone in your life that you need to bring a message from the Lord to?
Are you willing to do hard things for the Lord no matter the cost?

In just the first verse we see a little into the character of Malachi. He did exactly what the Lord told him to do and was used as a mighty instrument of the Lord. Some of us haven’t gotten that far yet. Today lets be instruments for God to use no matter the task He calls us to. The Christian life is an adventure leading us to the gates of Heaven!

1:2a – Love.

Use these questions to dig through this verse.

Who is he talking to?
What is being said?
What does this verse reveal about the Israelites heart attitude?
When have I acted the same way?
How has God shown me that He loves me?
How does my heart attitude reveal what I believe about God?

Take out a blank piece of paper and write down all the ways that you know God loves you. Like the Israelites we can also be tempted to think that God doesn’t love us or hasn’t shown us His love. When we reach that point we have hit a dangerous place in our belief about God.

The Lord is righteous in all His ways,
and kind (or loving) in all His works.

Psalm 145:17

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-24

Love is at the very root of who God is. His love never fails! When we forget the kindness or love of God than we have forgotten Who our true love really is. That is where the Israelites have found themselves and that is why Malachi has been brought onto the scene.

Let’s never forget the love that God has for us!

Malachi Study – Day One

2012-04-04T05:00:00.000-04:00

I love Bible study! I also love group Bible study. I have been so blessed to be apart of a small group Bible study since last fall. We have all grown in God’s Word leaps and bounds. Our group Study on Jonah ended a couple of weeks ago and I have been wanting to dive into the book Malachi. So many times I start from begging to end, but never make it to the end. Even though I have read the Bible in full many times I have never studied many of the books independently. Malachi is one of those books that I have never made it to as a study. Let’s dig in and see what life changing truths we find in Malachi! Ready?

Start out your study by praying and asking God to illuminate the Scriptures through the Holy Spirit. Without His help we may miss some very key things that God wants to show us through His Word. Make sure to get any sin out of the way so it will not hinder the Holy Spirit from working in your life.

The first thing I always do in starting a new book study is read the book. We will have plenty of time to tear it apart and dig in, but for today let’s just start by reading the book of Malachi in it’s entirety. It is very short - just 4 chapters.

Start with a clean sheet of paper or notebook paper and write down anything that jumps out at you, doesn’t make sense, seems out of place, or something you just love. If you have sticky notes available write questions down on them placing them on the page of question. This way after your question is answered by the Holy Spirit or further Bible study you can remove the sticky note. I love this method!

Don’t go into too much depth because this is just a simple reading to get a grasp on the context of the book. You may consider reading it a couple of times just to make yourself familiar with the text.

What things did you note as you read through Malachi?

We Are Still Here...I Think :)

2012-04-03T09:38:00.000-04:00

The last two weeks have been a little crazy but filled with exciting things. Our Ladies Bible study group finished up our Jonah study and had a wonderful outreach opportunity. Plans have been set in motion for the missions trip to South Dakota that I am leading...so exciting!! We have made a couple trips to see family. We have entertained family here. We are gearing up for a week of Revival. Our church sanctuary project is half way done. I have gotten a lot of my Spring cleaning done. And so much more.

Many of you have asked what happened to our week of sacrifice. I am sad to say that we had to postpone that week. We realized that the weather was not quite right for such a week so we will make that our challenge for April instead. There were quite a few nights that reached down into the 30's and we weren't ready for that much of an adventure. Breanna doesn't yet know how to keep her covers on at night and we thought she would freeze with such cool temperatures. For the month of March I choose to sacrifice something different. I will post about my challenge in the next few days.

I have planned out our Sacrifice Challenges through July and thought I would share what we will be doing.

April - A week of no electricity. We are planning this week for either the 15-21 or 22-28.
May - A week of Missions. As you know I will be on a week long Missions Trip. This is a sacrifice of time, money, talents, and family. Every day I will be reporting on how our week is going. This week is set for May 2-10.
June - A week of clothing sacrifice. I am taking the whole month of June to do something a little different. I am choosing one black dress and will wear this dress everyday for the month of June. This is not only to sacrifice material possessions, but to also help raise the awareness of death through abortions. Our local Crisis/Life Center director will be joining me in the challenge plus other ladies who would like to take part.
July - A week of sacrifice for country. For July I am going to honor men and women who have sacrificed their time and energy for our country, county, city, and town. I will be dedicating the whole week to our local governmental authorities and soldiers by making them small gifts and goodies to show our appreciation to them. I thought it fitting since we celebrate our Independence this month.

1,000 Answers
This week is a week of prayer and fasting for our church. I love these weeks and thought it fitting to start the 1,000 Answers this week. 1,000 Answers will be a daily or weekly post of answers to prayer that we have seen here in our church and community. I would love for anyone who reads my blog to join me in this. To submit an answer to be counted toward the 1,000 Answers just add a comment to any of the 1,000 Answer posts. You may also email, text, facebook, or talk with me in person about prayer requests God has answered for you.

Like I promised we will also be starting a blog Bible study on the book of Malachi. We will start that tomorrow morning. I am so thrilled to study God's Word along side my fellow readers. I hope this study will be an encouragement to you!!

I hope everyone enjoys this beautiful day! This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!!!

Much love,
Valerie

Printable April Calendars 2012

2012-03-23T22:24:00.001-04:00

Spring has sprung and while I love Spring I am really looking forward to the things that I am allergic to be finished blooming! Our poor Lexi also has horrible allergies. Sad to say she gets it from her momma. Her eyes have been red all week long.

When digital scrapbooking came out I was one that refused to try it. Two months ago I got my first digital scrapbook kit and have started using them in my designs. This first calendar uses some digital scrapbook embellishments. I hope you enjoy these designs.

Each calendar is free for you to print and use however you would like. These calendars are 8.5x11.

Click To Print Calendar

Blessings,

Valerie

Absent Long Enough

2012-03-22T10:00:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. Spring has sprung here in our little town and it is gorgeous! We live at the base of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains and everywhere we look we are surrounded by the beauty of spring. I love Spring! Isn't it refreshing?

I have some exciting things coming up that I wanted to share with you.

Printable April calendars are on the way. I am working on them and will have them to you before the week is out. I would love input on colors and verses so please drop me an email if you have any ideas!

Our family sacrifice challenge for March starts on Saturday. This challenge is going to be a tough one. One that I not sure I am ready for and will require a lot of sacrifice. We are going to go without power for 7 days. What have we gotten ourselves into! :) Join us everyday starting Saturday to see how our challenge is going. I can't wait to see what we learn through this one!

I get to lead a short term Missions Trip to an Indian reservation in South Dakota. I am so excited and can't wait to see what God is going to do through this trip! We leave at the beginning of May for 8-9 days. Please pray as we prepare and plan this trip.

I am going to start a blog Bible study on the book of Malachi soon. Stay tuned for more details! I am also going to start a new prayer ministry called "1,000 Answers." Every week I will post on answered prayer and ask you to join me in posting your answered prayer until we reach 1,000 answers. I hope to start both the study and the 1,000 answers next week!

God is doing amazing things here in our midst. There is no telling what God can do through people who are yielded to Him. He is life's greatest joy and treasure! May our energies go to making much of God today!

Much love,
Valerie

The God of the Impossible

2012-03-09T11:52:00.000-05:00

I love being a Pastor's Wife. I love supporting my husband in the ministry God has given us.  I never knew what lay ahead for us as we took on the Sr. Pastorate for the first time. I can honestly say that this past year has been one of the most rewarding years of my life. We have had great challenges this past year, but with great challenge also comes great blessing.

This year has been a year of God doing the impossible. We know it was only God because humanly the things we have seen are unexplainable. We serve such a big God Who delights in doing the impossible for His children.

We had a Professor in College tell us that we should never expect more than a certain amount of baptisms and salvations each year. He gave an average figure, but I don't remember what it was. I do know that God is not limited by human thought or reason. Aren't you glad?

I don't have the stats nor am I good at keeping up with numbers, but we have seen so many people come to faith in Christ this year and many more baptized.  We are seeing revival break out within our church and can also see how God is working in our community drawing people to Himself.

God has blessed us financially. Our gym roof needed replacing and instead of borrowing money we decided to take up a single offering one Sunday morning and the offering exceeded the need for the roof!  We have started a renovation project that started just a few weeks ago. We took up another offering for this project and will not have to borrow one penny! I will share more pictures in another post of our progression so far.

I am sharing all of this to say that we serve such an amazing God. If I were pointing out these things only to show you what our church has done this year that would be wrong of me, but I wanted to highlight how big and awesome our God is! He has done such a great and mighty work. One of which we are not even worthy, but one that shows us of His great love! There is so much more I could share about how God is working and so much I can't wait to share of what He will do this next year!

There is no greater joy in life than serving the God of the Universe!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Valerie

Financial Sacrifice Challenge Day Seven

2012-03-02T00:19:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was the last day of our sacrifice challenge. It is a challenge I hope to never forget. The Lord taught me so many things through this challenge. There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord knew exactly what He was doing when He led me to the word Sacrifice for my 2012 resolution.

Yesterday morning as we were getting ready for the day there was a knock at the door. A young guy in our church brought a gift to the door for this frazzled mama. I was a little frazzled because Garrett was trying to tell me all about football and the different plays as I was letting him know that we didn't have time and he needed to brush his teeth. (He is all about stories, football, and talking! I thought it was the girls who talked a lot?!?!) I was also a little frazzled because I had not had coffee for the last few days because we ran out of creamer. Those of you who know me well might be wondering why I am drinking coffee because I hate coffee. Well, not any more. I love it now but only one way...ice, 3 Tbl. creamer, coffee, and two packs of fake sugar. Really not coffee but it serves the purpose of a tasty caffine drink. So the young guy at the door was bringing a gift of creamer. His mom blessed me with creamer and a note that said every mom needs some coffee in the morning. It was really unexpectant and wonderful!

Last night at church a sweet gentleman in our church brought the kids each a treat from England. When his kids lived at home he would bring them a treat home from his trips. He thought of our kids and wanted to bring them these...I had to try just a little bit to make sure they were okay for the kids...seeing as they were from a different country. :)

I will write more this weekend sharing the neat things the Lord has taught us and shown us through this sacrifice. I really feel it is life changing. Tonight I am pretty sleepy and am not thinking straight so I will fill you in soon.

Here's my little Lulu! I just had to share this sweet picture.

Goodnight,
Valerie

Financial Sacrifice Challenge Day Six

2012-02-28T23:49:00.001-05:00

This week our family has been challenging ourselves in the area of finances. Everyday for a week we have been living on no more than $2.50 a day. In the course of a week we have seen God provide in amazing ways.

The fridge is almost empty and today as I was planning out dinner I thought we would have french toast because we still had eggs and bread, but God changed our plans.

I was on the phone with Mark this afternoon when I saw a car coming up the driveway. I told Mark I had to go and thought to myself, “here comes a gift from God.” A gift it was! A sweet lady had us on her mind this morning and wanted to do something for us. We were overwhelmed by her generosity and gifts of…

…noodles in which I took as a sign from the Lord that He wanted us to have spaghetti. I made a marinara sauce from a couple of cans of tomatoes which turned out great.

An absolutely wonderful pound cake! Mark came in the house delighted that he had something to snack on. Mark is a sweet lover and he has been going through withdraws the last few days. We haven’t had much in the way of snack food items and I think it has gotten to him a little bit.

She also gave us some beautiful home décor and room spray! We are truly blessed beyond measure through this gift. God has provided abundantly. It is evident to each of us how much God does provide for our every need. He also delights in giving us beyond what we need as well. We serve such a Mighty God who uses His servants to bless others.

The kids are getting it which has been my greatest desire. They were so thrilled to see what God had given us today!

This challenge has really opened our eyes and it is very possible we will be making some permanent changes in the near future when it comes to finances. I don’t want to lose sight of God in this way by going back to our normal lifestyle. We have seen Him so clearly because we have had to rely on Him more for ordinary everyday things.

As I look back to my childhood I remember seeing God’s hand more during the times when our family had nothing. When we had abundance I wasn’t seeing His hand as clearly even though He was just as near! Our family also grew closer during those times because we had to come up with creative ways to vacation and entertain because we just didn’t have the money. I told Mark this evening that I want our children to daily see God’s hand of provision and care on a regular basis, but if we are never in need then they won’t get that privilege. I look forward to what God is going to do because of this challenge! Tomorrow is a great day to start LEAPING into a life of faith…(it’s leap year).

Night!

Valerie