February is the month of love!

Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day. I would much rather be surprised throughout the year with random act of romance (woo hoo!!) than have any type of pressure on a certain day of the year.

But I digress…

I want to spread love every day — not just February 14th! I created a FREE printable with ideas of how to spread lovin all month long. These are just ideas, but hopefully it will be helpful in thinking of practical ways to show love to your husband, kids, and even strangers.

Included at the bottom are the memory verses I selected for this month. Please feel free to join me in memorizing them this month!

A photo of the printable download is displayed below, but to download the 8.5 x 11 formatted for printing, please click here.

Happy February!

Start spreadin some lovin!

If you are reading this in an email, and can’t see the image, please click here to be directed to the original post for a FREE printable to download!

…. if you didn’t catch Part 1 of this journey, you may want to read it first…

Why is it that when God lays something on our hearts, we try to “reason” it away? After I wrote Part 1 of my “Crummy BFF” journey, I was so amazed by the outpouring of your beautiful and loving comments, and I am truly thankful for each one. I thought and prayed, and knew what I should do. I should reach out and offer my apologies to my friend whom I had deeply hurt…

Then I chickened out…

I tried to list the many reasons I just should let this “thing” slide another 20 years… I’m busy… She probably doesn’t care… I’m being silly…. I’m opening a can of worms…. Things are better left alone….

I am so thankful God is patient with me.

It “just so happened” that I started reading a new book about the Holy Spirit. As I read more, I realized without a doubt that the Holy Spirit is prompting me to reach out to this former friend. Sometimes, we may be asked to do things that are outside of our comfort zone in order to be inside the will of God.

Hmm….

Comfort zone

or…

Will of God…

Which will we choose?

After much prayer, I decided that I clearly need to step way out of my comfort zone, and contact my friend.

I decided to write my feelings in a letter because I always feel much more comfortable writing than speaking in person. I would just say “Um, never mind. I have to go now” if we met in person.

<I know I’m a big chicken! Feel free to “BOCK” like a chicken at me… go ahead, I’ll wait…>

I have realized that it doesn’t really matter to me what her reaction is. I don’t mean that in a harsh way, or that I don’t have any expectations. I have just learned that I can’t control anyone else’s emotions or decisions. However, I do have to answer for my own.

In order to teach my children about friendship, love, forgiveness, and humility, I have to not only use words but I have to model the behavior in front of them. How can I lead my children without a clear conscience before God?

No matter what her response is or whether I receive a response, I feel completely at peace with my decision to reach out. Thank you for encouraging me, and I want to encourage you to make things right with someone if you have held a grudge against them.

Releasing a grudge is not only about making things right with the other person, but rather it’s about freeing your heart from the bondage of past hurt and lingering bitterness.

Life is far too short to waste on grudges and regrets. Reach out to someone today and make things right. You will be so thankful you did…

To be continued?

As a busy, full-time working mom, I often see countless great ideas for saving money. However, many of these ideas can be time and labor intensive, and I need a simple plan for saving money. I simply don’t have the time necessary to research ads, clip coupons from multiple sources, or visit more than one grocery store each week.

If you are a working mom like me, don’t despair! It is possible – and even enjoyable! – to save money as a working mom. All it takes is FOCUS!

Read more about how I save money at Money Saving Mom, where I am thrilled to guest post today!

Sweet friends, I am honestly at a loss for words tonight. I am in complete and total shock.

Have you ever had a horrible, lousy, fight-with-your-husband, yell-at-your-kids — “let’s just hide and act like this day never happened” — kind of day?

Well, today hasn’t been that kind of day Thank goodness!

However, I did have one of those days a little while ago, and I just sat down, pounded away at my laptop, and poured my heart out to all of you when I wrote “The I’m Fine Masquerade“. After I wrote it, I almost deleted the post because it felt so personal, and maybe a little too “raw”. However, something told me to leave it, that maybe someone needed to read it.

Little did I know how much it would resonate with others who were feeling the same way!

So…. back to the shock of my whole year. Okay, maybe a little dramatic…

Just to give some background, I was honored and privileged to be randomly selected to preview a “Doubt Diet” devotional to coincide with Renee Swope’s book “A Confident Heart“. In this group, I would read each day’s devotion, and send feedback to Renee’s group. Renee and I were able to email back and forth a few times, and I just have to tell you that her heart is just amazing. She longs to encourage women, and is one of the most transparent women I have even met.

A couple of weeks ago, Renee emailed me and asked if I would guest post on her blog.

ME?!

I checked the “To:” and “From:” fields on my email thinking maybe she had the wrong person, or maybe I was getting spammed but it looked like a “real” email. She said that my post about the “I’m Fine Mask” really touched her heart and asked if she could share it with her readers.

Amazing.

This isn’t about me. This is about God turning my terrible, no-good-for-nothin’ kind of day and flipping it around to encourage others! He is so amazing!

So, I just checked my email and there was the nicest email from Renee saying that she had shared my post on her blog. I am in complete shock right now. I honestly don’t know what to say except “thank you”.

Renee — Thank you for sharing my writing, and showing me that God can use our lives if we live transparently for Him. Thank you for modeling that for me. You are truly my mentor and friend, and I so appreciate you. There are no words.

Tonight, I would love for you to pray for sweet Renee. I know she is so incredibly busy and serving the Lord doesn’t make us exempt from problems. I just want us to wrap our arms of love around her and lift up prayers to protect her from the attacks of Satan. I’m reminded of the quote I just read in “Same Kind of Different as Me” that said “Those precious to God become important to Satan”. Let’s pray for God’s hand of protection and abundance of strength for our friend.

I just want to quickly share one quote that really spoke to my heart from Chapter 2 of “A Confident Heart”. On page 33, Renee writes:

“My life was far from perfect, but I didn’t want anyone to know. On the outside everything looked “fine”, yet on the inside I was haunted by thoughts of never being good enough. I felt like I could never do enough to measure up.”

If you feel like that, sweet friend, you are not alone. As we work through this study, you will see God’s many promises for your life and the fact that His love NEVER is based on our being “good enough”.

HE is enough.

We will continue to read through “A Confident Heart” for the next 10 weeks (1 chapter per week). Next week, we will discuss Chapter 3. Hope to “see” you there!

What are your favorite excerpts from Chapter 2? What is God speaking to your heart?

I have never thought about the homeless.

Maybe I’ve thought about them in passing… especially when I visit big cities. However, I never think about the homeless on a day to day basis — or about those with terminal diseases… or elderly shut-ins… or orphans…

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to sit around all day and cry. I actually like to laugh far more than cry. In fact, I am far more serious in my writing than real-life. I can’t have a five-minute conversation in real-life without making some strange joke and snort-belly-laughing…. even if I’m the only one laughing.

However, I have realized that I have no real burdens for others.  I don’t lose sleep over the condition of anyone’s heart… including my own.

Maybe I should…

I am reading the most wonderful book, called Same Kind of Different As Me. It is about a lady named Deborah who devoted her later life to ministering to the homeless. She looked each person in the eye, asked each name, prayed for them every night, and truly acted as the hands and feet of Christ. Never judging, always loving. The difference she made in the life of one homeless man, Denver, completely turned his life around. I won’t give away too much of the story, but it is heart-wrenching, inspiring, challenging, and stirred something in me that needed shaking.

I actually just discovered that it is a true story! The whole time I have been reading it, I kept wondering what author thought up this beautiful, eloquent, miraculous story — turns out the One who orchestrated this plot is God!

And He is writing my story and yours too….

I want to feel burdened for others. I want to be the hands and feet of Christ, just like Deborah. However, I can’t do that when all I feel is comfortable. How can I see the deepest needs of others when I am kicked back, relaxing in my own little world? How can God use my life if I don’t feel a burden for others that keeps me awake at night, pleading with the Father for their hearts to be turned to Him?

How can I be used for God when my heart is more wrapped up in myself than in lost, hurting people who desparately long to know His unfailing love?

“Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, the hardness of our own hearts and our feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of eternal things may be the true cause of our want of success.” ~ Hudson Taylor

I don’t want to look down my nose at others and put on a “Christian” costume that I neatly press on Sunday’s and stick back in my closet the rest of the week. I want to BE a person that shows, from the heart, the love of God and points others to Him by allowing His love to flow through my hands and feet.

I am praying to know God’s will for my life and to feel the burden for others that Jesus demonstrated while he walked here. First, I know that is my children — if I fail to show God’s love to my children, nothing else I do will ever matter.

I believe God equips each of us with special gifts and talents to do a specific work for Him. I just pray He will open my eyes and peel back the scales so that I can see what He would have me to do.

Who do you lose sleep over? Do you have a burden that keeps you up at night?

If you do, I encourage you to never be discouraged and to always work to be the hands and feet of Christ. He has pointed your heart in a certain direction for a specific reason. I pray that you will be obedient. If you are like me, and wondering where that might be, I am praying for you as well. We never know where God may direct us, but it is all in His timing.

I just want to be ready when He calls.

We are so excited to be planning our first family airline trip! Our kids are talking non-stop about the airplane, take-offs, eating airline snacks, and carrying their own backpacks! It is so cute!

Mommy is making MANY lists and trying to think of ways to make the trip go very smoothly.

I saw the cutest sleep masks from The Organized Parent, and these will be perfect for our airline trip! These masks are called “Peeper Sleepers!” and are made by a company called “Streamline” and are cute, fun, and practical. I think my kids will be much easier to talk into taking naps on the airplane with these cute masks!

Isn't this the CUTEST sleep mask?!

My son loved the “Cow” sleep mask he was able to review. He said that it felt very comfortable and fit well. He liked that the inside of the mask was soft and helped to block out the light.

… and he looked so cute, I had to snap a photo during his oh-so-very-serious-test-session…

Shhh..... The Professor is Testing...

And... The Results are in! Two Thumbs Up!

Streamline also makes the most adorable little “jelly pals ice packs”. You can stick these cute little guys in the freezer and use to soothe bumps and bruises (and they are less messy than ice!). You can also leave them out and use them as wrist pads for computer use! What a great idea!

Oh, and the best part? They glow in the dark!

… which is why I have no photos of my kids… They keep running into the bathroom and turning the lights off to see the “jelly pal” glow in the dark!

Jelly Pals!

The Organized Parent is offering an exclusive 15% discount on these products for readers of Only A Breath.

To receive this discount just click on the banner to the left and the coupon code will automatically be provided!

Thank you to The Organized Parent!


{GIVEAWAY}

To win your very own Frog Jelly Pal and Frog Peeper Sleeper, enter your best tip for traveling with kids! (PLEASE!)

For extra entries:

1. “Share” this post on Facebook or Twitter and leave a comment

2. “Like” The Organized Parent on Facebook and leave a comment

3. Sign up for emails at The Organized Parent and save 15% on your next purchase! (And leave a comment!)

This giveaway will close on Saturday, January 28 at midnight EST. Open to U.S. Residents only. I received one of each of these products for review and was in no way compensated to provide a positive review.

One of my favorite things about blogging is meeting other bloggers and helping them grow their blogs! This year, my “Word of the Year” is GIVE, and I am trying to challenge myself to look for ways that I can GIVE as a ministry to others. One idea I recently had is to offer free advertising on my blog and ……. I want to feature YOU!

I’ve never done this before so I’ll have to see how it goes, but I think right now, I am going to try to offer two free advertising spots per month. I may raise this to 4 based on the level of interest. So, if you are a blogger or have an ETSY shop or small business and would like to be featured, please send an email to Melanie (at) OnlyABreath (dot) com with a subject line of “FREE Advertising”. If you have a blog button, please include it in your email. If not, I will make one for you to make your current blog design if you are featured.

I have some favorite blogs in mind so keep watching — it may be YOU!

I will also write a post that specifically features YOU so please be sure to send me the URL of your blog, a link to your favorite posts/products, and a little about yourself.

So…. if you are interested in

 – FREE ad placement for a month

 – FREE blog button (if you need one)

 – FREE blog post featuring YOU

…. send me an email today!

p.s. I can’t promise to feature everyone, but I will feature as many as possible! As I learned from the FREE “One Word” buttons, sometimes I get a few more interested people than I expected! HAHA! I expected only about 10 people to contact me with “One Word” button requests and ended up THRILLED that I could give almost 200 FREE buttons away!!! I just don’t think I could fit 200 buttons on my site, though… and the blog designer in me says “No No” to cluttered sidebars. 

How beautiful Heaven must be
Sweet home of the happy and free
Fair haven of rest for the weary
How beautiful Heaven must be

Thank you, Lord, for the breath-taking scene from my back-of-the-airplane-really-cheap-seats…. Your love makes us all First Class.

Two little girls, best friends. They had made an agreement, since neither of them had a best friend, they would become one another’s best friend. For many years, they were inseparable.

Sisters.

They dressed alike, slept over at one another’s home as much as their own, shared secrets, braided hair, whispered about boys, and even fought like sisters.

Until the last fight.

No one knows exactly what happened, if they needed more space, more friends, or if it was just a bad day when the argument happened. One friend cried with hurt feelings and the other so called “friend”, crummy at best, simply walked away.

This “friend” didn’t bother to stop and think about how her best friend was feeling, to show love and compassion, or to be a peacemaker. Thoughts on both sides became bottled up, as the silence didn’t allow them to be uttered. Tears and pain stayed locked away inside, and pride was worn as a protective garment.

20 years.

Those same little girls who promised to be best friends forever never attended one another’s college graduation, never saw one another walk down the aisle in a beautiful white dress, never laughed over pregnancy cravings, never held one another’s babies, never spoke of the pain of the past…

… only silence.

Civil silence.

The crummy friend …. was me.

What is the statute of limitations for being a crummy BFF? I see little girls and earnestly long to tell them to protect their friendships, to treasure this girl-child standing beside them who will grow with her into womanhood, and to pursue peace. I don’t know if I missed having a best friend more twenty years ago, or if it hits me more now, because true friendships at this season are so scarce.

If you have a best friend, consider yourself blessed.

I feel like God is laying it on my heart to apologize, too many years later, for wrongs done and promises broken. For being a crummy friend and an even worse peacemaker. For missing out on life events and for not understanding the value of a best friend.

Is twenty years too late?

Perhaps she would think I am certifiably insane for bringing it up now… perhaps I am? Maybe it didn’t affect her as much as me, and she hasn’t given the loss of our friendship a second glance in all these years… What if it didn’t mean as much to her to start with?

What do you think? Twenty years too late? Is it better to let the past be the past?

Welcome to the first week of my very first Bible/Book study! I’m so excited, and I would love your suggestions along to way to let me know what works best for you!

If you don’t have the book yet, you can buy “A Confident Heart” online as either a paperback or Kindle edition. Also, the first chapter is online at Amazon — just click “Look Inside Here!” to read the first chapter now!

SO honored to be asked to create this button for Renee's study at ReneeSwope.com!

After you read Chapter 1, I would love to know what quotes or themes resonated with your heart. For me, it was definitely the section on self-doubt.

Ah, self doubt. How long will I let you hang around?

Do you know what I’m talking about? (Don’t worry, no judgement here…. We’re all in this together.)

Maybe you have struggled with self-doubt as a child, and thought “When I get older, I will not doubt myself”…. but still doubt.

Maybe you worked and worked to become established in your career thought once you get established, you could think of self-doubt as a distant memory… but still, after many years of working, self-doubt just won’t go away.

Maybe when you were single, you thought “When I get married, I will not doubt myself”… but you find yourself happily married and those doubts still creep in…

Sound familiar?

“In the shadow of doubt, insecurity paralyzes us with statements like:

      “I can’t do this.”

      “Things will never change.”

      “My life isn’t going to get better.”

      “I’ll never have the confidence I need.”

Those are some depressing thoughts, aren’t they? But oh how quickly they weasel their way into our minds and disguise their voices to sound like ours. Sometimes we agree with them and they become our own.

 ~ excerpt from Chapter 1 of “A Confident Heart” by Renee Swope

Wow.

I think Renee wrote that part for me…

I love Renee’s honesty in her struggles and the years of struggling with self-doubt. However, what I LOVE more is her story of digging into God’s Word and allowing His Word to free her from the bondage of self-doubt. In fact, God is the only way that we can find security. He made us with a desire to search within our hearts for the love and security that only HE can provide.

Renee writes “… doubt and hope cannot live in our hearts at the same time. As God’s girls, we need to know and believe that change is possible.”

Think about that. Doubt and hope are diametrically opposed! We cannot hold to our self-doubts while truly experiencing the hope of life in Christ!

Sweet friends, God speaks. We only need ears to hear Him… to really listen and believe Him.

Do you truly believe that change is possible in your heart? Can you take this journey to allow God to shine a light on all of the dark, doubt-filled places in your heart and shine His light of hope in their place?

Let’s believe Him together!

“See, I am doing a new thing!” ~ Isaiah 43:19

Please share your thoughts from Chapter 1 and feel free to discuss and “Reply to” other comments! Don’t be bashful… we have no strangers around here!

… p.s. Please come back on Wednesday for a super surprise! (Self-doubt in action!!!)