This month at Visionary Womanhood we’re discussing relationships.  As I write this post, I’m again reminded how important it is to raise my children for God’s glory.

It’s an awesome thing to consider that God cares about our children even more than we do!  And part of that care is the clear instruction in His Word for us parents on the relationships our children will have in life.  A huge part of parenting is the process of teaching our children how to function in the world of relationships.  Many of these lessons must be learned at an early age in order to maintain a safety net for them to grow into adulthood.  We parents have an incredibly complicated duty to fill as the caregiver, guide, custodian, and counselor for this process.

You can read about God’s tools for guiding and protecting our children in the area of relationships over at Visionary Womanhood.  I share a bit about:

• Relationship With God First
• Relationship With Parents
• Relationships Outside the Family
• Can We Trust The Adults in Our Children’s World?

There’s so much to cover on this topic, so please add to this discussion if you have ideas to help in this journey!

He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.    Proverbs 13:20

The subject of relationships can cause some people to smile.  Yet for others, it creates confusion and pain as they look back at the harsh realities of old friends or loved ones who damaged their sense of trust.  In other words, relationships have the ability to bring great joy or painful wounds.  And because of these opposing ends, it’s important for us to look carefully to Scripture to understand how God desires us to deal with relationships.  And we all must deal with them!

Let’s look at the multitude of relationships we’ll have in our lifetime. 

• We have our relationship to our Creator. 
• There is the bond of a child to a parent, and a parent to a child. 
• Then we’ll have sibling relationships. 
• Add to that the spouse we’ll be living with for a lifetime. 
• And for the parents of a married children, we’ll have sons and daughters in-law. 
• Our children may have brothers and sisters in-law.  Oh, my!  It’s getting complicated! 
• And how about nieces and nephews that are added to the mix when siblings begin to have their own children. 
• And they will have cousins. 

Whew!  No wonder we have issues with family! 

Then to family we add everyone outside our family:  neighbors, fellow church members, friends and family of friends, classmates, and employee/employer.  We keep very busy keeping all these relationships intact.  But thankfully, God knows our need and He offers us truth in the pages of His Word to help ease the stress. 

God has a plan.  I have to trust that.  You have to trust that!  He has a way in which we can prosper and grow and learn and teach in each of these varied relationships.  We must look to scripture if we are to handle this complicated puzzle of people and personalities and strengths and weaknesses.  And it is a puzzle!

So let’s put the pieces of this relationship puzzle together, piece by piece.  I obviously don’t have all the answers, but God does.  And I know that as we dig into His Word we’re bound to find truth that will reveal ways to build strong relationships and keep us from harm’s way in bad ones.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  Philippians 2:3-7

Do you have the right personality for home management? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Have you ever felt like you just weren’t cut out for all this cleaning, organizing, maintenance, and more? I can relate! It took me ten years of home management to realize that I just didn’t have the skills necessary for the job. Yep, ten years!

I would let the clothes pile up in the laundry room – and I mean pile up – three feet high! And one time, when we had a repairman coming to our home, we actually put a bath towel over the dishes piled high in both sides of the sink so he wouldn’t see them! I honestly just waited until the sink was overflowing to get them washed. I was not prepared for this job of home manager!

An often forgotten aspect of becoming a good homemaker is our need to discover who we are and how we’re wired. Success in home management is not all wrapped up in the techniques you use or in the perfect cleaning schedule. A huge factor is knowing what makes you tick and how you think.

This month, over at Visionary Womanhood, we’re discussing Home Management styles and ideas.  Join me there to read the rest of this post, and to hear of some great resources to help you discover your own style for managing your home!

Let all things be done decently and in order.  1 Corinthians 14:40

We were introduced to them by a good friend of mine, Bambi, over at In The Nursery of the Nation.  Before our move last year, we attended church together and got to share lots of great ideas.  And Lilla Rose was one of them!  We love these clips and use them all the time.

Literally, in a few seconds, you can have your hair looking awesome!

 My daughter with a quick twist and a Lilla Rose clip!

And the great news is that for the next three days, you can get free shipping on orders over $20.  Offer ends March 23 at midnight.

With Easter and Mother’s Day coming up, this is a perfect time to try them out for yourself or for gifts.

You can watch sizing and styling videos at lillarose.biz/classydos to learn all you can “do” with these clips.

If you have any questions, just email me!  

An added bonus is that you can help the fatherless at the same time!  10% of all my Lilla Rose sales goes to Danita’s Children orphanage in Haiti.  Learn more about her amazing work with these needy children at danitaschildren.org.

Lilla Rose is definitely one way to add the feminine touch to your day!

As those who follow my blog know, I’ve been very ‘quiet’ lately.  I’ll explain…..

After our family’s move last year, our routine went south.  It amazes me how much a move can take out of us!  We lose our sense of calm, routine, order…..the list goes on.  We’ve moved many times since we were married, but this time all the work and exhaustion took it’s toll.  We needed to rest.  Which meant less time for writing.  But the start of a new year boosted my motivation to get our family’s routine back in place.  Well,  I’m on a roll and have more energy for my day.  Plus, the excitement of Spring in the air always helps!

Another stretching adventure for me is writing for Visionary Womanhood.  And I’m not just talking about my monthly posts.  Natalie, VW’s founder, has chosen ten women to write a book (title yet to be disclosed) on women having babies in their older years.  I think you’ll be inspired when you read the stories of “those” women who have teens and babies, or who have grandbabies while their still teaching their own children!  I look forward to reading them all.

Well, it’s hard for me to believe, but I’m one of those ‘older’ women and I’m actually enjoying this stage of life – yes, it’s tiring, and challenging, too – but fun none-the-less!  So, look forward to hearing the real stories of real women, and be encouraged to stay the course, in spite of what the world or even your fellow church members or family think of you!  So, I have been typing away, yet it hasn’t been for my blog, but a gathering of my last 31 years of pregnancies, parenting, and growth in the Lord along the way!  I’m working on my last bit of editing this week, and hope to be back on track with my blog writing soon.

Blog plans – I’ll be sharing about our family traditions, relationships, marriage, with lots of Truth mixed in.  There’s so much going through my head these days!  And so much that God is teaching me.  Oh, if we would just focus our attention on Him, and be like Cornelius in Acts 10 – “a devout man, and one who feared (reverenced) God with all his household….and prayed to God continually.”

Blessings as you seek to become all that the Father wants you to be!

“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.  Luke 12:27

“And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”                 1 Corinthians 13:2

Charity And Its Fruits

If you’re a Christian, you’re familiar with the Love chapter:  1 Corinthians 13.  Its defining words cement together a beautiful picture of love.  Love as God sees it and as Jesus lived it.  Our challenge is to learn how it applies to us personally.

Each of us can relate to the spiritual gifts given to the faithful men of old (see 1 Cor. 12), simply by looking at our own ‘gift’, talent, or personality.  Our strengths and personalities are gifts from God, and yet it is easy to begin to trust in those gifts rather than the Gift Giver. We can begin to live out our ‘gift’ or talent from our own strength rather than from a position of humble servanthood; from a place of service to the King.  But Jesus taught us to Love first.

Join me over at Visionary Womanhood where I share a portion of this chapter and its challenge to me.

Charity And Its Fruits, is a written record of sermons Jonathan Edwards preached in 1738.  It is an entire book on the Love chapter.  It’s worth reading.  Slowly.  You will be blessed!

Let’s serve the Master by learning to Love!

I’ve been blessed by some treats in the blogging world, so I thought I’d pass them along.  Enjoy and be filled!

Bambi over at In The Nursery Of The Nation, shares about the book Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentice.  We’ve had this book in our home for probably 20 years, but I can’t believe I haven’t taken the time to read it!  My older girls have and loved it, but since reading Bambi’s thoughts on it, I think I’ll make it our next family read!  We all need examples of faithful living and the struggles of life.  Enjoy – and let me know what you think of it!

This next recommendation comes from my daughter (the one who attended Ellerslie).  How would you answer this question?  What Comes Out of You When You’re Squeezed?  ”When the pressures of life press against us, how do we respond?”  Will the ways of the world come out, or will Jesus?  Hmmm.   Read this please, over at Deeper Christian.  You won’t be disappointed!  It’s simply a great picture of how we’re to check ourselves to see what’s really inside!  Oh, that’s easy, you say?  Well, let me know how you do during your next big trial or temptation.  Again, it’s what’s on the inside that matters to God!

And last, but not certainly least, is a great new book on healthy eating called, Trim Healthy Mama by Allison and Barrett.  You can read a great review over at Keeper of the Home.  I bought this book for my daughter because she is struggling with losing her “baby” fat after her second c-section.  She is totally amazed at the results of following this Trim Healthy Mama’s advice. She isn’t doing everything ‘by the book’, but like the Amazon reviews I read said, even following half of their tips results in lost pounds! She has lost 9 lbs. in 6 weeks and is thrilled!

I now own this book and am enjoying it’s conversational style of writing. The premise of not combining two fuel sources (glucose and fats) in the same meal really works. It just makes physiological sense to avoid the storing of extra fuel/energy, which our body stores as fat. The best part of this nutritional diet is that even if you just use the one-fuel-source idea in your meal planning, you will lose weight. Highly recommended!

 

Well, there you have it!  My ‘good reads’ from the last few weeks.  I am blessed by all the wisdom available to us, but of course, the only true source is God alone.  He simply uses His servants as vessels to pour it out to each of us!  (And if you choose to purchase these books from my links, remember, they do help me to pay for this website, so thanks in advance!)

 

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.      Titus 2:3-5

If you’re only in your twenties or thirties, please don’t click off this post! There is something for you, I promise.

I’m sure that as wives and mothers, you’ve all thought about health and nutrition.  You think about it for your family and understand that it’s your job to help them achieve health.  But do you find it easy, and sometimes necessary, out of time constraints and energy level, to put yourself last on the list when it comes to achieving good health?  

I’m not writing earth shattering information here.  But there is one thing you might not have given much thought to, and that relates to a season of life, the season of menopause.  And preparing for that season, by being in good physical condition, can help ease your transition into it.

So much of your changing needs before and during menopause has to do with getting used to your body having a much slower metabolism.  Just when I thought I knew enough about healthy eating and exercise, and felt I was in pretty good shape, so began a new phase of life!

Please read the rest of this post over at Visionary Womanhood.  I share steps to a healthy transition, and Scripture to encourage you along the way!

Here’s to a healthy season, no matter where you are.

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”  1 Corinthians 6:19

Have you ever thought much about humility?  If you’re a Christian, I’m pretty sure you have. But have you really thought about what it takes to be truly humble?  To be completely at another’s will, especially our Father God?

Humility is something I’ve been pondering lately as God has been bringing me to my knees.  My family has so many changes in our lives and decisions to be made, stemming from our recent move to a new state.  It’s easy to overlook what change really means to us.  This new place or situation is not only a change in our physical location or circumstance, but it is designed to create change in our spiritual life as well.  

Each situation is crafted by God’s loving hands to form us into Christ’s image.  Each experience or change, offers an opportunity for the removing of dross, and that, as we know, can only be done by fire.  Scripture is filled with examples of trials bringing the Lord’s people to their faces before Him.  ”Of course”, we say, “His goal is that every knee should bow before Him.”  Then why are we so surprised at the trial?  Why, oh why, do we balk and grumble when the going gets tougher than we anticipated?

A New View Of Humility

I have realized something telling about humility.  It’s come from my own experience of being humbled, and from observing those around me.  Have you ever noticed that the very act of being humbled takes the breath out of us?  Okay, sounds a bit odd, but bear with me!

Breath out for second.  Really let the air out of your chest….and don’t take a new breath in for a moment.  Now breath in and let it out again.  What do you feel?  Release?  Calm?  Peace?  Nice feeling, isn’t it?!  

Have you ever noticed that when you’re humbled by something in your life, you breath out?  You lower your head.  You may close your eyes or look down.  It’s that ‘breath out’ that I’m talking about.  Oh, that we would take more time to give in and feel God at work in our lives!  To feel what it really feels to let go of our ‘stuff’.

Pride Gasps For Air

Now, switch views with me.  Allow yourself to think prideful thoughts for a minute.  Those defensive thoughts from a recent argument, or the ones from when you just knew you were right, or best, or deserving.  Now how’s that feel?  Do you feel yourself sucking in air, gasping for that last ‘me’ breath?  Pride causes us to pull back, suck in, hold our chest out – a stance that says, “I won’t give”.

Grace to Live God’s Way

Listen to what these verses have to say.  Gain instruction, gain life!

A man’s pride will bring him low,
But a humble spirit will obtain honor.  Proverbs 29:23

When pride comes, then comes dishonor,
But with the humble is wisdom.  Proverbs 11:2

He has done mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.

“He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
And has exalted those who were humble.  Luke 1:51-52

…..and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.  1 Peter 5:5

I want God’s grace.  I want His power in my life.  I want to do my work as unto the Lord.  And the only way I can do this, is to let go.  Stop striving.  Allow Him to humble me by my circumstances.  Learn from Him.

This takes breathing out.  A death to self.  Something my husband reminded me of the other day – we each will take that final breath out when we die!  Humility is a death, a dying to self.  It’s taking that breath out of whatever I’m holding onto.  Letting go of the ‘me’ in the equation and doing all for the glory of God.

Humility offers us peace.  Space away from striving.  A place of rest in the Father’s arms.  Right where I want to be!

Do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.     James 4:5-7

Suffering is this month’s topic at Visionary Womanhood.

So you might think it a bit odd that I’m writing about menopause.  But, menopause, and the infertility that comes alongside this physical phenomena, result in their own form of pain and affliction.   They result in another type of finality.  And those who are in menopause can certainly attest to the confusion, pain, and mixed emotions that accompany this change, along with the knowledge that their childbearing years are over.

Menopause, and the end my fertile years, was a blow to my picture of life as I knew it.   It is an easing out of my old role.

I was a busy mother.  I was pregnant every two years.  I was usually nursing a babe.  I was needed to orchestrate the chaos of a family of twelve.  I was living in a house full of little children, all in the differing stages of growth and development.  I was……but that was only for a season.  A new season was on the horizon.

This set the stage for a need to discover my new identity, my new ‘place’ in this world.  Please read the rest of my journey over at Visionary Womanhood.  I pray it will bless you.

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—A time to give birth and a time to die…..

I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot. For who will bring him to see what will occur after him?                                    Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, 22