Hello, Ocean

Our trip to Maine was our kids' first time meeting the ocean. Our daughter wasn't so sure about it, while our son just jumped right in! After a few minutes, they were both loving it. Love the picture of my son when he found his first dead crab. Excitement!!! :)

Be vigilant, my friends

In my quiet time this morning (a rare pleasure!), I was reading a devotional from Streams in the Desert, and I'd like to share an excerpt with you today.

The Bible verse to focus on is 1 John 5:4. . .Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

If a person allows it, he can find something at every turn of the road that will rob him of his victory and his peace of mind. Satan is far from
retiring from his work of attempting to deceive and destroy God's
children. At each milestone of your life, it is wise to check the
temperature of your experience in order to be keenly aware of the surrounding conditions.

If you will do this and firmly exhibit your faith at the precise moment,
you can sometimes actually snatch victory from the very jaws of defeat.

God is still on the throne, and He can turn defeat into victory in a split
second, if we will only trust Him.

"Be keenly aware of the surrounding conditions," I love that. Gosh, it is so important, and it's something about which I need to be more vigilant. There are temptors everywhere, and depending on your vice, you can be bombarded seemingly at every turn. Commercials, billboards, magazines. There are a wide variety of sins that can be carried out just by looking at one of those three things.

But I was enlightened the other day while having coffee at a friend's house. There were three of us there, all Christian women seeking to further their relationship with Christ. Not a place I would expect to be sucked into sin. Sure enough, we got to talking, and by the end of our several-hour-long conversations, we were all convicted that at the beginning of our talk, we were gossiping. We recognized the sin and turned from it. We now have a plan to have a Bible verse or Christian topic to be the focus of our future discussions.

Whatever road you're traveling today, I pray that you will stop and pray before each turn.

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 (NIV)

Lacking Fruit

Photo courtesy of Flickr

So as I lay awake in bed in the middle of the night (this morning), I began to reflect on my behaviors, attitudes, actions and thoughts lately. In particular, God showed me that I have fallen way short in the areas of patience and self-control (in many areas of my life). I snap at my kids, my husband. I then berate myself for snapping. I recently joined a Fit by Fall challenge, and I have been eating like a madwoman ever since! I, again, berate myself for lacking self-control. Nothing comes fast enough. Everyone is on my last nerve, including me!! :}

So I was laying there wondering, Where has my patience gone? My self-control? God gently reminded me that these two characteristics are fruit of the Spirit. [Edit: After re-reading this post, I realized that it is not just those two characteristics I'm lacking. I'm lacking in all of the fruit of the Spirit. If I am lacking in one of those areas, I am lacking in all of them. They are all intertwined. I've never looked at it like that before! Thank you, Lord, for opening my eyes.]

Well, friends, I have not been tending to my Spirit. Like a garden, my Spirit must be cultivated. I've barely touched it in the past couple weeks. I went on vacation, brought my Bible with me and never even took it out of my suitcase. Just like I can't expect my flowers to bloom if I don't water them and feed them, I can't expect the Spirit within me to bear the fruit God so desires for me if I don't feed it the Word of God.

So I go into this Thursday, and invite you to join me, with Galatians 5:22-26 close to my heart:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Maine

Our family just took a trip to beautiful Maine. It was a bittersweet trip. My aunt has cancer, and we all wanted to spend time with her. She is my mom's twin, and it was their 60th birthday while we were there. So about twenty adults and kids flew to Maine. We rented a nice house on the ocean for about a week. It was a peaceful trip. The picture above is the path that led from our street to the ocean. Aaaahh. . .the memories.

My aunt has a wonderful outlook on her situation. She is a beautiful person. Makes me want to be a better person. . .live in the moment. . .not take everything so seriously. . .lighten up.

I love the ocean. On our last day there, I went down to the water, walked a little, sat down a little, thought a lot. One of my thoughts was: I really need to think more. :) Very seldom do I make the time to be alone and reflect on God's creation that surrounds me, who He wants me to be, what He wants me to do. It was easy to reflect at the ocean (especially at 4:45 a.m. when no one else was around!).

I took a trip to Maine one summer when I was in high school, and I have longed to go back ever since. It is so beautiful.

When we returned to our home in Iowa, I felt an almost immediate feeling of stress, tension, uneasiness. I'm pretty sure that's not how God wants me to feel in my own home. I need to figure out where that is coming from. It really is good to be home. I do love Iowa. I think maybe it has to do with the fact that we just moved and half of our stuff is still at our old house (that we just sold two days ago -- YAY!), so there is a lot to do, in addition to the already-busy days of a homeschooling mom (or any parent in any situation, for that matter).

Okay, enough with the random thoughts. I sincerely hope you are all doing well and feeling the love of Christ in you today. I have missed my blog friends and hope to catch up with you all soon.

Blessings to you all.

Kids Say The Darndest Things!

This was e-mailed to me today and made me laugh, so I thought I'd share. Enjoy! :)

Sweet Award

Thank you, Latte Lady, for this nice surprise!! I really appreciate it! And I love your blog too. I am always inspired to be a better homeschooling teacher after reading Homeschooler Cafe.

The award comes with some instructions:

1. Post the award on your blog. Link to the person who gave you the award.

2. List seven things you love:

God/Jesus
My family
Friends
Organizing
Cleaning
Homeschooling
Coffee with the girls

3. List seven blogs you love and let those people know you’ve given them the award. (I would, of course, give this right back to you, Latte Lady. I LOVE your blog! But it would be redundant, huh?) :) And I'm going to try to give it to people whom I've never shared an award with before. :)

Melissa at Home is Where Your Story Begins

Alicia at Confessions of a Snowflake

Jennifer at Getting Down with Jesus

Prairie Chick at Prairie Prologue

Darlene at The Only Thing Worth Walking Toward

Heather at Blog She Wrote

Jamie at Rose Cottage

Dressing Modestly (Your thoughts, please)

I've been away from my blog for a month. . .wow! We've moved to a new home and had some life-threatening health scares in the family over the last month, so I've been away from my blog friends. :(

Okay, to the topic at hand. I am a big proponent of modest clothing. I'm not talking turtlenecks that go up to your chin and baggy pants or skirts that go down to your toes (although there is certainly nothing wrong with either of those!). I'm simply talking about dressing in a way that doesn't cause our brothers in Christ to stumble.

I have wonderful Christian friends who disagree with me on this. They argue that in order to stay with the trends, skin has to show. . .including much cleavage. It's just today's fashion, they explain. I see women at church in clothes that I am stunned they would even think to wear at church, let alone anywhere else. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming that they don't understand how this affects the men in our church who are trying to focus on God and the message of our pastor.

I am looking for any resources that back up my position on this. A male friend of my husband and me is looking to speak to a group of men and women about this very subject. He feels comfortable speaking to the men but is not sure how to address the women. He wants to be bold, to the point, but not judgmental.

Has anyone read any books or seen video clips from Christians on this topic? I have Googled Beth Moore and this topic because I thought in one of her books I read something like this. And I know of one Bible verse that addresses this topic, so any more would be welcome, of course!

If you have ANY resources you can recommend to me, I would surely appreciate it.

I am not looking to defend my position on this topic in this particular post. I'm sure not everyone agrees with me, and that is, of course, perfectly fine. And if you feel led, you may leave me a comment stating your position. Just don't expect me to debate on the topic. That's a whole other show, folks. ;)

Thank you in advance!!