Lets Give Them Something to Talk About

I am so excited.   I can’t tell you how awesome this is for me.   Today will mark one month since I decided to use my blog as my devotions.   Okay – so that doesn’t seem like a big deal to anyone – you all have heard me chat on and on about my convictions and my views on things and hearing weird stories about my life.   That is all well and good- but not the reason that I started this blog.   The reason that I started it was because I have always struggled to do daily devotions, I was writing it because a friend and I were talking and discussing and she said that I should write things down.   She is an amazing friend and started encourageing me to write and really get into the word. When i started, it was just to put some thoughts down in writing- she was the only one that I gave the link to.  I then decided, felt really led to use it as my devotional site.   A safe place for me to go and actually write my devotions down.   To get into the word and apply it to my life.   You know th

I don’t know where the quote came from; I just know that I LOVE it.   “You don’t have to attend every argument that you are invited to.”   I have printed this out and it is on my fridge- with a 3 year old and an almost 2 year old- this is a vital concept to grasp! I can’t tell you the number of fights that I have been part of, or even started.   Fights in person are bad, but e-mail or any social media, seems to be really nasty and what is worse, is it is out there for everyone to see!   It isn’t a private matter on a social media and with e-mail, the e-mails can be forwarded or bcc-ed.   It is interesting to see it happening – especially when it is on my personal page. The two issues that really get people going seems to be politics and parenting.   People are so dead set on their ways in both that if you put up something that goes against what someone believes, you will hear about it for sure. Most recently I made the mistake of posting something as a joke about how if people knew

There are so many different personality types or mixtures of personality types.   You would think as an interpersonal communications major through college, that would have stuck with me, but it didn’t.   I seem to forget that different personalities see things differently.   I am personally a people pleaser. I don’t like to cause trouble (for the most part) and I don’t like to see people upset or angry.   I thrive on making people happy.   Now I will admit that there are plenty of times that I want to rip someone’s hair out and defy them just to spite them, but usually, I try to please everyone.   One of my daughters is very similar to me, loves to cuddle, but has an ornery streak.   The other of my daughters, the oldest, is the complete opposite from me. She knows what she wants, when she wants it and by golly she is going to get it!   Now – that is fantastic because I know in the future she is going to go far.   She is going to have goals and dreams and aspirations and meet them and

So we all know that god created the universe and everything in it.   Genesis tells us that.   We know that he created the birds and the beasts and that he LOVES US MORE THAN THEM!   Mat 10: 29-31: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?   Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.   And event eh very hairs of your head are all numbered.   So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”    So we know this, but do we appreciate it? Yesterday I had the opportunity to go hiking with my extended family at the Starved Rock State Park in northern IL.   Other than being exhausted from caring an almost 2 year old on my hip the entire time up and down the multiple stair cases, it is always such a humbling experience to walk among nature.   To look around you and be surrounded by trees and leaves and see a beautiful canyon that has been carved out by a small trickle of water.   Looking at a small little pool of water that then trickles down farth

I saw somewhere that this was “National Sister’s Week.”   There are so many days, weeks, moths to honor things!   There is Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Grandparent’s Day…   There are days for remembering veterans, and those fallen and important people.   There are days specifically set apart for Jesus’ birth and resurrection.   There are days for bosses, and secretaries.   There are more days and months set up than there are actual days in a year.   Some days have three or four things on each day.   Honestly though, why do we need a “day” to remember these things?   Shouldn’t we be thankful and grateful for our family, bosses, GOD every day.   Shouldn’t we be celebrating the great things in our life EVERY day – not just on specific days?   Granted –it is fun to get gifts and presents on special days.   Getting pampered isn’t bad either, but why do that only on a specific day?   Why is it around Christmas and Easter the church attendance really spikes?   They want to give God their on

I have always been one of those people that gets over committed.   I just do it – I can’t mentally wrap my head around the concept of saying NO.   They are almost all things that I like and believe in and would love to do, but I just don’t have time for it AND for my family.   I don’t have time to do everything for everyone all the time, but I can’t get my head around that.   Some say it is because I have a servant’s heart, but someone brought to my attention the other day that it might be because I like the attention that being so incredibly busy brings me.   I like having people look at me and say – “wow – look at her go”, or “I don’t know how you do it all”…   Now honestly, I don’t know what one it is, or a combination of the big heart and recognition, but I do know that I need to figure it out.   The Bible says that we are to everything with all our heart and unto the Lord and not unto Man .   This is stated in both Colossians 3:23 and Ephesians 6:7.   So when I do something I nee

My friend saw a study the other day about how whining was the worse noise possible.   It was more distracting than a buzz saw – even more annoying and distracting than an adult talking that terrible baby talk!   Whining made people not be able to concentrate and make more mistakes more often.   Any parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent, teacher or anyone that has to deal with kids has had one of “those” days.   The days where the kids just WONT STOP WHINING!   By the end of the day, you are at your wits end, your last string and just about to snap! I mean honestly – there are days where I just need a break from the whining and crying and complaining of my kids, now 3 and 1.   I love my kids and think they are fantastic and wouldn’t trade them for the world, but their whining can really get to you some days. IT made me think though.   How often do I go to God only with MY problems?   How often do I spend my time in prayer just asking asking asking asking asking – complaining complaining c

Genesis 11 talks about the tower of Babel.   I think that it is kind of neat how in verse 7 it says “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”   I don’t think it is neat that they got all confused and couldn’t understand each other, but how cool is it that God says – come, let US…   It isn’t like god is working alone here.   The Bible talks about   his Spirit a few times in the old testament and multiple times in the new testament.   The Holy Spirit is with God always – it is part of God.   But in the very first book of the Bible, as the world is being created and formed and shaped and molded, there is reference to the Holy Spirit! How cool is that?   This is the Spirit that God gives to us- this is the Spirit that Jesus speaks about in John 14:16-18 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever- the Spirit of truth.   The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows Him. But y

This morning my daughter climbed into bed with me.   She wanted to cuddle and fall back asleep.   Before she did though, she graced me with an all out sneeze, right in my face!   LOVELY!   Well now that I was awake…   (not really I fell back asleep after wiping all the grossness off).   I don’t know if you have ever seen a sneeze in slow motion.   Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2QAGVMlns4 if you haven’t – it is pretty gross!   So after I got over my grossness, because 3 year olds don’t usually cover their mouth unless reminded every time, I was thinking what causes you to sneeze.   It is usually something that gets into your nose that irritates it and your body wants to dispel it out.   One definition actually reads “ To expel air forcibly from the mouth and nose in an explosive, spasmodic involuntary action resulting chiefly from irritation of the nasal mucous membrane.”   Usually when I wake up, I start asking God what I should devotion with Him about, but today he put

Yesterday we hopped into the car and drove 2 hours to go see some very dear people.   David was my husband’s roommate in college and the best man at our wedding.   His wife Kate and I met at their wedding and have talked since then, but never got to hang out officially.   They have two beautiful and fun loving children also, right around the same age as ours.   Both David and Nathan are amazing dads who love their kiddos and have so much fun with them.   David and Kate have a fun story.   They are both called to international ministry and were both called to a region of Asia and that is where they met and fell in love.   The funny part of the story is that they both went to the same college together, at the same time, and had never met.   And let me just tell you that the college that we went to is not a huge college.   It is a small little Christian college in the middle of nowhere KY.   God had to take them around the world to get them together! What is awesome about them is that t

Father’s day is Sunday!   HORRAY!!!   I was blessed with an amazing Dad.   I love my Dad!   He is so special to me and so wonderful.   I look at my dad and just know how incredibly blessed I am to have had a dad at all and to have had such a great daddy.   Many of my friends didn’t have a dad or had a dad that was absent, and I am sorry for that.   I also work with a lot of clients that have abusive dads and that just isn’t cool either!    I am also extremely lucky to have my daddy still with us on Earth and not in heaven.   To those who are suffering with the loss of their father this day, I am thinking of you for sure!   This is actually a devotion about how to honor your parents even if they were bad ones. But first, back to bragging on my dad…   J   I remember for on of my birthdays, and I can’t remember what one, he and my mom conspired a huge surprise for me.   He woke me up really early in the morning before my birthday, (like 5 am!) and told me to get in the car.   My mom had

I wear a wedding band on my left hand.   I don’t do it because it is stylish (although I do like it).   I don’t do it because I HAVE to.   I do it because I want to do it.   I want to wear something that shows the world that I am proud to be married to the most awesome man in the world.   I am PROUD to be married to my husband and I am going to stay true to him.   They are just rings.   It isn’t like there is some magical power in them.   It isn’t like they are commanded in the Bible to wear them.   It isn’t like on the days that I forget to wear them (because they are a little too big) I am any less married to him.   They are just rings.   A symbol of my dedication to the life that I have started with my husband and the one I continue to lead.   The two rings that adorn my second finger on my left hand are rings that he chose to show his love to me. My older sister gave me this beautiful cross necklace for my high school graduation.   It is silver and loopy and totally my style.   F

Cuss Words Almost all of us have done it at least once.   We have said a word that is “bad” we have said one of those words that comes out in anger or in pain or in excitement.   A word that the culture we are in today knows as a cuss word.   You can’t watch commercials or even some kids movies anymore without hearing at least one or two of them.   There seems to be a scale of words too – some of them aren’t as bad as others so they are permissible for our children to hear and repeat?   My husband, the scholar that he is, always says that it isn’t necessarily the word that you use; it is the way that you use it.   So I could be talking about a female dog used for breeding purposes and the “b” word wouldn’t be considered bad.   But when you call someone this term, it turns bad.   On the opposite end of the spectrum, I can stub my toe and in pain yell, “Fudge” and that is like saying a cuss word.   He really does have a point.   The term for donkey is used in the Bible.   Besides that,

This morning – our power went out AGAIN.    That means that I have to go around and re-set all the clocks AGAIN.   Living in the country at the end of the power line a bad wind can knock out your power.   Fortunately, it is usually for just a minute or so.   Only once has it been out for more than a few hours, the worse was during the ice storm when it was out for a day or two.   Usually though, power failures occur due to a big storm rolling through.   A surge from the generator a surge in electricity from the lighting, a pole getting struck a line shorting out.   We never know what is going to cause our power outages, but we know that they can always happen.   The reason this morning was due to a thunderstorm that rolled through.   When the power goes out it can be a real inconvenience.   You might look at your clock and see the wrong time, your alarm might not be set properly – your coffee maker might not start brewing your coffee on time if you have the coffee maker programmed.