Joshua Harris Is Eaten by a Beanbag

This is a great portion of a message by Joshua Harris (who wrote "I Kissed Dating Goodbye"). It's a great illustration of how easily we can get duped into thinking sin isn't so bad. My girls and I found this clip on the Rebelution Website. I encourage you to watch it - our whole family really enjoyed it and, as we're reading through Proverbs, we keep having lots of "beanbag" comments! :)

Homegrown Bloggers :)

Two of my girls have their own blogs. It's a true blessing, as a mom, to read what's on their minds and their perspectives. After reading their blogs, I thank God for what He's doing in their lives. (The homeschool mom in me also loves that it gives them an outlet for writing, gives them an audience - a good thing when writing, and gives them a reason to care if they've used proper spelling and grammar.) :)
I encourage you to check them out and share the blog addresses with younger readers in your life. (One of the girls even is sponsering a contest right now.) :)
http://missionsgirlforgod.blogspot.com/
http://praisingthelordinallthings.blogspot.com/

What a Blessing!

God blessed us with a wonderful family vacation last week. It was truly a time of spiritual, physical, and emotional refreshment. What an incredible, undeserved blessing!



Here's the view that God allowed us from the balcony:



During the weekend, we got to see a wedding on the beach. The bride and wedding party actually walked down the boardwalk - I mean aisle - at the condo where we were staying and the wedding took place just at the end of the boardwalk. The girls and I enjoyed seeing it. (I know that the girls were putting this idea in their memory banks for later.) :) I felt a bit like uninvited guests until I stuck my head out our balcony and looked at the other balconies - I saw the hands of many others standing on their balconies enjoying sharing in the moment also. :)

Of course, we enjoyed walking along the beach daily. God's creation always amazes me. What a God we serve! The water was beautiful and there weren't too many jellyfish.





One of the places we most enjoyed walking was to the rocks at the end of the beach where we could watch boats coming and going into the bay.

A treat the girls enjoyed daily were watching episodes of Gilligan's Island. Gotta love it!

Like I said, it was a wonderful blessing and we are very grateful. (A little reality check - to be honest, God needed to remind me of the gratefulness I need to feel when we got back home and the a/c had blown a fuse and the house smelled like the dog and cat. My sweet husband fixed the air in a matter of minutes and we got the house cleaned that night and the next day. My attitude though was glaring at me. Sanctification is a process, right? :) I wanted to turn around and head back to the beach. Things are settled now and I'm glad to be home but really thankful to God for the time He provided us.)

Blog Break

Just wanted to let any of you who check my blog regularly know that I'll be taking a little break for a week. For a hint where we'll be, look at my picture header. What a blessing that God has provided our family with a little get away.
Hope you all have a wonderful week.
In His love,
tina

Where's Our Focus?

I just finished reading Job and thought I'd "talk out loud" sharing some of what God is showing me. :) May it bless you as it's blessed me.

I tend to have a problem with focusing on myself and whatever's going on with me. I may not appear to be a selfish person on the outside but, there it is, it's true. For example, right now my husband and I are working through some things, trying to make some decisions, and I can get very preoccupied. Now mind you, we're seeking God's guidance, praying a lot, asking Him and just bringing it before Him trying to do what He desires. So, it looks like I'm doing right yet still, I realize, I'm focusing on (the thing that's going on with) me.

As I was finishing up reading Job, I saw a connection. Job had gone through a lot (understatement) and he was trying to figure out what was going on and why God had allowed it. He was keeping God in the picture but the focus was on himself and what he was going through. Toward the end of the book, God spoke with Job and reminded Job of who He is! He is amazing and way beyond us. He created the world, is very involved with His creation, and is so far beyond us that we really can't understand it all (this side of heaven). When we truly look at God and who He is, we realize how insignificant we are. Job saw this when he answered God saying "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6)

The most amazing thing is that, even though we are so very insignificant in comparison to God, He loves us with an amazing love. He knows us better than we know ourselves, even knows the number of hairs on our heads, and loves us. (I often am amazed that He knows me that well and loves me anyway!) :) How amazing to realize that the author of creation, King of all kings, has invited us to approach Him as His beloved children. That Jesus died for our sins because He desired us to be with Him forever. What an amazing love - God is indescribable.

Application to myself, I need to get my eyes of myself and put them on God. I need to pay attention to where I put my focus. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..." (Psalm 111:10)

Lord, open our eyes to focus on you rather than ourselves. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

thought for the day - wisdom & understanding

I wanted to share with you from my quiet time reading today. I'm in Job, chapter 28 and Job is talking about wisdom and how no person or animal on earth (on their own) knows how to find it.

Vs. 23 - 28 God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells
for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.
When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters,
when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm,
then he looked at wisdom and appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it.
And he said to man, 'The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.'

(Note to self, just shared with you all.) May we look to God and never to ourselves or other people for wisdom and understanding.
Fearing God is wisdom and shunning evil is understanding.
Thank you, Father, for spelling it out so clearly for us.

Charlie's Soap Giveaway

One blog that I enjoy visiting is "Life in a Shoe: Methods and Madness of One Family of 11" http://inashoe.com/

She's offering a contest giving away "An all-expenses paid trip to laundry heaven. This Laundry Powder Combo Kit contains 80 loads of Laundry Powder, a handy Sprayer of All Purpose Cleaner, a Portable Emergency Stain Treater, a gallon refill of All Purpose Cleaner, and a stylish non-woven reusable Grocery Tote sporting the Charlie's Soap logo. Retails for $51.92, and worth every penny."

I've personally not used Charlie's Soap before but have looked at it previously and thought that I would like to try it. Winning it free in the contest would be the perfect time to give it a try. :)

If you'd like to put your name in the hat, visit Kim at http://inashoe.com/2009/09/charlies-soap-giveaway/ .

Have a wonderful weekend!

Gotta Love A. A. Milne

My girls and I absolutely adore A. A. Milne's pooh bear books. We're currently reading through House at Pooh Corner and we all laugh and enjoy the story and the characters (this is myself and my children ranging in age from 14 - 7). If you've not had the pleasure of reading them yourself, do yourself a favor and read them. They're such fun read alouds also (regardless of age). I promise - Disney's pooh is cute but just not nearly as endearing and fun. :) As far as I know, Winnie the Pooh is the first in the chapter book series and The House at Pooh Corner is the second. Now We Are Six is a poetry book. His poetry is wonderful and fun. There is at least one or two other poetry books but this is the one I have and we have read multiple times.

Enjoy a wonderful weekend!

Give Away

Lisa at homestead originals is hosting a giveaway for the following:

How to DVD's on canning, gardening, and herbs. I've been looking at these for a couple months thinking those are things I'd like to know more about.

If you're also interested, you can enter at her blog

http://www.homesteadoriginals.com/?p=215



In His love,

Tina

Tim Hawkins - The Government Can

One of Tim's newest videos - made us laugh. Hope you enjoy. :)

Tim Hawkins on Parenting

Tim's take on parenting. :)

Tim Hawkins Things you don't say to your wife

A fun short by Tim Hawkins that makes us laugh out loud. Hope you enjoy!

Voddie Baucham

Just wanted to share with you all some encouragement my husband and I've been enjoying lately. I recently heard of Voddie Baucham (from various sources) and went to his website to learn more about him. I was able to download (free) and listen to a number of his sermons from sermon audio.

Voddie speaks on a lot of apologetics/worldview topics (pertinent to all believers). He also has a burden to live life according to the Bible, not the culture (whether inside or outside the church - we need to measure our decisions against the Bible, not what we've always done). I've told my kids often that, growing up, I was so inside the cultural box that I didn't even realize that I was in a box. I had no idea that there was another way to do things. I'm so thankful that my children have been exposed to other ideas: such as truly trying to weight what's coming at us and determine the worldview of the author/speaker even in things such as tv shows and commercials; homeschooling; courtship; a goal of not living in debt; seeing children as a blessing rather than a burden. (Don't get me wrong - I have a wonderful family and was blessed with a terrific childhood. I just was very influenced by the culture's norms and didn't even question much of what I thought or did, to my own detriment.)

Here's are the links for Voddie Baucham's website and also sermon audio:

http://www.voddiebaucham.org/vbm/home.html

http://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=voddiebaucham and

http://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?speakerWithinSource=&subsetCat=speaker&subsetItem=Voddie+Baucham&mediatype=&includekeywords=&keyword=voddiebaucham&keyworddesc=voddiebaucham&currsection=sermonssource&AudioOnly=false&SourceOnly=true&keywordwithin=

I've also been privileged to watch a DVD of one of his messages and read a book of his: Family Driven Faith.

It's such an encouragement to hear someone unapologetically speaking biblical truth (even as unpopular as it often is in our culture)!

I'd encourage you to listen to some of his messages. (I downloaded them and burned them on CD so I could listen to them any where.) The first one that I heard (and absolutely loved - lots of meat to pray on and consider) is "The Centrality of the Home in Evangelism". I loved "The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World" & "Why I Believe the Bible" and thought "The Table of Nations" was very thought provoking (a perspective I'd never really considered). I really have not listened to any of his messages that I wouldn't recommend, but those were some that I really enjoyed. :)

Long time - no post

It's been a really long time since I posted. I promise that I have NOT been in a bad month the entire last month. (My last post was about the bad mood day - it got better quickly. God is so good.) :) He's also taught me a valuable lesson. One day not too long ago I felt the battle of discontentment creeping in about a certain area my husband and I are praying through. This has been a spiritual battle ground within me for the past few months but this time God laid it on my heart to call my husband and ask him to pray for me about that issue that day. It truly was much better. (I didn't stew and think prideful, selfish, or defeating thoughts as I had in the past.) I know it's not because I'm good but only because God is good!

To those of you who've commented, I wanted to thank you all for your sweet comments. It's always exciting and encouraging to receive them. Thanks.

Life has just been keeping us busy. We've had a number of things happening.

Since my last post, we were able to host a Backyard Bible Club and see L and some of the others in action. It was lots of fun.

We've also gotten a quick weekend at the beach - what a blessing!

The girls were in a wonderful musical about Nehemiah. We had a wonderful time and there were great truths from God's Word shared through it.

We've jumped back into our school routine. It's nice to be back into a routine of sorts.

The oldest 3 started back to piano. (Actually L & K are back to piano, R is beginning for the first time.)

J celebrated a birthday.

We had the opportunity to attend a rebelution/do hard things conference. It was wonderful! If you have children and have not read the book, I recommend it for both you and them. Also, if you ever have an opportunity to attend their conference, it's wonderful! It's such an encouragement for young people to rise above the culture's low expectations for them and really use the "teenage" years as a launching pad for life, rather than a time to focus on self and goof off. For more information, check out their website: http://www.therebelution.com/

Finally, J had a fever virus for 9 days! R just started with a fever (I believe it's the same virus) 3 days ago. So far no swine flu though. :) Just had to share a picture that K shared with me about how out of hand the swine flu paranoia is getting: