What do we speak?

1 Peter 4:11 says "whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God." I have been greatly convicted by this verse because most of the time I just speak, I don't think to myself "is this something the Lord would have me to say"? Is this edifing or encouraging my husband, my children, my friend, my neighbor or the stranger whose path I cross? I am convinced that if we only spoke the utterances of God we could change the shape of our homes and our spheres of influnce. Jesus said that he does ONLY what he hears the father tell him to do and speaks ONLY what the Father says for him to say. Do we do that? Do we stop our busy lives and ask him before we chose our clothes for the day, our agenda or our words? Those things may sound trivial, but if we cannot hear him in the little things of our daily lives, how will we know HIS voice in the big things? We are called to be like Christ...this is what he did when he walked the dusty roads of Isreal. The Lord's desire for us is to hear him, walk with him so close that we only do and say what we hear the Father tell us.

Abba, that we would be still to listen and brave to do and say only that which you would have for us at this moment, for this day.

Thoughts from a Star Gazer

I wrote this back in August 2007 when I woke early to veiw the total lunar eclipse. I pray it is an encouragement to you just as it was to me then and now as I re-read what the LORD revealed!

Yes, I woke up early to view the total lunar eclipse that the Lord allowed his creation to see. I thought to myself, how can one gaze upon the heavens and not be moved to worship and glorify the Lord of HEAVEN and earth. He is so good to us. How do we get so busy and so smart that we can compartmentalize the splendor of who He is and what he has done? When did we loose our child-like wonder in the glory and beauty that surrounds us, when did that not become miraculous? He said that even the heavens will proclaim his handiworks and that if we don't praise him the rocks and hills will cry out! I don't want that job to be left to creation. He created me to praise him, but what do we do so often? Worry about this, fret about that…NO, not anymore! Do the stars that he knows by name and placed in the very heavens worry about their existence…no, they only proclaim his majesty. They do what they were made to do, called to do.

As the moon slowly became covered by the shadow of the earth, turned a blood red, then black with only the shadow of the former moon…the song by Chris Tomlin "How great is our God" came to mind. How great is HE? That the God of the universe, who set life in motion desires to hear me, to meet with me, to know me intimately. What is my life that he is mindful of ME? Except, wait, he sent HIS Son to me, to know me, to save me, how great is Our God? That brings me to ponder, What is my calling, how do I live that brings his majesty and glory to the world that I live in…just at the stars reveal his love and glory…how do I shine like a star in the universe that all may see and know the love of my Father. I want to produce the fruit he has created me to produce. For me, that is being a godly wife and mother. Am walking in the ancient paths that he has set before me, raising my children set apart from the world so that when the time is right they leave this safe harbor to be the light in the world where God has called them? How blessed I am to feel that I am exactly where God wants me to be…I am not searching, but that I am here walking with God daily as he imparts the wisdom, knowledge, instruction to be who he has called me to be.

After 1 1/2 hours of a hidden moon, the sun began to rise and the earth's shadow slowly moved and allowed the moon to be seen, but as it did, the moon became brilliant as it reflected the light of the rising sun. The moon had changed, become bigger, brighter, then it made its slow decent and set…but the Sun remained! I was in awe, what a prophetic lesson! God wants to be the Shine that radiates out of my life until there is no me, but only him... Blessed Be the NAME of the LORD…How GREAT is our GOD! Shelah

Even more pumpkin fun...

Check out this website

http://teachinggoodthings.com/blog/pumpkin-week-triva-quizes-gems-and-a-giveaway/#respond

She is a great encourager in the things that matter most...our homes and families.
Kathy is having a giveaway, as she often does...so check it out along with some more great pumpkin ideas!!

Blessings!!!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins and More Pumpkins

Ever wonder what fun you can have with the pumpkins from the trip to the pumpkin patch...Here are some fun ideas that bring the family into the kitchen for some fun fall memory making!!!

To use the actual pumpkin for the pumpkin needed in the muffins or a pie, cut the pumpkin in half, take out the seeds, lay flat on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for one hour.Scoop out the pumpkin, can save the left over in canning jars.

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

1/4 c. margarine or butter, softened

1/2 c. sugar

1/4 c. brown sugar

2/3 c. pumpkin

1/2 c. buttermilk

2 eggs

2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Streusel Topping:

1/3 c. flour

3 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. cold butter or margarine

For muffins: cream together margarine and sugars. Add all remaining ingredients and mix together. In a separate bowl, cut together streusel ingredients and sprinkle over muffin batter. Bake in prepared muffin tin at 375 for 20-25 minutes. Makes one dozen muffins. Original recipe from Quick Cooking May/June 2000.

Sugared Pumpkin Seeds

2 c. pumpkin seeds (from two pie pumpkins; rinsed and dried on a baking sheet for 48 hours)

1 egg white mixed with 1 Tbsp. water (save the egg yolk for your next batch of pancakes or scrambled eggs!)

1 c. sugar

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

Mix seeds and egg white mixture. Add remaining spices and mix well. Spread on greased baking sheet and bake at 275 degrees for one hour stirring every 15 minutes.

The King of My Home

Proverbs 21:1

The king's heart is in the hands of the LORD, as the rivers of water: He turns it wherever He wills.

Do you see your husband as the king of your home? If you do that makes you the queen! Isn't that an awesome thought! That means whatever we do, wherever we go, we do it with much purpose for we are effecting our kingdom...the kingdom of our home. I love this verse because I see my husband as the king of my home and that means God's promise to me is that my king's heart is in HIS hands and HE is directing our kingdom. If we truly trust the word of God, then we can rest safely in knowing that our husband is being lead by the Father; even if we don't understand the whys or the wherefore's. You see God put our husbands as the head, not us. So we must submit, lovingly, carefully, and with great diligence to our husbands leading for in it we are submitting and following the lead of our heavenly Father who loves us with abandon.

It is enough...

Authentic gratitude grows out of the ground of specificity.

Sometimes we get so busy, so rushed, so hurried that life goes by with but an empty thank you here and there to a God that we claim as our own but do not act as if he is really GOD. Instead in our business we proclaim that if "I don't do it, no one will and it all relies upon me"...in essence we have become our own god and it is all about us. We are our own idol.

So this day, let us proclaim, shout to the mountains, let all know that it is enough just to BE. Even if God only gives you this day, this moment covered in the precious blood of HIS son, that is would be enough. That we would not aimless wonder the parched land looking for the thing, the experience, the person to fill us. We would joyfully say it is enough that a HOLY GOD not only allows me to be in HIS presence, but HE delights for me to be there. I will choose to be specifically grateful and write them down so my children will know with great detail the way our Father loves us so...

...I am grateful for the early morning school days that allow me precious time with my children, even though some days I would rather stay in bed.

...I am grateful for the 3 inches of rain in one day and a flooded backyard to water this parched land.

...I am grateful for a husband that loves the Lord and is the spiritual leader of our home.

...I am grateful for the TRUTH that God sent, the LIGHT so that I could know HIM, the one who created the heavens and the earth.

...I am grateful for 2 dogs that bring such delight to my home, even as they bring muddy paws to clean floors.

Abba, Father, teach us to be specifically grateful so that we leave a legacy of gratitude and submission to the one true God. That we would find even if today was all, that it would be enough. May we drink the cup of joy and gratefulness as a moment by moment attitude!

TIME

What is time? In our world time is what we have become slave to. Running here and there, never savoring, never enjoying, just a madness that overcomes us as we strive to do one more thing before we crash into bed, unfulfilled, unhappy, always desiring more than we can every possibly attain. For the Greeks, there was two kinds of time...one is familiar, Chronos, it is the root of what we think time essentially is; a clock. Chronos was one of the minor greek gods in the Greek pantheon. His manner is interesting when we consider how we view time in this rat race that we call American life...He was a nasty glutton, a cannibal who gorged himself on his own children. Always consuming time, resources, people. Never having a sacred, consumated moment. He was to the Greeks the presiding god of the driven. Greeks also thought of time in another way, that is quite facinating as you consider it from the perspective of a child of God. That time was called Kairos Time. This time is a gift, a season, pregnant with opportunity and purpose. It is a servant to the HOLY. According to Ecclesiastes there is a "season for every activity under the heaven." Every moment is ripe with something, something God has already ordained. "Each moment enfolds transendence, lays hold of a significance beyond itself." says Mark Buchanan in The Rest of God. Chronos times takes and never gives back and yet leaves us with a desire for something that is not yet fulfilled in us. It is that same longing that every person is born with and can only be relieved when he feels the touch of God on his face, hears God whisper in his heart, smells the sweet fragrance of God's presence as he walks with HIM on a moment to moment basis. Chronos steals, kills, and destroys...sounds like the enemy that we have been directed to put on our armor to fight against. Chronos destroys the beauty we have the possibilty of beholding the our moments, days, weeks and years. We become like the man depicted in Ecclesiastes, running, chasing the wind, driven till we are sick and depraved from spiritual famine until we collapse, empty, forlorn, depressed.

But our God has a different way...he created us to follow the "scent of eternity in our hearts" with the knowledge and love that it would lead us straight to His heart. How do we do it? We santify our time. Eccl. 3:12-13 says "I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they life. That everone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil--This is a gift from God." God's gift to us is to "experience the sacred amidst the commonplace--to taste heaven in our daily bread, a new heaven and a new earth in a mouthful of wind, joy in the ache of our muscles or the sweat of our brows" Mark Buchanan. We need to recover the sancity of time and learn to savor each moment; to ask God "what do you have for me in the next moment?" He will lead us, he will speak, he will reveal to us His story for our life.

So I leave you with this thought...How do you redeem your time, how do you make it sacred? Consider your ways!!! Are we being a light on a hilltop to lure a fallen and sinful world to the loving Savior or are we running around looking no different than the world we have been called to be separate from. What are we looking forward to? Because what we look forward to is where our heart is...

Oh Father that I may redeem the time you have given me. May I set TIME apart as sacred so that I do not look like this world, but point the world to the ONE who gives life and gives it abundantly!

You may place upon the brow of a true wife and mother the greenest laurels; you may crowd her hands with civic honors; but, after all, to her there will be no place like home, and the crown of her motherhood will be more precious than the diadem of a queen ~ Francis E.W. Harper, Enlightened Motherhood

A woman's heart should be so close to GOD that a man should have to chase HIM to find her!

~CS Lewis~

May I cultivate a heart that follows hard after my Father so that I am submissive and respectful not only to my heavenly husband, but my earthly one as well. For in that manner I am living the gospel in the truest sense. In this way I am "exercising myself toward godliness" (1 Tim 4:7)

"I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him.
I ended up by asking Him to do His work through me."
- J. Hudson Taylor

How often do we find our own agenda's taking precident over what God's will for us in our lives...Father God, help me today to wait for you, ask you before I even take one step, so that I will be walking moment by moment in YOUR will, not mine!

More on Gratitude

When it comes to life the critical things is whether
you take things for granted or take them with gratitude. ~GK Chesterson

• No tears in school this past week

• New Mercies every morning!

• The Smell of breakfast as I feed hungry bellies

• Sleepy morning hugs from precious children

Gratitude is not only the greatest of all virtues but the parent of all others. Cicero, 106-46 BC

Gratitude

How often do I go thru my day rushing from one thing to another, not stoping to notice the ways the LORD blesses me and my family. Gratitude is giving thanks for how well we are loved. I desire for that attitude to be my personal soul fixture. At any moment I can CHOOSE to have an attitude of gratitude, a posture of grace, commitment to joy. And what an effect that attitude and outlook has on my home as I go about the calling the Lord has placed on my life. Sometimes it simply and beautifully overwhelms me at how much my Abba Father loves me. I do not desire for those moments and memories to pass me by and so I begin a list...a list of things I am grateful for, so that I never forget and so the generations that come after will always remember.

• My kind, merciful, loving Abba, daddy

• The cool morning and waters drops on green grass after a early fall rain

• The amazing, deep love and respect of a godly husband

• The fresh and earthy smell of the rosemary growing in the garden

• Watching my children's awe as they inspect the new growth each morning in the garden

• Blessed friends to walk with on the journey of life.

"Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and to bring Him nearer to our own image. The flesh whimpers against the rigor of God's inexorable sentence and begs for a little mercy, a little indulgence of its carnal ways.

It is no use. We can get a right start only by accepting God as He is and learning to love Him for what He is. As we go on to know Him better we shall find it a source of unspeakable joy that God is just what He is. Some of the most rapturous moments we know will be those we spend in reverent admiration of the Godhead. In those holy moments, the very thought of change in Him will be too painful to endure."

A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God