Being Thankful That Thanksgiving Wasn't Worse

I could enthrall you with this wonderful tale of visiting family and paint you a beautiful picture of an exquisite Thanksgiving feast.  But it would be a lie.  Norman Rockwell did not have my family in mind when he painted that picture.

On the other hand I could whine about how things didn't go as planned and the family feud that has been going on continues to plague us.  But I won't do that either.

Instead we've chosen to be thankful that our Thanksgiving holiday wasn't worse.  Because often times we forget that yes, it could be worse. 

I am thakful:

1) That we had a safe trip

2) That Jacobs potty training went smoothly even with long car rides and strange surroundings.

3) That my grandmother's niece was happy to take care of her while we stayed at my parents.

4) That Jason's family enjoyed having Thanksgiving at the state park we reserved.

5) For a wonderful understanding husband who sticks beside me in hairy situations.

6) That putting up a Christmas tree with your husband and kids can bring you right out of the grumps.

7) For the FOOD.  That we will be eating for at least a few more days : )

8)  For 2 precious boys who can put smiles on peoples faces even when they are sad or angry.

9)  For bloggs where I can read and write and shut out the worlds problems for a few minutes

10) But most of all I am thankful for a Savior who died for me and my family so that even though we are sinners we may have new life.

This year we are celebrating Advent with the resource found on this lovely blog.  We are choosing this year to count down to what really counts.  We are anxiously looking forward to Christ's coming not the coming of presents.

Dear Lord, Help me remember to cling to You in times of trouble.  Help me to be more Christ-like in my actions. For this coming season,  help me teach my children the true importance of Christmas and thank you for giving us your Son, a true Miracle.   In Jesus' name, Amen.

The Devil Doesn't Like Baptisms

We believe that a person's actual salvation does not occur within the waters of the baptistery.

MAR 1:8  I baptize you with water, but he will baptize 

you with the Holy Spirit.

We believe that God draws people to him and they are saved by the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ.

ROM 6:3  Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized 

into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into 

death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the

 dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

  We believe that to be baptized is an act of submission to Christs command.  We also believe it is a public declaration of our new path with God. 

Mathew 28:19  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and 

of the Holy Spirit

But although the water doesn't hold any spiritual significance in itself the Devil still does not want baptisms carried out.  I know this because almost everything that could go wrong did the morning of our baptism.

The night before: I managed to burn 3 pie crusts in an attempt to make a pie for church fellowship.  The children would NOT go to sleep.  And though I had everything laid out for the morning 1/2 of it walked away.  Do things without legs run off in your house too?  If you have a toddler just nod "yes". 

1) Jason, being the good hearted man he is, took a call for someone who was trying to get home for Thanksgiving.  So he was out from 8:30 Saturday night to 3:30 Sunday morning. 

2) Sunday morning was one disaster after another: breakfast not happening as planned, couldn't find shoes (even though I had laid everything out the night before), the kids were being difficult to say the least.  Everyone was running behind so we missed Sunday School.

3) Jason wakes up around 9.  I had let him sleep in because his late night.  He woke up sick.  A stomach virus. Bless his heart, I fill him full of medicine and let him take a shower while I wrestle 2 boys into their church clothes and prod my grandmother to hurry.  Jason emerges from the shower and looks.....terrible.  I feel inconvenienced and aggravated. I check myself, why such a hateful attitude on such a glorious day?

I think of Jesus's words "Get behind me Satan.You are a stumbling block to me...." Mathew 16:23 

"Your not whispering in my ear anymore," I say out loud to an empty room.


4) We get in the van, I think to myself that this would be the morning we blow a tire.  No, the tires are fine but the low fuel light comes on as we leave the drive way.  Jason always keeps the van filled but who wants to stop at a gas station at 3 am after working all night? No time for gas now, so we creep to church and promise to fill up on the way home.

Does anyone besides us drive carefully after the fuel light comes on?  Like its going to help. 

But anyway, I digress. 

So we get to church, late for Sunday School but early for service to find out that the tank ( I don't know what its called)  was not filled the day before and had had no time to warm up.   Can we say "brrrr"?

Jason and I just looked at each other.  We were thinking the same thing.  The devil was working overtime. 

Jason mustered his way through everything sick as a dog and exhausted.  I was so nervous I didn't even think the water was cold, now that's nervous people. 

But nothing could keep that moment from being wonderful.  We were surrounded by our church family who feel like just that: a family.  We feel like we've known them for years but have only been attending this church since June. 
We sang  Hallelujah. What a Savior!----(that song gives me goose bumps every time.)
We were publicly and symbolically washed of our sins a representation of what had already occurred in our hearts. 
We took part in the Lord's Supper for the first time. 
We sang Amazing Grace and I tried not to cry. 
We had sweet fellowship with our family. 
Jason, though sick, was so very happy, as was I.

An incredible day in all.  We have many things to be thankful for this week. 

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

God Bless,

Sola dei Gloria--Glory to God Alone

Baptism

So this Sunday is it...... Jason and I will be Baptized at 25 almost 26 years old. 

Excited? YES

Nervous? YES

But completely and totally in awe of where God has brought us in our lives. 

We are ready to declare publicly what we already know in our hearts: we are children of God, bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ in order to live for His Glory.  Sola dei Gloria.

Psalm 127 Part 2

Michael and me when he was 2 weeks old

So after my heart was changed and I began seeing children as the blessing they are, we felt God calling us to have another child.  Jason came in from work one day and almost immediately brought up the subject, while I had been thinking about it all that week. 

I became pregnant with Mikey about a month later. 

Mikey was due on this day.....but didn't come until almost 2 weeks later.

While I was pregnant with him God continued to work in our lives and hearts.  We discovered may families, both personally and in blogland, that had many children and welcomed more. We learned from their example that there was more than just seeing children as a blessing.  We were being called to be "fruitful and multiply" to fill our "quivers".  

We had been willing to give our whole lives to God, every little detail.......except for this one.  We foolishly questioned him:

Do we have the money, the room, the experience?  Shouldn't we space them out?

It wasn't until a few months ago that we submitted to God's will and let him have power over this matter.  I can't say it was an easy decision, we are doubting sinners, often unwilling to trust in God's planning, in his divine wisdom. 

Children are a heritage from the LORD,
   offspring a reward from him.
⁴ Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
   are children born in one’s youth.
⁵ Blessed is the man
   whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
   when they contend with their opponents in court. Psalm 127:3-5

Now, I am often surprised at myself, how much I am looking forward to another pregnancy, even so soon, even with the memory of birth kind of fresh on my mind : )

---------------------------------------------------------

You probably noticed I did not use the term "quiverfull".  Currently (and this may change as we grow in the word) we believe this is a man made term for a biblical principle.  We don't need a catchy term for following God's will in any other circumstance and we don't believe this is an exception. Also, the theme of bearing children for the glory of God is echoed throughout the Bible again and again, we must look at it all as a whole, not just one well known verse. 

Let me also say that I don't judge.  Are you "quiverfull", awesome!  Are you not? Okay : )  I believe that I am a sinner and although I have been saved by the blood of Christ and we (my husband and I) have the responsibility to make decisions in light of scripture, we DO NOT have the foresight, divine knowledge etc to judge anyone's choice.  To do so, we believe, would be foolish.  So while I'll debate the issue with you on why we feel its a biblical matter,  We won't dare tell you your way is wrong.  (Except in the case of abortion, and then oh, believe me, I Will tell you). 

I write this here for ourselves, to look back and see where God led us, not to make anyone feel bad.  I hope that if anything its an encouragement : )

Psalm 127 Part 1

Jason and I had discussed having children before we were married and we decided that we wanted to have a few but only when we were "ready". What is that?  How can you be "ready" for children?  

We had been married a year and had our own house when I found out I was pregnant with Jacob, most of our family and friends were less than thrilled. 

"Can y'all afford a baby? Their so expensive!"

"You've only been married a year!"  "You need more time to get to know each other"

"You'll never finish college now"

"You've ruined your life"

Now, we weren't unmarried teenagers mind you.  We were married 21 year old adults with a house and good jobs.  They acted as if I had been diagnosed with cancer, there was no hallmark brand happy tears and excitement.  We had committed a serious mistake, according to them, by becoming pregnant before the age of 30. 

Feathers became ruffled again when I did in fact quit my job and school to stay home.  But we promised that we wouldn't let "the kid" get in the way of anything else. 

I would like to say that when Jacob was born I fell immediately in love and overwhelmed with joy but while I was happy, I didn't find joy in my Son until he was almost 18 months.  Because I chose to see him as the world did, a mistake, a hindrance, a burden.  A tax write off, but nothing more. 

When God started working in my heart I saw what I was doing, I was ashamed and I sought forgiveness; from God, from my husband and from Jacob. 

My life is so full now.  Full of joy and happiness, and although there are hard times, I remember that my children were gifts.  Gifts that I should never take for granted.  More tomorrow.

*REVISED* The Sabbath

I found an answer to my struggle with the Sabbath via John MacArthur.I believe I was being a little like the pharisees on the subject, so afraid to not do enough, I was doing to much.  Not only that I was misunderstanding it's purpose for us since we have been saved through Christ. 

I would encourage everyone to peruse his web page for great biblical insight.  Here are the links to his sermon on the subject: 

Understanding the Sabbath 
Why Sunday is the Lord's Day

"Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you" 

Deuteronomy 5:12

So, Jason and I have been discussing the Sabbath lately.  The topic really took center stage this past Sunday when 3 out of 5 of us were not feeling well and we missed attending church.  The question was.....So what do we do now?  It was still the sabbath, a holy day, shouldn't we do something ...special? 

We turned to the bible starting with the ten commandments and then as we were reading Isaiah, where we are doing our daily readings, we discovered the following:

^13(A) "If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
   from doing your pleasure^[a] on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
   and the holy day of the LORD honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
   or seeking^(B) your own pleasure,^[b] or talking idly;^[c]
14then you shall take delight in the LORD,
   ^(C) and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;^[d]
(D) I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
   ^(E) for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."  Isaiah 58:13-14

This verse spoke volumes to us about the importance of keeping Sunday holy in faith to God.
 
But the answer as to how we go about it still eludes us.  We set Sunday up as special by having the meals prepared on Saturday and the housework/chores done.  And of course we have church and fellowship in the mornings, we've also been wanting to attend Sunday school.  But what about when we get home?  Or on days we can't make it to church?  We have our nightly devotions, so that won't change but what else?

We know that we aren't to work or to do things for ourselves but for the Lord.  Besides worship Him and having a day of rest we were thinking we should make a point to perform an act of kindness or generosity.  Perhaps we could take a meal to someone, make a call or pay a visit?  Another idea we had would be to catch up on our reading of books on theology or listening to sermons from pastors we like. 
 
What do y'all do special on Sunday?  Do you have any ideas, or verses in the Bible pertaining to this?


Hope y'all all have a blessed week!

Do You Know What Your Church Stands For?

If we only follow the Ten Commandments when it is convenient for us, where are we spiritually?

As a culture we’ve already surrounded ourselves with “graven images”, they are plugged in in our living rooms, sitting in our garages, hanging in our closets, filling our bank accounts.

Adultery is accepted if you are lonely, or if your partner doesn’t meet up to your expectations.

Lying and stealing can slide if they are for your benefit.

Honor your father and mother went out the window a long time ago, you only have to walk through wal-mart to see that.

And murder? It’s committed every day in “clinics” because its convenient, its for the health of the mother, to carry on with the “mistake” would look bad to those around us.

And if the world can overlook the commandments why not the church?

The purpose of the church is to not be accepted! Jesus Christ, who we have taken as our Lord and Savior was not accepted. He said we would be hated as followers of him.

18"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. John 15:18-19

Researching various religions out of curiosity I came upon this website. I won’t name the religion but suffice it to say it is not the one I follow. It states the following on its stance about abortion:

"..we recognize tragic conflicts of life with life that may justify abortion, and in such cases we support the legal option of abortion under proper medical procedures."

‘justify abortion” = justify murder

Those words send chills up my spine. Where is the biblical reference for this? Where did God say “go forth and multiply” unless its not convenient?

I don’t believe there was an asterisk at the end of Thou Shalt Not Murder saying *unless its an unborn child you don’t want.

How arrogant can we be to say that we created that life? We can’t create life any more than we can make our own hearts beat. (That is a partial quote from this video of an ABORTION SURVIVOR)


How can we call ourselves Christian yet spit in the face of Christ himself.

But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

That statement should make your heart ache with guilt.

By turning our backs on the law that God wrote with his own hand, by turning our backs on the vile murder being committed in our own backyards and then allowing the church to support it, we are driving the nails into his hands ourselves.

I encourage you today to read your church covenant and constitution. Read where your church stands on issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Where do they find their biblical proof? Is it single verses taken at random or is it read in the context? Is it pulled out or are they reading into it?

The Big One: Can you account for what you believe to God when you see him?

But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. Mathew 12:36

Pondering Family Worship

This painting hangs over our dining table

 My husband and I have been discussing daily worship and how it should look for our family. So, to tell you what we currently do:

• We each read the Bible in the morning separately. He reads his at work during morning break and I read mine before the kids wake up. During this time we read the Proverb of the day (August 1st we read the 1st proverb etc) and then I think it varies daily from that. I also read various books about Biblical womanhood during the week, examples of these are in my sidebar.

• We pray at the dinner table. We may pray separately throughout the day but its sporadic to say the least.

• At night we re-read the days proverb together and a psalm. We read a Bible story out of “The Jesus Storybook Bible” by Sally Lloyd-Jones. (I LOVE THIS BOOK!) We’ve also been reading a Christian themed golden book or something similar to the children.

• After the kids are in bed. Jason and I read aloud to one another from a book we are working on. Right now it’s the 1689 London Baptist confessional and “What is Reformed Theology” by R.C. Sproul. We also read through the Bible, a chapter or so a night. Right now we are in Esther.

Okay, so areas for improvement. WE NEED TO PRAY MORE! I do believe we are praying, quietly to ourselves throughout the day as it says in 1 Thessolonians to “Pray without ceasing.”But we need to be praying together and often.

THIS is where we need the most work.

As new believers, praying out loud is a very humbling experience. A lot of this stems from not knowing what to do.
So where should we turn? God’s word and we'll be doing just that over the next few days in regards to this very topic. 

I have recently seen a few posts on a family worship area. You can look at them here and here.

Wow. That’s all I can say.

I can certainly see a place for an area like this in our home, somewhere to go to the Lord with purpose to pray and study his Word. We’ll be discussing this more and praying about it to see how we can implement it.

Second, we are going to start working on the catechism. No, it’s not Catholic, that’s what I thought it was. We’ve been doing it at church and it helps. Anything that will help our children learn the truth of the Lord and “write it on the tablet of their hearts” is good for us!

Many people put music into their family worship…….maybe one day? My toddler hates music for some reason but he seems to be warming up to the hymns and worship songs I listen to in the mornings during chore time. They are my way of daily praise, I feel connected this way.
Now, our whole family doing it? One step at a time …


Does anyone have any Bible study book suggestions? Thoughts?
Did any of you struggle with praying out loud when you became believers? Are we just goobers? Okay, don’t answer the last one.

Anyway, I will leave you with the song I am listening to currently. I heard it for the first time at our church and wow….. Enjoy : )

Because Of Who You Are

A friend quoted the following scripture to me (emphasis is mine):

Ephesians 2: 4-10 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.



It made me think of this song and thought I would post it.

I Would Like to Thank.....(The books that got me from there to here)

I was asked recently about what kinds of books I read and in particular, which ones “recovered me from feminism”. (Hi Tess!) = D

And it got me to thinking about it a great deal.

It has been hard for me so far to nail down an exact turning point where I drew the line and said I was going to be “this way” instead of “that way”. I can map out the road that led me to it but the pinnacle of the change eludes me.

Upon careful thought and consideration the only thing that I could come up with was a book. Well, The Book, The Holy Bible. I don’t want to risk sounding cliché but I remember when it happened.

When you read About Me you see that we, or more accurately, I had got us into quite a pickle trying to get our business to work. We lived in our shop, so to lose our business meant we were losing our home. We were devastated. I asked God for help which I had done many times before but this time I opened my heart. And most who are followers of Christ probably know what I mean. As much as our culture doesn’t like the word I submitted myself to God.
Tearfully, I opened the Bible.

For the first time in my life that Bible spoke to me. See, its not just about reading a book, if your heart is open and you have submitted your will to the Lord the Bible will speak to you. The words lept of the pages and into my heart. Everywhere I turned I could see a clear and definite path for my life and I wasn’t on it.
My ambition had gotten me far but I had forgotten to ask for direction and was going the opposite way. It reminds me to ask God daily to give me direction.
The most poignant thing that I gathered from that random Bible reading were the following verses:

Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything. (Eph. 5:22-24)

1Pe 3:1 In like manner, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, even if any obey not the word, they may without the word be gained by the behavior of their wives;

Let the husband render unto the wife her due: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power over his own body, but the wife. 1Co 7:3-4

I saw that I was not letting my husband lead me. The good little feminist I was, I was forging ahead and trying to lead him with disastrous results.

The next thing that really changed my outlook and my faith was the following blog:

http://inashoe.com

Especially this article http://inashoe.com/2007/08/patriarchy-is-not-a-bad-word/

I hasten to cite a mere blog as a driving influence but this woman is a Titus 2 woman if I ever saw one. She walks the walk and talks the talk. She convicted me as an anti-feminist as I realized through her example and the examples of others which she provided, that having it “all” would not make me happy. I learned that by submitting the the Lord I must also submit to my husband. And believe me, that was hard to swallow. But more on that in another post.

Through reading this blog and implementing many of the virtues I saw her portray (after looking through the Word and verifying them through scripture), I came upon book references and began to order them from Amazon.

The 1st most important one would be Passionate Housewives, Desperate for God. Beautifully written and full of scripture references, it addresses what the average housewife needs to know about the evils of feminism that we don’t even realize are there.

The 2nd book was The Excellent Wife., another great title about God’s plan for wives and mothers.

And the 3rd book was Becoming God’s True Woman.

We’ve also read the following list:

Family Driven Faith
The Fruit of Her Hands
Standing on the Promises
The Man in the Mirror
Shepherding a Child’s Heart.
Raising Godly Tomatoes.
Christian Living in the Home

There are so many more I would like to read but haven’t gotten around to it, namely the Pearl’s books Created to be His Helpmeet and To Train the Up.

I have hesitated on these because of the large amount of controversy surrounding them. I have heard many good things though and would love to hear y’alls input.

What books have convicted y’all in the ways of patriarchy, anti-feminism, biblical discipline or overall Christian living? I would love to hear!

God Bless,
Melodie

New Church, part 3

*Okay, this is the last post on this, Promise! I'm just glad to have the whole thing written down so we can look back and remember why we chose the path we did. It's kind of like a religious time capsule, right? Yeah, I know I'm a dork = )*


My checklist for a new church:

-Serious, open-hearted worship without bells, whistles, huge velvet lined sanctuaries and expensive staffs.

-Expository scripture teaching, as in going through the bible chapter by chapter instead of spinning a wheel and picking a verse.

- Children welcome in the sanctuary, not just tolerated. Even rowdy boys that require constant training.

- No laying of hands, funny dancing, convulsions or weird languages (I apologize to those who believe in that stuff, I just can't bring myself to go to a church where people act like that. To me, whatever they have, I don't want to catch it. = )

- No preacher worship. You would be surprised at how many churches that believe that the preacher deserves to be worshiped, as in idolized and waited on. This is ridiculous when there is only One who we should be worshiping.

- SAHM, yes I would like to see a few stay at home moms. When I told people I was a SAHM at the last church they looked at me like I was an alien, the green kind.

- Homeschooling moms would be a plus = )


Then I discovered the concept of Family Integrated Churches. They believe that if family was so important to God, and a main theme in the Bible, why are families being split up into categories in Church? Pretty common sense to me. I searched, there was ONE in the Waco area.

I cannot tell you the difference.

These people are serious about worship! The fellowship was wonderful! We met and got to know more people in our first visit than we did at our old church in the entire year.
The preacher and his Deacon swooped in as soon as we set down to eat and proceeded to sit beside us and talk to us. I was dumbfounded. A preacher who talks with his congregation? I mean, pastors always have their select few who they socialize with but this was different. He acted like a normal person.
We had a very nice conversation on faith and life. It was so refreshing.

Oh and by the way, most of the mothers, including the preachers wife, HOMESCHOOL. Can we say Halelujah?


As far as the kids being in the service, I was nervous. But the pastor and his wife put us at ease . However, we had programmed Jacob without realizing it. Church = play time. Oops. Now how do we fix that?
But surprisingly he only had to be taken out a couple times and the church building has a crying room right behind the sanctuary so it was far easier to discipline and redirecting him simpler that I had thought it would be.
I can see this being an on-going process but it is so worth it to have our family together, worshiping God together, singing together…..
It just feels……..right.

We feel strengthened in our Faith. We spend even more time in the Word at home. We spend our free time reading theological books and articles, referencing everything to the Bible.

It's been a month now and we feel like a spiritual weight has been lifted. NOW, we see whey Christians are encouraged to attend church. It's not just a social get together people! It's a place to fill your cup when it runs dry. It's a place to escape to after battling the secular world for 6 days. It is the Lord's day, and we finally feel like that is how we are spending it, with the Lord.


Praise God for his wisdom and grace.

The New Church, Part 2

*Okay, now this part of the post is going to sound like venting and that's because that's what it is. What I don't want it to sound like is that "my child is perfect and never does anything wrong" the point I'm trying to make with the following story is that when your children are being taught/cared for by someone else that you run the risk of exposing your children to someone who does not have the same vision as you in discipline/morals etc. We've adopted a rather strict discipline procedure in our home. (See "Shepherding a Childs Heart" and "Raising Godly Tomatoes") I'll be sure to address our specific methods in another post. *



We attended the church for about a year. I had found out I was pregnant 2 days before our first day at church and Mikey was around 6 weeks when we stopped going.



I liked the church, don’t get me wrong. It was very uplifting and a great time. The “offering plate” was a very large dutch oven at the back of the church where you could drop money in and no one would could judge. The music was varied in style but always performed by a guy with a guitar and excellent singing voice. Everyone was nice……



So why did we stop going, you ask? The bottom line was: We needed more. The preaching was basic, good messages but not a lot of depth, with an emphasis on spending time daily in the Word . Jason and I checked that one off our list. At first mention of reading proverbs daily we did it and then expanded our time to include a chapter or two from a book, working through the New Testament. We wanted to know more, we wanted a better understanding of Jesus. It seemed that we were only skimming the top of deep subject matter that needed more consideration.



Issue number 2 was the preacher not liking children. I do believe he was joking when he said “I don’t like kids” in front of the congregation and I took it as: well, everyone has their weaknesses. Afterall, I had never been *good* with kids either.



But it didn’t take us long to realize that children were not welcome. From day one Jacob had gone into the nursery because, well, that’s where children go. They started taking volunteers for said nursery from the congregation, everyone was supposed to have their turn. I got nervous, I didn’t know these people?! We began having problems.



Every day when we would go to pick Jacob up he had done something (i.e. pushed a kid, took a toy away) that required discipline but instead of sending someone for me they would just stick him in time out.

I can just hear his little mind working, “Time out? That’s all you got?” as he laughed to himself and continued his shenanigans every Sunday.



I expressed to them that I needed to punish him when he acted badley but they would tell me not to worry about it “he was just being a boy”.

Hmmmmm. Observations of the nursery and interactions between the caregivers and the tots confirmed that there was more gossip going on than actual caregiving. For those of you with toddlers (or who once had toddlers) you know that if you don’t watch them you can’t train them, that disputes can be stopped before they start, if you’re watching.

The last straw was when one of the lovely ladies brought my son to me (hand clenched around his wrist, his arm fully extended up, her with a bitter expression plastered on her face) and told me he had pushed a “baby” down.



“oh my goodness!” I replied and started to talk to Jacob, he knew that was unacceptable and by placing his hand over his bottom to guard it he knew what was about to happen to him. When the “angry lady” realized that a spanking was about to take place her demeanor changed, smiling she said “It’s okay, just don’t do it again” He was just being “a boy”.

!?!?!

I left chuch that day downright angry, I mean which was it? Was he misbehaving or wasn’t he? Had the incident been an accident? Jason was beside himself and said that if we did go back Jacob would no longer be in the nursery.



After much prayer I realized I only had myself to blame. Whose child was he? He was my child. Why was I letting others train My child? Uuuhhhhhh………

To Be continued, again = )

The New Church

I meant to just jot down a little something about finding a new church but when I began writing out came this journal of not only our search for a church but part of our spiritual journey as well. Being so long I will post in segments but I will post it in its entirety so that one year, 5 years, 10 years from now we can look back and see where we were as a family, as Christians.


God bless,

Melodie


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Why Church?


My family and my husbands family didn’t go to church. I mean, Jason and I had been to church……a few times with friends, uncles, grandmas etc.

But neither of us felt that it was necessary much less did we like going.


The churches I went to were like one of those chocolate bunnies you get at Easter. Looks good on the outside, but hollow on the inside. The Casting Crowns song Stained Glass Masquerade comes to mind.


The people were often more worried about what you put in the offering plate than the salvation of your soul. They were always looking for the next building addition, the next shiny doo-dad, the next church bible-camp retreat.


These people weren't serious, so why should I be serious about God? I didn't want to go to church to parade around as if in a fashion show and gossip about my fellow church-goers. I saw the whole thing as a colossal waste of time, I believed there was a God and to me that was enough... for a long time anyway.


Fast forward to our move to Waco, we can skip the tale of losing the business and being heartbroken. You can read more about that in About Me.


I had finally “woke up and smelled the coffee” as my family would say. I had submitted my prideful and ambitious will to God and this time I wasn’t turning from Him when things got all rosy and sunshiny again. It took breaking my spirit to lift it up, I had always been His Reluctant Daughter.


I had discovered (I have no idea how, perhaps God led me?) blogs and articles on the internet promoting “biblical womanhood” and they spoke to my soul. They perfectly described the inward struggles I had had with happiness over the course of my life. They told of how ambition and trying to be head of the house will lead to disaster. They showed a lovely picture of feminine, not feminist, mothers content at home with their families about them. They told that children were blessings, not burdens that childhood wasn't something to just get through. (These blogs are in the sidebar and on my links page)


As I began this complete spiritual and mental overhaul their was always the part of me that yearned for church. Not just any church, mind you, but THE CHURCH.

My husband, Jason, was on board and told me to go ahead and find one. I began to search desperately and at last came upon a “cowboy church” about 20 minutes away. Simple, no frills, basic teaching. So we set off that Sunday, nervous as kids on the first day of school. To be continued.

The Church, Yard Sales and Other News

I'm currently working on a new post about our decision to change churches where I'll discuss the why, when and how.  But suffice it to say that we are now attending a different church Waco Family Baptist Church and feel completely at peace with our decision.  We are so excited about what this change may mean for our lives and the spiritual growth of our family!

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I HEART YARD SALES!  I have never been an excellent yard-sale-shopper but am absolutely determined to get better.  I read a great post on Raising Olives blog and it helped me sort through a lot of the problems I was having.  For example, I would drive by a yard sale and see piles of junk on tables, write it off as *junk* and drive away quickly.  But now I try to stop. and. look. And low and behold I thought I did pretty well today!

Well, I won't be winning any awards for photography and please excuse the pile of books, coffee cup, unswept floor............
I purchased the following for myself: yellow dress shirt, blue dress shirt, blue floral skirt, red sweater, white sweater, purse and jean jacket with fur collar ( am I going to have to brush that thing regularly?)
For the boys: I found a tigger costume for Jacob (Mikey is going to be Pooh!) and I found 4 dress shirts for little Mikey. 
I spent a grand total of $20.  Not too shabby in my eyes and way cheaper than goodwill.

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In other news......it's hot.  Getting over 100 now but I thank God everyday it is not a repeat of last summer with 30 days of 100 and over. 

With the help of my mother I have filled my flower beds and pots and added some hanging planters to our new rent house.  Her green thumb go me started, if only I can keep my brown thumb from killing them. 

Potty training is a disaster.  We were doing good for a while and then not so good.  *sigh* I try to remind myself that he will learn and he won't wear diapers forever. 

Mikey's first two teeth came in last Sunday---during church.  I discovered this when he latched down on my finger in the middle of the service.  Ouch.  The little fella handled it okay and is well on his way to chewing on everything.

I've been reading Family Driven Faith by Voddie Bauchman.  I love this book. I am amazed at how technologically behind I am....did you know there were e-books?  That there are books that cost less and can be read on your computer?  Woah.....this is cool.  There will be a post coming on this book for sure.

Well, that's a wrap for now, the kiddos are in bed, the hubby's on call and I am t-i-r-e-d.. 

God Bless, 

Melodie

Having Faith When Those Around You Don't

“No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts in under a bed.  Instead, he puts it on a stand so that those who come in can see the light.” Luke 8:16.

Once I developed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ I hid it.  Isn’t that sad?  This amazing discovery, a new chapter of my life and I hid it from everyone except my husband ( who I share EVERYTHING, yes EVERYTHING with). 

Fear drove the decision.  Fear of being seen as silly, of being made fun of, of being cast out.  I hid my feelings in my heart, not following Jesus’ commandment at all. 

Every night my husband reads the bible, proverbs, psalms and then a chapter or two in a book we’re working on.  We were reading Mathew and he read the following:

“But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” Mathew 10:33

An arrow of guilt struck me in the heart.  Had I not been denying him?  Had I not hidden the light he wished for me to shine?  For what?  To please mere mortals who have no power over my life whatsoever?  I slept on it. 

I realized the people I was trying most to hide my faith from was my family.  While holding a belief in God and baptism my parents never put much stock into attending church or even having prayer/personal Bible time  at home. I think this is due to the fact that my parents could not agree on a religion or even the details of their faith.

But, as I see it now, being a Christian is not something that you are only aware of and put on display just on Sundays.  Being Christain means always being a Christian.  Every action, word and even thought should be formed by your faith and what God has set before us to do. 

I remember how it used to annoy me that “bible-thumpers” put God into everything.  I can laugh at myself now because I realize how central God is to everything.

One of the most common misconceptions of Christians is that we’re perfect.  That is not what Christianity is about.  We are decidedly not-perfect.  We make mistakes.  We have tendancies towards greed, lust and envy just like everyone else.  What makes us special?  We are forgiven by One who wiped away our sins long ago.  We have the perfect model in which to follow in our lives, Jesus. 

When this concept becomes clear to you, the world becomes a different place and you a different person.  You can’t help but tell people about the amazing things that faith have done in your life.  You want to spread the joy and help lift the heavy spiritual burdens those around you carry. 

As you glow with the awesome love of Jesus those around you start to whisper. Some will be open books as you start to tell them of this new person you have become, but as I have found, most will not. 

In Mathew 10:34, Jesus said

           "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."

He did not come to bring peace on earth but to divide.  Mother agains daughter, father against son.  He has called us to draw a line in the sand.  While the 5th Comandment says to honor your mother and father the 1st comandment says to honor God.

I don’t believe everyone should run and hide from non believers but we should not let their opinions ruffle us.   We are to be a lamp, shining brightly.  “No one lights a lamp and hides it”. Therefore, don’t try to hide the fact that you are Christian to make others more comfortable. 

That’s what I had been doing. 

I know you can’t convert anyone by badgering them but hiding your faith by purposefully leaving it out of any and all conversations will only show one thing---that you are ashamed of Jesus. 

If you have guests over and it is in your tradition to pray at the table, then do so.  If it is your tradition to read passages in the Bible before bed time, do so.  But of the utmost importance, let your words and actions resemble those that Christ would be proud of.  We will make mistakes, but if you let Jesus lead your heart, you will follow it in your ways. 

The benefits of this way of thinking are 2 fold.  Not only are you leading a Christian life to the best of your ability you are showing those around you what a Christian should be.  You are a testimony to God’s wonders.  Now doesn’t’ that sound nice? 

I have had a hard time following these principles, but as I have thought on it and prayed I now know what I must do. 

I am a people-pleaser at heart.  I want nothing more than for everyone to be happy with me and what I do.  I worry about what others think, I stress over things I have done and said and what the consequence may have been.  I have been known to change how I am if it makes someone uncomfortable.  But I can do this no longer. 

While having others feelings in my thoughts and doing for them as I would have them do to me is very important, worrying about what “mere mortals” think of me is not.  I have to reveal my lamp and no longer hide it when I feel out of place or scared.  The Christian life is not all gumdrops and sunshine, Christ proved that. 

It helps to know that I am not alone. So to the mockers and the fools: Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour has my back, who has yours?
And to quote the Sunday school song:

       "THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE I'M GOING TO LET IT SHINE."
       "LET IT SHINE, LET IT SHINE, LET IT SHINE." 

God Bless,

Melodie

By God's Grace

We moved. I didn’t really want to, I loved my little house but circumstances beyond our control made it a good choice. As in, the land we were renting didn’t even belong to the rental company (!!!!) and the real owner had sold it to the highway department to expand the highway (!!!!!). No, I’m not kidding.

We had a few hiccups while moving such as truck/trailer problems, said truck getting stuck in mud, dogs getting loose while we were gone, chickens being eaten, things being stolen from our old house, utilities not getting connected as ordered and many bumps and bruises from moving everything by ourselves.

But thanks to God’s grace and endless blessings we found an ideal place, began to rent it and had the majority of our belongings moved in 3 days!

Our new place is still a rental property, we’re just not ready for the large down payment to buy and we kind of like the fact that someone else is responsible for the hot water heater etc. = )
It is our dream place really. It’s a 3 bed 2 bath trailer house on 10 acres filled with lush grass, tall trees and a creek running through it. We’re told there is abundant wildlife including: feral hogs, deer, rabbits, opossums, racoons, various birds and , as we found out yesterday, crawfish!?!

The available game coupled with the ability to now raise our own beef and meat chickens and have a LARGE garden plot makes us extrememly happy!

The trailer is nice but needs a little work so I’m busy painting over the ever-lovely color coordinating pink and hunter green wallpaper (yuck!) and will be helping Jason rip up the matching pink carpet and laying down a fake tile the landlords picked out.
I think it will look positively marvelous when we’re done.

On to my favorite part----THE KITCHEN. I’ve never had so much counter and cabinet space in MY LIFE. Its positively inspiring!

My freezer cooking REALLY paid off during this move, no meals to prepare, no dishes to wash. And with this kitchen I can see endless possibilities with continuing this.

The previous renters (who were kind of shady characters) left a large dining table with chairs and a very large hutch behind and the landlords said that we can use them if we want. So my smallish dining table and hutch went into storage and I filled this hutch with our pantry contents. Now, everything is organized and in one place!

Downsides, you ask?

1)Well the front of the property runs along a semi-busy highway but the hosue is set back and acre or so. We can hear the cars but it beats living in the city between 2 highways and by the railroad tracks.

2) Can anyone say fleas??!!!?? I think the previous renters left more behind than some furniture.

3) NO CABLE INTERNET!!!!! = ( The only thing available in this area is dial up, which I’m using out of desperation, or satelite which is EXTREMELY expensive.

So, while moving wasn’t exactly what we had planned, its obviously what God had planned for us and by His Grace everything fell into place. (Hey! That rymed…..I’m such a goober) Thank God for the small things and the big ones too!

God Bless,
Melodie

Introduction Part II

*Be sure to read Introduction first*

The climax of this story comes when I, the unsatisfiable, decides that we need to move to increase our business opportunities. We found a building in a small town to set up a pet shop. the landlord was a strongly feminist woman, almost to the point of man-hating. Needless to say, I got us in over our heads, buried in a mountain of debt and no where to go, miles from home.

Our stay there was anything but pleasant. I constantly quarreled with my husband, who I had manipulated into doing what I wanted much the way Eve had done Adam. Soon after moving in our landlady (bitterly divorced) saw no reason for my husband and filled my head again with all sorts of worldly ideas under the guise of a Godly sister just trying to help.

Embittered towards my husband, enraged by my plans for a grand business not panning out, worried by debt and depressed by our situation, I finally turned where I should have all along, God.

The proverbial light bulb came on and I immediately saw the error of my ways. I had disregarded my husband as leader of our family and shirked my God-given duties of being a mommy to my little boy. I had been the fool so oft spoken of in Proverbs and I was humbled by this.

I handed my life over to God and told Him to lead the way.

"..and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Mat 7:7

Soon after, my husband found a job that he enjoyed and we found a rent house that would take us with our bad credit and mengagerie of animals in tow. I had a special feeling about this house; a little dilapidated 1930's 2 bedroom, 1 bath with a large yard and storage shed; it was a perfect fit. I fully believed, and still do, that God led us to this house just as he led my husband to his new job.

Our debt still lingered from my reckless decision, we put everything into paying it off. When our hectic pace brought on by the new transition died down I took stock of everything. We didn't have much, we had given up everything to make the move and our business work. We had to sell most of our animals to pay our debt, our business was officially closed. And yet, we were happy. Truly happy. We had each other, I found a new joy at being able to stay home with my son, making up for time lost. I had trusted God and he led us, its as simple as that.

I set out a new goal, based upon bible reading and the leadership of other anti-feminist Christian women ( many whom you will find in my blog roll). I became joyfully submissive to my husband, prayed daily, sought out a church, tried to think kind thoughts and concentrated on being a helpmeet to my husband and a Godly mother.

For the first time in my life I felt fulfilled. I didn't need to make money to contribute to our family. I realized that every time I made dinner or wiped a nose I was contributing the way I should be. My husband and I began to get along beautifully, everything was clicking into place.

God had already blessed us so much but in April he blessed us a gain and I became pregnant with our second son. Over time I have only grown stronger in my faith, I have improved immensely in housekeeping and find myself having a lot more patience.
God's love is astounding and I owe all of this to Him.

Introduction

Isn't it funny that the more discouraging our paths in life, the more awe-inspiring the outcomes is?

"But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life.." Mathew 7:13

The path that led me to where I am today was one driven by foolish ambition fueled by feminist and worldly teachings. however, the choices made were truly mine and I hold myself accountable for both the good and the bad.

I was never satisfied. Not with my job, my degree choices (there were many changes), my home or my family. I kept searching for the next thing to make me happy, a better job, a bigger place, a new gadget or more clothes.

I never really knew God until just a few years ago. Before that I only knew of Him as a biblical boogie man who punished those who were bad. my parents had both been discouraged by religion, as I would be after attending a few random services and vacation bible school's.

I am sure God, through his grace, led me to my husband after going through a really bad relationship. But as many of us do, I went to God when I needed him and then turned my back on him when everything was "okay".

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God helped me find my husband but we quarreled often, if I didn't get my way I would stomp my foot to get what I wanted. (Very embarrassing now that I think about it)
I continued my search for happiness through degree and job changes, even the establishment of a family pet business. And then I became pregnant with my son. "Now I'll be happy" I thought. But pressure came from everywhere that I couldn't be fulfilled staying at home with my baby, why, I wasn't even contributing anything. I had to finish my degree and obtain a high paying job, because money is the goal in life, right?

So my new, all consuming goal was our business. I figured it I was going to stay home I needed to find some way to be productive. So as I immersed myself int he feeding and housing requirements of a 100 reptiles and small animals and chased after the almighty dollar, my son grew up. He was there with me, but I was miles away.

Continued- Introduction: Part II