Heirs of Righteousness

The story of Noah is one most of us are familiar with, whether you're a Christ follower or not.  And there are many lessons to glean from his life, but one has really stood out to me lately and struck something deep inside.  Perhaps it is because it is the very thing the Lord has been impressing so heavily on my own heart.  Or maybe it is because it is a message that we all need to take seriously.  It is something I believe we need to really chew on, deeply consider.

Often when looking at the story of Noah, it's remarked that in the many, many years it took for him to construct the ark that no one was converted and believed on the Lord.  Which, if you're familiar with the story, you know God brings about the great flood and Noah and his family along with two of each animal are the only ones spared (Genesis 6 and 7).  This can be a depressing statistic, and let's be honest, we are a culture driven by numbers.  We are constantly reporting and keeping data, monitoring progress.  It can feel suffocating at times, especially when we work and work and work and do not feel as though we have made much progress.  This is even true in church culture.  But there are some things I feel are immeasurable, invaluable, perhaps the most important.  And we will miss this if we aren't careful.  We will only see the forest, not the trees.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. 

-Genesis 6:9 (emphasis mine)

Noah walked with God.  He did not just claim God in his life, but he chose to walk with Him daily. This was something his family saw played out in his life.  And guess who was saved?  His family.

By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.  

-Hebrews 11:7 (emphasis mine)

The most important thing we can do is witness to our family, not just by giving them the Gospel, but by living it out before them and letting them see that it is a reality in your life.

"Whether you are a preacher or not, if you have a family, that is your congregation." 

-Dr. J. Vernon McGee

Distraction and pride are two major tools the enemy of our souls loves to use against us.  He loves to keep us busy, many times with good things in and of themselves, but they leave us for little time with the people the Lord has entrusted to our care.  

"If the devil cannot make us bad, he will make us busy."

-Corrie ten Boom

Pride can also easily manifest itself as acts of service, but when we get down to the heart of the matter, which is our own hearts, sometimes we find ourselves compelled to do things out of selfish reasons such as recognition, praise, and achieving victory.  And all of this takes away from pouring our lives into the people we have been given as family.

Let us not miss the importance of the time we have to give and the value we place on our families.  May we be people who are mindful to walk with the Lord as Noah did so that we, along with those we love, may become heirs of righteousness according to faith.  

Quiet Time

The past seven years or so I have rocked establishing a quiet time.  It was simple because my schedule was the same everyday and I could always plan for and carve out time to spend with my Lord.  And He always showed up.  No matter how little or how long I prayed, studied, etc, He always revealed truth to me and taught me His word.

Now that I've been delivered from my infertility and have my sweet little precious goo to care for each day, establishing a quiet time again has been difficult.  Once we get a "schedule", it quickly changes.  Can I get an amen, moms of young kids?!  And don't for one second get me wrong.  She is the answer to years of prayers and I would never trade her.  I've just had to make adjustments and finding quiet time has been one of those.

But this week I had a little revelation.  Quiet time doesn't have to be quiet.  Especially for this season of my life.  Hear me out on this.

I had in my mind that quiet time had to be completely silent in my house with no distractions - No TV, no cell phones, computer off.  A hot cup of coffee with my bible, prayer journal, and any study materials were supposed to be spread out neatly on my kitchen table as I took a sip of steaming hot coffee with the perfect proportion of creamer and dove in to God's word.  Is this ideal?  Sure!  Is it realistic for my life right now?  Absolutely not.

It is a lie.  And it was a lie I completely believed and fell for for many months.

This is what my quiet time looks like these days.

Quiet time doesn't have to be quiet in the sense that all noise has to be removed.  Quiet time is a time to quiet my soul and spirit before the Lord.  It's a time where I open His word and pray for His Holy Spirit to teach me.  It's a time where I give thanks for the wonderful gifts all around me.  It's a time where I be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10).  He doesn't care how I come to Him, just that I come.  He will take care of the rest.

In James 4:8a, His word says, "Come near to God and He will come near to you."  That's what you have to do.  Take that step and walk toward Him.  You don't have to have it all together.  God doesn't care about that.  In fact, He tells us to come to Him, all of us who are weak and heavy burdened and He will give us rest (Matthew 11:28).

Matthew 6:33 says, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."  This is encouraging to me because all God asks me to do is seek Him.  I don't have to have myself put together, hot cup of coffee brewed, house neat and quiet.  That's just not my reality right now.  And frankly those are distractions, those flaming arrows, that are shot at me to take my eyes off of what I should be focusing on.

Be encouraged today.  You are enough.  Believe it and rest in His peace and presence.  Simply come, quiet your soul, and open His word.  He will take care of the rest.

Summer is Coming to an End!

I cannot believe it - tomorrow I'll surrender my freedom and set my alarm for 4:30 am.  Where did the time go?!  Summer has officially come to an end.

I was thinking back on this summer and it was a really weird one.  I feel like I didn't really do anything, but I was somehow always busy.  Except for those 3 weeks where it rained every single day.  I did a lot of sleeping then.  It was honestly refreshing.  I totally needed that.

We had a lot of company come to town, I spent a lot of time with friends or by myself at the beach, I spent a lot of time by myself (with the exception of my two crazy hounds), I spent a lot of time with God, I grew another year older, I worked out and tried (am trying) to get back in shape, I had awesome evenings of walks and meals with my hubs, and unfortunately I dealt with death a lot.  That pretty much sums it up.

Since I last posted, I celebrated a birthday.  We had a big family cookout, which was nice to have everyone together.  I felt very blessed to have this year BEHIND me - it was a tough one, but one I look back on with a huge smile.  I grew so much spiritually and personally.  I really needed the valleys I had to walk through because God showed His grace and perfect plan through it all.  He really causes all things to work together for good.

I feel like a summer recap might be best shown through some random pictures....so here we go!

My and the Hubs on my birthday :)

After one of our 2 mile walks with our crazy dogter #2

Doing one of my favorite things - SWIMMING

Did a little crafting - made a new wreath with help from my awesome SIL, Amber.

Celebrating an addition to the family - Congratulations Jon and Lauren!

Celebrated my Tinky girl turning another year older.  Love her SO much!

Got to see this view as often as I wanted.  Blessed to live where I do!

I also got to cook a lot, which is always great.  I made some new recipes and hopefully I'll be sharing more of those with y'all soon.  I'm so into smoothies for breakfast right now and have made a list of my favorite concoctions that I've come up with.  They're fast, easy, and super healthy.

My Bible reading has been coming along nicely.  I'm almost done with the 90 day challenge, although I likely won't finish in 90 days.  Mine will be more like 100.  But hey, I've read the whole Old Testament through, which I had never done before.  Reading the Bible in chronological order has been amazing.  It's like I get it.  But I have SO MUCH to learn.  It's awesome to see God's plan for His creation.  When it all ties together, it makes incredible sense.  I've seen things in a whole new light.  This has definitely changed me drastically.

While we're on the topic of The Lord, my sweet Aunt Margaret went to be with Him on July 28th.  It was so hard to watch her suffer and we just prayed that God would call her home.  He did and now we mourn here for our loss.  She was an incredibly kind, humble woman.  I hate to see my mom hurt so bad, along with my grandpa, uncle, and cousin.  Our family has had so much loss in the last year.  

The was the last photo taken with my Aunt Margaret before she went downhill.  This was her birthday celebration back in March,

My beautiful mom.  The strongest woman I know.  I look at her with a whole different admiration for all she's gone through.  Losing her best friend wasn't easy, but God gave her a lot of grace and strength. I hope I can be more like her.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. -Matthew 5:4

All in all, it's been a good summer.  I'm blessed to live in a place where I can just hop in my car and drive to the beach.  It's so peaceful and soothing to be next to the water.  I've thoroughly enjoyed my quiet time.  BUT, I'm looking forward to this school year and all it has to bring.  I'm just praying over my class I'm about to receive and asking for wisdom to embark on these sweet, young lives.  I hope I can always be a light to these kids!  It is truly a blessing to be walking in God's Will for my life and doing what I was called to do.

I'm off to finish up supper - ribs, fried cabbage and roasted broccoli- YUM TO MY TUM!  I'll be bringing back Meal Plan Monday (it's been forever!) to hopefully give y'all some ideas and hold myself accountable.  

I hope you have an incredibly blessed week!

Life's Busy!

I'm alive!  I have been so crazy busy with home life and school.  Everything that's not absolutely necessary has been put aside, so blogging has suffered.  Here's what I've been up to though...church, hanging out with my husband, dog, family, and of course teaching.  My family has received some bad news about my aunt, so we're trying to spend as much time together as possible.  Sometimes it takes great heartache to remind us of what's truly important in life.

 I've recently become involved in a high school girl's ministry at our church.  I'm working with the freshman girls and LOVING it.  I wish I had been apart of something like this back in my high school days.  Things may have been different for me if I had gotten on the straight and narrow a long time ago!  But no worries, God never stopped chasing me and He eventually caught me and straightened me out ;)  I'm really excited to be with these girls.  Here we are at our painting party.

 My grandpa turned 91 this year!  We spent the day celebrating with him and I fixed him his favorite chocolate cake.  He has deemed me his cake maker.  I am honored :)

Me, grandpa, and my aunt Margaret

 J and I

 We've been scheduling date nights and taking time for each other since the new year.  Not that we didn't before, but we definitely needed this with the schedules we're both keeping right now.  I love hanging out with him.  He's not only my husband, but my best friend.  We've grown so much together over the past almost 4 years.  And he still knows the way to my heart...ice cream.

Our furgirl is still her sweet playful self.  She makes me smile everyday.  I couldn't imagine a life without her.  Coming home to her little wagging body is the sweetest treat.  Even if she digs holes in our yard or eats light bulbs and gets in big trouble, she still loves us.

That's what I've been up to!  Faith, family, work.  That's all I've had time for recently, but at least I've got my priorities in order.  Hopefully soon I'll have more time to post and catch up on some really good recipes!  Be blessed!

Christmas Time & New Years

Christmas 2012 was quiet, peaceful, and uneventful.  It was a good way to end this year.  J's family came in from Arkansas and spent about 5 nights with us.  I was sad to see them go.  My house was so quiet and lonesome when they left.  Even Rosie was depressed because she missed her little doggie friend, Libby.

If we had gone to Arkansas for Christmas, we would have had a white Christmas!  They got quite the snow storm Christmas night.  I am determined to have a white Christmas at least once in my life!  I've only seen snow once, so I'm still enchanted by the thought of it.

I tried to take the extra time this year to reflect and absorb the meaning of Christmas.  I did this daily Bible reading of the Christmas story and that really helped me get in the spirit.  But to be honest, I had an overwhelming feeling of sadness.  The Christmas story is the most beautiful, bright story that we have to cling to, but it also makes me sad to think of how Jesus was treated once He came to save the world.  But He overcame the grave, praise the Lord! I guess this was just a hard year for me and although I feel beyond blessed, part of me was almost melancholy.  Having family here and love all around me helped tremendously.  And I loved our decorations.  Christmas decorations always have a way of brightening my day.  The lights, especially.  There's just something about this time of year that's almost magical.

My classroom was no exception.  I put up a little tree and we had a Christmas party on pajama day.  The last day of school before break, we watched Polar Express, ate Christmas cookies, and I made hot chocolate for everyone.  It was a fun time.  We had a blast doing some Christmas crafts.  I know the kiddos enjoyed the presents I had for them under the tree.  Watching their little faces light up is the best part of my job.

Christmas in my Classroom

My gifts for the kiddos under the tree.  They were SO excited.

Our water bottle snowmen to go along with their story about the day it snowed.

Cinnamon applesauce ornaments

Our Christmas

Bad pic quality, but me and the hubs on Christmas Eve

Mom, dad, Jake and I on Christmas Eve at my parents' house.

Anya opening up gifts.

Me and Momma playing Dirty Santa.

Me and my SIL, Julie, after church.

J and I on Christmas day

Our family :)

FIL, MIL and their new baby, Libby

My Christmas mantle and tree at night, all lit up.  I loved the glow :)

Christmas mantle during the day.  I scored those Pottery Barn JOY stocking holders from Goodwill for $3.99.  They retail for $70.  SCORE!

My Nativity set...my favorite decoration!

I thought I had more pictures of my decorations, but I didn't...Boo.  Our dining room table was really pretty this year.  Too bad I've already taken it all down.  That's okay.  I'm just thankful I had a home to decorate and people to share it with.

HAPPY NEW YEAR by the way!  I can't even believe another year has gone by.  It was such a blur.  2012 started off slow...I really don't even remember much of the first couple of months (except for this Bible study our church did), but it sure got crazy.  I could say a lot of things about this year, but above everything I am beyond blessed.

The Lord chose this year to draw me closer to Him than ever before.  For that, I am thankful.  He knew just what I needed.  He also brought Jared and I closer than ever, landed Jared at a new job, blessed me with another wonderful group of kids to teach, and taught us many valuable lessons along the way.  We are constantly learning, but looking to Him for direction and guidance.  I'm excited to get this year started!

We kicked it off with a great breakfast/brunch of stuffed French toast and hashbrown/bacon casserole.  It was oh so delicious.  Maybe that'll be my first recipe to post for the new year.

We had a great New Years late lunch with my family over at my grandpa's house.  Now it's time for more football and my PJs.  

I wish you and yours all the blessings from the Father above that He has to offer this year. XO

 

November Wrap-Up

I feel like I start out every blog post by saying something about how it's been so long since I last posted.  I hate to admit, but this has definitely been put on the back burner for me.  I'm working on changing that!  I've got a little down time right now (I really should be grading papers, but my brain says no), so I figured I'd blog a little bit about what we've been up to!

November FLEW by!  I can only imagine what December will be like.  We spent the weekends of November doing a lot of visiting.  Although busy, it was so enjoyable.  Some friends invited us for a weekend stay at their beach house and it was awesome to just get away for a short break.  My mind needed the vacation!  My daddy's birthday was also in November.  He wanted a buttermilk chocolate cake so that's what he got!  I hadn't made one in almost a year and this one turned out great.

 

I've also been keeping up with my goal of making one soup a week for winter.  I made a butternut squash soup that was ah-maze-ing.  I had never made it before or eaten butternut squash, but it was so full of flavor.  I'll be posting the recipe soon.  Last week we just had white bean soup - a tried and true easy favorite.

Thanksgiving was spent in Arkansas and we had such a good time.  I ate waaaay too much, we played games, went shopping, drank a ton of coffee, laughed excessively, went out to the farm, rode 4 wheelers and shot skeet (not I)...so much fun.  I always look forward to our trips up there.  I wish we all lived closer.  I cherish those times though.  I guess it makes it that much more special.  Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving.

Our little family on Thanksgiving Day

J and I riding 4 Wheelers

My SIL and BIL riding 4 wheelers

The girls

My hubs and my sweet MIL

Me, MIL and SIL.  Love them.

Family is such a blessing.  I don't have any pictures with my folks since we weren't with them for this holiday.  I'm making a mental note to take lots of pictures at Christmas!

Speaking of Christmas, can you believe it's that time of year already?!  2012 has flown by.  I've been reflecting a lot on what this year has meant to me.  It hasn't been all rainbows and butterflies but I feel more joyful than I ever have.  My faith has grown exponentially.

We put up our tree this weekend along with a few other decorations.  Because my hubs is in a Christmas concert at our church, this weekend was consumed with rehearsals...we'll have to finish the rest of our decorating this week.  I love that he wants to be apart of helping me decorate our home for Christmas...it's the little things. :)

I opened my planner to December and felt my heart jump when nearly every day has something written on it...this is such a busy time of year!  But I'm making a vow to do everything with a joyful heart.  I know I will fall short, but I'm going to try my hardest.  This holiday is the greatest gift of all and I want to reflect that in my works.  I've made a daily to-do list so I don't feel so overwhelmed.  On it for this week...Christmas cards and finish decorating inside and outside.  Next week I'll tackle my baking.  OH!  One more thing and I really hope you'll join me in doing this.  I'm reading scripture each day of December to prepare my heart for Christmas.  Here's the version I'm using.  It's so important to remember what Christmas is really all about...the greatest gift of all...our Savior.

Have a wonderful week! XO