Of course our children’s spiritual growth and character development is important to us as parents. But if you don’t have a target to aim at, you’ll miss it every time. Here’s a tool you can use to help you develop a proactive plan in this all-important area: http://tinyurl.com/CharacterPlan.
Taking inventory with your eternal security
I stumbled upon this video on facebook and it really got me thinking. It made me think about how secure I should be about my salvation. It made me consider that my life should reflect Jesus’ character moment by moment. It made me repent for all the false hope I had planted in folks throughout the years through “easy-believism” evangelism methods. Most of all, it made me consider the multitudes of friends and family I have that have misplaced security in their salvation.
It also made me consider my complacency with sharing the truth. I know that hell awaits many of them–yet as the video states, we have a culture that disdains correction. We have a Christian culture that relishes their eternal security when the evidence of faith is lacking. Hell is real, and destruction awaits many unassuming “believers.” They believe with their mouths but deny Him with their lives.
All church-goers are convinced they are going to heaven. Their complicit pastors and other Christian leaders have told them so. Reminds me of the movie Shawshank redemption where everyone is “innocent.” Every inmate held steadfast to their innocence regardless of their guilt.
All cultural “Christians” are convinced they have in their hands the “ticket” that will get them through the gate (the “magic prayer”). However, there will be tremendous remorse when they stand in judgment and realize that the ticket they possess is not accepted.
Scripture tells us to examine ourselves. Please watch this video (in 2 parts) and listen to what it says. It is the truth. Repent and align your life with the Word.
Here is a short video in 2 parts:
Here is a longer video by Paul Washer for those who have time. It’s important enough to “make” the time.
Excuses, Excuses
We bought a foreclosure a few months ago and invested so much time and effort into fixing it up and cleaning it.
Then, of course, we had to pack and move all of our stuff.
After we had been sort of settled into the new house for about a week, we had a new baby.
When the baby was 4 weeks old, we went on a whirlwind trip back to our hometown in CT (a 16-hour trip with the whole family)…a week of preparation, travel, rushed visiting, and more travel…then another week of unpacking, laundry, van-cleaning, and re-settling at home.
Now, we’re fixing up another recently purchased foreclosure for my father-in-law to live in.
These are just a few of the various excuses I’ve been making over the past couple of months, as I’ve wondered off and on,
“What has happened to our routine?”
“Why is the tone in our home so negative?”
“Why are the children being so argumentative with one another?”
The fact is, life has been busy for us lately. On the plus side, we have managed to remain diligent in work that has needed to be done, and the children have been more than helpful in that regard. We’ve continued to have morning and evening family devotions. We have a day of rest (and fun) together every Saturday. These things are good.
However, aside from the first couple of weeks of this prolonged season (which went remarkably well), I would also say that we have not been proactive about consistently discipling our children in a positive manner. We haven’t been able to maintain our regular routines, I’ve gotten lazy about menu planning and meal preparation (can you say, convenience foods?) and our overall tones of voice have been somewhat abrupt as we go from one project and “to-do” to another. Granted, there were times when I would try to remedy any and all of these deficiencies, but overall we’ve ended up in a pretty low spot.
Generally speaking, the children have been a little more contentious than usual with one another–and we’ve not always taken the time to disciple them in those moments as we should. Attitudes all around haven’t always been the best. We’ve all grown a bit tired of the work and the lack of normalcy. So, though at different points we’ve desired improvement, we shouldn’t be surprised that it hasn’t evidenced itself. Excuses for poor behavior (even sin) have been all too easy to make.
As of late last week, I’ve decided to repent…stop making excuses…and start doing what I know I should be doing. It doesn’t matter that we have new (bad) habits to overcome; I need to return to the good things that we had been doing. Of course, there’s the little matter of self-condemnation that always rears its ugly head at times like this. I need to kick that to the curb, too, in order to move forward in faith.
The lesson? We all have moment-by-moment choices to make in life, no matter what season we’re in. Will we choose to honor God with our words, tones, attitudes, and decisions, or will we choose to indulge in complaining, focus on the negative, and neglect the good we know we should be doing? I am finding that making the right choices is so much easier when I parse life into discrete moments, rather than allowing myself to be overwhelmed by the monumental to-do list, our history, my emotions, or concerns about the future.
What kind of choices are you making right now? What effect do you think those choices will have on your family, on your ministry, and on your walk with the Lord as you go forward?
A good video explaining simple church
What Is Simple Church? from Expectation Media on Vimeo.
Non-frugal purchase, worth it!
Today we left at about 9:00 AM to run errands at 5 different places. I figured we’d be gone a while, but didn’t expect not to arrive home until 2:30!
The grocery store was one of our stops. Since by then I knew we’d be missing lunch at home, we grabbed a few pre-made sandwiches, some cold drinks and…a few individual bags of chips for each of us (it was just me and the three older children).
I wanted to be frugal and get one big bag of chips for 99 cents instead of four small bags of chips for 75 cents each…do the math; I would have saved a couple of dollars. BUT, if we had gotten a big bag of chips we’d have had a half a bag (at least) left over. And then what? I’d probably eat it. (I like chips, LOL). And guess what? I still have quite a few pounds of “baby fat” hanging around. So being not-so-frugal was probably wise.
What about you? Do you have any not-so-frugal expenditures that seem well worth the trade-off?
She’s Here! :)
Jubilee B. Carrier was born on Monday, June 15 at 3:27 PM…6 lbs., 7 oz. and 19 inches long. We are praising God for delivering another blessing into our family!
My water broke at about midnight on Sunday and the doctor wanted me to go into the hospital right away, since my Strep B test had come back positive and I would need IV antibiotics prior to delivery. Usually I labor at home and get to the hospital for the last couple of hours, so being in the hospital right from the beginning (and that on only a couple of hours of sleep) made for a l-o-n-g labor. Contractions started off pretty strong but then kind of petered out for a while, which was discouraging. My body didn’t seem to want to cooperate. Eventually we got things going again, but by the time I was ready to deliver I still didn’t feel like the contractions were close together enough…between the discouragement and my tiredness I can’t say this was my best delivery BUT, God is faithful. Marc was a great encouragement, as always. And of course, in the end, it’s all worth it. 🙂
Here’s our crew–they came into the hospital through a downpour! They all love their new baby sister.
An Almost "Normal" Day
Prior to the moving adventure (3+ weeks ago now) we had about 18 days left to go in our school year. So, in spite of the fact that there’s still a bit here & there to be done, we’re trying to get back to the books a bit and finish out our objectives for the year.
Today we got to do some reading & writing, some painting (since both of the boys got acrylic paint sets from their Grampy for their birthdays), and some of our Indiana state history. Math will hopefully come later, after a little free time and some afternoon jobs.
What I am even more happy about is that the “littles” got back into THEIR routine a bit, too. I finally had few enough distractions that I was able to devote more attention to training (much-needed at this point), AND we got to spend more time just reading books on the couch, which we all love!
I’m finally almost caught up on the laundry, as well, which is a major praise. Way back at the beginning of the move, the washing machine got removed from the old house, but wasn’t functional at the new house for about a week–and we make a lot of laundry in a week! So I’ve been consistently about 4-5 loads behind where I’d like to be. BUT I think we’re caught up now.
I’ve been thinking that I need to pack my hospital bag…and bags for the children, since I don’t know where they’ll be going when the “big day” comes. Part of me is hoping that the act of bag-packing might induce labor. 🙂 But then again, it’s so nice to finally have a “normal” day, that it might be nice to have a FEW more before a new baby changes everything!
Progress and photos
Well, as of Sunday afternoon I had my living room floor totally cleared of moving clutter. THEN, I moved on to my next goal for the day–cleaning out the van. As a result, the living room floor was clear of clutter for about an hour. Then we moved more stuff in from the van, and there it sat, until yesterday afternoon. Now we’re “done” again!
Marc did clear off his “working” half of the kitchen table on Sunday, and it remains pretty clean.
I’m posting a few pics, just in case you’re interested.
It’s your standard manufactured home on an acre… 🙂
Coming in the back door to the kitchen. You’re seeing about half of the kitchen table, the cabinets and appliances to the right, and my computer in the far corner (my new office!).
The living room…with no boxes or miscellaneous “stuff.” You can tell we are homeschoolers who like shelving and collect books, etc. The boys’ room is off the living room and you can see the girls’ room down the hallway to the right.
Light at the End of the Tunnel
I have a couple of piles of boxes still to put away in the living room. Actually, that’s not accurate. I mostly have two big piles of miscellaneous “stuff” that isn’t really boxed at all. Since we’re not moving from very far away (just across the corn field, to be exact), we never bothered to box some of our things; instead, we just loaded them into the trailer and brought them over. So there’s a bit of a mess still to go through, BUT almost everything else has found a home.
Marc has been keeping his tools and supplies on half of the kitchen table as he’s been working…but now he’s approaching the end of his immediate “to-do” list and I’m looking forward to having the table back (and the kitchen a little more de-cluttered) as well. Once things look a little more normal, I’m hoping to post some pics. 🙂
Going from 3,000 square feet to 1,400 has been an interesting proposition, but we’re finding that with a little ingenuity we have a place for everything. As our ten year-old says, “It’s smaller, but it’s exactly what we need.” And praise God, it is!
I enjoyed a little break from house stuff yesterday as I gave a talk at Cindy Rushton’s Ultimate Homeschool Expo on the topic of Simplified Biblical Instruction and Character Training for Children. I spoke for about an hour, and the chat/questions went on for TWO HOURS after that–whew! It was a lot of fun for me. Now, back to work. My goal is to get the house in order before this baby arrives…and I have another doctor’s appointment tomorrow so won’t be making much progress at home, I expect. After being offline for a few days and finally getting our Internet restored yesterday, I’m just now catching up with email/business, so now…back to work!
Still Working…
Yesterday Marc got most of the upper kitchen cabinets installed, and hung a huge storage shelf in the master bedroom as well. In CT we had a wonderful basement for storage, and here in IN our “old” house has a great attic space. THIS house, if it is lacking in anything, needs more storage! No attic, no basement, and no outbuildings (yet!) Sooo…the shelf in the master bedroom will come in handy for some interim storage of off-season clothes, off-size clothes (waiting for the next hand-me-down), and whatever else we don’t have an official location for.
There is a large pile of boxes and miscellaneous “stuff” in the living room of the new house, just waiting to be put away. I made some progress on that yesterday, but there’s still plenty to do. Today, however, we’re at the “old” house, shampooing carpets, washing windows, and cleaning up the yard a bit. Later this afternoon I have a doctor’s appointment, so won’t make much progress with unpacking. I’m sure it will all get done in good time. I just have to be content with looking at the mess for a little while longer. 🙂
Right now Marc is overseeing the moving and re-installation of our propane tank, and will be attempting to uninstall/re-install our satellite Internet equipment sometime over the weekend. That’s something new for him, but if he can do it, we’ll save about $450…so thanks in advance for your prayers that all will go smoothly. 😉
The littles have been watching lots of cartoons with Grandpa lately. I managed them along with everything else pretty successfully for the for the first week or so but these past few days everyone has gotten a little tired of no routine, no “stuff” where and when you need it, etc. Grandpa to the rescue! Gotta love the sacrifices that you sometimes have to make during these seasons of life. Oy! I need to go peel them away from the TV and get back to the other house.