Five Minute Friday - REAL

I look at the girls in my class and it forces me to look at myself, it makes me take notice of all of the women around me who were once these little girls and I'm amazed.


I'm amazed at how many of theme are afraid to be REAL, they are afraid to be themselves because they don't think they measure up... to friends, to family, to Gods standards of a Christian.


They feel like they need to alter who they are in order to be liked, to be accepted, to be loved. I challenge them to be REAL.... to be who they are in this world.  Who else can be you if you are not?

God created each and every one of us the way we are for a reason, to fulfill a purpose that only we can fill... if we are trying to be like the person next to us then who will be us?  As I tell these girls to be who they are, to be true to themselves and who God created them to be I wonder if I have ever really followed my own advice?

Do I compare my home to those around me? Do I compare my talents to those around me? Do I  look at other wives and how it looks as if they have a personal hair stylist and makeup artist in their bathrooms every morning? Does it look like everyone except me has a personal maid that sneaks in during the middle of the night to wipe the fingerprints off the walls and windows?!


Why do we compare ourselves to everyone else? Do we not trust that God knew what he was doing when he made us? 


When we compare ourselves to the good of others, why don't we look at their struggles as well... I'm sure they are real... they have problems and areas in their lives where they need work, they need help, they need God.


We are all called together to be the body of Christ... there cannot be three hands and four feet... there cannot be twenty toes and only two fingers... we were all created to be different, no one of us created to be above, or better than anyone else. Some are eyes, some are ears, some are the tongue, some the neck... each and every one of us are crucial to the body. All of us play a different role. We should be the best of US we can be to make sure His body is working at the best it can be... for if any member of the body is out of place, the rest of the body struggles.


"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139: 13-14

STOP

Train Tracks and the Devils lies...

 When I was a little girl, we once moved into a house that was located near train tracks. (How in the world my parent's didn't have a heart attack each and every time the train passed and we were playing outside is beyond me!)





There were a few things that had to take some getting used to in regards to living that close to the tracks. One of those things, of course, was the sound of that horn which would blow out of nowhere, at midnight... 3 am ... 5 am ... every single night.


What might have been even worse than the noise of that blasting horn was the trembling of the ground beneath the rolling train. The entire house would shake! I kid you not, the window in my bedroom would begin to rattle way before I could even hear the train horn.


Why is that worse? Well, you see I grew up in an Apostolic Pentecostal church. We were often taught about Jesus returning... and for some reason whenever I would close my eyes and try to imagine what it would be like when He returned, I would imagine the ground trembling, trumpet blowing, a loud thunderous voice announcing the arrival of the Christ, and then I would sight Him descending on a cloud.


So, each and every time my room would begin to shake, no matter what I was doing at the time, it was almost as if I would hold my breath and all time would stand still until I heard the horn of that train. I lived in that house from the age of 6 to the age of 12... and I'm telling you every time that train passed by, I would be terrified waiting to see if it was Jesus returning.


Why terrified? Two reasons
Growing up we were taught to fear the Lord. He was powerful and He would judge you for everything bad you had ever done. I was never taught of His love for me.


Satan loves to whisper lies in the ears of Gods children, no age category is excluded. He would often visit me at even a young age and he loved to tell me how far short I fell from making God proud. He made me believe that I would never be able to make it to heaven, I was hell bound from the start. So I would tremble thinking "this is it... this is the end of my life, I am going to burn in the pit of hell for all of eternity... I am going to look at the face of a God who will be ashamed of His creation that is me!"  I was only 7 the first time I had thoughts like this... it angers me how Satan weaves his little sneaky way into our minds like that.


As you can imagine, it was always a relief to hear the horn of that train. I knew I would be judged one day... another day ... but perhaps not today after all.


You know what I've learned since then? The devil is a liar! He is! He will whisper quiet things in your ear to make you believe almost anything... to make you believe they are your own thoughts and not his manipulating you!


How many of you, honestly, have ever been driving your car when all of a sudden you have the thought "What if I just run my car off the side of the road and crash."


Did you think you were weird? Did you think you were crazy? Did you think you were the only one?


It was a lie... all of it... you are not weird, not crazy, and you are not the only one. That is a very common practice among Satan. It was just an attack from him... a whisper in your ear.


How many different areas of your life have you allowed yourself to believe the lies of the enemy? Why don't you start today... whenever you begin to have thoughts like this, call the devil a liar to this face! Ask God to give you the wisdom you need to discern the voice of the enemy!


I'll leave you with this... the only thing I can really think back on when it came to those tracks and smile about.


Me and my brothers loved to run and put coins on the tracks for the train to smoosh when it passed by. Sometimes we would even make coin sandwiches...





Quarter . Penny . Dime . one atop the other...


I can't tell you how much money we wasted over the years making squished coins, but it never got old to us. We were always excited to walk up and down the tracks looking for the coin... then looking over it carefully to see the different shapes the train wheel made on it.


 

Don't believe the lies of the devil!

Christian Card Club?! YES PLEASE!

Yesterday when I arrived home from work, I had a package waiting for me! Two packages actually! I was so super excited, I LOVE packages waiting for me! It's like Christmas time! 


What were in the packages you say? ahhh...  it was so wonderful!


I received one package from (in)RL! It contained my beautiful new (in)RL shirt, and a BEAUTIFUL... do you hear me? BEAUTIFUL! Pack of Dayspring cards titled Simply Marvelous!





I was on cloud nine opening and reading each of these cards, seeing in my mind and feeling in my heart just which person in my life each card would be perfect for!  The shirt! Well, I am wearing it today... super comfortable! I like very much!


I told you that I received TWO packages right? Well, at first I had only seen this one... when I went back into my livingroom I noticed on the floor near the coffee table a second, smaller, package. I opened that one to find out it was from Dayspring!!


What could have been better than that?! You see I joined Daysprings heart Connection Card Club!  What is that you might ask?!  Well, you sign up for a monthly subscription... each month you will receive 10 best selling Christian cards! The best part!!! You can go online and pick the pack you would like to receive, or let them surprise you... and if you don't have the room in your budget for the cards in a current month... simply "skip" receiving them at no charge to you. You can also cancel your subscription to the club at any time. 


I received a free pack of cards (and should have a free gift on the way) for signing up! I also added to my package a pack of cards I found on sale.  So the small box included TWO ADDITIONAL DAYSPRING CARD PACKS... thats THREE Dayspring Card Packs in one day! Me and my oldest daughter spent the next hour or so reading each card from cover to cover... and I spent additional time picking which card for which person and writing words of encouragement in them to be mailed off. 


These cards are BEAUTIFUL! BEAUTIFUL!!!!  Worth so much more than any card you could buy from the store. I promise you I am not getting paid for advertising for them... they are just THAT good! 

"Maybe sometimes it's about letting go of who we are to see who we might become"

Hi all,

I recently found a blogger by the name of Sara... well, I didn't find her exactly, I found her blog. You see Sara went to be with the Lord at the end of 2011.  I found her by visiting the (in)courage & (in)RL websites. This woman was so amazing, she touched the lives of so many people... they recently put together a this is just a tiny clip of other bloggers speaking of the many ways this Sara touched their lives. The actual video is 30 minutes long! Just listen to the love pouring out of these people when they speak of her!

If you want to watch the entire 30 minute video, you can find it on THIS post.

I decided that I wanted to know more about her, so I visited her blog.  I'm not finished with my research yet :) but I came upon this post by her and it intrigued me to the point of wanting to share this with you all. There was such wisdom in her words... may we all strive to touch the lives of others the way this woman touched them... and how much more so can we, being that she was confined within the walls of her home... and we have the world available to us.

You can read the entire post on her site HERE! 

Without further ado...  here are the words of "sweet Sara"...

__________________________________________________________________

In a time when every self help book I read talked about finding groups of like-minded people to further your goals, and being true to who you are over who others may want you to be, I found the opposite to be true. I found that if I went into every situation caring more about what was important to the other person, then who I was grew ten fold.

I learned that it was all about the person, and in order to care about the person I needed to choose to care about what was important to them, and make it important to me.

I was thinking about this because you all saw this photo and said you weren't sure who was more the kid, me or Elias:

And the truth is that I couldn't have cared less about a car zooming off the bed. But I cared that Elias did. His interest became my interest and his excitement became my excitement, and before I knew it I was filled up with contagious joy.

We all do that for children. Imagine if we did that for other adults as well.

Imagine if we cared more about them feeling happy than us feeling right.

Imagine if we cared more about them feeling known than us feeling superior. 

Imagine if we cared more about them feeling accepted than us feeling righteous. 

Imagine if we cared more about them feeling joy than us feeling envy. 

Imagine if we cared more about them feeling abundance than us feeling security.

Maybe sometimes it's not so much about being who we are at all costs. Maybe sometimes it's about letting go of who we are to see who we might become.

Just something to think about.

________________________________________________________________________

Wow... nothing left to say... she said it perfectly, so I will leave you with that.

Thank you so much for stopping by...

Girls Retreat!

We had such an amazing time at the girls retreat this past weekend. I was so thrilled that me and all of my daughters were able to attend! We had a nice time. They had the girls schedules packed so tightly though... it really wore - me - out! I think it's going to take me another 2 weeks to recover from those 2 days! 

I took the Friday off work so I could go with my little ones. One of the girls in my missions group was dropped off at my house at 7:15 that morning. We then drove to met up at the church and started our trip at 8:00 a.m. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive to our destination. We made it there around 10:30, unpacked the bus, found our bunks, made our beds and had to immediately begin the activities which started at 11:00! It was non stop after that until 11:00 p.m. ! YES... 11:00 P.M.! I was soooo tired. My legs ached and my eyes burned! lol.

My youngest daughter (4 yrs) looked up at me at one point during the day and said "momma, my legs hurt" I said "I know sweet heart, next year maybe you would like to stay home with daddy instead of coming here with us." She replied "No, I want to come here with you again." I asked "Are you having fun?" She said "YES!".

Girls worshiping during service

I am so glad they had a nice time. Here are some pictures. There would have been more than this, except during one of the church services I dropped my camera, just from my knees in a sitting down position to the carpeted floor... and when I turned it on again to take a photo, the lens came out, and I received an error that it was obstructed. I broke my poor camera :( . Now I need to get another one I guess. Can't live without a camera!

The bunks in our dorm.

Angelique fitting inside the cubby.

One of the activities was called Beach Ball Blowout...

Conga during service and worship. 

Angelique making her snack craft of blue jello, jelly fish,
and graham cracker crumbs to represent the beach.

Here was her mixture when she was finished

Destiny making her snack craft.

Me and two of my girls waiting for another team
to show up for one of the relay activities.
(Sponsors had to wear a lei) 

I snapped a picture of Angelique on her bed during a 15 minute
break before supper.

So she wanted to take one of me... do those eyes look tired?!

"Crab walk" relay activity

Getting ready for the obstacle course relay!

Two of the wet jumps for the girls to have fun on.

We were all separated into age groups, each group was named
and each sponsor was in charge of a group. My group was
named the Squids... they were all sea and beach animal names.

My girls enjoying some concession refreshments!

Me and my girls... does Destiny look tired on the right?!

My two oldest daughters were selected to go before the service
and play a game!

On the way home the next day... I think this explains it all!