The One About Marriage

My heart is heavy tonight.  Marriages all around me are failing. People I know from online, people I know from community, friends.. *sigh*  It saddens me immensely.  My own marriage was on the line recently.  We were stuck and lost and saw no way to fix it.. but God intervened & our marriage has been healed.  I wish that for everyone.  If every marriage could know the healing power of the Lord, it would be amazing.

It truly takes two people and God.  Two people willing to make changes in their lives. Two people willing to look to God to help them make those changes.  Two people, each willing to give up their own selfish desires because they know God has a better plan for their marriage. Two people & God.

The One About a Retreat

     So, I need to talk about this women's retreat I went on with my church.  I was hesitant to go, but a friend encouraged me & so I did.  When I read a little about the speaker, I have to admit I was really nervous.  Having been a teenager during the Toronto movement time in a Pentecostal church, I had seen a lot of people faking it.  It seemed that if you didn't speak in tongues or you weren't slain in the Spirit when being prayed over you weren't following God. This mostly happened in my youth group, but it was all around me.  So when I saw that the woman coming to speak at the retreat was very charismatic I automatically put up a wall.  I was nervous that there'd be a lot of drama, unorganized craziness & fakeness.  Yes, I'll admit that I was really hesitant about the whole situation.

     The first night I pretty much just sat. I sang and took notes, but my heart wasn't in it.  On the morning of the next day I woke up with a horrible migraine & ended up missing the morning session.  I did make it to the evening session and started the evening the same way I was the night before.  I sang, took notes, but my heart wasn't in it.  Then came prayer time... and yep! Lots of speaking in tongues, being slain in the spirit, etc.  I just sat there & watched.  Then I started to pray and the Lord spoke to me that it's time to take the walls down.  Then, as clear as day, I heard "You always say you don't put me in a box, so why are you putting me in a box?"  Ouch.

     My prayers changed... I started praying that God show me how to break down the walls.  I started concentrating more on my work than worrying about whether or not what was going on around me was real or fake.  Then... as I was getting ready to leave.. one of my good friends was hit with the joy of the Lord and laughter just began rolling out of her.  There is NO WAY this person would ever fake it... she's not one to bring attention to herself.  I didn't realize it at that time, but it began the work of chipping the walls... it was so obviously the hand of God in her life because that was exactly what she needed at that time. And again later, she received a word that was also exactly what she needed.  The speaker could not have known that... it was obviously from God.

   I can feel a change in my life due to that retreat and a Weekend to Remember with my husband the weekend.  Due to the WTR, my marriage is healed & restored, tho that is a testimony for another time.  I just cannot even begin to describe the changes I am feeling inside... and all I can do is sit back, laugh and say "Wow!" We serve an amazing God & if He can begin a work in ME... chipping away at those concrete walls I've put up to protect myself (tho He showed me they really are just hindering me)... He can work in anyone. 

The One About Attitudes, Chocolate Chip Cookies & Bonding

Katie was throwing a fit this morning. Fit after fit and giving me awful attitude. It was really starting to anger me. Then it dawned on me that in the past 14 days she has spent 6 of those away from me. That's a whole lot of time for a child who is used to being around her mama 24/7. I decided instead of making her sit til she changed her attitude, I would spend some time bonding. We whipped out the necessary ingredients for chocolate chip cookies & baked together. She was so proud of herself. "I'm a big helper, Mom!" The attitude changed, my frustration melted & we bonded over some chocolate chip cookies. Love my little girl.

The One About Forgiveness

This past weekend Matt & I attended a Weekend to Remember conference.  During one of the last sessions, Gary Stanley was speaking.  He asked the audience, "Do you believe God forgives sins?"  And of course we all said "yes."  And then he just stopped & looked at us... "Think about it."  He then proceeded to tell us that he has been studying what God does to sin.  He throws it behind him, rips it from East to West, stomps on it and had it nailed to a cross.  Does that sound like he forgives sin or that he hates sin?

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
"... He is faithful & just to forgive US our sins and to save US from all unrighteousness."

God forgives US... he forgives the person... he hates the sin. Sin is death to Him.

Let that sink in for a moment. It feels like it's so simple, right? But this statement was so freeing to me.  We do not have to forgive the sins committed to us.  We forgive the person.  We separate the person from the sin and forgive the person.  This message is so clear throughout the Bible that it's amazing that this was so freeing to me, but it was.  Very much so. 

Forgive the person. Make a choice to forgive. You don't have to forget. You will still feel the hurt. But choose to forgive & hate the sin, not the 'sinner'.

The One Nathan Wrote

The Human Body: Ears

Ears are almost the greatest part of your body. For example: When you hear Karah screeching it immediately brings the music right to your brain. Cool, huh? Any way if you didn't have ears you would have to have loads of paper in your pocket so you could talk to each other or write to each other. But it would be kinda good because you could get better hand writing like I need to work on. Anyway you are using your ears right now as you are listening to my report. Well hopefully. This is the end. I hope you learned something. See you later.

The One About Time4Learning

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

I'm looking forward to trying this out :) I'm hoping it'll be a good tool to use, especially for the youngers!

The One About Feelings

Sometimes I think 3 year olds have it right by wearing their hearts on their sleeve. Oh sure, their tantrums are frustrating, but you always know how they are feeling. They let you know one way or another that they are sad, frustrated, angry, happy, scared & so on. At some point in our lives, we all loose the ability to show what we're feeling & internalize things too much. We often aren't taught how to properly manage our feelings so we push them aside until one day, unable to to hide any longer, they blow up in our faces & often affect the ones we love the most.

Why are we taught that happy is the only acceptable emotion? Especially as Christians... we're taught that we are to be joyful in everything. That doesn't mean to put a smile and push the hurt and sad feelings aside tho. That means to seek the Lord to bring healing for the hurt & sadness & then allow His joy to come into your life. Think about it... Jesus cried, Jesus threw a tantrum, Jesus hurt, Jesus FELT. Jesus... the *only* perfect human being felt sad & angry. Guess what that means?!? IT IS OK TO BE SAD AND ANGRY!!!

It's what we do with those feelings that is the important thing.

I'm totally speaking for myself here. I could put a spin on it on how to teach our children to accept their feelings & the proper way to deal with them, but I'm not doing that. Right now, I am hurting and sad and frustrated and angry. I don't know how to deal with it. I've always pushed it aside, hidden it beneath the facade of happy life. When I was younger I'd write songs, poetry or even draw pictures portraying what I felt, but never really dealing with it. I've ignored it & avoided it, but now it's time to heal.

I'm finding the healing process to be A LOT harder than I ever imagined it would be. It's amazing that things that happen to you at 5, 18, 30 can have such a strong affect on how you view life, God & relationships.

We live in such a broken world... we're allowed to feel that. We just need to learn how to let God take the brokenness to make us whole.