It All Starts At Home

The home is such an important place and so many times it gets over looked or under rated. The job of a mother or father gets under appreciated. And THIS is so sad to me. Now don’t get me wrong, I have definitely felt like I’m not cutting it at home or that it’s not that important. But listen to this…When Mother Theresa received her Nobel Prize, she was asked, “What can we do to promote world peace?”  She replied, “Go home and love your family.” WOW!!

It all starts at home. When you look at it that way it makes the home seem so much more important. (Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:5-7)  So when you feel down and feel like what you are doing at home is not of great importance, think again. You are the catalyst to your childrens future. With God all things are possible. Making a home a safe pretty place is important…even if it seems like no one cares about it.

God allows us glimpses of the fruit of our efforts. Like when they help out their little brother, or when they come home to tell you about a friend that they met that they want to pray and ask God how they can help them. When they have been saving for months for something they really wanted and then you find out that they gave their money to someone to pay down their cafeteria charges so they could eat that day. That kind of stuff makes it ALL worth it. So it might seem like no one cares about the efforts you make each day to make things PRETTY…but someone cares. When the laundry is all cleaned and put away, the dinner has been made, eaten and then cleaned up and homework is done, baths taken, prayers and kisses and all tucked in for the night, ask God to do something wonderful with all that you gave Him that day.

Colossians 3:23 says , (NCV) “In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were doing it for the Lord, not for people.”

So when we work that way we allow God to work on our behalf.

Don’t worry, Just pray

Don’t fear or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praise shape your worries onto prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of Gods wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It is wonderful what happens when God displaces worry at the center of your life.

(Phil4:6-7)

The bible tells us not to worry. I know as young people it is easy to get worried about things that we don’t even have control over. The good news is, as a follower of Christ, we know who is in control and that he knows the beginning and the end and he is not surprised by anything. So we need to spend our energy on praying more and worrying less. God is  in control.

Prayer: Pray that you and your family will begin to live a life of prayer and not worry..

Walking in the power of the holy spirit

         And then Jesus returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee, and news of him went out through all the surrounding regions. (Luke 4:14)

 When Jesus finished up a fast he was empowered to the Gods will. I know after this fast it will be easier for you to overcome the temptations of the enemy because you will be empowered by the holy spirit too.

 When you pray and fast you set yourself apart. God  honors you for that. It is not his will for you to go  through life by yourself. He is always there.

 Trust that God will always be by your side and remember to make fasting a regular part of life so you can continue to be empowered for his will.

Prayer: Pray that God will help you and your family pray and walk in the power of the holy spirit.

A New wineskin

And no one puts new wine into old wineskin. For the new wine would burst the wineskin, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins.

(Luke 5:37-38)

 This story tells us how old and new are not the same. Have you ever got something new and played with it so much that you forgot about your old favorite toy. That is because the new thing took it’s place as favorite.  Just like when we ask Jesus into our heart.

 I know the enemy tries to trick  us into thinking that it is ok to go back to our old ways but they were replaced with the new ways of life that God intends for us to live out to please him..

Prayer: Pray that God will help you and your family resist  doing things the old ways and help you to do new things the way God wants you to…

Humility…

And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to him, kneeling down to him saying, “Lord have mercy on m son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely;  for he often falls into the fire and often into the water, So I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.

(Matt 17: 14: 16)

 When this father brought his son to the disciples and they could not cure him, he was disappointed, but he did not give up, he pressed on to see Jesus. Jesus is the only one who can do all things. And sometime we let our feelings get in the way of our faith. But let’s not forget we can only use what God gave us, if we believe.

Being humble before God is realizing our need for him, Submitting to his will, Pursuing him and being confident that the outcome will occur in Gods perfect timing..

Prayer: Pray that  you and your family will humbled yourselves before God and know that it is impossible to live life without his guidance and strength

The Reason For Date Night (Part 2)

Having consistent Date Nights has made a huge difference in our marriage and our parenting. How can we be good strong parents when we are not united in our marriage? More often we are seeing that couples are putting everything into raising the children and are totally losing each other in the mix of all of that. The thought of getting back to our marriage after the kids are raised is dangerous. We are finding that so many get their children raised and then don’t know who their spouse is anymore and lost the connection and then divorce is the result.
We have to remember that each of us have junk from our past and it takes constant and deliberate connecting to keep the fire. A fire doesn’t just stay burning without your help. You have to be deliberate about keeping it going if you want to stay warm… or should I say HOT. I want the kind of marriage that when my kids look at us that they want the same for themselves. Like it or not they learn from what they see not what you tell them. Actions do speak louder than words.
Now, our Date Nights are not all that extravagant. The important part is that we are communicating interruption free. When we first started them we definitely had a lot of attacks and things didn’t go as smoothly as you would think but we stuck with it and it is just what we do now.

The Reason For Date Night (Part 1)

I felt I should share the reason that Date Night is so important to us. We haven’t always done our Date Nights every week. And I have thought for some time that it really wasn’t that important. You know…we talk after we put the kids to bed.  We have a good relationship I thought and now is the time that we should be raising our kids. After our kids are grown we will have all of the Date Nights that we want. We have had people speak to us about this and still didn’t see the importance. Sure you can probably survive a couple of years on a Date Night once every three months or so but it won’t take you into forever.

The bible tells us we are to love God first above anyone else. We can’t just spend time with him three times a year and expect to grow. We can’t do that with our spouse either. A marriage takes work and nurturing. We have to put our marriage second to God and then our children come third. Something hit me one day when I was having a pretty STRONG disagreement with my wonderful husband…that if we are not making sure that we have complete unity and passion for one another how can we expect our children to grow up with unity and passion for the things that we believe in.

So every Tuesday night is Date Night. EVERY Tuesday. Yes, we have had to put in on the calendar and no matter what we do Date Night on Tuesday night. Sounds a little rigid but we tried the whole “when it is convenient we will have a date” guess what…it was only convenient about two times a year. So we have our Date Nights scheduled every week. Our wonderful babysitter Vanessa knows what time to be here and the kids know what to expect when they wake up that morning. 

Take off the grave clothes.

 Jesus said to them. “Take off those grave clothes and let him go. “

(John 11:44 b)

 In the story of Lazarus, Jesus brought him back from the dead and he was wrapped in grave clothes and the disciples helped him take them off. Even when Jesus walked the earth, the disciples all worked together to help fulfill Jesus ministry.  That is what each of you are called to do as well.

 What can you do to help someone take off the old and put on the new? We are the only light some of our friends see. Let’s use that time to help them see that Jesus wants to be their forever friend. Help them out of the grave clothes. Help them put on the eternal clothes.  

Prayer: Pray that you and your family will begin to have a desire to help those around you see the fullness of God. And help them to obtain that same fullness. Tell others of Gods greatness. Let’s don’t keep this to ourselves

Spoken Word

 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out”.

    (John 11:43)

        The story of Lazarus shows us the power of  the spoken word. There is power in what we say. Even if what we say is bad. We need to be careful when we use our mouth to speak on something. We need to make sure what we say is good and right.

   As you go into to this last week of fasting stay focused.  Do not get discouraged. Let’s make this week the best. If you have messed up, it’s ok, lets not quit. Let’s use the power of the spoken word to help us finish the fast and honor God.

Prayer: Pray that you and your family will always think of how to encourage others with your mouths and actions

Plan for Heaven

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

(Matthew 6:10)

Heaven is where God reigns supreme! You may know someone or heard of someone who doesn’t believe in God. But there is no one in heaven who doesn’t believe in God.

When we pray  “thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are saying that we want everyone to know and love Jesus.

We all want our friends to love God, so it is up to us to pray for those who don’t know him. Prayer: Pray that you and your family will always pray for those around you that don’t know God