Reverse Your Thinking

      Do you catch yourself worrying a lot?  I do.  I worry about my kids, my husband, my health, their health, my family, my friends, my money, and the list goes on and on.  Where do you stop it?  How do you stop it?  In these economic times, worry is a constant.  Many people are losing their jobs and their homes.  They don't know where to turn or what to do.  In the book of Luke, Chapter 12, starting in verse 22, Jesus tells us, "do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.  Life is more that food, and the body more than clothes."  Easier said than done, right?  How do you stop worrying?  How do you change your thought process from worrying to trusting God?  By prayer and practice.
     Start by thanking God first for everything you have and then asking him to help you.  Many of us start our prayers with a "Dear God please help me" attitude instead of a "Dear God thank you for all the things you have already done for me" attitude.  Luke Chapter 12, verse 31 says, "But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well"(NIV).  Seek God's kingdom first and He will provide all those things you were previously worrying about.  Reverse your thinking, seek God first, and practice trusting instead of worrying.

What's in a name?

     My husband gave me the coolest present for Valentine's Day this year.  It was a great card with a big wad of money stuck inside.  He had sold some of our old gold and gave me the money.  The card said I had to spend it all on the bracelet I have been wanting.  Is that cool or what?  I have been wanting a Pandora bracelet since before Christmas and so I was thrilled to finally be getting it.  Once I started looking for the pieces to make my bracelet I realized that if I wanted an "authentic Pandora" bracelet I was going to be spending all the money my husband gave me on just the bracelet!  But I wanted beads too, of course.  I started looking for different brands.  I was able to find a beautiful bracelet at my local Elder Beerman store and a whole bunch of beads by looking on ebay.
     So what's my point?  The point is, there is only one thing in this world that it is important to get the real deal.  That is Jesus Christ.  There is no "store brand" and no "knock-off" that will be just as good as the real thing.  There is only one God and one Jesus Christ.  In the book of Acts, Chapter 4, verse 12 it says, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."  No one else and no other name.  He is the one and only.  We have to look to Him for salvation and guidance.  He is the real deal!

Reaching Out

     When I first became a stay at home mom, I was thrilled.  I loved not getting up and going to a stressful job anymore.  I loved that my kids would be home with me and not in a daycare setting.  I quickly realized that being a stay at home mom was going to be more difficult than I thought.  I was lonely.  I was used to seeing people at work and communicating with other women.  I didn't have that anymore.  I started to get depressed and I knew I needed to find some women to talk to.  That's when I joined MOPS.  It was great, but I didn't feel like I was making any friends.  I prayed for God to help me find some friends, but it just wasn't happening.  I went through my first year of MOPS and I felt better, but I still didn't have anyone that I felt like I connected with. 
     I started my second year of MOPS this year and I was determined to make some friends.  I loved my table group and we started to get together for coffee in addition to our MOPS meetings.  This is a good start, I thought, but I still didn't feel like I was connecting.  And then it dawned on me.  I wasn't reaching out.  I was waiting for all these great relationships to fall in my lap without having to do anything.  That wasn't gonna cut it.  I had to step out of my comfort zone and reach out.  I love interacting with other people, but I don't often initiate the interaction.  I realized that if I wanted to make some great friends I was going to have to reach out more because there just might be someone out there that had a problem that I could be the answer to.  I saw a great video titled "The Confident Woman" and it really did make me feel more confident and able to step out of my comfort zone and be the answer (watch the video and you'll see what I mean by that).  I hope the video will help you to have the same "aha" moment that I had when I first saw it.

Less than Stellar

Ever have a less than stellar parenting day?  Yep, me too.  Today, as a matter of fact.  I had a horrible case of insomnia last night and as a result, I had less than my normal amount of patience for my 3 1/2 year old son.  What worse is that my husband was more than happy to point out my flaw.  I hate it when that happens.  So I took myself off to the shower to hopefully refresh my spirit and start over.  What happened next?  My husband came in and, not thinking, shut off the light in the bathroom.  "Hello!!  Am I invisible?", I thought.  That reminded me of a video I saw at my MOPS meeting called "The Invisible Woman." 
If you have a moment please watch it.  You won't regret it.  When I remembered this video, I was immediately calmed.  I am not invisible.  God sees me and everything I do.  He knows that I am trying my best to be a good parent and that even though I stumbled today, I didn't fall.  I caught myself early and was able to recover.

Trials, Trials, and More Trials

     For the last 3 weeks my family has been put to the test.  We all got sick with some sort of cold virus that is just lingering and lingering.  We can't seem to get rid of it.  If you are a stay at home mom like me, then you very well understand how difficult it is to be stuck in your house with sick 2 and 3 year olds.  Not only did myself and my kids get sick, my husband also got sick.  Then, to top it off, my husbands grandfather passed away.  This was a huge loss for my husband and his family.  So the only time we got out of the house in those first two weeks was for a funeral.  We thought we were recovering from the virus, and then my son had a relapse.  So now we are at three weeks of not being able to interact with the rest of humanity (and to me, grocery shopping is not interacting!)  I know that God says we will go through trials in our lives, but I kind of feel like I have gotten mine all in one dose.  It's kind of hard to take and it is very depressing. 
     That's when I looked to the bible to try to get some idea of what to expect out of these trials, and I wasn't disappointed.  In the New Testament, in the book of James, I found what I was looking for.  Chapter 1, verses 2-4 say, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  It is hard, right now, to see how these trials are going to make me more mature and complete.  However, when I think back to the other trials I have faced in my life, I know that down the road, be it a couple weeks, or months, or even years, the lessons I have learned in the last few weeks will make me a more mature and complete person. 

Free and Easy

I am a huge country music fan and I love Dierks Bentley.  I was listening to the song "Free and Easy" as I was working out today and when he sang the line, "I'm gonna sit back and try to enjoy the ride" it struck me that as Christians, we can't just sit back and enjoy the ride.  We need to be the drivers, not the passengers.  God wants us to go out and share the gospel with all creation (Mark 16:15), not just sit back and enjoy the ride to eternal life.  God's gift of eternal life is a free gift and it is easy to accept so grab hold, jump in the driver's seat, and have a great ride!!

The Best Vitamin for a Christian

One of my favorite things to do while riding in the car is reading church billboards.  I love seeing the inspirational things that they put on them.  One of my all time favorites was on a church board across from the Cemetary where my grandmother is buried in Alabama.  It said, "The best vitamin for a Christian is B-1."  Is that great or what?!

Healthiness is a Choice so Choose Wisely

One of my sons’ favorite movies right now is The Iron Giant.  It is about a robot that falls to earth and doesn’t remember his purpose.  He was created to be a weapon but with the help of a little boy named Hogarth, the robot learns that he can be whatever he chooses.  I think one of the best lines in the movie is, “You are who you choose to be.”  That is such a simple statement but it really sums up how we live our lives.

 Many of us make a New Year’s resolution to be healthier.  Whether its losing weight, quitting smoking, or some other variable that affects your health, we all want to make healthier choices.  So it’s February now, how is your resolution going?  Are you making the choices that will help you to have a healthier body, mind, and spirit? 

     Achieving a healthy body, mind, and spirit is difficult.  At one of my MOPS meetings we had a psychiatrist as a speaker.  One of the things he said was that Christians have the healthiest life style.  It doesn’t take much thought to figure out why.  It is because we strive to be godly people.  We try to make the right choices for our bodies, minds, and spirits in order to please God.  Now, this doesn’t mean that if you are not a Christian that you are not a healthy person.  It just means that as Christians, we make a conscious choice to live a more Christ-like life. 

     The book of the bible Proverbs was written to help us gain wisdom, discipline, and understanding and to help guide us in doing what is right and fair in our lives (summary of Proverbs 1).  Proverbs 3:8 tells us that one of the benefits of wisdom is, “health to your body and nourishment to your bones.”  By using wisdom in our choices, the bible tells us that we will be healthy people.

     Another thing that stood out to me from the psychiatrist’s speech was that we are only responsible for our selves and our children up, to a certain age.  God is not going to judge us on other peoples choices, only our own.  If the people around us are not using wisdom and making healthy choices, we can’t use that as an excuse for not making our own healthy choices.  If we want to have a healthy body, mind, and spirit our choices should be based on wisdom, understanding, and discipline.  Remember, you are who you choose to be, so choose wisely and reap the benefits that God promised.

The Fruits of the Spirit vs. the Nuts of the World: Love vs. Sex

     I was listening to a psychiatrist who came to speak at my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) Group last month and one of the things he talked about was how we all just want to be loved.  Boy is that the truth.  When I was a young lady, everyone always told me that I acted older than my age.  I think the reason I did this is because I always knew, deep down, that I wanted to be a wife and mom more than anything else.  I didn’t want to be a teenager, I hated high school and thought that the person who said that high school was supposed to be the best years of your life must be nuts.

     I wanted to be a grown up and have a husband that I loved more than anyone else.  I wanted children of my own to love and raise and I wanted to be loved in return by my husband and my children.  I was in such a hurry to be loved, that I mistook sex for love and found myself in some meaningless relationships and then an abusive marriage.  Eventually I learned that if I wanted to truly be loved, I must have more respect for myself then what I currently had and I needed to realize that sex was not love.  In 1 Corinthians 6:18 the bible says, “Flee from sexual immorality.  All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body”(NIV).  I decided to focus on getting my life back in order and treating myself and my body with more respect.  As soon as I started making changes to my life for the better, that’s when God stepped in and introduced me to my husband.

     Since then, I have found the true love that I always wanted.  I have a very loving husband and two wonderful children.  I have a better relationship with God then I ever had because I started looking to him for guidance instead of this world.  He helps me to truly love.  Romans 13:9-10 sums up what the bible has to say about love.  It says, “The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  “Love does no harm to its neighbor.  Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law”(NIV).  By learning what the bible says about love and sex, I was able to truly love and be loved in return. 

Heat up Your Marriage this Valentine’s Day

     “I slept, but my heart was awake.  Listen! My lover is knocking: “Open to me, my darling, my dove, my flawless one.  My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.”  I have taken off my robe- must I put it on again?  I have washed my feet- must I soil them again?  My lover thrust his hand through the latch opening; my heart began to pound for him.  I arose to open for my lover, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the lock.

What do you think of when you read this?  I bet you may not have guessed that I got this paragraph from the bible.  This comes from the book of the bible titled Song of Songs or Song of Solomon, depending on your version.  There is a whole book of the bible that talks about our sexual relationship with our husbands!  If you haven’t read this book before, try reading this out loud to your spouse on Valentine’s Day and see where it leads!

     God wants us to have a healthy sexual relationship with our husbands.  He puts this command right at the beginning of the bible, in the first book, Genesis.  In Chapter 2 verse 24 it says, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”  There are many opinions out there on the book Song of Songs and mine is just another one, but I believe that since God thought the physical relationship between a man and his wife was so important, He put that book in the bible as a resource for us.  There are many other resources out there for Christians on how to spice up the sexual part of your marriage, but this one you may already have if you have a bible at home.

Happy Reading and Happy Valentine’s Day!!