bread and water

Sometimes I look around at others and they appear so successful. They have written books and bible studies, led conferences and traveled the world. Or maybe they are at the top of the corporate ladder making great money.   Sometimes I compare myself to them and sometimes jealousy sneaks in. That is when I must pray and repent! And get off facebook!  This past year and a half was one of the hardest times our family has had and when we shared that with a friend they said, “Well it didn’t look that way on facebook!” For various reasons we would not post about some of the hard things we had to do.   We all see each other’s best side and don’t truly know the struggles that go on.  When I questioned to myself, “Why am I not successful?” The Lord immediately spoke to my heart and said, “You are.” I knew what He meant.  I just listened to a sermon about staying by the stuff and the preacher said God measures success by faithfulness .  ...

I have been so burdened for our culture the past year. I’ve seen huge cultural shifts that have taken place and I am still in disbelief. These shifts have taken place in small quiet ways and then when they are accepted they are shouted from the rooftops as truth.  The enemy is sneaky and deceptive and he makes you think if you go his way you will be wiser and more spiritual. Kind of like Jezebel. Kind of like how he tempted Eve in the garden. He uses the same method today. It all starts with, “Did God really say this? Does God’s Word really say not to do that? My greek interpretation is different. You need to read between the lines. You need to totally cut out the Old Testament or the book of James.”  What?!? This is almost laughable at how obscure it is. There are movements going on about the earth being flat and about sexuality. The basic role of male and female is being questioned and changed from every side. Women preachers preach with more intensity while male preachers s...

I was listening to a founder of an incredible ministry talk to a Pastor in an interview and he said something that stuck with me. He said that Christ can only use us to the extent that we let Him. We must yield to Christ in order for Him to use us.    God has plans and purposes for each life that He gloriously created in the womb. But some people will never experience what they were created for because they won’t yield to Christ. When you see a yield sign you know that you are supposed to slow down and look to see if anything is coming before you continue down that path. If another car is approaching then you must stop and let the other car go before you continue driving on that road.    We have to do that with the Lord. Like the verse says in Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” It doesn’t say “in some of thy ways” or “only w...

We are in the process of moving out of the apartment on the third floor to a house. We have been in that apartment for almost a year and a half. It’s where we brought our fourth baby home from the hospital.    It had its ups and downs.    It had a pretty tree you could see from the balcony that turned red in the fall. It had a pool the boys could swim in in the summer.    But it didn’t have a yard or a garage or a place to put the boys bikes.  It was interesting having four rough and rowdy boys in a nice apartment complex.    One time our son had a bike wreck and accidentally put a tiny scratch on someone’s truck. We paid that person over $600 so they could get it fixed.  Another time the manager called me and asked the boys to quit doing backflips off the transformer box. (They weren’t allowed to have their trampoline at the apartment.) But they had an outdoor basketball and tennis court and a movie theatre in the lobby. T...

So Iʼm sitting here in my minivan with my little one while some of my boys are at soccer practice in the rain. I havenʼt posted a blog in a week or two because life has been busy. We have been in the throes of homeschooling, all three boys playing travel soccer on three different teams, and of course Church. Oh and play practice. Now that Iʼve updated you on my life I want to get to something thatʼs been heavy on my heart. I have been seeing several per se famous Christian bloggers, speakers, authors, and Christian worship leaders coming out in the public eye with flat out sin. But they donʼt call it sin. I donʼt know what they think it is. It definitely makes them look more like the world instead of being separated from the world. (I realize this may not be a popular post.) So what am I talking about? What are they doing? Well they are cussing on their videos and social platforms and they are talking about alcohol and drinking beer or wine on their social platforms. This is so ...

Our family decided to do a seven day media fast. Hmmm. We were all in the car together on a long trip and that’s when we made the decision.  7 days. No TV. No  Facebook. No social apps.  I loved it!  The kids and my hubby did it also. They loved it too.  My teenager may have broken it a day or two early by watching a You Tube video. Ugh.  I had a desire maybe 3 different times to get on Facebook but I didn’t.  It was mostly when I was bored sitting at the table finishing eating I would want to scroll through or post something I was doing on Facebook. Instead I would either sit there and think or talk to one of my children.  It made us look at our kids faces more and we paid our kids and each other more attention.  That was the biggest thing I noticed that was a huge deal...looking into our children’s faces instead of at faces of people on a screen. The house was more peaceful.  Honestly, we kinda drea...

I have noticed that when Iʼm in pain it makes me irritable and miserable and mean to people. Especially people in my family. It has made me less patient, kind and understanding. It has interfered with my sleep, my rest and my fun. It makes me sad for people who deal with health issues all of the time. The past month I have had pain in my mouth, teeth, jaw and ear. Usually I donʼt ever take Tylenol or Ibuprofen but I have been taking them almost every day because the pain was too much to bear. I know itʼs nothing compared to what some people go through. I never thought about pain until I experienced it in my own body and then it became all I could think about. Now I have a new compassion and mercy for people who deal with pain on a regular basis. My heart goes out to people who live in chronic pain. “Pain can create sensitivity to othersʼ sufferings and a greater compassion can be learned from the keen awareness of oneʼs own trials.” Kate Kim Psalm 4:1 says, “Thou hast enlarge...