Meeting the Needs of Others - Teaching Good Things

Cherish Needs Help!

There is something especially beautiful about a girl who was once orphaned wanting to reach out to other orphans. This is the grace of God.

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Cherish, with Olivia’s guidance (and driver’s licence), have taken on a special Christmas project to help meet some needs of some refugee children.

If you are local you can bring your items to us or the church by Nov.15th.

If you’d like to donate funds and we can pack a box for you, you can do it through Cherish’s website.

This is a tangible way to bring some help and hope to refugee Yazidi children displaced by ISIS who currently live in tents in very cramped conditions. Many have become orphans. Food is a constant worry in the camp. Our prayer is that these small gifts will bring joy and hope in the midst of their desperate situation.

Tell your friends and follow the progress on Facebook.

You can read details about these people and how to help them here.

Who are the Yazidis and why is Isis hunting them?

A Peaceful Home - Free Instant Videos

The truth is a peaceful home is constant work. We need consistency, self-control, a solid sense of purpose and love. We also need many practical skills to accomplish what we were designed to do.

The home is the primary, most important and most active mission base in any culture. It is a constant work to manage it well. We all need encouragement and instruction on a regular basis to help us keep our focus, because our family worth it.

I know I need to hear the same things over and over to remind me to stay the course. I need to surround myself with teachings and people to help me keep my eyes on the finish line and not get overwhelmed with all the hurdles along the way.

This week I came across this teaching from Elizabeth Elliot and what an encouragement it has been. Although the video is is ‘dated’ the truths are timeless. I listened to it while I worked in the kitchen and it encouraged me to find more delight in my duties!

Christian Home

Memorizing 1 Corinthians 13 - Let Love Abide (video)

There are 3 things I want my kids to know more than anything:

1. Who God is and what He really said.

Which is why we read and memorize Scripture. As we read, study and memorize the Holy Spirit will reveal more and more truth to us. You can’t really grow in truth if you only hear a sermon once a week. As we learn whole chapters at a time we are learning verses in context. This makes it easier when we do hear preaching or teaching on a verse to have discernment whether or not it is being taught in the context of all of God’s word, and it also gives us a deeper understanding for the groundwork already laid.

That being said, I will be honest with you. Our family does not do near as much reading and memorizing as we should, but we are consistent in moving forward little by little. Sometimes we get very busy with things such as weddings, grand-babies, a heavy work load or whatever, but the important thing is that we get back on track and move forward. It has taken us two years to learn three chapters of Scripture, the 10 Commandments and the Apostle’s Creed.

We are a family of doers, only a couple of us are readers (read because we love it and can’t get enough). And while quantity is important, quality is even more important. Most times while others are studying how to put their hand to the plow you’ll find us out behind the plow. The world needs both kinds of people.

The point is, don’t set unrealistic standards for your family and then give up because you are discouraged. Don’t compare yourself to others. If it takes you a three years to read through the Bible you’ve already done more than most people. If it takes a year to memorize one chapter you are WAY ahead of the majority.

2. They are loved and wanted by us and their Heavenly Father.

Everyone wants to be loved, and especially loved by their parents. If you know your parents love you and want you, then that sets a security in you that can not be shaken. A LOT of people do not have this security.

And if you are given a hard providence in life such as your parents rejecting you, as our three youngest have experienced, then it is even more important to know that your Heavenly Father loves you and desires fellowship with you. Once you have that security you can face anything!

3. How to serve others through love (even if it has to be tough love).

In our day of self-esteem and feel-good theology we need to know how God said we should live. We need to know HOW to love others, HOW to serve others, HOW to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. If we are not denying ourselves and loving/serving others then we do not know the Gospel.

It took us about 8 months to learn this, but they have it now and all three of them know it from start to finish! We have had MANY great object lessons as we’ve worked to memorize this.

They also know Proverbs 3 and Romans 12. 🙂

Home Strings - Make them Want to Come Home

It isn’t the the gifts under the tree that will bind your child’s heart to you, nor will those gifts stir the fondest memories when they are older.

Extravagance at the expense of sincere communication will not instill a desire to trust and confide in you.

Bling can never replace fellowship. And there is nothing sweeter than having true, sincere, lifelong fellowship with your children.

What will draw them to you is a spirit of joy.

Moms are the key factor in creating an atmosphere of cheerfulness in the home.

She is the one that leads the way into a calm peaceful home.

Mom is the buffer of all things harsh and ugly, untruthful.

She must set the pace of speaking a kind word when others are negative. She needs to be honest teaching others to respond kindly.

Her hands must be diligent in making the home a place that people WANT to be, where the naked are clothes and the hungry are fed.

Her arms welcoming… comforting…full.

Being a homemaker is serious business. It doesn’t just happen… YOU have to make it happen.

Home is what everyone works for…goes to at the end of the day.

Some of us have home strings that tug hard at Christmas time. That is because there was someone that once made a HOME and pleasant memories that were imprinted deep in our soul.

You want to drive everyone, even your children away from you and your home?

Be critical. (This one is most important)
Nag
Complain
Be lazy.
Be too busy to communicate.
Don’t cook satisfying foods.
Don’t smile.
Don’t play beautiful music.
Be very strict and legalistic.
Don’t be honest about what is true, right and good.
Replace relationships with activities.
Satisfy immature, temporary desires with things.
Always let them choose friends over family.

You reap what you sow.

Why God Gives Us Difficult People to Love!

We all have one… most likely more than one. You know, those people in your life that you HAVE TO love, or at least get along with. It may be an in-law, a sibling, an aunt, a parent, people at work or church or maybe even a child.

They are those people that seem to be so full of pride, making their way known to all, being selfish as they put their needs ahead of everyone else. Or they may be that one who is always complaining, finding fault in people or even manipulating others so they come out on top.

All of us have those people, the ones that walk into a room and push your button just for kicks, or so it seems.

God brings us these people for several reasons.

As Sandpaper

When we start out in life we are a rough piece of wood. As life goes on God’s brings sandpaper into our life to smooth us out, to take our rough edges off so that we can be a beautiful, useful piece of wood.

I love my hardwood floors. They are strong and durable, they take a LOT of abuse and bring much beauty to our home. I especially love that they are low maintenance. They hold no odors or dirt like a carpet does… they are very forgiving.

My floors would not be pleasant to walk on if they were rough cut, un-sanded and not sealed. Our feet would be full of splinters and everything would get hung up on them… they would be painful!

Rough lumber is not meant to run your hand along… you can not be close to it without getting hurt. In order to have relationships, long lasting relationships, we need to be smooth… useful and forgiving, just as my floors are forgiving of the abuse they endure.

Relationships at all levels are CONSTANT sandpaper in our life. The question is, will you allow the Master Carpenter to smooth you out or will you be the one inflicting splinters to everyone that comes close?

It’s Not Personal

As I struggle with the difficult people in my life I have to remember that their smashing my button really has little to do with ‘me’. Their attitude and obnoxious behavior is not necessarily an attack on me.

Your child sins and struggles because they are a sinner, not because they want to ruin your day.
Your husband irritates you because he is human… a man (not a woman).
Your mother-in-law rubs against your grain because her worldview is different than yours, most likely not because she hates you.

There are also different personalities. How we approach a situation may not be how someone else is designed (or been taught) to approach it. This is even more evident in how we react to situations, especially conflict. Just because I am an introvert does not mean that I am a snob, and because you are an extrovert does not mean that you are a glory hog… we are all wired differently for a purpose… God’s purpose.

To Know Him

Anytime there is conflict, whether it is justified or not, we need to remember how often we are difficult and offensive towards a holy and perfect God.

Whenever we deal with conflict or sin with others we need to remember our own sin.

We forget how patient God is with us and our repeated sins. We forget how merciful and loving God is as we loose our temper again, or neglect our duty to serve others… or even in our pride as we believe we have things all figured out.

So Why the Unlovable?

To make us more like Him. As we work through conflict we remember Jesus settled the conflict of LIFE and death.
To refine us, sand us into His image, to be used for His glory!
So we can love as He loves.
To remember He is God and we are not. We don’t change people, but we can love people.

As a VERY last resort, distance yourself from situations that you can not resolve. We can not run away from most people, but we can keep our button out of reach and love from a distance. (2 Timothy 2:23-24) Some times the best way to love people is to sincerely pray for them from a distance.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? Matthew 5:46

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:23-26

Don’t miss the 2015 Ultimate Homemaking Bundle!

I challenge you…

I will start with a disclaimer in hopes to derail some hate mail. First, I am NOT against foreign missions. We, as Christians, are commanded to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt 28:19)

YES, we need to support foreign missions with servants, finances and prayer.

There are some people who are truly called to go and disciple, but MOST are called to stay and disciple.

For those of you that long for a “mission trip”, those who believe they can be of greatest use for the Kingdom is when they go to another country, this is for you. For those of you who are longing to be used, don’t miss out on the most overlooked mission field in the world!

Your greatest and most difficult mission field is right where you are.

This is where God placed you to serve, to evangelize and to disciple.

Your immediate and extended family, your neighbors and your community are no less important than the natives that run barefoot in a jungle.

This hard, materialistic American ground is becoming more hostile to the Gospel. Why is that? I wonder how much of it is because we don’t view our every day relationships and our daily mundane duties as Kingdom work.

As half of American-Christian marriages fail, there is no way we can be effective locally or abroad. No one wants our ‘form of religion’ when we are just as stressed and miserable as the one without Christ. Let us have strong marriages (not perfect) before we go out to the nations.

We neglect the responsibility of training up our children to establish their own ‘ well-skilled, mission bases’ as they marry and have their own families… families that need to reach out to the un-discipled in their community. Let us have strong (not perfect) families before we go out to the nations.

Few Belivers will open their homes for hospitality to reach out to those who need to see how a Christian family lives. Maybe we don’t want people to see how we really live? Let us have strong, God honoring (not perfect) homes before we go out to the nations.

There are lost, hurting and confused people all around us. How much TIME and money do we invest in them? How have you reached out to a local orphan lately? How are the widows in your community? Have you offered a hand to a mother considering to kill her un-born baby?

Jesus had only 12 disciples. They are the ones he poured the most time in. He was equipping them to go out… and make disciples. He instructed his disciples to first go to the house of Israel. Again, discipleship happens in small numbers.

Discipleship can only happen through relationships.

I challenge you! Be a missionary right where you are. Disciple those God brings to you to go out and disciple others. Look for the needy around you. Find delight in your daily duties, finding worth in the mundane, for this is the will of God!

Diligent Hands, Servant Hearts

I received this as a comment the other day on this crocheting post. I was so humbled, encouraged and convicted all at once. This is from Jill:

Several years ago, you did a little series on young
entrepreneurs. One of them was Brianna, a crocheter. I showed my daughter, Sarah, that post. She had just started crocheting, and she contacted Brianna. They have become friends, penpals, and fellow crocheters. Brianna inspired my daughter to start her own business. I think Sarah had just turned 11 at the time.

At first, she was earning money for herself, but soon we started our first
adoption process in the summer of 2010, and she sold her beautiful items to
raise money for our adoption. After we got our first son home, she turned
her efforts to other waiting special needs orphans or families in process.
She has since taught her best friend to crochet, and together, they have
raised almost $6000 to help bring orphans home! (Sarah just turned 15, and her friend is 17.) In fact, just this morning, Sarah did a Farmer’s Market booth all by herself. She is learning so many life skills through this experience, not just crocheting.

I just wanted to encourage you that even a seemingly simple post had a HUGE impact on our family and my daughter’s life. I love the way the Lord works!

I’d be honored if you checked out her work when you have some time. (I’m a very proud Mama!) She designed the blogs/websites herself, and she’ll be
taking an HTML class to advance her skills after your encouragement to have our children learn this skill.

This is her blog she started with:
http://forhisgloryhandiwork.blogspot.com/

Her “Block Party” blog: (Brianna sends blocks for this every year.)
http://blockpartyukraine.weebly.com/

This is her fundraising site where they sell their items.
http://handiworkforelijah.weebly.com/index.html

Again, thank you SO much! God has used you in mighty ways! (I thought it was about time I told you, so you didn’t have to wait until we are in Heaven.
LOL)

Many Blessings to you and your beautiful family!

Please visit our adoption blog: www.mygodislord.blogspot.com
And Sarah’s fundraiser blog for “Maria”: www.handiworkforelijah.weebly.com

DID YOU READ THAT??? They have raised $6000 selling crochet items to help give orphaned children a mom and dad… a real, FOREVER family! And they are only 15 and 17!!!

As I read their blogs and saw their WILLINGNESS to give and serve I was so convicted, convicted of my complacency and laziness.

If I could plead and beg with families… with young people, please set your American Dream worldview aside and reach higher. Give. Serve. Work. Think bigger than yourselves. Don’t settle for our cultural normal. If God chooses to bless you with wealth, use it for His glory. If God chooses to bless you with less wealth use your time, skills and life for His glory. Wherever He has you, let your goals be bigger than material gain and comfort, ask Him to remove the hay and stubble form your life.

What a sad state we are in when we believe Christianity looks like the American Dream. God have mercy on us complacence, materialistic and narcissistic people.

There are children in orphanages that need to be rescued, if you can’t bring them in your home, in your family, then come along side a family that is willing. I’ve posted here about specific ways to help. There are so many ways to do orphan care. Our friends and church have been a HUGE blessing to us in MANY ways as we added our 3 adopted kids to our family.

We live in a very needy world. The needy are not only the orphans, although I believe they are the most helpless. And what is done for the least of these is done for Christ. How are you spending your time? How are you using your talent? How are you investing your wealth?

I love to crochet. I’ve done it so long that it is almost second nature. I can whip up a child’s hat in the time it takes our family to watch a movie. I can make a baby blanket in 3-4 evenings. I don’t mean to sound like a brag, I’m just saying, if I can make something in a couple hours, sell it for $15 and it only cost me $1-2 to make it, that is an easy way to make money for the needy.

Think of the amount of time being wasted!

Thank you, Jill, for sharing your family with us. Thank you for rescuing those precious children. THANK YOU Sarah for being a faithful servant of Christ!

Linking Up at:

Raising Homemakers

The Duty of a Christian Home

A home is not just a place to hang our hat, a place to get a hot shower, grab something to eat and sleep a bit before we run out and do it all again.

Home is our center! It is a place to rest, recharge, but mostly to be invested in.

It is the place, whether we live alone or our walls are bursting with people and noise, where we all work to come back to… or at least it should be.

As I stated the other day, “Ladies, if you aren’t making your house a home, WHO WILL?”

Food, laundry, shopping, organization, bill pay and cleaning are just the basics that need to be taken care of, and those all take time, energy and thought! OR maybe it doesn’t get done…then we don’t want to come home…and neither does anyone else.

But home is also where the most important relationships happen;

again they take TIME, ENERGY and PLANNING!

Actually, they take MORE time, energy and planning than housekeeping.

OR maybe the relationships are neglected just as our houses are neglected and we dread coming home to strife or loneliness?

The DUTY to impact our community is just as important as the upkeep of our home and the care of our family. Each Christian home should be it’s own mission base to reach out to the needy, and to be an example of and fight for what is right and good.

“…what does the LORD require of you but

to do justice,

and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?”

Micah 6:8

Our communities are a mess because our homes and families are a mess. Even Christians, especially Christians, have neglected their homes and their family relationships to go do ‘good work’ at the church building, turning charity over to the church budget committee and civil government.

Wouldn’t it be wiser… and more powerful to have 40 home mission bases in a community than just a few churches?

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God,

the Father,

is this:

to visit orphans and widows in their affliction,

and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

James 1:27

Discipleship is ALL about relationships. And lasting relationships happen ONLY on a small scale.

If you have children at home, they will take the bulk of your time and energy. What you want to aim for is to raise them up to be strong in the faith and Godly character so that they will be equipped to establish their own home mission base one day.

Think about it. If you raise of 3 children to be productive, responsible and active members in your community, who reach out to the needy and share Truth, and then they raise up 4-5 more and they do the same then our communities will REALLY be impacted. But if your goal is to have more sheetrock and better things and more entertainment there will be no lasting impact.

The wisest of women builds her house,
but folly with her own hands tears it down.

Proverbs 14:1

So the question is, are you being a wise woman and building your home?

Are you building your home mission base?
Are you encouraging and helping your Captain (husband)? Titus 2
Are you doing him good all the days of your life? Proverbs 31
Are you training up warrior-servants (children) to go out into the world around them? Training takes YEARS, make sure they are ready first. This is a full time job!
Are you reaching out to the needy? Proverbs 31
Are you teaching or practicing hospitality? Romans

You and I, will account to the Almighty how we have built our home!

Also linking up at Raising Homemakers.

Discouraging Vanity, Even at 3!

The Lord sent me this ADORABLE little girl about a year ago. Not only is she adorable, but she also has a very out going personality with a big smile almost all the time. And with all that cuteness comes a sneakiness and a natural manipulation that all of us are born with. If we are honest we will admit we too struggle with it, she just hasn’t learned how to overcome it yet.

This precious gift I have been entrusted with is constantly told how cute and pretty she is by prefect strangers. She knows she’s “cute”. But because I love her I always ask her, “Peach, what is more important than being pretty?”

She is suppose to reply, “Being kind!”

I take opportunities to teach her that being pretty will only get her so far in life. That she needs to be kind and helpful, that God placed her here on this earth to bring Him glory and to bless others with service, not cuteness. It’s OK to look like a princess, but it is more important to ACT like a servant. Yes, even at 3, perhaps especially at 3, this needs to be sealed in her worldview and her self-worth. If her self-worth is based on her appearance she will be a self-adsorbed, miserable person.

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Proverbs 31:30

Finding Freedom from the Monster of Self

The monster of SELF rages in all of us. The only way to find freedom from this self-destroying creature is to execute it through a heart of service.

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

(This is actually a picture of Peach playing Grumpy Girl one day.)

The most unhappy people I know are people who are focused on themselves, they are angry, pouty, miserable people.

We are all there at times. Some people just choose to feed the monster rather than kill it.

I recently decided to watch the BBC series Downton Abbey. What I love most about this series is that you see what an attitude of respect and service bring. The characters that have the biggest hearts for respect and service are the happiest and most peaceful characters.

The same happens in real life. Those who understand what their calling in life is and then they spend their life pouring out to others within that calling are the happiest, most content people.

Are you feeling angry or sorry for yourself? Could it be because you are focusing too much on YOU?

Do you have a child who is angry, or pouts a lot because he doesn’t get his way? Is he always the victim of every circumstance?

It is because the monster of self rages within.

How do you overcome this? How do you find peace, even joy?

Know who you are and who you are not. You are not God.
You are not the most important person on the planet, on the team, or in the family.
Come to terms with the fact that God is sovereign! NOTHING, absolutely nothing happens in your life happens without God allowing it. EVERYTHING happens for your good and His glory (Romans 8:28). You can either give thanks for the situation and become more Christ like, or you can feed the monster and become more miserable.
Figure out what your gifts are and start serving in those areas.
Know your duty and do your duty…with a cheerful heart.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-5

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

Linking up over at Woman to Woman, Word Filled Wednesday

Teaching Good Things

Practical Skills for Real Life

Category: Meeting the Needs of Others