Are You Lost or Found?

I know the obvious application is do you know Jesus or don't you, right?
My prayer is that you are eternally saved because you believe Jesus died for your sins.

I have a question for you today.
Are you lost or found in your walk with Christ?

As a Christian, I can be either in my relationship with my God. If I become too focused on myself or my life's circumstances I can look up and find I've lost sight of the Lord. I feel lost, sometimes desperately so.

Other times I awaken to a new day where His presence surrounds me and my life is focused on Him. The sweetness of being found daily by Jesus is indescribable.

The funny thing is that I choose whether I am lost or found each moment of every day. God never changes. He promises to never leave or forsake me. That can only mean that if I feel lost its because I have wandered away from His side.

Today I rejoice that I am found in Him: seeking His sweet face, listening for His tender voice, searching for Hus truths.

Today I choose to be found.

How about you? Are you lost or found?

God's Tape Measure

My grandpa was a carpenter. He could skillfully turn a plain piece of wood into a beautiful table or grandfather clock. It was mesmerizing to watch him work when I was little girl. Grandpa, like most carpenters lives by the golden rule of carpentry: Measure twice, cut once.

Wisdom would agree that this is the only way to approach a woodworking project, but what about a spiritual one?

God himself is a Master Carpenter. He is wise and wonderful. He looks at me as an unfinished project and I believe He enjoys the process of transforming me into His image. I am so very thankful that He is careful.

Using the Tape Measure of His Word He examines my life and determines where and what to cut away.

I believe He is more careful than Santa, checking twice before cutting.

As a hunk of wood, I yield my life to His hands. Though this process is not always easy for me, I trust in His finished work.

Currently, the Lord is cutting away at my pride.
When I have the fleeting thought, "I do not struggle with that"...
He is quick to show me that I am guilty and then he measures twice and cuts.
It is for my good.

How about you? Where you see the Lord using His Measuring Tape in your life?

Sense of Smell

I was out on a morning walk with 4 of my boys the other day. The two youngest were on bikes and the two older boys were content either jogging the paved trail or walking with me. I had bumped into an elderly friend, Flo, and we were walking and chatting.

At one point on the trail, my youngest came riding up to me while making a funny face. "Mommy, I found you with my sense of smell!"


Of course I laugh and then I was almost offended. Thank goodness for Flo and her wisdom. She quipped, "Nothing smells sweeter than the love of a mother!"


I was so blessed by her comment and as I have chewed on it for a few days I have been challenged and convicted.

The Lord wants me to be totally surrendered to Him and to spend time in prayer and worship daily. When I do, it's a sweet smelling aroma to God Himself.

So too with my family. When I spend time with Jesus, my life smells sweet; my family is drawn to me.

Today, I would ask you how does your life smell? Are others attracted to the sweetness that can only come from time spent with Jesus?

Locks of Love

I met her on Friday.
6 year old Aurora was spending the night at my neighbors house.
As I stood talking with my neighbour , I watched her run, swing, and laugh.

I had never seen her before but she was stunningly beautiful and full of life. Aurora sports lovely bronze coloured skin and very long wavy brown hair.
Truly a beautiful little girl.

Fast forward to today. Just 4 short days after I met her, Aurora was diagnosed with a rare and ugly form of leukemia. Just 6 days after I met her she was in a hospital and now is sick from chemo.

My heart is so sick for this vibrant little girl. It was not a fluke that I met her. I can see her beautiful eyes in my mind. I know the Lord blessed me with the opportunity to meet her so I would faithfully pray for her over the next year or so.

I have decided to do something in honor of this little girl. Something that will continually remind me of her so I will be faithful to pray.

I am going to donate my hair to Locks of Love. Honestly I have always wanted to do this, but I have never had the motivation. I figure it will take me about a year to grow it out.

For now I have two things to ask of you:

1. Consider joining me in my year long quest to participate in such a worthy cause. Grow your hair out long enough to donate a 10inch ponytail/braid. I am guessing it will take us a year. Are you in? Comment below.

2. Please pray for this little girl as the Lord brings her to your mind. She and her family were blindsided by this trial.



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• Share this with all your social networks. Lets get many, many people to pray for Aurora!!

Because of the Hardness of Your Hearts

Have you ever studied forgiveness? If you have you may have already stumbled upon what I am relearning today. Check out Matthew 19:8

 

"He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so."

Here is a scripture where Jesus answers the question, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" While you and I may not be in a position where our spouses are contemplating divorce, or separation, I want to encourage you to look deeper at the answer Jesus gave in response.


...because of the hardness of your hearts...

Did you catch that? Jesus looked beyond the circumstance and nailed the real issue.  Has someone, even your spouse, done something that you feel is unforgivable? If your heart is hard, you will be unable to forgive them. Your relationship will be destined to fail.


Jesus never turns away the repentant sinner. Neither should I.


(Hard swallow). If I harden my heart by clinging to my own pain, my own hurt, my own rights, my own expectations then I can easily believe that I am justified in my unforgiveness. Truth is, that is a lie from the enemy of our souls and families. My marriage and  relationships are profoundly affected by the condition of my heart. My flesh hates this.


When someone hurts my feelings, or wounds my heart the last thing I want to do is forgive them. In fact, my flesh loves to marinate in that nasty pride that can whisper to my intellect, "See they are a bigger sinner than you". 


Jesus would whisper to our spirit, "harden not your heart".


It is out of obedience that I share this with you today. My prayer is that both you and I would be so wrapped up in our loving God that when someone around us falls, sins, or wounds our heart that we would be quick to forgive.


May it never be so that a relationship of mine (or yours) fails because of a hard heart.

A Better Way to Homeschool is Born

The end of the school year crept up on me this year. I found I was out of energy long before the school year was complete. In desperation to not give up before the race was won, I found a "pocket book" kit for my 8th grader to complete on the Civil War. If you have never complete pocket book studies, you really need to check them out. The entire packet is jammed full of stories, recipes, dates, important characters and more historical facts than I ever learned in traditional school as a kid. Each topic is divided into it's own pocket where the student can display and store the appropriate pieces of information and completed activities. My 8th grader loved this project and my 3 younger boys begged me to make them a copy of their own.

 I did a lot of relflecting as we worked on all of our final projects. What was my vision for my kids homeschool experience? Did I love the activities and assignments we worked so hard on the year before? Were there any things I would change if I could do anything I wanted? Then it hit me. Pssst. You are the teacher. Your husband is the principle. You can do whatever you want.

A lot has changed in me in the last few months. I am so excited to have the privilege to teach my children each year. This is something I DO NOT TAKE FOR GRANTED! I love watching the light bulbs go on as they finally "get it". In a burst of inspired enthusiasm, A Better Way to Homeschool was born. I am so excited about this new website I can barely sleep at night.

I have always had a heart for the new homeschool mom and their children. I know that it took me years to understand that although I was homeschooling my children, my home did not need to look anything like a traditional classroom. If I can help even one family by sharing what I have learned, I would be so blessed.

We support our charter school by allowing our children to take their standardized tests each year, no one would ever understand the unique needs, gifts and abilities of my children better than their personal teacher (me) and their mentor (their dad).

A Better Way to Homeschool is a newly developed and growing resource for homeschooling families. We will be focusing on enriching exercises and supplies that can be used along side of any curriculum or subjects. It is not for me to ever say what you should teach your children. Instead, my hope is to inspire you to seek hard after a better way to teach your children. Granted, it is my own idea of a "better" but I believe it is worth sharing. My kids love learning, love to read, and are a joy to be with each and every day.

We are blessed as homeschoolers to have our fingerprints all over our children's education. My prayer is that you can glean from what has worked successfully for us and implement at least one "Better Way" in the place of some piece of "busy work".

Come visit our new site. Look around, and check back often. Here's to a new journey!

Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover: Or a Christian by her Glow

Something worth sharing



Did you ever hear something that you wished you could pass along to others?
A dear friend shared this broadcast with me about a week ago. It took me many days to find the 30 minutes to listen, yet the Lord had the timing chosen perfectly.
As I made a triple batch of waffles, and my sick children cuddled and watched a short television show, I threw on my headphones and listened.

Here's a teaser.

Do you know a perfect Christian? You know. That gorgeous, wonder woman of a Christian who is forever smiling, forever joyful, forever doing "It all" and never complaining? Does she make you mad? Envious? Discouraged?

Have you ever been at the end of your rope, and chose to cling on anyway: with no where to go?

Click here and Save this link of Lisa Harper. If I know my God, He will find the perfect timing to speak to your heart as well...