HOMEMAKER MOMENTS!

It's Friday...time for the homemaker moments. Ladies don't forget to share your moments with others. I find it very encouraging to read how the Lord is working in your life to build your home. Lots of ideas come from these moments. You can click on title to go to Angie's blog the originator of Homemaker Moments!

Here are my moments...
This week was rough because I had to work through some really hard things with my children. Okay moms let be honest. You know how, we understand that our children are foolish, sinful, and will do things wrong in our mind. But in our heart we feel they can do no wrong? There was a situation an old one but I just found out about it. My kid was the rotten child. And I found out in front of another adult. Oh, how my heart sank to the ground! My child foolish...couldn't be...but it was! I was thankful that my child told the truth even with the knowlegde of consiquences. We have taught our children that we don't expect them to be perfect and we know from the starting block they will get it wrong. That is fine, but we encourage them to run to Jesus! Repent, Believe, and turn from sin then fall at the feet of Jesus. So here it was...the rubber hitting the road. Can I in this frustrating and disappointing moment display what we have taught?

Praise God! He gave me the strength to be firm, discipline, instruct, forgive, and love. I took that child to Christ. It was awesome at the end. Note, I said at the end, because getting to the end was really rough. My child said to me Christ is the only thing good in me. I thought okay you are on to something! Then I went on to share that you are correct. At the same time those who the Holy Spirit of God dwells in are made righteous and good. Child, you will error and fall short of God's glory daily. He knows that and choose you anyway. It is He who is perfect and He dwells in you, so rejoice and receive the forgiveness of God. Don't bind yourself with a bondage that was not given to you by God. This is how I talk to my kids. If they don't understand they will tell me but more often then not they get it. So the short version is that there was peace and restoration. My pride was crushed and that was a good thing.

On another note...
My daughters started a business with a friend. The daughter of Angie (homemaker chronicle lady). They are so excited and I am too. We have talked about all kinds of wonderful things. This was an awesome intro to home school for me. With this one concept we are able to cover math, economics, design, writing, advertising...the list goes on. We will showcase their work on the blog soon. They have decided to give 5% of their profit to help child in need of educational supplies. They came up with their own percentages and organization to give to. I thought it was wonderful. They are being responsible with finances. They report to one another their income and calculate the % and proper distribution. We have really spent quality time getting this off the ground. So get ready to order from Glamour Glare Jewels by NRN Jewelers. There work is awesome!

Finally...
My husband I are working on hard core open honest communication. Oh buddy! It is hard but we have greatly benefited from it. You know when you and your husband are discussing an issue and you both conclude the conversation but it isn't truly finished. We are going beyond that point. I mean really seeing the heart of matters..whether it be pride, selfishness, or misunderstnading. God is loving us through this process and again we are better for it!

Praise the Lord for His work in my home this week!

MAMA BEAR CLAWS!

There was a small incident in the moblie home park on Sunday. A young girl stole money from my daughters wallet that was inside my van. The amount of money was very little ($6), yet it was the principle that mattered more to me. Then a young boy threw a cookie at my daughter (cookies that my children and I made together for the people of Oakwood). While working for the Lord my daughters were abused and taken advantage of. Hummmmmmmm what do we say about these things?

My first instinct was to unleash the claws! I have had a few times of wanting to unleash my momma wrath, but the Lord held me appropriately. So I prayed and the Lord gave me insight. I drove to the mobile home park to find the mother. She wasn't there so the Lord gave me an opportunity to minister to another lady. Who said "the Lord knew I needed to talk to you". She felt encouraged and was given insight on her situation. Then the mother of the children pulled up. So I told her what took place and how that affected my children.

On Sunday this mother was upset at another child because he was throwing a frisbee and it hit her car. She went wild and profaned the child and told the mother she needed to do something with her child (implying the child was out of control and needed discipline).

I reminded her of that statement and informed her to apply that same expression with her own two children. Titus came to mind....older women teach the younger to love (philio= delight in, friendship, relational love) their husbands and children. So I proceeded to explain that her children need her to delight in them. More than anything this world can offer, they need her and ultimately Christ. They need her to care and be interested in them. So the conversation went really well.

I praise God that He allowed this opportunity so I could further build relationships and address the day to day lives of these women. The Lord allowed me to instruct younger women in righteousness (only found in Christ) and help my children to see how truly blessed they are to have parents who love and care for them. But more importantly their Heavenly Father is abundant in blessings, love, and righteousness. The $6 can be replaced and the cookie was soft! But they saw their mother address sin in a loving, caring way. So I pray that the next time the mama bear claws show, that Christ would again show Himself stronger and greater!

STAND IN THE RAIN!

My daughter Najee’ often waits for her daddy to come home from work at the end of the driveway. She will often call him wanting to know exactly where he is on his route home. Today I watched God use my 7 year old to speak loud and clear to me. It was about 6:00P.M. Phil’s ETA was between 5 and 20 minutes. It was raining pretty hard at this point. Najee’ gets the umbrella and stands in the rain at the end of the driveway waiting for her dad. She remained there until he arrived about 10 minutes later. She was confident that her daddy was coming and he would meet her…so she was willing to wait.
Then it hit me. Many of us believe in Christ but are unwilling to wait on Him. She stood in the rain longing for her dad and confident he would come.

Are we that faithful? Will we stand in the rain (through hard trials and tribulation)? Can we endure hardships and still stand confident that our Heavenly Father will meet us? I am challenged by this. Are you? I am challenged to stand in the rain and wait on my Glorious Savior to meet me!