It's Been a Rough Week

It’s been one of the weeks that what could happen have happened. Dealing with these things has taken a lot of my time up, both mentally and physically.  You know when you put your life and your family’s lives in God’s hands, the devil will try everything in his power to bring you down and make you doubt everything you know. That pretty much sums up my week.

I have cried a lot and prayed even more. I have had to go off by myself and just be alone for a short while. I have been shorter tempered than I normally am, I hate feeling like that. I am ashamed that I haven’t held my tongue.   Last night I had a long talk with God, I have asked for forgiveness for not remembering what is most important, for allowing the problems /worries of today affect me so greatly. I know I am human and I make mistakes, believe I make a lot of mistakes, but part of my growth with God is seeing those mistakes and facing them and asking for forgiveness and guidance from him.

After my talk with God I laid my head on my pillow and slept a restful and sound sleep. I try to remember he is here with me at all times. He will help me on the path he has laid before me, I just have to trust in him and allow him to lead me and let go off all the issues that the devil knows he can use to hold me back.

A couple of my favorite quotes:

Yesterday is gone, today is a gift, and tomorrow is mystery.

Our past is forgiven, right now is the beginning and tomorrow is in God’s hands.

 God Bless,

Tammy


I am linked up at: Women Living Well Blog and Time-Warp Wife

Reading God's Word and.....

“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” Deuteronomy 6:5-7 KJV.

 Teaching and reading God's word to our children is something that is so very important if we expect them to continue on with their journey of living for Christ and studying his word when they grow up. Children do what they see. If they see mom and dad indulging in God's word and praying they are more likely to do it themselves. Then if we include them with us, God's awesome mighty word and wisdom will be firmly set within their hearts. This is something that will be with them long after we are gone. When we pray with our children, we are showing them that God is not only our God, our savior but also our friend. They also see that there is more than one way to pray. Sometimes just talking to him like a friend is all that is needed. It shows them that God is approachable and is a part of our everyday life. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” Matthew 6:33 K.JV.

Instilling his word into their hearts is a goal that we take seriously. It is our hope and prayer that they will have a heart to serve the Lord as they grow older. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” Proverbs 22:6 KJV. We see this happening within our older sons. They make us so proud, showing that they have faith in Jesus. They obey his voice when he speaks to their hearts. There are times just as with any of us they don’t obey the first time. I think it’s a human thing to doubt what you are feeling or hearing is truly God. Sometimes we feel the need to ask for more proof is it really in fact him. It’s the carnal side of us all. As we mature in our relationship with Jesus we still struggle from time to time with these carnal feelings. It’s so easy to doubt but to step out in faith is much harder.

 While we know that there are things that we do as humans that are counterproductive in our walk with God, we know that he is mighty and he loves, ready to forgive us.  For our children to see us in our Christian walk and know that we are not perfect, when they see us struggle but in the same turning to God asking him for forgiveness and wisdom. We believe we must be proactive in teaching our children about Jesus and to make God’s word and prayer a part of their everyday life. If we would leave our children to learn these things on their own the results would not be as we would hope. God’s word tells us in Proverbs Ch. 29: 15 KJV “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame”, we have to make God an intricate part of our lives, to make his living word and holy sprite to intertwine within our spirit.

 By making God’s word and daily prayer a part of our children’s lives we are faithful they will be wise in making decisions in their lives for the future as well as the present. “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” I Cor. 15:33 KJV. With a firm foundation of the bible, Jesus and the Holy Ghost, we believe that this is vital in guiding them through their lives.

God Bless,
Tammy

For Today...

For today I choose to smile. For today I choose to look beyond my stressors. For today I choose to not sweat the small stuff. For today I choose to see the lighter side of things. For today I choose to laugh when I feel like crying. For today I choose to give more hugs to my children. For today I choose to be a blessing to a stranger. For today I choose to not ponder on all that is wrong and see all that is right in my life. For today I choose to see things from another perspective. For today I choose to allow myself time to just be goofy with my daughter. For today I choose to allow God’s grace and glory shine in my life. For today I choose to find a place, kneel on my knees and tell Jesus of all my worries and sorrows. For today I choose to sing a song I’ve never sang before. For today I choose to walk away when someone chooses to hurt me and say a prayer for them. For today I choose love over anger. For today I choose to see the good in others. For today I choose to open my eyes to the beauty God has set before me. For today I choose to keep it cool. For today I choose to be the example to my daughter of a Godly woman, with God’s grace and love I can achieve this. For today I choose to stop and smell the roses of life. For today I choose to rethink my thinking. For today I choose to love more. For today I choose to give more. For today I choose to cry for a friend when they need me. For today I choose to be a better person. For today I choose happiness!

God Bless,
Tammy

I am now a HOMESCHOOLING MOMMA

photo source photobucket

I have been praying about this decision for over a year,but have felt the nudge to move forward with it for many years. But out of fear I doubted myself.

I love the school that I teach in and my daughter goes to. It's a faith built Apostolic one God school. But with that said since my nephew/son has moved in and I have been conducting summer school here at home. I have found that he is terribly behind in many areas.

The public school that he attended since pre-k has sadly pushed him along each year and each year he has become increasingly behind. Then they wondered why he was easily frustrated and restless. He was not catching on. I was very surprised when I found out they actually passed him to move onto the 3rd grade. When he can barely read at the first grade level,his math skills are very low and more. The good thing and I thank Jesus for this is that he is catching on. I am taking things very slow with him and he is responding.

He gets down on himself sometimes when he sees my daughter excel so quickly at her tasks. I just reassure him that she has had more one on one and private school education but that he will get better,he only needs to believe in himself and work hard. I know I'm going to.

I am so excited I feel like I have finally made the right decision. I have a peace in my heart that I have not had before. My husband is 100% backing me up and my oldest son even wants to help teach Spanish. I know there will be pumps in the road but as long as we keep Jesus as the center of our lives in all areas he will give us the strength and wisdom to continue on.

God Bless,

Tammy



The Prayer Closet

So many times in my life,when things get to heavy for me to carry. I go the Jesus,I cry out to my Heavenly father and he gives me peace.

There is so much stress in our lives. Taking care of our families and our homes,cooking nutritious meals for our family. So many times we take on all our duties and so much more from volunteering to help the needy,helping friends and family members,helping at our churches. Women have the need to care for others instilled in them from God and often times we feel the anguish others are going through because of this.

When going day to day in and the stresses of life get to heavy. I go off by myself so that I can be with Jesus,one on one time with my saviour. Sometimes I pray,sometimes I ready my bible and other times I just sit there feeling his presence and his love for me. When I return to my family or the job at hand I feel renewed and calm. I know I couldn't do what I do on a day to day basis with  Jesus helping me. When I feel weak he is there to strengthen me.

Do you have a prayer closet or a special place you go to be alone with Jesus?

The Happy Homemaker


photo provided by photbucket

I am linked up at: Women Living Well Blog

Our recent Bible study

This week we have been doing an extensive study on what God's word says about dating. This has been a very interesting study and my sons have had many questions. When we talk about dating as Christians,we are not talking about the kind of "dating" that the world promotes. What we are talking about is more like courting than dating. It is in the bible to do this not to play the feild until one sticks. Not to go from one boy/girl to another. To get involved with someone to early and/or moving into intimate phases of a relationship that should be kept for marriage while unmarried or even worse a teenager.

God tells us in his word to pray and find a wife/husband. Not to maybe sometimes pray when the mood hits me or maybe not pray at all or promise to pray and wait for God's choice for you but then run with your flesh as soon as someone comes along that tickles your fancy. The earliest example that the bible gives us on courting is in Genesis 2:18 It is not good that the man should be alone;I will make a helpmeet for him. The Lord didn't tell Adam hey go play the feild and be full of lust of the flesh and act on it. He made him a helpmeet from Adam's own rib. She was perfect for Adam because Eve was chosen by God for Adam. This is still true today,how do I know. Well first off  the bible tell us God is the same yesterday today and forever. So if he has not changed why would you think that his views on the proper way to find your future husband/wife would change. Why do you think he is going to turn his head and not look while you do things that you know you should not do as Christian young men/women.Young people today are making horriable mistakes by giving of themselves to whomever they feel an attraction to for the moment. How sad is it that our sons and daughter believe this is just how they are suppose to do things. When Jesus himself has made someone just for them and when they don't trust in him to bring he/she into their lives when the time is right,well why should he reward the weak in faith with a prize of the RIGHT man/woman.

God made marraige to protect us. God made marriage to keep us from fornication with the opposite sex. Hebrews 13:4 Marriage is honorable in all,and the bed undefiled:but whoremonger and adulterers God will judge. In other words going from boy/girl to boy/girl and doing things you know is meant for marriage is a sin we all know it. But the world wants our young people and parents to believe this is normal. Noone courts anymore dating is the norm. How is someone suppose to find a wife/husband if they don't date around? How about praying?! God has a mate for our sons and daughters if only they show obediance to him and us (the parents) and be faithful. Keep themselves pure for their future husband/wife.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the worlds way of finding a husbadn/wife is not working it's a very broken system. Based on feelings and attractions that are led by the flesh not the spirit are leading our young people into very dark places. Divorce rates in America are rediculous. According to divorce rate.org the first marriage that ends in divorce in America in 2010 is 41%,wow and we are only 4 months into the year. But if a second marriage is in the work the rate goes up to 60% and a thirld 73%. I think we can see it's not working. Wanting to have a husband/wife is natural but going with the world and following your flesh is very much the wrong way to do it in my honest opinion,and from what I read daily and see on the news I think I'm right for believing this way.

There is a way to insure you are going to have the right person the first time. Pray,parents pray for your son/daughter to, for their future husband/wife. Children listen to the widom of your parents. Jesus tells us he is the way the truth and the light,why on Earth do you think he would ever steer us wrong. Have faith he will reward you with a happy lasting marriage.

The Happy Homemaker

Wednesday at our house

What a wonderful sunny morning,God has given us in NCWV. I have hung out some laundry and I'm loving it. Yesterday I hung some jeans on the first line,I knew I was counting my days when the line retired. Yesterday evening while I was cooking dinner,the line gave way and the jeans came tumbling down. At least they were all dry before it fell. LOL

I am still getting use to my husbands night schedule. Having him home for almost a year and then poof back to work takes some adjusting to say the least.

What I wanted to talk about today is parenting.

I am a strict mom,we have rules in our home and we expect the kids to follow them. When they don't they get punished. It's that simple. In the world there are laws that we all must follow if we don't we get punished. So why teach our children from a young age that the Rules,don't reply to them,they can do what ever they choose to do and they will not be punished for it. This type of thinking results in carelessness and often times trouble with the law later on in life. When your trying to raise good christian men and young lady then rules go with it. Teachings on God's ways and being good parents go hand in hand. God doesn't want us to let our kids have a freeforall without any consequences,that's not how life is.

When you set rules for you kids and teach them God's ways and then the devil brings someone into their lives that try to take them from the path you have them on. If you have done all you can do and have open communication with your child he/she will Lord willing come to you and talk with you about the problems he/she is having. And together you can talk and pray about it. This would be a great time to talk to your son/daughter about God's plan for their life. About the love of God and how much he desires only the best for him/her.

Parenting is hard work,it takes a lot of patience,love and understanding. As our children grow we take on new phases in their lives. Until finally we are parents that have raised them to be upstanding Christian men/women in the community and we take on the realm of friend. We never stop worrying as moms and probably as dads to but if we know they are on the right path and have God on their side our worry is lessened.

Happy Homemaking

What we learned while being laid off

When my husband was laid off from his job last April,when I first found out this was going to happen. I had a panic session,I went out onto our deck and prayed and cried out to God,asking him to not let this happen to us. I was so afraid of what would happen to our family. But within a couple of weeks he was laid off.

The first thing we did was get our budget out and start cutting back. We cut cable,phone,heating bill and electricity. The bills took a little time but cutting the cable bill and phone took a phone call. We got our expenses down as low as we could.

We had only one problem. We were still in debt! We had  a car payment (stupid debt) and credit cards (very stupid debt). That's where my panic came in.

We signed up for help that we needed only. We worked and pushed through the rest. We had a rough time and had some help from our church to get us through.But we made it.

We stayed faithful to the Lord. I knew he had a plan for us and I kept telling anyone and everyone I could that it was all going to work out because we are in God's hands and he was going to take care of us. And oh how he did.

We managed to keep our utilities low and I am still going to do this even though he is working now. We paid off 2 of our credit cards and made big payments to the other 2 and  on our car loan. We are now ahead on the car loan and taking big chunks out of our remaining 2 credit cards.

You know God's not going to take you through something like this without teaching you a valuable lesson. Maybe it's something you knew already but was just to stubborn to acknowledge it or do what needed to be done to put it to work.

We learned it is vitally important to live below your means. It's not demeaning to live this way,in fact it's refreshing. Give your tithes to the Lord and remain faithful to him. And it's so  important to save,you must save a portion of your income no matter what. Also up there as equally important is to get out and stay out of debt. We are working our way out of debt and are going to try to not accummulate any more stupid debt. The only debt we will aquire is a house. But that is more of an investment rather than just debt. We can do things to increase it's value making it an investment. With credit card debt and auto loans all that is done is paying and paying and paying some more,nothing you can do with this debt can make it into an investment. Its just wise to stear away from that kind of debt all together if at all possible.

We have a new understanding for money and debt and know how God intended for us to live. Instead of how we ended up living. It's freeing to give up what you really don't need,to imbrace the freedom of saving,paying of debt (dreaming of the day when it's all paid off) investing in your future and living below your means. I am loving our new life,I no longer feel the pressure of needing to get the best of things,I look at what I have now and think,this will do until we can SAVE up the money to get something else. We are now looking at buying used over buyng new. Good quality used furniture and things like that can last a very long time and cost much less than buying new. Our vehicles we are aiming to save for future cars not going out and getting into debt for one.

We are wiser and more equipt that before and we have the Lord to thank for teaching us the lessons that we would have never learned had my husband not been laid off. Sometimes we just don't understand the Lords plan for our lives but once he lays it out for you and your start taking the faith walk toward him he will bless your life like you would never be able to imagine. Give to God and he will give to you!

Happy Homemaking

Merry Christmas Everyone

Jesus is the reason for the season!

1And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. 2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. 6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. 8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. 15And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. 16And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. 18And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. 20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. 21And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. 22And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;

Happy Homemaking

Stop complain,God is in control

Have you ever prayed for something and then when God answers your prayers you complain about it because it's not what you wanted? How many times have we been complacent with the Lord because we don't feel like our prayers are being heard? How many times have we gotten upset because we wanted a different outcome from a prayer than what we got?

 God answers your prayers 1. in his time,not ours and 2. to his will,he has a plan for all of his children. When you pray for something maybe God has bigger better plans for you and to answer your pray the way that you would like to see him answer it at that time,would interfer with his greater plans for you.


So many times we act like spoiled rotten children. We rant and kick around when we don't get out way. So what if you didn't get that promotion at work or raise.  What if the loan didn't go through for that bigger home?


Maybe the Lord has a better job just around the corner for you and if you would have gotten what you wanted from the last job you wouldn't go where he wants you to be. And even though the Lord didn't give you the home you wanted maybe he has a better one for you,that will fit your budget much better. We so often think we can just do better on our own and time and time again we are shown that we need Jesus in our lives. To guide us and protect us.


Try this little exercise with me......


1.pray daily not just for the things of your heart but for others. Talk with Jesus he's our father and our friend.


2. this is going to be a tough one for most of us. Practice patience. Just because you don't get what you want when you want it doesn't mean that the Lord doesn't want to bless you in his time.


3. Give God the Glory no matter what happens in your life. Praise him through the good and the bad.


4. Think of others before thinking of yourself,pray for your neighbor and show kindness to others


5. Even when things don't work out the way you had hoped trust that God is in control and soon his plan will reveal itself to you.


It's only 5 little things to practice but these 5 little things but if we all practiced them on a daily basis,just think of how we would benefit. And our relationship with Jesus would be so much closer.

Happy Homemaking