I LOVE CHRISTMAS !!! I love to decorate, drink hot cocoa, watch Christmas movies, and spend time with the family; all while picking out Christmas gifts for loved ones and planning our Christmas Day meal. The hustle and bustle of a hectic schedule for a few weeks doesn’t bother me. As I’ve gotten older, I realize that all my frenzied juggling is done with an effort to spend time with everyone. More importantly, I love Christmas because it’s a season of reflection. After Christ’s birth, Scripture tells us, ‘Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart (Luke 2:19).’ We too, must use this season to reflect upon…
Encouragement
Need a few words of encouragement? You are not alone. Give yourself grace in this season, and trust God for guidance. Here are some cloudy situations I've come across lately.
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What Are We REALLY Thankful for THIS Thanksgiving?
Before the hustle and bustle of all our family events ensue, it’s important to sit back and think a minute; What are we REALLY thankful for THIS Thanksgiving? God, food, family, and friends? That’s my first response, but what else? A member of my Bible Study class told us about a friend of hers who kept a gratitude journal. So far, the journal contained a list of 1,000 things she was grateful for with NO duplications! A wave of shame crashed upon me! I am super grateful for everything, but I don’t take a lot of time to acknowledge all the small things. I praise the Lord multiple times throughout…
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I’m Blessed because I’m Broken
It’s difficult to say, “I’m blessed because I’m broken,” considering the heartache it took to say it. People generally do not like broken things. We put damaged products back on the shelf in exchange for something with sturdier packaging. We shy away from broken furniture and flee quickly at the thought of a messy rehab. ‘Things’ don’t seem to have the same appeal or value when they don’t function properly. Think about it. While it’s possible to glue a shattered piece of antique pottery back together, the crumbled masterpiece can’t regain its value in the marketplace. We all agree that those little material things don’t matter much, but what happens…
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Encourage Yourself When You become Overwhelmed
Are you having trouble thinking of ways to encourage yourself when you become overwhelmed? I know I am! It’s difficult to stay afloat when the waves of life are crashing down upon us. Sometimes our work life interferes with our home life which becomes intertwined with family time or social plans. Balancing multiple schedules at once gets extremely overwhelming extremely fast! We’ve got to figure out how to keep our heads above the water. Take a look at these four easy-breezy ways to encourage yourself when you become overwhelmed. Remind yourself to slow down and take a deep breath ‘Slow down and take a deep breath’ How many times have…
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My Work From Home Mom Routine is a Total Failure!
Stay at home and work from home moms have a lot to juggle. It’s important to have an efficient routine, and it takes daily encouragement to keep it going. There are many ways to lay everything out using planners, lists, or timers. We all have a unique routine to get us through the day. I fail every single day. Instead of sharing a nice, neat post about how to keep it all together, I’m going to let you in on how my work from home mom routine is a total failure! I’m a Failure Due to Daily Interruptions One thing is for sure, I am consistent with my morning coffee…
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Here’s Why I Make Up My Bed Every Day
Life is hectic, and each moment of my day is already filled with things to do, so why do I bother making up my bed? Seems like there is always too much to do with too little time, so dedicating a few more minutes to make up a bed should be an unnecessary waste of time. Not for me. “Go make up your bed'” It’s safe to say I shout these cringe-worthy words an average of twenty times each morning before school! The kiddos make countless complaints about the ridiculous number of pillows on their bed, adding that the blankets are too difficult to fold. It has been brought to…
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Three Dangers of Being a People Pleaser
The art of being a people pleaser sounds friendly, but there there are many dangers involved !!! People pleasing becomes harmful when we allow it to control us. It causes our personality to change in an unhealthy manner as we hide our feelings and change our natural behavior with little white lies. There is a huge difference between being kind and allowing the feeling to please people to control you. People pleasing leads to poor mental health By constantly trying to please others, we hold our true feelings back when they say something that hurts or causes anger. Perhaps we are put in social settings we aren’t comfortable in and…
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God’s Love is in the Air!
Let all that you do be done in love’ 1 Corinthians 16:14 The thought of Valentine’s Day has the tendency to warm our hearts on cold winter days as we cuddle next to the fire with a book and a hot cup of cocoa. There’s no better time to think about the warmth of God’s love and the numerous ways we put it to action at home, at church and all over the world! In Action at Home God’s love is in action when we interact with our circle of friends, our family and pretty much anyone we come into contact with on a daily basis! We listen to our…
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3 Reasons I don’t Make New Year’s Resolutions
I’m jealous of people who stick to their guns and maintain their New Year’s Resolutions for a whopping 365 days! I stopped wasting my time dreaming up resolutions because they are usually unrealistic, completely dreadful and destined for failure. Check out these three perfectly good reasons I chose NOT to make New Year’s resolutions! My New Year’s Resolutions Were Unrealistic First of all, I always set extremely unrealistic goals for the new year. Working out every day is a perfect example. I can make it to the gym MOST days, but not EVERY day due to my Stay at Home Mom Routine and Work from Home Schedule. Others may be…
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Thanksgiving Blessings 2021
Just a quick note to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. The past decade has been pretty tough for me personally. For a while there, holidays felt almost unbearable and I dreaded them because I wasn’t able to see the people I wanted to see or be where I thought I needed to be. When I think back to all I have lost or failed to accomplish, I only see the blessing of ever having any ‘one’ or any ‘thing’ meaningful in my life to begin with. Let’s all make sure we are praising God for all the re-routes He’s placed on this roadway of life. He certainly knows how…
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The cost of surrendering your WHOLE heart to the Lord
As a stay at home Momma, I consistently find myself addressing the cost of absolutely everything. Groceries, vacations, entertainment, utilities; the list goes on and on. Everything MUST balance in the family budget or the answer is no! I really hate the answer no because I’m a shopaholic…….. with an intense shoe addiction. When I thought about surrendering my heart to the Lord, I never thought it would actually cost me anything. My egotistical, high and mighty self even THOUGHT I surrendered my whole heart to God years ago. Then a six year old little boy, a gallon of paint and a rambunctious German Shepherd taught me otherwise. That’s a…
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How I learned to pour from an empty cup
Lately, I feel like I’m pouring from an empty cup. You’ve been there. Whether its your job, your home life or everything else happening around you, sometimes it feels like you simply have nothing left to give. This is when we are most vulnerable. It’s when the devil creeps in, sits on our shoulder and uses our weakness to whisper words of negativity in our ear. He tells us that we are not good enough, strong enough and certainly not walking faithfully in our relationship with God. He tells us our mistakes are never ending and there is no way to start over. More importantly, he convinces us that we…
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3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Feel Like You Aren’t Good Enough !
There is no reason for you to feel like you are not good enough when things aren’t going your way. You can’t always be in control of every outcome and there is no reason for you to put yourself down. Some days we just don’t feel good enough for much of anything. It hurts when we struggle with feelings that we are not sufficient, we are incompetent or just generally worthless. This past year has certainly left me feeling a bit low on the totem pole. I know you are with me. We all have experienced a not so successful review at work or a failed personal project. Every now…
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Starving for consistency in my daily schedule !
My life has become so inconsistent here lately. I blame it on the pandemic, the toilet paper shortage and all those the random remote school learning days. Just when I feel like I have the week planned out down to the very minute, everything blows up in my face! It cramps my style and makes me extremely cranky! EEEK!! I need consistency! I miss being able to adhere to my simple little daily schedule. I like to make plans and stick to them. I like to make a schedule and adhere to it. I’m probably annoying to most people for that reason but it’s just the way I’m made. Today…
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Don’t let the devil steal your happy day when you wake up on the RIGHT side of the bed!
The devil is a sneaky snake! Simple as that! He takes much joy in stealing your happiness when you wake up on the RIGHT side of the bed! Especially when you are taking steps to mature in your relationship with Christ. Every single time I turn a new leaf and grow more mature in my walk , mischief strikes!!!! I used to let little things destroy my good days until I began to understand it was the devil trying to steal my happiness. Now, I fight !! Here’s how the devil steals your happiness when you wake up on the right side of the bed! Your first sip of coffee…
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Black Friday Attitude Check
Odd title, right? Shouldn’t I be telling you what store to head to or which Amazon link to click for the best deal of the season? Shouldn’t I tell you about phenomenal discount codes or perhaps share my secret ‘Mommy Ninja’ moves that enable you to hold coffee and phone in one hand while you sift through cashmere sweaters and push a baby stroller with the other? Well, that would be an awesome idea and I’ll definitely save that info for another year. Today, lets focus on getting our attitudes in the right place before stepping foot into the shopping arena. Black Friday has an odd effect on human nature.…
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Love this simple way to improve your prayer life
Prayer is the most essential component to our relationship with the Almighty. Through Jesus we are allowed the opportunity to speak directly to God himself. Prayer is our life line for forgiveness, hope, mercy and grace. God made prayer extremely simple for us. It can be done anywhere, anytime with anyone yet we allow ourselves to become distracted with this silly world and sometimes forget to set aside time to pray. Over in Matthew, Christ calls out the church leaders as he strategically tends to do. He tells them they are like the whitewashed tombs scattered across the countryside. They appear beautiful when really they are nothing more than a…
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Lemons to Lemonade
The 2020 pandemic has all of us desperately trying to figure out how to turn lemons into lemonade. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling completely bewildered, lost, and extremely confused. Okay, well most of you know I’m like that normally but I’m finding my absentmindedness a bit more unmanageable these days. No one seems to really know exactly what to do and its causing frustration, fear, stress and depression for most of us. Well, Chin up everyone! Let’s turn life’s lemons into lemonade…….. Really? I understand the concept of this particular proverbial phrase yet it has a different meaning to me. Lemonade is delicious. It’s sweet, refreshing, and…
