Ever tried to throw yourself a little pity party? Well, I tried to throw myself one today. I even tried shedding some tears before the Holy Spirit came and smacked me upside the head and told me to get over myself. (Not really but you know what I mean) I was upset because my husband was going to be working extra again. This would put him at the fire station three nights in a row. As I started complaining and becoming grouchy I realized something…

This is what I asked for!

My husband and I both wanted me home with our children and were willing to make any sacrifices to slowly be able to make that happen. God was so faithful and answered our earnest prayer, yet here I am pouting.

Once the light bulb went off I immediately stated to praise God for the blessing of my husband having work. Shame on me for even starting to blow up the balloons for my pity party!

This got me thinking of all the times I have been ungrateful for the gifts and blessings God has given me.

I think we all do this a lot more than we want to admit to. We pray for answers yet sulk in our misery not wanting to praise God for where He has taken us.

We want me home with our children. God has helped us get there, but there are still sacrifices to be made on our part. We also want to pay off our mortgage in order to be 100% debt free. God has blessed us and provided us with all we need but it still takes hard work. So we praise Him and keep moving forward confidently. Expecting Him to guide us and help us every step of the way.

Join me in throwing pity parties out the door. Lets roll up our sleeves and get busy with all of the amazing opportunities and blessings God has placed before us.

My mission this week is to stop the complaining and give Him praise.

Well y’all…yesterday morning at church, Tim and I were CONVICTED! Our pastor preached on the story of Mary and Martha. This is a story I have heard many times and I always remind myself to slow down and focus on what is most important.

I can usually do this for maybe an hour, then life comes charging at me.

We have decided as a family to put aside all distractions for a while in order to be a “Mary,” and sit at Jesus’s feet. We wrote a long list of all our distractions and are throwing them out in order to listen to God to help us prioritize our life.

I will be taking a  little blogging break among many other things to clear my mind from all the junk I have allowed myself to take in and refill it with all the truth from Jesus.

I encourage you to also think of all the ways you are spending your time. Perhaps we all need a life detox to shift focus and perspective back to the Creator of it all.

He is waiting…

To the grown up bully, (the world)

You come in many different forms. You search through all areas of my life to intimidate me and make me feel less, so you can feel more. You are like high school on steroids always trying to be the first and last to talk. You question my kids, my parenting, the foods I eat, my right to home school, my right to vaccinate or not, my right to protect my children, my right to save my money, my right to have a larger family, and even my right to drive an older car. When we disagree you make sure Facebook is the first to hear. You love to pick fights over abortion, gay rights, vaccinations, and any other controversial subject under the moon, yet know little about the side you are fighting for. Instead of having adult conversation where two may disagree you want to raise your voice and call people uneducated idiots. Don’t dare let anyone make a mistake near you, you would throw the first stone…

I am here to say to you, grown up bully, I am not afraid of you. I may be short with a quiet, country voice but whatever agenda you have against me and everyone else you try to back in a corner is not going to work. We don’t have to be loud or obnoxious to get you to stop. We only have to quietly go about our business, God’s business. It drives you crazy when we don’t get back in your face. You loose your fight and are made to watch us as we pray to God to give us grace to lead a life less traveled.

The next time, grown up bully, you don’t agree with me how about doing your research, walk a mile in my shoes, look from a different perspective, or simply ask me “why.”

We all have convictions and reasons why we stand behind what we believe. Let’s stop bullying one another for thinking differently. Instead, let’s educate and converse. Share and exchange. Give and take.

As Christ followers we have the chance to point to God, let’s be sure we aren’t pointing toward ourselves while trying to do so.

Photo Courtesy of Antpkr/Freedigitalphotos

What if we put down the phone and had a conversation?

What if we wrote a letter instead of an email?

What if we could state our beliefs without backlash?

What if killing an unborn baby was considered murder in our court system?

What if labels on our food products didn’t contain ingredients that hurt us and kept us sick?

What if people stopped relying on the government for security?

What if we didn’t care how green our lawn was?

What if school was truly a place of education?

What if preachers preached the gospel instead of inspirational speeches?

What if video games didn’t exist?

What if my right to own a gun was just that…my right?

What if discrimination was based on character alone?

What if we only had what we could afford?

What if we stopped looking at what we don’t have and focused on what we do?

What if I could take my children basically anywhere without images of soft porn all around?

What if people dated with the intentions to marry?

What if we let kids have time free of activities?

What if people knew prayer worked?

What if we raised our own kids instead of letting someone else?

What if we took responsibility for ourselves?

What if the millions that went to athletes went to the hungry?

What if we taught little boys to be gentlemen?

What if we taught little girls to stop being “mean girls?”

What if a home was somewhere you lived not just where you slept?

What if the elderly were looked at as an expert on life?

What if children were looked at as our chance to look at the world differently?

What if day cares didn’t exist?

What if people understood the value of hard work and honesty instead of the degree?

What if we spent less time complaining for our cause and more time doing?

What if a debate was for education instead of someone having to be right?

What if a business could state their belief …and well…just state it. So what?

What if manners were taught before their ABC’s?

What if we loved even if we didn’t believe the same?

What if Christians really were the example?

What if judgment was left only to GOD?

What if we understood that if we have sex we may end up with a baby?

What if we could grasp that God sees all our sin as the same?

What if us churchgoers quit talking so much and started living it?

We were not made to walk on eggshells. Sometimes it takes some guts to say it how it is, not for our own glory, but to shift people’s focus. The truth is that none of the above questions should be debatable if we would quit listening to this illogical world and start using our brains as to what makes sense. The world can be so loud with their opinions and tactics to make you follow, but only the Holy Spirit can give that confidence to stand strong.

I’ll end with the chorus of a  corny old country song sung by Aaron Tippin, “You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything. You’ve got to be your own man not a puppet on a string. Never compromise what’s right and uphold your family name. You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.”

Tonight is the night I go back to work the first time after having my fourth baby boy. I am a nurse and work the night shift on a cardiac floor. Through many sacrifices in our family we have planned for me to only work 2-3 nights a month. I’m in love with my new schedule, but it doesn’t seem to slow down emotions running throughout my heart.

I hear voices all around saying…You should want to get away. This will be a nice break. You can make more money. It gets easier. They won’t even know your gone. You will be free. This is what everyone does. Don’t cry, this is your career.

The truth is…I HAVE cried today about leaving this sweet baby boy. I feel like a coward because this should be easy after 3 other babies I have had to leave. I should be thankful I don’t have to leave every morning. I don’t want to get away. I don’t want money more than memories. I am not free.

This is where my little rant begins… The guilt, the feeling of your heart being torn apart is there for a reason. God designed women this way. I am supposed to be with this baby physically to feed him and emotionally. Then you have the feminist in the background roaring… telling you to toughen up, get back out there, it will get easier. When it never truly gets easier we just slowly give in to the lies and accept it because that is what everyone else is doing.

Unfortunately, I can not stay home tonight and nurse my baby to sleep and be there in the middle of the night when he awakens to be rocked and soothed. Nevertheless, I will put a smile on my face and show my children how to put your best foot forward and do things you don’t always want to do. However, I refuse to be made to feel guilty for feelings of yearning for my family, of wanting to fix them supper, tuck them in to bed, and fix them breakfast the next morning. That is where my heart is, as it should be.

For all those mammas out there today working hard outside the home, don’t ever feel ashamed for leaving your heart at home. Don’t ever feel bad for dreaming of the day you can be with your children all day. Don’t ever feel bad for wanting to go without so they can have their momma. This was all apart of God’s design. Tell all those feminist who insist you will feel free once you walk out of your home that they are wrong. True freedom is following your calling no matter how crazy it seems.

I encourage any momma out there who is feeling that calling on your life to stay home with your babies to raise them and love on them, don’t feel ashamed and cry out to God! He will hear you and help you find a way to make it happen. It may not be easy, but whatever He has called you to He will equip you to do it.

We are slowly on this journey ourselves. We can all get there together. What are your thoughts on this subject? I know it can be a touchy one.

Have you ever had difficult moments in your life, but you feel bad to even call it a trial? In the midst of self-pity I am often reminded of how great my life is and how much worse off others are. My new name for the hiccups in life are… “Little storms.” It seems that my family and I have been having one stormy day right after the other. There are still lots of sunshine breaking through, but the threat of storms are always on the horizon.

My perspective of  storms have changed a little in the past few days. I have been praying for the new outlook and am slowly starting see it. Ya see, a storm arises from a lot of movement and shifting. At times we need a storm to get rid of excess pollen and mosquitoes. It does good for some things to get uprooted and blown around a bit. This is the same in all of the little struggles we face in this life. Amidst the storm is where God is. It means He is rearranging, shifting, and moving toward His ultimate purpose. What a blessing to be in the little storms of life to later have big impacts on the lives around us.

Without little storms things are stagnant, waters stand still, and leaves don’t blow. In life, we can get too complacent when things are still. Our thinking that we can do it all grows too tall and needs to be blown down.

Today I am thankful for the exhaustion, the mess, the stress, and all of the runny noses. This storm will soon pass, when I am too comfortable, another will come along and push me to Him once again:)

What storms are you going through right now? Can you see His hand through it all? IT IS THERE!

Photo courtesy of Dan/ Freedigitalphotos

I saw an article on Facebook recently from a man who had more than the average amount of children.  He was simply saying, “Why not have more?” He shared that our reasons for not having more children are so superficial compared to all the goodness and blessings that they bring.

In the comment section there was a women obviously very upset. She was going on and on about how this man was an idiot and was selfish. Her reasoning was due to the fact that all of his children were using up resources in our environment and contributing to more and more waste. Not to judge…but her profile picture did not look like she made her own clothes out of recycled material. She  looked like the typical American.

I will be the first to admit that I am in no way a tree hugger. I am however resourceful, I don’t like waste, and I love to stay frugal and save money.

This made me ponder over a few different issues. First of all, are their truly any couples out there who stop having children in order to save the planet? If there are, I have never heard of them. People stop for various reasons, but decreasing their family’s carbon footprint is typically not first.

Secondly, it got me thinking about how much more resourceful we have become as our family has grown larger. In fact, the majority of families with three or more children that I know are frugal minded, good to the environment, and use fewer resources than most families of four. (I am aware quite the opposite can be true. I am just making a generalization.)

Here is a small list of ways larger families are resourceful.

Larger families typically go on fewer vacations thus flying less. It’s not often you see a huge bunch of kids boarding an airplane going to a nice vacation.

Larger families typically have 1-2 vehicles and travel together. When they are out running errands they tend to do it all at once in the same day. Not necessarily to save the environment, but because it’s a pain to get kids in and out of the house multiple times.

They are more likely to grow their own food.

Larger families waste less food Ex) leftovers. There are more mouths to eat it.

Larger families reuse clothes, toys, furniture, shoes, etc..

I can’t help but think this all had to be apart of God’s natural design. To know that the more children you have the more resourceful you will be, mostly out of necessity.

Yes, that are some large families that are wasteful and smaller families that are resourceful. I’m just ranting about other people that are more concerned with the environment than human life. It just doesn’t make sense to focus our energies on population. Seems like an area to focus on would be divorce rates and how a family separating doubles everything from homes, vehicles, and waste. This isn’t spoken of by environmentalist.

I found an article from 10 years ago stating exactly what I assumed. Divorced households spent 46-56% more on electricity and water than married households. Compared to married households, the divorced households could have saved 73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water. This is an area worth working on.

I believe God’s commands are there for reasons to protect us and to ultimately give us more joy. Larger families CAN go green just as easily as smaller families. The important thing is to keep the families TOGETHER.  It is all about our contributions and  how we can impact each other not about the waste.

Anything to add to my list? Subscribe and share!

Sharing this with: The Prairie Homestead,  A Mama’s story, Raising Arrows, The Modest Mom, What Joy is Mine, Growing Home, Time Warp Wife, Thankful Homemaker, Mamal Diane, Teaching What is Good,  Mom’s the word, conerstone cofessions, A proverbs 31 wife, Some of the best things in life are mistakes, Let this mind be in you, A Wise Woman Builds her home, Deep Roots at Home, Graced Simplicity, Raising Homemakers, Women Living Well, Hope in Every Season, Jill’s Home remedies, Little Natural Cottage, Our simple country Life, Raising Mighty Arrows, The Purposeful Mom, Happy and Blessed Home, Homemaker by Choice, Your Thriving Family, My Joy Filled Life. New Life Steward, Hometead simple, Let this Mind Be in You,