Going from Afraid to Courageous - Proverbs 31 OBS Blog Hop

So this week, I am starting a new journey.  This week, I have started the latest Proverbs 31 Ministries Online Bible Study for Limitless Life by Derwin Gray.  It is such an awesome book.  And this week, I am living the idea of going from afraid to courageous.  We are a military family who moved to our current location almost two years ago.  Prior to that we lived in a house that we owned outright.  We moved in August and rented our prior home out that December.  We thought the tenants were actually going to purchase the home from us.  Mind you we own it outright.

Fast forward to approximately April 21st of this year and we received notification they were not buying the house and in fact were planning on moving out on the 8th of May. The rent from this prior house is what helps keep us afloat from month to month.  We moved from a much cheaper area to a much much much more expensive area.  The laws of supply and demand are definitely at work here.  There are gas workers and college students who take up the majority of properties - thus leaving a limited supply for traditional families.  Add in my three sons, one daughter and my mother and that limits us even more.  So we ended up in a house that was at the absolute top of our tolerance level for rent.  So losing that money was enough to petrify me.

Then today we find out other information that even adds more to the fear level this momma has.  After all, food and utility bills are a necessity of life!  Homeschooling our children means four people are around the house constantly wanting food.  Plus others come to hang out here and that adds to the number of people eating.  So what is a mother to do but take to her knees in prayer and ask all the prayer warriors she knows to pray for our situation.  All of a sudden I go from fear to courageous.  I know that God is in control and His will is perfect.  I may not understand the reasons for everything, but I know God has a plan and those plans are for good.  As is written in Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 29:11-13
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:10-14 



I know I can be courageous with God!

3 Simple Steps - Proverbs 31 Online Bible Studies Living So That by Wendy Blight Blog Hop

3 Simple Steps I take to combat the flesh and feed the Spirit - after all Jesus did not just feed His flesh when He was in the desert for 40 days.  He told Satan that Man can not live by bread along and this is true.  The first thing I do is try to spend time in my Bible.  I have an Ipad and I absolutely adore the YouVersion Bible app.  It allows me to choose from an incredible amount of Bible study plans that fit my needs and interests.  Then it gives me the option to send myself reminders at a specific time of day to ensure I complete my reading plans. It also gives me the chance to catch up on my plan if I get behind.  I find this invaluable.  Also, if I find a plan is not what I thought it was I can stop the plan.  Also, I can share my progress on Twitter and Facebook - which allows me to share with my friends what I am reading.

Second, I try to spend time daily in prayer - and more than twice a day.  As I am going about my daily routine, I often find something or someone on my mind that I feel drawn to pray for and I don't worry about where I am at the time.  Also once a week, I try to attend our Salvation Army Corps' weekly prayer meeting along with my husband.  Now I have to admit sometimes life gets in the way!  Also, we try to have prayer with our family.

Finally, I spend as much time with like minded believers.  God's Word tells us this is a necessity.  We have to be around His people.  Almost every day of the week, we are involved in some activity(activities) at our Salvation Army Corps which is our church.  We reach out and try to become involved.  My husband and I both feel we have a calling from God to ministry work.  So we seek out and join in various activities - including what we call our League of Mercy - which involved visiting two local nursing homes/assisted living facilities once a month and helping with our soup kitchen once a month.

The biggest blessing I get from this is spending time with our family.  We homeschool our children, so most of the activities we do together. 

These are just three of the things I try to do to feed the Spirit.  God calls us to deepen our walk with Him.  We need to reach out in what ever ways He leads to accomplish this.  When we reach out to Him, He reaches back to us.  As we just celebrated Easter and the Resurrection, it reminds me of Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

A small update

Here is a small update on our family.  Life has been really busy around our house since the beginning of February.  In February, Dennis, Jacob and I attended the Candidates Seminar weekend for the Salvation Army in New York.  That Friday night, we attended services at the temple in Manhattan.  It was an incredible evening.  It is amazing to see what God is doing in our oldest son's life.

Then in March, Dennis, Jacob and I attended the Soldiers Retreat for the Salvation Army at Camp Ladore.  Again, it was an incredible weekend.  Joseph was supposed to come up for the day on Saturday with some of our other Youth, but it didn't happen unfortunately.

Then on the last Saturday of March, Dennis, me, and a couple of other adults from our corps took some of our youth to a Divisional Youth Music festival on the outskirts of Philadelphia.  It was a really long day because we got up at 4:00 AM and didn't get back until 9:30 at night.  But it was incredible to see the talent in our division.  It also was great to get to see our Training College cadets at work that day.  They did a devotional time that was incredible.

Then at the beginning of this month, we took a group of youth (including all four of our children) to our Divisional Youth Council.  It was also an incredible time of worship, praise,  and decisions being made for Christ.  Our oldest son joined Dennis and I onstage during the call to officership.  What was incredible about this was our Corps officer along with those in attendance joined us on stage (the same went for all those who responded to the call from other corps) and there was a time of prayer for us.  It was truly incredible.

Now we are winding down the school year and working toward cleaning up and decluttering our home.  For one never knows when we might get our next orders to move.  We have some children who are experiencing growing pains and we have others who are growing incredible amounts but not having the pains.

Made to Crave - Intentional Sacrifices

So here we are at the last blog hop for the Proverbs 31 Ministries Online Bible Study for Made to Crave.  This week I want to talk about making good choices or in other words "Intentional Sacrifices".  Roughly 17 years ago, my husband and I made a decision that involved intentional sacrifices.  My husband joined the Army Reserves as a reservist.  In 2004, we made another decision that involved intentional sacrifices when we decided it was time to go into the military full-time as an Active Duty Army Reservists.  We knew this might involve sacrifices on our part of moving from our friends and family. For our first duty station, however, we were blessed to stay right where we were.

During this time, we changed from sending our children to public school to homeschooling.  It has been a tremendous blessing to our family through the years.  It has caused us to stretch and grow as a family.  

Then in 2008, we received orders that moved us from Eastern North Carolina to Western Pennsylvania.  We stayed there until 2012, when we received orders to move to Central Pennsylvania.  So we moved and received blessings from the move.  

Just like these major life changes, I have to seek God in my food choices as well.  I can make the intentional sacrifice of eating everything I see to eating what is good for me in God's eyes.  When I choose to eat right and exercise, I feel better and accomplish more.  It is a matter of not looking at things as being deprived of some things, but instead being excited and focused on all the good things I can have.  

I am blessed to truly like most vegetables and to enjoy salads and water.  However, I have to say, I also enjoy chocolate and other types of sweets.  I can intentionally sacrifice the junk for what is good and the physical benefits I achieve from it.  God is good and He provides for our every need - if we just seek after His will and purpose.

#MadetoCrave - Emotional Triggers

So we are in week 5 of our Proverbs 31 Ministries Online Bible Studies, and here we go with another blog hop.  I know I am made for more, but boy do my emotions get in my way!  If I am celebrating something, I want a treat!  If I am sad, I want the comfort of food and crave items I should not have.  I eat for tons of emotional reasons, and it is wrong.  

I need to go to God when I have those cravings.  I need to seek after His Word and pray to Him for guidance, direction and strength.  God promises He will never give us more than we can handle.  However, there is nothing in that promise that states we can do it alone.  We need to rely on God's strength and guidance to reach the other side.  When I spend time in prayer and in God's Word, things go smoother in my life.  When I try to rely only on myself, I get chaos.

Of course, it also helps when my husband and I are on the same page and praying for and reaching for the same goals that God wants for us.  I know that God only wants the best for us.  But sometimes, we need to stretch and grow, which causes me to focus on emotional eating.  But when I chose to put my trust, hope and faith in God, I avoid temptation and chose to dive into God's Word, prayer or spending time exercising.  After all, I am#madetocrave God!

Wow! What a couple of weeks

Wow what a couple of weeks we have had as far as weather has been concerned.  Two weeks ago when we went to New York, there was snow on Sunday the 9th when we came home.  The roads were something else.  Then on the 13th, we had roughly 10 inches of snow - so we had no activities at church that evening.  Then Saturday the 15th, we had an additional 3.5 inches.  Sunday we ended getting up some more snow.  Then yesterday morning, we got more snow - so no activities.  This morning, we had some snow, sleet, and freezing rain - so no school equals no activities this evening.  

At least we are not supposed to have snow for a couple of days.  However, tomorrow night into Friday we are supposed to warm up slightly, which could result in some flooding along with some ice jams possibly.  So life ought to be interesting around here.

In the meantime, school continues for my children because we homeschool.  Other than adjustments to our activities in the evening, the weather has not been a problem with our schooling.  My youngest son asked me today if we could have a snow day since the public schools were off.

#peace Blog Hop Post for Week 3 of Made to Crave

Peace....oh how I love that word and long for it.  We are in week 3 of Proverbs 31 Online Bible Studies for the book "Made to Crave" by Lysa Terkeurst.   One of the definitions of the word peace according to the Merriam Webster dictionary is, "a state of tranquility or quiet" and I like that definition.  Tranquility brings to mind quiet times with no fuss, muss or bother.  It brings to mind a sense of satisfaction and that all is right in the world (or at least my part of it).  God will give us that sense of contentment and tranquility, if we will just ask Him for it.  Of course, we also have to accept His gift.


Now peace is not necessarily is not always something I associate with my weight or how I look.  Growing up, I never had a problem with my weight.  I even made it through college without any real problems.  Then I got married...dom dom dommmm (cue the loud creepy music)...and within 3 years had a weight problem.  I also wound up with a diagnosis of Chronic High Blood pressure...but with my family history of it, that was probably eventually going to happen anyhow.  

Well I married into a wonderful family, so the ladies of the family went to Weight Watchers together.  We ate together, weighed together, and supported one another.  I also had the support of my husband.  Lo and behold within a year, I was within 10 pounds of my goal weight.  I had peace...especially when I was told I could come off my blood pressure medicine and a month later (on October 31 no less) found out we were expecting our first child.  I was blessed with a fairly easy pregnancy...although within a few months, I had to go back on the blood pressure medicine.  After I delivered my son, I lost all but 10 pounds of what I gained.  For the next several years, I repeated the yo-yo effect of losing weight, getting pregnant and then trying to lose that weight.  Now 11 years after having our last daughter, I am nowhere near where I want to be weight wise, but I am working towards it with the support of my family, especially my husband.  I am also tremendously blessed with peace.  I don't feel judged or condemned by those closest to me....and especially my Heavenly Father.  

I won't say it is always easy and I won't say it is perfect all the time.  I want to lose the weight - not to try to measure up to what someone else here on Earth wants me to be, but because I know that God has made me for so much more.  I love my Proverbs Online Bible Study Sisters (and especially my Facebook Small Group).  We can support each other virtually across the miles.  I know I am one of over 43,000 women across the world who struggles with something, but recognizes that God truly has made me for so much more!