He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Psalm 1:3 NIV
Faith walked in the door with her arms crossed, and I knew there was a problem. “How was the second day of first grade?” I asked. “Well, we can only have our water bottles at snack time,” Faith complained. “When I come in from outside, I’m so thirsty, and I wanted to use my water bottle, but the teacher told us we could only have them for snack. After playground, we are supposed to use the water fountain instead.”
I tried explaining to Faith that each teacher has their own set of rules concerning water bottles, and she would learn to deal with it. But the more I thought about it, the more I could see Faith’s point. She told me she wasn’t ...
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Written on
August 31, 2010 by
Gina in
Blog
"But Jesus said, "Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 9:14
When my daughter Grace was 4 1/2, I recorded a conversation we had about sin and heaven.
It's amazing how God can work on the hearts of little ones, and how God's teaching me even now to pause and rest, and catch Him working in these little moments... and in his little people!
This is the conversation that Grace had with me about sin.
Grace (4): "Sin is really bad."
Me: "Yes, it is."
Grace: "What's sin?"
Me: "Remember in the garden of Eden when Eve ate the apple she wasn't supposed to?"
Grace: "Yes."
Me: "That's sin. Sin is when you do something wrong. Like when you're mean to your brothers."
Grace: "Yes, that's sin." She thought for a moment, then, "What about doing what I'm supposed to?"
Me: "Now that's ...
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This summer, my husband, kids and I attended our annual family reunion on my husband's mom's side of the family. My husband's grandparents gather us there together every year. Each year, we play a game to help us understand and remember Grandpa and Grandma's background and the decisions they made to get them where they are today. Many of those decisions included Grandpa's proposal to Grandma (despite the fact that she was engaged to someone else), the cars they bought, and what led them to sell the dairy farm they owned for many years. (Many more family secrets that I shall not divulge :))
One of the things that struck me this year is that we all were sitting there in that room because of their choices. There were about 15 of us gathered there, all because of the choices that Grandma and Grandpa made throughout their ...
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We are so very excited to have another grandson on the way. I have been teased many times for having been blessed with excessive amounts of the "mom" gene. I may be slightly little people addicted. Maybe it is a blessing that we struggled with secondary infertility or our home may have looked like the shoe in which that little old lady lived! LOL
This is a first baby for our firstborn. She is experiencing firsthand the miracle of Psalm 139:
You made my whole being; you formed me in my mother's body.
I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way.
What you have done is wonderful. I know this very well.
You saw my bones being formed as I took shape in my mother's body.
When I was put together there...,
It's funny how often we sometimes take for granted the workings of our bodies, that is of course until something stops working, hurts, ...
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We recently made a trip to the town I grew up in to visit a friend at a location I vaguely remembered. We moved away from there when I was 15, so I'd never driven around there myself.
We figured the Google Maps directions Hubs wrote out and our recently-handed-down Garmin, combined with my generally good sense of direction and vague recollections of the area, should suffice to get us there.
Our particular Garmin model doesn’t tell which street to turn on, just “in point 2 miles, turn right.”... then, “Turn right.” (Of course, this command often comes just after it's too late to actually make that turn.)
And the map on it doesn’t give a good overview, so I find it hard to really trust it. (Ok, I may have control issues too, but that's another post!)
I ...
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Written on
August 14, 2010 by
Amy in
Blog
Ever heard the phrase, “a friend in need is a friend indeed”? Some believe this phrase means that someone who needs help or wants something from you will become friends with you in order to obtain it. However, when you research this phrase you will find in the 3rd century BC, Quintus Ennius wrote ‘Amicu certus in re incerta cernitur’ which translated from Latin means ‘a sure friend is known when in difficulty’. The origin of the phrase can also be traced back to 1489, in Caxton’s Sonnes of Aymon: ‘It is said that at the need, a friend is known.’ In other words, someone who helps you when you are in need is a true friend.
Sometimes we don’t realize just how much we need our friends. We think we can do things on our own without anyone’s help – including God’s. We set out strong only to be ...
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A few years back I was in direct sales and had the opportunity to make cold calls, which means calling people you barely know and asking them to have a party in their house to help pay your bills. This, of course, was not my favorite part of my job and I realized quickly that I needed a new perspective on what I was doing.
One of the things that the leadership of the direct sales company I worked for told me (being experts in the word no) is that when you see and hear the word no, it is really a step closer to a yes. They even passed out a sheet that had 100 no's on it. Every time you got a no when making a cold call you were supposed to cross off a no . . . yes you are now one step closer to a yes. ...
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The look on his face said it all. “But-,” he started. My son couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth.
“You heard me,” I told him, “turn the television off.” His steps were slow and methodical. He turned again to look at my eyes before he hit the off button, just to make sure he heard correctly.
After turning off the TV, he stood frozen looking completely baffled. “I haven’t even watched a single show today. Not one!"
He continued, “My room is clean. My bed is made. My teeth are brushed.”
My child felt it was his right to watch television – like he could turn in ration tickets for his favorite shows.
He confused privilege with entitlement.
It’s amazing how much I do the same. Sometimes I mistakenly think if I complete everything on a spiritual checklist, I ...
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Genny Heikka
