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Car Conversations

Car Conversations

by | Aug 20, 2023 | Julia, One Blessed Momma

I love driving in the car with my littles. You never know what you are going to hear in the back seats. Recently, while we were driving my one daughter spotted a “rainbow cloud” as she called it. It was a beautiful cloud with a bit of rainbow shining through.

We started talking about the types of clouds they were, how rainbows are created, and who created them. Then we thanked God for his beautiful and intricate creations. The details he puts in to the creation and how thankful we are he put special details in to us personally.

These conversations help remind us to look up and see the bigger picture. To remind us how little we are and how purposeful we are in his creation. May your next car ride encourage you to look up and see a bigger picture.

Below, I have listed the names of clouds and how rainbows are created to help you keep the car conversations going and give a way you can consistently turn the conversation back to God and his creation.

Clouds

Four Main Clouds to know are:

Cumulus– puffy, flat bottoms, low in the sky

Cumulonimbus– thunderstorm clouds, look like mountains of very tall cumulus clouds

Stratus– wide blankets of gray, low lying clouds

Cirrus – white feathery, whispy, highest

 

Rainbows

How a rainbow forms:

Rainbows are an arc of colors that you see in the sky when it is raining or just rained.

You see the rainbow when the sun shines through the millions of water droplets.

Colors of the rainbow are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo & Violet.

ROY G. BIV 

Conversations

After sharing knowledge of the world around them, continue sharing with them how much detail God placed in to his creations.

Not only the world but specifically in them.  Take this moment to remind them who they are in Christ.

The words we choose to use for them matter and we can affirm God’s truths for our kids.

Take this time to remind them what rainbows truly mean.  God always keeps his promises.  He tells the truth. We can count on God.

Enjoy the car conversations, whether you are waiting in line for drop off or pick up, driving them to the next sport activity or heading to the park.   Make the most of every opportunity.

Meet Julia!

Julia is a wife to her high-school sweetheart, a mother to two beautiful girls and a follower of Christ.   She loves crafting, teaching and is forever grateful for a God who is in control of all unknowns and thankful we can have a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Living My Happily Ever After

Living My Happily Ever After

by | Aug 14, 2023 | Mollie, One Blessed Momma

“Once upon a time there lived a beautiful maiden. She met her prince charming and they lived happily ever after.”

We’ve all read the fairy tales and seen the Disney movies. Many of us have hoped something like this could happen but never really believed it would. I am a hopeless romantic and always flip to the “How We Met” love stories in any magazine and, yes, I love the hallmark channel.

If you love a sappy romance as much as I do then keep on reading!

Early 2011 I found myself in a very negative relationship. When that relationship ended, I spiraled into a deep depression. At the age of 19 I wanted nothing more to do with men and had told God that I was happy to be an old maid.

One of my best friends was really great about trying to get me out of my funk. She invited me (and insisted that I go) to a birthday party for one of our mutual friends, Seth. I didn’t know it was also a birthday party for my future husband as well. Seth and Trevor had been best friends since childhood and often celebrated their birthdays together since they were only 8 days apart.

I had heard some about this Trevor guy. In fact, I had even seen him once. It was at another mutual friend’s graduation party. I vividly remember sitting off alone and, with all my 14 year-old self esteem, thinking, “A handsome cowboy like that could never like an ugly girl like me.” We never said a word to each other until 5 years later.

After the birthday party Trevor drove me home and we talked about everything from our love of homemade ice cream to church and family. We exchanged phone numbers, but I still wasn’t interested in a relationship. He was working in Texas at that time and had to leave Colorado the day after we met to go back to work. I certainly didn’t expect to hear from him the next day, but, as I would come to learn, when he makes up his mind he doesn’t beat around the bush.

He called me that evening and we talked about how neither of us were looking for a relationship, but if we were… We both laid out our list of the most important things to us and what we would want from a spouse. We ended up talking for 10 hours straight!

Little did I know that Trevor had told his best friend after we met at the birthday party that he had found the girl he was going to marry. I wasn’t quite as impulsive-it took me four days of talking over the phone to decide he was the right one for me!

One week after we met, he came back to Colorado and asked me to go help him move cows for his brother. As we were driving there he started singing the Randy Travis song “Forever and Ever Amen” to me. Then, as we were riding horses pushing cows he turned to me and said, “This is how I’ve always imagined it. Me and my girl riding and working cows together.” To which I replied, “I didn’t know I was your girl.” Now, in all reality I DID know I was his girl BUT every girl deserves to be asked!

I think my comment threw him off guard so it took him a whole 4 hours before he asked, “Well, will ya?” He really is a romantic guy even though that wasn’t his shining moment.

He continued to work out of town and we continued to talk on the phone every night. He would get off work and call me and we would talk until I had to leave for my job as a breakfast waitress the next morning. Trevor would drive back to Colorado every Friday night and then head back to Texas every Sunday night, sometimes just getting there in time to be at work Monday morning.

We feel like having most of our relationship develop over conversation really expedited our feelings and true connection with each other. But, as you can imagine, the extreme lack of sleep took a toll on us. My health was not good from an illness I had been fighting for several months. We both knew we wanted to get married but we thought we needed to wait a bit longer for our families to get to know us. However, we realized that with the stress it was putting on both our health and our finances (Trevor’s fuel bill was astronomical) we should just get married.

So, after knowing each other for 2 months he asked my dad if he could marry me and was told he could as long as we had a short engagement. Happy to oblige, we set the date for 2 months later.

Although we had many people who told us we were “ruining our lives” and greatly protested our quick decision to marry, our families were both completely on board and supportive.

Remember when we vowed the vows and walked the walk.

Gave our hearts, made the start and it was hard.
We lived and learned, life threw curves.

There was joy, there was hurt.

Remember when.

                             Alan Jackson

 

On August 20th, 2011 I married my best friend. We are celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary this week and are still completely crazy about each other!

I wish I could say it’s been “happily ever after” but, in all honesty, we have been through some very difficult and stressful times. Dickens’ opening phrase of “A Tale of Two Cities” is most fitting, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

It hasn’t always been easy but one thing has definitely always been certain; we are always there for each other 100% of the time. When you KNOW, truly know, that you have someone who will never betray you and who tries to put you first you can go through hard times with a smile. I have come to more fully understand this in the past year especially.

So, I say, go ahead and believe in fairy tales. Believe in love at first sight. Believe that God is in control and his perfect plan of two committed christians working together in a marriage is a beautiful picture of His love for us. Believe in happily ever after. Maybe that is what I am living after all.

I thought it would be fun to have Trevor give some of his perspective on our story.

Trevor: I got back from the oilfield in Oklahoma Friday 4-1-11, I had 2 days off and had to drive to Texas Sunday, 4-3-11. I spent all day Saturday working on my truck and showed up to my birthday party in a sleeveless shirt. Us guys were in the back grilling when I looked through the glass door and saw the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, yes, I did think that right then and I certainly do now. I had to get inside and find out who she was. I found a nicer button up shirt and we went dancing, one of my favorite things. I ended up driving her home and we talked church. By the end of that conversation I knew this beautiful girl had to be my wife. She is the best person I have ever known and the best decision I have ever made.

Meet Mollie

 

Mollie is a lover of Jesus above all. She loves her husband and family and enjoys gardening, teaching, piano, riding, and farming. She lives in SW Colorado with her husband and five kids.

Learn more about Mollie and her family

Building an Altar for the Lord

Building an Altar for the Lord

by | Jul 10, 2023 | Mollie, One Blessed Momma

“Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.” Genesis 13:18

This scripture tells us that Abram (later known as Abraham) built an altar for God. These altars were used for sacrificing animals as a form of worship. Abram wasn’t the only one from the bible that performed this ritual. In fact, this was often done after a victory in battle or some other blessing had been revealed.

Building an altar and subsequently offering sacrifices seems like a thing of the past. Most Christians (none I know of) don’t build altars in their backyard and slaughter goats, sheep, cows, birds, etc.… God doesn’t require us to offer blood sacrifices anymore. Not since he sent his only begotten son to live a perfect life, die on the cross as payment for our sins, and rise again on the 3rd day-conquering death and revealing his power to do so. Praise his holy name, Jesus!

The scriptures tell us that the Old Testament was given as an example to us and a foreshadowing of things to come (1 Cor. 10:11). Like so many things from old testament times, we can glean much knowledge about our spiritual lives by looking at their physical lives.

I have spent the last several years reading through the whole bible every year. This has been a tremendous blessing to me in my spiritual walk, and one significant benefit I have noticed is seeing a more complete picture of scripture.

One of the things that has stuck out to me is how many parallels we can draw between the physical and spiritual.

As I pondered Genesis 13:18 through this lens, I began to see a parallel here.

We all have so much freedom under Christ, and what a blessing that is! However, just like Galatians 5:13 warns- let’s not use our freedom to let the flesh rule our lives. This is a trap cunningly set by our enemy. And I, unfortunately, have fallen into it many times.

It is so very easy to go along with the culture and society without even realizing it. We almost all have some form of social media, some video streaming app, and some form of audiobook/podcast app. I am not saying there is anything inherently wrong with having, using, and enjoying these things. I am, however, warning against slowly allowing ourselves to be desensitized or hardened to the evil parts that are so prevalent in these areas of entertainment.

How much is “too much” cussing? Is a movie with one cuss word enough to take it off our watchlist? Or is the magic number 5? Or 10? Or does it depend on which cuss word is used? What about sex scenes? Is one ok? Only if it doesn’t show total nudity? Violence? How much violence is ok?

There are any number of qualifiers we use to determine if something is ok to allow into our minds or the minds of our children. These are all decisions we must make for ourselves. My encouragement to you is to be careful how you make these determinations and don’t be pressured to allow anything into your mind or your child’s mind that you feel is wrong or could cause you to say more is ok next time.

As I mentioned earlier, I have fallen into this trap many times. I have also fallen into the trap of going to one of these avenues for comfort when life is hard (which has been A LOT lately). It is SO much easier to let my mind wander to some fictitious place than to have to think about my life problems. How wrong! I have placed my trust in some worldly devices rather than the one who can truly deliver me.

I always thought it was ridiculous that the Israelites put their trust in graven and molten images—mindless objects. But friends, we do the same thing!

As I came to the realization that I had allowed myself to fall prey to one of the enemy’s traps, I prayed. I prayed for forgiveness. I prayed for deliverance. I prayed for guidance.

That is when Genesis 13:18 came along. Seeing how Abram went and built an altar, I began to think, “How can I build a spiritual altar? What does that look like?”

My conclusion is that we build altars by forming habits. Both good and bad. Just as an altar takes time to build one stone upon another, so do habits take time and intentionality.

When we stop and pray before every meal, that is an altar on which we sacrifice to wait to dive into our food to be thankful.

Another example would be reading scripture. Build that altar (habit) and sacrifice that time. A very important altar would be to take time. Stop. Shut down the noise and listen. Listen to what God has to say. Take time to thank him, To ask him for guidance, To read his word, and get to know him.

Build your altars, friends, and go there daily to sacrifice to the One, True, and Living God!

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds:) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; ” 

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Friend,

If you’re reading this and you don’t know our God. If you haven’t been covered by the blood of Jesus and been given his Holy Spirit as a comforter, please reach out! He is waiting for you and wanting for you to accept his FREE gift of salvation. Don’t wait. It is THE most important decision you will ever make. Make it today.

With love,

Mollie

.

Meet Mollie

 

Mollie is a lover of Jesus above all. She loves her husband and family and enjoys gardening, teaching, piano, riding, and farming. She lives in SW Colorado with her husband and five kids.

Learn more about Mollie and her family

Taking Fun Seriously

Taking Fun Seriously

by | Jun 12, 2023 | Mollie, One Blessed Momma

The Most Magical Place on Earth

Is your home the most magical place on earth? No, I am not asking if you live at Disney Land. How seriously do you take having fun with your kids? Do you even know what they consider fun?

I recently read a short devotional about taking fun seriously and being intentional about taking the time to enjoy life with your children. This really convicted me. 

Generally, my idea of fun is pulling weeds from my garden, planting a new flower bed, or trying out a new bread recipe. Anything that is still accomplishing a beneficial task that I can check off my never-ending to-do list. Somehow, I don’t think those things always align with my kids’ ideas of fun. 

Give Yourself Permission

As a mom, I have struggled to allow myself to take the time to do “meaningless” activities. I always feel the need to be efficient. Work. Get things done. Don’t waste a second. 

I am learning that, like all things in life, there is a balance. One can play too much, as we see a lot in today’s society. However, one can also be so focused on accomplishing tasks that they cease to enjoy the abundant blessings the Lord so graciously bestows on them each day.

Mom Stress is Real

Being a mom has its stresses to be sure. Are we raising our kids right? Teaching them everything they need to know? Protecting them, but not over-sheltering them? Feeding them the right foods? Taking them to the right Dr.? Immunizing or not immunizing? Public, private, or homeschool? Sports? 4-h?  Youth group? The list goes on and on.

With everything we have to decide every day, how could we possibly take time to play with our kids?

When we take the time to laugh and enjoy life, it really is a testament to our faith in God. How can you laugh if you’re worried? How can you stay stressed if you’re thanking God?

Scripture Says…

The scripture has a lot to say about laughter and enjoying life. I just chose a few to share here. 

Proverbs 17:22 “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”

Being happy has a physical effect on our bodies. Consider it a daily dose of vitamins.

Proverbs 31:25 “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.”

The ancient proverbian is speaking about a godly, virtuous woman here. One that we would do well to aspire to be like. He says, “She laughs at the time to come,” Some versions say, “She smiles at the future” or, “She is cheerful about the days to come.” Can we be cheerful about the future if we are stressing about money, health, jobs, etc? 

Psalm 126:25 “Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; they they said among the nations (non-believers) ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ “

Our cheerfulness can be a great witness of God’s goodness to others. We have a greater chance of telling others about the Gospel (the good news of Jesus) if we show how good we believe it is!

We have an enemy that would make us feel life’s weight every moment. He would love to keep us in the miry pits of stress, doubt, and insecurity. 

Fight this battle with a joyful spirit!

Golden Opportunity

As moms, we have the opportunity every day to show, teach, and mold the minds and hearts of future generations. What do we want them to learn from us? How to doubt and worry? or, how to trust God and truly hand their lives over to him; living life with a cheerful outlook? I know which one I choose!

In this demanding occupation called motherhood, we often take life and mothering too seriously- failing to enjoy the journey!

The Proverbs 31 woman didn’t rejoice in the days to come because she knew some special secret. No, she rejoiced because she trusted in the One who is in control. Her creator. Her God. Her Savior. 

Be At Ease

We can be at ease knowing that the God who holds our future- our children’s futures, our grandchildren’s futures- also holds our hands today. He is the ultimate power, none can even compare to Him! Let us remember that who He is changes who we are.

I encourage you to join me in my journey of intentionally (that means planning) having more fun with my kids. Play a card or board game, ride bikes or horses together, find funny faces in the clouds, go for a walk, watch a movie together, and then quote funny lines to each other later on.

I am striving to create a haven of joy and peace that my kids want to be in!

So give yourself permission to join me on the “fun challenge”. Leave a comment on one way you plan to have fun with your family this week. 

Thanks for reading, and, as always, be blessed!

Friend,

If you’re reading this and you don’t know our God. If you haven’t been covered by the blood of Jesus and been given his Holy Spirit as a comforter, please reach out! He is waiting for you and wanting for you to accept his FREE gift of salvation. Don’t wait. It is THE most important decision you will ever make. Make it today.

With love,

Mollie

.

Meet Mollie

 

Mollie is a lover of Jesus above all. She loves her husband and family and enjoys gardening, teaching, piano, riding, and farming. She lives in SW Colorado with her husband and five kids.

Learn more about Mollie and her family
GPS

GPS

by | Jun 5, 2023 | Melinda, One Blessed Momma

Recently I was blessed to go on a road trip with my youngest daughter. Just the two of us. For those who are new here, I have 6 kids. Any 1 on 1 time is challenging to find, much less 2 whole days of 1 on 1 time. It was so fun to drive down the highway, top-down, radio blasting. I learned a few things on this trip and I want to share them with you.

1. Stay Focused

2. Block out your worries

3. Show some love

Stay Focused


As I watched my GPS on the dash of my car I was reminded of Matthew 7:13-14.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Now, please don’t take this analogy too deep. I know it has some flaws 🙂

The GPS just showed me a short distance at a time highlighting the way. I had my GPS to tell me each next move to make so that I made it to my destination, a place I had never driven to. We have our Bibles to direct us through this life. Psalm 119:105

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

His word will show us the way. And if we spend time in prayer and listening for His answers we will hear the Holy Spirit direct us as we move forward. We also need to make sure we are listening to the right voice. Compare what you’re “hearing” to the word of God. Paul, an apostle, said in Galatians 1:8

But even if we or an angel from Heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you let him be accursed.

I’ve had to look at my GPS before because I thought I heard Siri say “Turn right.”, but I had already looked at the GPS and was pretty sure that it showed “turn left.” So I turn left because that is what the GPS shows. Make sure what you’re hearing lines up with God’s word – the God Positioning System. Have you ever gone somewhere, but you’re still using GPS because you aren’t super confident in your memory? Do you do that with your Bible? God’s Positioning System is a great resource, when you think you know what God would say about a situation make sure you check your GPS. Even if you quit listening and decide to do what you think is best, God is still there. He is ready to show you the U-turn to make. Ready to help you get back on the path. Don’t worry, he doesn’t just tell you “proceed to route, proceed to route” over and over until you find His path again.

As you drive down the highway there are all kinds of signs. Signs that direct you on how to go down the highway – speed limit signs, merge signs, etc. Signs that show you places to see, foods to eat, and favorite restaurants coming up, all enticing you to stop along the way. Just a short detour along your trip. However, on this particular road trip I had not only a destination but a specific time. We were to be in Massachusetts by 4:00 pm for a celebration of life. So I had set goals for when and how long we would stop. The GPS showed an arrival time so every time I saw a sign for something enticing I would look over and remind myself we don’t have time for that. We have a destination and a deadline. In life, we have so many distractions from God. Maybe even some of the same ones. Places to go, people to see, restaurants to eat at. I’m not saying you can’t do any of those things. But we need to check our GPS destination and deadline and make sure it is helping us get there, or at the very least not hindering our final destination.

Block it out

As we go through life, some distractions are not as easy to block out. Sometimes it is the huge bug that splattered right in your line of sight.

I kept going back and forth about whether I should go on this trip. Was I going for my benefit or the family of the one who had passed from this life way too soon? Would I be able to encourage the family? If so, it was well worth the trip!

The worries about if I was making the right decision and if I was spending my resources in the wisest of ways followed me onto the road. I also have a history of falling asleep while driving. I don’t let it get that far anymore, I pull over and make someone else drive. But this time I had no back up. It was just me and a 5-yr-old.

We had two options for our mode of transportation. A 13 passenger van, or a 2004 VW bug that has a check engine light on and a couple of other dash lights on. It had cut out on me a few days earlier and I had to let it sit before I could restart it. Oh, and it has 284,740 miles on it. And the roof leaks so if it was gonna rain I had to take that into consideration as well. So which one did I take?

VW Bug! With the information above you may think I’m crazy, and you may be right. However, I knew it would get better gas mileage and most importantly I knew that with the top down and the wind in my face, I would be much less likely to fall asleep. A risk I was happy to minimize. So we put on our jackets, tied our hair back, put the top down, and hit the road. With the wind in our faces and the radio blasting songs of praise, it was easy to just focus on the trip ahead of us. It’s hard to worry and stress and second guess everything in my life, if I’m listening and singing along to praise songs. 

Just as this worked on my road trip, it works in life. I guarantee your day will be easier to handle if you play and sing worship songs. I have a station on my Pandora that is acapella, now it’s not foolproof, there are other songs that come up too. For the most part, though it’s good clean songs that help me block out the distractions. I also have discovered a few playlists on YouTube. Just remember, easier to handle doesn’t mean easy. It doesn’t mean God will block all the bugs from hitting your windshield, but he is there to help you clean them up.

Show some love

On my road trip I only had one buddy. We sat side by side. With the wind noise, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for talking. But we sat side by side and sang together. She held my hand if not my whole arm for most of the seven hours there and back. Now this girl claims to have huge love tanks and she freely walks around loving on everyone. It was a joy to be on this trip with her and get to fill her love tanks a little bit while she filled mine to overflowing.

Don’t forget that we are called to build up, edify, and encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ. Hebrews 10:24-25

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Love on those around you. We all know that this path is hard. It is hard to keep going at times. Reach out to encourage and love on those around you. It is easier to stay on the path if you have others to walk with. When you grow weary they can cheer you on. Maybe sometimes we even need to be willing to carry those on this path with us until they have the energy to go on. 

I am one blessed momma! This time with my daughter was such a blessing in my life. Not only was I able to bond with my girl, but I was also able to soak up some encouragement from God as I sang His praises and listened to His nudgings on my heart and mind. 

How are you intentional in listening to God? Do you have a time God reached you even if you weren’t searching?

Meet Melinda!

Melinda is a Christian, a wife, and a mom of 6. She has a blended family and has spent much time trying to learn how to "mom". She's still not perfect, but it makes her that much more grateful for God's grace and mercy in her life.

Learn more about Melinda and her family

Renovating

Renovating

by | May 14, 2023 | Julia, One Blessed Momma

As I scroll through social media I see a lot of house renovations. There are even some great TV shows that are about renovating your home. It can be a quick fix or a BIG demolition. As mom’s, a lot of how we view ourselves is by how our homes look or feel. For most of us, we may not have the money to do the renovating or even the skill set so we get stuck in a mind set that we are not good enough to have a home that feels great. What if I told you, you could have a FREE HOME RENOVATION?

That’s right! It’s free and it TOTALLY will transform your home. Don’t worry, you have all the skill set you need!

Are you ready for it?

It’s the renovating of ourselves.

Like all renovations, things will get tougher, they are not always pretty and DEFINITELY won’t happen overnight and…we will need help.

But, let me tell you, the transformation is worth it.

The ladies at our church have been going through a study by Cassandra Martin called, Women Opening the Word, Immeasurably More.

Cassandra writes, “Becoming like Jesus, involves both tearing out what doesn’t look like Him, as well as investing ourselves in taking on His nature and character. There will be days when we wonder if we will ever see the possibilities God sees in us, but in the end, something beautiful will emerge and take shape as we walk with Him.”

She talks about Ephesians 3:14-20 where we are called to live an immeasurably more life. We all have moments in our lives that have changed our lives whether for the good or bad.

Transformation Time

Maybe it was a time you had a situation with a church member, or family member, or a tragic scary life event. Or a baptism, birth or marriage. Those moments either molded us for the good or for the bad by how we were guided through those events or how open we were to allowing God to use us, mold us, and transform us for his glory.

Today, I really want to encourage every single one of us to examine our lives in ways we can start making those small changes. Those steps forward to living the immeasurably more life. The beginning is going to be exciting and motivating. We may think we are ready for what’s ahead but we also need to recognize, it’s going to take work. We will need help to make those everlasting changes that stick and make real progress. That’s only going to happen when we fully allow God to work in and through us. Fully submitting to his will.

Romans 12:2:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

How can we transform our minds? By being in the word. How do be build a relationship? By being surrounded by them, being in constant communication. We speak to God through prayer and praises and God speaks to us through his word. How will we be able to transform and renovate our hearts if we are not living in the word?

Psalms: 51:10-12

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Changing of our hearts is allowing God to use us and mold us. Allowing the many years of life experiences and hardships to be soften by his presence.

“The result of a heart and mind that are out of sync with God is behavior that embraces sensuality.” – Cassandra Martin, WOW Immeasurably More: page 130

How true, right?

 

When we let the world lead our hearts and minds we allow those ideals to become our truth on how to live.

We live in a society where it is all about what you deserve it, do what feels right, follow your heart, instant gratification with the internet, phones, or tv. Anything we want to do with or add to our body: hair, nails, make up, tattoo’s, clothes, etc. Not saying any of those things are bad, but they are a part of pleasing of our body and are things we need to assess when choosing to use them.

Take our phones for example. They can be used for good, but they can also be used for gratifying the senses. Getting away to numb our minds, to help us fall asleep, porn for men or women, any Time on my phone takes away from something else.

We think I need to buy that shirt or those pants because if I looked like them, I’d be a happier mom. If we did this to our kitchen I would make dinners every night and we’d be the happiest family. If we bought this for our house or kids would be the happiest kids.

Armor of God

But what we really need is to buy the belt of truth, the shoes of peace, the helmet of salvation, shield of faith, sword of the spirit, breastplate of righteousness. (Eph 6:10-18)

Focusing on:
Gal 5: 22-26 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

Using Phil 4:8 to measure what we allow us and our families to watch or do.

Phil 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me–put it into practice.

With God, we are able to live this immeasurably more life and renovate our homes so we can have a home we’ve always wanted for our families.

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Meet Julia!

Julia is a wife to her high-school sweetheart, a mother to two beautiful girls and a follower of Christ.   She loves crafting, teaching and is forever grateful for a God who is in control of all unknowns and thankful we can have a peace that surpasses all understanding.