When you're loosing the fight...

I'm the type of person that looks at child rearing as bringing up soldiers for the Lord. Not in a militant and aggressive type of way, but rather that my goal is to train my children to love and serve the Lord. That means I'm in a battle with the enemy. Because his goal is the exact opposite. His goal is that my children would instead only love themselves and seek to serve themselves, which in turn would leave them enslaved to him. 

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? -Romans 6:16

You see our selfish fleshly desires lead us into bondage. How can I set my children up for that? Of course I must fight for them to be free.  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. {Romans 8:6} But when I slack off then I am failing. Which means I'm loosing the fight! That is a scary and sobering thought, and that's precisely where I have been! I mentioned before that I was struggling to get things together since the move and unfortunately it's been really hard on everyone. But what do you do when you're loosing the fight???? YOU PUT ON YOUR ARMOUR AND STAND! 

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints... -Ephesians 6:11-18

This past week as we celebrated the feast of Sukkot, or Tabernacles, {Leviticus 23:34-36} the Lord really dealt with me. He showed me where I was failing, why I was failing, and how to fix it. So I started this week with a new resolve! Determined to get back any ground that I had given over I made a plan of action. I know that this plan is only doable in His strength because I was seriously slacking before. Not only that, we have a baby coming! Once the baby is born if I don't have a grip on things I'll be drowning even more! Which is something I most certainly don't want. 

So starting today we've starting a new schedule, that gives us goals for the day. Having a goal gives you purpose, and direction. The other thing I'm doing is making sure that I have a quiet time with the Lord TWICE a day. I know for most moms getting it in once seems like a miracle. But I'm a firm believer that we make time for what we want. So I found the time to read my Bible and get alone with the Lord. It's not always easy and sometimes it literally feels like a fight! But I need it, so I do it. That truly is the key to me being successful at training up my children, and loving my husband. 

That is my game plan and today it has gone smoothly. We may not have done everything exactly on time, but we got everything accomplished! I'm choosing to stand, and fight back, that's what you do when you're loosing!


Until next time, be strong in the Lord!

Life and all that comes with it...

Painting by Carol Marine

Well I have just been an awful blogger lately! Sorry about that. Life just seems to be a little crazy. Between pregnancy brain, low iron, and training up two young ladies, life can kind of get a little hectic.

Seems like try as we might we just haven't been able to get our acts together since the move. I don't know if it's the pregnancy, or just a normal readjustment period, because this is our first move as a family. But I'm looking forward to getting it all figured out as we move forward. 

We've started homeschooling which has been going well. I'm using Easy Peasy Homeschool because it's a free curriculum. Yay free! But with all the excitement from the fall feasts we haven't been very consistent. I think as they girls get older that I'll start after the Holy Days, or something. We'll see.

Along with struggling to just get back into a routine I've been struggling to get back into having my own quiet time with the Lord. Which is MUCH needed. I've been reading but it's not the same as that consistent uninterrupted time with Him. As a mom (really just as a Christian in general) that time is so important. This life is SO hard to do on your own. I remember seeing a tweet once that said:
"note to self, don't try to do life with out God." How true it that! We just absolutely need Him. 

So my goal is to have two quiet times a day! At first I thought that was aiming too high, but then I thought about it. I spend far too much time on facebook, reading blogs, and watching netflix. If I go to bed earlier I can get in some Bible time at night. Then if I'm going to bed earlier, I will be able to get up earlier and I'll have Bible time then as well! Hopefully this works, but if not, I'll be happy to at least get in one of those times. I'm hoping to make this a new part of my life, not just something I do for this season. Two Bible times just sounds so amazing, and the more we are in the Word the more we get to know Him! I want to be so close to my Abba that you can't meet me, with out meeting Him! 

This is the heart of our family, and what we want for our home. So we're FINALLY getting around to putting up some Bible verses! Having scripture on the wall just reminds us through the day of why we do what we do, and Who we serve. 

As of now the only one that is up is in our bedroom. We figured that's the best place to start, since it all starts with us. So now when we wake up the first thing we see in the morning is: "Arise therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee." This is from 1 chronicles 22:16b, it has to do with getting the Temple built, but it spoke to us. We have so much to "be doing" and this is a constant reminder to do it, and to make sure we keep the right focus. We're planning to put more up in every room, but since my hubby is hand paining them it's going to take some time. I'll share once it's all done. 

I think that about covers everything for right now, so I'll leave you with a little bit of exciting news. I had an ultrasound and we know the baby's gender. We're having a... BOY! My hubby is over the moon, and we're all just so excited to meet the newest addition to our family! 

Until next time, be strong in the Lord!