Be Still

Yesterday I posted this on Facebook:

I've really been itching to get back to posting here, and this morning I woke up raring to go.

You may recall from this post that this is the spot I sit every day for my quiet time. Today was no different.

When I was finished reading my Bible and praying, I was more than ready to hop up and finish writing that post I didn't finish yesterday.
But it was as if God sat me back down in the chair and said,
“Just Be Still. You go, go, go all day. You always have some great idea that you're trying to accomplish. You always have a million and one thoughts swirling around in your head. You're creative, and that's a good thing – I made you that way. But sometimes there's too much going on in that head of yours, and you can't hear what I'm trying to say to you. You're too busy rushing on to planning your next great idea. I understand that you have to be busy – you have small children to take care of and a household to run. But your head is too full of your own thoughts to hear me in the midst of your busyness. I can speak to you all throughout the day, you know. I can help you be a Godly mom when you're frustrated at the 999th mess the kids have made. I can still speak to you even when you're running from the washing machine to the stove to the homeschool lesson you're helping the kids with. But you need to turn down the noise of everything that is not from me and practice listening to my still small voice. When you have these quiet morning moments, don't be so quick to finish spending time with me to jump up and start rushing through your day. Just Be Still.”

So I did.

More than anything, I want God to be glorified through this blog, but I can never be used of Him if I do not first obey Him myself.
I have so much that I need to learn before I can be the example I need to be for others. I have a feeling I will need many more of those “Be Still” times before my mind is well enough in practice to tune out all the other noise of the world around me and focus only on the Spirit's voice. If that means accomplishing fewer of my creative plans and spending more of my spare moments with Him, that's what I'm going to do.

If you need to be reminded of the need to “Be Still” for yourself, perhaps you'll want to print out this printable Scripture Verse Art. It's available here in both color and black and white.

What about you? Is your mind crowded with the noise of all your plans and responsibilities?

Perhaps it is time to just practice being still.

How to Make a Difference in the World

This post was originally written in February 2012.  These thoughts have been on my mind again recently, and I hope they will be an encouragement to you.

It seems like just recently I have really been struck with the incredible needs in the world around me. One of the things that influenced me was this post regarding adoption and the needs of orphaned children around the world. Of course I wish I could help every single one of them. Then I started thinking of villages in Haiti where people are dying because they don't have clean water to drink. I want to dig a well for every single one of them. Then I started thinking about the homeless right here in America – there are multitudes of them in every city and even right here in my own little town. I want to help them all! What about the nursing homes I have visited where there are not enough staff members to properly care for the residents? Many of them don't get proper nutrition because they cannot feed themselves and the staff members are too busy to do it. They lie in bed begging someone to come change their soiled pants because they are starting to get sore, but are only replied to with, “We'll get to you later.” I want to stay there all day and personally tend to all of their needs!

I could continue to go on listing needs – desperate, heart-breaking needs of people all around the world. I want to do something – to make a big difference somehow. But the whole world is full of needs! There's no way I can possibly do anything that will help!

Then, it dawned on me. I have had the attitude that since the needs are too great for me to fulfill, then I will just throw up my hands in despair and say, “I guess there's nothing I can do about it other than hope that the Lord will come back quickly and redeem the world from the curse of sin.”

I was reminded of this story by Loren Eisley. I'm sure many of you have heard it:

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed
a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.
Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”
The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.
The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”
“Son,” the man said, “Don't you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can't make a difference!”
After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,
and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said , “I made a difference for that one.”

I may not be able to make a difference in every person's life who needs help, but I can make a difference in someone's life. That will be one more person who can be shown the love of Christ who would otherwise never know it. Just think! When I get to heaven one day I will be so ashamed at all the lives I didn't influence just because I wasn't trying, thinking that it was impossible to make a difference.

I don't know what God has planned for my life, but I know he wants me to do something more than what I've been doing. I am praying specifically that He would lead me to the one thing that I can do to make a difference.

In the meantime, I have three little people for whom I will strive to make a big difference every day. I have a husband for whom I will make a difference every day. There are store cashiers, church members, neighbors, and numerous other people with whom I come into contact on a regular basis. Am I making a difference for them? Am I doing all that I can to help them both physically and spiritually?

I am excited to see what doors God will open as I do my part to meet the needs of others. If we all do our small part, just think how many more people can be helped than if we all throw up our hands in defeat!

You may not be able to make a difference for them all, but you can make a difference for one.

The Internet: A Tool…Or a Trap?

As the world of technology progresses, it seems that it's almost impossible to even live without the internet.  I know very few people who do not have internet access at their home, and even so there are occasions when they must go to a friend's house or to the library to get online.

You almost cannot complete paperwork anywhere without having a valid email address.  And many times crucial information is sent to that email address that you will never receive unless you actually get online and check it.

Companies are trying their best to eliminate paper bills and move to all online systems.

Printed research material is becoming outdated, and new information is available mostly online.

Friends and family members may only be accessible to contact through Facebook or email.

Even missionaries for whom you would like to pray may only send their updates via email.

If you are going to stay on top of some of these tasks which are necessary for living, you're pretty much forced to have internet access.

The internet is a wonderful tool.  Many aspects of life have become much more convenient because of it.

Prayer requests shared on Facebook can spread around the world in a matter of minutes.

God's Word can be shared on blogs and social media and reach into areas of the world where it is normally suppressed.

Research material on any topic imaginable has become readily accessible.

Bills can be paid without cluttering your house with papers and without any money spent on postage.

Shopping can be done conveniently from home, saving gas money and time.

But as convenient and as great of a tool as the internet is, it also has the potential to be a deadly trap.

Although your goal may be to use it as a tool to spread God's Word, keep up with missionaries, pray for the needs of others, or save time on essential tasks, the devil's goal is to use it for your destruction.

He may do this blatantly by throwing pornographic advertisements in your face when you least expect it. Or he may take a more subtle approach by leading you to more and more interesting (although entirely appropriate) content which slowly sucks away your time.  Both tactics can result in the destruction of homes, families, and individual lives.

Men, Satan would love for you to become addicted to pornography even though you came across it completely by accident.

Ladies, he would love for you to frustrate your husband and children by neglecting your household duties because you were glued to your Facebook feed or Pinterest account.

Parents, he would love to expose your sons and daughters to perverse material that will forever be etched into their minds.

He wants to destroy your home and Christian testimony however he can.

You must not be blind to his tactics, and you must arm yourself against them.

Ephesians 6:11-18  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  12 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.  13 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.  14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;  15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:  18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints…

In the previous passage, you find instruction in the use of the spiritual weapons with which God has provided us to withstand the devil.  They are useless unless you take advantage of them!

Daily infiltrating our minds with God's Word, a lifestyle of prayer, and yielding to the Holy Spirit should be our first line of defense against the devil's tactics.

But I am also thankful for practical tools to help us protect ourselves as well.

It would be foolish to delve into the online world without any type of protection against the traps that are embedded there.

Covenant Eyes is a wonderful place to find that protection.  My husband and I have invested in a  subscription each year because we both know that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).  Although we had the standard internet filters set up on our computer, we knew that we are capable of any type of sin and we figured, “Why take the risk?  Why even give ourselves room to be tempted?  Why let the thought remain in the back of our minds that we have the possibility of accessing any type of material our lustful flesh desires?”

Here are some reasons I think Covenant Eyes is an excellent choice for families:

• Separate users – you can add different members of your family and configure the settings to be most suitable for them.  For example – for young children, you could set it up for them to be allowed on one or two websites to play educational games.  For teenagers, you could select the strongest filtering so that they can browse and do school research without the ability to accidentally land on an inappropriate website.  The administrator can enter their password to allow access to a website that has been blocked but doesn't necessarily need to be.
• Internet Filtering – select as strong or weak of a filter as you feel you need, and make the strength different depending on the user.
• Internet Accountability – Besides filtering out content that could potentially cause you to stumble in your Christian walk, you can also ask a friend or relative to be your accountability partner.  Covenant Eyes will send regular reports via email of your online activity to the partner(s) of your choice.  You can have as many accountability partners as you wish and choose the frequency of the report (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).  The report will show your accountability partner how much time you've spent online, what webpages you visited or attempted to visit, the search terms you used, and even whether you tried to uninstall Covenant Eyes from your computer.
• Time filtering – one of the more subtle ways the devil uses the internet against us is by tempting us to use it to waste time.  If you struggle with wasting time on the internet, you can take advantage of the time filters on Covenant Eyes.  You can restrict internet usage to a certain number of hours per week or day or you can choose to block internet usage during certain times of the day.
• Resources for families and churches – Covenant Eyes offers free e-books on topics relating to Family Protection, Pornography Use and Recovery, and Helps for Churches to address the subject of pornography.  They also have a great blog with many informative and thought-provoking posts.

Covenant Eyes pricing starts at $9.99 per month and goes up depending on how many users you have and which services you select (accountability, filtering, or both).   You can also use the Covenant Eyes browser on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad or use the accountability app for Android.

I am determined to do all that I can to make sure the internet remains a tool and not a trap. How about you?

Protecting Your Child From The Devil

As I sat in my room this morning during my quiet time, I noticed out the window a cat strolling casually across the yard.

Suddenly a bird swooped down, attacking the cat.

For a split-second, I was incredulous.  A bird?  Attacking a cat?

But I quickly realized that this bird was not attacking a cat because she thought she was bigger and badder than the cat.  She was a mama bird, and she had baby birds nearby.  Even though the cat didn’t seem to be seeking his breakfast, he was still close enough to the location of the baby birds to cause their mama plenty of concern.

Although a bird is no match for a cat, she was willing to put her life on the line for the protection of her babies.  She swooped down over and over until she had driven the cat far away from her home.  Then she flew high into a tree and waited until the cat was completely out of sight before she flew back to her nest.  She didn’t want to chance having the cat know where her babies were located.

Mamas, there is another member of the feline family just waiting for his chance to destroy your children.  He is the devil, and like a lion, he walks about seeking whom he may devour.

What are you going to do to protect those children of yours?

You need to recognize the various ways that he will try to attack them and eliminate his opportunity to do so.

I’ll give a few examples, but you as a parent need to be diligent to think through the circumstances of your own child’s life and pinpoint all of the areas that need to be protected.

•     Friends

God let us know for a reason that “evil communications corrupt good manners”.  The people your child associates with on a regular basis are one of the biggest influences he has.  Do you know who your child’s friends are?  Do you know what they believe and what they talk about to your children?  If you are not aware of these things, you are leaving your child in a very vulnerable position.  The devil has the opportunity to use those friends to influence his thinking in ways that could completely undermine everything you are trying to teach him at home.

•     Media

One of the most powerful influences on the mind of your child is the media that filters through his eyes and ears.  The tv shows, movies, books, video games, and music that he is exposed to are not a neutral force.  They are either drawing him closer to God or driving him away.  Examine closely what goes into your child’s mind, and do everything you can to protect him from anything that contradicts God’s Word.  Even if you become the world’s most “uncool” mom, saying no to these things is worth every minute of your unpopularity.  I’d rather be uncool than to lose my child’s soul to the devil.

•     Their own sin nature

We are all born with a burning desire to sin, and even after salvation that sin nature still rears its ugly head, tempting us when we least expect it.  You may be doing all you know to do to protect your child from evil influences, but his greatest and most subtle enemy lies within himself.  Just as those baby birds will one day leave the nest and be responsible for protecting themselves, your children will gradually become more and more independent.  You won’t always be right beside them, swooping down and chasing away the devil when he comes too close.  Give them the tools to protect themselves when they’re on their own!  Teach them the Word of God.  Engrain it into their minds and hearts.  Instruct them about the armor of God which they possess if they are a child of God and teach them how to use it!  Pray for your children every day.  Pray for their protection from temptation and that God would help them to remember the things you have taught them about resisting the devil.

That mama bird would have been devastated had the cat gained access to her babies and taken the opportunity to injure or kill any of them.  Can you imagine the grief that you will feel if your child falls prey to the devil?

To the mother bird, it was worth risking her very life for her children to be protected.  What will you risk?  How hard will you work?  How unpopular are you willing to be?  

It’s worth it all.

Accepting Grace In This Season

The following is a post from one of Imperfect Homemaker's contributors, Andrea.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…”
Ecclesiastes 3:1

On October 4, 2012 I went to the doctor to confirm my third pregnancy.  Little did I know that when I left the office that day, I would enter a new season of life.  You see, the doctor informed me that I was not only expecting our third child, but also our fourth…I was having twins!  With this news came the realization that we needed to find a new apartment so that I wouldn’t be climbing three flights of stairs, my husband needed a new job making more money, and we needed a new vehicle that could hold four car seats.  Life with four children ages three and under was definitely a season of life that I didn’t anticipate ever walking through!

Our twins, Liberty & Nehemiah, were born in April.  During my pregnancy and the last six weeks the Lord has taught me several lessons about the seasons of life.  Perhaps you are embarking on a new season of life as well.  I want to let you know that God has enough grace for this new time, and to encourage you to give yourself grace as well

Be Flexible.

As a “type A” person, I really like to know what is coming.  I like to be able to plan, and to be prepared.  But I have learned am still learning that things will not always stay the same; they will not always be predictable.  When an unexpected situation or life change happens, we can expect and accept the grace of God.  He has promised that we can come boldly to His throne and beg that grace, even when things seem to be in upheaval.

Re-align Priorities.

The revelation that I was having twins forced me to re-align my priorities.  I had to be more careful in my pregnancy, and get more rest than I was used to allowing myself.  This meant fewer outings and activities, and saying “no” to some things that I really wanted to do or be involved in.  Now that my babies are here, I am trying to focus on my children each day and not the messes developing in my house.  I like everything to be clean, organized, and put away.  That doesn’t always happen anymore!  Last week I mopped my bathroom floor for the first time in {gasp!} over two months!I have to realize that this season won’t last forever.  My children will only be little once.  “Tomorrow” I will wake up and realize that they have grown up too fast.  I know I will regret it to look back one day and know that I missed their childhood but I always had a spotless house.

Accept Help.

This has been a hard one for me!  Maybe it’s a little bit of being a woman, a little bit of that “type A” personality, and surely a lot of pride that makes me think I can do it all, all by myself.  During my pregnancy I couldn’t bend over the sink to wash my dishes.  I felt terrible having my husband come home from a long day of work and wash all the dishes for me, but I had to learn to accept his help (which was lovingly offered)  .I am blessed to have a teen from our church as a mother’s helper one day a week for the summer.  It is very humbling to have someone else dust your house and mop your floors.  But as I graciously accept the help offered, I have found freedom from my “do it all” mentality.The body of Christ also comes into play here.  My sisters in the Lord have been more than helpful to me during this season.  There is always an unexpected meal, offers for child care, and even two ladies who are washing all of my laundry for me.  It has been a blessing to know that I am not in this alone, and also challenging to me to be more sensitive and helpful to others during times of need.

Give Yourself Grace.

If God is willing to give us His all-sufficient grace for every season that we encounter, shouldn’t we be willing to give ourselves a little bit of grace too?  In the past I have been an avid couponer.  I have rarely had paper towels, paper plates, or other disposable items in my house.  I have made my own laundry detergent and sewed many of my children’s clothes.  I cloth diapered my first two children.But now, in a new season, with new challenges, I am learning to give myself grace.  I haven’t used a coupon in a while, and I even ordered my groceries online and paid to have them delivered!  We use paper plates for lunch a lot, to save me an extra load of dishes.  I bought laundry detergent at the store yesterday.  And underneath the bunk beds is a huge stash of disposable diapers for my three kiddos who need them.  I don’t clean my floor daily, and I only scrub the toilet when I know someone is coming over (or it gets really bad).  But it’s okay.  It won’t be this way forever.  If we have another child, I would love to cloth diaper again.  When my babies are bigger I may return to cloth napkins and homemade detergent.  For now, I am giving myself grace.

I hope this has been an encouragement to you, no matter what season of life you are in.  Maybe you are in a position to be a helper to someone else in a difficult season of their life.  Maybe you need to give yourself a little grace for right now.  I would love for you to leave a comment and share your season with us!

The Power of a Thank You Note

The following is a post by Imperfect Homemaker contributor, Nicole.

Once upon a time, people looked forward to the arrival of the mailman each day. Yes, sometimes bills or other discouraging things are found in that little metal box, but there was the possibility of getting a real, tangible, heartfelt letter from a friend. Remember those days?

Now, getting a pen-and-paper note is very rare. We check our email and social media several times a day, no longer waiting for that one moment when mail is delivered. Being able to communicate more often, and even immediately, with friends and family is a blessing of the internet age, but at the same time we miss out on something by not getting the meaning that goes into a handwritten note.

Rustic Thank You via Sweet Sights on Etsy

With the price of postage, I don't generally turn to handwritten notes very often, but there is one exception: Thank you notes. I think that a written thank you speaks volumes to the recipient, and shows that you really are truly thankful for the service they gave you! It doesn't take much to type out a quick thank you in an email, but to take the time to write one out, and then pay to mail it, shows a more genuine thanks.

Here are some things that I believe deserve a genuine Thank You note:

• When you've received a gift
• When you've been a dinner guest
• When you've been an overnight guest in a home or guest house
• When someone has done a favor

Some of these may be more informal at times, and a thank you note might not be necessary. But many times, they are! I like to look for opportunities where a note would be a blessing and show just how thankful I am.

Chalkboard Thank You by LilyandVal on Etsy

Here are some fun ways to write thank yous:

• After spending the night in someone's guest bedroom or a prophets chamber, leave a note on the bed where the hostess can clearly see it. Makes for a fun little surprise!
• Have kids that were included? Let them write their own note on the card, or sign their own name. If they are too young for real writing, let them color in a blank space or dictate a short note. If nothing else, the hostess will get a little chuckle.
• Include a picture that was taken during your experience with the host/hostess. Makes it a bit more personal.
• Add a meaningful Bible verse.
• Use a fun pen, or add a colorful embellishment.

Thank you via littlethingsstudio on Etsy

Now I'd love to hear your thoughts…how often do you write a handwritten thank you note? When is a thank you appropriate? Have you ever given a gift, and never received a thank you for it? How did you feel about it?