Sharing Her Heart

Well, today I want to give my basement a big clean-up so I don’t have time to write you a long post. I do, however, want to share with you a website that I came across recently. I was looking for women’s devotions for my ladies coffee time on Wednesday mornings. So, like most of us, I just googled it and I found this site called “Girlfriends In God.” What a great site! These 3 women have so many wonderful devotions that speak directly to us women. I really think you should check it out. www.girlfriendsingod.com   If you do check it out, I would love to know what you think! *Andrea*

Deuteronomy 31:8 “ The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Psalm 103:10 “ He [God] does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” These verses have really encouraged me this week. So I just wanted to share them with you, maybe they will do the same for you? This week has been a busy one for me. It has been really good, but busy. At the beginning of my week, all I had going on was I had to bake 5-6 dozen buns for Saturday, and I was starting to baby sit a new girl. Oh yeah, Tuesday evening was Bible study. Sounds simple, easy even. Well, it quickly changed.  Monday evening I went for a walk with my friend, Tuesday I went to town to do errands and took my son for his immunizations. Wednesday I made salsa, again. For the 3rd and final time. Wednesday evening I got an email from our Sunday School Superintendent. She was wondering if I would want to ba...

Encouragement.  Isn’t that a great word? I love it. I love what it stands for and how it makes you feel. I love how it can change a person’s outlook with just a couple of words. I love how when you hear the word, your mood instantly goes more positive. Well, encouragement is what I have been receiving lately and man do I feel good. I have been encouraged in small, subtle ways, with simple words. With words that are meant to encourage and lift up. It has been really nice to hear and be reminded, because I have let myself believe otherwise. I have been so tired and dis couraged that I found it hard to believe that I am good and useful and that I am a blessing to my family and to those around me. But through kind words from my family, friends and my church family, I have been encouraged again. The best encouragement came this morning as I was reading my devotions. I read Proverbs chapter 31, and God showed me through that passage how much like her I really am. I Love Proverbs 3...

        Lately, I’ve been in a bit of a slump. You see, I’m just a stay-at-home mom and sometimes I just don’t feel that my job is all that important (at least according to what other women do for a living). But God has been reminding me how very important my job really is. So, I thought I’d share a bit of encouragement for those of you who are in the same spot as me.        The other day I received a phone call from a telemarketer. When he asked what I did for a living I told him that I was a homemaker. He was from the United States and he said that down there they call them ‘Domestic Engineers’. I like the sound of that. In reality we don’t just ‘keep the home’, we keep our families .  Keeping the family is a big job and it’s not for the faint at heart. We are called to be teachers, nurses, housekeepers, head chefs, bakers, sales people, exterminators, gardeners, accountants, etc. We get to do, not just one sp...

What makes a woman beautiful? Is it her hair? Her skin? Her clothes (or lack of)? Maybe it’s how much make up she has on that day. Or how much Jewellery she’s wearing?  Whatever the world thinks of beauty is the opposite of what God thinks. The world has made beauty out to be something totally fake. Plastic surgery, LOTS of cosmetics, extreme dieting, all those awful things that women do to themselves to be ‘perfect’(?). Really, what is perfection? There is nothing (and no one) on earth that is perfect. So we can stop trying. How about we just be Real instead? Let’s be ourselves, children of Christ, loving in our attitudes and actions and giving of our time to serving others in his name. In doing those things which he calls us to do, we will be B eautiful women, women with gentle and quiet spirits, blessings to our husbands and children, and a joy to meet. Let’s show this world exactly what the CREATOR defines beauty as. Purity, Gentleness, Self-control, Love, Patience, Kindnes...

  OK, so with the beautiful sunny weather that we’ve been having, I’ve been outside a lot enjoying it. So as you may have noticed, I haven’t been posting as much.    I have been thinking lately though about what kind of person I am. I’m trying to ‘label’(?) myself and I think I found the one that fits. I would label myself as a ‘servant’. The reason I give myself this label is because I’m happiest when I can serve someone. I just think about the jobs that I had in my past and I have the fondest memories of jobs where I could help others. I really enjoyed being a cashier, but I had even more fun when I got to help a customer find something. When the item was found, it was so exciting for me. Also as a hairstylist, I really enjoy cutting and coloring hair to help people feel better about their appearance. My current (and most important) job right now is mom & wife. I get to serve people all the time! Sometimes however, when it comes to every day household chores, I nee...

     Yesterday morning we had a guest speaker in church. He is a missionary that currently attends our church.  He had a really good message about discipleship. He said that if you were to disciple 1 unbeliever a year and that person was to also disciple 1 person a year and if the trend continued, after 16 years 64,000 people would know about Christ. Isn't that amazing? That is one crazy (but awesome) stat if you ask me. He also went on to share a story about a man in Africa. I can't remember all the details that well so I'll just tell you what I do remember. This man, his wife and child were looking for a place to stay. All that they were able to get was a 10x12' room. But they had faith and he wanted to do more to get the word of God out so he prayed for god to send him someone to disciple. The next day there was a knock on the door,and standing there was a man who said " I don't know why I'm here, I just am". From that one disciple, 70,000 lives ha...

       What exactly is grace? That is something that I have struggled with for a while now. I hear a lot of talk about it: how God shows us grace, how we should show grace to others, how we should parent with grace, and on and on. So to understand more about grace, I've decided to read the book "The Grace Awakening" by Charles Swindoll. I've just started it but I wanted to share a bit with you.     One of the definitions he gave about grace is: " To show grace is to extend favor or kindness to one who doesn't deserve it and can never earn it". That is very clear for me. That's exactly what God does for us. He freely gives us the gift of salvation and we don't deserve it and we can't do anything EVER to earn it. But yet, in his grace he just gives it to us because he loves us. That is so awesome to me. When you really think about it, none of us can or will, ever deserve to be with him in heaven. There is nothing that we can do that wil...

   "He gave himself for us to set us free from every sin and to cleanse us so that we can be his special people who are enthusiastic about doing good things". Titus 2:14   Those are the words from this mornings devotions that really struck out at me. Read them over a few times. Break them down. Doesn't that make you feel amazing? And special? So much love in that sentence. Love that only Jesus could have for us. So let's return that love. Let's get enthusiastic about doing good things and then let's do good things. We have been cleansed, were free, and were his special people. Let's act like it. I have been reading in other blog posts lately about sponsor children who don't receive letters from their sponsors. That breaks my heart. I have read of children who have NEVER received a letter but yet 3 times a year they are expected to write one back. What do you write to someone who you have never heard from? You only know their name and nothin...

 So, last night I went for coffee with a wonderful woman that I met through my church. We had a great time! She borrowed me a book called "Diapers, Pacifiers, And Other Holy Things" by Lorraine Pintus. I have only read a small portion of it but it is a really good book for women, especially mothers who feel: too busy for God but want a relationship with him, taken for granted, invaluable, or who just need a bit more inspiration.   Today I was reading about how the small things that you do for people really do count. You know, bringing someone supper when their sick, a wave to a stranger, a smile to the cashier who is having a rough day, all these things that are so easy (and painless) to do. She says that " God entrusts you with little things to teach you faithfulness in big things. Also, God wants you to see that each little thing you do can have eternal impact". Really? How? Show me. Then she goes on to say that each little thing that we do for othe...

  What a nice weekend it was! The weather wasn't too bad either. It could have been a bit warmer but this is Manitoba after all. Spring is always unpredictable here!   I also had a chance to go back to the book fair by myself on Saturday. It was such a good time! I spent 45 minutes there and I only looked at one section! I came home with an armful of books and it only cost me 5 bucks! I didn't know this ahead of time but the last day is always half price day. So lucky for me, every book was half price! That makes shopping (especially when your on a budget) a lot more exciting! I was able to find some neat books for my sponsor boys as well. I found a couple on animals, one on hockey (the great Canadian sport), and one on northern Canada. Now, I just need to figure out which book to send to each boy.    I also found some great christian books for my husband and myself. The one that I'm reading now is called " Witness The Passion" by Richard Exley....