The ladies meet once a week at our church for a Titus Two meeting. Normally, in times past, our Pastor’s wife teaches but the past few months we have been listening to a video series entitled, Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. It was excellent! This is the first time I have really sat under her teaching and I highly recommend this series. It was biblically very solid. We had a luncheon after the teaching and then most of the women stayed afterwards to help go through cupboards in the kitchen. We cleared out dishes that were not being used and washed down the cabinets. It was a lovely time. We’ve been at this little country church less than a year but I’ve come to love the people and appreciate the Pastor and his family so much. I thank God for the uncompromised Word that comes forth from the pulpit.

 

Today was ‘Release Day’ at our little church. Pastor Gregg brought 12 children from the elementary school just down the road back to the church to teach them about God for the next hour and a half. It looked as if the children ranged from 1st to 6th grade. Our rural elementary school allows the children to be released an hour or so early from school on Thursday for religious training. Isn’t that amazing? Especially in California???

Today was the first time I’ve helped with ‘Release Day’. The children were very ‘active’ to say the least, so another Sister in the Lord and I helped serve the snacks and then served as crowd control during the flannel graph story. The Pastor had given the children a memory verse for the week so they all had a chance to repeat it. They chose Christian songs to sing. They also spent time reviewing the 10 commandments. I was surprised at how many children knew the commandments and even knew which number they were.

I thought of Pastor Greg and his patience with these children. They talked when he talked and answered when they weren’t supposed to yet he remained calm and loving with them. He drives nearly 40 minutes each week to teach these children about God. Some would think it was beneath them but this Pastor takes it seriously. It was such a blessing to watch God’s Word being hidden in their little hearts at such an early age.

It’s a simple question with life-changing possibilities.

 

If someone wrote the history of your life, what would be the one thing that they would say you lived for?

 

* Think about sending this question to your closest friends and family and ask for their TRUE assessment of your life… not just what they THINK they should say. It could be life-changing.

1 Cor 10:31 -Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

 

Titus 2:3-5: (v3)Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, (v4)THAT they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, (v.5) sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored.

I can’t even begin to imagine how many times I have read this verse, studied it, examined it, researched it and tried to apply it. Yet, today was the first time my eyes really settled on the word “THAT”.

“THAT” is a purpose clause which points to the REASON for the “conditions” listed in verse 3.

So, the reason we (the older women) are to be reverent in the way we live, not slanders or addicted to much wine , teachers of what is good and right is SO THAT we can teach the younger women.

Older women need to examine their lives by this list before they take on the task of teaching younger women.

 

 

Tonight someone at church asked me how old I was. As the words, “I’m 48 years old” came out of my mouth the realization hit me….. HEY, I’M nearly 50 years old!!! When I think back on my life it seems like just yesterday that I was a teen living in my parents home. The Word says that our lives are a vapor and boy am I seeing the truth of that more and more. James 4:14

We attended a friend’s funeral yesterday. She would have been 50 years old this month.  She had been in a coma the past three years and finally went home to be with the Lord on January 5. As I sat and listened to the wonderful testimonies of her God-glorifying life, I was reminded again that only what I do in this life for Christ will be of eternal reward. Rev. 22:12

I want to live my life by God’s Word.

In order to do that I need to live on ‘purpose’ and obediently.

So, I’m continuing to evaluate what I AM/AM NOT doing each day to see if my days are lining up with the commands I see in Scripture for a godly woman. I don’t want my life to just pass each day in the trivial round of duties needing to be done without any thought as to whether I’m hitting the mark of what God has commanded for  me, or at least trying to aim for it. It’s been  of great value to list Scriptures, as I come across them in my daily reading, that give direction to a woman’s days and how they should be lived. I have a short list on our web page called, How a Godly Woman Should Live. The link is at the top of the Blog.  

So teach us to number our days, that we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom. Ps 90:12

These are a few ways I am ’numbering’ my days.

1. Increase my knowledge of God’s Word.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.” Col. 3:16

a. Goal: Memorization of Scripture

Application: Daily review previously memorized Scriptures that are relevant to evangelizing, living daily for the Lord and suffering.

b. Goal: Review foundational doctrinal studies.

Application: Use index cards with main doctrinal teachings and Scripture to review. Work on this with hubby.

c. Goal: Read through the Bible in a year.

Application: Use Victory Bible Reading Plan to read through the Bible in a  year with my husband.

2. Housekeeping: More efficient in order to spend less time cleaning and more time serving my family and in the church and my neighborhood. 1 John 3:17, 1 Tim. 5:14, Titus 2, Gen. 2:18

a. Goal: De-clutter office (done on 1-3-06)

b. Goal: Get rid of items not used in the past few years to take to consignment shop and to give away. (complete by Feb. 6)

Application: Go through each room and closet of the house evaluating what has been used and give away what I’m not using.

c. Goal: Streamline surfaces and floor areas for easier cleaning.

Application: Watch for items that slow down dusting and vacuuming and get rid of them. Watch for ‘hot spots’ and look for a solution.

d. Goal: Continue to use Flylady’s housekeeping plan.

Application: Use the ‘zone’ time each week to do the decluttering.

3. Goal: Streamline my time.

Application:

- Respond to emails at the end of the day instead of the beginning so that I can get right to work after Bible study.

- Use early morning time till 9:00a.m to study God’s Word. (Lord willing)

- Go to town to shop every other week instead of weekly. Change grocery list to bi-weekly.

- Less phone time.

4. Goal: Save money.

Reasons to save money: 1. Live within our means (Heb. 13:5) 2. Pay off business debt. (Rom 13:8) 3. Give more to those in need.(Eph. 4:28)

Application:

a. Set thermostat on 65.

- Close up our bedroom in the evenings and set a small space heater to warm it up and use electric blankets.

- Leave sweaters in family room to ‘layer’ when we’re cold instead of turning up heat.

b. Continue to hang out clothes on drying racks. Use clothes line on sunny days.

c. “Shop at home first”.

- Make due this winter with clothes you already have.

- Use up what is in my freezer.

- Continue making a grocery list and shop only from that list.

- Continue to pray before I enter the store for the Lord’s Spirit to give self-control and contentment. Be aware of impulses and ‘draws’ of the flesh when the eyes see something they want.

-  Purpose to live with less.

Well, that is the nuts and bolts of the goals I am working on right now.

Better get to work… !

P.S. The book I listed above has a lot of good ideas but is not a ‘Christian’ author so read with wisdom.

It’s Sunday morning! I love Sunday’s! I love God’s Word! Our Pastor is a man of integrity and an excellent student of the Word. I look so forward to attending our little church of maybe 25 families.  Our Xanga friend http://www.xanga.com/innacanoe ‘s normally posts pictures of local churches in her area so I told her one day I would post a picture of mine. Well, here it is!

Praise God for church families! We have our problems, just like every other church,  but what better place to learn how to love one another!

	Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,
	knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. Col. 3:23,24 I love this verse! It always reminds me of a homemaker.  I was thinking back over this past weeks daily work and had to ask myself if I had obeyed this verse by working heartily AS for the Lord? I definitely worked ‘heartily’ but there were so many times throughout the week that my eyes were more on the work than on serving the Lord. When that happens I can be tempted to grumble or complain because the workload suddenly seems overwhelming. We, as homemakers, spend most of our days serving our families. At times, there can be a temptation to feel like a slave if we get our eyes off WHO we are really serving. God has precisely assigned our days which includes each necessary, common duty, no matter how trivial.  Ps. 16:5 Each task we perform in our home can become holy, in a sense, if we see it as an offering of service to the Lord. “The trivial round, the common task, will furnish all we ought to ask; room to deny ourselves, a road to bring us daily nearer God.” { Taken from an old hymn written by John Kieball in the 1800′s}

I was reading over some things I wrote years ago. My heart is needing to be refreshed in reverencing my husband.  I can’t remember what year it was but it has helped to encourage me to lay down my life for my husband TODAY and to bring God glory in serving him. Phil 2:2-7

*~*~*

Going above and beyond serving our husbands

The household isn’t up yet. I can’t sleep. As I sit and write I am thinking about how hard my husband has been working lately. He has been literally dragging himself through the doors at night, physically exhausted from the demands of a days work. All to provide for his household. And even though his children are grown he still helps them anyway He can. Most of the family has their ‘hands’ in our business in one way or another. They know that if they have any needs that Pappa will do all he can to help him.

I want to find more ways to help this precious man of God lighten his load. I want to be his helpmate in a way that really ministers to him. So many times in the past I have sought to help him but it seemed that I leaned to my own convictions as to how he needed to be helped instead of really listening to what he needed at the time.

Sometimes it’s hard to keep focused on what our husbands are saying if they are over worked and stressed. If their needs come forth like demands we may tend to put up our bristles and resist them. But, I’ve found over the years that this is exactly when my husband needs me the most. At those precise moments He needs me to respond in a tone of gentleness and understanding when he is worn out. He needs my focus to be off of myself and onto him.

Learning to not take up offences has been more of a blessing than anyone thing I can think of in our marriage. For years I tended to quickly react to sharp words or criticism or a lack of what I deemed as ungratefulness. My focus was always on me and my needs. Slowly the Lord began teaching me to give those offences to Him and to not take into account a wrong suffered. 1 Cor. 13 Talk about the flesh dying hard! But, this one thing brought more change in our relationship than any thing else.

I’m asking the Lord to help me find more ways to minister to my husband this week. By God’s grace I’m going to ‘listen’ for those possible words of complaining that I haven’t focused on lately, to see if I’m missing something he really needs me to do. By God’s grace I’m going to set my mind to be a servant and keep his needs foremost in my mind throughout the day. I hope to not only keep his needs first in my day but to also find ways to go above and beyond what he expects of me.

I’ve been making a pot of soup weekly. Here is the recipe I made this past week. I’ll also include the cabbage soup diet recipe I made the week before. Soup is a great way to use up veggies.

Hearty Vegetable Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 large cloves of garlic, minced

1 cp. chopped onion

3/4 cp. barley (I’ve used this at times but left it out this time)

5 cups total of any combination of cut up fresh vegetables sauch as leeks, carrots, summer squash, celery, cabbage, mushrooms, green beans, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli,etc.

9 cups water

1/4 cp. chopped parsley

1 bay leaf

(I added garlic powder and basil, too)

3 cups canned tomatoes in puree (I used 1 can stewed tomatoes and 1 8 oz tomato sauce)

salt and pepper to taste

(I added one envelope Lipton Onion Soup Mix)

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of grated (I used shredded) parmesan cheese

Saute garlic, onion and barley in olive oil until onion is translucent. Stir in veggies (except cabbage and mushrooms). Saute 2-3 minutes. Add water. Bring to a boil. Add parsley and bay leaf. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer about 40 minutes or until vegetable and barley are just tender. Stir in tomatoes. Add everything and seasonings. Simmer till tender. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese before serving.

Cabbage Soup

6 cups water

1/2 – 1 head of cabbage, cut up

1/2 – 1 onion, chopped

1-2 carrots

2 stalks celery

1 envelope of Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix

16 oz can of tomatoes or 1 tomato

Saute onion and celery. Add rest of ingredients. Bring to boil. Reduce to simmer till veggies are done.

 Refrigerator Rolls

These rolls go great with homemade soup. Just make sure you let the dough sit in fridge at least one day before you take them out to shape, rise and bake.

1 package dry yeast

1/2 cp. warm water

1/2 cp. shortening

1/2 cp. sugar

1 egg, beaten

2 cp. warm water

1 1/2 tsp. salt

8 cp. all purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cp. warm water. Cream shortening and sugar, add egg, 2 cup water, salt and softened yeast. Add flour. Mix well. Place in large greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover, refrigerate dough. When ready to use, take a small amount of dough and  roll in a ball a little smaller than a golf ball and put on greased cookie sheet. Let rise 2-3 hours uncovered. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Yields 4-5 dozen. * Can refrigerate up to 3 weeks. I made these a week ahead of time for Christmas, kept dough in fridge and then rolled them and let them rise the morning I was going to bake them. Very yummy! 

I plan on posting more recipes on my website within the next week.

http://awomanthatfearsthelord.com

Happy New Year to all! May the Lord bless each one of your families! Grace and peace to all!

Georgene