Trying to be ready for anything!

Life is full of beautiful busyness right now.  I am so enjoying where my life is heading.  Which is really incredible because a month ago I thought I was going in a completely different direction.  I guess you need to be ready for anything.  I am meeting wonderful couples who are planning weddings and I am meeting great people who offer wonderful unique ideas for weddings.  Yesterday I was featured in our local paper!  You can read the article HERE.

Beyond all of the new job stuff, my daughters are home this week from school.  We are having a blast!  My oldest just turned 10 on Sunday and it has been great celebrating her birth and the wonderful young lady that she is becoming.  Both my daughters are in swimming lessons this week so that is helping to break up the day, I am enjoying my 90 minutes to make a few notes and send some emails.  We even had a chance to get hair cuts!

Acacia went drastic and cut her hair short!  She is so brave!

Nevaeh had a couple of inches taken off and then her hair done is a special braid.

They were so cute I wanted to get a picture of them together and this is the best that I could get, what a pair!

This past year I have been co-teaching the Grades 7-8 Sunday School class.  I am really enjoying it.  It is always interesting to see where the conversations go and the questions they ask.  I also appreciate the prep time.  Getting into the scriptures and digging for answers. 

If you have followed this blog through the years you know that I have done a lot of study on the book of Esther.  I love researching people of the Bible and looking at things from a different perspective.  In the spring of 2011 I attended a women’s retreat where the speakers taught on several women in the Bible.  On Saturday morning I knew they were sharing about Tamar.  I had a few minutes between breakfast and the session so I thought I would read through the story and refresh my memory.  Wow, I was not prepared for what happened.  I saw the story of Tamar come to life in a different perspective than I have ever heard in my life.

I really want to share it with you but I need you do to something first.  Please study Genesis 38.  Pray that God will open up the scriptures to your heart and mind.  I will be doing the same before I write my next post within the next week.  I am interested in hearing what you learn as well.  Please leave me a comment or send me an email to let me know how your eyes are being opened to the words and lessons through the life of Tamar.

Journal your Journey!

I love my journal. It is my place to go and think. One day as I was writing about my journal in my journal, I accidently wrote the word "journey" instead of the word "journal".

So being the analytical person that I am, I thought about, “Why did I write the word "journey?”

When I am writing in my journal, I am writing about my journey. I am writing about what God is teaching me and what I have learned as I travel along the journey that God has me on. Many times when I have a situation going on in my life I write it out and then many things become apparent to me though my writing. And when I go back and read through my journal, it is so evident to see God’s hand in my life- in little and big ways along my journey.

Think about the book of Esther. I wonder how Esther felt about the presence of God in her life while on her journey. Maybe in the steps along the way she questioned God about what He was doing in her life. I know I probably would have being put into the positions that she was in. Even now as we are able to read about Esther’s journey in her own book of the Bible, even though God’s name is never mentioned you can still see how evident He was working in the lives of Esther and her cousin Mordecai.

So if you don’t keep a journal I encourage you to start, it is such a great record of your journey!

To all the Mom's out there

Tonight I would like to ask all the Mom’s out there to take care of yourselves. Over the past year I have been dealing with weird health issues. I have learned how important it is to take care of yourself mentally, spiritually and physically.
Mentally- use your brain. Your body tells you what you need, you just need to listen. My body kept telling me that it was tired and needed a break and I told my body “Shut up, I’m too busy.” And now I am paying for that. What I would give to take back the last year and a half of my life and do things differently, but since that isn’t an option I have to change my entire lifestyle to mend the damage that I have done.

Spiritually- I don’t know about you but I know I feel all around better about myself and life in general when I am spending time in the Word. My husband understands this as well; sometimes when I am acting irrational my husband sends me to our room and tells me to read my Bible. And just because he is telling me to do it I feel like I need to rebel, but deep down I know that is exactly what I need and I comply and my day goes a whole lot better.

Physically- as Mom’s we tend to put ourselves at the bottom of the list. It took me months to go and see a Doctor when I knew that something wasn’t right. Our families need us and we are no good to them when we are falling apart. I am just coming to an understanding about vitamins and minerals and how our bodies need them. I have discovered that I was lacking in a lot of areas and now that I am taking my vitamins I feel so much better physically. And when I feel better physically I can use that energy to feel better mentally and connect better spiritually.

Ladies I am just coming to understand on a deeper level how important it is to our children that we are in a secure place. Especially our daughters. If we want what is best for our daughters -- get things together in your life. Our self-esteem and how we deal with circumstances have a direct effect on our daughters. I have been weak and in pain for months and that has definitely had a negative effect on my self-esteem. I have seen changes in my oldest daughter that I know are a result of my behaviour. So now I have to correct my own behaviour and support her as she has to deal with her own issues. And I talk to her about what I am going through and I apologized for my behaviour and she can now visually see that I am trying to make changes. Our daughters need to see that we are not super humans that we have made mistakes in the past and we make mistakes every day and we are continually growing and learning from our mistakes.

A little while ago I was driving to a speaking event and this awesome idea popped into my head. I would love to plan a Mother/Daughter Retreat weekend. I have sessions all planned out and everything. I arrived at the speaking event just before 6pm and then I realized that it didn’t start until 6:30 so I spent the time writing all my thoughts out about the weekend and different things I could plan.

Sometimes I wonder why God has burdened me with all these far out ideas. Why did I feel compelled to write a book? Why do I feel like I have two more books in me that need to be written? I know from mistakes that I have learned from and circumstances in my life that I am here for a purpose that just like Esther I was created for such a time as this. I was born to affect the lives of women of all ages at this time and place.

So right now take time to evaluate yourself Mentally, Spiritually and Physically-- how are you doing? Not one person reading this is doing find in all three categories. There is always room to grow and learn. What kind of role model are you being to your children? I know, pretty heavy questions, but we (as a society) need to be positive role models (light) to those around us. I am willing to take the steps to make it happen, are you?