20 Beautiful Children Stormed through Heaven’s Gates

I received this in an email a few days ago and it gave me a new perspective.  I thought I would pass it on to all of you.


 Twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38 when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate. Their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air. They could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there. They were filled with such joy; they didn't know what to say.

   They remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day. “where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse. “This is heaven" declared a small boy. "We’re spending Christmas at God's house”.

   When what to their wondering eyes did appear, but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near. He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same. Then He opened His arms and He called them by name. And in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring, those children all flew into the arms of their King and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace, one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face. And as if He could read all the questions she had He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad.“

    Then He looked down on earth, the world far below He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe.  Then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand, “Let My power and presence re-enter this land! “May this country be delivered from the hands of fools” “I’m taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!“ 

    Then He and the children stood up without a sound. “Come now my children let me show you around. “Excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran. All displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can. And I heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight, “in the midst of this darkness,” I AM STILL THE LIGHT."

Jeannie

Are SAHM wasting their education?

Our daughter felt very lead to go to a private Christian college after high school.   The price tag on a Christian college as oppose to a state college is very, very different. We are a larger family on only one income so that helped with FAFSA, but it is still spendy, as they say up here in these parts.


As we looked at this, and as I think I know my daughter’s heart, I am pretty sure she will not make a huge income, if any, after she graduates.  Her major is Youth and Family Ministry, and we all know ministry is not a financially profitable field of employment, rewarding in so many other ways but not financially.


Will she be a stay at home mom?  I don’t know.  Will she ever make as money as she put into this education?  Again, I don’t know.

What I do know is that knowledge is never a waste of money.  The experiences gained are not a waste of money. 
 

The knowledge and experience gained from an education may not bring in an income if you choose to be a SAHM but it is not at all a waste.  You are equipping yourself for a life of raising your children and running your home.




Can you raise children and manage a home without a degree, of course.  I have done it and you still can, but the next generation is very different than mine and it will be a great benefit to your family if you have gained that educational experience, plus it is not a bad place to find a spouse if you have no prospects.



I do want to say that going back to school once you have had children needs to be handled very carefully as not to effect your goals of being a godly wife and mother.



I  want to encourage mothers who have earned their degree to stay true to the convictions they have, to stay home with your children either part time or full time.  If using your education to raise your children is considered a waste by others, they may need to take a look at what they deem as important to them. 

 Follow God’s leading not the world’s.


God Bless

Jeannie

The Tough Days of Motherhood

The other day I was reading a post on a blog that I like.  The writer is a young Mama.  She was pouring her heart out, and venting about some of the frustrations in her life connected to being a young, stay at home mom.  Some of the frustrations were loneliness, boredom and just feeling out of touch with the world.

 

I remember those says so clearly.  I was just like her, I married right out of high school and had our first child within 2 years.  Even though I choose all of this it still was a struggle.  I longed for a best friend as she does, someone I could confide everything and share the struggles of motherhood.  But she never came.

 

Now I am thankful that she never came.  I learned to confide in and share my struggles with two best friends that I had hiding in the wings, my husband and my mom.  They have both always loved my unconditionally.

 

I also remember feeling unable to do some of the great things that I wanted to do, which lead to boredom and feeling out of touch.  I knew God had big plans for me.

 

I am thankful that I didn’t do big things back then.  Now I realize that I was not equip, I thought I was but I was not.   I also realize that I had then and still have 4 gigantic ministries I take care of, in the lives of our four children.   We now have one adult child and one very close to being an adult and I see the impact that my life has had on them.  Our faith, values and love for others has been multiplied by 4 more lives. 

 

I love to serve others, if I had spent my time and energy on that alone, instead of in my family, I would have been just me, but when we go to serve today we come as a army of 6 very willing servants.

 

The days of loneliness and boredom(of mind not body, those little ones keep you hopping) will be their.  Seek out those who are in your life right now, pour into them all of you and draw strength from them as well.  The days of constant activity and the desire for boredom will be on your door step before you know it.

 

God Bless!!

Jeannie

The Dangers of Girl Power

  The girl power “movement”,I will call it, teaches our daughters to be strong, to empower themselves, to be self reliant, and that she can be anything she wants to be.

  All of that on the surface sounds good, we don’t want wimpy, laydown and get trampled over girls do we?  Why shouldn’t she be able to be anything she wants to be,  she is very intelligent.

  But how strong exactly do we need to be?  Stronger than our husbands?  More dominant? Strength and honor [are] her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.  Proverbs 31:25

  How self-reliant should we really become?  Aren’t we supposed to rely on God? Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding:  in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.  Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.   This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Proverbs 3:5-8  

  Yes, girls/women have the capability to be anything we want to be but what will work best with having a family?
She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:  “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."  Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.   Proverbs 31:27-30

Just because we can, doesn’t necessarily mean that we should. 


Girl Power is just a mini version of feminism.  Just like many of the other movements that are contrary to God’s word, they are being taught to our children when they are young.

  We first experienced this, in such a subtle way, when our oldest daughter, Allie was in Girl Scouts, this was one of the reasons we left that group.  They had a workshop that we attended.  The name of the workshop was on “becoming a better you”.


You can see this girl power theme in kid shows, as well.  Have you noticed lately that the damsel in distress is rescuing herself.  In Mirror, Mirror, a version of Snow White, Snow white locks the Prince in the house with the 7 dwarfs, so that she can go fight and defeat the dragon.


Just a reminder, this is not only dangerous for your daughters, but also your sons.  This same message is dumbing down and defeating boys-taking their future place as head of the household, out of their hands.


Tread very carefully through any of today’s media when it comes to your children.

Jeannie

See a follow up Here

The Next Generation of Mommies.

Our Daughters and Granddaughters are the next generation of Mommies.  What are the opportunities ahead of them?  What are the trials?  What choices will they make?



For the next few posts I thought we could explore some of that together.  Our world is so rapidly changing.  The girls are maturing in some ways more quickly and in other ways less quickly.



One example, we are doing a tea party for our 3rd and 4th grade AWANA girls this year.  In planning it, I have noticed differences in girls from just 11 years ago.  When our oldest Allie went to the tea party at the same age all of the girls brought a teddy bear or a doll to the tea party now that is out of the question.  Just amazing!  And yet these same girls are not as responsible as she and her peers were at that age.



I just started a little devotion/training with our younger daughter, Isabella.  It is called Princess training.  I found it at Under the Golden Apple Tree .com.  I found so many great things on this blog.  It is great, you should check it out.



Princess Training starts out with a story and goes in to Character training specific to a little girl growing into a young lady.   Below are the topics:

The Heart
Femininity
Courageous
Virtue
Discernment
Trust and Obey
Reflecting Christ
Modesty
Long Suffering
Ambition
Thankfulness
Hospitality
Memory Verses


 Come back for more on raising the next generation of Mommies.

 Jeannie

My Favorite Thanksgiving Pinterest

I love Thanksgiving.  I have never had a year like this one.  I feel like I have the time and excitement to really do some fun things.  So, a hunting I went for ideas.  Where is the best place to get ideas?  That’s right Pinterest.  These are a few of my favorites.  They are realistic for my time and yet look fun. 



I can’t wait to try these cinnamon candles.  They are supposed to smell great.


 



This first post has 90 front porch ideas.  The second one is a cute kids table idea. We are studying U.S. History this year and just took a look at the pilgrims.



Yummy desserts!  And look my favorite kind of pie, a little of everything.



More kid table ideas.





Fun projects to do with the kids, above and below.







I don’t have any babies but I just couldn’t resist.  I will have grandbabies one day.  So stinkin' cute!!
Come on over to my Pinterest to see the rest of the great things I found.

Jeannie

Christmas Shoe Boxes

Every year we send boxes to Samaritans Purse’s program called Operation Christmas Child.  This year our church had these cute boxes for us to use.  Below you can see what we are sending this year.  If you click on the links below you will find ideas to fill the boxes with.
      


Ideas for girl shoeboxes

       

Ideas for boy shoeboxes

A friend told me that it is a good idea to put a bowl and cup into the boxes.  So many children are in line for food and have nothing to put it into.  Also, many places are very hot and it would be good to have a container to carry water in.

 Here is a place to get a coloring page and letter to send along with your box.  If you have never been involved with this great ministry, I hope that you give it a try this year.  Most places have the drop offs around Thanksgiving.  So you have plenty of time. 

Jeannie

It has been so long!

Hello to everyone.  I feel like it has been ages since I have been able to get to my computer.  I apologize for just dropping off of the web.  We had an unexpected trip that we had to make. 

I went with my two little ones to visit my family.  You see April 16th I had a sweet little baby niece born prematurely and with a birth abnormality.  She is still today in the hospital.  Her biggest issue right now is that she can’t yet breath on her own very well.  She will have surgery later for the abnormality.


She is such a little cutie!!

My mom and my other two nieces were going to come here to visit us last month but with some tough decisions and all of the stress my brother and sister in law did not want the girls to come.  I really felt that we needed to go there and support them in every way we could.  So, as days past and God opened up finances and time we decided that we could make the trip.

After about a week and a half Mike and the two older kids came also.  We really feel blessed that we were able to make the trip. 

My mom and Allie our oldest.

We did have a little fun, we stopped at a Christmas store on part of the trip.  Doesn’t Zachary look so enthused?  He is not one that likes pictures.
Thank you all for continuing to visit and a big shout out to Russia.  For the past few weeks my highest number of hits have been coming from Russia.  God Bless you!
Jeannie

Making Those Moments

This year being our first year with one income, we don’t have extra cash for vacations, yet our big kids are growing and growing and we don’t have many years left with them under our roof. 

So, we decided to frequently have camp fires in our backyard to just sit around with each other and talk and goof off.

Here are a few of the highlights from one of our fires.  Picture all of this with a stereo playing (at a respectful volume) Christian pop and alternative.  My big kids find some of the coolest Christian music.



Bella and Jacob roasting their marshmellows


My beautiful Allie making faces.  She was preparing the fixins for the S’mores.


Were wanting for the fire Dad.



Big Man make Little fire!


My little man, such a goof.  In the back ground you can see our old fire pit.  I like the new one that Mike made.



The Fire.


Our good boy Max.



We really did have fun.  They were just concentrating on finally getting that fire going.  Mike just cut down two trees a few weeks ago and the wood is still a little wet.  So, once the fire got going so did our fun. 
Time with our kids is so important.  It makes them feel like they are important to us and allows them to feel free to open up and talk.  But we have to make the effort to make those moments and the memories.

Jeannie