Worship Him

"Honor the Lord for the glory of His name.Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness."
Psalm 29:2, NLT

Studying...Created to be His Help Meet

We are studying the book by Debi Pearl, Created to be His Help Meet. Through our study of this book, we are going to learn what it means to be a help meet and actually living the role that God created us as women to fill. I've read this book once before and applied many of the things that Mrs. Pearl spoke of, and it has transformed an already good marriage into nothing short of awesome!! I encourage you to purchase this book and follow along or at the very least, check out the Pearl's website at http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/
Any text taken directly from Mrs. Pearl's book will be highlighted in blue.

I realize that in studying Created to be His Help Meet at the rate of one chapter per week, we will be doing this study for approximately 24 weeks. We could go at this at a much faster rate, but I believe that if we truly want to change and fill our God given rolls as help meet to our husbands, then we need to take things slower and put into practice what we are learning. I hope you agree and stay the course with me as we become better help meets together.

Part 1: The Help Meet

Chapter 13: The Great Mystery (Part one)

Have you ever thought about your relationship with your husband in comparison to the Church's relationship to Christ? The Church is to be obedient, reverent and submissive to Christ. Think about these requirements and think about putting them into action as wives toward our husbands.

Mrs Pearl defines each for us:

1. Obedience: doing what you know the other person wants you to do.

2. Submission: your heart giving over to the other person's will

3. Reverence: more than just doing what a man expects or demands. It is an act of the woman's will to treat him with a high degree of regard and awe.

She reminds us that all of these are acts of the will, not something that comes naturally or easily. Willing yourself to do something requires discipline on your part.

She shares with us a letter from a woman who was married to a man who frequented strip clubs and prostitutes. She really wanted a divorce and everyone she met agreed that she should get one except for one couple. This couple shared with her what God's love truly is. She decided to honor God so she stayed with her husband. She shared that it wasn't easy in the beginning and she did cry and complain a lot. But as God's love is working through her and her husband is making progress. She states that there are days when she'd still love to "wring his neck" , but she is believing God and His promises.

Mrs. Pearl tells us that this "creep of a husband is the fortunate recipient of honor being given to God." Even if this man never comes to the saving knowledge of Christ, this wife will be rewarded for her obedience to God through her husband.

Mrs. Pearl asks us to reflect on our thoughts about our husbands. How many times in a day are our thoughts negative? If he forgot to take out the trash or pick up his dirty socks, do we go over that again and again in our mind, tearing down our husbands and building up a pretty mean attitude within ourselves? Remember if we focus on the negatives, we will spew negative out of our mouths.

He forgot the trash? Instead of being negative, just take it out yourself and while you're doing that change the focus from the fact that he didn't take it out to he deserves to rest after a hard day of working a job that supports his family.

Didn't pick up those socks? Pick them up and thank God for the precious feet that hold up the man that goes to work everyday and supports his family.

See? Just a simple change in your attitude will totally turn the situation around.

Next week: The Great Mystery (Part two)

Thankful Thursday

It's Thursday and time to join up with Sonya over at Truth 4 the Journey for Thankful Thursday. It's a time we set aside to list five things that we are truly thankful for.

It is such a blessing to be able to share what I am thankful for and rejoice with you in how God has blessed you as well.

Click here to join us in sharing the faithfulness of God!!!

Here are my thankfuls for this week......

1) I am thankful for confirmation from God. Sunday night at church we had a visiting evangelist and the service was awesome!!...although right now I can't tell you what the message was about. The evangelist gave an altar call and for whatever reason....satan....I didn't move. Then, I couldn't stand it any longer and headed to the altar. Next thing I know, I'm holding a prayer cloth and the evangelist is eyeball to eyeball with me and when he spoke, God came out of his mouth!! It was so totally awesome to hear God tell me that He knows what I'm battling and that He is ready and more than able to take me by the hand and deliver me from the bondages that satan is trying so hard to keep me in.

2) I am thankful that my guys had a safe and wonderful weekend camping. They came home full of laughter and fun stories to share. Even throughout this week, they've made little statements that make no sense to me and DD, but will put them doubled over in laughter!

3) I am thankful for this sweet, sweet man at church nicknamed Mayor. He always greats me with a laugh and a smile and when he shakes my hand, he slips a peppermint in it. What a true blessing of happiness he is!!

4) I am thankful that my Dad's follow up Dr visit went well. Since his heart surgery, he's been a bit more tired, but the Dr is pleased with how well he is coming along.

5) I am thankful for my new WOW 2010, cd!! Seriously. I got a great deal on it, but there are some awesome God songs on there that do wonders in bringing me before the throne in praise to my Savior!

"My cup overflows with blessings."
Psalm 23: 5, NLT

Family Favorites

We've all been there. A sweet tooth hits and there is nothing in the house. Guests drop in and you'd love to serve them something warm and yummy, but you don't have a lot of time or ingredients. You're in the middle of cooking supper and you decide a nice finish would be dessert.
I have the perfect recipe and it's doubly nice this time of year.

It only takes 6 ingredients and is super easy to stir up and pop in the oven.
Hope you enjoy!!!

Apple Crumble

1 cup baking mix (such as Bisquick)
3/4 cup brown sugar
½ cup quick-cooking oats
¼ cup margarine
2 cups sliced apples
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Grease the bottom and sides of an 8x8 baking dish. Blend first three ingredients in a bowl. Cut margarine into bits and add to mix. Spread 1/3 of oat mixture in bottom of pan. Place apple slices over mixture. Sprinkle with remaining oat mixture and cinnamon. Bake 30-35 minutes at 350ºF. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

As always, if this recipe is original to you, e-mail me and I'll be glad to give you a shout out!!

Tips & Quips

I don't know about your refrigerator, but mine tends to hide things. I put leftovers in and they disappear! I wish I could tell you that some wonderful family member had eaten them, but no...our fridge is enjoying a wonderful game of hide-n-seek with them.

Now, it's really sweet that our fridge just wants to be included in our family fun times, but quite frankly, Fridge's little game is costing this family some precious dollars, not to mention the fact that we are wasting enough that could literally feed one or two adults.

This isn't being a good steward of our finances or the food that God has blessed us with. In our home, if a leftover hasn't been eaten within a day or two, chances are it's not going to be eaten.
Yesterday I decided to clean out the fridge and what I found made me totally ashamed. I threw out an ice cream bucket full of food.

God was dealing with me with each swipe of the spatula around yet another bowl of wastefulness when He finally got through this thick skull and said, "What is good, freeze." I said, "But it's just a bite here or a bite there." He reminded me, "It's enough for one."

Then ding!!! That little light bulb turned on and the result was this:



4 bags of leftovers. Some stroganoff, a pork chop, some bbq and some polish sausage/sauce mix (family favorite from my growing up days!).

Looking at this food separated into these bags made me realize that even more than I thought was being thrown out and I was very disappointed in myself.

So, my tip....if you haven't eaten those leftovers, freeze them. Do them in single serving sizes for those times when it's just one or two eating, or when you don't want to cook and take out would strain that budget.

We are BLESSED!!!!!!! It's time we began taking care of all of our blessings including leftovers..

Seven Mondays and Counting

Now is a good time to be thinking about Christmas lights, especially if you decorate with lights outside like we do.

I didn't use many lights outside in years past because of the way that Christmas lights really hit the electric bill. But today, ahhh today we are blessed with LED lights and these babies are energy efficient!!!

Last year I did a post on the efficiency of these lights and how wonderful they were. Click here to read that post.

LED's can be expensive, but thanks to Home Depot and the promotion they are running between now through November 15th, LED's are very affordable.

If you bring in a string of your old Christmas lights, Home Depot will give you a coupon worth $3 off the purchase of LED's!! To make this an even better deal, through the promotional period, they have their LED's for $5.97 each, minus the $3 coupon means you can get these lights for $2.97!!! AND if that isn't enough, you can do this 5 times!!!!

(As with any promotional, check your area's Home Depot to make sure they are participating in this!)

I believe the light they give off is much prettier than the traditional lights and they don't get hot to the touch!!!

So, grab 5 sets of your old lights and $15 (or so) and head over to Home Depot! Your wallet will be glad you did!