Battle at Jericho

I try to make devotion time interesting and interactive for the boys whenever I can. There are some stories that I do well with and some that I don’t.  One day we read the story of Jericho and this was a fun one.

 

Using our bricks, the boys built their own wall of Jericho:

Then they marched around the wall 6 times quietly. On the seventh time they blew their trumpets and shouted to God!

 

And of course the wall crumbled

Then they took to their weapons and seized the city {not pictured is Rahab being saved!}

 

 

 

Linking up with MOB Society Let’s Hear It For The Boys!

Love Your Enemies

Yesterday I shared a little bit about my marriage and it’s demise. Today I’m going to talk about little bit about a struggle that I have had during this time in my life. My husband spent a lot of time and energy trying to attack my reputation. He would tell lies about things that were going on/or not going on in our marriage in order to get sympathy.  There was one point where everyone {in his family and mine} placed the blame completely on me. I was being a bad and unreasonable wife and if I would just get my act together then things could get worked out.

Things even got so bad at one point that his mother uninvited me and the boys to Christmas Eve {something I’d done for 11 years prior to that time}. I was quite frankly pissed out about the whole situation. It wasn’t handled properly at all and when I tried to point out to her that what she was doing was excluding her two grandchildren from a family gathering she just didn’t see it that way. In fact I remember her saying something like “They’re young they won’t remember.” Well Bubba did remember. The first thing out of his mouth on Christmas Eve that year was when were we going to grandma’s house.

I’ll not go into anymore details about it but things got a lot worse before they get more worse. And to this day I still think that people have a false impression about my character and motives.  Just this one time I’m going to say that I’d done nothing at all to deserve what I was getting. But I realized that it really wasn’t about me one day when I read this in the Bible:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matthew 5:43-45 (NIV)

What I had to realize was that God was trying to teach me a lesson.  I needed to love and pray for my enemies. It wasn’t easy for me to do this. I wanted to scream at the top of lungs that I was being treated unfairly and defend myself. But I didn’t I made the difficult choice to be silent. To say nothing and trust that God would vindicate me in His time.

And as hard as it was for me to be silent, it was equally as hard for me to pray for my enemies. Truthfully in the beginning it was “God don’t let anything bad happen to them. Amen.” That’s all I could get out. But over the last year or two my heart has soften and I can pray “Lord forgive them. Save them and bring them closer to you.”

It’s not always easy to answer the call of God. It’s not always easy to keep quiet when you are under attack. But as long as we walk in obedience to God it will all work out in the end.

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How I Learned What Love Really Looks Like

Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m going to take today and tomorrow and get a little personal. I’m going to talk a little bit about my marriage. Disclaimer here: I’m not going to dish out all the dirt and drama involved in my relationship out of respect for everyone involved.

My husband and I met really young, dated in high school, went our separate ways for a few years and then got back together {out of the blue} and decided to get married. Looking back I have no idea what the hurry was, except that I wanted to get married and it seemed like a good idea at the time {I know famous last words}.

The truth of the situation is this: we should never have gotten married. Neither one of us really knew what the real deal was. No one took us to the side to counsel us about what the Bible says about marriage and family life. And we didn’t have enough sense to seek that information out for ourselves. Because of this, God was no where in our marriage and that {along with some other stuff that I’ll not get into} is why we are divorcing.

Why am I writing about this on a day that’s meant to celebrate love? Because it took me to go through these past seven years of hell to really get a clear understanding about what love is and what it’s not. My marriage was not one full of love. It was full of self {on both our parts}.  We weren’t a good match, something I wish we would have realized before we walked down the aisle.

Once I realized that things were really bad in my marriage I did what I should’ve done before I said yes to a proposal. I opened my Bible and began to read about God’s plan for marriage and family. I studied the book of Ephesians. I prayed and prayed and prayed. I sought wise and godly counsel. And it was then that God showed me where I fell short in my marriage and why it just wasn’t working. Shortly after this my husband moved out and filed for divorce.

Now I spent a few weeks perplexed at why God would give me this revelation just for things to go down the toilet anyway. And honestly, it’s taken about 2 years for me to get it. He wanted me to be ready and able to see true love when it comes again.

I know that there’s controversy within the Christian community surrounding divorce and I really don’t want to get into that here. But God has shown me a picture of my future. It will be full of love and happiness. And I will be in a loving and godly marriage surrounded by children and supported by my husband.

I want to encourage everyone to take some time today and really see what God says about love and relationships. And then take the time to pray over and nourish those relationships in your life. If you are single then I encourage you not to lose heart. You may be in a bad situation but you never know the kind of love that God may have waiting for you around the corner.

And most importantly don’t forget that He loves you better than anyone ever could!

Photo Credit

Mommy=Love

As a mom, I represent LOVE to my boys. I’m the first example of love here on earth for them. And most importantly I represent God and His love for them. With Valentine’s Day near I’ve been thinking about love and vital it is to make sure that my boys feel surrounded by love. I reworked one of my favorite Bible verses below:

As a Mommy I am love. I must be patient with my boys. Even when I am tired, sick or just plain worn out. When I am disciplining them for the same thing over and over. I cannot look at my other mom friends and envy what they have and I do not.  I must not boast about how well things are going for me. Neither will benefit my boys. My goal in mothering should not be to make myself look good. it’s not really about me at all. I must learn to control my temper and other emotions. I shouldn’t keep track of my boys’ wrongs, even when I have been telling them not to fight over the action figure for two. weeks. straight.  I should not praise my boys for ungodly behavior. It’ll send the wrong message.  I should praise obedience and good choice, especially if I want to see more of it. I need to protect their hearts and minds and fill them with Godly wisdom and character.  I must trust that God is in control at all time. I must always hope for the best. And when things look really bad I must never give up!

Adapted from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Blitz Giveaway Week over at Roo Mag!

Starting tomorrow there are going to be amazing giveaways over at Roo Mag. The giveaways will last all week long and there are some great thing that you definitely want to get!  Make sure that you head over tomorrow morning for the first giveaway! There are some great ladies writing over there and I’m proud to be one of the newest members of team.

And because I love you all so much here’s a list of all the good stuff that’s up for grabs this week:

• Monday Morning -  “ReShaping It All” by Candace Cameron Bure and Darlene AND Candace’s CD with her testimony
• Monday Afternoon –3 of Karen Ehman’s books and 3 $10 gift cards
• Tuesday Morning – “A Confident Heat” by Renee Swope
• Tuesday Afternoon – eDesign Single Question Consult – $45 Value – Darlene Weir
• Wednesday Morning – “The Good Girls Guide to Great Sex” by Sheila
• Wednesday Afternoon – “The Good Wife’s Guide” – 5 copies – by Darlene Schacht
• Thursday Morning – “I Used To Be So Organized” – by Glyniss Whitwer
• Thursday Afternoon – A BIG Bundle of homeschooling ecurricula by Erica
• Friday Morning -  Money Saving Mom’s Book!  – Cyrstal Paine
• Friday Afternoon – Cuisinart Immersion Blender
• Saturday Morning – Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerich
• Saturday Afternoon – Ebook The Pursuit of Proverbs 31 by Amy Bayliss and 1 DIY Membership!

Still not excited?? Check this out!

Letter P {for Pumpkin}

**Chubba is 41 months old**

Chubba took a cue from his big brother this week and blew threw all his work in 2 days. But we had a lot of fun working on pumpkins.

Tracing practice

Cutting

Lacing card

Magnet sheet

Color matching

Patterns

Dot a Dot page

Puzzle

Letter match

Sorting the Ps and ps

Size sorting

Having fun with 4 funny pumpkins flannel board set

Lots of animal puzzles!

Moments to Remember: The Zoo

The weather here has been in the 80s so I decided to take advantage of the warmth and headed to the zoo with the boys for a field trip. It was so nice to listen to them talk about the different animals that we saw. For a few months they've been learning about different animals and it was nice to see them remember and use that knowledge. Bubba was proud that he remembered the names of the different elephants (bull, cow, calf). And Chubba kept telling me how amazing God's animals were. It was a lovely time!

Chubba was excited to see a hippo after learning about them last week {usually they hide in the water when we are there}

Bubba stopping to take a look at an elephant

There are so many rides at the zoo here and it was nice to see Chubba finally start enjoying a few others than the train and merry-go-round (which he rode 3 times). I believe they rode this banana ride 4 times!

Here’s a shot of Bubba trying on a safari hat. My little learned the word “endangered” this week while learning about elephants. He was very upset at the number of endangered animals at the zoo. He just cannot understand why people are so mean to the animals. Bless his heart.

Moments to Remember was developed as a simple way to look back on our week as homeschoolers and find photos that encompass the memories we want to remember. The week may have been tough, there may have been more bumps than smiles, but in the end these are the moments that keep us going, the ones we need to remember.

MFW K: Penguins

Penguins was a very quick unit {Bubba done all of his work in 2 days!} I had planned some other activities that we never got to but it’s okay.

Bubba loves the new stories!

Iceberg experiment to see what happened when ice melts {we talked a little bit about global warming as well}

We spent some time working on this penguin lapbook.

 

This post is linked to Homeschool Highlights in MFW at 2 ladybugs and a lizard.

I really love to dance!

Bubba has been in dance classes for 3 years and he is doing a great job! A few weeks ago the studio let the family come in to watch and participate in the class. Chubba has a blast joining in with his big brother.

Practicing ballet moves on the bar

Leaping!

Time for tap shoes

or tap socks

Choo-Choo!

 

Linking up with MOB Society Let’s Hear It For The Boys!