Hope and Prayer

Hope is defined as: A desire of some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable.

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. Romans 12:12

We must find ourselves "rejoicing in hope," for we serve the very God of hope.  He fills us with joy and peace so that we may "abound in hope"; through the Holy Spirit.

God is forever training us through the difficulties that we have and it is our privilege to approach God in prayer with humility and a helpless heart.  Let us petition the throne of grace with our thoughts and desires forever upward.  Our heavenly messengers are waiting for our sincere and heartfelt prayers.

 

"Prayer moves the arm of Omnipotence."  COL 173

Prayer has "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens."  Hebrews 11:33-34


And then we WAIT on the Lord...

in cheerful anticipation

[It is] good that [a man] should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3:26

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but [when] the desire cometh, [it is] a tree of life.  

Proverbs 13:12

God's Promises

 

Yesterday, we were picking tomatoes from the garden--a freeze was predicted for that night.

I was questioning myself.

Which tomatoes should I pick???

Can we still cover the plants and leave some of the tomatoes out a little longer?

I was getting kind of anxious.

We hadn't gotten as many tomatoes as we hoped.

I was feeling that our harvest would be short.

Before I knew it, we began to have sun showers.

It was beautiful.

Then we saw this beautiful rainbow.

God reminded me of all of His promises.

For all the promises of God in him [are] yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. 

2 Corinthians 1:20

My heart rejoiced!!!

How wonderful God is!!!

But, He wasn't done.

He decided to show us a double rainbow

(We get those often here)

 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 

 2 Peter 1:4

Food Storage and Winter

 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard. Proverbs 31:16


She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household [are] clothed with scarlet.  Proverbs 31:21

Afriend of mine asked about food storage, so I thought I would post some of what we do. 

There are so many different reasons why families practice food storage.  Some times it has to do with people having large families, biblical principles (a good example is Joseph in Genesis 47), locality, emergency preparedness and sometimes a well stocked pantry just puts a smile on a mom's face. 

When we purchased our 20 acres our home wasn't big enough to have a cold storage inside, so out we went.  Our first choice was to place in a root cellar. The hole is dug and ready to go (oh yeah, winter is on the way--project for next year).  So, we took one of the small outbuildings and fit it with shelving.   We use rubbermaid buckets and 5-gallon pails fitted with Gamma Seal Lids to store grains and legumes.  The shelving is able to hold all of our canned foods.  The only problem that we ran into last winter was during the coldest of winter (below zero--doesn't happen often).  We didn't think to insulate the floor and our potatoes were sitting on the floor, so we had some damaged potatoes.  We do keep a small heater in there that runs to keep temperatures just around 40 degrees.  We also store our winter squash and onions (burlap bags).  My husband is in the process of turning a larger room inside of the work shed/his office to move everything into for this winter since the root cellar will not get done before winter starts.

Once a year, usually in the fall, we stock up using our winter shopping list and replenish in late spring.

Canning is a big to-do around here.  Last year, we canned nearly 600 jars of food.  We harvest from our garden and there is an area about 40 minutes from here, Greenbluff, where there is over 30 farms that we usually get our fruit.  I also can dry beans which I use to think was a dumb idea, but I got a little wiser.  Because of where we live and winter, if we just happen to have a big snow, and the electricity goes out, canned bean are easy to open and warm up on the wood stove.  It is also cheaper than buying from the store.  Now that is a good idea.  We usually do pinto (great for refried beans and other stuff), garbanzo (hummus, soups, sandwich fillings etc.), and kidney (great for soups, different vegetarian patties etc.). 

We also dry lots of strawberries, cherries, apples and bananas--great for granola and just eating.

We have a staple home-made food list such as bread, granola, gluten, and other food stuff that we keep in the freezer for use.  That comes in handy during canning season when no one wants to particularly cook and during the winter.

Peek at our shopping list at Consecrated Families.

Food storage is so much fun.  My family claims that I "keep stash."  Yes, I do!!!

No Work is Greater or Holier

The mother is God's agent to Christianize her family. She is to exemplify Biblical religion, showing how its influence is to control us in its everyday duties and pleasures, teaching her children that by grace alone can they be saved, through faith, which is the gift of God. This constant teaching as to what Christ is to us and to them, His love, His goodness, His mercy, revealed in the great plan of redemption, will make a hallowed, sacred impress on the heart.


The mother who cheerfully takes up the duties lying directly in her path will feel that life is to her precious, because God has given her a work to perform…


The mother's work is given her of God, to bring up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There are opportunities of inestimable worth, interests infinitely precious, committed to every mother. The humble round of duties which women have come to regard as a wearisome task should be looked upon as a grand and noble work. It is the mother's privilege to bless the world by her influence, and in doing this she will bring joy to her own heart. She may make straight paths for the feet of her children through sunshine and shadow to the glorious heights above. But it is only when she seeks, in her own life, to follow the teachings of Christ that the mother can hope to form the character of her children after the divine pattern. Amid all the activities of life the mother's most sacred duty is to her children.


Let woman realize the sacredness of her work and, in the strength and fear of God, take up her life mission. Let her educate her children for usefulness in this world and for a fitness for the better world. We address Christian mothers. We entreat that you feel your responsibility as mothers and that you live not to please yourselves, but to glorify God. Christ pleased not Himself, but took upon Him the form of a servant. AH 233-236

About me!

Since I haven't gotten around to the about me page, I thought I would just make a list to share.

I was born in Las Vegas, NV--moved to Central Louisiana during my teen years

I have 2 older brothers

My Dad lives in Central Louisiana. My mom died about 17 years ago at the young of 52 from breast cancer

I went to school at Southwestern Adventist University--Nursing degree

My specialty is Critical Care/Open Heart Recovery

I worked at one of the best Open Heart Recovery Units in the country

I have a wonderful husband who is so persevering and such a visionary that it is sometimes scary

I told my husband before we got married that "I am not domesticated." Boy, how the Lord changed my mind

I enjoy paper things such as fancy pens, pencils, crazy paperclips, different kinds of sticky pads, etc

I have two wonderful daughters (Meg, 19 and Ari, 14)

Anything that is pink peaks my interest. Pens, water bottles, flashlights, office supplies

My daughters think I am eccentric(maybe they don't know the definition)

Quilting fabric is on. I like to touch and take in the colors. I can spend hours in a quilt shop. What am I talking about, I have

I live an hour from any worthwhile grocery store. The nearest gas station is 18 miles away

My youngest daughter is a duplicate of me. Sometimes I just laugh at her

My oldest daughter says that I am soulful. I think it is just my southern roots

I love linen material. Not bad for a woman that hates to iron

I am totally into heirloom tomatoes. Buying heirloom seeds is like picking fabric for a sewing project

I like making bags

My family says that I am dainty because I don't like to get my feet dirty. Whatever

I love books, books and more book. I love buying my children books

I love fluffy towel and they have to be folded a certain way

I like 600(+) thread count sheets and flannel sheets in the winter.

I love gardening but I am just not allowed to touch the houseplants, I kill them

My house is not totally finished and sometimes it drives my crazy. Very cozy though

I am passionate about "True Education"

I enjoy homeschooling even though about 3/4 of the way through the year, I am dragging my feet

I thoroughly enjoy buying school supplies

Some people say I am very organized. That is from many years of nursing

Rubbermaid storage bins are on the top of my list. It is difficult to do without them

I hate talking on the phone. I don't even answer my own phone. I'd rather visit

I love my church and the message

I enjoy kitchen appliances and gadget. I think I use to be just on the verge of obsessed until I learned about simplifying

My favorite comfort foods are homemade biscuits (which my grandmother taught me how to cook--I had to modify to a healthier version) and butter beans

I don't exactly like cooking (especially since the girls do such a wonderful job) but I like to cook vegan food with a southern flair

A little over 90% of the food we eat is made from scratch and home grown

I like the concept of food storage. My food pantry puts a smile on my face

I enjoy the history of the deep south

I love quilting

I live on twenty acres. I have two other neighbors--the closest a 10 minute walk. It is a mile down my driveway to the country asphalt road.

Well, there you go!!!

School Fever

School fever is here!!! I always look forward to what God has in store for us for the school year. As I have prayed, He has been faithfully revealing what the plan should be for the year. I am so excited.

One of the things that he has really placed on my mind is the "heart" of raising "Daughters of the King" not just the practicality of the matter. The heart of homemaking and not just the mechanics. My daughters know the mechanics well. How to cook--gourmet meals, nutritious, meal planning, frugal shopping (I am actually kind of spoiled), preservation techniques (canning is just a way of life around here), how to bake a good loaf of bread, cleaning, gardening--planning, sewing/quilting, medical missionary skills. Deep Bible study and how to apply those principle to their lives. God is showing me the holes that are missing and I praise Him for that.

Then it is on to Physical Science (a few more modules), Biology(my oldest daughter would enjoy teaching that--that is her forte'), Algebra, English(10), Composition, Geography and some kind of History--maybe World History. Any special reading projects? Of course many sewing projects for the winter. We are also making our way through Polished Cornerstones.

I am anxious to see what the Lord is placing on my husband's heart. For the past several years, he has a special Bible class for the girls called "Reading Between the Lines" that is tailored especially for them. 6:30am Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I have my quiet time during that time and I can hear some of the conversations. They go very deep. I know the girls will hold that time that they spend with their dad close to their hearts.

I was just contemplating, our youngest daughter is trying to finish school in the next 1 1/2 so she can start mid-wife courses. Okay, that is not a funny thought. I am not sure what I am going to do. They both claim that I am going to find some little boy to bring home and teach. Just a random thought.

Life and Death

I would like for you to take a moment and think of Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection. In Romans 6, Paul is making a parallel between Christ’s death and our death through baptism and Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection to a new life of loyalty to God. It is liberation. It is a destruction of “the body of sin” and “freedom from bondage.” “For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Romans 6:7. There is no service to sin and your members are used “as instruments of righteousness unto God.”

As I was reading through Romans 6, there were a couple of phrases that had the same tenor and theme. “Let not sin reign,” “that ye should not obey it,” “yield in your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.” Sounds like bondage.

I really thought about it. How can something have dominion over you? Dominion is defined as “sovereign or supreme authority or power to direct, control, use.” Romans 6:14 suggests that sin can have dominion over us. Consider it. Can sin have authority and control over us? What thing is there as we are working throughout our day as moms, wives and homemakers that may keep us in bondage?

Daily, what are we choosing? Who are we serving? Who are we obeying? (Just some thought questions.) We are servant to whom or what we obey. If we indulge selfishness, anger, materialism or any other sin, we have put ourselves in a position of serving sin. And if we are serving sin, we are not serving Christ. A Christian will feel the temptation of sin, for the flesh fights against the Spirit, but the Spirit works against the flesh. It is a constant battle. Here is where Christ’s help is needed. Our human weakness unites with divine power and battles are being won. Victories obtained by faith through Christ Jesus.

As I thought about the above phrases, this is also what jumped out at me. “Freedom from sin,” “dead unto sin, “servants of righteousness,” and “members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” Praise the Lord!

Paul sets before us two options--life and death. Deuteronomy 30:19 says:

…that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he [is] thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

When we as moms choose life, this life is passed on to our children. What a legacy to leave our children. A legacy of loyalty, faith, obedience and love to God.