17 hours ago
(Note: I received one Fun Box for free in exchange for the review in this post. All opinions are my own.)
Can I tell you something? I am not a crafty mom.
I realized this a couple years ago, when Wyatt came home from church one week requesting that we do a craft. He had been doing crafts in class, and to his little mind it made perfect sense to bring the fun home. I assured him we could do a craft, but as I wracked my brain for an idea of something we could do together, I realized that I had nothing.
This past year, I understood for the first time why some people don’t like watching the news.
I have always been a bit of a news junkie. Part of this may have come from being a dental hygienist. People are nervous at the dentist, and it helped to have some outside interest to divert their attention from their vulnerability and the dental poking and prodding that was coming. With current events, we are all in it together.
I used to hate it when a patient brought up a story I had heard nothing about. All I could say was “Oh really?”, which is not much of a distraction from the despised plaque-scraping.
I like to feel informed, I like to be able to contribute an opinion to the conversation, so I still turn on the news each morning and keep my radio dialed to talk stations. But in 2015, the news was heavy and dark, and for the first time I felt the weight of it. ISIS, persecution, refugees, Planned Parenthood atrocities, Supreme Court decisions. The world is changing at a rapid pace, and I don’t know if I want to watch where it’s heading anymore.
I’m no longer working as a hygienist, so I no longer need to keep up on the news for my patients’ sakes. It’s terribly tempting, as we head into another blank year on the calendar, to bury my head and ignore all the “negativity”.
But I won’t, because I know it would be irresponsible of me to do that. The world is spinning out of control, the country as a whole is turning it’s back on God more each day, and people are going their own way.
But it’s not too late for things to change.
If I didn’t believe that, I would bury my head and hunker down in my house with my family until Jesus comes back. We are not to the point of no return, but change in the world will only come through something that only those of us who follow Jesus can accomplish - prayer.
I have a little confession - I used to secretly think that there was little practical point in prayer. Nothing can thwart God’s will. Sure, there are benefits of prayer on our relationship with God, but I doubted whether prayer really changed anything else.
Through a recent in-depth study at our church, I’ve come to realize that God chooses to use our prayers as a catalyst to accomplish His work on earth. His will is that we pray, and He chooses to involve us in bringing about His will through our prayers. It’s kind of cool actually, that He chooses to include us, because He didn’t have to set it up that way at all. That is why prayer is powerful. Because God allows His will to be worked out on earth through prayer.
As I watch the news now, I realize how desperately our world needs prayer.
So what is my prayer for 2016? I pray that God will bring about a great revival, and that it will start within our own families.
We turn on the news, and it is easy to see how mainstream culture has forgotten the things of God. But I wonder how much of that same attitude has seeped into our families? Do we turn to God with our struggles and sorrows, or do we try to find our own solutions? Do we take our concerns about our world to Him, or do we turn the channel and try to forget what we saw? Are we modeling the truth of prayer for our kids, or just going through the motions?
I want to teach the importance of prayer to my children this year. I want to turn every news story or personal situation into a chance to show them that prayer matters. I want to make our nightly prayers more rich and meaningful, instead of rushing through them. (A cute resource for nightly bedtime prayers is Max Lucado’s Treasury of Bedtime Prayers, and I think it will be a good place to find inspiration when I have trouble coming up with the words.)
There will be no revival in this country without a revival of prayer. God tells us that the fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much, and it is time for those who follow Jesus to pray fervently for hearts to turn back to God in our nation and world through each situation we see on the news every day.
In 2015, I had to practice taking that heavy, dark feeling and shining the light of prayer on it. In 2016, I want to pray more fervently that God would use the darkness to emphasize His light all the more. I pray that in the midst of these scary days in history, God would draw people to Himself. I pray that He would use me and my family, in whatever part of His story we must play, to bring our country back to Him.
Will you join me in praying for our nations as we start 2016? I don’t know what this new year will hold, but I do know that the future looks brighter when we turn our faces to Jesus.
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Lord, we need Your help. We have all turned aside to our own paths, and there is none of us who is without sin. Thank You for sending Jesus to pay for our sins. Thank You that when we believe in Him, You cover us with His righteousness.
Lord, forgive us when we forget that in the midst of these scary times, You are our Hope. Help us to remember to turn to You with our fears. I pray that You would bring about a revival in America, the greatest one in our history, and that You turn people here and around the world back to You.
Forgive us for our own failure to turn to You and our passivity in the face of evil and suffering. Please work in our own hearts to put You first, and to obey Your voice as we try to shine Your light in the darkness. May we all do the work that You have for us in 2016, and give us the strength to be fervent in prayer.
Amen.
(Note: This post is sponsored by Tommy Nelson, but the topic is something I am passionate about, and as always, all opinions are my own.)
(Note: This post is sponsored by Tommy Nelson, but the topic is something I am passionate about, and as always, all opinions are my own.)
(Even though it's out of focus, there is just something I like about this picture.)
It has been a good reading year.
I remember the year before I had Wyatt, I read 19 books. That is pretty low for me, and I remember thinking that it would only get worse after I had kids. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually the opposite - I actually read more books in the days after I had a baby! For one reason - nursing. There is not much to do while sitting there, feeding your newborn, so reading books just happened without my trying.
Every year that I have had a baby has been a good reading year, and this year was no exception. My original goal for 2015 was to read 52 books, about a book a week - and I'm on track to beat that goal by five books!
For me, these books were the highlights for me in 2015. I'm sharing my favorite five fiction books, and my favorite five non-fiction books! In no particular order...
Isn't it sad that the Christmas season, which should be joyfully filled with family and fun, is so often clouded by stress? There is a lot of pressure associated with Christmas, especially for moms who are typically in charge of all the Christmas fun. I've written already written about how to prevent Christmas stress, and specific things you can do to make Christmas easier. So what can you do when the stresses start to get to you? These are a few of my favorite Christmas-time escapes!
There are certain tastes that we associate with certain memories. For me, the tastes of different drinks conjure memories of different seasons of my life. I specifically associate cranberry, orange, and tea with winter and Christmas memories, so I thought why not combine all three into a family tea recipe that would fit perfectly into a Christmas family gathering or party menu? And so this recipe was born.
Christmas time is a season of joy, love, and . . . stress. I wish it wasn't true, but especially if you are a mom, you know what I am talking about.
I never realized how stressful Christmas season could be, until I had a family of my own. It is hard to juggle four kids while accomplishing everything that make up beautiful Christmas memories. But the whole purpose of building good Christmas memories for my family is defeated if I am stressed out in the process. Nothing is very fun when mom is stressed out.
Over the last couple years I have been trying to find solutions to my most common Christmas stressors so that I can be jolly for my family during the Christmas season. I have identified six things that can become stresses, and I am in the process of figuring out how best to deal with them. These are the solutions I have come up with so far.
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