Refreshing Reminder!

Matthew 12:46-50

46 While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” 48 He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

As I read this passage the other day it gave me a fresh reminder of who I am in Christ. Jesus knew that His disciples were not perfect men. He knew their past sins and He knew their future sins. Yet, He still called them His mother and brothers because they were doing the will of His Father in Heaven. It amazes me that such a powerful and awesome God wants me, a sinner, to seek Him and His will. How He gives me an opportunity to participate in the will of the Most High God! And on top of all those wonderful and amazing things, I know from this passage that when I do the will of His Heavenly Father, Jesus calls me His sister!

As I pondered what it meant to be called a sister, I thought about how I feel toward my sisters. I love my sisters. There is nothing I wouldn't do for them. I pray for them. I hope they are well. I enjoy spending time with them. If I could I would ease their pain, take away their suffering and give them everything they need. If I as a flawed human being feel this way toward my sisters, how much more then does the perfect Son of God, Jesus Christ, feel these things toward those He calls His mothers, brothers and sisters. While I love my sisters, He is love. (1 John 4:8) While there is nothing I wouldn't do for them, there is nothing I can do apart from Him. (John 15:5) While I pray for them, He sits at the right hand of His Heavenly Father and makes intercession for me. (Romans 8:34) While I hope for them, He is our hope. (1 Tim. 1:1) While I enjoy spending time with them, He wants to spend eternity with me. (Romans 6:23 ) While I wish I could ease all pain, take away their suffering and give them everything they need, He can and will one day if they put their trust in Him! (Rev. 21:4, Matt. 6:31-33) I long to do and be these things for my sisters but I am not able in my human strengths. I need these things myself everyday! Jesus, on the other hand, is capable and willing to always do and be these things for us. Now I have a fresh reminder of what it means to be a sister. It puts joy in heart to know that I am a sister of the only person in history capable and willing to perfectly do and be all these things for me, Jesus Christ!

If you have not put your trust in Jesus Christ and therefore can not be called a sister, brother or mother of Christ, please do so now! He longs be and do all these things I've talked about for you too. You can find joy in this life through Christ! Ask Him now to forgive you from your sins and invite Him into your life! He loves you so much!

Problems with posting comments

Many people have told me that they are trying to post comments on the blog and it is not letting them.  I have done some research as to why this may be and I have found some possible solutions.  However, I will not know if it is working until someone tries to post a comment and gives me feed back about it or the comments begin to come in.  If you are trying to post comments and are not able to you can post them on my Facebook page "Learning on Our Way "Home" or send me an email at learningonourwayhome@yahoo.com.  Thank you for your patience while I try to get this fixed!

To Build, or to Tear: That is the question.

"The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down." Proverbs 14:1

Why is it that in times of anger I can cut my husband in two with some of the words I say to him!  With unkind words, I can make my child feel like he/she has greatly disappointed me when in reality, I have made the same mistake a million times. I would never speak to a complete stranger that way!  So why then do I speak that way to the ones I love! Instead, shouldn’t I ask God to help me find a way to share my feelings to my husband or to discipline and guide my children in a way that will effectively make my point and not tear down their spirits while doing it?! 

Titus 2:5 gives women the command to be kind. I have spoke to my husband and kids with unkind words more times than I would like to admit. When I did, I could see the discouragement, sadness and sometimes anger in their faces and attitudes.  What would happen if I always said only kind things to my husband and kids.  If I only spoke kind words to them all the time no matter the nature of the situation I am addressing? No matter how angry or sad I feel in that situation. I believe that if I asked God to help me respond out of love and then rely on His strength to follow through with that, I would start to see encouragement and happiness in them and in their attitudes toward others.  What a wonderful ripple effect!  What a privilege it would be to know that because I followed God’s command to be kind, my whole family’s attitude toward each other and toward others changed to honor God!  I pray that God would fill me with the fruit of the Spirit so I would be capable of always speaking to my husband and kids in a way that builds them up, not tears them down.  To start a trend of being kind in my household!.  Then, I can be like the wise woman that builds her house and not like the foolish woman that with her own two hands tears hers down.

Shhh! I need quiet time...with God!

God has shown me time after time how important it is to spend time with Him everyday in prayer and reading His Word.  He has also shown me that it should be top priority over everything else I have in my busy schedule. When we spend time with Him everyday, we become like the water bottle I talked about in my post titled “My Heart is Overflowing.”  God fills us up more and more every day with His love and Holy Spirit until we begin to spill over onto everyone that surrounds us!  But, doing what God tells us is right hardly ever comes naturally.  As a matter of fact, if we do not make a conscience effort to do what God calls us to do, we will most likely always do what is wrong.  It is the nature of our flesh to be sinful. (Galatians 5:17) If we are going to live as godly women, it will not be by accident and it is going to require discipline. 

God has shown me specifically 4 ways that I can put this discipline into practice that will benefit me spiritually and I have found that it also makes my day run smoother!  My intentions for this list is not to say that this is the only way. I am simply sharing what God has placed on my heart for me to do and I do think they are good habits to put into practice.  However, if you are not spending time praying to God and reading His Word everyday and it seems impossible for you to find time to do so, just start out giving God some time each day, regardless of when that time is. You will be so blessed. Okay…here they are:

1) Everyday Time! I must make it a point to spend time with Him everyday. To be conscience of not letting one day slip by without sitting down with Him.  Some days I may be tempted to read a verse and then pray throughout the day because I’m so busy rather than taking time to sit down with Him. We are called to pray without ceasing, so that should always be done.  But when I don’t sit down to meet with Him and give Him all of my attention I miss out on the blessing of communion with Him, sensing His presence and hearing the Word He has for me that day.

2) Alone and quiet time!  When I try to have my personal time with God and my home is filled with the noises of the kids playing or my husband watching TV , I can not fully focus on what I am reading or what God is trying to tell me.  And again, I miss out on all the blessings that I mentioned above.  I have to find time each day to be alone with God when the house is quiet!  If you are a mother, wife or just a busy woman like myself, I am sure you can agree that is not easy to do.  I have found a way however.  Read on! J

3)First thing in the morning time!  Every morning God has new mercy and compassion for us. (Lamentations 3:22-23)  It is there for us to receive every morning.  Not that it is not available the rest of the day but I personally, and maybe you too, need that mercy and compassion from the minute the day begins.  So the earlier I go get it, the better!  I have found that God uses the quiet time I spend with Him to teach me and equip me with what I need for that day!  Receiving what God has for me before I am faced with any situation that day allows me to respond in a way that honors and glorifies God!

4) Early Time!  There is Biblical basis for this.  Many of the godly men we read about in Scripture rose early to spend time with the Lord. (Psalm 63:1, Genesis 19:27, Psalm 5:3)  Jesus also rose early to pray to His Heavenly Father. (Mark 1:35)  I believe that I should follow this example given to me in Scripture and rise early to be with the Lord.  In addition to that, I have another reason for wanting to rise early and be with the Lord… I may not have any other quiet time or time by myself all day!  When I rise early before the rest of my family, as did the woman of Proverbs 31, I can pretty much count on the fact that that time will be quiet and I will be alone.

I would like to add that I have a baby that wakes up some times up to 3 to 4 times a night.  The morning after those nights I may not be able wake up at 5am and that is okay. God made my body to need rest and He gives me that rest through sleep to be ready to do the good work He has called me to do that day. (I must be careful not to be a sluggard and sleep to much though.)  Even on these days, I still make sure that I get my quiet and alone time with God as early as possible.  It may not be as long of a time as I would like, but with the time that I do have, I bring myself before God, humble and ready receive a Word from Him.

I am a very busy woman theses days, but I must make this the #1 priority.  Without this daily dose, like that water bottle I talked about before, I will be lacking in God’s Holy Spirit, which brings with it the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.)  I will not be filled to overflowing and unable to extend these things to others!

My Testimony

It may not surprise some people who read my blog to see me writing about what God has done and is doing in my life.  On the other hand, I know that there are a lot of people that might be thinking something like “What happened to her?  This is not the Melinda that I once knew!” or “Who is she to do anything good for God?  I know her past!”  The answer to those questions is actually the subject for today‘s post.

I am absolutely not the person that I once was. Without getting into the details of my past, I will just say that for many years I was living in a pit of sin.  I tried many times to get myself out of that pit.  I knew that God was calling me out of that lifestyle of sin. But I thought to myself “I will come to God when I get myself cleaned-up.”  I read a story this week in a book called “Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother” (There is a link to this book at the bottom of the Home page of this blog under Good Reads!…FYI, it is a great book!) The story is about a father that asked his young son to lift an object that was obviously far beyond the what the boy was capable of lifting.   To paraphrase the story, after many attempts to lift the object, the son tells his father he is using all his strength but he is still not able to lift it. The father tells the son that he has not been using all his strength. "You haven’t asked me to help!”  he tells the boy. Just like this young son, I was trying with all my strength to climb out of that pit and clean myself up.  However, I couldn’t do it in my own strength.  I needed the strength of my Heavenly Father to get me out.  Once I realized this and admitted to God that I needed His help, He came to the rescue. I asked Him to forgive me and to replace my sinful desires with His righteous desires. In His wonderful grace, He has replaced those sinful desires that brought me guilt, shame and pain, with ones that bring peace, love and joy! Still to this day, God continues to show me sinful desires in my heart. When He does, He is also faithful and provides a way out so that I can stand up under it! (1 Corinthians 10:13) 

“Who is she to do anything good for God?  I know her past!”  I have listened to this lie Satan’s tells me about myself too many times! But God has shown me in His Word that the lies Satan tells me is far from the truth about who God says I am in Him.  It is true that I am no one apart from God.  I am a sinner that has been saved by grace from guilt and condemnation in this lifetime and for eternity.  When I put my trust in Jesus Christ, confessed and repented of my sins, the Word of God tells me that I was saved by God’s grace! (Ephesians 2:8)  That I am a new creation, the old has past away! (2 Corinthians 5:17) That there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus  (Romans 8:1) It also says that I will receive power in the Holy Spirit to be God's witness to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) Out of gratitude to God for the salvation He has given me, I want to live in a way that points others to Him! (Matthew 5:16)

Praise God that “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.” (Psalm 40:2) And then, not only did He do that, but I also “know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28)  He has shown me time after time, that if I allow Him to do so, He will put my painful and shameful past to good use according to His purposes!  That truth never ceases to amaze me!
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If you have not placed your trust in Jesus Christ, please do so.  Confess to Him now that you are a sinner. That you need His forgiveness and strength to turn your life around and to receive the eternal life that is available to us through Jesus Christ. Please do not make the same mistake that I did and think that you can get yourself out of your pit.  It will only leave you in that pit even longer.  God, I pray that You would always, until the day that I die, reveal to me the areas in my life that do not honor You.  I pray that if someone is reading this and has not accepted Your Son Jesus Christ as their personal Savior that they would do so now.  I pray that they would find the courage to reach their hand up out of that pit and grab on to Your strong and loving hand.

I know that giving up control of our life and giving that control to God can be a scary thing. But, when we realize that God, in His sovereignty, is able to take better care of us than we are able to care for ourselves, it proves to be a very wise decision.  If you have prayed to God and accepted His Son as your Savior today, I would love to hear about it and be able to encourage you on the next steps in your walk with God.  Please either leave a comment here or feel free to email me at learningonourwayhome@yahoo.com.  To God be all the glory and praise!

What is on YOUR mind?

Thanks everyone for taking time to read my post!  I am so humbled that God has called me to do this and so thankful at the same time.  Please leave comments and let me know what is on your mind.  Or, if you are following on Facebook, I invite you to leave comments there as well.  I would like to remind you to also read the "About Me" section on the blog page. (It is also on my Facebook page "Learning On Our Way "Home" under the info tab on the right side of the page then in the General Information section.)  If ever you have any questions or comments please feel free to ask by leaving a comment or by contacting me by email, learningonourwayhome@yahoo.com.  Thank you again and I pray that we would always give God the first place in our hearts and that He would continue to give us great opportunities to be workers in the kingdom of God, that we may point others to Him!

How can I help?

As I started on my journey trying to get organized and get things done in my house and in my life, I found myself working really hard but I was still all over the place.  It still seemed no matter how hard I worked I was still left at the end of the day scrambling to get done what needed get done.  There was just not enough hours in the day!  I thought that to be organized, first I needed to make sure that everything in my house was organized.  I would work on projects that usually took all day in an effort to get my house in order.  Getting organized is a wonderful thing and I know I will get there eventually, at least somewhere close, but I realized that the answer to my problem of to much to do and not enough time was a lot easier then I thought!  My answer was actually in a question!

How can I BEST help my husband today?

I was created to be my husbands helper. (Gen. 2:18-25)  (If this sounds like a very strange concept to you, please continue reading.  I think that after you read the whole post, you may see that it is actually a very good thing!) So, what I needed to do, instead of getting sidetracked by all these projects, was to use my time THAT day for things that my husband most needed help with THAT day!  Instead of cleaning out every drawer in my house, maybe that day he needed me to work a little more to help out with finances.  Or, maybe, instead of scrubbing the floors til they shined,  he would have liked me to spend my time baking him some of his favorite banana bread.  This is when I started asking him what it is I can best help him with today.

When I did this, I started to see that it cut out a lot of my busy-ness because I was able to schedule my day according to what my family really needed done.  Before, I would be busy all day doing these projects and then in the evening, when the kids were home and my husband was home, I was running like crazy trying to get homework done, cook supper, tend to the baby, get baths, etc…and then, in the middle of that, he would either remind me of the things he had needed me to do that day or I would see him doing things that I should have already had done.  I would then scramble to fit those into my night as well. This always left me tired, cranky, frustrated and usually with a feeling of inadequacy because I was not able to do everything that my family needed me to do that day.  So, now, every morning, I make out my schedule for that day and I start out by writing at the very top, “How Can I BEST Help My Husband Today?”  Then, I make out a to-do list according to the answer to that question.

I know that sometimes I may be tempted to feel that this title of “husband’s helper” makes me somewhat less important, however, when I look to God’s Word, I see it should make me feel quite the opposite!  1 Corinthians 11:7 tell me that “…woman is the glory of man“.  I looked up the definition of glory in the dictionary at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glory and this is two of the definitions it had:

a) Great beauty and splendor
b) Height of prosperity or achievement

When I put those definitions in place of the word glory in that verse it gave me a clear picture as to what that verse is saying.

Woman is the great beauty and splendor of man.
Woman is the height of prosperity or achievement of man.

Regardless of if my husband’s attitude towards me always speaks to this truth, I am going to choose to strive to live in a way that shines light on this truth, that I am the glory of my man! 

I must admit that I don’t live up to this perfectly each day, but my efforts have not gone unnoticed.  My husband says that he see the difference.  However, I do not do this ultimately to please my husband. Although I hope that he is pleased and I love him dearly, I do this because ultimately I want to please God and live in obedience to Him.  I pray that God continues to show me ways that I can honor Him in my life.

My Heart Is Overflowing!

…For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. (Matthew 12:34)

My daughter said to me the other day while we were eating supper “ Mommy, I love God more than Hunter (her brother)”  I replied by saying “That is actually the way we are supposed to love, Ivi” and I used my water bottle to try to explain to my 6 and 10 year old one reason I believe that loving this way works so well.  It is because of this verse above.

I began by explaining that if I need just as much water as my bottle will hold in order to survive and flourish then when it is only half full that is not even enough for me so I surely don’t have any to share with anyone else!  Even if it is filled to the rim, that is still only just enough for me.  I still don’t have any to share.  Then I told them, “If it is full and then it is continued to be filled, what is going to happen?  It will overflow, right?”  They both agreed.  “Then that is when we can share it with others right?”  They both shook their heads in agreement again.  I explained to them that when we seek God and allow Him empty our hearts of sinful things and let Him fill it to the point of overflowing with His good things, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, then and only then will we be overflowing with His love and really be able to love those around us the way that He wants us to love them.

God has taught me that when I am tempted to speak negative things to or about people it is because there is a heart issue.  In those moments, I need to check my heart, go before God, confess my sin, ask for forgiveness, repent and let Him fill me with His goodness!  God is so good!

I have an attitude!?

I want to share about an area in my life that God has revealed to me was not honoring Him.  It was my attitude, in many areas, but more specifically, my attitude toward my husband.  For years, I would focus on what HE needed to change and what HE was doing wrong and doing the wrong way.  I would talk til I was blue in the face to my husband about things that I thought he should do differently.  And I prayed.  Man, did I pray!  AND, God answered me…just not in the way I had expected.  He showed me that I am not my husband’s Holy Spirit, that is God's job. He showed me that the real problem was my attitude about the things that my husband did.  He showed me I can not change one thing about my husband.  Not his mind, not his heart, not his ways.  However, I could change the way I viewed his mind, his heart and his ways.  I could choose to see him the way God sees him…and me!  God showed me that my husband, no different than myself, was a sinful human being in need of God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness.   That I should extend grace, mercy and forgiveness to my husband even when, and especially when, he messes up because God has done the same for me.  God also showed me that while He is working with me in a specific area of my life, He is also working just the same with my husband in his life, it just may not be in the same area at the same time.  He also showed me that His timing is always perfect and that He has promised that the good work He has started in us, he will finish (Philippians 1:6).  So, I can rejoice in the Lord always (Philippians 4:4) despite the fact that everything is not always perfect in my marriage and know that every change God is making in my life and my husbands is right on time according to God’s perfect will.

"Introduction"

(I do not plan for all my post to be this long.  But to introduce my blog and the purposes behind it, I found it necessary for this one to be a little longer.)

For the past few months, I have been in a transitional state.  Let me explain...


I have 3 kids.  My newest, Jackson, will be 10 months at the end of this month.  Since I had him in November, I have felt like my brain is frazzled and I haven't been able to get anything done!  Now, it wasn't the new baby's fault.  He is actually a very good and easy going baby.  My mom told me that the 3rd child made things harder.  And boy was she right!  I had just not done anything to prepare for this and at the time was not aware that I needed to prepare.  Besides, I already had 2 children.  I had this parenting/mothering thing down, right?  HA!  Not the case, as I so quickly realized.  My house was a mess, me and my kids were a mess (Literally, finding time to bathe them AND myself was a challenge) and I had forgotten to put time spent with God and my husband at the top of my priorities.  I felt like I was always running but accomplishing nothing.  I got to the point that something had to give. My life was spinning out of control.  I was not managing my home (1Ti 5:14) the way that God intends for me to and because of that, I was lost! I had to make a change and I looked to God and His Word as to how to make that change.  He has shown me and taught me so much since I determined to live my life in a way that honors and glorifies God.  He is so faithful and good!

I shared this new found treasure with a few lady friends of mine and they found it as true and useful as I did.  I feel like God is leading me to share with even more women what He has in His Word for us ladies!

The idea of blogging has never crossed my mind until now.  I prayed for God's direction in this and believe that He is calling me to do this.

I have 3 main goals in my heart for this blog that I believe was placed there by God.
1) To spread the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible.
2) To share with women what God has shown me about who we are in Him, not who the world says we are.
3) To share practical ways that we as women can organize, arrange and live our lives in a way that honors and glorifies God so as to make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.(Titus 2:10)

I will not pretend to have it all together or pretend that I know everything there is to know.  On the contrary, I still have much to learn and long to absorb everything the Word of God has for me.  I am not perfect, only one man that walked this Earth was perfect, and that is Jesus Christ. If we look to anyone else for perfection, we will be disappointed.  I have asked a lady, who is a Christian and who I trust will do a good job, to proof read everything I write before I post it in an attempt to weed out grammatical mistakes but more importantly to make sure that what I write lines up with the Word of God, HOWEVER, make no mistake about this, I am not doing this in my own knowledge and strength.  I write in complete humility and dependency on God to teach me daily and show me what it is He wants me to share.  Without Him, I can do nothing! Please join me and let's seek God's plan for our lives as women of God. Let's commit to "Learn on Our Way "Home" (to Heaven that is!) every new day that God gives us  breath!