Hearts in Service

Back in September I spoke of the need to close down my sewing and craft business due to some increased ministry opportunities that were taking place in the spring.  For those who read this blog on a regular basis you know I wobbled back and forth on that decision for months.  Sometimes it's hard to let go of things, but I finally closed it down and haven't looked back once my items were out of the local shops. Well, the time is looming near when I will be stepping into my new role as Director of Great Commission Women.  This is the arm of our denomination that provides support and care for our International Workers.  I will be overseeing the Great Commission Women's groups in the Northeastern District of our denomination (about 75 churches).  I'm not doing this on my own as I have a wonderful team of women around me and there are regional coaches responsible for individual churches, but it's a big responsibility and I do have to say that I'm approaching thi

I Peter 3:18-22 ~ "Christ died once for our sins. An innocent person died for those who are guilty. Christ did this to bring you to God, when his body was put to death and his spirit was made alive. Christ then preached to the spirits that were being kept in prison. They had disobeyed God while Noah was building the boat, but God had been patient with them. Eight people went into that boat and were brought safely through the flood. Those flood waters were like baptism that now saves you. But baptism is more than just washing your body. It means turning to God with a clear conscience, because Jesus Christ was raised from death. Christ is now in heaven, where he sits at the right side of God. All angels, authorities, and powers are under his control. What a wonderful picture of God's love for us. Jesus, who was sinless and without blame, took on our sin. He did this so we could approach God. We no longer have to offer up perpetual sacrifices.   We can approach God anywhere

I realized this morning that it's been a month since I've done a Multitude Monday.  It's not because I haven't been thankful, but just focused on different things.  I do have to say that writing out my list of blessings here does helps me be more aware of how God is working in o ur lives. This week I'm thankful for blessings #2681 - 2690. 2681.  After a week of being sick, I'm feeling so much better. 2682.  Working my way through major anxiety this week and feeling more at peace today.  2683.  I need surgery on my knee but I'm unsure of the recovery time (it could be 10 days or it could be 6 weeks).  I have a crazy three months coming up with some things events and activities that I can't put off so I have decided to try and postpone the surgery until the beginning of July.  I'm thankful that so far my knee is okay as long as I don't overdo. 2684.  Crocuses beginning to bloom. 2685.  A wonderful time of fellowship at ou

Mark 11:10 (HCSB) ~ Hosanna! He who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One!   The coming kingdom of our father David is blessed! Hosanna in the highest heaven!

I generally try to keep this blog upbeat and inspirational, but there are times when I just need to share some of my pent-up emotions. I'm hurting for my children and I honestly don't know how to help them.  And to be honest, I feel like a failure. I feel as if Dan and I have done something wrong as parents and this is why they struggle so much. Emily came home from school crying yesterday.  She had two different friends hurt her.  One isn't speaking to her because Emily was called on in class to answer a question and as she tried to find the answer in her notes, the girl was trying to take them.  Emily pushed her hand away and said, "Stop."  At the end of class, the girl (who is Emily's best friend) stormed out of class and now will not speak to her.  Another friend isn't talking to her either and when Emily asked her why yesterday, she told Emily that she hasn't liked her for a while and "Just because." Stephen has generalize

As I was working on a project yesterday afternoon, I heard a clap of thunder.  The sky was dark and the thunder got louder and there were flashes of lightning.  Within a few moments, the skies opened up and it started pouring.  A bit later as I looked out the window of my laundry room, I saw a beautiful sight.  The tops of the trees were lit up in a beautiful golden light.  The rain had stopped and the clouds had parted enough to let out a few rays of the sunset.  Just like that the storm was over. My life can be like that too.  The skies cloud up as I'm faced with a storm in my life.  The thunder claps of worry sound repeatedly and lightning flashes fear into my soul.  It seems as if I'm drenched in problems.  Nothing goes right and I'm surrounded with struggles. Yet, as I trust the Lord, the storm does break.  He parts the clouds enough to let me see His light shining through.  It's in those times of trust that a peace and calm settles over me.  And I

1 Peter 2:11-12 (NLT) ~ Dear friends, I warn you as "temporary residents and foreigners" to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world. When my children were little they loved to visit people, and especially certain friends of ours that were great with children.  One friend, in particular, would have toys, snacks and games just for them.  The kids loved her house, and I would often tease that my children would rather live with her.  There were a few times when I would just be popping in to pick something up and would tell the children, "We aren't staying."  "Don't make yourselves comfortable." The same hold true for us as believers. This is not our home. It's a temporary place we dwell until we get to our true h

I made lemon-cranberry scones this morning for a ladies Bible study at church and they were by far the best I've ever made!  I thought I'd share the recipe here.  The key to light and fluffy scones is to handle the dough as little as possible. Lemon-Cranberry Scones 2 cups flour 1/4 cup sugar 1 Tbsp. baking powder 1/4 tsp. salt 1 Tbsp. finely grated lemon zest 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces 1/2 cup whipping cream 1/4 cup 2% milk 1 large egg 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking pan with parchment paper.  Sift the dry ingredients together, cut in the butter until crumbly.  In a separate bowl, whisk together cream, milk, egg and extract.  Add to flour mixture along with the cranberries and stir to just bring the dough together.  Turn out onto a floured surface and bring it together with your hands.  Pat into a circle about 10" across.  Cut into 8

  Plato ~   "The greatest wealth is to live content with little."    Dan and I have always tried to live a simple lifestyle.  We don't have fancy cars nor the latest gadgets.  We live on one income.  We don't get to go on fancy vacations, nor do we spend a lot of money on frivolous things.   However, the one area that is a weakness is going out to eat.  It seems to be the one spot that leaks the most.  And much of that is because I get lazy or tired or distracted. When I had the business, I would get so focused on sewing or crafting that I wouldn't even think about what we were going to eat.  Then dinner time would roll around and I would not feel like cooking, so we would order out.   I'm realizing how much money that wastes.  If we get McDonald's (terrible for us anyway) or pizza, it ends up costing about $35-$40 which is about 1/3 of my grocery budget.  Crazy!  So I truly have been working on patching up that giant sized leak, a

Dan & I went for a walk yesterday and as we walked in silence for a bit, we heard rustling on the forest floor as the squirrels foraged for acorns.  We could hear the wind blowing the leaves around, and water trickling and running through the forest.  It was such a quiet and peaceful setting. But it's not a setting that most will ever appreciate because of our hurry and scurry lifestyles.  We rush through our days with "noise" blaring constantly.  The noise comes at us from our televisions, I-pads and I-pods, and computer screens.  It comes at us from our own thoughts and to-do lists.  We never slow down enough and turn off the noise to hear from the Holy Spirit. Anyone who has read my blog long enough knows that I love the woods.  It has been a setting that I try to get to often.  Even as babies, my children would come with us.  I remember strapping them to our backs as we would go for long hikes.  The reason I love it is because it's the

Psalm 92:12-16 (NIV) ~ "The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, 'The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him." As I look in the mirror each morning, I see gray hair peeking through the color.  What I used to call laugh lines are really looking more like wrinkles.  My eyes that were already bad to begin with, are getting worse.  And I have multiple brown spots showing up on the back on my hands. Just cleaning a room can make my joints ache.  No matter how much I try to hold it off, age is creeping up on me! How about you? Can you relate to this? Do you find that your body doesn't work like it used to do?  Do you feel like things are slowly falling apart? Perhaps you feel like time is passing you by and you are useless.  If you do f

As I was making dinner last night, Dan came over to see what I was cooking.  I had decided to try my hand at black bean burgers and surprisingly, everyone in the family loved them.  Even my picky eater ate them.  Dan made an observation.  He said that the household falls apart when I'm not here.  It's not that no one else can cook or do laundry or any of the activities that I do.  His observation was that moms are the hubs of their homes and wired to care for their families in a way that no one else can do it I flew home from North Carolina last Monday night and discovered that Emily had been sick for two days.  She took some medicine and had been in bed.  Dan even took her to the doctor to make sure it wasn't strep throat.  It was just a virus and her allergies.  But when I got home, I began to doctor her myself.  I made sure she took Advil, Singular, nose spray and her inhaler on a regular basis.  I made chicken soup.  I made sure she was doing all she should do

Psalm 104:33-34 (HCSB) ~ I will sing to the Lord   all my life; I will sing praise to my God   while I live. May my meditation   be pleasing to Him; I will rejoice in the Lord. Yesterday morning as I walked out my back door to go over to the church, I noticed green shoots coming up from my bulbs in the garden.  The sun shone brightly and the skies were bright blue.  It was chilly, but I felt my spirits lift as I realized spring will soon be here. My husband suggested we head off to sit by the lake after church.  He wasn't sure if I'd be able to do much walking because of my knee, but he knows me well.  Being outside in the fresh air is where my heart feels closest to the Lord.  The winter depression that I feel each year lifted as I soaked in the sun.  I heard myself humming.  I was even able to walk about a mile with only a few twinges in my knee.  We came home and enjoyed some more sights in my back yard.  My heart sings

I recently purchased Rhonda Hetzel's book, Down to Earth: A Guide to Simple Living , and love it!  In there she has all sorts of recipes for simple cleaners.  One of them is for silver. My mother-in-law had given me some silver that belonged to Dan's grandmother and some of the pieces were badly tarnished.  While I love the silver, I was thinking that it wasn't going to be really practical for me to have to scrub it all the time.  I decided to try Rhonda's homemade solution. It was amazing!  All it took was a piece of aluminum foil in the bottom of a sink, boiling water and a bit of baking soda and salt.  I let the silver sit in this concoction for ten minutes, waited for the chemical reaction to happen and viola!  It was done. There was no scrubbing and no costly cleaners. I think I spent most of the day in my kitchen yesterday, preparing dinner.  Every now and then it's nice to go all out.  I made blueberry pie for dessert. Maca

I often feel like this blog is a hodge-podge of subjects.  I write inspirational posts, but then again, I also have many posts on homemaking, child-rearing, marriage and other subjects.  There are times when I think I should stick with one genre but then I realize these are the subjects of which my life consists. The title of my blog is Hearts in Service and that title was chosen by my children back in 2008 when I first started the blog.  Our theme verses were Philippians 2:3-4 and it seemed a fitting theme for our lives.  But I find that my service isn't just to the Lord or people in our churches, but also to my family.  So I will continue to blog on all the different things going on in my life and hope that some find encouragement in my musings about God, my life, and my family. Yesterday afternoon, a friend went to pick up her grandson from the same college that Stephen goes to, and she offered to get him for us so we wouldn't have to drive the 5 hours to pick him up

I'm back from North Carolina and had a lovely visit with my family.  Yesterday, I had a cortisone shot in my knee which is making it feel 100% better.  Hopefully, this will solve the problem so I won't end up needing surgery.  Now I'm ready to hunker down and get back to work! As I sit at my desk this morning, I can tell spring is on the way.  Even though it snowed a bit overnight and the ground is covered with a white blanket, the sun has a different feel.  It's up earlier and sets later and is stronger.  Whoo-hoo!!!  It certainly lifts my spirits. I've finished a couple of big projects but like all projects around here, there is usually something to replace them.  I have a children's art class that I'm teaching next weekend, centerpieces to make for an upcoming retreat, a speaking engagement to work on as well as my normal household chores. One of the things I've been feeling depressed about is the total lack of inactivity I've