March is a busy month for us

March has been a VERY busy month for us. It always is! :-)

We always start the month out going to a wonderful weekend gathering with other youth ministry workers. It's such a blessing. Of course, it takes effort to make the plans to get there, but once we do it's always worth it. The worship is always a refreshing time for me as well as the many people that are preaching the Word and wisdom into our lives. I had the opportunity to spend quality time with a young lady who used to be at our church and her and her husband are now youth pastors a few hours away.

The second weekend of March we took 13 kids to a Kids' Conference in the area. There were 2,300 kids there! It's amazing and fun and wonderfully hyper!!!! :-) The worship was amazing this year and the kids all had a great time loving on Jesus and having fun with each other. Of all the weekend events that we do each year, this is by far the most taxing. Simply because we have to meet the needs of young children who are not used to being away from mom and dad plus the crowd is so large. It's like being at Disneyland with 13 children. But the investment in their lives is worth it. We don't get much sleep but it helps keep us young. :-)

Last weekend I had the privledge of hosting a Ladies Retreat for our Children's Ministry teachers. Wow, what a powerful time we had with the Lord. Friday night we began service at 7:30 pm and finished praying at 12:15 am! It was amazing. God totally worked it all out as far as the speaker was concerned! He always does. The funny thing was that the ladies were harder to get to sleep than the kids. They don't get out very often! It was actually really fun watching them laughing and just enjoying each other.

In between those events, I was able to host my first Titus 2 type ladies Bible Study. I had 8 young wives and mothers over including our pastor's wife. It has been a dream to do this for a long time and God opened the door and I took the opportunity. It was really great. You can check out what we discussed at www.servingagenerationforjesus.blogspot.com. I began a new blog specifically for our Bible Study group and others desiring to be a better wife and mother.

This Thursday, my precious baby girl turned 7! Birthdays are a VERY big deal in our family. We try to make them very special. Not necessarily with gifts, but with time together! The kids and I left the house and had a SUPER fun filled day on Thursday, then we met up with our family and pastoral staff to celebrate that night. I'm so thankful that we have so many loving and godly adults in our kids' lives.

Friday night was Sunday School prize night at Chuck E. Cheese! Fun times with lots of church families.

Today was Reagan's friend party at Nana's house. Auntie Cass did an amazing job decorating for it. I'm so blessed to have sisters who love to make the kids' birthday's special! We are tired. It's been a very busy month. Tomorrow we are having our Kids' Seder Meal at church that I'm in charge of. Then after church it's worship practice all afternoon for our Good Friday and Easter Services. Then I've got to rush home and pick up the house for Home Group meeting tomorrow night in our home.

 Busy? Yes! Blessed? Absolutely!

As long as I stay in the Word every day, God gives me the strength I need to face the day!
Praying you have a blessed Sunday.

The Other Hand

It's 6 AM and I've been up since 3:30 AM cleaning my bathroom. 

Not only cleaning it, but organizing every drawer. 

Washing the walls, etc. 

This is "the other hand." 

Remember, I have 9 ladies now joining me tonight in my home 

for a Bible Study. 9 ladies that I was taught by my mother

will look (judge) you by how clean your home is. 

Balance: 

Isn't that what this whole blog is about?

Balance:

Isn't that what life is all about?

Balance:

Isn't that why so many of us never step outside our comfort zones?

We're imbalanced. At least I am at times. 

Every time that someone else opens up their home to me, 

I think about what a blessing it is. I do not judge what their 

home looks like. I think what a blessing it is that they are 

willing to open up their home and follow the Biblical 

pattern of hospitality. 

I try to keep a clean home. 

Of course, there are days!

But overall, especially in the past 3 years after finding flylady.com, 

I have really tried to make cleaning a habit instead of a chore. 

It has lifted a burden. 

But it's different when other people are coming to my home. 

It is honestly the only thing that I can think of that gives me true anxiety. 

I feel my blood-pressure start to raise as the time approaches. 

Did I clean under the sink? They'll be placing trash in the can there. 

Did I...

Did I...

Did I...

And then I start breaking out the paint cans to touch up paint!

Why? 

Because that's what my mom did! :-)

God is working on me in this area. 

He is showing me that 

"she did what she could".

Or rather, 

"I did what I could". 

Nothing will ever be perfect enough to invite people into our lives.

My walk with God isn't.

My marriage isn't. 

My kids aren't.

My home isn't. 

Yet, God asks us to do our best. 

I'm not one for not trying and then asking God to bless it!

I believe that we need to do our work as unto the Lord, not unto man. 

That is the place that I'm getting to with hospitality. 

I come to that place, for the most part, many years ago with ministry. 

I'll never be able to please everyone, but I know that I'll bless many. 

"I only want to please You, Lord." That's my life motto!!!!

So as I have been up cleaning and organizing since 3:30 AM because I 

simply couldn't sleep because 

Hospitality

Tomorrow night I will opening up my home for a ladies Bible Study group. 

On one hand, I'm over the moon. I had so much fun and was so blessed planning

and preparing our lesson!

We will be talking about our PRIORITIES. 

How do they line up with Biblical principles? Do I have my priorities in line? 

Absolutely not. Not most of the time anyways.

I get all jumbled up along the way, like I think most of women do. 

As I was praying about what God wanted me to share, I simply could not come up 

with one topic. Thus, I decided to list out the things that I wanted to talk about. 

I wrote down:

1) Jesus - Our personal relationship with Him

2) Our husbands

3) Our children

4) Our home

5) Our ministry to others

As I looked at the list, I realized that was a list of priorities. And I believe, that is the Biblical order of them for a wife. The more I looked at it the more I realized how it is so easy to get our priorities out of balance in the busyness of life.

I pulled from so many great sources, mainly the Word of God. My mind keeps me up at night
thinking of all the things that I want to share. I know that I will be as or more blessed than the ladies
that attend.

Speaking of ladies that attend, it is quite the eclectic group.
1 mom with three little boys new to our church that I just met Sunday.
1 young gal married 5 years but no kids yet. I know her sister, but she just moved to the area.
She is bringing a friend.
1 friend that I've seen walk down many roads that I'm thankful that I haven't had to face. She has a blended family.
1 young mom from Kenya that I know but not really well.
2 gals from our homeschool co-op that I know, but only from seeing them on Mondays.
Oh, and our pastor's wife. That in itself can be unnerving if I allow it to be. Simply because I want her to be proud of what I do for Jesus and hopefully I don't make a fool of myself or say something too silly.

I have 4 pages of notes. I'm not sure that I'll get to them all. Will I say too much or too little?
Do I sound nervous? I'm actually not. I'm excited! But I am painfully aware that if I do it in the
flesh then it will fail, but if I rely on the Holy Spirit He will do a work in hearts. That's my desire.

The other hand -
I'll get to that later.