At Your Feet

Today, driving and listening to Casting Crowns (which, I tried all of yesterday morning to get tickets to and failed), the song "At Your Feet" really hit me hard.  Anytime that happens, I go to the lyrics to read what the Lord is saying through the song.  The great part about the "Until the Whole World Hears" album is that the Bible inspiration for the songs is listed.  Rather than repeat the amazing lyrics, I thought today that I would just share with you the Bible passages that they may bring you courage!

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all time, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." - 2 Corinthians 9:8

"The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.  He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him." - Exodus 15:2

"He says, 'I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket." - Psalm 81:6

"O Lord, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant; you have freed me from my chains." - Psalm 116:16

"Set me free from my prison that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me." - Psalm 142:7

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 4:19

"Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall." - Psalm 55:22

"Hid your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.  Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." - Psalms 51:9-12

"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." - Galatians 2:20

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." - I John 1:9

My Sisters

A blog that I frequently read is Kelly's Korner.  I don't know Kelly personally, but am always inspired by her blog, and just enjoy reading what she posts.  She has a daughter right around Matthew's age, and has an inspiring story behind getting pregnant and then a serious health scare with the baby when she was born.  I am inspired by her faith, creativity, and intrigued by the "Southern Living" lifestyle.  Anyway, that aside, yesterday she posted about "Sisters" and I felt like I could totally relate to what she had to say.

Actually, prior to reading her post I had just uploaded a photo of my Womens Connections group, and how awesome it is to have these sisters in Christ.  I am truly grateful that God has placed them in my life.  However, I feel abundantly blessed that the Lord allowed me to grow up with a sibling-sister - not sure how I would have turned out if I had brothers. 

Growing up, I always copied my older sister.  I wanted to play the sports that she played, hence approximately two years of gymnastics, one year of soccer and some high school tennis.  I wanted to dress the way she dressed, and in fact one year had pretty much an identical back-to-school wardrobe.  I wanted to learn what she learned, leading to four years of French in high school and barely being able to remember how to introduce myself in the language.  Then, she lead me to Iowa.  Little did she know that I would meet my husband here, and little did we know or expect, we both ended up staying here.  Blessed in the midwest.  However, I will say that once we hit our late teens/early twenties we went our separate ways with our interests - but what I love is that we still have so much in common - love to read, scrapbook, talk over coffee, and have a girls night watching movies and of course a nice full glass of wine!

Next came these sisters...

My Sigma Kappa sisters, and I am so thankful for them!  We always had a poem that ended with, "... and Sigma Kappa is, I suppose, a kind of evaluation… You grow up inside those chapter room walls and perhaps you do learn more of the circus we call life than if you had spent your time somewhere else.

You learn that no matter where you came from… or who took you there, you’ve still got to find that one small acre that belongs to you, by yourself you learn that the world is made up of people you’re not going to like, and you love them anyway.

You learn that there’s still a lot left to believe in and a whole lot more to hope for…
You learn that love has never been easy and that it’s a long time coming, but with Sigma Kappa you learn that “Love is the greatest of all things" and if you’re very smart or very lucky you learn that no matter how big or how messy the world becomes what is precious and what is permanent is always the same. And in the very end you come to realize that Sigma Kappa is indeed a better way to stumble down the back steps and out the front door of life."

Through those years in Sigma Kappa, I met the man I would spend the rest of my life with.  And, it just so happened that he has a sister too!

Jenna quickly became one of my best friends and "little sister".  While I have only known her since she was eighteen, I feel like I have watched her grow up and become the amazing woman that she is today.  She has touched my life in so many ways and is a blessing in my life.  Her beautiful personality and love for others inspires me daily.

Sisters are forever friends...

"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."

These are sisters from above, but also include Shelley and Erica (my "high school" Erica).  Erica is a sister that has seen me through the most awkward of stages beginning at the age of fourteen, the high school "heart breaks" and all of the drama that being a teenager entails.  She has never judged me, and has never had an unkind word.  She has been there through the transition in to adulthood, and I know that I will be sitting on a porch-swing next to her when I'm eighty, and words won't be necessary.  Shelley is my "accounting" sister.  The sister that I should have meet four years before I did.  The girl across the room that I was afraid to talk to.  She is the sister that I can sit at lunch with and not have to say a word but know exactly what she is thinking, because I was thinking the exact same thing...

And of course, as I have entered the world of motherhood, there are these incredible women...

The impact that my Womens' Connections group have had on my life are indescribable, except for in the words of the Lord.  "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." - Matthew 18:20.

Thank you, Lord for all of these women.

We are truly blessed, in abundance, by the sisters that you give us

through your Son.   

This is Your Brain in Love

After having posted that one of my goals for 2010 was to read one book per week, I came across the "Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers", known as BookSneeze.com (because "Great Books are Contagious).  I quickly realized that the publishing company would send bloggers free books in return for their honest 200 word review, posted to their personal blog.

The first book that I requested, based on my reading "theme" these days, was "This is Your Brain in Love" by Dr. Earl Henslin.  I requested this book quickly, without much browsing or in-depth detail as to what the book was about.  I had been blogging about Joyce Meyer's "Reduce Me to Love" and "The Love Revolution" and am really passionate about learning to live in Christ-like love.

The subtitle to this book, "This is Your Brain in Love" is New Scientific Breakthroughs for a More Passionate and Emotionally Healthy Marriage.  I honestly had not realized that I was going to be reading a book about marriage and it's passionate and emotional health.  I thought it was going to be more about our inhibitions to love our neighbors, etc.

However, I was very impressed with this book.  Henslin begins the book by talking about the chemical reactions and production in our brains when we first meet the person we are falling in love with.  It is really interesting to see how some of the chemicals our brain produces, and the different areas of the brain impacted by such, can cloud reality.  The book then discusses how, once these chemicals find their balance again, we remain "in love" with our spouse.  There is quite a bit of discussion on what God intended when he created a sexual relationship between a man and his wife.  Henslin also touches on the controversial topic of infidelity and pornography and the science behind why our brains do not produce the same chemical reactions to that type of relationship or addiction.  I'll keep the blog family friendly and just encourage you to read those sections on your own.

Henslin then discusses the five different types of lover.  These five different types are based on different blood flow to areas of the brain.  He explains that many times when people enter marrital counseling with him he may have a troubled spouse have a SPECT scan of the brain, and find that different areas lack or have too much blood flow.  It is interesting how many different types of depression can be caused by head trauma that individuals either do not relate to their problems or have forgotten about that are discovered during a brain scan.  Dr. Henslin explains that it is essential in diagnosing treatment for depression with a brain scan, as the wrong type of prescription can make problems worse.

I enjoyed his discussion of how natural supplements, following a more specific and healthy diet, combined with exercise can many times correct brain imbalances without medication.  However, Henslin did acknowledge that many times, medication is still needed, depending on circumstances.

What I really appreciated about this book was that for all the various types of issues related to marrital problems, Henslin addresses both husband and wife and explains the responsibilities of both spouses in overcoming the problems once they are diagnosed.  While the book is very scientific, Henslin also remains focused on Christ's love, throughout. 

He says, "When your husband looks in your eyes, does he see how Jesus would look at him?  When your wife asks you a question, do you answer her with the same love and respect that Jesus showed to women?"

I think he sums up his book very honestly when he says "...The goal of this book is not just to give you 'love tools,' but to help you become a living instrument through which God's love can flow freely, so you can make beautiful music together.  To truly be God's love, in human form, to the one you vowed to love for all time, you'll need more than a balanced brain and more than a great sex life, you'll need all of heaven's help you can get.  You need the Holy Spirit filling you, renewing you to love your mate as Jesus would."

Thank you, BookSneeze.com!  This one will remain on my shelf, and hopefully show the wear and tear of a long and healthy marriage!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Love Revolution

I have been wanting to read The Love Revolution ("TLR") ever since finishing, and then re-reading, Reduce Me to Love ("RMTL").  Both of these books are by Joyce Meyer.

This book was definitely worth reading, and it is one that will remain in my collection and referenced back to many times over the years.  I do have to say that I found this book to be a bit overwhelming, but I think that is the way God intended it, at least for me.  I had to do some digging deep and face some facts about myself that are not exactly exciting. 

The pledge you take, if you decide to become a part of "The Love Revolution" is as follows: 

I take up compassion and surrender my excuses.

I stand against injustice

and commit to live out simple acts of God's love.

I refuse to do nothing.  This is my resolve.

I AM THE LOVE REVOLUTION.

Meyer addresses many facets of loving, through God.  Human love fails.  God's love does not.  We have to choose to put on God's love and go about our daily lives being a blessing to others and loving our neighbor as ourselves.  Meyer emphasizes Christ's care for the orphans, widows, the poor, and the oppressed.  She references Psalm 140:12, Psalm 68:5, James 1:27, and many more verses in this area.  But, she also gets down to the simple, the person that is just hard to love because they are different than you. 

There were a few things about this book that I was not as excited about, that I feel the need to point out.  A few times, Meyer talks about her experiences as a member of various congregations and I feel that she speaks of these various situations almost in an "I told you so" tone, as if they had wronged her and this was her way of setting the record straight.  While that bothered me, I suppose the example may have been necessary to show what Christ's love is not.  I will hold off on reading another of Meyer's publications for quite some time, as after two of them in a row I started to feel that she was very proud of herself and proud of the things she has done  She should be.  But, love does not boast, and it just added up by the end of TLR.

As I said, I found this overwhelming.  Mainly because it opened my eyes to my own ignorance.  All of the tragedy in the world, and I have never been touched by any of it.  I have never been touched by poverty.  I had no idea how many young girls in third-world countries are sold in to prostitution so that their families can survive.  There were so many ways that Meyer mentioned we can love and bless and be a part of "The Love Revolution" and I was also overwhelmed with that and just plain "where do I begin?".  Meyer mentions, to begin, just set out to bless one person a day.  Maybe it is a simple smile, or letting someone go ahead of you in line.  I pray that you and I will go forward as a blessing, humble ourselves to serve and lift up others, and pray that God would show us where and how we are to serve.

Always Enough

I just heard this song for the first time this week. God's timing is impeccable. They lyrics are incredible. He has really shown me that not only is He more than enough for me, but He is always enough.

Psalm 46:9-11

He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; 

He breaks the bow and shatters the spear, 

He burns the shields with fire. 

"Be still and know that I am God; 

I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." 

The Lord Almighty is with us; 

the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Reduce Me To Love

I'm cheating a little bit.  I started reading "The Love Revolution" by Joyce Meyer last week, and still have half of it left.  It is fantastic.  I have already been trying to figure out how I am going to post a review that won't be way too long to read.  Also, I need to really work on my time management (one of my New Year's Goals) and make the time to get my reading in so that I can keep up with my book per week goal.

This week I am going to post a review on the "predecessor" to "The Love Revolution", "Reduce Me To Love".  I came across this book this past fall.  I was beginning to study the fruit of the spirit in my quiet time, and I kept coming back to "Love".

But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:21-23

Truly, I felt that the Lord kept calling me back to love, because without love it was difficult to start working on joy, and without joy to start working on peace, etc.  Notice that these nine qualities are the "fruit" not "fruits" of the spirit.  And, they are from the spirit.  They are not from us, or anything earthly, they are drawn directly from the spirit who desires to live in us.  So, naturally, love is hard and the devil attacks love at every moment.  I wanted to become saturated in love, and to truly understand the love from the Spirit.  To love as our Father loved us that he would sacrifice His son so that we might live eternally in heaven.

Admittedly, as I was studying this and praying about this, I came across a "tweet" from Heidi Montag (if you know me you know that "The Hills" television show is was my guilty pleasure).  Heidi had tweeted about how amazing this book called "Reduce Me To Love" by Joyce Meyer is.  So, I thought, what the heck.  Ordered it from half.com and started my journey into a "love walk".

My Women's Connections group just got done reading this book, all together, and talking about it (more of a book club than Bible study, if you will).  So, I thought this would be a great time to pull together my thoughts.

First, and most important, if you can find a copy of this book, read it.  And then read it again.  Then give your copy to someone else to read.  And then buy another copy for yourself and read it again.  It is so wonderful and moving.  That is my review.  It is so hard for me to pick out just one or two things to hit on with this book, because I need to read it again.

The first time I read through this book, I did some private journaling and I will share just a small excerpt and hope that you are inspired to read this book:

In the Bible, God tells us that love is even more important than faith! In I Corinthians 13:2 Paul says "if we have enough faith to move mountains and have not love, we are nothing". 

I know my faith is strong right now, but I know my love walk is at the "still learning to crawl" stage. It is our personal love walk that gives us confidence before God and enables us to receive from Him what we ask for in prayer. 

I John 3:18-23 says "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." 

Meyer points out: Be Christlike. Be His disciple. If I love God, I need to act like it.

[We] have the ability to minister to others. She says, We live in a world of people looking for something real, something tangible. They are looking for love and God is love. I can tangibly show them that. I'm reminded here of a quote "Your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks." 

[As a parent I immediately think of] my son. When he was baptized Kendall said "there will come a time in Matthew's life that it will not be what you say but how you act" that raises Matthew to be a God-fearing Christian. [I do not care "what" Matthew becomes, but "who", it is my highest desire that He would know the Lord and love without inhibition].

What's For Supper?

What are you having for lunch and supper this week?  Almost two weeks ago I posted that I was going to plan my monthly menus.  I have almost the whole month of January done now, but I wish it felt more complete with healthy, inexpensive options.  I need ideas (that are also suitable for a 13-month-old with three teeth), and I'm going to share mine.  I will post recipes if asked...

THIS WEEK:

• Lasagna (in the oven as I type), Garlic Bread, Low-fat Creamy Parmesan Salad
• Postickers & Edamame
• Pork Tenderloin & Sweet Potatos
• Chicken Cordon Bleu
• Frozen Pizza & Mac and Cheese (I know, not healthy but awesome comfort food on a Friday night)
• Impossibly Easy Cheeseburger Pie (substitute ground turkey; Jon is not a fan of this substitution)

I wanted to cook/bake ahead tonight and everything ready to go for the week, but there's no room in the freezer...

Don't Give Up. Pray Big!

Isn't it funny how God seems to answer our prayers, sometimes even when we haven't prayed them yet (the "silent prayers")?  He did that for me today.  I believe in dreaming big, and I don't know if it's this weather and lack of sunshine, but my negative chatterbox has really been attacking those dreams lately.  Don't get me wrong, I love my life, and I'd be absolutely content if things remained the same, but I know that God created us to live life to it's fullest potential.  I want my children to learn to set goals and achieve them by our example.

On Tuesday evenings, we have Mary Kay meetings.  Always a spirit booster, it's pretty much impossible to find myself in another group as positive as this one!  But, tonight, I didn't want to put on a skirt (too cold) and I didn't want to get dressed up and I just plain didn't want to leave my house - but I did.  I told myself I needed to.  It wasn't an option.

As I neared the parking lot, this song came on:

Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning

Anyone can feel the ache
You think it's more than you can take
But you are stronger, stronger than you know

Don't you give up now
The sun will soon be shining (Praise God!)
You gotta face the clouds 
To find the silver lining

I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling

And I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do

It doesn't matter what you've heard
Impossible is not a word
It's just a reason for someone not to try

Everybody's scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It'll be all right
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing

Overcome the odds
That you don't have a chance,
That's what faith can do
When the world tells you that you can't 
It'll tell you that you can!

Thank you Kutless, because of these lyrics at just the right moment, I went in to training with a positive attitude only to hear these lyrics resonate over and over.  One of our amazing leaders talked to us about taking a "Mental Bath".  Bear with me.  The mental bath is the process of essentially shifting your negative thoughts and actions in to the positive.  B, in our case, stands for bookings.  But, actually, for being proactive.  Take a proactive step each day to move your business forward.  A is for affirmations.  Tell yourself positive affirmations.  Dig in to your insecurities, face them, and then tell yourself the positive side (i.e. you feel like you are a bad mom?  You tell yourself every morning and throughout the day "I've got this mom thing down, I am a GREAT mom" and eventually that statement becomes the truth).  T is for tape, or CD.  But to listen to a positive or inspirational CD each day; think "Focus on the Family" or Joel Osteen, with me.  And for us MK consultants, the H is for our hotline call which is our way to stay connected with the positive women in our unit.

God then decided, "Mary needs to hear this again.  One more time and it will stick."  So, I get in my (freezing cold) vehicle and "Focus on the Family" was on and I hear "Don't give up!  Pray Big!".  The segment continued with "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong" - I Corinth 16:12-14.  At one point they were even talking about giving your children positive affirmations all throughout the day, and if you were beyond your children to give them to your grandchildren.

I could hear the Lord loud and clear tonight - I just love hearing His voice.

Meal Plan - Month One

What did you have for supper tonight?  We had BLT's.  Yum.  Yum Yum Yum.  And, pasta salad, but before you get too excited, it was pasta salad from a box. 

I have put some work in to our January menu plan and find that I really lack ideas for lunch and supper.  But, breakfast of Cheerios and oatmeal is done through the 31st.  However, what I have found about planning a month in advance, that I just love, is this:

• When you plan supper, lunch the next day is easy.  Leftovers from supper the night before.  Seems obvious, but has really helped me in planning when to make a certain dish for supper that I know Matthew will be able to chomp on, with only three tiny teeth, the next day and that I won't dread eating twice in a row!
  
• Planning produce so that what is bought at the beginning of the week isn't rotten at the end, and so that I am not making a last minute speed-run to the grocery store (I really dislike the grocery store - especially in the arctic temperatures that we are having).  For example, we had BLT's tonight, which required lettuce and tomato.  Tomorrow's supper is tacos, which require the leftover lettuce and tomato.  
• Cooking in advance.  Tonight I was able to grill up about two pounds of chicken tenders.  Supper for tomorrow almost complete.  Chicken tacos.  Not only that, but Wednesdays lunch plan is Chicken tenders and applesauce.  Done and done.

What are your favorite quick and healthy meals to make?  Any fun snack ideas?  I want to be planned down to the snack.  That's right.  Down to the snack.  I find that I struggle to get enough veggies in (and as I typed that, realized I forgot to buy V-8 splash today...  not going back to the store).  Matthew likes to spit them out, and I have found that veggies are a serious aversion this trimester.  So, any tips on incorporating veggies creatively would be greatly appreciated!

The Philosophical Baby

Well, in sticking to my goals for 2010, I started my year off with a book, that I hoped to finish by the end of this week.  Okay, so I cheated a bit, I started reading The Philosophical Baby by Alison Gopnik, the middle of last week.  Before reading further, know that I only made it to page 80 before giving up.  So my review is my review, but it is incomplete.

When Matthew was born, I found myself wondering all of the time, "I wonder what he is thinking".  He has had such strong facial expressions since he was about a week old.

Obviously, many of these looks were looks of wonder and confusion (or gas).  Even now, as he babbles, I just want to know what it is that he is trying to say.  Matthew has so many stories, and when we can all understand them, they will probably bring tears of laughter to our eyes.

So, shortly after Matthew was born I ran across an article about The Philosophical Baby and all of the new found studies about the capabilities of infant minds.  I started reading the article and thought to myself "duh" as it described how babies minds are capable of more than once thought.  If you have ever cared for a small child, it is so obvious that their little wheels are constantly spinning.  Constantly.  As adults, I think we give our wheels a rest way to often.  We miss the little details and we don't ask questions.  Infant minds don't seem to miss a beat.  Just because they don't know that a circle is a circle or that red is red, doesn't mean their minds aren't big and so capable of profound thought (and isn't profound relative anyway).

As I began reading this book, I may have had my hopes too high. But, every time I started to read, whether middle of the afternoon or at night, or even mid-morning, I found my eyes getting very heavy and my interest lacking. The book read, to me, as a very dry textbook. And, usually, I find psychology very interesting. Gopnik spends a great deal of time talking about how our minds process counterfactual events and the physical versus the psychological maps and how babies and toddlers begin to learn about how other people react and their feelings.

While it is interesting - it just seemed obvious. Things I already had figured out but didn't know the "technical terms" for. The book was due back to the library tomorrow, I was going to be out that way today, and the book wasn't worth renewing. I tried, I really did, but I have to move on...