I Feel Honored!

Recently, my blog has gotten a lot of traffic for my last post. I had many notifications telling me about the increase in traffic, new comments, new followers etc. So in the mix, I kinda missed a really cool comment! My Salt, His Light, another wonderful little blog, has nominated me for a Liebster Award!! I am so honored and humbled! So to Tiffany over at My Salt, His Light, a great big

 

The Liebster Award is an online award given to bloggers by other bloggers. It’s goal is to help new/small time bloggers get noticed for their wonderful writing and sharing talent! Being nominated is so wonderful and scary to me at the same time! I am completely open and honest in my posts, I am also insecure about my writing, yet I know God leads every post I write. And I know God want’s me to share all these things with as many people as possible. Because you never know who you may touch, the one person who needs to hear what you have to say, who needs that word of encouragement, who needs someone to celebrate with, or to know they are not alone in their struggles.

The rules for a Liebster Award: Nominate 5 – 11 other bloggers who have less than 200 followers (although I found conflicting rules on this, some say 1000), Nominees must link back to the blogger that nominated them, must post 3 random facts about yourself, Answer 11 questions the nominator has asked, create a list of 11 new questions for your nominees, and last link to your nominees and TELL them!! (If you ask me, this resembles that of a chain letter, but it’s a good one!!)

STEP 1: Nominate 5 – 11 Blogs

Latest Obsession

A Story By Me

Lissa Marie Niederer

The Rooster & The Sunflower

The Crafty Side of Sarcasm (I’ll admit, I have no idea how many followers this blog has, but I love it!)

STEP 2: 3 Random Facts About Me

1: I swear like a sailor. I blame my husband who used to work on an oil ship when we first dated. I’ve been working on this since I accepted Christ into my heart. It’s not going well.

2: I love the sun. The warmth. The glow. The tan. The smile it brings to my face.

3: I drink a green smoothie, or two, every day. Yummo!

STEP 3: Answer 11 Questions

1. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?  A Lawyer. What can I say…I like to argue, always have.
2. What is the one accomplishment you are most proud of? My children, who are lovable, funny, sensitive, caring, smart and love God.
3. Why do you blog? I felt led by God to share my journey. I am led by Him in every post I write.
4. If you could do it all over again, what’s one thing you would do differently? I would have been kinder to my mother when I was a teen.
5. If someone gave you a million dollars, what’s the first thing you would buy? My kids college education. That is one loan I can’t wait to get rid of!
6. If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would your three wishes be? 1: for my family to have everlasting faith in God. 2: To exude Joy. 3: To move to a state that does not have the same climate as Maine. I hate it here.
7. What is your favorite cuisine? Mexican! Ole!
8. What is your favorite music genre? Honestly, I love everything!!
9. What is the one life lesson that you’d like to pass down to future generations. Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot do something. The truth is, you can do what you tell yourself you can. You can’t do the things you tell yourself you can’t do. 
10. What is one goal you’d like to accomplish in the next 5 years. Move!
11. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time (other than blogging)? I like sitting by the ocean. I could sit there all day, and do nothing and be completely happy!

STEP 4: 11 Questions the Nominees Must Answer

1.  Why do you enjoy blogging?
2. What brings you happiness?
3. What is one thing that helps you get through a difficult period in your life?
4. What is one goal that you would like to work towards, right now?
5. What is one thing that is stopping you from moving toward your goal?
6. How can you move past that one thing and just go for it?
7. If you had copious amounts of money, what would you do with it?
8. If you had no money, no food, no housing, who would you reach out to?
9. Could you be the “one” someone reaches out to? are you willing to be?
10. And because this is a blog focused on Jesus and my faith, I have to ask, Have you accepted Jesus into your hearts?
11. What is the one greatest thing in your life?

Thank you again for the nomination! I hope those I nominated are honored and blessed by this as well!

Blessings,

Sarah

A Parent’s Strength

Some say that being a parent is the hardest job in the entire world. I tend to agree. But then I look around me. At the situations other parents are in. Some are trying to co-parent after a separation or a divorce; I can’t imagine that’s easy.  Some have no support from extended family; I don’t know what I would do without my family and in-laws. Some are sick, fighting cancer, or depression or other diseases; I’m sure they feel inadequate as parents. Some parents have sick children; This would be hardest of all for me. When I look around, I know my job is hard, but my job is not the hardest job. I have a wonderful, supportive and active husband – father of my children. I have wonderful, supportive extended family. I have great friends. My husband and I are healthy.  My children are healthy. I have an easy job comparatively.

In October of 2012 I shared a post titled “Count Your Blessings” that illustrated a young mother whose daughter is very sick with Krabbe Disease. (Here is a link for info on Krabbe Disease) I wanted to share a little more about my perspective on this wonderful young lady and her precious baby and the impact they are having on the world.

Addilyn’s Journey Of Hope‘s Facebook page has 69,797 likes at the time of this post. It shows that 32,956 people are talking about Addilyn and Krabbe disease on Facebook. And you know what?  That is exactly what this mom wants! She wants awareness of Krabbe disease to get out there. She wants routine screening to become a norm when trying to conceive, after conception, she wants more help for babies with this condition. For families who have to go through this. You know what else has really stood out for me during her journey?  She continues to praise God, to thank God, to give God all the glory. She continuously asks for prayer because she believes in the power of prayer to our creator, the one who knows the plans for Baby Addilyn. What a way to spread the love of God, to set an example as to how much we need to trust God with our lives.

Her and her husband’s job as parents have to be more difficult than I could ever imagine. She once told me that she doesn’t want pity, or people feeling sorry for her. She loves her little girl, she lives her life. What if we all adopted that attitude? What if we all looked at our obstacles with eyes of love and appreciation for what it is we do have? What if we all gave praise to God in good times and in bad? I think the world would see a difference. I think people may start to explore the meaning of God. I think people would help others reach their goals of spreading awareness of causes near and dear to our own hearts. I think people would pull together to help each other. I think the world would be a better place.

I may be wrong, but my perspective on Addilyn, isn’t one full of sadness for her or her parents. It’s one of hope, encouragement, love, and most of all FAITH and STRENGTH. It takes strength to trust in God when you feel helpless at times, it takes strength to continue to advocate for not only your child, but all the others affected in the same way. It takes strength to decide to try to conceive again – knowing you risk having another child with the same disease (which they had another child and she is healthy!). It takes strength to know that God knows his plans for you and your life and to embrace that, and to love that. And that is what Addilyn’s parents are doing.

Addilyn is currently in the hospital with RSV. I am asking all of you on behalf of her, to pray for her. Pray for comfort, peace, healing, for God to continue to allow this little girl to have such an impact on the world that she has 69,000+ followers. Pray for her parents, that they continue to be strong, not only in life, but in their faith. Pray that they continue to impact people in a way that brings others closer to God. Pray for the doctors, nurses and specialists that are treating Addilyn, that they have a clear mind, that they are guided by the ultimate physician, our Father in heaven!

Blessings & Love,

Sarah

Appreciate Your Pastor

October is Pastor Appreciation Month! I thought I would take a moment to share my appreciation for my Pastor!

You all have read about Pastor Glenn in previous posts. But I’m not entirely sure I’ve ever shared my gratitude and respect I have for my current pastor, Pastor Brian. Brian has been an associate pastor since Glenn’s diagnosis. He, and his lovely family, have been a wonderful blessing, not only to our church, but to me personally. Brian has given beautiful, inspired and encouraging sermons, his teenage daughters share their lovely voices singing with the worship team and are wonderful with the little ones at the church, and his wife, Anne, has been a wonderful addition to the women’s bible study and a great role model of Christian mother and wife to all of us young ones in the congregation.

I am so thankful that Brian and his family felt led to come back to us, to pastor our church, to love us, encourage us, and build us up in Christ. I truly feel like Brian is preaching to me most Sundays, I’m sure I’m not the only one. Thank you Brian, for inspiring me, for speaking to me (if you knew it or not), and most of all, for being you.  You are filling the shoes of Pastor Glenn so nicely in my opinion.

How can you show your appreciation for your pastor this month? Give them a card or note (or blog post, haha), take them out for coffee or lunch, sit and talk with them about how they have impacted your life, pray for you pastor and their family, and most of all, show your appreciation through your actions.

Blessings & Love,

Sarah

God won the real prize!

A while ago I shared with you that my pastor had been diagnosed with Leukemia. You can read posts about it here and here. During the past year and a few months since Pastor Glenn’s diagnosis, he had a stem cell transplant and had been feeling pretty good. I’ll spare you all the details, but the leukemia returned, he got infections, one thing led to another and he ended up being hospitalized again. He fought so hard for well over several weeks. He was in pain, unable to eat anything other than a clear liquid diet, he was weak. His wonderful, loving wife, stayed by his side every single day. On Saturday, September 14th, he lost his battle with leukemia.  He was ready. He wanted to go see Jesus. This wonderful, amazing, loving, caring, gentle, kind, considerate, strong, Christ-like man has finally gone to be with the one he lived his life for, Jesus! While this is a great loss for us here on Earth, we can find comfort and hope in the simple fact that Pastor Glenn is in Heaven, right where he hoped to be someday.

Through this I want to share two things that have resonated with me. The first is the story of Esther. Esther is his wife. Esther is just as wonderful, amazing, loving, caring, gentle, kind, considerate, strong and Christ-like as he. Through this whole ordeal, she never lost her faith in God and what was and is to come. She never once complained of any burdens or being tired of the toll it takes to watch a loved one hurt and suffer. She always praised God for the work in her and Pastor Glenn’s lives. Esther always stayed positive, supported and stood by her husband, and most of all loved him and God! Esther has created an example for all women to be like. She is someone I am striving to become. (A little note to you Esther: I love you and respect you so very much!)

The second story is what it is like for me to mourn a death of someone I love and respect as a Christian, for the first time. I have never been good at death. I am a big ole cry baby when it comes to death. I lost my grandfather when I was 20 and was completely and totally distraught.  It wasn’t til much later I realized the good in his death, no more suffering. I may have said “at least he’s in heaven”, but back then, I had really no understanding of what that meant and truly didn’t know what I believed about it. I also lost a friend a month later. I saw nothing but sorrow, selfish sorrow, in his death. This time, it is so different. At first, when I found out he was going to pass, my tears were a lot selfish and a lot for the great loss that his wife and children and grandchildren would face. My tears were for the fact that I would never get to see him again, to hear a joke or funny story he would share, to hear his wonderful sermons. That he wasn’t going to be alive. Then I realized how selfish I was being. Of course I can be sad and mournful for the loss of the relationship I had with him, that is completely okay and expected. But I wasn’t seeing the big picture at first. Then I was so focused on the loss that Esther, his four daughters, his grandchildren and close friends were facing. I couldn’t stop crying for them. Then I would hear from them through facebook or texts…just short little things, but enough to know that something was very different here. Then I GOT it! I mean, I really GOT it! Yes, he is not here on earth with us anymore, BUT he is in heaven, right where he lived his whole life to be. Just like this blog is about my journey with Christ, his life on earth was a journey. And now he has reached his destination! He is sitting in Heaven right now, with Jesus! His family is strong because they have their strong faith in God and knowing that Jesus died for our sins so that Pastor Glenn could enter the heavenly kingdom where we will all be together again! Oh, there is still so much sadness in my heart, so many tears that I am still shedding and will continue to. But, now I am experiencing a death as a Christian. A true believer in Christ. I now have a hope that I didn’t have before. I now have an understanding of what Christ’s dying means to us!

The night before Pastor Glenn passed away, I was woken up after a dream. The dream was of flowers and sunshine, lots of people with lots of smiles. Nothing more, nothing less. I had Pastor Glenn and Esther on my heart and soul. I know that this was God sending me a glimpse of the peace that Pastor Glenn was about to face. The cancer may have taken his earthly body, but God won the prize! He now has the wonderful pleasure of having an amazing man dwell in His kingdom, forever and ever!

Please lift up Pastor Glenn’s family in prayer. Pray for their comfort, for love and support and pray for their adjustment to life on earth without their loved one. Please pray for my church, that we find strength as one at this time, that we pull together, that we continue to grow the kingdom of God. Also, pray for non-believers who are experiencing death, because without Christ, death is exactly that.

Blessings & Love

Sarah

God Has A Sense Of Humor

Back in July, I was asked to lead the women’s bible study that I am part of. I was thrilled! I just wasn’t sure what I was going to lead the discussion on. Generally, we have a bible study book, such as this, that guides our discussions. However, during the summer it is a much more laid back Bible study. Usually  prayer time and then shorter daily devotional type study. So I went home and didn’t think about it.

A couple of days later I thought, “I should probably pray about Bible study and what I should discuss.”. So I did. I asked God to lead me in the direction of a topic to talk about. Immediately, I got a nudging to go to a favorite website – WhatChristiansWantToKnow.com – and I felt strongly that my answer would be right there. Well, I prayed while I was in the shower and got busy during the day and you know how that goes. I never did get a chance to go on my computer, let alone the website. So the next day I was doing my personal Bible study (I need the structure of a study or I won’t spend much time in the Bible) and the story of Sarah laughing at God saying she could have a child in her old age, God asking why she laughed, Sarah denying it, and God replying (in my much paraphrased way, with a sarcastic tone) “Yes, you did too!” I laughed out loud. I just found it hilarious. I don’t really know why. I guess because my sense of humor is a tad sarcastic  and wise! This led me to jot down an idea for the Bible study coming up at the end of the week.  “Does God Have A Sense Of Humor”. That’s exactly what I jotted down. Then I jotted down another possible topic but was not sold on it at all, hence I don’t even remember what it was. When I was finished with the bible study I prayed again that God would help me see what his will was for the study that week. Again, I got a nudging to go to that website, but this time it was a stronger nudge, almost a shove, with a little more clarity. My answer would be on the home page.

So without further ado, I jumped on my computer, went onto http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com. Right on the home page, time and date stamped just hours before I logged on, was this article: What does the bible say about humor or laughter. Guess what I chose as my topic? Yup. Does God have a sense of humor. Had I logged onto that website the day before, I would not have seen that article and would not have recognized the way God was talking to me.  And there is no doubt that God led me to this topic. It was a great, refreshing morning with lots of giggles out of us girls.

I thank God that I was given this opportunity to lead the Bible study and I am even more thankful that I am filled with the Holy Spirit and able to recognize it!

How does God talk to you?

Blessings & Love,

Sarah

Time To Play Catch Up!

Hello all!

I know, I know, I have been MIA for a while! I’ve been busy and, I’ll admit it, a bit uninspired. I’ll start with letting you know about something I was part of that was probably the most meaningful thing I’ve done, outside of raising my kids and making the decision to turn my life over to Christ.

Vacation Bible School. Last year I blogged about my experience with VBS and how inspired I was by it. Well this year, I directed it. Yup. Just over a year into my journey with Christ, God led me to be the VBS director. I can’t tell you how nervous I was. I knew I could do it but I never wanted to make the people who volunteered their precious time to feel like I didn’t appreciate them or respect them.  I wanted to be sure it was fantastic and didn’t want to let anyone down. I put TOO MUCH pressure on myself. But what rose above all the negative self talk, was the amazing guidance and presence of God! I had so many people volunteer to help. People that were just as enthusiastic and committed as I. People who supported me and each other and the overall goal of creating a VBS that would be exciting, encouraging and bring more little ones to Christ. I was so touched by this, that often times after meetings, I would cry on my ride home. Tears of happiness, tears of recognition that God brought me to this place that has become my family. Of course Satan didn’t like any of it. Of course Satan played his little games. My son was diagnosed with MRSA 3 days prior to the start of VBS. There was some other issues that were laden with Satan’s desires, not God’s. Hey, guess what you evil doer you!!!  You LOST! My son healed just fine. The other issues seemed to work out with support. And it was a fabulous week! I wont bore you with every little detail but I have to share the story of what happened one night. A story that still brings tears to my eyes when I think about it. It IS that good!

On day 3 of VBS, the lesson was to teach the kids to Pray About Everything and Prayer Helps Us Stand Strong. I as leader of the opening and closing sessions, had to pretend I couldn’t come in to the room to lead the closing because of all these burdens and worries. I had a big cape on with several pots and pans set on the dragging part of the cape. The skit included teachers from the other sessions running up to me and putting more pots and pans on my cape to represent them adding more and more responsibilities to my plate. Making the burden and my worries larger. One volunteer was encouraging me to give my worries to God. Part of the skit was for me to be reluctant. (To represent giving my worries to God, we had to place the pots and pans at the foot of the throne on the set). Towards the end of the skit, the volunteer was leading the kids to chant “Pray about everything, lift it all up to God”. Nope they didn’t. Not a single one of them. No. They all got up, walked up to me and my large cape of burdens and worries and started lifting the pots and pans off the cape and onto the throne. There was one pot left and two kids. One said “oh, there’s nothing left for me to help with.” The other child responded, “Here let’s do this together.” Not one dry eye from an adult in the sanctuary. It was beautiful, encouraging and so full of GOD that I wish I would have gotten it on video to share on here! (And yes, right now I am crying!! haha)  I dare say that VBS had the exact effect on the kids we were hoping. To be like Christ. So touching! This was a great example of a child’s faith!

I look forward to next year’s VBS, although I want to make some changes, I know it will still be amazing!

I am also helping to coordinate a Women’s Renewal Day. I am so excited! I went to this renewal day last year, just two days after accepting Christ as my savior! This year it’s going to take on a whole new meaning! I can’t wait!

For now, keep me in your prayers. Simply for inspiration for blogging. Blogging helps me continue to grow in my faith and helps me in general!

Thank you all for following this blog!

Blessings & Love!

Sarah

 

A child’s generosity

Ever been rubbed the wrong way by an adult’s greediness? Ever been completely turned off by a person’s inability to look beyond themselves and what’s in it for them? Yeah, me too. Me too.

Well today, I got to see the generosity that God would want us all to have. The kind of generosity that makes you forget about the aforementioned type of people. Let me set the stage for you.

My church holds a “rummage sale” (lawn sale you could call it). We do not put any prices on any of the items. They were all donated items to boot. People come, take what they need and donate what they can or feel is appropriate. Sometimes, we can get bogged down by the negative, the few people that take advantage of that and take a bunch of stuff and hand over a quarter and you over hear them talking about the lawn sale they will be having. No doubt with the stuff they just took for a quarter.

Today, much to our wonderful and delightful surprise, a few of us were standing around chatting. A young man, and by man I mean child about the age of ten or twelve, came up with three used books and a candy PEZ dispenser. He asks us how much he owes. We tell him it is donation based so he can give whatever he is compelled to give. We were all, unspoken of course, expecting maybe $1, and that would have been absolutely fine. But no. He opens his wallet, has 2 $5 bills. He looks at them thoughtfully and hands them to us and asks for only $2 back. I WAS SHOCKED! I immediately thanked him for his generosity, told him he was a great child and being so generous would come back to him tenfold. He goes on to tell me that he goes to church every Sunday; He earns money every week doing things around the house and what not; How he always gives at least $5 to the church for a tithe.

Wait, what?! A 10-12 year old boy is giving $5 a week to his church. And he talked about it like it was nothing. $5 to a child that age is like $50 to me as an adult! So what can we learn from this? Just like the bible says, we need to have child-like faith. That was pure generosity. Given from the heart. Without hesitation. Without a question of “what’s in it for me?”. I had tears in my eyes. My heart was warmed. And I was reminded of this bible verse:

But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ~Luke 18:16

 

In closing, let’s remember to live like a child, to have faith like a child, to give generously like a child. Most importantly, as most of us reading this blog are adults, and probably parents or parents to be, let us raise more children to walk with Christ like this child is! (Don’t worry, I spoke with his grandmother, whom he was with, and commended her on how wonderful her grandson was, in front of him, he turned red, oops!)

Blessings & Love,

Sarah

 

It Was A Weekend To Remember!

A couple of weeks ago I posted to stay tuned for a post…here it is!! Of course it’s later than I wanted, but I wanted it to be perfect!

Two weekends ago, my husband and I went to a marriage retreat put on by Family Life, called A Weekend To Remember. Best. Weekend. Ever! (If you have never heard of Family Life, visit their website at www.familylife.com.  They have a ton of wonderful resources available!) This was a weekend long event that included several sessions that covered a variety of topics, three different speakers, and activities to complete privately with your spouse (or fiance). And it all incorporated God’s plan for a marriage. There were couples there that had been married for 52 years all the way down to 3 weeks. There were couples we met that were extremely happy in their marriage but were there to strengthen their marriage and bring God back to center stage in their marriage, and there were those couples there that this would be a weekend that would save their marriage. I wish I could share that we were the former, but in reality, my husband and I have been struggling for a while now. This was compounded by the busyness of life, having two kids (now 2 & 4), dealing with postpartum depression, and other “things”. We lost focus of what makes a marriage work, and we lost focus of each other. However, I am so happy to say, this marriage retreat has given us both the tools to completely turn this around! And it’s working!

I would like to give a brief overview of what we got from each session, because, oh my, was this amazing, but this post would be so long! Instead I will share the highlights, the parts that meant the most to me. The first thing we talked about was what makes a marriage fail. While this was negative in nature, it truly spoke to me and highlighted the areas I needed to work on.  For my husband he agreed, he recognized the areas that he needed to work on. The speakers were fantastic (Tim & Joy Downs and Dick Hastings were the speakers, you can look them up on Familylife.com) and they were able to connect with us on a personal level. So what was the ONE thing that really stood out to me as to why my marriage was failing? Grasping society’s standards for marriage (which I must say is completely skewed) while not holding onto God’s standards, as well as selfishness. I am not naturally a selfish person. By selfishness I am talking about the fact that I was more focused on anything but my husband – smart phone, computer, KIDS – anything to avoid dealing with the problems in our marriage. As well as saying “I’ve done my part, now it’s time for you to do yours.” Selfish.

Communication. Enough said. Well, not really. Without good communication, how can there be a relationship at all? Major fail for both of us. I over communicate, by which I mean, I say too much. I make sure to make a comment about everything that irritates me, or stuff I don’t agree with but is trivial. My husband, he just keeps it all in. We talked in this session a lot about different styles of communication. They outlined six styles of communication I would like to share with you, because for me, this was a huge realization. 1) Land the plane – get to the point,quickly and clearly. 2) Share your feelings. 3) Thinking out loud – ask questions and make comments as soon as they come to mind  instead of waiting for the other person to finish. 4) Enjoy the ride – gets lost in all the details or possibilities in what they are trying to say. 5)Just the facts – they set aside emotion and speak just the facts. 6) Let’s take turns – clearly, you wait for me to finish before you interrupt me with your thinking out loud! Guess which one is the biggest problem for us?  I am such a turn taker when it comes to talking and my hubby, he just says what he’s thinking, when he’s thinking it, even if it means cutting me off. Before. I. Even. Get. To. The. Point. GRRR! haha But this was eye-opening for me. He isn’t doing this out of disrespect or disinterest in what I am saying. This is simply his style of communication. And it’s true, he does it with others too. Proverbs 7:24 was shared “…listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth”. I made sure to point that out to my husband! hahaha But the one thing that I really got from this, focus on what is being said, not the way that it is said, and I don’t have to make a comment about everything because that just feeds a negative cycle. We learned a lot in following sessions about communication. How to communicate during an argument or difference of opinion effectively and with respect. How to apologize with true emotion and remorse instead of an empty “I’m sorry”. For me the session on conflict fit into communication. All conflicts can be solved if we communicate effectively and seek God’s wisdom in the conflict.

One other thing that really spoke to me: The speakers addressed the fact that a lot of parents focus on their kids instead of their spouse.  Thus, leaving their spouse feeling neglected. And trust me, this is a two-way street. However, in fact we need to be focusing on our spouses. Not that we shouldn’t focus on our kids, that’s not what they or I am saying. When we have a great marriage that represents respect, communication, love and oneness and puts God in the center of it, we are teaching our kids a very important and valuable lesson. Not only that, if we are happier, they will be happier. We will be less reactive with negativity and more reactive with love. I am blessed, my parents have been married for 28 years. Although, not all happy, they have set a standard for me. A standard that is far from the norm of society nowadays, where it is easier to walk away from a marriage and raise kids in two separate homes.

The overall goal of any marriage should be “Oneness”. Dick Hastings gave a definition of oneness that was fabulous – A harmonious, mutually enriching, God centered and lasting marriage. In order to spare you of all the details, and to keep in mind the length of this post, I’ll share with you the ultimate conclusion I came to. I, as a woman, a mother and a wife, have a responsibility. A responsibility to build my husband up, respect him, encourage him, love him, and complete him. After all, isn’t that why God created Eve? To complete Adam? The rest will fall into place with hard work, prayer and dedication!

I am so thankful for this opportunity that my husband and I just stumbled upon. I would like to share with you the link to Family Life’s Weekend To Remember, and if you find that you would like to register for the weekend event, you can enter this code at checkout FAITHISALIVE and you will receive $119 off a registration of two people! I highly recommend this for any soon to be married or married couple*!  Just click the following link! Family Life’s Weekend To Remember

And don’t forget to enter code: FaithIsAlive at check out for $119 off the registration fee!

Blessings & Love,

Sarah

*I am not being paid to represent Family Life or the Family Life Weekend to Remember*

Project help

Evening all,

I hope everyone has enjoyed the weekend! The weather here has been beautiful the past couple of days, it’s been sunny and warm and all the animals are coming back after a long, cold winter.  This morning I sat outside during my devotional/prayer time with my Bible. It was beautiful! The birds were singing their love song and the sun was shining. It mad a perfect back drop to studying God’s word.

For my bible study group I am currently studying the Holy Spirit. There was an introduction at the beginning of this certain chapter and it mentioned the many names the Holy Spirit has in the Bible.  Well this left me thinking.  What other ways do we refer to the Holy Spirit? So I have come up with something that I am hoping takes off! I would like everyone to respond to the following question and then I will compile the list and write a post on it.

Question: What “term” or “short phrase” would you use to describe the Holy Spirit in your life and the role the Holy Spirit plays in your life?

For example, my term would be “prayer warrior”…because we know that the Holy Spirit can pray for us when we can’t

I’m really excited to see your responses and I think this will be lots of fun! Please share this question with your friends and family too!

Blessings & Love,

Sarah

Just a preview…

Hi all!

I hope everyone has had a blessed weekend! I know my husband and I sure did! I don’t have the time (or mental capacity) to write an in depth, detailed post right now, but it will come! So here is a preview!

Marriage: We’ve been doing it wrong in this household!

You know, having two little kids, wife stays home, hubby leaves for work by 4 am, comes home exhausted by 4 pm, wife battles depression, kids want attention, dog that barks, dirty laundry, dirty dishes, dirty floors, favorite television show, Facebook,… it all gets in the way of life. And it messes up our priorities! That’s been the case in my life. More importantly, in my marriage.

This past weekend, my husband and I were able to attend a marriage retreat. It was the single best thing we have ever done for ourselves, for our children and for God.

I will share a more in depth post within the next coming week. Along with details about this retreat so that you can learn more about it! I’m so excited to share! In the meantime, wives – love your husbands, respect them and encourage them. Husbands – love your wives, honor them, respect them, appreciate them.

Blessings & Love,

Sarah