Thursday, March 25, 2010

Do Good

Why is it that we never want to do those good things we should do? I volunteer at my girl's Awana club. Pretty much every Wednesday I don't want to go. I feel like what I do isn't really that important, so why bother. But, every time I fight past that feeling and go anyway. And most nights, at the end, I'm so glad I went.

When I think about it, in the past 6 weeks, I have had the privilege of praying with two girls to accept Christ as their Savior and given countless hugs to two girls who truly need those hugs.

Galatians 6:9

9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.



Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Parenting Resource

Our pastor recommended that each year we read one parenting book and one book about marriage- great idea.
Grace-Based Parenting


I'd love to pass along this parenting book suggestion (and I'd love to hear yours!):

Grace Based Parenting by Dr. Tim Kimmel. Read this gem and you'll understand why it is a must read:

"The real test of a parenting model is how well equipped the children are to move into adulthood as vital members of the human race. Notice I didn't say "as vital members of the Christian community". We need to have kids that can be sent off to the most hostile universities, toil in the greediest work environments, and raise their families in the most hedonistic communities and yet not be the least bit intimidated by their surroundings. Furthermore, they need to be engaged in the lives of people in their culture, gracefully representing Christ's love inside these desperate surroundings."


Sunday, March 14, 2010

Give it Up, Girls!

So I had a thought. What if we women made a pact not to read beauty/fashion magazines anymore? You know, the ones packed with advertising, the ones that make you feel like you need to buy more stuff in order to be socially acceptable? The ones that leave you feeling like you have wrinkles and really need to buy some anti-aging products as quickly as possible? The ones that make you forget you wanted to donate some money to that really cool organization you just heard about, but now you keep thinking about those boots- those boots would look so great with everything! The one that leaves you feeling like your sex life isn't what it should be, you REALLY need to get to gym ASAP, that maybe being a mom is just not your idea of a good time after all, needing some new perfume, candles, love seat, manicure, facial, and/or husband?

What if we agreed to just leave all that behind? What if we just accepted ourselves for who we are? I, personally, would love to never think about my ever deepening crow's feet again- and I think if I never saw another add for wrinkle cream it would help. I mean, would I have ever even noticed my crow's feet if I didn't have a stupid ad pointing them out to me?

What if we traded in our magazines, and committed to complementing our friends and even strangers on their beauty instead? Instead of an advertisement informing us of what we should think of as beauty, we defined beauty for ourselves? And then we see that beauty in another woman, we tell her? Whoa.

Let's do it, okay?

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Voice of the Martyrs Update

As believers living in a free country, we seldom face any type of persecution for our faith. Part of the responsibility of our freedom should include faithfully praying for Christians who are being persecuted. Recently, some (18) Christians in Morocco were arrested for their faith and had their Christian materials confiscated. In addition to praying for these believers we can also write on their behalf.

You could send an email to Ms. Aicha Afifi at aafifi@morccous.com telling her that the Christians should be protected from any type of violence or persecutions. Christians are not violent and will do much good for Morocco if given the chance.

You could write to the Moroccan ambassador to send a similar message at:

H.E. Aziz Mekouar
1601 21st St. NW
Washington, DC 20009

Check out www.persecution.com for more information.