Family

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My how time flies!

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 12 weeks since my visit with my friend Tammy and her family, and these guys and gals hatched!  We had such a wonderful time watching them hatch and cheering them on as they entered the world.  What a great learning experience for all of our kids to get to experience!  I was so glad that the timing worked out to where they were hatching whey they were here. 
Here they are now:
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Where has the time gone?  I miss Tammy terribly, but we talk almost daily, and we’re planning a trip up there next year.  I can’t wait! 
Back to the chicks.  Right now, they are in their own separate area (but not completely cut off from the rest of the flock), but soon, they will be joining the rest of the flock.  They have approximately another 8 weeks before the girls start laying, but we’ll have to separate the young males before then.  Unfortunately, we cannot keep them all, but I might keep one or two.  The rest will go into my freezer at around 20 weeks of age.  We’ll just have to wait and see how my flock’s doing at that time. 
We also finally got part of a garden planted.  Not what I had originally planned, but it’ll do.  We planted 5 rows of corn, 2 rows of beans, and 1 row of potatoes.  So far, I do have corn and beans coming up which is great!  I’m praying that they will continue to do well and that I’ll have something to put into my freezer to last us through the winter. 
Well, there you have it – an update to our farm life.  We stay pretty busy, but I love it!  I’m so very thankful for all that God has blessed us with.  I’m more blessed than I could ever put into words.  

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Childless for a couple of days…….

Brian and I are childless for a couple of days. Listen! Do you hear that? It’s the sound of peace & quite. No fighting, yelling, squealing, etc. Very nice! While the kids get to spend quality time with their grandparents, we get some quality time together. As much as we love our children, this time is so important to couples, and it tends to get pushed to the back burner a lot. As parents, we forget that we started out as 2 and became ____ (for us – 5). When couples don’t spend that quality time together getting caught up on each other’s lives, they tend to start drifting further apart. I believe this (along with our lack of a strong faith in Christ and focus on Him) starts to pull many marriages apart. They start to become strangers to each other, and this is not a good thing. Your spouse should be your best friend, not your worst enemy.

If you haven’t had any quality time with your mate in a while, please take the time to do so. Just a dinner together minus children is a good thing. Also, try not to make your children the focus of your time together. Yes, we all love talking about our children, but this is a time for the two of you to catch up on each other’s lives. If you’re a stay-at-home mom, try to focus on something that doesn’t require talking about the kids. Talk about your dreams, the latest way you stretched your dollars, a new recipe, the latest scrapbook page you created, anything but the kids. Make sure that you also ask your husband about what’s going on at work. Focus on each others lives, likes and dislikes, dreams, etc. Don’t be afraid to dream, that’s what keeps life interesting. The point is to get to know one another all over again.

We all show our kids daily how much we love them, now it’s time to show our mate how much we love him/her. There are several ways that you can find quality time together, but the easiest and most frugal way would be to put the kids to bed early and plan a late dinner together at home. If you have to, have a picnic on the bed or in the bedroom floor. If you can’t plan dinner, plan a special dessert just for the two of you. Remember, it doesn’t have to be expensive, just quality time. The purpose is to make time for each other. After all, you started out with just the 2 of you, right? Don’t get me wrong. I miss my kids, but this time without them is a good thing.

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Revival In Our Church = Revival In Me Part 4

 

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Our last revival service was held last night, and it was just amazing!  Rick O. Collins (aka ROC) spoke and it was great!  He’s got an amazing sense of humor that keeps you riveted to your seat, but at the same time he has a serious side that tells it like it is!  He holds nothing back about God has to say to us through His word.  I have to admit that I was so engrossed with what he was saying that my note taking was very poor, but his message was amazing. 

Psalm 37:25

“I was young and now I am old, yet I have  never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” 

The key points that I did get written down were:

  • The righteous are those that know what it means to be forgiven by Christ.
  • The righteous can stand upright before God even though we are so unworthy of doing so and of the grace bestowed upon us.
  • The righteous will experience difficulties, but you will never be left alone.  (Jesus even says that there will be difficulties, but that He will “never leave or forsake us”.)

ROC also touched on a couple of other scriptures:

Hebrews 11:6

‘And without faith it is impossible to please God, because everyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnest seek Him.’

  • We are to have faith that God will never leave us, and we are to earnestly seek His will in all that we do.

Hebrews 13:5

‘Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” ’

Verse 6 goes on to say:

‘So we  say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?” ’

And I love verse 8:

“Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

To me, that pretty much sums it up!  Jesus has never and will never change!  If there are changes made, it is me making the changes which means that I’m relying on self and not on Him.   It means that my focus (aka faith) is not where it should be and I need to get back into the word more and (quoting from earlier in the week) “get out of God’s business!” 

I have to admit that my toes are pretty sore from being stomped on this week, but that’s OK.  I needed it!  Sometimes we need a little toe stomping to help keep us from being too prideful and to remind us that we are supposed to be humble. 

I’ll sum it up this way:

Philippians 4:13

“I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”

Our strength comes from the Lord, and everything we do should be pleasing to Him.  I’m so very thankful that no matter who bad I mess up, He will never leave nor forsake me.   Yes, I will have to reap the consequences of my bad choices (just like my children have to when they mess up), but I’m also able to reap the blessings that come with staying in His will.  How wonderful it is know that kind of love and forgiveness! 

I hope you have enjoyed hearing about our Revival services this week.  I know it has been amazing to be there, and I’m praying that it has touched you this week, too.