During our bedtime prayers with the kids tonight, we were talking about being thankful. Instead of the usual routine of each one praying, we decided to be thankful in a different way. We went through the alphabet and each person had to say something that he was thankful for or thank God for one of His attributes.
I thought I would share what our kids found to be thankful for.
God is Almighty. God is Beautiful. God is our Creator. God is Divine. God is Eternal. Thankful for Food. Thankful for Gramps and Grammy. Thankful for our Home. God is Independent. Thankful for Jesus. God is the King of Kings. He is Lord. God is Magnificent. Thankful for Nathan. God is Omnipotent. God is Powerful. God is Quick to hear our prayers. God is Righteous. Thankful for His Steadfast love. Thankful for the Truth. God is Understanding. God is Victorious. Thankful for Water. EXceeding great and precious promises. (yeah, mom and dad helped with that one) Thankful for the Yellow sun. Thankful for the Zoo where we can see God's creatures.
The holiday we celebrate called Thanksgiving, should not simply be a day filled with traditions, feasting, and spending time with loved ones. This day is a wonderful time to be thankful for the many blessings God has given us. But why should we only be thankful one day of the year? We should begin each day with a time of thanksgiving. Isn't our every breath a gift from God? Then shouldn't every breath we take be filled with prayers of thanksgiving?
I want to share a tradition with you that my family had when I was growing up, and still practices today. Usually when we think of the first Thanksgiving, we think of the pilgrims and Indians and all the food they shared. We like to remember the year before that time. A year where food was so scarce that the food had to be rationed out. Only 5 kernels of corn per person. When our family gathers around the table to eat, we first pass out 5 kernels of corn to each person, and then we pass a basket around to collect the corn, one kernel at a time. Each time the basket passes by, you drop one kernel in and say something that you are thankful for. The basket is passed around until each person has used up all of their kernels.
These time have been so rich for our family! Tears are shed as we realize just how much we have to be thankful for! I would encourage you to try this in your own homes. Don't just have one person be thankful right before you eat. Let each person be thankful again and again!
Here is just a small list of the many things I have to be thankful for:
My salvation. My husband. My 8 children. My extended family. My health. My home. My heritage. My needs met above and beyond what is necessary for living. The gift of music. God's Word. Many wonderful friends.
"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations."
Psalm 100:4-5
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Monday, November 21, 2005
An Interesting Twist to Pizza Night
If you like pizza, you might just like this recipe for Pizza Meatloaf.
Ingredients:
8 oz. (2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 jar (14 oz) pizza sauce
2 lbs. ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
2 large eggs
Preheat oven to 375.
Reserve 1/2 cup of cheese and 1/2 cup of pizza sauce.
In large bowl mix all ingredients except reserved cheese and sauce.
In 13x9 pan shape meat mixture into 9x5 loaf. Bake for 30 minutes.
Pour reserved sauce over loaf and cook for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle reserved cheese over loaf and cook 10 more minutes.
Serve hot or cold.
(makes 8 servings)
Ingredients:
8 oz. (2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 jar (14 oz) pizza sauce
2 lbs. ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
2 large eggs
Preheat oven to 375.
Reserve 1/2 cup of cheese and 1/2 cup of pizza sauce.
In large bowl mix all ingredients except reserved cheese and sauce.
In 13x9 pan shape meat mixture into 9x5 loaf. Bake for 30 minutes.
Pour reserved sauce over loaf and cook for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle reserved cheese over loaf and cook 10 more minutes.
Serve hot or cold.
(makes 8 servings)
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Simplicity
I have thought in the past that I lived a fairly simple life. Lately I have started to realize that this is far from true! My life is anything but simple.
People have such a tendency to hold on to things. We save everything from old magazines and expired coupons to clothing that has a sentimental value. (And probably doesn't fit anymore!)We find birthday cards from people we don't see or hear from anymore stuck in the back of the desk. How about books that have pages missing or puzzles and games whose pieces have been missing for several months or maybe even years? Did I mention the endless supply of happy meal toys? Life becomes so complex, not to mention messy, when we hold on to so many worthless things.
Ever since I moved to this house almost 5 years ago, I have been throwing away things. I started by having all of our boxes put in the garage. (except for the necessary items we needed for living such as clothes, dishes etc.) I went through the boxes one by one purposing to throw away or give away at least half of what was in the box. For the past two Novembers, I have gone through the toy room and given away at least 1/3 of the toys. (The kids have so many that they never play with!) I also have been going through our clothes. Anything that doesn't get worn, no matter how nice it is, gets sent to Good Will. Now I am going through each room with 3 bags. One for trash, one for Good Will, and one to be put away in its proper place.
I have a long way to go still, but slowly I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. My goal is to have a peaceful house without a lot of clutter. I want my family to be able to enjoy living here instead of trying to ignore the mess that rears it's head so often.
Something I need to remind my family and myself of time and time again is that We can't take it with us! The only things that we need to hold onto are those things that hold eternal value! Things like building relationships within our family. Cutting out the movies to play a game with our spouse instead. Or building our knowledge by reading God's Word and other wholesome books.
I want to lead a simple life. A life that has one purpose ~ To glorify God in all that I do.
People have such a tendency to hold on to things. We save everything from old magazines and expired coupons to clothing that has a sentimental value. (And probably doesn't fit anymore!)We find birthday cards from people we don't see or hear from anymore stuck in the back of the desk. How about books that have pages missing or puzzles and games whose pieces have been missing for several months or maybe even years? Did I mention the endless supply of happy meal toys? Life becomes so complex, not to mention messy, when we hold on to so many worthless things.
Ever since I moved to this house almost 5 years ago, I have been throwing away things. I started by having all of our boxes put in the garage. (except for the necessary items we needed for living such as clothes, dishes etc.) I went through the boxes one by one purposing to throw away or give away at least half of what was in the box. For the past two Novembers, I have gone through the toy room and given away at least 1/3 of the toys. (The kids have so many that they never play with!) I also have been going through our clothes. Anything that doesn't get worn, no matter how nice it is, gets sent to Good Will. Now I am going through each room with 3 bags. One for trash, one for Good Will, and one to be put away in its proper place.
I have a long way to go still, but slowly I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. My goal is to have a peaceful house without a lot of clutter. I want my family to be able to enjoy living here instead of trying to ignore the mess that rears it's head so often.
Something I need to remind my family and myself of time and time again is that We can't take it with us! The only things that we need to hold onto are those things that hold eternal value! Things like building relationships within our family. Cutting out the movies to play a game with our spouse instead. Or building our knowledge by reading God's Word and other wholesome books.
I want to lead a simple life. A life that has one purpose ~ To glorify God in all that I do.
Friday, November 04, 2005
A word about cleaning
I have a magnet on my refrigerator that says, "I cleaned my house yesterday...You should have seen it!" This fits my description perfectly! I will work really hard to clean certain rooms in our house, and several hours later it's trashed again!
If we are having friends over, I get all the kids to help and we rush around picking up toys and putting cushions back on the couch. (My boys are always taking them off to build houses and forts) I'll tell them, "Make sure everything is off the floor so that I can vacuum". I'll come back in and everything will be off the floor...and on the couch! After having them put the toys in their proper place, one of us will run the vacuum through and then we will move on to the next room.
The problem with this is that after the room is clean, one of the younger kids will walk into the room and think, "Wow! Look at all this space that I can play with my turtles on!" I'll walk in behind them and inevitably there are Ninja Turtles everywhere! All over my nice clean room!
Yeah, I know, welcome to the world of parenting, right? It's been this way ever since I started having kids who were old enough to walk. The more kids we have the worse it gets. I may has well get used to the fact that my house is never really going to be clean until the kids are gone!
Our lives are so much like my house! The Lord is constantly helping us to clean the temples of our hearts where His Holy Spirit lives. He uncovers the dirt and grime of sin areas we may have and helps us to get rid of them. As soon as we have gotten rid of one sin in our lives, we start to have problems somewhere else! We should be grateful that God has such patience with us.
My kids are no different. Their hearts are full of sin area that need to be "cleaned up" by the Holy Spirit. I need to be careful to not be so focused on the external clean up jobs such as my house that will never really be clean. I need to be more concerned about the spiritual condition of my kids hearts. I need to be concerned about their character. While a clean house is a nice thing to have, I would much rather have kids with clean hearts. I need to encourage them to memorize Bible verses. I need to spend time with them individually learning about the things that are going on in their lives. I need to spend quality time praying for each of them and their different struggles.
I know that I can't live my kids lives for them. I can't make the decision to have them follow God, but I can speak into their lives while they are young and point them in the right direction. I can live my life as an example to them of what a godly person should be like. Sure, I'll make mistakes in my life, but I can use those mistakes to teach my kids valuable lessons about God's mercy and forgiveness.
It makes a big impression on your kids when they see their mom or their dad humble themselves in front of them and ask forgiveness for something that they did wrong. They probably think that they are the ones always messing up. They are the ones that are constantly being corrected. We need to show them that we as parents do mess up and that just as we "correct" areas in their lives, God is constantly correcting sin areas in our lives. What a humbling experience it is to go to your kids and ask them to forgive you for not setting a godly example!
So, I need to get my priorities straight! I need to realize what is more important. Working to clean a house that will never really be clean, or working to point my kids in the right direction which will have eternal value?
If we are having friends over, I get all the kids to help and we rush around picking up toys and putting cushions back on the couch. (My boys are always taking them off to build houses and forts) I'll tell them, "Make sure everything is off the floor so that I can vacuum". I'll come back in and everything will be off the floor...and on the couch! After having them put the toys in their proper place, one of us will run the vacuum through and then we will move on to the next room.
The problem with this is that after the room is clean, one of the younger kids will walk into the room and think, "Wow! Look at all this space that I can play with my turtles on!" I'll walk in behind them and inevitably there are Ninja Turtles everywhere! All over my nice clean room!
Yeah, I know, welcome to the world of parenting, right? It's been this way ever since I started having kids who were old enough to walk. The more kids we have the worse it gets. I may has well get used to the fact that my house is never really going to be clean until the kids are gone!
Our lives are so much like my house! The Lord is constantly helping us to clean the temples of our hearts where His Holy Spirit lives. He uncovers the dirt and grime of sin areas we may have and helps us to get rid of them. As soon as we have gotten rid of one sin in our lives, we start to have problems somewhere else! We should be grateful that God has such patience with us.
My kids are no different. Their hearts are full of sin area that need to be "cleaned up" by the Holy Spirit. I need to be careful to not be so focused on the external clean up jobs such as my house that will never really be clean. I need to be more concerned about the spiritual condition of my kids hearts. I need to be concerned about their character. While a clean house is a nice thing to have, I would much rather have kids with clean hearts. I need to encourage them to memorize Bible verses. I need to spend time with them individually learning about the things that are going on in their lives. I need to spend quality time praying for each of them and their different struggles.
I know that I can't live my kids lives for them. I can't make the decision to have them follow God, but I can speak into their lives while they are young and point them in the right direction. I can live my life as an example to them of what a godly person should be like. Sure, I'll make mistakes in my life, but I can use those mistakes to teach my kids valuable lessons about God's mercy and forgiveness.
It makes a big impression on your kids when they see their mom or their dad humble themselves in front of them and ask forgiveness for something that they did wrong. They probably think that they are the ones always messing up. They are the ones that are constantly being corrected. We need to show them that we as parents do mess up and that just as we "correct" areas in their lives, God is constantly correcting sin areas in our lives. What a humbling experience it is to go to your kids and ask them to forgive you for not setting a godly example!
So, I need to get my priorities straight! I need to realize what is more important. Working to clean a house that will never really be clean, or working to point my kids in the right direction which will have eternal value?
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