Pleasant Valley Homestead

What a skil!

I want to share with you my daughter, who is crocheting~! i think this is totaly awesome and I wanted to share!

A Scarf in the making....

Who loves Applie Pie?

Well, thanks to MarmeeDear.com I was able to can a wonderful recipe of apple pie filling! We'll be having pie tonight as well for supper. I wanted to share with you all these beautiful darlings of mine. one is a Princess, if you can tell!

To Knit or Crochet

Well, it seems like a unlikely topic on my  blog, but that is what came to mind. Although, what is really on my mind is being still, so that I know He is God.

I am, in my nature, a hyper woman. I am always busy. Always doing something. When I was young, I was allowed to have pop before school because caffiene had the reverse effect on me. So, to say the least, my mind is in constant motion.

I've had this yearning for some time now to be still. Is it God calling me, yes I'd say so, as each one of us is made after His own likeness and He calls us to Him. My soul is tired and in need of rest. I say this not to draw attention to myself, so please don't think along that line.  Jesus tells us His yoke is easy and His burden is light, and all who call upon Him can take rest in our souls. Follow me. What is it that brings us to such divisions in our Church? What, besides the fallen nature of man and his self gratifying being, that draws us away from God, and into this realm of "my church", or "my denomination?"

This may spark an interest in a few of you. Don't take offense.  I approach this subject because my soul does want to take rest, and will, and is in its own way...What  I really mean to say though is it is hard to find rest for our souls when there is such a great division in the Church today. Any division is great, and so since we are divided amongst our "doctrinal" beliefs it is agreat division in the Church.

For those of you who may be accustomed to seeing " the church" in lower case, I'm referring to THE Church in uppercase. All Christians, being a believer, are part of the Church, Gods Church, the one Jesus instituted through His Apostles. Now, that is The Church. We are the Church.

What does this division remind you of? It reminds me of the Tower of Babel, where all the people wanted to get to Heaven. Woe to them, as God scattered them and changed thier languages. This reminds me of the israelites who wanted thier own king, like all the other nations. Instead of believing God would provide all thier needs. Have we been scattered too? Doesn't this division remind you of the narrow way? We are all scrambling, thinking we are on the right path, that our chosen faith is the right one. Jehovah's Witnesses do it (no offense to you out there) and the many versions of Protestants do it, and the Catholics, Jews, Israelites and Muslims. We all think we are the right way.

What's wrong with The Church? We are. We want control, we want to make the choices, the decisions, the rules and regulations. We accuse each other of lacking in some area, or too excesive in another area. We will find out one day how God feels about all of this. We all too often forget that God will judge us when the day comes. So, if I make a mistake in the spiritual path, God wil tell me about it. I see what his Word says, what he says to do. What He says not to do. I research, I study, I read, I pray, I try real hard to listen. (Remember, that one is hard for me, see above) and I don't do any of those things in the order I listed them. What is wrong with us? I knwo the anwer and so do you. hw far we are willing to look into ourselves though is the key to unlocking this self.

"One Church,  under God, INDIVISABLE" is what our anthem should be. I praise you Lord, I Iong to be right with you. I yearn to be still. I yearn to be on the narrow path, make my ways straights that need making. Take the idols out of my life, remove from me the impurities and the hostility, the ugliness and create in me a pure, clean heart. Know that all I am, I am trying to be in Your will, submissive to You and the Word You laid out for me to see. I pray I am able to be that light that all can see, always.

When you reach out to help them, let them.

I'm really excited about the girls' driving, and so I will take the advice in the subject matter. Here they are, actually driving, and I'm sorry the images are really close up, but with me in the middle it's hard to get further away.

There's Casey

Here's Savannah

How deep is my Faith?

I just want to share a moment in a mother's life with you. Some may have gone through this before, some may be waiting for this day to come....DRIVING!

I have a 17 year old that has never drove before, (we had our reasons) and now her and the 13 year old will practice driving in the bean field. Both have driven four wheelers, and only one has driven the Kubota...So that leaves the other for a new pedal experience.
We'll take some pictures to share! I know God is watching over us.

Peanut Butter and Toast

You know, they say that if you are craving a food, there is something in that food your body needs. I must need the protien. I'll be the first one to admit that even though I feed my family good foods, healthy foods and organic foods, I don't eat well.  Im on my second pb&t slice this afternoon.

I've missed this place , but have found myself so busy with life, that I stopped taking time to come here. I miss the socialization, the reading and the soothness of God's word I often heard here.I pray that everyone has been well, is well, or is healing well.  Fall is officially here and Summer has blown out with a bang here. It's hot today!

I need to ask those of you who do the Managers of the Home, can you share with us a sample of your planner, calendar or plan? I've talked with another mother who home schools, and uses this plan and she lives by it, but was fast to remind that it is a plan, not to allow it to control me. It's a guidline. So, I've been thinking about my guidline. I really need to sit down and write out all the things I want to accomplish in each room of my home, of losing weight, of proper food prep time and everything I guess. I simply haven't made the time to do this simple task. Last week we were on schedule again, as we'd fallen off. sticking to it with all of life's little bumps in the road is what is hard. Like today, it's hot. We turned the air off and the house is warm and to even go outside to hang another load is red flagging me. (It could be lazziness too, and I'm not above admitting to it)

Can some of you share your wisdom in how you eased yourself and your family into a schedule of sorts? My aunt sent me a ABC guidline via email. Here are the particulars: (simply a copy and paste here)

I followed Philipians one time for a "How to get 25-1/2 hours out of a 24 hr day." workshop taught by Bobbie H who moved to Northern Oregon. She runs Panache Living. That helped me get organized and am going to go do it again. You take a spiral bound notebook. You go through every single room in the house making a note of everything to do in that room, that needs to be done. Then you put an A,B. or C nex to each item.Then you take all of the A's and make a list, same for the Bs and Cs. The As stand for "Absolutely must be done," the Bs stand for "Best if done," the Cs stand for "Could be done," and you post the list with A, B,C on a cupboard door.

This sounds nice, but more like a long to 'do list', rather than a tidy schedule of what to do when and so forth, as a guidline. Like, I'm thinking about my list of enjoyables now. I'm enjoying sitting here at the computer, but I do need to minimize my time usage. How, when it sits at my desk, in the dining room, where we have school, where I sit almost all day when I'm sitting? LOL And, I love to knit, crochet, and sew. I currently have one pair of socks I'm working on knitting, and an afghan I'm crocheting. No projects to sew, yet, but my Christmas list is beginning to blossom. That other home school mom talked about 30 minute intervals. I liked the idea of being able to get up and leave a project, knowing that I have time again later for it. I would also like that sewing, knitting, crocheting time to be longer than 30 minutes. Spending time with God, I MUST make that top priority. Every morning would be great, to start my day off with Him. While now, I'm catching myself flying out of bed, talking to Him along the way to make coffee, get the kids up and begin our day, Mondays are the worst for this. My husbands work takes priority in the morning on Mondays. And now, I find myself picking up another project, that has begun to take priority over my life. Patti....Help!  

So I've rambled, does anyone care to share how youv'e implemented this into your life, sharing with pictures, spreadsheets etc? Menu's and actual schedules?

May God bless you all, and encourage you all to help each of us, as we continue to live for Him!

Melissa

Organizing and Planning

I hope this post finds everyone having a great September already! I wanted to share with you what some of you may already know about, but I'm new to this....So here it goes....I've gotten a schedule! hehehe

The girls' and I compiled a list of all three meals for the week, leaving the majority of it the same, possibly only changing the supper meals due to husband being a bit of the type of man that only likes certain foods. Other than that, our lunches will likely remain the same and ditto for breakast. I've also gotten a schedule down for daily tasks and chores and I've got to say that today was our first day working this schedule and it has worked. Our school didn't start until around lunch at noon, and this isn't  the normal, but to give you an idea of the time, they were all done with thier school work around 3:00 to 3:30 this afternoon! That time isn't always the normal, being done in 3 hours! So, since today was the day I made the schedule, and the first day of applying the schedule, we did it all today, we'll get to the times another day! LOL

I'm just really excited about this! I have heard so many people saying how they've used a schedule and it works so well in their lives and then I ran into another mom I know at Wal-Mart last week, and she was talking about this. So....I am going to give it a whirl. All I know is that today my time was full, all day, but never idle and never without knowing what was next. My time has always been full, but sometimes lost since I was doing so much at so many times. Scheduling even for people who already seem to have it down pat is REALLY HELPFUL! I've got to get down the times I think, to a certain extent anyway, because that way we know what time to eat supper and what time to have those supper dishes done. Timing isn't so much a big deal to me, yet it is. So, we've eaten, and I've got some down time now....It's ony 6:30....And the daughter is starting the dishes. I'd like to have a time schedule for the chidlren. That way they still get their down time. (of course, they had some down time during lunch, after school, and pre-supper time. Now only the one has to do the dishes as we've all shared in that responsibility today)

So, the last week and days have been real busy around here, but this schedule is going to help organize and minimize the busy"ness". My "mom" friend from Wal-Mart said she's got it down  now to have her Saturday's free. WOW! I'd love to have my Saturdays fee too! Right now I've only got my Sundays free! According to my schedule, Saturday is the day I can take the kids to the library if need be and only do my husbands laundry from the week. (one load) That's it! Yeah!!!!! 

I'm going to Praise God for this! He is wonderful!

Melissa

Looking for blog for daughers

My daughters would like to participate some in a blog like ours here, but theirs must be held accountable and virtuous if they are to participate anywhere. Do any of you have some links to other maidens blg sites?

Blessings, Melissa

More on Adornment

Today my daughters and I were reading in the "Raising Maidens of Virtue" book, and we came across another scripture that only seems to validate the proper, modest dress code God calls us to. We are studying this book in the mornings, as part of our "Bible" curriculum.  1 Timothy 2:9-10 was one of our verses today, and the lesson was on the emotions these girls go through in today's society, in our churches even, regarding the admiration of worldly 'Christians' and the desire to be accepted by our peers.

Although this chapter only briefly mentions modest dress, yet directly it points out the necessity of such modest appearances. We were directed to read 1 Timothy 2:9-10 and woe but we come to the verses again mentioning proper dress. I had, the other day, posted and wondered what your thoughts were on proper adornment, although I think that was in reference to the jewelry more so than the clothing.

I find God bringing me back, again and again, to His code of ethics and HIS desire for the way women are to dress. So, in the NKJV the words "propriety and moderately" are used. Hmmm....Two words, similar in context....Proper....Moderate.....Three time God tells us in one sentence to be modest in our dress. Listen to this, taken from the NKJV "in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel (Oh wait, here is my answer on adornment, from the other day, only in modest apparel does it say to adorn ourselves...), with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works."  His 3 x's of mentioning this is simple: 1) adorn in modest apparel, 2) adorn in Proper apparel, and 3) be moderate in the adornment. I have been taught that anytime you see somehtign three times in the Word, we need to listen up.

Propriety is proper, and to do so moderately. When I think of the opposite of moderately I think of women I see who dress heavy in the makeup department or many layers for flair, or lots of accessories, and the such. This is what I'm thinking of, and I'm not trying to point fingers at anyone, I simply am sharing what I feel God is leading me to share.

I went back to the verse from the other day, 1 Peter 3:3, when I asked about adornment, I think the answer really was right under our noses; whether we accept it or not is our responsibility. We are to not let our adornment merely be outward, as described in both verses, but inward. that is the key to verse 3:3 (our inward adornment which is our hearts state of being) yet reiterating the outward adornment. So, (Don't be confused, not merely is it enough for our adornment to be proper on the outside, it needs to be fitting on the inside too.)

Proper dress, modest apparel, don't adorn ourselves with such and such. Yes, this is Gods law. We must look at the scriptures as written by God through His chosen ones. Yes, they were written by man. Under the authority of God. If we choose to say, 'well man is fallible', as we know, and 'God's word was writen by man, and for their time,' then we are not giving God the faith HE commands from us (see Mark 11:22). What are we doing? I want to have the faith in God to trust His word, claim His word as HIS, and believe that He knew what He was doing 2000 years ago when He set His messengers to go out to the ends of the earth and preach the gospel of the good news. My God is mightly enough that when He preached the words that got written down in the form we know it today as "The Bible", that HE knew what our day today was going to be like. He knew that we would have this troubled time in our lives with adornments and HE KNEW that the answer lay there in HIS word, and that we would overlook it many times.

Adornment, Praise Him!

Outward Adornment

The Bible reveals much about adornment, both outward and inward. What are the various thoughts of the verse 1 Peter 3:3-6, basically the outward adornment?

This is a vague, yet deep, question. Think about this as an outward appearance. Our God says we are to not be outwardly adorned, so as to not draw attention to ourselves. So, what draws attention to ourselves in your opinions? Do our wedding rings draw attentiont o ourselves in that it makes people look at us to see if we are married, OR, how pretty our wedding ring is, or how big it is? Does our simple necklace bring attention to ourself by another woman looking at it seeing how it's made or how simple it is or how beautiful it is. Do the necklaces we wear bring attention to our necklines which make men look at places he shouldn't be looking?

These are things I, along  with a a friend of mine, are thinking about, asking God about and wondering who else thiks similarly about.

Melissa

Family Worldview Statement

I've been spending some time today preparing for our home school year. I retrieved my trusty binder that I use with all our weekly plans, grades and such. So the cover shows our "Mager Family Worldview Statement." Have any of you ever done a worldview statement with your family?

My youngest daughter, who was only 12/13 years old last school year did a Jr./Sr. high literature program and she studied worldviews. Part of the study was to design a family statement, so we all worked on this together.  Here is ours, and I'd like to encourage you to do the same, if you haven't yet.

We are called to seek a life according to Gods will, plan and design for each one of us. Just as Jesus said, in John 5:30, "I do not seek My own will, but the will of the Father who sent me." We will allow God to work in us, willingly, through His Holy Spirit, just as Jesus sacrificed His life so that we may have eternal life. We shall be bold; we shall stand firm in the Lord, and in the power of His might! (Ephesians 6:10) We will not count our lives of any value, nor hold dear to ourselves, but we will finish the race with joy, working in the ministry which we receive from the Lord, testifying to His gospel of Grace and Love. (Acts 20:24)

We will keep our feet shod in the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15), spreading out to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:19), the good news to a lost people, either by self or be supportive by means as some must give and some must go! We will pray that we shall not be afraid to hold firm to out faith, to our belief in Christ our Lord, and that we will be given the utterance to open our mouths boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel! (Ephesians 6:19) Though the cost may be high according to the world, tha gain is eternal treasure laid up in heaven, where no moth and rust can destroy, and where thieves will not break in and steal. (Matthew 6:19, 20) With purpose of heart, we shall continue with the Lord. (Acts 11:23)

We believe that the Scripture is Gods authoritative Word. We will obey.

We will always work to bring ourselves to new growth in Christ, and others to Christ through our actions and deeds.

We will show and share Gods love, being one body in Christ.

We will not be proud and self-seeking.

We will love and edify each other, lifting our members up to the Lord in love.

"For as the body is one, and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized." (1 Cor. 12:12, 13, 20)

As we are many members of the Mager Family, we are One in Christ jesus, our Lord and savior! Whether by life of by death, for us to live is Christ and to die is to gain. Christ will be magnified in our body! (Philippians 1:20, 21)

Call to Prayer

I had written this post, and it is gone now, so I must retype. I, for a moment, was ready to forget it, and go finish my day. That small voice inside of me said, 'no, go on...'

There is much to pray about. In reading the reply from gokings13 on the trends post and an email from my friend this morning, and yesterday yet another. friend...As we all know there is much to pray for. A few weeks ago I sat in a hospital waiting room, with a daughter of mine, and saw something on t.v. that compelled me to pray. The ony thing was, I was feeling compelled to get on my knees and pray. I thought "here, now, in this room?" and so I didn't get on my knees, although I did pray. Was this the leading of God that I ignored, or He was testing me and I failed? I don't know, yet I do know I needed to be on my knees, and I didn't do it.

So, now I know we need to pray, as a country, as a group of women who can pray together and by doing so we are not going against our husbands and the design God intended for us. This is what I'm feeling led to do now. I'll explain.

There is a Spiritual Renewal Retreat weekend called, "Walk to Emmaus." and during that weekend, the 72 hours are covered in prayer. Someone, from somewhere is praying at all times, in 30 minute intervals. This is WONDERFUL because you know the needs are being prayed for, but EVEN more so, JESUS IS THERE! He tells us, wherever two or three or more are gathered, He is there in the midst! Praise God!

I present that we as a group of women here and those that you know that will pray, volunteer to pray during a 30 minute time on the set day, or God willing, days...And pray for very specific needs. The needs I see the greatest area of importance are: our country to rise up Godly leadership, for our country to examine itself and repent, our chidlren who are having children and aborting those babies, our children who are looking to older men, our children who are turning and desiring men instead of women and women instead of men, for all the anger and selfishness our people have, for the denial of God to cease, for the draft that is a very real possibilty, the the release of the strongholds Satan has on this country. Our prayer needs need to go past our imediate family, and into our environment, our country.

Ladies, we can do this here, in the privacy of our homes, out in our yards, in our woods, with the blessings of God and our husbands because we are not out going over their heads with this. We as women can pray.

I propose we start Sunday, and begin to pray for as long as each of us is willing to pray. I can make a quick chart up can begin the prayer session from 6:00-6:30 Sunday a.m. Will you begin to seriously pray for these needs? Who will say, "Yes, I'll pray."?

Melissa

Trends? Ponder this....

Are you seeing an out and out defiance, or stubborness in our young people? They seem to show that they want it their way, and only their way. Is this a "trend?"

Do you see big age differences in our young people who date today? Such as a 26 year old with a 48 year old man. Is this a trend too? What causes this age difference?

What are we seeing, another trend, in the homosexual environment? There was a MAJOR score for this minority group over the weekend with the acceptance of gay Pastors in the Lutheran Church. Are they the minority? Like all minorities, will they too rise into something more than a minority and have some sort of power?

What I see that links all these together is the parent factor. Parents today have brushed their kids off. I am thinking now of Patti's post. I've not read it, only seen the headline of it, but it is something about if our children are a blessing or a bother. Do the majority of Parents today find thir children a bother? Are they cute and cudly when they are little and yet when they begin to grow they begin to become bothersome?

We as parents lack greatly in raising our children in the way that they should go. Maybe not us here on this blog site, maybe not us NOW, but even some of us THEN could be categorized into that area of having ignored our children basically. Intentionally or unintentionally, the fact still remains, parents today ignore the basic needs of their children and therefore we have homosexuals acting out the sex of the parent they either needed a positive interaction with, or got too mch of a positive interaction with. We have children who demand and demand and demand things their way because their parent gave and gave and gave until this monster grew. And even still, we have the major age differences in couples because of what could be a a needy father syndrome or needy mother.

Parents, we need to rise up and talk to people about this. We need to be BOLD in Christ Jesus!

Praising God

My day started out beautifully with me actually getting up earlier than normal and spending some much needed quiet time with Him. I've been trying to do this, but not seriously trying to get out of bed. I do get tired....But, He does fill me up!

We spent some time reading in 1 Samuel and I realized how many people there are I need to pray for. What I realized again, as God has been drawing me back to this time and again, is that I need to be in constant prayer. Have many of you ever tried to be in constant prayer? Brother Lawrence, I think, succeeded in that area of communing with God nearly entirely. What was it like for him to be in constant communication with God? What is it like for you to be in constant communication with God?

This morning, I asked God to capture all my thoughts. (Pray that my thoughts all be worthy of Him capturing!) But I find myself thinking, as I call it, on Him, about Him, His precepts, and His desires for me. Is this considered praticing His presence? I hope so. I want it to be so. Is it an idea I think we should do just because Brother Lawrence was able to do so? No....He is something we should consume ourselves with, He is deserving, and demanding, of our time and thoughts. I nearly think of Him, al ot of the time. I find myself praising His name more and more. I'm cautious of it though, as I don't want to sound like a "religous" person....I want to be a woman who praises her God all the time! For everything! For the bad, for the good, and for eveything else. but how must one feel if her thoughts were so consumed with God all the time, outside of our thoughts we must do to maintain? It is not enough to just do the things He wants us to be, we are to live in our hearts the way he wants us to live there. My heart wants to sit at His feet, all the time. I can only imagine what it was like for Mary to sit at her Lords feet, listening and observing all He had to offer.  She was praticing His presence then. For sure! Hw glorious it will be someday ladies, ladies we will sit at His feet, in His presence, and we will hear God speak clearly and we will KNOW.

Praise God, praise Him for all He has given you, and all He hasn't given you.

Food and Thought

Good morning ladies!

I hope this day finds each of you feeling God's presence, His wind and His love! I know I woke up with Him on my mind, in my thoughts today and was able to jump right into my work. I've only got a minute but there were a few things I wanted to share.

First off, let me tell you about the Cinnamon Roll recipe I downloaded from www.marmeeskitchen.com oh my my. She has down it again and made me like her even more! My husband loved the rolls, said they were my best yet! Her recipe calls for a Bosch Mixer, of which I don't have and so you CAN use your Kitchen Aid if you have one of those. They are great! Go get the free download and tell everyone about marmmedear.com!

Also, I wanted to comment on the "Radio Evil" post I made last night. I appreciate you who have replied. There is a certain amount of truth in a lot of things, I believe. One replied saying that there is evil in the t.v. as well, and she is correct. I just wondered what people knew about those who agreed with the radio being evil.

Ok, Ok, what I really need help with , and I know my friend Brenda may like to hear this as well....I would like to get into the habit of having a plan for each day, a schedule of sorts. The girls and I did use a breakfast plan for most of last year, and we did a who's day to do the dishes plan as well. It really does work out. I've just got to get us all back into that habit. But real meal planning for the weeknights and weekends is going to be new to us and I know beneficial. So, who can comment on this? I'll give you some insight. My husband is not home during the week, so the weeknight meals would be for the girls and I (although I may need to adjust sometimes for surprise trips home!). He is home on Fri., Sat., and Sunday though. We don't buy a lot from the grocery store anymore. Condiments and such, lunch meat and meat to cook with, but that is about all. I make all my bread products and milk, eggs and cheese is bought from the Amish. Any advice or input or your own ideas are welcomed.

Ok, my minute is up, so I need to go do those tomatoes. It's a sauce day!

Melissa

Radio Evil?

I'm reading in a Rod and Staff curriculum sample and my eye was caught by the " your students should already be convinced that the radio is evil and should not be used by Christians."

Anyone care to expound on this idea? Athough I'm certain there is a certain amount of truth to this statement, to say completely that the radio is evil is new to me. Help?

Melissa

The wind Blows

Good evening to my fellow bloggers on the homestead community!

Where does the wind blow? You know, Gods Word tells us that the wind blows from here and there and we can feel it but we can't see it, and no one knows which way it comes. So like is His Holy Spirit! We can feel His presence, but we don't know where it comes from, when it's coming, or what it looks like.

Today I had the pleasure of spending it with a friend and visiting an Amish woman we know. She has such peace about her even in a time of her life where there is much turmoil. I loved watching her children play so quietly and well. The one little boy had fun while I picked at his hand through a tablecloth on the table, and he always has a smile on his face. The wind blew there today.  The wind blew a cool breeze upon our conversations as though God blessed what we were talking about, sharing and witnessing to each other. It was so very nice. What is nice is that we can come together, seemingly worlds apart and yet have so much in common. This woman, she's read Debi Pearl's book on how to be the helpmmet we were created to be, she has shared with us her Naves Topical Bible and there also sat a commentary. I really was interested to see how different we are, yet how similar. She leans on God for all her answers and she looks to His Word for all her answers. Why don't we all do the same? Some do, some do some, some don't at all.

God answers through people, like my friend and the Amish woman. God is really convicting me to live a simpler life, to be content with what I have and to honor Him in all I do. The song we sing in our church runs through my mind, "I honor you, in all I do...." how often do you honor God in all you do? If only we are speaking of Him, thinking of Him, searching His Word, living for Him, then we honor Him.

What does simple mean to you? How do you respond to simpler lifesteyles and which way doe sthe wind blow in your life?

Blessings all,

Melissa

Nobles?

Good evening all! The girls and I just finished studying tonight. We are studing in the book Patti sent us to borrow, called "Raising Maidens of Virtue" and I MUST say....God is teaching us many truths through this book! Praise HIm!

Tonight we read an excerpt from a book about a young girl named Agnes who had a valuable lesson on nobleness and order of importance. We too had a valuable lesson on importance. At the end of the chapter, when we discuss the lesson, we were asked to place in order of importance these things: Doctor, Theologian, President, Mother, Father, and Missionary. It's interesting to note that we were to also back our order up with scripture. Honoring our mother and father was listed first for each of us, but what is so like God, is the understanding we were able to come to; that though we are many members, we are but one body through Christ Jesus! Each of those "professions" are equal to importance because we are One in Him!

How often does the world place importance on so and so, and what they do, when we loose sight of the real order of importance. God, first and foremost. When we honor God and live according to HIS will, then we have no greater than the other in significance. We truly become many members in one body.

Great realization~ God is great! Accept what He has given you and be thankful for it and be content with what He has given you.

Blessings, Melissa

Bride of Christ

I had an interesting conversation today. It was in regards to the Bride of Christ, the rapture, and the tribulation. I haven't done much study in this area, and feel like I really need to be knowledgeable. Please take a moment to consider the thoughts I express or questions I post, and reflect on them for me and others.

Today I was told that the majority of the denominations today will not be raptured up. Now, this isn't a segregated statement, this was made as a whole, for ALL denominations. The reason being is that many, many, many Christians today aren't following the Lord, His Spirit and leading 100%. In order to be the Bride of Christ, we have to be 100% submissive to His will. A description that was given to me was when we attend weddings, there is the bride and the groom, and they are the only ones who leave, the rest are guests. In order to be the Bride of Christ, we are called to perfect ourselves in Him. We are called to give 100% to God.

So, with that said, I can see truth in the body of Christ today, it greatly lacks. People call themselves Christians and say they are trying, but by giving 100%, that means totally forsaking all and going to Christ. Are we really giving God 100%? Is less than 100% good enough? Does less than 1000% truly leave us out of the rapture, as we call it?

We also talked about the tribulation and those that are left are going to have to suffer through this. Percentages were listed, like 30%, 60% and the 100% which is the Bride. Who will live, suffer and be killed? it's like the tribulation people will give only 30-60% of themselves. Have any of you heard of this percentage description before? My mind is lost here and I can't recall the entire conversation, but it was a worthy conversation by someone I'd consider a Christian.

Please ponder this, biblically. Let me know your thoughts.

Reliable God

I was reading this morning and came across something I want to share with everyone. The author asked the question, "Why does God not always seem to be the most reliable place to go with painful feelings, and experiences of our lives? What does He appear to lack, and why is believing that so deceptive?"

I thought about that question the moment I read it. What is it saying to me?... I'm hearing in the authors words right away that it appears to me that most people who do these type of personal study books DON'T come to God for all things, painful, happy, eventful or uneventful! Why is it that we don't cry to God for all our needs?

I found myself responding mentally that I do try to always come to God first, and I find Him very reliable. I found myself wondering why we even have this question to answer and therefore I realized that so many people are not trusting in God, even when we say we are. So, here was my written answer...."I think when people don't see God as an obvious choice to go to, or be with- it's out of their own LACK of FAITH in Him. God lacks nothing. It is US who lack belief, faith, and a hope that surpasses all the bad and hurtful."

Let us not lack any longer the faith we are called to have, and the belief and hope too. The Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind our thoughts. 1 Chron. 28:9 I am so thankful that He does this. Hannah prayed to God for a child, and with many tears. God answered her prayer. What struck me the most though was how she prayed and then went on her way, no longer appearing downcast. Oh how great was her faith! She was so assured that God would answer her prayer that she no longer appeared desperate! What a blessing this is for us all. Take head, and no longer be downcast.