I'm Tired!

Well, I don't have much to say at the moment because I'm tired.  Thursday afternoon, my sister and bro-in-law dropped off their 5 kids (ages 1, 3, 5, almost 7 and 8) here on their way out of town.  The youngest 2  spent the nights with my parents but all day yesterday here.  So for the day yesterday I had 6 (when Mik was at school) or 7 kids to take care of.  Thankfully they all get along well and it was very fun. 

 

But now I'm back to taking care of my 2.  And I'm tired.  : )  But I have a whole new appreciation for the fact that my kids sleep in until at least 7 in the morning!!!  : )  And I still don't know how my sister does what she does...  but that's nothing new!  : )

 

I'll leave you with a verse I read yesterday that sums up so much in so few words.  May God help you to...

 

"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men [and women] of courage; be strong.  Do everything in love." 

(I Corinthians 16:13-14)

 

Amen!

Thank You Beth!

Beth Moore and her daughter have a blog over at Living Proof Ministries and I love it. Today in particular she wrote something and I think she was talking to me. So rather than write anything today I'm just gonna send you on over to her place so maybe you can be blessed to. CLICK HERE. Cuz I'm sure I'm not the only one God was talking to. : ) Blessings to you Friends! ~Melissa

God is Good

Lowell and I came home yesterday from our Annual Marriage Immunity Booster Conference. (It's actually Hume Lake's Fall Couples Conference #1, but my name for it is so much more descriptive, don't you think?) It did rain most of Saturday afternoon, which meant we didn't get to shoot shotguns or go on the GPS Adventure (follow GPS coordinates to get to the prize) and we skipped the rainy extreme Bocce tournament b/c taking a nap was just a lot more enticing. But the most important pieces were all there... A really good speaker (I'll talk more about him in a minute), awesome worship, lots and lots of good food and meals shared with a lot of neat couples we'd never met before and time for Lowell and I to be together and learning and thinking about our marriage. It might not be a cheap weekend, but we've determined that our marriage is absolutely worth investing in and this is a great place for that to happen. Unfortunately, I don't have any great pictures to show you b/c we left our camera at home and Lowell's phone wouldn't work. Oh well. The speaker was Pete McKenzie from Southern California and he was so good. Our favorite quote from his sessions was this: "Life is difficult. But it's more difficult if you're stupid." Nice, huh??? But the thing he said that hit me the hardest was that we have to choose between the path to Pleasing God and the path to Trusting God. I wasn't sure where he was going with that at first, because I've always tried to do both. But he explained that STRIVING to PLEASE God depends on our own efforts and focuses on our failures and trying to fix our sin and do everything right. But TRUSTING God starts with humility and repentance and lets God do the work of changing us and changing those around us. It says "I'm standing with God and my sin is before me and we're working on it together" instead of "I'm working on it..." He also mentioned that to "Be Still" means to "Cease Striving" which means so much to me especially since I wrote a song back in July called "Be Still". So, I'm going to be learning for a while about how to trust God without the striving. Striving to be better and do everything right is as natural to me as breathing so it's going to be a hard habit to break, but I'm trusting God to do it because I know I can't do it on my own. And I can trust Him. God is good and life is good when I'm walking with and waiting on God. Even when it's difficult.

Hume Lake here we come!!!

Lowell and I leave today for one of Hume Lake's couple's conferences. This is the 4th year in a row we've gone. I'm very excited and hoping it doesn't rain too much. Mikaela and Toby are going to be staying on the Friesen Farm with my sister Coleen and her fabulous family. If you want to have an idea of what we'll be doing, after you finish reading this, click HERE and scroll down a little. Then click on the Fall Couple's #1 Video link to watch a video of last year. Pay attention and you'll see me in a black sweater shooting a shotgun (yes, I promise that's me) after a few seconds of the video starting. (And I'm not doing the skeet shooting range again this year b/c my arms get too tired holding up the gun. Yes, I'm a weakling.)

And if you have even more time, click on the tab up at the top of their page where it says "Fun" and select "Video archive" and watch some of the videos they have produced over the years. Funny stuff!!!

OK, Have a nice weekend everyone! I'll be back next week to tell you about everything Lowell and I learn!

~Melissa

Me and My Big Mouth

Hi Friends! I haven't been blogging as much lately, but thankfully not just because of Blogger's Block and worrying about what people looking at my blog for the first time will think. (So far I don't think there's been anybody visiting it other than all of you regular faithful... uh... Readers o' my Blog anyway. Phew! Pressure's off!) We DID finally get our actual copy of the Christian Leader this week. It's fun to see what I wrote in there and funny that at least one friend of mine was reading it thinking "Hmm... this lady is saying a lot of the same stuff Melissa was talking about..." realizing at the end that it was in fact me again. I've been busy these last couple of weeks. I'm working on a project for a friend and I'm actually getting paid real money for it! Amazing! And I'm playing around with another business idea that I'll tell you more about one of these days. So in addition to normal life stuff I have some new things to do. It's really nice to have some other stuff to think about, but definitely leaves me with less time to blog. I'm also going to have some opportunities soon to share some of my music at church! : ) I'm very excited about it (and a little nervous, of course!) I'm praying for more opportunities to sing and share because I feel like God has done so incredibly much for me and everyone needs to be encouraged in this life... I've been reading in 1 Corinthians about the body of Christ and thinking that if God made me to be a mouth, I'd better not keep quiet. (Oh, the FUN (at my expense) my family would have with that comment!!!!!) But it's true. And I can't sing my songs without talking about what they mean and where they came from and how I hope they encourage or bless others or God. At church last week God was challenging me to start asking Him for opportunities to share because that's the dream He's given me. I want so badly to tell people (mostly women) about how good He is and about the FREEDOM He offers and longs for us to experience in this life if we will let Him untangle the lies our hearts are holding on to... So anyway, I'm grateful that next month I'll likely have a couple of chances to do that. Yay! (Are you brave enough to ask Him to make the dreams He's given You come true???)

GREAT will be your children's peace!

What a promise! This morning I read in Isaiah 54:13 "All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace." It reminded me of something Keith Martens said yesterday at a seminar I attended... That the Bible alone cannot save us. (What??? It almost seems heretical, doesn't it?) He went on to talk about the Pharisees who knew the Words of God better than anyone (maybe ever) and yet they didn't recognize God in the flesh when He was standing right in front of them. Their knowledge of the Word didn't save them. It takes the Holy Spirit of God opening our eyes so that we can KNOW with experiential knowledge (not intellectual belief alone) the Truth so the Truth can set us free. The combination of the Spirit of Truth and the Word of Truth is powerful, dynamic and life-transforming! So back to the verse, I was reminded of how much my kids need to learn to be taught by the Lord--to hear His voice and to know the Word, so they can know His peace now and all the days of their lives. I know they will have struggles, much as my mother's heart wishes they didn't have to. But I know that they too can learn to find God's peace even in the struggles and that peace is the most profound peace I have experienced. Just a bit of what God's speaking to me about today... Blessings to you! ~Melissa