Walking Together Towards God

Life is rich. We need to take the time to enjoy it, but what does enjoyment for the christian look like? Yes, I am really asking. When I was not in the Kingdom of God, my enjoyment came from vices and sin. the fun came from not being caught. It was fun to push limits and to join in with the risky activity of our so-called friends right? So first of all, let's be honest. It was enjoyable and made us temporarily happy. However, you may also have heard that happiness and joy are not the same. The Bible tells us that Jesus came to give us life, and that more abundantly. The joy that we can experience in Christ is found in the gifts that the Holy Spirt imparts when we receive Him. In Galatians 6, we see that joy is in a list of fruit. So like any fruit, it will need to be nurtured and tended to in order to grow the way that it should. There are three key factors to knowing and experiencing true joy. First, no one can know real joy apart from Christ. Without a real relationship with ...

Traditions, holidays and celebrations - Oh, how we love them! From landmark birthdays to Christmas, we find reasons to rejoice, sing, laugh and give gifts. God implemented times of feasting and partying in the Old Testament. It was His idea to set apart spaces of time for events such as these. Holy days were times of remembrance and eating and great fellowship among God's people. They celebrated Passover, Esther's brave saving of the Jewish population and took days of rest. However, I wonder if our parties have changed into tradition and unspoken law that is more harmful to us than helpful these days. For example, some birthday traditions are extreme where people spend extraordinary amounts of money all in celebration of themselves. In some celebrations, people become so drunk that they cannot even recall the event they attended. Some christians and churches demand tradition and it becomes legalistic instead of celebratory. This should not be. Recently, I have read the bo...

God is greater than our hearts. he should be at the center of all we do if we claim to belong to Him. I learned this the hard way. When I first started dating, I was consistently led by my emotions. He was cute. I was cute. We would make a cute couple. We could get married, make cute babies, have lots of grandchildren, etc.. My heart would lead me down this whole trail of possibilities without caring about if it was the Lord's will for my life or not. Add hormones and you have a set-up for disaster! During one relationship prior to marriage, I was so emotionally attached that I lost hours and hours of sleep waiting for this guy to call me. Then I would fall asleep on him because I was afraid that I would miss something he said. Everyday was spent obsessing over our next date, next phone call or text message. I couldn't concentrate. I didn't read my bible daily anymore and if I did, I would cut it short because my mind and my heart belonged to this guy who didn't...

We play a lot of games in our home. With two boys growing quickly into men, we find ourselves working hard to keep the lines of communication open. Games are a great way to do that for us. We have been surprised at how often they will ask the most amazing questions. We have come to realize that games provide a fantastic opportunity to impart wisdom and character into the lives of our children (while we still have the chance).  There are two brands that we would like to recommend to your family. Harvest Time Partners (Harvesttimepartners.com) and Breakout Games (breakoutgames.com). They both offer various unique and fun games. They encourage group play, conversation and thinking skills that are crucial for young people to develop as they mature into adulthood.  Video games, online games, board games and ANY game is a great way to spark conversation, but the other way is just as easy and it's FREE! The second way to talk to your teens about marriage an...

We had college degrees and a heap of debt when we got married. We were living on love in our one-bedroom apartment in the city. We had taken no financial courses or seminars and were trying to live by God's principles. We understood that it was important to save, give, reap and sow. Here is the story of how we went from debt to homeowners. In July 2001, we were married. Maurice had already rented our apartment and I had started my first nursing job. With one income we survived for almost nine months when Maurice finally landed a great job in his field. Our first lesson was that we were ONE. I didn't plan on being the breadwinner, but my husband had saved enough prior to our wedding so that our financial life would not depend solely on me while he searched for the right opportunity. KEY POINTS: * Save lots of money before you get married (for AFTER the wedding and honeymoon). Do not go broke or in major debt for this one-time event. Focus more on the marriage than the w...

In our first few years of marriage, I was all in! I was fully ready to sacrifice for my husband. From bending over backwards to make him healthy meals to being available in the evening for marital intimacy. Nothing was too much, too hard or too physically taxing. My view of that Proverbs 31 woman was perfection and I was happy to do all and be all for him. After all, loving him was easy because he truly loved me as Christ loved the church in my mind. Nothing could be better. Until I burnt out. Ask yourself: When did I last take a nap? Am I having too many negative thoughts? Do I have a healthy relationship with God myself apart from my spouse? Is my body needing attention that I have been ignoring? Am I actually hurting emotionally? When did I last have a really fun time? Are there habits that are controlling me instead of me controlling them? What pain am I experiencing? There is such thing as wife burnout. When we burden ourselves with even more than God Himself has com...

We were so excited to be gifted our first date box from Date Night In!! Ours was a date night in faith box too! It is so fabulous when people recognize the beauty of marriage and encouraging that union and that is exactly what this box did for us! *This blogpost contains information from our affiliate sponsor and prize eligibility* The box topic was FOUNDATION. It came with straws, candy lego blocks, jelly bellies, sticky popsicle sticks and instructions. We had three projects to complete together. We also had an amazing pre-prepared playlist to listen to as we worked together. Our favorite song was Winter Wonderland by Earth, Wind and Fire! Project #1 - Build a candle-holder from the popsicle sticks provided and place the candle in it. Project #2 - Build a foundation or structure to support the box that the date came in. Project #3 - Build a tower to support one jellybelly on top and then place it on top. This was no easy feat for us! First of all it was mad...