Archive for June, 2007

• Intimacy

  Date: 2007.06.26 | Category: Bible Study | Response: 0

  Ok, this week’s Study was on ___. You know, a 3 letter word for physical intimacy. It was a difficult lesson to prepare and even more difficult to teach. There were so many perspectives I could have taken on the topic. Please take time to read chapter 3 in your text. Here are some thoughts I want to leave with you: highlights from today’s lecture.

  1. Spirit, Soul, Body.

  May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thes 5:23)

  We long to be united in the deepest way possible with another person. God designed us to be in relationship with Him and with other people. We are to treat others in a holy way. The world’s order toward intimacy is body, soul, spirit. God’s way is spirit, soul, body. We need to stay in tune with Christ throughout our dating relationships.

  2. God gives strength to the weak.

  May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. (1 Thes 3:13) Only God can give us the strength. God is our strength to make it through to the end, and still remain holy, pure, and blameless. If we rely on our own strength and resolve to do good out of our own power, we will never make it through. We will fall short every time. But God is faithful and he will keep us to the end of time.

  3. Go and sin no more.

  John 8:1-11 tells the powerful story of Jesus handling the embarrassing situation of the woman caught in adultery. The amazing love and complete forgiveness found at the foot of the cross totally blows me away. We expect God to judge us the same way we would be judging others. Sometimes, the Lord extends mercy and grace but we always have to reap the consequences for poor choices. Sexual sin is something that you can’t rationalize away, wish away or think away. You can’t wash it away or cover it up with perfume. Only Jesus can heal you and make you clean.

  4. Singleness is a gift, not a curse.

  If you aren’t married and aren’t dating anyone, praise God for this season of your life. You have the ability to serve the Lord unhindered. Study 1 Corinthians 7 to understand why.

  5. being “just friends”

  Thanks to Craig Gross and Mike Foster for the following quotes, taken from their book Questions you can’t ask your mama about Sex.

  • A friend is a faithful listener, not a flirty luster.
  • A friend sharpens, but doesn’t seduce.
  • A friend gives attention and doesn’t always seek to get attention.

  6. Be an overcomer

  An Overcomer is one who has been subject to incapacitating emotional or mental stress. Sometimes the entire relationship from its inception to its demise is stressful. How can we be an overcomer? Pray over the relationship everyday. Give thanks for everything and in everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18, and Ephesians 5:20). After the breakup, ask God to sever every unhealthy tie between you and that young man. Acknowledge what is true and ignore the lies. Stop fantasizing about what could be or what could have been, and take every thought captive.

• My garden

  Date: 2007.06.23 | Category: garden | Response: 0

  Now, I feel compelled to issue a disclaimer. “*I* am not a gardener. I don’t have a green thumb.” Maybe this is why my garden is … needy.

  I jsut spend an hour weeding the garden. Would you like to guess what I was pulling up? GRASS! Someone let the grass go to seed and then mowed it and the lawnmower sprayed the grass seed into the garden.

  I am going to have brocoli and beans from this garden, and cherry tomatos. but nothing else. I have about 1.5 rows of beans, many of which have bloom buds. I have a nice row of mixed greens salad mix lettuce. I have five spinach plants. What happened there? (grass) And my carrots, beets? Beets were clearly overtaken by grass. Parsley is doing well. and so is the grass, both in the garden and in the yard.

  The tomato plants look very sad. The cherry tomato is happy. I am suckering both, but I don’t know if I’m doing it right. I lost one bell pepper plant. I am going to have to re-plant it. I want 2 bell pepper plants and 1 tomato plant.

  Ah, what if i put all this work into this garden for naught?

• Sugar Scrub

  Date: 2007.06.19 | Category: Bible Study | Response: 0

  Mix in a bowl

  1 cup granulated white sugar

  1/4 cup baby oil

  1/2 tsp vitamin E oil

  food color

  Put in resealable jar.

• Boys, Boys, Boys

  Date: 2007.06.19 | Category: Bible Study | Response: 0

  Today’s Bible study is on boys boys boys. We talked about how needy we are. We talked about how we are created to be loved. We look for love and acceptance everywhere: parents, siblings, friends, and guys. We long for wholeness and completeness but we don’t know how to make it happen.

  Quotable quote #1: Men are neither the problem nor the answer.

  Quotable quotes on guys:

  1. Men. Barf.
  2. Guys. They’re all liars.
  3. Boys suck.
  4. Men. Can’t live with ‘em. Can’t live without ‘em. Can’t shoot ‘em.

  Quotable Quote #2. Men and women aren’t incomplete beings that need each other for completion. Men cannot give us the blessing we seek. We frighten them by giving them so much power over our souls. (Lisa Bevere)

  Quotable Quote #3. (on finding the right guy). No method is free of risk, no mate is free of weakness and sin, and no marriage is free from struggles. (chuck swindoll) You marry a man. and you marry a sinner. (Elisabeth Elliott).
  

  3 Crucial questions to ask yourself:

  1. Are you obsessed? (with externals: clothing, sexiness, tanning, make up, hair, underwear, jewelry, piercings, tattoos, etc) Have you forgotten the real you.
     
  2. What are you doing to develop yourself so that aguy will be attracted to more than your surface beauty?
  3. What are you doing to keep yourself outward focused and not focused only on yourself and/or only on your boyfriend?

  The link below is a video clip on plate spinning. How are you maintaining balance between school, work, family, friends, God and guys?

  Plate Spinning

   

  Quotable Quote 4: It’s always right to do what is right, even if it’s not popular or understood.

  Quotable Quote 5: We are created for relationship. Gen 2:18 “It is not good for the man to be alone.” Not just men, who grow old, perverted and cranky. But women, who get 17 cats. We are created for relationship with God and with each other, not for relationship with Cats.

• Make-up vs. the Real You

  Date: 2007.06.12 | Category: Bible Study | Response: 0

  Today’s Bible Study was on Make-up. After I get home, I realized I talked very little about make up. I could have done more. I could have gone on and on about how to use it, when to use it, why to use it. But I didn’t say anything about it. “just focus on the real you”.

  It is true that Beauty is only skin deep. and what matters at the end of your life is certainly not your external appearance, when all is laid bare before Almighty God. Certainly all that matters is what your character ends up to be and whether or not you have submitted yourself to Jesus Christ. life isn’t only about being a moral nice person. It’s about glorifying God. Did I communicate that today?

  Ok, now for a self evaluation of my teaching. I was very impressed with myself: I only “taught” for about 30 minutes. (yes! no rambling). I am sure everyone was able to pay attention for that amount of time. I was really concerned with talking for too long and saying too much. Perhaps I left too many things unsaid. I found myself teaching to the left side of the room. Brougan, Nikki, Amy, & Bonnie were sitting there and Bonnie was actually responding to my questions. (thank you). Lizzy, also responsive, was in the corner. Stacy, Annie, and Alicia sat on the left middle side. Anna and Angela were talking with Kesha and Alison. Kindra sat with Nicole on the right side. Dani was not there. So maybe half way through my teaching time, I began to try to make eye-contact with the right side of the room.

  I spent way too much time on the craft. Twice as much time on the craft as on the study. For the modge podge craft, we needed the alloted time. Next week’s craft has got to be shorter. I’d like to spend more time talking about the “issue” at hand. I’d like to see more discussion. No one turned in any questions on their index cards. Are the lights on, but no one is home? Maybe I just caught everyone flat-footed.

  Next week… I am going to mix things up a bit more. More small group time and have group sharing time. I want to get those girls comfortable about speaking up in a group.

• How we organize toys

  Date: 2007.06.09 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: 0

  So a couple of online friends asked me how to organize toys. I have to admit this is an on-going process around here. Every birthday or Christmas we are getting more toys. Rob hates clutter, so I have to be creative in storing toys. The following vid gives you an idea of how we handle toy storage. A couple of areas I forgot to mention include the following:

  1. under the girls beds is one large plastic rubbermaid tub full of baby dolls and their accessories.

  2. Outside toys are stored in the garage or storage shed.

  3. Out-grown toys are given away or stored in one of those canvas bins in the guest room closet. Books they aren’t ready for are stored on the large bookcases downstairs.

  Canvas bins were purchased at Wal-mart when we had mostly small infant toys. I also give credit to my friends Holly & Missy who is in charge of our church Nursery and Tiny Toys areas who have modeled great toy storage for me.

  Watch video here!