Peace

Is it no mistake that flowers turn toward the light of the sun each morning?  How should I be any different.  I should wake every morning turing toward the Son.

I woke up this morning, and knew the Lord was calling me to His Word.  I would like say that this happens every morning.  That every morning at 5 AM I am bursting with the readiness to jump into God's Word, ready to start my day in His presence, and be on my knees in prayer for hours before my family rises from their slumber.  Okay, maybe there are and I hope that there are mothers who start their day in this manner, but I unfortunately am not one.  Yes many mornings, I rise up, get in the Word, spend some time on my knees, but some mornings, I will be honest with you, it is simply out of obedience, not out of pure eagerness.  Some mornings I hit the snooze, some mornings I have a sleeping 13 month old snuggling with me because she woke up early and needed her mommy to go back to sleep, or sometimes a 3 1/2 year old wakes up prematurely and needs mommy to read books or watch her favorite cartoon with her.  Life happens, flesh happens, but I'm here to say, what a joy it is to enter into His presence in the early quiet morning, to begin my day listening to His Word and His voice.  I pray that I will get to the point where every morning begins with time in His presence and that IT IS out of pure joy and not a sense of my mere obeying His command to do so.

So with that said . . .

This morning I woke up and knew God was calling me to His Word.  I needed to listen to His Holy Spirit guide me to reveal something to me.  Peace (Shalom) coming from wisdom was the revelation that came to me today.

Proverbs 3: 9-10

"Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine."  These two verses also follow "trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths."

Reading through all of Proverbs 3, led me to many different passages in the Old and New Testament.

John 14:27

"Peace I give to you, I leave with you, Not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."

Notes coming from the ESV Study Bible . . .

 - This Hebrew term for peace (shalom) has a much richer connotation than the English word does since it conveyed not merely the absence of conflict and turmoil, but also the notion of positive blessing, especially in terms of right relationship with God.

Haggai 2

Overview - The Lord's house (temple) is in ruins and the people are doing nothing about it.

"he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes" "sown much. harvested little" (vs. 6)

God has not blessed their crops because of their preference for personal comfort.  (hmmmm . . . conviction, why yes I think so)

2: 18-19 - consider life since restoration began (they submit to him and change their ways):  I (being God) will bless.

Numbers 6:24-26

"The Lord will bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace."

Again - notes from ESV Study bible

- Bless - The Lord blesses by giving good harvests, peace, children, and his own presence
Shine - God's presence is like sunshine, a pledge of God's good favor
Countenance - treating his people with favor
Peace - not just the English meaning "lack of war" - it means total well-being (Wow!  Okay so their are so many 'peace driven people' in our world today, but those crying for war to stop and peace to come, yes some of those may love Jesus, but I would say most have no clue what true peace is)

Psalm 29:10-11

"The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.  May the Lord give strength to his people!  May the Lord bless his people with strength."

- God sits enthroned in His temple as king forever (vs. 9).  Worship is coming into His majestic presence.  Flood - same term is used elsewhere only of Noah's flood - showing God's power --makes distinctions between the faithful and the unfaithful (unlike the storm) hence the prayer that God will give strength to His people and bless His people with peace.

Prov. 8:4-36

vs. 14 "I have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight, I have strength."

- What wisdom offers to the simple is the same insight used by kings and rulers to govern nations justly.

vs. 18-21 -- Life and favor from the Lord

vs. 22-31 -- The same wisdom that makes this invitation is the wisdom that was present with God when he created the world (WOW) and established it as a coherent system.  for Wisdom says "I was daily in delight" The wisdom that enters the lives of the faithful actually enables them to participate rationally at the heart of things.

Basically to sum up -- Trust in the Lord, let His commandments stand firm in our lives.  Seek first His kingdom and purpose and His peace and blessing will arise.  A peace and blessing so much greater than anything attained here on earth.  However, it is apparent that the Lord brings blessings here on earth to those seek Him, but with this comes the fact that in the face of tribulation (which we are told suffering at some point will be a part of lives here), we will have a peace that only He can give through the wisdom that was with Him when he created everything.  I don't know about you all, but that is something I desire daily.

"The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew." ~ Proverbs 3:19-20

Had to post this picture along with this verse because of the dew resting softly on my roses this morning.  Scientists can say all they want, but the refreshing drops that appear on His creation in the morning simply remind me of God's goodness and favor.

Where and how long . . . next steps . . .

It is amazing how the Lord has already blessed us with support in our process and we are just beginning.  Wanted to start this post by praising the Lord for His goodness in all things!

I don't think I have posted what country we are planning to adopt from.  We have chosen Bulgaria.  Ryan and I both have hearts for Eastern Europe and after looking at different agencies and the requirements that many different countries have, we felt called to Bulgaria.  We are hoping to matched with a little boy who is younger than Zoey, possibly younger than Evie Jo, but we are firm that we want Zoey to stay our oldest child.  The waiting time could actually be up to 5 years to bring our boy home.  Would you partner in praying with us that we will be patient and remain at peace that the Lord knows who this sweet boy is and no matter how long it takes, He will bring him home in His perfect timing?  Thank you dear friends!

Next Steps:

We are planning on having a yard sale to jumpstart our fundraising process!  If you or if you know of anyone wanting to donate items no longer needed, we will take them off your hands!  We will take any items you want to part with!  We plan on having our yard sale on June 22nd.

In July we hope to have a family movie night in our backyard where we will enjoy a family friendly movie for all ages, and possibly some extra activities that I haven't decided on yet!  :) This is still in the works, but hopefully we will get it put together before the busyness of the next school year begins.

Stay tuned!

Simplifying and Saving

Since we decided for me to stay at home, we've had to make a lot of changes with our budget as I'm sure many of you have that have chosen or had to move to one income.  As we enter into the adoption process, I have examined multiple ways to cut back to save us even more money.  Thank you Pinterest!  You make it so easy for us to find ideas!  So this post is dedicated to documenting what changes we have made to our lifestyle for me to be at home with my babies and to bring baby #3 home!  I hope you enjoy and maybe even become inspired!  You may do a lot of these things already, and if you have other ideas along these lines, please feel free to post your ideas!  I would love to hear how you changed your lifestyle to better your home environment and save some pennies!

1.  Cut out convience foods- first of all the more convienent probably means the worse it is for you.  This was probably the first way we cut down our budget.  While I was teaching, convenient was name of the game because let's face it, if you have taught you know that life gets hectic at many different times of the year.  And yes it means more work to make this change, but I think my hubs would agree, our food is much tastier and better for us!

2.  Consignment, consignment, consignment - I buy most of our girls clothing from consignment and have found it very rewarding to take extra good care of their clothes in order to sale all clothing at consignment sales.

3.  YaY for Yard Sales! This is also falls under the simplifying category.  I get really sick of the excess that is so common these days so selling things we don't need or use is a great way to cut back on the junk.  This was a new experience however, because I grew up in the boonies...not many yard sales happen 13 miles out of town. I find it a lot of fun to organize, put on, and to shop at others though!

4.  No to Name brands!  If you haven't discovered Aldi yet, please try it!  You will fall in love!  Don't be a name brand snob, your wallet will thank you!

5.  Bye Bye Cable - okay this kind of hurts still because I LOVE HGTV.  When Ryan still worked at the Fire Department, I missed him like crazy on shift nights, but I made the nights a little better after Zoey went to bed by watching House Hunters, and all the other fun shows that came on as well as the occasional sappy Hallmark Movie on the Hallmark Channel.  This decision has made a huge difference in monthly bills though and Netflix is a great option to catch up some TV favs.

6.  Car cut backs - we have traded a couple of times to get an older vehicle with more miles

7.  DIY - So just today I made a new batch of homemade body wash and y'all . . . it smells sooo good!  I will put the link on here for an awesome blog where I get a lot of DIY cleaning supplies, laundry recipes, and skin care products.  It's amazing when you do the math how much you can save!
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com

8.  Gardening - okay so we are hopefully going to be able to till our garden tomorrow.  I'm hoping to channel some green thumbness from my dear Papaw because he has gardened for I'm sure his whole life and still does at the ripe age of 87.  I will be calling him tomorrow for tips! This is our first attempt at our own garden, praying for a good harvest!

The list goes on ... I'm sure I'm forgetting things...we have made the obvious cut backs like not traveling as much as we would like, not going to the movies and waiting for movies to come out on RedBox, not eating out as much, not going and doing like we used too.  We take advantage of free stuff!  Whether it be a free family fun activity around town or thinking of thrifty ways to have a date night.

The bottom line is, we are happy, yes it has been tough some months, but God is faithful.  He has gone before us, we trust in His guidance, and we know that putting our trust in Him will always bring peace and comfort that we can't buy, invest, or create on our own.