Surrender....

such a heavy word when coupled with a Godly desire to surrender completely to Him. I don't think I fully understood what that would entailed when I was laying at my precious Saviours feet several years ago....

You see, I used to be a christian that did not care about the lost, simply because my heart? it was hard. I felt like, or rather thought that people were just stupid(sorry) for rejecting this wonderful Jesus Christ that I had come to know personally, and that it was their loss. Silly in hindsight, because obviously their eyes are blinded and their ears don't hear.... I used to be one of them.

So, while I lay at the base of God's throne and asked Him to give me a heart like His, one that loves people(all people) like He does, He started to soften this sinners heart. While I was there I also requested that He show me my deceitful heart(Jer. 17:9-10). That has been rough. There are lots of sinful things that our hearts hold that our flesh(sin nature) tries to cover up and/or hide. It also does not help that our culture actually embraces many of these evil heart deceptions as being acceptable and dare I say "normal".... Anyway, I digress.

Loving others as God does. That is NOT at all what I thought it would be. Love is an action and sometimes it is an action that the recipient does not perceive as what is needed. ALOT of times the very thing that we need from God is NOT AT ALL what we think we need. But let me just say that I believe that ALOT of suffering that the Israelites endured did not seem like the "right" thing to them, even though our perfect and just God was the One doling out the love. Gods love can "feel" tough, and it is even tougher as one of His servants to be the giver of this kind of love.... But if you ask me I would much rather love this way(which by the way isn't how my flesh would like to do it my flesh would rather keep peace and have "friends and/or family") then pat my loved ones on the back as they go to hell.... Following God fully, without abandon, isn't the most popular way to go. Speaking the truth of God's Word because you not only love them, but you love Jesus Christ enought to only care about pleasing Him, and then stepping out of the way to let the Creator of ALL things go to work, is not an easy thing to do. We as a general rule want acceptance and our flesh wants to please man, but pleasing God comes first and loving people sometimes isn't what we think it should be. Rather loving in deed and truth and not with word(something said), neither in tongue(1John3:18), is not what we "think" love actually is. I know that in actually following my Saviour in loving this way that He is able to work in both hearts a wonderful transformation and fruit does follow....

If you asked me 3 yrs ago what it meant to be fully surrendered to Jesus Christ and His will for my life I would not have told you that this would be the lesson that I was learning....I had NO clue what I was asking for when I asked for His heart to love others. And to say that I wasn't prepared is an understatement. However, I would not trade it for ANYTHING!

Boy I hope that wasn't too confusing!!! I have a hard time putting into words the wonderful lesson that God has been teaching me!! :)

HEY Look a MeMe--Right Up My Alley!!!!

The Movie Meme:

(please list up to 3 per genre)

Favorite Comedy Film:(I prefer romantic comedy and don't much enjoy plain comedy...)

■How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
■Better Off Dead circa 1985ish(with John Cusack)
■Confessions of a Shopaholic was slightly amusing! :)

Favorite Romance Film:

■P.S. I Love You
■Pride and Prejudice
■FireProof

Favorite Sci-Fi Movie:

■Starman (with Jeff Bridges)
■Enemy Mine
■I Robot

Favorite Animated Movie:

■Over the Hedge
■Flushed Away
■Robin Hood

Favorite Disaster Movie:

■Twister
■Armageddon
■Blood Diamonds

Favorite Christmas Movie:

■The Christmas Story
■The Grinch
■The Christmas Child

Favorite Horror Movie:(I try not to watch these anymore)

■Taken
■The Sixth Sense

Movies With Music:

■Fiddler on the Roof
■Mary Poppins
■My Fair Lady

Favorite Book to Movie:

■Black Beauty
■Notebook
■The Grinch???! :)

Favorite Classic:

■My Fair Lady
■Heidi(Shirley Temple)
■Fiddler on the Roof

Favorite Chick Flick:

■The Presidents Daughter
■The Prince and Me
■Sense and Sensability

Movie You Could Watch Ad Nauseum:

■Sense and Sensability(with Kate Winslet)
■Pride and Prejudice(with Kiera Knightly)
■P.S. I Love You

Worst Movie of All Time:

■Anchor Man

Favorites of Another Kind...

-The Nativity Story
-Gladiator
-Schindler's List
-A Beautiful Mind

Rosetta Stone Foreign Language Freebie!!!

There is a wonderful opportunity to win a Latin foreign language course from Rosetta Stone!! Here are that details:

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Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.

This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!)
This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post. And good luck!

****

Good luck to ALL TWO of you!!! ;)

Are YOU Getting Involved in the TEAparty of America???

We need to take our country back to the Republic that it was started as! I think that taking a stand against this HUGE machine, that is a majority of our government at the moment, is necessary! If not now, then when? When will YOU stand up and say NO MORE???

Watch this




or visit www.TEAPartyDay.com

I Interrupt This Blog to Tell You....

Actually, I should say I Interupt this "not" blog!!! ;)

Back to my point of this post, there is this give away happening at a great blog that I read! If you go here then you can have a chance to win a prize from this VERY funny lady! I might add, that she has a wealth of info to share on raising a family in general--not to mention a large family!!

I hope that you will go and enter! God bless!

25 Random Things About Me In No Particular Order...

I know I haven't post FOREVER and then I do something like this! I must confess, I have become a Facebook--aholic! I can control who sees my personal stuff there! Anyhow, I was tagged on there to do this 25 Things, and thought that I would post it here as well...

1. I am living on a farm in southeastern Oklahoma--not exactly where I thought I would live...

2. I always wanted a farm just didn't know about the Oklahoma part!

3. God literally moved us here! I love knowing that I am here because of His perfect will for my life. There is ALOT of peace in that knowledge.

4. My husband and I did not plan for our third baby. He is a very welcome blessing!

5. The Lord has informed us that our family is not complete even though we are no longer able to have any biological children.

6. We plan on adopting. International adoption.

7. My heart breaks to know that there are 150 million children in this world that do not have a mommy and a daddy to love them...

8. I wish that I could adopt a whole bunch of children.

9. I was RADICALLY saved by Jesus Christ from a life of drugs and selfishness where I am certain that I would have died...

10. I LOVE Jesus Christ with my whole heart and I would do ANYTHING for Him just to hear Him say well done my faithful servant.

11. Noone else in my extended family loves Jesus except my Dad's brother!

12. Not surprisingly, my uncle is the only one in my family that never gave up on me while I lived a wreckless life...

13. I still want my mom when I cry...

14. I still miss my grandma--she died when I was 7 years old. We were VERY close.

15. I don't have a biological sister but God blessed me with a sister. I love you Aim...

16. I miss summers in Idaho.

17. I love the smell of Pine trees on warm humid mornings in Oklahoma. It reminds me of McCall in the summer afternoons! If I close my eyes I can pretend that I am there!!!LOL :) I miss McCall most of all...

18. There are alot of pine trees in this part of Oklahoma--we live in the only pretty part of the state!!! Thank you Jesus for that!

19. I would thank him even if it wasn't pretty here! :)

20. I am incredibly insecure, and my husband knows it and loves me anyway...

21. I can be not very nice when I am allowing my insecurities to run me--And yet, Brandon, knows what the problem is and forgives me before I ask...

22. I love my husband VERY much, he is probably the best gift(after salvation) that Jesus gave me.

23. I asked God for my husband in a letter listing 26 things that I wanted in a husband 9 mos. before I met my husband. When I met him I knew he was my husband within the first week and he fulfilled all 26 things, but 3...

24. A week after my husband met me we were talking and he saw in his mind what our kids would look like--it scared him!! He turned white! When I asked him what was wrong he told me what had happened. I told him that that made sense because he was my husband! We were married three weeks later! We just celebrated our 9th anniversary! Praise God--because He gets ALL the glory!

25. I was married before.. twice. It's a good thing God can change us if we are willing to come to Him...humbly.

Your supposed to tag 25 people, but honestly I don't even think 25 people know about my blog!!! LOL! :) So I will tag the few that do: Amy, Heather, and Pam, oh and Grafted Branch if you still read ;)!!