Do you see all your needs and that they are taken care of?

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

Recently I offered to help a friend with some online work. She had a few irons in the fire, and I saw an opportunity to help. I offered my time.

She told me she didn’t have the money to pay me – for a job I normally charge companies to do.

I was not looking to get paid, but to serve my sister during this busy time. Call it volunteer work.

I reassured my friend, “God is my rewarder. He sees what I am doing and knows what I need.”

Ahem, that’s tweetable y’all.

It sounds warm and fuzzy and really nice.

But …

but, dare I whisper in a small voice there are things I have yet to get- things that I want? Things I can point to and say, “but I want that”.

You know …

a bigger family
quality friendships
a move to the mountains
a job that doesn’t require my husband to travel so far so often
a relationship with my biological sister

Most days these non-materialistic wants suffocate my praise.

my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

How reassuring, God is not careless with His Words. Remember He used them to speak Creation into place?!

If God is going to say “all your needs” … I can bet regardless of how I feel — “all your needs” means ALL YOUR NEEDS!

I do not need to attend a bible study to get this, but since I’m a “word” person … I’ll break it down:

“all”, pasan, means just that – all, every
“your need”, chreian, means needs, necessity, business

All your needs

That big family I covet is a want, not a need.  Do you have a list of wants? They are nice, and it’s not bad to want things.  But when we stop praising for our needs being met and can only eye down our wants … 

Can we do something really crazy this Christmas?? Rather than think of all the wants … sisters, let’s unchain ourselves from that prison! It is a lonely unhappy place.

Start praising for all your needs that have been met.

The amazing God of this universe continually provides for you and me!

Father God, I praise You for knowing what I need, when I need it, and being there to provide it. Please forgive me for being consumed with my own plan, my own wants, and my big pride. Clean me out of what I think I deserve, and turn my heart to praise. Give me eyes to see Your Glory, and satisfaction in all that You want me to have. Amen.

I’ve been caught lately realizing I’m not doing a great job of breathing grace in our home.

As believers, we need to accept God’s grace for ourselves.

We need to offer grace to our children. To our husbands.

We need to be breathing grace in our home.

This week I posted about The Wizard of Oz Homeschooling and went through the roles of each character. A reader commented she’s more Glenda the Good – and I sat there for a good half hour amazed I had totally forgotten Glenda the Good.

How do you forget the good witch?

Isn’t that so telling about the grace in our home? I hate to write it, but it’s truth … grace is lacking.

I do not accept grace enough for my own failures. I beat myself up mentally for stupid mistakes. (and if you know me personally they happen a lot). I do not offer grace because I’m a stickler for rules … no, I am a stickler for getting my way.

Breathing grace in our home isn’t about letting kid’s get away with trouble. It’s not about always being right.  It’s not about being a doormat or letting people take advantage of us.

Why have we allowed society to make virtues like: humility, modesty, and grace and turned them into the butt of a joke?

We think grace is about the way we move rather than the way we love!

It requires grace to guide our kids to the cross than to blow off character training. 

Breathing grace in our home is possible once we accept His grace for ourselves.  Richly.  Deeply.  Often.  Then we can offer it to the ones in our home who need it the most.  

Moms, join me?  Let’s accept His grace today and then be about breathing it in our home!

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16

Are you ready for a hands-on bible study? We’re jumping into a James Bible Study!

I share plenty of hands-on projects for science, geography, and history here every Tuesday, but I noticed I hadn’t shared many hands-on bible work.

So I decided to share a bit from the James Bible Study (Discover 4 Yourself) as well as Truth in The Tinsel (starting next week).

This is our 5th (maybe 6th) Discover 4 Yourself bible study. They are 5 weeks long 5 days per week. I recommend them for visual and/or tactile kids.

JAMES BIBLE STUDY ~ WEEK ONE

Day One: who is James, what is so special about a “bond servant”.  We talked about serving God out of love or doing it because we feel like we’re a slave and “have to”.  God doesn’t want our “have to” attitudes.  Obedience is expected, and much easier when we love to serve Him.

Day Two: keywords.  We squared & circled all the keywords that are repeated with colored pencils. (this is GREAT for visual kids for ANY study!)  We noticed the word “trials” was repeated and how “faith” and “religion” are not the same thing!

Day Three: fill in the blank finding out the character of God referencing scripture.  He is in control over everything: animals, weather, people, situations.  God is sovereign.

Day Four: the testing of our faith. Today the boy and I discussed when “bad things happen”  - the testing of our faith.  We talked about how we as people like to rate situations, when God considers it all JOY.  (yes this is hard to explain , but having lost a pregnancy  we have experienced the bad things to good people hurt.)  We talked about being double-minded, and there is no peace for a double-minded man.

Day Five: rich man poor man.  We talked about when we most often pray (usually in times of need) and how the rich man probably does not find himself in times of need very often.  His money can buy anything, but not his salvation.  We read about the “new testament church” and asked, what if our street was like that? Our neighborhood? Our town? Our city? Our state — would there be less people in need?  The boy was interested in what it looks like to truly share and take care of each other.

Truth in The Tinsel

This week we prepared by coloring our Advent Ornaments.  I set up a 3ft pre-lit tree on an end table in the kitchen to hang these Advent ornaments on their tree.  Little man has loved plugging in “his tree” and taking ownership over it.  I’m hoping this will be a great treat each day adding his ornaments to his tree.