July is a busy month!

Here we are in July and I am so thankful. This month has a lot going on and most of it is quite exciting! Let's see.. we have Independence of course, then there is my sister's bday, my anniversary, my Dh's bday, my FIL's bday, and there is a possibility that I will find out if my Dad is moving closer to us. Very exciting.
This last month has been very challenging to me. God is working on my heart on many fronts, mainly just dying to self. It is a continual process that I wish could end but self just won't go away until we take that final breath. I have struggled with worrying about the future(today, tomorrow, 20 years from now) and he is teaching me to just focus on today. Notice I didn't say WORRY about today. Worrying is, after all, a sin. It is a commandment NOT to worry. Matthew 6:25 So I have been trying to focus on what I can do today to honor God. It has been very difficult for me but God has blessed me, despite my failures, in that he has comforted me throughout the whole process. He has been there when my mind starts to wonder, reminding me that I shouldn't go that route. I am grateful!
On another note, something really neat happened yesterday. Our neighbor is moving and she decided she didn't want to move all her long term food storage so she divided it up between another neighbor and us. It is a ton of food. We are praising God for her generosity! I just have to find a place for it now! lol Thankfully, I have been working on the garage for a while, cleaning and getting rid of stuff we don't need. Hopefully I will find a good spot.
I will leave with a great little quote I heard yesterday.
"How is your righteousness in the midst of affliction?"

Great Quote

I saw this on one of my homeschooling email loops. I thought it was great.

"If you knew you only had a year more with that child, what would you expose him to? Where would you go? What would you eat? What would you watch? What would you do?

If you had only ONE year—and then it was all over, what would you do? Four seasons. Twelve months. 365 days.

Do that THIS year. And the next."

A Charlotte Mason lesson for all of us

This quote came from a summarization of one of Charlotte Mason's principles.
"Children must learn not to lean too heavily on their own reasoning. Reasoning is good for logically demonstrating mathematical truth, but unreliable when judging ideas because our reasoning will justify all kinds of erroneous ideas if we really want to believe them."
I thought this was great advice for all of us!

John Calvin on the role of the housewife

John Calvin~
"All the chastity they [Nuns] pretend is nothing before God, in comparison of that that he hath appointed, that is to say, that albeit it seem but a vile thing, and a matter of none account, for a woman to take pains about housewifery, to make clean her children when they be arrayed, to kill fleas, and other such like, although this be a thing despised, yea and such, that many will not vouchsafe to look upon it, yet are they sacrifices which GOD accepteth & receiveth, as if they were things of great price and honourable.

Therefore let women study this lesson day and night that first of all they may play the housewives: and if women were the most negligent in the world, yet is there here matter enough to awaken them, and to correct this idleness. And how? If we take pains, we serve GOD, and not men. Again, when a man seeth his wife employ herself all the day long to do her duty, let him also consider whereunto God hath called him, that he also for his part may do his duty. For a man is not born to idleness, nor a woman.

Therefore...let women cast their eyes hither, for there is occasion enough to correct their slothfulness, when they shall see that the question is of serving God. And how? When they fall to kneading (as the proverb is) and apply themselves to good use, & flee not the subjection which God hath set them in: for this is to strive against GOD, when a man doth not follow his vocation, which is our true rule, that is to say, that that we have to do, & what God appointeth every one of us, according to the state, whereunto he is called. Therefore let women have this mark to shoot at, & say, well, although the world have no regard of me, yet must I find myself occupied here, for so God commandeth me. And thus much touching the first, how women have to take occasion to be diligent: and moreover also they have to consider, that when they do their duty and execute their office, God accepteth well of it, although men despise it.

And if men say, “What is this? A woman playeth the housewife, she spinneth on her distaff, and this is all that women can do.” As in deed there are a number of fools that when they speak of women’s distaffs, of seeing to their children, will make a scorn of it, and despise it. But what then? What saith the heavenly Judge? That he is well pleased with it, and accepteth of it, and putteth it in his reckoning. So then let women learn to rejoice when they do their duty, and though the world despise it, let this comfort sweeten all respect they might have that way, and say, “God seeth me here, and his Angels, who are sufficient witnesses of my doings, although the world do not allow of them.”

Something to think about

Quote from R.C Sproul Jr:

"By God's grace we don't believe most of the cliches that rule our lives. No one actually believes, for instance, that there is no objective right and wrong. Steal their pocketbook, and you will find them swiftly appealing to some transcendent law. Neither do we really believe that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The most ardent aesthetic relativist does not play the sound of car crashes on their CD player. Neither does anyone actually believe that forms have no meaning, that it is only the heart that matters.

This breezy indifference to form is bolstered in the church by the words of Jesus. When He met the woman at the well and she asked about the proper place of worship, He responded, "But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4: 23-24). Seems like a slam dunk, doesn't it? Jesus says it doesn't matter what form our worship takes. All that matters is the heart.

But what if forms influence our hearts? Isn't it just possible that you can't fully separate forms and hearts? Consider, for a moment, a wedding. Who among us would be pleased if they were married with vows like this: "Me and you. I won't sleep around on you. I won't leave you until you keel over." How does that compare with "forsaking all others, till death do us part." The formal forms that are a part of our weddings do not make the ceremony sacred. All they do is help us remember that they are sacred.

Which is why it actually matters how we dress when we gather together to worship the living God. It's true enough that God looks on the inside rather than the outside. It is also true that He is apt to see a casual approach to worship if He is looking at the heart of someone dressed casually. Why is it, I wonder, that we are willing to come to worship dressed like it's casual Friday at the office, but we would be unwilling to dress this way, were we to meet the President? Why is it, that we would never dress in jeans and a polo for our wedding, but we would when we come to feast with our Husband on His day? It is because we have listened to the serpent.

I am not arguing that all men everywhere must where an expensive suit when they gather to worship. I'm not suggesting that we ought to sit about our pews mentally doling out grades to those around us, looking down our patrician noses at others. I am suggesting, however, that we ought to come to worship in our best. I'm not suggesting that we do this so that God will take our worship seriously. I am suggesting that we do this so that we will take our worship seriously. I'm not suggesting that worship is only a somber and serious event. It is, like a wedding, a joyful event - a joyful, somber and serious event. The truth is this—spirit is influenced by bodies. And our bodies should reflect our spirits. We are meeting our King. We are meeting our Groom. We are coming into the presence of the living God. If we dress as though this is something important, perhaps we would better understand how important it is. Perhaps we would in turn teach our children the same."

The Burden of the Day

George Macdonald said:
"It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It's when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bare."

Linda Dillow quoted this in her book
Calm my anxious Heart