Marriage Monday - Girl Talk on Love

This month's topic is the legacy that we leave for our children about marriage. Children are so completely little sponges that take everything in. EVERYTHING. Though I talk to them about love and marriage, my words are empty unless I actually live it for them to model.

I fail so often in this area. My pride gets squashed, I am mad at Daddy. My feelings get hurt, I get mad at Daddy. I have been away and the house did not get picked up in my absence, I am mad at Daddy. The trash didn't get taken out again, I am mad at Daddy. I break a nail, I am mad at Daddy. I think you get it.

I don't have to say a thing about being mad. It comes across in my tone or expression. The girls pick up on it. Do I want them to mirror that same thing to their Daddy or their future husband? Of course not! I often find myself apologizing to them and explaining what God says about it all and how Mom falls short but Jesus helps me. I think this helps them to see our need for Jesus in everything, even marriage.

How about you? What are you teaching your children about love and marriage through your actions?

To see what others are saying go here for Marriage Monday.

Just For God's Girls

It is still not too late to sign up for this great conference. Just go here.

It will be held online August 21-22.

Session times will be:

Friday 8/21, 6:00pm CST - Cara Putman

How God Can Use You
Tired of hearing God has a plan and purpose for your life — as long as you’re willing to wait until you’re out of college? Wondering how God can use you? If He ready to put you to service –even in your teen years? Then participate in this session — get a vision for how God can use you now as well as brainstorm specifics for your dreams.

Friday 8/21, 8:30pm CST - Sarah Martin

Quiet Time and Bible Study
Do you ever find yourself reading the Bible and repeating the same passage over and over confused as ever? This will be an interactive session looking at practical ways to have a daily Quiet Time and Bible Study! Be ready to get pumped up about studying the Bible for yourself and deepening your walk with the LORD!

Saturday 8/22, 8:30am CST - Alyssa Avant

Prayer Journaling
Prayer journaling is a lost art, well journaling for that matter. Just as this world has been taken over by email, rather than snail mail, text messaging, rather than a good old fashion phone call, we are plagued with wanting things to be quick and easy. Too bad we can’t email God, or can we? Well, the point is that we must take time to slow down and talk with Him, however we might choose to do it. But girls? Do you make time for talking to God, and more importantly listening to Him? If not, I encourage you to start, and this wonderful art of prayer journaling is a super way to make time to “sit at his feet” , and truly talk to and listen to our Lord and Savior.

Saturday 8/22, 10:00am CST- Shelly Ballestero

Beautiful You! Inside and Out…
It’s back to school and that usually entails new clothes, makeup and maybe a new hair style. However your budget may not be able to supply your passion for fashion and beauty needs! In Beautiful You—you will;

* Learn DIY beauty secrets
* Creative Confidence Projects
* Inner Beauty and self worth
* Hottest is modest—dress your body type
* Makeup & hair tips

Sometimes wanting to look good can get out of balance and it’s important to know where your beauty comes from— You are beautiful because God made you that way. Beauty is God-encoded deep in your DNA—You are unique and a divinely hand-sculpted masterpiece, fingerprinted body and soul by the most amazing Designer in the universe—none other than our Lord and Savior.

Saturday 8/22, 11:30am - Evonne Mandella

Fun! Faithful! Modest!
Is your daughter creative, artistic, have one of a kind personality and style?! Well- here’s her chance to shine! This workshop will inspire your precious gal to be the princess she is meant to be. She will learn to take everyday outfits, and turn them into her own original fashion designs! Using a simple no sew technique she will learn ways to add style to any outfit and ensure she is a hip- modest gal in the process. You will also learn how to take any bit of apparel and turn it into a tool to share your faith in our Great God!

Saturday 8/22, 1:00pm CST - Angela Parsley

Girl Power, God’s Way
Want to live a life without selling out? Then this talk is for you. We will examine that God has a great purpose for your life, that you and your choices greatly matter to God, and how to stand strong with God when the culture is moving in the other direction. We are warrior princesses of a great King and Girl Power, God’s Way is encouraging us to live it out daily.

Homeschooling Fieldtrips

I am over at Heart of the Matter today. Go here to check out the article.

If you are over here because of my post on Heart of the Matter then welcome! We are in the trenches of homeschooling together. I am interested in what God is showing you right now in homeschooling. I was glad to be reminded of my own words.

We have had a couple of rough schooling days and that makes it real easy for me to get discouraged as a mom and their primary teacher. However, I need to take it one day at a time and know those hard days will come. God has got me and will comfort me through it. He will help me teach the children He made and gave to my care. Now that changes the perspective!

It is not all about me after all! Yet again I am learning this lesson over and over. Even in schooling my children it is still all about God and His plans for their lives. He will show me and you what works best for each child because He deeply cares for them.

Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to share your experiences or stories. We are in this together!

Living A Healthier Lifestyle Accountability Update

So I thought I needed to give you all an update about how the eating better pursuit is going. After all I need the accountability. Also, I by no means want to ever be a hypocrite so I am trying to just keep it real. My sweet husband is the best accountability partner on this journey because we are in this together. I am so thankful for him!!

I am most vulnerable to falling when I am not feeling well. If you have read about my migraine struggles these times are especially bad times for me. Since my first post I have had a few days where I really just blew it. But as with everything we need to get back up and take it one day or minute at a time. This is a journey and a process to a healthier lifestyle.

So because this is all for the glory of God I am happy to be seeing some success but not without sacrifice. We are feeling better though putting more healthy things in our body. Also we are eating to live instead of living to eat. That is a challenge in social situations for sure! But with God all things are possible so we will continue on.

She Seeks

Please be in prayer for this new ministry, She Seeks, geared for women who are 18-29 years old. Spread the word. This is a great site for inspiration.

This wonderful ministry is brought to you by the wonderful women at Proverbs 31 Ministries.

So go show them some bloggy love!

Thank You Mr. Jonas

Dear Mr. Jonas,
I just wanted to thank you for being different among your peers. I know that you all take pride in wearing purity rings even though the world criticizes you for it. I know that must be tough in Hollywood these days. Standing strong and being a true good example is harder than ever these days.

With that said I want to thank you for not selling out on your new Disney TV show Jonas. In last nights, "Three Musketeers" episode, it would have been so easy for Joe to just kiss the character opposite of him full on the lips but instead he kissed her cheek. You do not even know how much that simple choice meant to us.

I am really tired as a mom talking to my girls about the poor choices most characters portray in this area. A kiss is not special anymore in Hollywood and it seems even for shows on the Disney channel these days. For this we are saddened and just have to discuss the poor choices of that over and over again. It gets really old.

So, thank you again for being different. Despite the pressure from the world, please keep representing Christ well. You are in our prayers.

Complicated Migraine

Life with complicated migraine can be very unpredictable. It is life that limits you from living to your full capacity. I live with these things weekly. It does not make life very easy at all. If you have good health please be thankful for it and do not take it for granted. At any moment I can lose some of my vision, have incapacitating head pain that makes it really hard for me to think, lose my balance, or just be "off".

Since this can happen at any minute life is hard. There so far is no specific reason for these episodes. I journal food, external circumstances, times of the month. It is very random. Anything like a certain smell, too much sunlight, flashing lights, or stress can set a migraine in motion for me. The question is will it be the one that comes with the head pain or not? I have learned to live with the clumsiness, numbness, and visual disturbances. These things your body learns to adjust to because you have to live. But I am not able to adjust to the pain yet. With these I have to get into a dark room with little noise and pray it will run its course.

There are many medications you can take for these. Unfortunately I find myself allergic to the mainstream meds. Others work minimally. Preventatives work minimally thus far as well. So where is my hope? I know the Lord made me. He is perfect. We live in a fallen world where sickness lives. If God allows these things into my life then I need to accept it as something He allows for my bettering. I pray they make me more like Him. I yearn for Heaven more than ever. I still hold to the hope of them resolving or disappearing. Various times in life they have come and gone. Oh how I wish I appreciated the days when they were minimal. Those days will come again.

How does that work with my commitment to treat my body better? Well, I still house the Spirit of God in me. I mentioned how it would be a fight to try to better my body. I had five great days of eating and regular exercise then sickness hit me again. So since then I have not been able to exercise. I have eaten too much out of self pity. I have forgiven myself and started doing better again. I need to find balance in this and realize things will be harder because of this. But I am still on the journey. God knows my heart. He will get me through this season and I can do all things through Him! :)

What in life do you struggle with?

Follow Up - Season of Marriage

I just had to post a picture for the post below! I have know my husband half my life and so this has given us MANY seasons to go through! Next year we will celebrate 15 years of marriage. :)

Marriage Monday - Season of Hardship

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I did not want to post today at Marriage Monday. Honestly we are having a hard time in marriage right now. It is hard to persevere in the tough times. Marriage does take work. It takes two committed people who are willing to work at it.

Certain seasons are so tough. I love the early carefree stages of marriage. Those seemed so much more easy to me but our love was much more immature. In these tougher more challenging times our love and commitment for one another is tested. We are realizing we must pass the test! It is showing us what we are made of. Did we really mean our vows about sticking together in good times and bad?

I love my husband so much. Even though he is physically present this season is one where he cannot be with us emotionally most of the time. He is very over committed right now. He has had so many work challenges hit him. He has been challenged in every way in this season. This effects everything else he is attached to including us. So I can either support him or be selfish and feel sorry for myself. I have done both. I wish I could be more supportive at all times. It is a long and hard season but I cannot make it with Him if God is not the center of it all.

We have both made and kept our priority God. He is what is holding us together during these tough times. The sweet and rare time we have together now we are cherishing because it is so limited. We are learning to appreciate one another. It is just a tough season. It is temporary. It is necessary. We need to know what we are made of. Our love has matured so much more through these tough times. So this is where marriage is now for us. I praise God for our union. It is not selfish it is self-less. It is making us more like Jesus in stripping off the ugly layers of our hearts. It is a sweet gift.

See what others are saying at Marriage Monday here.

Join Me This Week at The Parenting and Home Education Conference