I’ve learned a new skill. I’ve found out this week that I can walk on the treadmill at 3.1 speed with a steep incline and read a book! Wow! Does this make the time fly by! I’m praying I won’t be acting out any of the hilarious stunts on Funniest Home Videos while doing this, but I am really enjoying the reading time.

1. The children shouldn’t dictate what is going to happen in your home. “I don’t want to go to Pizza Hut for supper! I want to eat at McDonald’s” It’s not that they can’t make the choice sometimes, but when Mom and Dad have made a decision, it should stick.
2. Mom and Dad need their own time. Children sleeping with their parents should be a rare occasion. Bedtimes give Mom and Dad an opportunity to talk, spend time together playing a game, or share a snack.
3. Parents need a date night. Don’t let the children’s cries keep you from leaving them occasionally. Let them know you’re going away to make a better home for them.
4. As the mom, recognize your husband’s needs and make sure you’re meeting those before doing extra things with/for your children. Are you always jumping up to do something for them, and don’t spend time just being with him?
5. Be sure you’re spending your recreational times together as a couple and not one parent running here with one child, and the other taking another child there. Be a family.

We all know that children have many needs – especially when they’re little, but the tendency is to keep allowing them to be needy and being the very center of the family’s circle where the parents ought to be. Take a good look at the circle of your family; who’s in the middle and who’s on the peripheral? Does there need to be a change?

I’d love to have a weekly small group study using this book. Anyone from BCBC interested? Let me know, either here in the comment section, contact me by phone or let me know at church. If you’re not nearby and are interested let me know – maybe we could use Friday’s to “discuss” each chapter!

See you in church!

With love,

I have recently found myself having moods. It usually begins to swing in by mid-afternoon. It makes me unpredictable, grumpy, and no fun to be with. Ugh! I hate it! I can almost feel it coming up from inside and consuming me. Is it hormones? Maybe. Does that mean I have a right to it? I wish I could say yes, but we all know that’s not true. **sigh** It is something that needed to be dealt with and my sweet Lord knew just how to do it.

If you were in our services last Sunday you heard Will Galkin preach from Philippians 2:13 – It is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. This passage is special to me because I’ve meditated on this verse over and over. God is at work in me doing His sanctifying work in my life. What a blessing! The blessing turned quickly to conviction when the preacher then made serious application of it.

“Christ is powerful enough to save your soul from hell. What about the sin you’re struggling with right now. Is He powerful enough to save you from that as well?” Of course the answer was “yes!” There was no list of sins given, but I immediately knew that the Lord was putting His finger on my moodiness. “I Can save you from that, too, Denise.” Wow. It was easy to excuse it, to give my sin a nice name – hormones – and be done with it. Everyone else would just have to understand. But now, with this Truth in front of me, I was forced to recognize it for what it really was – selfishness and pride.

I took the preacher’s counsel and wrote down this sin in my journal and then how the Lord was showing me to deal with it. This week as I’ve been tempted to give in and be moody, my mind has gone to my Savior and His power to save me – not only from Hell, but also from this ugly sin. I’ve been saturating my heart more with my memorization passages and trying to think more His thoughts than my own. Am I perfect now? Ask my poor husband – the one who gets the blow of my emotions. No, I never will be until I get to heaven (what a day that will be), but I am seeing the Lord give me strength to overcome!

What sin are you dealing with that you excuse? The Lord has power to save you from hell, and from that sin, Friend. He’s at work in you right now and desires to free you from your bondage.

We sang this song on Sunday night –

If he saved you He can change you.

With love,

Here’s a little something I’ve messed with this week in my parsonage…come take a peek.

I love those cute little chalkboards for menus and messages, but the ones I’ve had are really hard to write on. The chalk fades in and out because of the surface or the chalk. I recently saw on a blog somewhere a great idea. If I find the place I got the idea I’ll link you to it, but for now I’ll share the idea.

Use an inexpensive photo frame and put a piece of colored paper under the glass. The one I used had a border around the edge. If you’re not a scrapbooker and don’t have paper like this, you can buy a sheet for about .20 at Michaels. Use something that will the marker to show up – one that doesn’t have lots of designs on it. Light colors work well.

Use a dry erase marker to write on the glass. You could use it for messages, shopping needs, or your menu. I popped mine into this metal stand I had because I liked the looks of it, but if your frame has a stand on the back you won’t even need to do that. Cute, huh?

Rest. Its a foreign word to most of us. It’s something we dream about; something we relish, but don’t get nearly enough of. There’s a particular kind of rest I want to bring to your attention. I want you to think about a sabbath rest. A sabbath rest is simply a period of rest. I was recently challenged to take a sabbath rest from the Internet and technology. What? No email on Sunday? No checking Facebook statuses? What about my blog? How will I share what’s been cooking in the parsonage on Monday if I don’t write my blog on Sunday? I took a deep breath, then I took the challenge. The blessings have been tremendous in just the two weeks in which I have rested.

1. I have had more of a single-focus. When I’ve come home from church instead of opening the laptop, I’ve re-read the passage that was preached from God’s Word. I’ve looked over my sermon notes and what the Lord said to me. I’ve meditated on my memory passage.
2. I have truly had the opportunity to rest. Oh, I generally always take a nap on Sunday, but along with that, I’m not “working” on an email response, a devotional thought, or answering a Facebook note.
3. I’ve been able to think about and prepare mentally for the week ahead.
4. I’ve had time to do little gestures on Sunday afternoon that were previously taken up with the Internet, such as writing a couple of notes to people to encourage them.
5. When the evening service time came, I was ready to return instead of continuing in the fast-paced frenzy of the afternoon.

Taking a sabbath rest from technology has made me need to prepare my blog posts earlier, but it’s gotten done. And you know what? Those emails and Facebook notifications were all waiting for me on Monday! My mind feels clearer and refreshed. Imagine that!

From what do you need a sabbath rest? It may be something other than the Internet; maybe it’s sports, television, or texting. Ask the Lord to show you if there’s something that is bogging you down that would benefit you to take a rest from, then do it and see what blessings come from it.

With love,

Something is missing at church – FELLOWSHIP. Oh, we’ll all stand around and chat til the lights get turned off, but what’s happened to having people in our homes? Sometimes we make cooking and entertaining harder than it really needs to be. Sunday dinner at home doesn’t have to be fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Why not make a soup on Saturday and then warm it up for Sunday’s dinner? Add a loaf of French Bread or crackers and you have a hearty meal to come home to after church services – and also to serve to guests.

When was the last time you invited someone to your home for a meal or refreshments? One of the best things about having a home is sharing it with others. Can I challenge you to invite a family over soon? They won’t care if you don’t get every corner dusted or if you didn’t have time to change paint colors in your living room. Open your home with a loving heart and a simple meal and enjoy the opportunity to serve others. Encourage a college student who’s away from home. Be a blessing to a young married couple or a widow. Share the Gospel with an unsaved family…all around your table.

Soups are good one dish meals that are great to entertain with. I’m making four different soups for a fellowship later this week and freezing them ahead of time. One soup we really love is U.S. Senate Bean Soup. I got the recipe years ago from Taste of Home. It takes several hours to cook, but it’s not labor intensive. The reviews on this recipe are really low, and I can’t figure that one out. No, it’s not a spicy soup, but the ham bone makes it very flavorful. I freeze my ham bone after Christmas to use for this soup later on. If I don’t have one, I go to Honey Baked Ham and buy one for $5. I’ve even gone after Christmas to get one and they had them buy one, get one free! That’s a deal for a pot of soup!

When I cook the beans, I do the quick method – bring them to a boil, then add 2 tsp baking soda and boil for 2 minutes. Let set for 1 hour, then rinse and proceed with the recipe. The baking soda keeps the beans from causing upset stomachs!

Add the onions, celery, garlic and potato flakes and cook for 1 more hour. Remove the ham from the bone and add the meat back to soup pot.

Ta-da! Yummy and delicious!

Last weekend I had a chicken salad sandwich and got to watch the cook make her own special recipe. I hope it wasn’t a secret, because I have to share it with you! It was super good! This would make a great Sunday night meal. The sandwiches could be made ahead of time so you could easily have folks over for fellowship after the evening service. Served on French bread or a croissant and this would make a great light meal. Add some chips, fresh fruit and cookies and your guests will be glad they came!

If you don’t entertain guests in your home, what is hindering you? I’d love for you to leave a comment and be honest. Is it the cost? You don’t know what to do? Are you too busy? Maybe we can come up with a solution to help! If you do entertain, what is the thing you like serving most?

Happy cooking!