Find refreshment for your heart, home and life
I have a room that is a mixture of office, craft space and guest room. It’s been hard to organize it and also make it look pretty, but it’s been a work in progress. I recently added the final touch to the room that makes me just smile when I enter or even walk by. I’m excited to show you the before and after!
Continue reading “Craft Room/Guest Room Makeover”She riseth while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens. Prov. 31:15
The memory is so clear in my mind, even though the event took place when I was only eight. My mother had gone to the hospital for surgery, requiring her to be away from home for a week. She left plans for our meals, school outfits, and personal needs in the careful hands of our loving dad. He did all she had instructed him, and we had no immediate wants unmet. However, her very bodily absence left such a void in my young heart that I felt desperate for her presence. Having no way to remedy the situation, I made my way to the front closet where all our coats were hung. Finding my mother’s coat sleeve with the fur cuff, I buried my face in its soft comfort and cried tears of longing for the one who made our house a home.
When I need a quick meal idea, I love to make fish. It thaws quickly and it cooks quickly. I found a great, healthy way to make crispy fish without frying it. The recipe came from none other than my favorite source – Cooking Light! The Panko crumbs give it its crunch and the lemon dill sauce adds a great flavor to the fish! Here’s the easy recipe…
Continue reading “Crispy Fish with Lemon Dill Sauce”When you receive a notice that the event you are attending is “Business casual,” do you panic because you have to idea what to wear? Are you ever worried that you’ll walk into an event under-dressed or over-dressed? I’ve been there, too!
In continuing our series of, Dressing with Grace, I thought it might be helpful to address this subject. Let’s just take a look at one outfit and see how simple it is to take it from casual to Business casual to dressy.
Business Casual means traditional business wear with a more relaxed style that’s still professional and appropriate for an office environment.
Pictured below is an example of a casual outfit. The flat, open-toed sandals and the denim jacket give it that comfy, casual vibe.
If we change the shoes and accessories, we can easily make this same dress, Business Casual.
The dress is sleeveless, but not open in the back or a deep neckline, both which would make it inappropriate. Closed-toed pumps and jewelry all bump it up to slightly more dressy, but still not an overly dressy outfit.
If a jacket was needed, you could add a sweater or something like this…
If a dressier look was needed, again, just changing out the accessories makes this dress totally acceptable.
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Pants are acceptable, too, in Business Casual. They would need to be a tailored fit in a fabric that is neat, like cotton or khaki pants. Dark wash jeans that do not have holes or tears can also be acceptable. It’s the accessories that would keep it classy and appropriate.
Shoes to avoid in business casual attire:
Admittedly, I have a lot of clothes. However, I spend very little on them by shopping at consignment shops and even Goodwill. But you can have a small wardrobe and buy dresses or pants that can be dressed up or down, as I’ve shown with the outfit on this post. It’s so doable!
Another important point is that as a woman, I try to keep whatever I’m wearing looking feminine. I dress for my husband, who appreciates it when I look “nice.” That doesn’t mean dressing up every day, but just adding a little jewelry, colorful shoes, and a purse can add that softening touch to keep my outfit appropriate and womanlike. Being dressed for our husband and also according to the requested code is easy, and so is adding those gentle touches that help us look our best!
If you’re married, remember that your husband is visual. Refresh your Business Casual, but also your daily wear!
Do you struggle with knowing what to wear in the Business Casual mode?
We move today from our role as wife, to that as mother as we review Elizabeth George’s book, A Woman After God’s Own Heart.
When Elizabeth George heard someone say that there was no greater place of ministry or position or power than that of a mother, her heart sank, It certainly wasn’t how she thought of motherhood. She had two busy preschoolers whom she loved, but she agreed that they were untrained and undisciplined. Their home was filled with tension because she didn’t know how to control them or train them.
Maybe you find yourself in that same position? I hope to encourage your heart today and give you some direction about how to have a heart for your children.
It also took a hard lesson for me to learn the value of me being the one who spent the most amount of time with my daughter. When my oldest daughter was four, I was offered a teaching position in the Christian School in our city. Believing that it would help us financially, my husband and I decided that I would teach at the school, and our daughter would go with me to school and attend the preschool in the morning. At noon my husband came and picked her up and took her home with him. We had it all figured out in our head, but in reality, it was a nightmare!
I found that I missed my time with my daughter so much. Other people were having to pick up what I had dropped. In the afternoons when my husband had hospital calls or a funeral to officiate, someone else was called on to care for my daughter.
Those nine months were months of learning that the best thing that I could do for my family was to be present for our children.
In her book, A Woman After God’s Own Heart, Elizabeth George also found that spending a great amount of time away earning a degree in family counseling was not helping her family! She was trying to help everyone else while her own home was in disarray. How can we have a heart that reflects a heart that truly loves her children?
!. We must have a passion for teaching God’s word. The most important thing that we can teach our children is to love the Scriptures. We might wish to have a ministry at church, but it’s not the children at church that we should be focusing on. Nor should our focus be our friends’ children or our neighbors’ children. Our own children are to receive the first fruits of the burning passion that we have for the Scriptures. Proverbs 1:8 says, My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of your mother. Who is teaching this child? Their mother is! Proverbs 6:20 says, My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of your mother. This indicates that you and I are on assignment from God to teach our children His Word. We can do so many things for our children, but teaching them God’s Word is to be the greatest passion of our heart and life. Why? Elizabeth says that God’s Word (the Hebrew for Torah which is the Divine Law, the Word of God) has value for salvation and for eternity!
How will they know who God is without the Scripture? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Romans 10:17. II Timothy 3:15 teaches us that Timothy was taught the Scriptures as a child that made him wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. God’s word will always accomplish the purpose for which it was sent. (Isaiah 55:11) We cannot teach our children God’s Word if we do not know it. It must be in our heart before we can share it with our children. How well do you know God’s word? Your children will not surpass your understanding of the Scriptures. We need to saturate our own hearts and then teach them what God has taught us.
2. We must have a passion for teaching God’s wisdom. This is closely connected to teaching them God’s Word. The second meaning for the Hebrew word Torah is wisdom. In other words, this is Scriptural wisdom for daily life, and who doesn’t want their child to have that?!
Proverbs 31 1-9 gives us a peek into a mother who treasured God’s Word. King Lemuel records the prophecy that his mother taught him. Think about this king as a young child sitting at his mother’s knee being taught by her. She’s passing on wisdom that she has learned from God’s word. Now all these years later, he is a king and he’s using that wisdom to guide his leadership..
Deuteronomy chapter 6:6, 7 says that we are to teach our children diligently and talk of his word when we sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up. It has to first be in our own heart, and then we must deliberately and diligently teach our children all through the day in every activity that we participate in.
We need to be teaching our children the essentials of loving God and knowing Who He is. How do we do that?
We need to be relating God to our child all through the day and all the decisions we make. Relate every tiny thing to God. Talk to your children about the Lord whether they like it or not; whether they think it’s “cool” or not. We talk about things that we value. How much do we value the Lord and his Word?
The first way we teach is by our words, but the second way we teach is by our walk Or simply the way we live. They are watching us and we are teaching them either positively or negatively. Do your children hear you say one thing to them and then watch you do the opposite? They are very wise to see duplicity. You be the real deal and live a life that is so compelling and your children will follow.
What are some practical ways to do this?
Read God’s Word together as a family How could you implement that into your family? I love reading the psalm of the child’s age each night as they go to bed. They are usually very short Psalms, and by the end of the year before their next birthday, they will probably have that psalm memorized… and so will you!
Remember that you cannot pass on what you do not already possess. If you want to have a child who loves God and His Word, you must be a woman of the Word, then let that spill over onto your family.
What will you do today to pour truth from Scripture into your child’s heart so that they will know God’s Word and have His wisdom?
Refresh your love for God’s Word!
RefreshHer 