Let's Not Forget Our Former Foolishness...

I just read a very convicting article by David Mathis titled "Practicing Politics As Former Fools." Here is an excerpt:

"God doesn't send his church into the political fray with a strut and an open mouth but with gentleness and courtesy—with a readiness to do good, to avoid quarrels, and to speak evil of no one.

Why gentleness and courtesy? Why such an unexpected posture? Paul follows with his reason:

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.(Titus 3: 3)

...Those who have been rescued by God's grace are to engage those who haven't with gentleness and courtesy and a readiness to do them good and not evil. We should be quick to remember that apart from God's saving work—and owing to no work of our own—we share in the same disobedient, enslaved foolishness."

Immunizations - What The?

I've always rolled my eyes at those that don't believe in getting their children immunized - I thought they were just a bunch of paranoid hippie types. Turns out, now I'm a little paranoid after reading an article called, "My Child Stopped Breathing." Here's an excerpt:

"She did not have her three-month shot until she was five months, due to repeated ear infections. The night she had her shots, she stopped breathing five times – a significant increase. I called the pediatrician the next morning and he told me that sometimes the whooping cough vaccine caused that! I wondered why I had not been warned of this considering her history. Two months later when she went for her next jab, we omitted the whooping cough one. She stopped breathing seven times! This time the pediatrician told me not to worry as one in 200 babies does this. And they don’t tell everyone? I’ve since met several people with the same story. Some of those babies are not alive today."

What are your thoughts/experiences with immunizations?

31 Days To Clean - Revisited!

My dear, sweet blogging friend Lisa from Stop and Smell the Chocolates wrote this for me and sent it in an e-mail for me to use on my blog. She is so great! Here is her "guest" post:

Please keep praying for Sarah Mae to feel better soon! I know we all can't wait for her to come back and share some wisdom, but we understand just how hard it can be to grow a baby!

I just wanted to remind you about Sarah Mae's 31 Days To Clean. It's such a helpful series. It was really helping me although I was running behind on it. But still, I was accomplishing much more than I had in quite some time. Unfortunately, I ended being away from home quite a bit this summer. This turned into 31 days to messy again.

So now I will begin the cleaning series all over again. Because I can! Because Sarah Mae has a link to the whole thing and I can redo it and go at my own pace! Who's going to say anything if I actually take 62 days to finish instead of 31? The point is to follow along. There are so many good ideas that I know I will pick up something new this time.

Did you follow the 31 Days To Clean? Were you successful? If not, start it again, like me! Or start where you left off. Or just read through it for some great ideas.

Thanks, Sarah Mae, for the much-needed cleaning series! We can't wait to "see" you here again! :)

Pearl of Great Price - Different Perspective

My friend Laura wrote this on her blog 10 Million Miles and I just had to share her thoughts on it:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Matthew 13:45

I was thinking about the way in which Jesus worded Matthew 13:45.

Folks say that, from this verse, we must learn how important it is to sacrifice everything in order to pursue Jesus, the supposed “pearl of great price”.

But, maybe we misinterpret this oft quoted verse.

Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls…” not “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl of great price.”

Perhaps Jesus meant that the Kingdom of Heaven is Himself as the merchant man, seeking, loving, and purchasing His beloved Church.

Perhaps WE are the pearl of great price.

It would make sense then, despite many-a-convicting sermon, that we can’t “sell everything” for Christ.

No one ever has; no one ever will.

That’s not a glory we have the right to wear.

It is His glory to give everything for us.

It is our glory to thank Him and continually surrender more and more of ourselves to this Great Love.

This is the glory of being found.

My Husband ROCKS! Friday

My husband rocks because he surprised me by putting the two flamingo's in our yard even though he REALLY doesn't like them! So sweet!

(Pictures to come when I get off my behind, put batteries in the camera and go take a picture - check back later!)

Guest Post - Being A Keeper Of The Home

Hi, I'm Lisa from Stop and Smell the Chocolates. I'm happy to be helping Sarah Mae with a guest post today. Will you send some prayers her way for her to be feeling great very soon? I'm sure she would appreciate it.

In her 31 Days To Clean posts, Sarah Mae has talked about self-discipline and why we need to keep working at the daily drudgery. I agree with her and wanted to share some of my thoughts on the subject.

Being a good keeper of the home is a big struggle with me, so I'm really talking to myself here! Before I was pregnant with my son, I was Miss Career Woman and a terrible Keeper of the Home. God started helping me to realize that I needed to make a shift at that time. Eventually, I found myself an inexperienced Stay At Home Mom.

Domesticity did not come naturally to me. I did the bare, and I mean bare minimum of cleaning and I let my husband do the cooking. I was doing good at taking care of my baby boy, at least! At some point, I realized that Keeper of the Home was a most important job and I hadn't been treating it that way. If I was working for "pay" outside the home, I did a great job and took pride in my work. Why wouldn't I do the same for my more important job? That way of thinking about it helped me - I created some routines, did a little better with cleaning, and took over all the cooking duties.

Later on, it all became a struggle again and it still is. I understand the concept of taking pride in my home and keeping up with things because it's the job that I was called to do. But that isn't enough. I realize that there is more to it. This is what God has called me to do. It's not an employer who gives me a job description and will give me money and recognition for a job well done. It's God. If God somehow spoke to me and told me my job description for Keeper of the Home - would I say, "You know, I'm kind of tired. Maybe I could do the dishes just when they pile up and start the dusting next month?" I think not.

Maybe knowing that God calls us to do ALL of it, not just the parts that we like, can help us with our perspective and motivation. And there is a reward - a heavenly home with our Savior. There is even recognition. It will come when we hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

I'm not saying that we won't struggle. We're sinners after all. But maybe we can do a little better and ask God to help us grow as home makers and keepers. I pray that the Lord blesses your home keeping endeavors this week.

A Question for You

Hi girls! Kimba from A Soft Place to Land here. I'm so honored that Sarah Mae asked me to be a guest blogger for her today. I've enjoyed reading Like a Warm Cup of Coffee since she began this blog and I love the insight and wisdom that she shares on a regular basis.

I'm going to take a little break from unpacking boxes and spray painting anything that doesn't run away from me to ask you a question.

What makes a house a home?

I believe I mentioned that my family moved into a new house a week or so ago. ;-) It's a lovely home that we built. I got to make lots of choices about its structure and contents but it doesn't feel like home yet. It feels like we're living in someone else's house.

What does it take for a house to begin to feel like home? Is it when you get your family pictures on the walls? Or when you start having friends over for dinner? Or when your kids start denting the walls and staining the carpet? There's no right or wrong answer here. I imagine that everyone will have a different answer.

So there's the question. This topic has been on my mind for a few weeks now. I would love it if you would all share your thoughts.

Guest Post From A Penn State Sista!

Hi everyone. I’m Debbie. And, I have no idea what I’m doing here. Come to think of it, I’m not sure how I even got here. Oh yeah, last week Sarah asked me to guest blog for her. "Sure no problem. I’d be honored." I said.

Then I realized I actually had to think of something to write about.

Let’s see, I could talk about the election. Nah, too, polarizing. Oh, Oh, I could tell you that I think Sarah is better than Flylady, but you already know that. Or we could talk about how much of an Olympics junkie I am. Yeah, that’s a great topic! Oh wait, this isn’t my blog. You don’t care about what I think. Hmmm.

Dum dee dum. La di da. Let’s see.

I could you tell that Sarah and I both bleed blue. Wha? Huh? Not literally, silly. We are both Penn Staters. Fight on! Only thing is that I graduated from PSU when Joe Paterno was still coaching. Oh wait, he’s still coaching. Well, he had hair back then, wore black shoes, white socks, high water khaki pants and coke bottle glasses. Psst Debbie? He still wears all that today. Oh. Yeah, he does doesn’t he. Well, we won two National Championships in football when I was there. Ah yes, we have a winner. That hasn’t happened since the 80’s. I’m pretty sure Sarah was learning two plus two equals four when I was a co-ed tailgating in Happy Valley back then. But you know talking about college football might bore you to death. Because not everyone gets quite as excited about it as I do. But still, FIGHT ON! Oh that felt good to say.

So what DO I talk about? How about Blogging? Oh, I could go on and on about that. I’ve lots to say about it. As a matter of fact, I did a whole series on Mommy Blogging. I talked about how I got started, why I changed my blog from a family scrapbook to talking about things that spill out of my brain onto my laptop, and wondered aloud why my friends and family in real life don’t care to read it. Along the way, I found out I wasn’t alone on that one. I talked about blog crack, otherwise known as comments, and the, the, the LUR….oh I loathe this word….the LURKERS who encourage us silently by coming back time and time again. But the most important thing I talked about was making connections. I started out wanting to tell MY stories about my life, but my old friend serendipity stepped in, and I became fascinated with your stories, your lives, your interests. Whoa, wasn’t expecting that. And along the way, I have truly made some friends. Friends whose voices I’ve never heard other than through words, friends who are sisters in Christ, friends who aren’t but I hope will be, and friends who I think the Lord wants me to minister to. Some are people that I hope to meet in person someday, but most are people I probably won’t meet this side of Heaven. Sarah is a Mommy blogger like me. Sarah is a Penn Stater like me. But most importantly, Sarah is my sister in Christ. I will see her in Heaven if not on earth. And I am honored that she thought enough of me to fill up her precious blog space.

Now leave her lots of comment love.

I’ll hunt you down if you don’t.

It's A Special Day

We rode together then...
we ride together now...
and I'll be riding through life with you for the next fifty years!

Happy Five Year Anniversary! I love you!