An ORDINARY MOM's Blog

I Love You With My Life

2011-07-20T10:19:00.000-04:00

I have been a mom for almost 10 years. In these years, through great joys and often difficulty, through willingness to allow God to change me so that my kids can know Him (especially through homeschooling)...I have had the privledge of learning to love my kids with my life. By that I mean that I have learned to pour out everything I know, including my experiences, into the lives of my children

My Life As a Baseball Player

2011-04-21T09:26:00.001-04:00

"Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning," ~ Luke 12:35 ~ I realized this morning that I (and we) need to live life like we play the outfield... Here it is: the best batter on the team is up at bat, and those in the outfield have been savoring the taste of victory. They just want to win. However, this batter has the potential of hitting a grand slam. No matter! These

STOP!...& know Him

2010-05-14T08:15:00.000-04:00

"Be still and know that I am God!" ~ Psalm 46:10a In our modern day society, learning to be still; stop, is a lost art. Running from one thought to the next, one commitment to another, is something we often wonder if we have a choice to do differently. It is as if living in our modren-day society, (without disconnecting ourselves & our families from others), requires the busy-ness we often

The Onion God

2010-02-21T07:55:00.000-05:00

Some think being a Christian is about whether or not we believe that yes, there is a God. At this point in history even that has become a great morsel of knowledge that many prefer to reject. However, there is more to Christianity, and more to this life, than simply believing that a Divine being who loves us far more than we could fathom, is for real. I imagine it like this: believing He

"Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God"

2010-02-19T08:19:00.003-05:00

My kids and I are reading William Carrey's biography; the above is one of his quotes. I read the quote yesterday for the first time. I was immediately encouraged to see the words on paper for what I feel in my heart. I even decided that I would print it, and post it somewhere in my house for our family to continually keep in mind. Then, last night, my husband spoke to me of a challenge that

Is God an Angry God?

2010-02-14T01:21:00.001-05:00

Not too long ago I was asked why a loving God would do such horrible things such as kill the firstborn of every family. Why wouldn't He give these poeple the opportunity to know Him? Even as I tried to give a response to this question, I realized that my words cannot do justice in trying to explain the reasons behind the actions and decisions of a soverign God. In my heart, I understand

One Bag at a Time

2009-11-25T02:22:00.008-05:00

"...I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. " ~ Matthew 17:20 ~ Four years ago my husband, Ben, & I prayerfully sold our 1st house to buy the house we now live in. We had agreed with the buyers to rent the old house for 3 weeks while we made some

88 Displaced Burmese Orphans in Thailand Need Help

2009-06-23T02:51:00.000-04:00

A blue tarp is what 88 Burmese orphans have called home for two weeks now. Before these tarps, they lived in bamboo huts at the edge of the river that separates Burma from Thailand. Two and a half weeks ago the Burmese Army attacked their small camp, forcing the children to disperse; leaving with only the clothes on their backs. Some swam across the river into northern Thailand, and others

The Good Shepherd and Tea

2009-06-06T02:57:00.006-04:00

I’ve had one of those amazing weeks! Not necessarily because something spectacular happened to me personally, but because I had the opportunity to meet with several different friends at different times, through whose conversations I later saw God’s fingerprints.One of those meetings was with my friend Julia. We had tea (a very delicious Honeydew White Tea) together

Monday Blues...

2009-05-28T17:01:00.004-04:00

I had a tough Monday. Without getting into the details for the sake of time, let’s just say that I was harshly reprimanded for a weakness in my life, frequent lateness, in a room full of people, on a day that I arrived on time. Though I’m tempted to tell the story so you could agree on how unfairly I was treated, the details are beside the point. What matters is that what transpired sparked great

A Funny Story...

2009-04-28T00:29:00.000-04:00

“A cheerful heart is good medicine,” ~ Proverbs 17:22 (NIV)We live not too far away from a wooded area, so we often have the privilege of seeing animals like deer, groundhogs, chipmunks, bats, and hawks in our neighborhood. My three kids love watching these animals roam, and normally I do, too.Over the last two years, we have had a couple of groundhogs take up residence on our property: one on

The Process That Leads to...Pure Joy!

2009-04-16T16:48:00.000-04:00

A friend and I were texting each other recently regarding a particular area of struggle in her life. She told me she was sure that she had been offered a test from God, and she had failed by making the wrong decision. My friend told me she was tired of struggling with this particular issue, and just wanted to grow beyond struggling in that area of her life.These sentiments rang so familiar to me!

For Those Difficult Mom Moments...

2009-03-20T22:22:00.000-04:00

I recently came out of another gut-level mommy experience. These are the experiences in motherhood that touch the parts of your heart and character that are buried pretty deeply, and come up on very rare occasions. They are the experiences that bypass getting down on your knees, because they touch a sensitive spot we want no one to ever enter, even God. As a result, these experiences often cause

Weakness... (Part 2)

2009-01-23T16:50:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since Part 1, but here is Part 2…Most of us have had the experience of feeling a surprisingly strange pain in our bodies. Sometimes, the thought that follows is: “Oh my goodness, what if I have cancer?” Well, for 34 year-old Stephanie Vest this was not a paranoid thought. It was her reality…Just nine weeks after delivering little Gracie, (Stephanie’s third child following two

Weakness... (Part 1)

2008-11-21T08:43:00.000-05:00

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.~ 2 Corinthians 12:9 ~I’m always struggling with some part of myself, something that in the end brings me to my knees because I don’t want to stay the same. At some point in the struggle, I am usually

Witnesses...

2008-11-15T19:22:00.000-05:00

As I read through and think about the Bible, my awareness of the reality that God used man to pen His Word deepens. He allowed man to be a witness to His miracles, as well as the life of Christ, and gave wisdom and knowledge to others, through the Holy Spirit, to understand some of the mysteries of God. All for the purpose of sharing these pearls with others so that all may know that He is God