More on Amazing Grace…

Thought I’d pop in and give you this little ditty of Wintley Phipps to watch. I thought it was great. :)

Book Review Friday: Proverbs Edition #4

If you do not know what Book Review Friday is please check out our sidebar and jump in wherever we are at. We’d love to have you along and let us know what you think! :)

I’m sorry this is getting up late. We are still spending lots of time with our family visiting from out of province and life has been busy. :) I can tell I’m tired because I couldn’t remember what I called BRF, I was thinking ‘Post it Friday’ or something. Finally, I remembered it was ‘Book Review Friday’. Scary.

So we have finished up a month in Proverbs, and I am hoping there are some reviews to go up on your overall thoughts of this Book Review. You now have your very own notebook to refer back to, or help someone else, when you have trouble with the ‘fault’ you chose to write about. Now that you have a study started on that subject, whenever you read another book of the Bible, or paragraph from a book, or part of a sermon concerning that, you can just keep adding to your notes. Its all very exciting, at least it is to me. :)

Now that we’ve finished Proverbs, I am excited to let you in on the next book to read for the week.  Ecclesiastes 1-6 are the chapters to read everyday until next Friday. Read them whether you feel like it or not, whether you think you have time to or not. If you look at a magazine, or read a blog, or call a friend to chat, or watch the TV, you have time to read for 15 minutes. You do.

My official review will have to wait due to the late hour and lots going on. Since no one was banging on my blogging door asking where Mr.Linky was, I assume y’all are a little busy too. :) But, here is Mr.Linky for all of you who have a review to post. Its the review that can make the difference in how much you get out of your reading. Its true.

Autumn!!!

I truly love autumn with all my heart. Here are a few of my own pictures and favourite fall quotes…

 

 

 

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
–George Eliot

 

No Spring nor Summer Beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnal face.
–John Donne

 

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.  ~P.D. James

 

Please let me know if you post any fall pictures or quotes of your own, I’d love to stop by and see them!! :)

 

Book Review Friday: Proverbs Edition #3

If you do not know about Book Review Friday already, please check out my sidebar and join in wherever we’re at. You won’t regret getting to know The Book and the One who wrote it!! :)

Continue reading your Proverbs chapter of the day this week, and add chapter 28 to one of the days. When we complete this weeks Book Review assignment, we will have read through all of Proverbs.

There were a lot of verses that could go along with my ‘family relationship’ theme I have going. Sometimes I think there is too much, more conviction than I care to feel.  I’ll touch on just one of the points that I wrote down. It isn’t anything new or ground breaking, but a reminder that this girl needs many days.

Proverbs 14: 4, 14 are verses that I normally wouldn’t have thought had much to do with each other. It just goes to show that the more you read, the more you see. :)  vs 4 says, ” Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; But much increase comes by the strength of an ox.”, vs 14 says, “The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, But a good man will be satisfied from above.”

Every time I’ve read that verse about oxen, I’ve been reminded that the mess, noise, & dirt that comes with my children, cow, & chickens are really blessings. I would miss them if they were gone (my children more so, of course :) . They themselves are blessings that bring more blessings along with them. I can gripe & complain about the state of my house very easily, its a lot of work! Children are physically, spiritually, emotionally, a lot of work. I can get so caught up in how hard it is for me that I forget how good & wonderful it really is for me too. This is all good things that God has seen fit to bring my way, I need to be thankful. How I would miss it all, even the work too, if all of a sudden it was gone.

This week when I read verse 14 I saw a connection to the oxen verse. “The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways, But a good man will be satisfied from above.” What I wrote in part of my notes that day was,” I can be filled with everything ‘I’ want, but it is the oxen that God gives that I will find satisfaction in.”  Whatever lot in life, whatever God has put in my care is the only place I will truly be satisfied. Until I have learned to find the oxen a blessing, I will not be truly content. I need to love exactly where I am and who I am with, at the place they are at, and the mess & work they make. That is where and how God has chosen to work in my life.

So, I need to work on being thankful for all those blessings no matter how hard they may be. Short & sweet review, but to the point. :)

Now for your reviews, link away. Remember to keep checking back over the next couple of days. Some ladies are very busy and can’t get a review posted for a day or two.

Pictures of true motherhood.

Here is a wonderful reminder to me as a mother. I have already told you that I am doing my Proverbs study on my relationship with my family, and this post I’ve found is one I will print off and keep for my notes. I’m off to consider my own necessary ‘plucking’.

A father’s fame.

We had a great time last night. It was a ball game. My dad, otherwise known as Grampie by the chillins, got to play ball with his old team. All those guys from 30 years ago got together again, for old times sake. It was awesome to feel the thrill of the game, sit under those lights, and cheer like crazy again. It seriously has been a long time since I’ve been to one of my dad’s games. I remember them letting this little 5 year old go out and warm up with them many a year ago, I felt on top of the world. I felt on top of the world last night again too, but not because I went in to throw the ball around with my dad’s friends, I didn’t. This time, to watch the game there were a lot more cheering for dad, he had 10 grandkids there hootin’ & hollerin’ for “GRAMPIE!!!”, knowing that he was and is the all time best at baseball. The thing all those people there last night didn’t know was there is a lot more to this guy than a name in our town’s Hall of Fame.

Do any of them know that Dad is the one who spent so much time playing, tickling, bike riding, going for drives, and midnight runs to Burger King? Do any of them know about taking us to the beach pretty much every time we asked through the summer? Do they know that he gave up whatever he was doing at the time, or wanted for himself, to make life a little happier for his girls? Do they know he took us clothes shopping and spoiled us all rotten, and came to cheer us on in all of our sports endeavors? Do they know how he’s taken care of his wife? Do they know the example he’s been through all the extremely yucky times in his life?

And now that he’s a Grampie? How about all those visits with Timbits, apples & bananas, or ice cream in hand? And don’t forget having my kids over for a sleep over a couple times, cooking up a storm for them, and taking them on trips out for ice cream. Playing ‘don’t fall’ with the little babies as they grow up, and making it to all the birthday parties, and pitching for the kids backyard baseball games… It’s those sorts of things that have put him in our family’s hall of fame.

He would give you the shirt off his back, travel any distance, and give up all his rights & privileges to help us out whenever we needed it.  We all knew he was great at baseball, and we love to brag on him. But we also have a lot more to brag on, that all those people in the stands last night might not have known. :)

Book Review Friday: Proverbs Edition #2

If you do not know about Book Review Friday, please check it out on my sidebar and you’ll get all the details and find out where we are reading. Jump in wherever we are and, I promise you, you won’t regret it! :)

We are still reading away in Proverbs. Half way through the chapters and we’re learning lots… at least we’re supposed to be. :) Keep reading the Proverb of the day BUT MAKE SURE YOU READ THE NEXT SENTENCE!!! Tomorrow you will read Proverbs 13 & 27, all on the same day. We want to finish up the entire book in 4 weeks, and reading an extra chapter this week will keep us right on track.

Another great week of reading, lightbulb moments, and conviction here at Watchthesky.  There is a lot of verses dedicated to keeping those young men (and women) pure, throughout Proverbs, especially in the first few chapters.  Reading these is a constant reminder to teach my children self-control & modesty. I don’t want my girls to be that ‘strange woman’, and I don’t want any of my boys to be weak enough to give in to one.

I’ll just touch on one particular section I read, for today. It is from Prov 7:1-3,

“My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.”

Them’s strong words pilgrim! While my children are growing, even more so before they can read, I am their Bible. They believe whatever I tell them, and they follow my example in all that I do. Most days I cannot say to my children to say what I say, or do what I do, and you will be well. If they follow my example there would be a lot of heart ache in years to come. So much of what I read reminds me that in order to raise my children to be all that God wants them to be, I have to be all God wants me to be. Grouchy, self-concerned, lazy, impatient mothers do not end up with  pleasant, thoughtful, hard working, patient children. It is so much easier to say, “Do as I say, not as I do”. 

This brings me to another subject involving our Book Review Friday. I am finding that when I read my Bible in this way it brings about change in the most exciting way. While we can read our Bibles and grow in knowledge, that isn’t really of any good to us. If we just keep learning new things and just enjoy ‘the study’ of the Word, we are just beating the air (I forget where that verse is).  When I read each verse searching for anything that has to do with my faults, it humbles me. It forces me to go to the Lord, confess, and ask for Him to change me. It just happens. Its automatic.

I’ve thought many times of reminding you all to pray as you do your study. I have to remind myself many times. It is important. But when I am concentrating all my thoughts in this one area, it just seems to happen without realizing it. When you grow closer to the Lord & see how He is changing you it just naturally turns to prayer.
What do you think? Has the same happened to you?

Now, please add your link to Mr.Linky waiting patiently down here for you. I love seeing those reviews pop up!! I know it is extra hard for a few ladies these days with newborns keeping them extra busy and tired. :)

Birthday Surprises.

Last week I got a bit older. I don’t mind. I really don’t. :)

This is the first time EVER that my husband was able to totally catch me off guard and surprise me. I was totally ready for the new camera he was wrapping up for me. I even had another great photo journaling blog ready to start up. Boy, was I wrong. I got an oh-so-cool mandolin. Yep, I said MANDOLIN. LOVE IT!!!  I’ve wanted one for about a year. I almost bought one myself last fall. I didn’t because I’ve never seen one before, I just wanted to learn to play and love that good old country sound.

Well, I opened up my present and immediately started jammin away. You can listen to me and my friends having a great time right here. Oh my, we’re soooo good! Didn’t I tell you I could sing crazy good too?!

I love aprons!

I want one of each of these. Love. Love. Love. My first most bestest favourite is ‘Blue Polka Floral Apron’. Or maybe it is ‘Leopard’…. then again, I really love ‘Pink Polka Floral’ one.

 What’s your favourite?

Book Review Friday: Proverbs Edition

If you do not know what we’re doing in Book Review Friday, just check out this link and you’ll get all the info you need. If you would like to know more about Book Review Friday, look at my sidebar for the whole scoop. For those of you who know what is going on, keep reading the Proverb of the day and making notes! :)

So I’m getting to this very late. All day long I kept realizing that it is Friday and I have a Mr.Linky to post for the millions waiting to link away. I stayed away because of party plans. We had company and some chillaxing to do after a week of getting back into the school groove. It was nice.

Anyway, without further delay, I will move on to my own review and then leave you with the chance to link your own. Remember that no matter how little you think you have to say, or want to say, you will be encouraging the other ladies & spurring them on to do one themselves. Remember. :)

The weakness I chose for myself to study out in Proverbs is how I treat my husband & family. I’ll spare you the details of my self-centered parenting & marriage and just tell you it needs some work. Proverbs is a deep, gut-wrenching, self-awareness lesson no matter what I study. 

It is a long hard battle to win my heart into loving my family and just enjoying them. But Proverbs has had ample ammunition to start working on me in this area over the past week. I started on Thursday, which means that I read things like, “Like a roaring lion and a charging bear is a wicked ruler over poor people.” 28:15  That’s what I feel like as a mom  to those poor little people who had no choice which parents they would get. Nuf said.

Prov.29:22 was also an eye opener for me as well. “An angry man stirs up strife, and a furious man abounds in transgression.”  So many times when things are tense in the house, or my children are acting up, or my husband is moody & stressed, they are just following my lead. They are my own creation.  I am, therefore, they are. Scary.

I love looking through Proverbs. It also hurts. From what I’ve heard from others, they feel the same way. We can’t just read and write anymore, this study is getting personal. It is forcing us to look deeper, at ourselves. It is forcing us to see more of what God sees in us. It’s a good thing. 

Whether you share it with us all or not, keep getting personal in Proverbs. I guarantee that by the end of the month you will see a difference and Praise the Lord for His work in your life!

Now here is Mr.Linky (I still can’t figure out how to get it to show up properly) for any reviews that will be shared.  Link away all you millions!