Weekly Inspiration : Be True to You

**for the Free Printable please scroll all the way at the bottom**

I am starting back blogging by changing up something that I started at the beginning of the year. My Inspiration posts. Originally they were "Inspiration Wednesday", but I have discovered that inspiration is fickle and may strike on a Monday or Thursday or even a Saturday.  So rather than try to pin down my inspiration to just one day I am going to make it something that may pop in anytime during the week.
With that being said, for this weeks Inspiration I want to talk about being inspired to be you and to be true to what that means.  To me it means being able to sit in a room with nothing on and just be content with your own thoughts.  When was the last time you turned off the radio when you were alone in the car and just let the world be silent and calm?  What about the last time you turned off the TV or radio at home and just had a time of silence to think about life, your blessings, your joys, your memories, your friends.  Just took the time to think about who you are and to be happy about that.  Its not as easy as it sounds!  The more children and duties you have the harder it gets.  Its easy to sit and fold clothes while listening to your kids playing in the other room and listening to the radio too, but consciously take some time where there is absolute silence to just sit and soak it up.  Usually for me that is after they have all went to bed and the house is still.
If you will just try this for 10 min you will learn a lot about yourself I promise.  I found out a long time ago that my friends who couldn't just sit and be still with no distractions or stimulus were also the one who had a more difficult time dealing with the pressures and problems of life.  There is just something that comes in that silence, a recognition of who you are, what you think, what you believe, and where you want to go that gives you a strength that isn't found elsewhere.  If you find that you cant handle the silence, the introspection, may I suggest that you add prayer to that quiet time.  There is no better avenue to finding yourself than by first finding God and the Peace that is in His arms.  A couple of my favorite scriptures are found in Psalms and deal with being still in God:

 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah Psalms 4:4


Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth Psalms 46:10

So take some time this week to just Be Still and learn who you are by spending some time with yourself.  Just take some time in silence to think about your life.  We are all human (I hope lol) and have our ups and downs of life.  Take this quiet time to just contemplate them, to decide where YOU stand on issues that are affecting your life rather than just where someone else thinks you should stand on them.  Reason the things affecting your life out for yourself and in prayer and the Word of God.  I promise you will begin to crave these times of stillness and peace.  When you lose who YOU are in the midst of being Mommy, Wife, Employee, Friend, Leader, Fellow congregation member take some time to come back to center by being still.

I found some pins on Pinterest that I felt helped summarize this all up and were just great so I am sharing them.  If you would like to see their origins feel free to check out my Pin Board "Who said that? Well its worth repeating"

This is a free printable for those who want a reminder to frame or just put up somewhere where you can always see it. It was saved in 8x10 but feel free to print it in whatever size you like

Introducing: Inspiration Wednesday

Hi all.  I don't mean to beat you over the head with it once again, but as it has been stated out here in blogger world over and over and over and over again its a new year!!  We have all been sharing our goals, dreams, and resolutions with each other, and please don't get me wrong I am seriously loving reading them!  I have visited more blogs in the past three days,and read more inspiring posts on organization and goals than I have in the past three months!  Its great!  Anyway, to get to where I was headed in the first place, I am going to start a new series for this year called...yep you guessed it,

It is my goal to share a thought, saying, quote, idea, something to help you keep life in perspective and to feel that you are important and not alone on this big spinning rock.  Some days I might just be inspiring myself and the rest of you guys read it and think yah whatever... but thats okay too :)

So anyhow to kick this Inspiration Wednesday off I am going to share some thoughty (my Aunt says this word all the time and I LOVE it...shout out to ya Aunt La!!) quotes.

After spending the day with a good friend of mine who has lost two people in her life in the past three days (they were not family, but the family of friends is still a loss).  She was feeling discouraged and down.  Being the friend I try to be, I sympathized with her, loved her, and of course tried to cheer her.  I hope I succeeded in my goals, but the day got me to thinking. You know life throws us curve-balls, fast-balls, and slow-balls (Those drive me crazy...I'm NOT a patient person, but I am learning to be!), and through coping with life's different circumstances we have to remember who's in complete control. God!

So with that in mind I found these words of inspiration and even made up a printable to share.

Source: Pinterest via Originally pinned by Kacie Holtzclaw onto Words to live by....

We are called by Him.  We are Precious to Him.  He LOVES us!  Does it really matter whats going on in our lives when we just stop to remember the the King of King's said we are HIS, and He knows our name?

Source: Pinterest, Originally pinned by Lori Keeton onto More Quotes.

Isn't that the truth!!!  I am always trying to figure out how God is going to work out a situation that I am in the middle of or counselling someone through, and do you know I am rarely right???  WOW, shocker right?!?!?  Ha! God is so Awesome and His ways are NOT our ways!  His thoughts are NOT our thoughts!  He has it in control and it is ALWAYS better than I ever imagined it would be when I let Him have complete control instead of trying to work it our for myself.

Picture Source : Pinterest, Originally pinned by Melissa Rusk onto Inspiration

Now take a look back at where you have been and all that God has brought you through.  Really look, actually stop and think about it.  Has he brought you through anything harder than what you are facing now?  Even if you haven't faced anything harder, he has kept you this far, and I know He will continue to keep you.  If you are following Christ and searching for His will in your life then, Now is where you are supposed to be, Here doing exactly what you are doing where you are doing it.  Everything you have come through has brought you here to this place in life, and this place will lead you to the next place you are to go.  Have faith in God that your journey will continue, and follow Him as He leads and guides you.

Finally I have a quote that I saw and fell in love with when preparing for this post. So you know I HAD to create a Printable.  Feel free to use it as much as you like.  It is simple as the words, but powerful in meaning.

This was created in a 5x7 format but feel free to print it in whatever size is needed.

I hope this first Inspiration Wednesday blessed you.  I know I took a very serious route today to kick off this series, but I hope you don't mind that not every Inspiration Wednesday will be this serious.  I plan on focusing on different aspects of who we are, from parents to, friends, bloggers, creative people, and of course Pinheads ;)

I hope you come back every Wednesday to join me in facing down hump-day with a bit of Inspiration to get us through the rest of our week, and I would love to hear what you think of each subject as we go along.  If you have a suggestion feel free to share it.  You know I LOVE your comments and ideas!!

Have a great day and God Bless!

Christmas of Giving Challenge: Dayssssss.....

I am a horrible blogger, just awful!!!  Consider me completely human, and know that I have been completely terrible at keeping my challenge to blog what we have been reading nightly about the Birth of Christ.  I do want to let you know that we have been enjoying our family Bible time so very much!  the kids are anxious to read every night, and I am really loving how nightly prayer has turned into nightly snuggle and read the Word of God time + Prayer Time. So while I haven't been blogging about it, we have been doing the challenge (no not exactly every night since some we were late getting in and one or more were conked out or they didn't come home with me at all instead chose to go to a spoiling family members home... yah they are rotten!).  But I think the "doing" is more important than the "reporting" ....right?!?  I sure hope you agree.  I don't even need to mention all the crafts and projects I have been itching to share, but back to that whole "We have been SOOOOoooooo busy" thing.  So please forgive my horrible blogging self, and I promise I will share everything, like, pronto.

Have a great day and God Bless!

Christmas of Giving Challenge: Day 3

Last night our Scripture reading came from Luke 2:8-11.  We discussed what it must have been like to be a shepherd sleepy after a long day of shepherding sitting around a warm fire, dozing slightly, only to be suddenly startled out of your musings by a bright light from the sky with a human form* floating in the midst of it.  Today we are used to seeing all kinds of things in the sky from airplanes, banners pulled by planes, blimps, jets, helicopters, and all sorts of things, but I have to say if I were sitting around a campfire in my backyard and saw a human form* hovering in the sky surrounded by a bright light I do believe I would be scared speechless (and that's saying something for me!)!!  So I can only imagine how afraid the simple men who watched sheep graze all day while protecting them from vicious animals must have thought to see such a sight!  My girls and I acted out how they must have reacted and we all dissolved into fits of giggles!

Then we discussed how my children had given of themselves through the day yesterday.  Macey gave the same answer she gave the day before "I didn't give nuthin" (I roll my eyes at her 5 year old-ness).  Madeline did give of herself for her teacher I think.  To be honest I didn't really understand what she was talking about, but she seemed proud of it and I was proud of her for being aware and trying.  My sweet hubby definitely gave yesterday.  He gave of himself for me!  I was sick in the bed for most of the day, and finally got out of bed to cook an easy dinner and to get my girls (who had been at my  mom's all day after school so I could rest) ready for bed.  He was so considerate to help me out with the dishes of the day and to be as quiet as possible so I could rest.  He was a gem of a hubby (he is often, but since he's human he does have his not so gem like moments for sure!) and i was extremely greatful!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas holiday season so far.

I hope you have a great day and God Bless!!

Disclaimer**  I am only supposing that the angels were in a human like form I can begin to tell you how an angel looks because they exists on a plane that we cant usually see, but the episodes I have seen recorded Biblically and in recent times of encounters with angelic beings have always been i the form of human therefore my assumption.

Christmas or Giving Challenge: Day 2

Okay yes, I am missing two days...I know, I know I KNOW!!!  See, what had happened wuuuzzz, my kiddos were supposed to stay the night with their Aunt Friday night, and instead conked out in the car on the way home from our community Christmas Parade about 9pm.  ALL THREE AT THE SAME TIME!!!  WOW!!  It is so rare for any of them to fall asleep that early much less all three!  So needless to say they were put straight into bed and stayed there the whole night through.  Which meant no family bible reading...Booooo.  Then last night they got in super late from going to see the Nutcracker Ballet with their aunt (yes the one they were supposed to have stayed the night with), and since Sunday mornings are killer around here if they don't get their sleep (not to mention they were whiny tired little things from a full day of being spoiled rotten) they went straight to bed.  So tonight after we got in from church, with one already asleep from the ride home and carried to bed, I was determined to have our nightly Bible time with the remaining alert groggy half awake kids.  We read Luke chapter 2 verses 4-8 (to catch up from missing the nights before) and discussed what it might have been like to go to the place Josephs family was from just to pay money to the government.  To get there and not even have a room to sleep in, and, to top it all off, for Mary to go into labor.  How much more of a humble beginning to life could one baby have???  I think that was kind of the point though, don't you?  Macey was the half awake child, and when asked what she had done the last couple of days to give of herself I got a resounding "nuthin"... fwweeewww five year olds!  So I will tell you what she has done in spite of her conviction that she has done "nuthin"   Tonight when her sister had lost a toy at church (which I want to add she was told not to take in at all!) Macey started crying in sympathy with her, and said she wanted to go look for Madeline's toy cause she was sad she had lost it.  That melted my heart of course, but in the true spirit of honesty I have to say that she did follow that up with the comment  "I liked hers better than mine too!!!".  So maybe her giving was a little self serving, but hey she's FIVE folks, and the fact that she was willing to help her sister find a toy is HUGE!  Then there is the instance on the way home tonight where Macey was being a little magpie and yakkity yakking.  Well Kent wanted to talk,and couldn't get a word in edgewise (just like a male wanting to take up a females perfectly good talking time!!).  finally, I told Macey that Kent wanted to talk could she please let him have a turn.  So she promptly closed her mouth,and let Kent have his say without any fussing about it...AH. MAZE. ING!  She ALWAYS has something to say about not getting to do exactly what she wants to do.  I was quite impressed with her desire to let him have his time with nary a comment on her part about not being finished or something else that she always seems to come up with.  So giving is abounding in my family, and we are dearly loving this Christmas reading Challenge even if we have really only done two nights of it.  I hope we can get back on track, and do it daily...maybe if we move it to the mornings before school....hmmmm something to consider.

I hope your season of giving is going well!

Have a great day and God Bless!

Christmas of Giving Challenge: Day1

December 1st marks the first day of my family Christmas of Giving Challenge.

Tonight we read Luke Chapter 2 verses 1-3.  Then, as my Hubby and I explained to my children what we were going to be focusing on this Christmas holiday season (the girls were listening intently and my lil man was listening with half an ear as he tried to snag a chip without me seeing since he had already been told no two or ten times...boy does he try to sneak!!) , and how we were going to have nightly bible reading over the story of Jesus's Birth I thought it would be prudent to go back and read where Mary first learned she would be a mommy.  So we read from Luke chapter 1 verses 26-38.  There were quite a few questions fielded during that reading from my six year old Such as "Whats a virgin?" my answer "Someone that hasn't been married".  Next was "Whats Barren mean?"  my answer "Her body couldn't have a baby live inside it ever, but God healed her so she wasn't like that anymore"  Whew sometimes there are tricky waters to navigate as a mommy!!
Anyway, I went on to say, since we were focusing on giving of ourselves this holiday, that each day I wanted them to try to find a way to give to someone else, and to tell about their experience every night.  I posed a few examples like helping a friend out who drops something, or joyfully sharing their things with others, or any other way they can give of themselves without expecting anything back for doing a good thing.  I also told them about things I had seen them doing just today that were very giving. Such as sharing their toys with their friends.
Overall they seemed excited about it, and I hope this will open their eyes more to the needs of those around them, rather than just focusing on their own desires and needs.  I also told them about a few family giving events I have planned for us that will impact not just them, but some of our neighborhood and community as well.
So, as part of this challenge, I said that I would report to you the ways we are giving as a family...as stated earlier today my kids shared their toys with their friends who were at our house today.  Also they started watching a video with them during calm down time that they really didn't want to see, but was the choice of their friends.  And Kent, who was still his rough tough-boy 2yr old self through the day, and even though he had very much been his normal assertive/defensive/on the offense self (note: don't try to make him do something he doesn't want to do...he will react with force! even if you are 9 yrs older and outweigh him by at least 30-40 lbs!! as one such youngster and several others re-learned tonight), as soon as he saw his cousin come through the door he ran up to him, and gave him a big ole hug.  He was so happy to see him!
As for my husband and I, we were pleased to be able to open our home, and barn, to all that were helping decorate our church's Christmas Parade float.  I loved being able to feed a hungry group of people my taco soup (yes, I will share the recipe later).  My hubby, who has found his favorite season for grilling (the cold season), fired up the grill to make yummy hot dogs and hamburgers as well.  We had a great time of fellowship before they all trooped back out to a COLD chilly barn to finish up their work.  I can't wait for the parade tomorrow!  I just know our float is going to do well in the judging, and even if it comes in dead last, everyone has had such a good time finding costumes and decorating, that its the Grand Champion in my book!!!

Please forgive my rambling on and on in this post, I just can seem to stop the flow tonight.  I hope you find many opportunities to give more than just gifts this season, and  I would love to hear all about it.  So please leave me comments telling me all about it!

Have a great day and God Bless!