Sunday Recap: Choosing Joy

This week, Pete finished the series on the Beatitudes.

In Matthew 5:10-12, Jesus says, “¹⁰Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  ¹¹Blessed  are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  ¹²Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

When you live your life like Jesus, you will be persecuted.  When you are poor in spirit, when you mourn, when you are meek, merciful, or are a peacemaker. 

However, rejoice and be glad, because God is with you.  Do the right things even though you know that you may be persecuted and be glad in the decisions.

Choose Joy!

If you would like to hear the entire message, click here and then click on Week 6: ABO: Choosing Joy.

Do you have a post discussing what you learned this past week in your place of worship?  Please link it up below so that we can all share in the process.

Parenting.com’s 101 Days of Giveaways!!

Parenting.com is doing a 101 Days of Giveaways event.  From now (actually it started May 30th) until Sept. 7th they are giving away one prize.

 

The only real ‘catch’ is that you have to remember to go to the site every day to enter for that days prize.  Each day you fill out the form, you are entering your name for that day’s prize.

 

Today, the prize is a $575 Mutsy 4Rider Stroller.

 

I’m super excited about tomorrow’s prize.  It is a Sleepharmony Jubilee Mattress and bedframe from Glideaway.  They are giving away 2 and you get to choose a pink one with hearts or a blue one with soccer balls!  I sooooo want the pink one for my little one!

 

There are also prizes from Discoverytoys.com, Old Navy, New Balance, Fantastic Sams, Black and Decker, Stride Rite, Maytag, Nomorerack, Pottery Barn and more!

 

Okay, enough outta me, I just wanted to tell you about this great event!  But please, don’t go and enter…. if you do, I won’t have as good a chance at winning!

 

Disclaimer: I was not compensated in any way for this post.  I just wanted to tell my wonderful readers about it.

Free Math Program!

Funnix is giving away their Beginning Math program during the month of June (until June 26th, at least).

It is super easy to get.  All you have to do is go here, and click where it says, 'click here to sign up for your free copy'.

According to the site, "All components of Funnix Beginning Math are included in the download—100 animated computer-based lessons, workbook material, a teaching guide, and a placement test for assessing the child."

It costs absolutely nothing.  No shipping either, because it is a free download.  Gotta love free!

Sunday Recap: Are you a Peacemaker or Peacekeeper?

This week, Justin Davis continued our study of the Beatitudes and talked about Matthew 5:9, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Here is a little bit of what I learned…

Most people feel that peace is the absence of conflict.  So, to avoid conflict, frequently we will just say sorry when we don’t mean it to keep the peace.  Just saying sorry and keeping your mouth shut is not peacemaking.

It is important that when someone offends us or wrongs us that we tell them how we feel.  Yes, that will be uncomfortable.  Of course.  It could even cause an argument.  However, hopefully, after everything is out in the open, that relationship will be stronger due to your honesty.  The same holds true if you know you have wronged someone or offended them.  You need to apologize.  Let them know that you realize how you made them feel and that you are sorry.

This is peacemaking.

It is definitely easier to be a peacekeeper.

It is easier to avoid conflict.  Easier to just say sorry for whatever you have done, rather than have a discussion about it.  It is easier to ignore the fact that someone has made you feel inadequate and just go on your merry way, rather than tell them how they made you feel.

However, in Matthew 5:9, God says, Blessed are the peacemakers.

He wants us to pursue reconciliation in our relationships.  He knows this is how to have healthy relationships!

Let’s go out of our way to make things right with whoever we have offended or wronged.

This week, confess to someone that you know you have wronged.  Tell them how they wounded you.  Or, at the very least, at least confess it to God with the intentions of confessing it to the person at some point.

I know that is a hard challenge and is one that I will have to think long and hard on, as well.  But it is the path to being a peacemaker, instead of a peacekeeper.

Good luck to you all in your path to being peacemakers.

If you would like to hear the complete message, go here and click on Week 5: Fighting for Peace.

Do you have a post talking about what you learned this week?  Link it up below… I would love to read it and I’m sure others would too!

Five Fabulous Bloggers!

Thanks to Trop50 for sponsoring my writing about fabulous bloggers. This year Trop50 is granting 50 Fabulous Wishes. Click here to enter for a chance to win $1,000 to celebrate a friend with a refreshing attitude about looking and feeling fabulous!

I thought that coming up with 5 bloggers I wanted to write about for this post would be hard… I was right!  Trying to pick only 5 is really a chore…. I have come across so many blogs that I have really enjoyed and not to mention ‘met’ quite a few bloggers that are just super sweet!

Alas, I could only pick 5 so okay, here are my top 5… in no particular order

If you want to check them out, just click on the picture above my accolades to them.




I met Colleen of Dr. Mom Online on Facebook.  She and I found each other because we are both chiropractors.  As it turns out, that’s not all we have in common.  She also homeschool's her kiddos like I do and we have similar ideas on what healthy eating looks like.  I love her blog, not just because we are a lot alike, but because she talks about lots of things in ways that maybe I haven’t thought of.  If you need some help in making your home a healthier one, definitely check out her blog!




The next one is Katie at Kitchen Stewardship.  Simply put, I look up to Katie.  She tries to eat healthy and posts some yummy recipes.  She has lots of fun ‘how to’ posts.  She makes her own household cleaners.  We all can learn a lot from her!  I have never met her, but I stalk her quite often!

Next up is Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Don’t stop reading if you don’t homeschool your kids!  She has created a K4 program you can do with your little one before they enter school (or just to do at home as a supplement).  She also has lots of recipes on her blog (can you tell I like finding new recipes??).

I love Carol and Stacy’s blog, Intentional Conscious Parenting, because it resonates with the way I want to parent and how I hope I am parenting.  It is all about being gentle and using the correct, positive words with your children so they can grow into wonderful adults!  They are sweet women with a wonderful blog!  Through their blog I have found out about some great kids’ books that I hadn’t already heard about!

Coming to Harriet’s Table

Alright, the last one is my friend Sasha’s blog, Coming To Harriet’s Table.  I am partly adding her to this list because I love her writing, and partly because she hasn’t posted since March (maybe this will motivate her to write more)!  She is an awesome writer!  Harriet is her grandmother and she posts about how she has shaped her life, as well as about her super funny kids and family life.  The comedy in her writing is great.  You have to check out her blog to know what I’m talking about.

Okay, those are my top 5 Fabulous Bloggers.  Now, run along and go check them all out and tell them I said “Hi!'”.


Don't forget to enter the 50 Fabulous Wishes contest for a chance to win $1,000 to celebrate a friend with a refreshing attitude about looking and feeling fabulous. I was selected for this Tropicana Trop50 sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do. I received compensation to use and facilitate my post.

Bin Laden Repented Before He Was Killed! He is in Heaven!

How do those words make you feel inside?

Does it make you want to celebrate, because he realized the errors in his ways and asked for forgiveness?

Or does it make you cringe that you will have to one day spend eternity with him in Heaven?

Hopefully it is not the latter, but I’ll be honest with you… for me, in some ways it is the latter.  Granted, it didn’t actually happen (that we know of).  But I do feel that even if I heard that news, I would not necessarily be happy for him.  Well, I would be... but not quite as happy as I probably should be.  There is this bad person inside me that says he needs to pay. (No lectures, please.  I know this is not the way I should feel and I am sharing my heart.)

I do hope that I am wrong.  I hope that if I had heard that news, that I would have been able to be happy for him.  I would imagine all of his followers would be lead to do the same, too.  How great would that be?

Anyway, this past Sunday in church, our pastor, Pete, brought this up as part of his discussion on mercy. For those who have been reading my Sunday Recap posts, this is the continuation of the series that breaks down the Beatitudes in Matthew.

This week he was discussing Matthew 5:7, Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Dictionary.com defines mercy as, “compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power; compassion, pity, or benevolence”.

Pete also defined it as, sacrificing your own honor or reputation to extend love, compassion and acceptance to someone who doesn’t deserve it and can’t pay you back.

Why are we so guarded when it comes to showing mercy?  A lack of mercy is about control.  In fact, it shows you don’t trust God.  You don’t trust He will ‘convict’ someone enough or that He will change their heart.

There is something important we need to remember here.  It is not our job to convict someone to our liking.  And we cannot change what is in their heart.  We cannot “fix” them, nor should we try.  What is our ‘job’, is to love them and show them mercy.

So, when you heard of Bin Laden’s death, were you filled with relief and maybe even joy?  What if he had repented?  Would your reaction had been the same?

What if my title had a different name in it?  What about Hitler?  Stalin?  Someone who has wronged you personally?  Is there someone in your personal life who you have not shown mercy?



Don't forget, if you want to hear the entire service from this past weekend, click here, then click on "Week 4 - Receiving What You Give".  My post here, is just a snippet of what was talked about and it was a great sermon!


Do you have a post regarding what you learned this past weekend in your place of worship?  Please link it up below so that others can read it too!

It's Fun to Learn About the Presidents!

At least it is with the Kid's Guide to Drawing the Presidents of the USA series from Timberdoodle!

The series has all the presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush.  My kids learned all about William Henry Harrison with the book that we have.  They were able to learn all about his life and presidency as well as how to draw some of the things that they learned about!

These books are especially great for our family because I am not the most artistic person in the world... okay, fine, my stick figures look bad!  So, I am thankful for anything that helps my kids not follow in my footsteps when it comes to creativity.  And, as they are having fun learning how to draw, they are learning about the presidents!

I cannot tell you how much I love books that teach my children without them knowing it!

Here's a video explaining more about the books:



One of the things that I loved about these books is that on the drawing pages, each new step is drawn in red so the child knows exactly which step is next.  Maybe even I can learn a little something about drawing! :)

Alright, so I've got good news and bad news...

The bad news is that the publisher has decided to discontinue this series.  Sad...

The good news is that Timberdoodle was able to get a great deal on the series and they are passing the savings on to all of you!  The cost is only $195 (normally it is $1060.50)!!  But hurry, because like I said, the publisher is no longer going to be making the series... so once they're gone... they're gone!

If you want to keep up with Timberdoodle and their products and sales, be sure to like them on Facebook.


As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.