Reasoning with a 5 year old

This is the conversation with Jody, my 5 year old (preschooler), this morning:

Mom: Jody it's time to get up for school

Jody: I don't want to go to school. We are just learning about Kindergraden.

Mom: That's good. You will need to know it for next year.

Jody: I don't want to learn about Kindergarden, I want to learn more about Jesus!

Mom: Well, that's good and you will learn about Jesus too, here at home & church.

Jody: I want to learn about Jesus at school.

Mom: You know Jody, Jesus wants you to obey your parents. And you mom says it's time to get up.

Jody: I already know Jesus wants me to obey my parents, I want to learn something NEW about Jesus!

Can you tell we have our hands full already and she's not even in elementary school yet.

Until Later,
~Betty~

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for God's love in my life. I have been struggling trusting God to provide certain things this week and he has gently come to me and reminded me how much he loves me and is worthy enough to be trusted.

I'm thankful that when my faith is lacking God is still big enough to be trusted. A friend of mine reminded me this week of how faithful the Lord is and how He can be trusted to meet my needs and my heart's desires.

I'm thankful that God understands me and knows how to speak to my heart to get His message across to me. Sometimes in my life certain people will say things or I hear things over & over again, but don't get the message that there are areas in my life that I need to change. I don't always respond when others try to change me. However when God says it is time to change a behavior or attitude, He knows how to speak right to my heart and make the message clear so I don't misunderstand.

I'm thankful for the people God brings into my life to encourage me and inspire me to be more like Jesus. Our church is starting a 40 day Faith Journey Devotional and my friend Alice asked me to be her accountability partner through this and after talking about it we were able to connect on a "God level" and it was encouraging.

I'm thankful that God loves me through my short comings & faults.

Visit Sting My Heart to see more Thankful Thursday's participants.

Until Later,

~Betty~

Back to Blogging

I sit hear wondering what I should write and how do I get myself back into blogging. I have taken a break and am now ready to come back, but not sure what all to share and what all to write about, therefore I’m just going to start by writing my thoughts.

I have decided that I want to continue blogging, because I want a place and an opportunity to share my thoughts about life, organization, parenting, weightloss, and what the Lord is teaching me in my daily walk with Him and I how feel about that.

There are several issues and God lessons that I could share right now and I am planning to share them and express them here on my blog. Here on my blog, I want to be able to share more of my heart and what God is doing in my life than what I have done in the past. I hope that if anyone is still out there reading this that you would come back and share your heart, thoughts, and encouragement with me as I share how God is walking with me On The Journey to Victory. I also hope that as I share my journey to victory that God will use this blog to encourage others.

I am making some changes in my life. One of the biggest changes I am making is I’m going to leave my comfort zone of staying home and providing child care. I am going to look for a job and this scares me and makes me nervous. I have been thinking about what kind of job I want and where I want to work and where I do not want to work. I am finding that I know in my heart what kind of job I want, but in many ways it is hard to describe. I wonder if the type of job I want even exists (that is for pay at least). I would like to do something in children’s programming in a Christian atmosphere. I am considering many different options and I need to pray more about it and rely on God to open the door He wants me to go through. For some reason I feel like I’m on my own and feel like I have to find the perfect job all on my own. That is when I get scared and worried. I am consistently reminding myself that I need to trust the Lord to take care of these issues. I am also looking for a work environment where I can grow professionally. Knowing what can be out there and where I came form before also concerns me. I was talking with my friend Pat this week and she reminded me that when we have faith our God is big enough to provide me a job that would satisfy my heart’s desire and to be able to meet the financial obligation that I need it to accomplish. After that phone conversation the Lord convicted me of how little faith I have right now. Because I believe the Lord is moving me in a new direction and moving me out of my comfort zone, I feel that I am fighting fear and insecurities. I did not realize how comfortable I have become. Although things are uncomfortable and I’m scared I am pressing forward. I am just beginning this job search journey, however already this week I have made some calls that have not been easy for me to do. Inside I want to run and say forget it, however I have made myself (through a lot of self talk) make the phone calls that I think I need to make to find a job. For my personality type this is not easy. It’s funny how I can say all the right things in my mind and think yep that is exactly the way I need to do it. When the time comes down to making the call I can think of all kinds of excuses not to do it. I guess that is the difference of knowing how and what to do and doing what you know you should do. You would think that when I know what I should do and know how to do it that it should be easy to do, but it’s not for me. I have to force myself to do what I know I should do. I try to convince myself by imagining how I will feel once the action is completed. As hard as this is I know the Lord is walking me through this and I will grow from this experience. As I have realized that I am lacking faith & trust right now these have been my top priority on my prayer list this week. I will continue to walk on this journey and will see the victory in this issue. I will share the process and progresses with any of you that find yourself here reading about my journeys to victory. Hopefully you will come back again. I am open to your thoughts, encouragement and prayers.

It feels good to be back blogging again. I have missed it.

Until Later,
~Betty~

UNTIL LATER

I know I have not been posting for awhile and I'm not sure what I am going to do with my blog. Currently, I am dealing with some issues that are not "blogable" for me. Therefore, I'm really not sure what all to write about.

I'm praying about this blog and whether or not to continue or to refocus. If I don't post for awhile just know that I am still considering some different options. I still plan on being around, reading, and commenting on different blogs.

UNTIL LATER?
~Betty~

Weekend Reflection

I am going to really try to complete this Weekend Refection. For weeks now I have started several weekend reflections and never seem to complete them. This week started out rough. I had this sense of frustration and hopelessness. You can read about it here. I have really been trying to pray through it and searching the scriptures. I still don’t have complete victory over it, but I don’t feel as hopeless and depressed. After praying through on Monday I feel better even if the circumstances have not changed. I believe pouring my heart out to God makes a difference and He then begins to work in our lives. I am asking Him to do something new and different in my heart & life. I really want to see him in a new way. Now I am waiting to see what he does and what he wants to teach me.

Another thing that happen was my daughter, Bethany, was on the radio this week. Our Christian radio station was giving away tickets to High School Musical on Ice. In order to get the tickets you had to call in and sing while you were in the shower. Bethany got up early and on the radio sang “When there was me and you” from High School Musical. In October she now gets to go see the show. We all were excited and proud of her.

On Saturday John went to the Final Four and worked in the concession stands with our youth group as a fundraiser. He had a ball. Being from Ohio and being a Buckeye fan, he was thrilled to be able to watch parts of the game and be there for free. He also gets to go back on Monday.

While John was gone all day on Saturday, that left just the girls and I to hang out with no other major plans. We had a good time – better than I thought it would be. We did some shopping and some cleaning. Bethany & I worked in the yard and had some good bonding time.

That’s what happened with me this past week. Visit Judi here if you would like to read more Weekend Reflections or if you would like to participate.

Until Later
~Betty~

No Foolin'

Thirteen years ago today my husband asked me to marry him - no foolin'. At that time it was Easter weekend and we were on spring break from college. We came to Georgia to visit my friends and so they could meet John and check him out. I knew things were getting serious with John & I and I wanted their opinion of him and make sure they didn't sense or see something that I didn't.

When we left college that weekend, I had a feeling that he was going to propose to me on Easter Sunday morning. My friend Caryl told him that I knew, therefore, he changed his plans. He chose Good Friday to ask me. He got up early, cooked me breakfast, and brought it to me in bed. (We did stay is seperate rooms. My room was upstairs, his was downstairs). He woke me up and asked me to marry him. I remember being tired and thinking "why is he waking me up this early?" "This better be good or he is dead." Well, he didn't die! :) lol

When he asked me on "Good Friday" he failed to remember that it was also April Fools Day. After I ate my breakfast and I admired my ring, I went down to his room and told him that I changed my mind and I didn't want to get married. I could tell his heart sank and then I said "April Fools!" He has a good sense of humor and we still laugh about it today!

Until Later,
~Betty~