Rise & Shine and Give God the Glory, Glory!!

Good morning!

The Lord work me up early this morning....

...and I tried to talk with Him a little while laying in my nice comfy bed,...

...but He had more for me today,...

...and I am so glad I listened.

Thank-you, Lord Jesus.

I am still in my 31-Day Challenge with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. I actually had to stop for a little over a week, waiting for new printer ink, but whether it takes 31 or 301 days, God is really using these teachings to show me where I have work to do.

I had the pleasure of reading 2 lessons this morning and I want to share my prayer for the day, taken from Nancy's:

Lord, I pray for Your wisdom and discernment and good judgment to know how to live the kind of life that will make Jesus attractive to my children and my husband.

I pray that You'd show me issues or areas of my life where what I'm saying and what I'm doing are two different things, and that I may be honest and humble enough to agree with You, to repent, and to let You change me so that my life can reflect the beauty and the wonder and the goodness of Your will. I pray this in Jesus' precious name, Amen.

Amazingly, after such a wonderful time with Him, my household was still sleeping. Wow, God! What else do you have for me today?

I must admit, I took some time to throw in a load of laundry, make myself some coffee, set the breakfast table....and still, a sleeping household!

So over to the computer I came, checked email, then opened my blog and THIS is what I read.

Good is Good, y'all! May the Lord richly bless you today as you go about loving your on family!

On Becoming a True Woman after God's Own Heart

I can't tell you how many times I have read Proverbs 31.  At least once every month that has 31 days, not to mention the times that the Lord leads me there.  I've been in Sunday school lessons and bible studies about this most impressive woman, I have participated in many discussions about her.  Yet, I have never really connected her example to my real life.  I haven't been able to get to know her as God wants me to know her, to learn from her and emulate her properly.

I long to be a woman after God's own heart, just as our Proverbs woman is, but how?  Well, thanks to
Lindsay's post I was totally intrigued by The True Woman's Makeover, an in depth study of Proverbs 31.  So, I am taking the 31 Day Challenge and immersing myself verse by verse with the help of email teachings by Nancy Leigh DeMoss (LOVE her!).  I would love company along my journey, want to come along?    

1 Corinthians 13 for Mothers

If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place,

but have not love,

I am a housekeeper  not a homemaker.

If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements,

but have not love,

my children learn cleanliness  not godliness.

If I scream at my children for every infraction,

and fault them for every mess they make,

but have not love,

my children become people-pleasers  not obedient children.

Love leaves the dust in search of a child’s laugh.

Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.

Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk.

Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys.

Love accepts the fact that I am the ever-present “mommy,”

the taxi-driver to every childhood event,

the counsellor when my children fail or are hurt.

Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, and runs with the child,

then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood.

Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection.

Now I glory in God’s perfection of my child.

All the projections I had for my house and my children

have faded away into insignificance,

And what remain are the memories of my kids.

Now there abides in my home scratches on most of the furniture,

dishes with missing place settings,

and bedroom walls full of stickers, posters and markings,

But the greatest of all is the Love

that permeates my relationships with my children.

(Adapted from an anonymous source by Jim Fowler)

Thank-you Crystal