Making our house a HOME

Welll we finished unloading the carport today. Our house is starting to look like a home now. I think all I have left now is going through some clothes we have that we actually needed to go through before all this happened, I told my husband there is no better time than now to go through them and get rid of what we don't wear because I am having to wash everything anyway.

As we unpacked some boxes today, we came across some old pictures. It actually made the job more fun looking at them and laughing. But oh how happy I am to have this behind us.

Today, I had a blog going......very inspirational and the lap top powers OFF. I was so upset. My husband said "what in the world is wrong with you?" I said "oh, you wouldn't understand, this stupid thing just cut off on me." I was all into it and lost it all.......lol He just laughed.

God is doing so much in me since all this happened. I just look at things different now. We did go to Wal;mart yesterday and I told my friend I never thought I would be excited about going down the laundry and cleaning isle.......lol I did buy me a $7 shirt but felt guilty afterwards.

Choose this day whom you will serve but as for me and my house we will serve the lord.

Trying to make our house a home one day at a time,
Lisa

Some Mama time......

Good morning girls.....yes I am on a blogging roll. 2 posts back to back is good for me, hunh?

I am excited this morning. A friend of mine is coming over to see the house and then she is taking me to lunch. I get out for a little while and some mama time just doing what I want to do. I know we will probably hit wally world. You just can't go anywhere these days and not go to Wal-mart. The hubby is working and my oldest boys are keeping my 8 yr. old.

Nicki, I am so excited for you. Staying with someone for 5 days was enough for me. I know you are ready for a place to call home. I was praising God last night when I read your post. I have notice when I talk to someone about what the lord has been doing, I start talking 90 miles a minute and my adrenaline gets to pumping and I just get so excited in the lord. God is awesome, it's not always about prosperity (even though I know he wants us to proper) but he knows what we need when we need it.

Well, we finally made plans for the 4th. We may cook out on the 4th and then on the 7th we plan on going to this big firework show over Lake Thurmond. It's called Thunder over Thurmond. I think we will spend most of the day with my sister and brother-in-law on the pontoon and then watch the firework show that night. It's so pretty over the lake.

Well I guess I need to get up and get a shower and get ready for my day.

Rejoicing in the lord,
Lisa

Trying to get settled......

I really don't have anything particular to post but wanted to post an update of our settling situation. We are slowing getting back to somewhat normalcey ( I don't think thats a word but oh well) I still have some clothes to sift through and some junk to go through out on my carport but I will eventually get to it. I did get a lot done today. We are officially out of the old house.

Kim, as I am doing these things around the house, I think of you praying your through housework. When I load the washer, I am thankful I have clothes to wear. When I cook (something I hate to do), I am thankful God has provided food for my family, when I wash dishes, I am thankful that I have a husband and 3 sons to fill the sink full of multiple glasses when they could have reused 1 over and over all day. I just look at things different. I could have lost it all in a matter of minutes including my oldest son.

My God is awesome and continues to show himself in a powerful way to our family. When you feel that God has not been there for you (as I did) ,think of who it was that may have walked away.

Love you in Christ,
Lisa

Don't rob anyone of their blessings...

The early believers expressed the reality of their common life in Christ by practicing a community of goods. Instead of selfishly holding on to personal possessions, they looked upon their property as belonging to all the fellowship. Whenever there was a need, they would sell lands or houses and bring the proceeds to the apostles for distribution. It is important to see that they distributed whenever a need arose; it was arbitrary equal division at one particular time.


ACTS 4:32
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. (NIV)

And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. (KJV)

And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. (NASB)

Commentary: Believers understood that all they had belonged to God, and therefore when a brother or sister had a need those who could meet it were obligated to do so (cf. James 2:15, 16; 1 John 3:17). The method was to give the money to the apostles who would distribute it (vv. 35, 37).


I received daily devotions and scriptures by email. When all this happened with our home, I knew there would be an outpuoring of love shown to us. Being the worry wart that I am I prayed that god would give me an attitude of the love and acts of kindness and not self pity. I received this email on wednesday, the day we went to look at our new home. Doesn't God work mysteriously?

God has taught me to accept things as there are, if we do not accept the things that people want to do for us then we are robbing them of their blessings from the lord. If someone wants to do something for you, let them so you won't rob them of the blessings God has for them for giving of themselves.

Our preacher told us the morning after this happened that people would pour out their love to us and that we needed to accept it with a receiving heart. Don't feel guilty when people want to help. We will never be able to repay everyone for everything they have done and continue to do but God will give us that chance to give back to others and be a blessing.

Be a blessing to someone today, God will truly bless you in return.

Truly blessed,
Lisa

We have a home....

Yall, I just want to thank everyone for the thoughts, love, prayers, and sweet comments that have went forth for me and my family this week. We did get the house that we looked at. Yall, it's a bigger and better house than we had and when we went to settle the financial part of it, the landlord would not take the $200 deposit we had expected to pay. Isn't GOD awesome??? We have been truly blessed this week. We went from a LR that when we all 5 sit in it there was no room for anyone else to a formal LR and den, we went from a kitchen that housed our washer/dryer to a kitchen, dining room and a huge laundry room. And guess what yall, I have 2 full bathrooms (a woman dream when they share a home with 4 men....lol). We have 2 acres of land for our children to enjoy, a concrete driveway for Carson to ride his bike. I did not post all this to brag but to let everyone know what an awesome God we serve.

I can not say thank you enough for the prayers and love. Please continue to pray for strength. We have a mess at the old house and tons of toys to sift through. And a bigger house to get organized. And as you can see, I have internet now, I won't get a thing done.......lol

I am gonna close for now, there is so much to be done, But I promise to post more later.

Love all yall, (Kim, don't you just love my proper english????...lol),
Lisa

Continue to PRAY !

Just a little update. We are going to look at a 3 br, 2 bath home today. Pray that it works out. Really nice on the outside, we know the people that lived in it. We are waiting on the guy now to call us to meet him out there. Thank you so much for all the sweet comments and most of all the prayers. My husband was amazed at the comments left on here. We are all so thankful for you guys.

Will update later, love yall,
Lisa

Please, Please PRAY!!!!!!!

Hey to all I really don't know where to start with this but I will say to Nicki, thank you for your post this morning, I really needed it. See this past weekend, my 17 yr.old was home alone and decided he wanted to cook some chicken strips. He cuts the grease on to heat up and and walked into our den to wait. To try to make a long story short,He had cut the wrong eye on. The eye he had cut on also had a broiler of grease on it it and started a grease fire. I can't go into the whole story because it would take me half the day on here but we have major smoke damage and the house is unlivable at this time. On top of all this, we RENT and our landlord suggested yesterday after we talked with the insurance adjuster that he thought it was best if we just tried somewhere else to live. Yall, my heart went to my feet. Not only were we out of a place to live for the time being but we also now have to find a place to live permanently. On top of having to clean every single thing that is brought out and move to a new location.

When you pray, pray for provision but most of all pray for STRENGTH. We need HIS strength to pull us through this. We arer all seperated at this point. Mike and I stayed at his parents the last three nights. Carson, our 8 yr. old stayed with a friend last night and our 2 oldest has been staying with an aunt and uncle. Our life has been turned upside down but I know somehow something good will come out of this but right now I can't see 2 feet in foot of us. Just pray, pray, pray and please don't hesitate to leave a comment. Tell everyone you know to pray. With God all things are possible.

Love ya all,
Lisa

When the power goes out.........

It's been a week since I posted. I have enjoyed reading up on everyone else's blog and thought I would post something I experienced yesterday. I have been feeling blah all week. Nothing wrong just blah feeling, no energy. I have been wanting to post but I would sit down and start to browse and get interupted by an 8 year old. I am not complaining by no means but sometimes you just want some MAMA time. Well anyway to get to my point of this post........

We have been having thunderstorms here all week every afternoon and yesterday the power went out for about 4 1/2 hrs. I had been lazy all day and needed a bath before going to church so needless to say we didn't make it. While the power was out....I heard.....I'm hungry, I can't find ????, I'm bored, when are lights coming back on?, let's just go somewhere there is nothing to do here. Believe me if the kids could think of it, it came out. We ended up outside with 2 of our boys playing football in the yard and my husband and I sitting on the porch talking and watching. You see... it takes a power outage to get all of us on one level and spend some quality time together. It's usually running here, running there, doing this, doing that. ANYWAYS.... I told my husband that it kinda reminded me of being plugged in to Jesus Christ. When we are plugged in we gain his power like our appliances have to be plugged in to have power. When our power goes out, we have nothing but total darkness. It's like when we don't have our lord Jesus Christ the lord over our life we live in total darkness. I feel like god laid that on my heart to share with all of you. If you are going through a dark valley and feel you can't see the light, just get plugged into Jesus and his mighty power and he will pull you through. That light may seem dim at times but the power behind it is worth the wait.

A kid at heart

Well I still have my JOY that God has restored within me and this week I was able to share that joy. My husband is a school resource officer in our local school here in Calhoun Falls, S.C. As a part of his job there he is is over a Mentor program. Well......he and I and 7 other chaperones took 45 teenagers to Mrytle Beach. Most of you are probably saying.......have you lost your mind? That was my first reaction to my husband when he ask did i want to go and chaperone.......you are crazy if you think that I am going to the beach with that many teenagers and 2 of them were ours, plus we took our 8 year old. Well I decided to go and thoroughly enjoyed it. We had the best group of kids we could have ask for. I took the chance this week to look at the different kids and their personalities. We had some kids that were there for the first time or this is the only time that they are able to go anywhere like that. it made me realize how blessed I am to have the privelege to enjoy vacations and special times with my children. Although these kids may not ever go again or can only go through this program I am thankful that god chose my husband to step into this position where he can be a major part of childrens lives and I have the opportunity to share my joy with them and god can use us to let them know they do BELONG and they are SPECIAL. i tool plenty of pictures and I am going to make my husband a scrapbook that he can take back to school with him and share with these kids. we were kids at heart. We played in the pool with them, shopped with them, ate with them and got to stay up late and laugh and giggle with them. I thoroughly enjoy it and they were surely a blessing to me.

My Joy

Most that know me knows that I have suffered from depression and I have terrible PMS. It gets to the point sometime where I just want to be by myself, no kids, no husband, no housework, no nothing, downright mean and start to become the woman that God had not intended for me to be. Well for the last couple of weeks I have been in what I call my GUNK. Going through STUFF.....you women out there know what I am talking about. Well.................

MY JOY is back. I had a good day yesterday and expect today to be even better. We are going to have bad days but god does not intend for us women to live like this but to endure these things so we can be stronger in our walk with him. In 2nd Timothy 3 the lord tells Timothy to teach these great truths to trust worthy people that are able to to pass them on to others. It says, "Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.4 And as Christ's soldier, do not let yourself become tied up in the affairs of this life, for then you cannot satisfy the one who has enlisted you in this army. I feel like this is saying that if we are tied up in worldly things we can not be the blessing to others that he wants us to be. Also in verse 11-13, If we die with him, we will also live with him.12 If we endure hardship, we will reign with him.If we deny him, he will deny us. 13 If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. I think he is saying right here that regardless of what we go through that he will be there to pick us up, dust us off and let us continue our journey with him.

This blogger has been an answered prayer for me, I feel like I am releasing things within me that I have had bottled up. Just keep me in your prayers that I can keep the JOY that I have obtained through my lord Jesus Christ and the help of my christian friends and family.

Until next time keep the JOY god has given you,
Lisa