Bi weekly budgeting

Our life has recently shifted from a weekly pay check to biweekly it hasn’t been an easy transition and we are still learning the ropes but I have made this printable to hopefully help any one else going through this same struggle! 

Christ at Liberty!

 Christ at Liberty

              Sitting here watching a young girl I call my own, as the sun shines down on us creating the perfect day. This moment couldn’t feel any more peaceful. As I watch her teaching her horse liberty exercises. Liberty is when your horse follows your cues without a lead or pressure from tools. When done properly it is a beautiful dance between man and animal. When done wrong it is a disaster and dangerous. You must have a relationship with your animal as well as have trust both ways.

       As I watch her horse follow her based off snaps it all clicks this is like our relationship with God. When we listen and follow his snaps it is a beautiful dance between man and God. If we resist and don’t follow him, it can be disastrous and dangerous.

       It is not easy at the start, first we have to teach the horse what each command means, how they should respond, and what we expect from them. It takes time, repetition, and trust building. The same is true for our relationship with God. We have to learn to lean on his understanding and trust in him. When we start to lean on him, we learn Gods expectation of us.

Slowly, our beautiful dance with God begins and each step, each cue becomes second nature and before we know it our life is dancing in God’s will. Blessings come in so many ways when we do God’s will. 

Quenching my fire

 

Quenching my own Fire?

This is something I have really been struggling with lately. It appears I am flying through life and missing so much. Life is a constant busy, with kids, sports, housework, even church life. The constant push and pull of all these mundane activities have put me on auto pilot. I am going through the motions, but my heart is not in it. My view of these things has become burdensome and less lively. I feel as though I am living a constant to do list with no end. This outlook hinders us from so many opportunities. I have to make a change in my life so I can thrive and not just survive the day to day to dos.

I have let my mind go from seeing these things as blessings from God, to seeing them as checks on a list. I have lost my perspective and it is so easy to do I didn’t even realize it until it was to late. Now how do I fix it. I must first change my mind set. I must see everything as an opportunity and a blessing. I must slow down and enjoy the moments God has given me to grow and become who he has created me to be.

Starting with the mundane everyday chores and ending with the crazy hustle and bustle of our everyday life. I need to trust Gods process and lean on him and be grateful for all the reasons behind the checklist! It isn’t just a checklist. What is the purpose and the reason behind each item on that list.

Chores	Gratitude
Dishes	My family is fed.
Laundry	My family has clean clothes to wear.
Picking up clutter	My kids have toys to play with and things to do.
Grocery Shopping	We can provide food for our family.
Errands	We have everything we need.

 

Every item on the checklist has a greater purpose and has a reason to be thankful for. We are constantly grumbling about the little things in life when we should be grateful for the joys they bring. God is so gracious, and things could be so much worse than all the tasks we let destroy our days and our minds. I’m not saying it will be easy. Changing your mindset can be tough and we need God’s strength for that.

This verse tells me I have been doing everything all wrong lately. God has given me a job as a wife and mother to take care of my family. It is a God given duty and I have not had my heart in it. I have been doing it all in vain. I have been taking all his blessings for granted. Does grumbling and complaining about our day to day tasks bring God the glory he deserves. Just like Israel in the book of Hosea (that’s what we are studying in Sunday school) I have been going through the motions of it all and my heart has not been right. I have not been the light of God that I need to be. I have been quenching my own fire for him with my own selfish desires. All the constant running I am doing has been in vain all my labor has been in vain. I am in need of a lot of work.

 

Contentment vs. Comfort

Contentment- a state of happiness and satisfaction.

Comfortable- physical ease or relaxation

 We are told we are supposed to be content in our situations. How do we know the difference between contentment and comfort. Content is finding the best in every situation and looking for the joy and lessons to be learned. Comfort is being satisfied with where you are and not wanting to improve and grow. This is no easy feat, and sometimes our human minds can get the two confused. I know I have. Each day is a test of our knowledge and ability to tell the two apart. 

Becoming comfortable is dangerous in many ways. We become relaxed and let our guards down and we become a target for Satan to pursue. When we are comfortable with ourselves and our lifestyle we stay in that comfort zone. Never changing, never moving, everything always being the same. We become stagnant! have you ever been around stagnant water, it is very unpleasant. The smell is repulsive, it is riddled with bugs and is probably green and slimy. We do not want our lives to be this way. We want to be a beautiful flowing stream. In order to do that we must move, grow, and learn. There may even be some rough rapids but as long as we push through and keep moving, we will make it. We can't stop just because we are in an ok place, just like we can't give up when things get rocky. 

Being content is completely different. When we are content, we are looking for those joyful moments, the lessons to be learned, and leaning on God for the knowledge and guidance of our next steps. Contentment is for our benefit to help us grow. The growing process will not always be easy and sometimes those lessons are hard to swallow, but in the end, we come out stronger. We can see all the blessings we have and be grateful for all there is still left to learn.

When you lay it all out there the two couldn't be more different. If we can go out there and find the best in every situation and be open to whar God is trying to show us, there is nothing going to stop us from being who God created us to be. Some may say this sounds redundant or crazy, but when we learn from the knowledge of our Heavenly Father, we will know and see the difference. And be better for it!

Dealing with Abuse

 Abuse

Abuse isn’t always simply physical or verbal. It can be mental as well, something so dangerous it takes years to recover and for some it completely consumes them, and they can never heal properly. A lifetime of underhanded jokes, smart remarks, and manipulation, someone trying to make you feel bad for your personal life choices. When you are really trying to do your best, for yourself and your family!

When living in this situation for many years it begins to wear and tear at your inner being. It is the daunting reality of indecisiveness, low self-esteem, and minimal self-worth. And the worst part is, it isn’t always like that somedays are great amazing and fun but at a flip of a switch it all changes just when you thought it was all going great. BOOM!! One minor slip up and every single mistake you’ve made in your entire live is brought back to surface to relive again! Walking on eggshells trying to stay in the good graces, is no way to live life. 

This isn’t living this is fear! Fear of what is to come next time you forget something or do something they wouldn’t agree with. This is control, and when they seem to no longer have that they will lose control! This is a reflection of their inner person; this says nothing about you and who you are! We cannot let people of this world define who we are and how we see ourselves. 

Dealing with this not only hurts in the moment but it’s a lifetime of healing and growing and discovering who you are. This is no short feat and sometimes you will fall back into those feelings and trying to find a way out! Yourself worth cannot be found in man no matter who it is or how much you love them! Sometimes it is best to remove ourselves entirely from the situation to find what is best for us! We don’t need the approval of this world or anyone in it! Our sole purpose is to live a life pleasing to the Lord, and our Heavenly father tells us we are loved, chosen, wanted, special, enough, worthy, even in all of our flaws and failures he never says any different. Each of our short comings are known to him, he knows all but that doesn’t make him love us any less. He is the definition of unconditional LOVE! There is no fine print! His love is pure and perfect from beginning to end! The true always and forever! 

If you put yourself worth in the eyes of man, you will always come up short to them. They want perfection even though they aren’t perfect themselves. Our self-worth should come from above the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful GOD. There was only one man who ever walked a perfect life! He gave his life so each and every one of us imperfect people may be made new. His sacrifice gave us a chance to have that perfection! As soon as we can place our faith and trust in him that thought we were good enough to DIE for. We won't care about what anyone of this world thinks of us! 

My Testimony

I would like to start by sharing a little about my own walk with Christ. I was not one of those people who was raised in church. I went to the occasional V.B.S and my Nana took me when she could. I knew all the stories and I knew right from wrong. What I didn’t know was the feeling of Jesus truly working in your life. I thought for some long everything was going fine, but every bump or bend in the road would throw me so far out of wack; it would take me forever to get back to normal. 

      At 17, I started attending church regularly and I felt God’s pull on my heart, with a lump in my throat and tears all down my face. I knew the only relief was to come to God and that is where my life started change. Everything started to get better, but I didn’t change my life. I slowly fell out of church and away from God. I spent many years in a rut living a life a knew was wrong. 

      After the birth of my first child a long time family friend had come to visit and she started coming regularly to study with me and it really made me want to learn the truth about the Bible, about Jesus. There is so many different denominations and people believe so many different things. It is hard for someone who has very little background in faith to see what is true. The more I studied the more I grew in faith. 

             We studied for a few years and when our daughter went to V.B.S at our little country church. We went to visit and it all seemed to click. That is where we were meant to be. It was the truest feeling of home I had ever felt. After that first visit we never missed a Sunday. (unless we.we’re sick)  Everything started falling into place. We grew in our knowledge and in an amazing church family. They are so important to my testimoy, I don’t know what I would do without them.

    I have never truly fell apart of anything. Always trying to fit in and make myself apart of something I was never intended to be apart of. I constantly felt alone, or like an outcast. But Whalen God came into it, it was so easy. I didn’t even have to try. They welcomed me with open arms! 

      God has truly opened my eyes to an entirely new way of life, and I couldn’t be more grateful. When you truly let God into your life your perspective and priorities change. When God steps in he pulls you out of the darkness and chaos of all things worldly and turns on the light to show you how loved and cared for you truly are.