Do Our Children Have Our Hearts?~Guest Post

I am blessed to be a stay-at-home-mama.

No one would ever accuse me of neglecting my children.

I am at home with them all the time, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Yet, I have collapsed into bed at the end of many a busy day with a guilt complex.

I didn't even stop and take the time to play with my kids today.

How long HAS it been since I had a tea party with my girls?? Or made homemade playdough? Or spent the afternoon playing outside with my little people?

Our children are generally sweet and pleasant (barring the usual "human" moments).

On fussy days, I've realized (after the lights are out) that maybe my sons' whining or my girls' sour attitudes had something to do with needing some more mommy time.

Don't get me wrong; my children are in the middle of most everything I do. From cooking meals to cleaning house and pulling weeds in the flower bed. They are always right beside me.

But there is just something extra special about Mama taking time to get down on the floor and color. Or play dolls. Or set up the Little People farm.  Or look my child in the eyes and smile with enthusiasm while he or she relates a story.

Debi Pearl says it this way, in her book Created to Be His Help Meet:

"Some mothers treat their children as I treat my cows. I make sure they have good things to eat, clean water, and a place to exercise. If they show any signs of sickness, I attend to them immediately... Unlike your care of the cows, the training of your children is the deepest expression of your love for them. To love children is to devote ourselves fully to their training... There are no neutral moments in a child's life. Every moment is a time of continuous need and development."

As Debi Pearl so candidaly put it, being “at home” with our children is not the same as giving our hearts to our family. Our children need more than healthy meals, clean clothes, and exercise.

They need us.

Our attention.  Our smiles.  Our laughter. Our empathy.  Our creativity. Our hearts.

 Do our children know that their mama is interested in their play, their needs, their fears?

 Do our husband know that our hearts are in our home?

That we are not pining away and withering inside by perceived "unmet needs"?

 Now, I am not talking about raising children who think their mama owes them every waking moment. A child-centered home is a recipe for disaster.

 A Christ-centered home, in which a mother devotes herself unselfishly to nurturing and training her children, creates a secure haven for growth and training.

 I want to  leave you with a challenge from Loving the Little Years, by Rachel Jankovic:

"It is no abstract thing- the state of your heart is the state of your home.  You cannot harbor resentment secretly toward your children and expect their hearts to be submissive and tender.  You cannot be greedy with your time and expect them to share their toys... God has given us the job of teaching His law and demonstrating His grace.  We are to be guides to our children as they learn to walk with God."

 Ladies, I encourage you to ask yourself: Where is my heart?

 If your honest answer is that you are in need of a new focus, set some time aside this week (beginning today!) to seek God's heart for your family. Nothing in this world compares to time spent in God's presence for renewing and rekindling a mother's heart.

Kristy Howard is a believer in Jesus Christ, a pastor's wife, and homeschooling mother of four.  She is passionate about living simply, naturally, and Bibically for the glory of God. Kristy is the owner of LittleNaturalCottage, where she furiously writes about her loves during nap time. She and her husband, Jeremy, make their home in North Texas, where they enjoy their growing family, their church, and their pursuit of a debt free life.

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Dressing On A Dime~Guest Post

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I rarely purchase clothing. We don't even budget for the expense because left-over grocery money is usually enough to cover what we don't receive from family and friends. In God's good providence, He's blessed us with a community who has a light hand on their material possessions and often pass along their unused clothing to us. Additionally, we both grew up in large families where living on a dime was the name of the game for a significant part of our childhood. The following 13 principles still guide our decisions about clothing purchases:

~Invest in good quality, classic clothing. By choosing well-made, timeless items like skirts, tailored jackets, a good pair of jeans or slacks in neutral colors, you can wear them for multiple seasons without feeling "dated."

~Use cheaper accessories like scarves (which help keep you warm, stylish, and ensures your cleavage stays covered!), belts, and necklaces to dress up a plain shirt instead of buying a new one.

~Buy your clothes off season when they are on sale. Stock up on commonly worn clothing like underwear or t-shirts when they're on clearance.

~Avoid buying clothing you love in the wrong size. You'll get more use out of it if you feel good in it.

~If you're not sure whether it really "suits" you, don't buy it. It will end up having a lonely life in the back of your closet.

~Swap clothing. Growing up, my three sisters did this all the time. Between us, we had oodles of clothes to choose from.

~Hand it down. With the exception of birthday presents, my children live in hand-me downs. They don't know the difference, and to my knowledge, no one else does either (until now...the secret's out!). Find a friend or two who have children slightly older and/or younger than yours and share clothes back and forth. It takes a little organization and frequent purging, but it can work!

~Recycle clothing. My 2-year-old has just gone through another growth spurt which left a few of her pants looking like floods! Since the waistband still fits perfectly, I'll be cutting them up and turning them into skirts which will hopefully fit her for a few more months. (Tutorial coming soon on Growing Home.)

~Try selling clothing you no longer wear (and would be too embarrassed to pass along) at a garage sale or consignment shop. It surprised me when a local consignment shop gave me a couple bucks for clothing I thought was terribly dated.

~Shop at outlet malls, discount warehouses, and thrift shops to get the best bargains. You may have to do some digging around, but you're bound to find a steal.

~Visit a clothing department's website before you go. Often you'll find a $5.00 off coupon just for visiting! Keep your eye out for promotional codes.

~Pick clothing with labels printed on the inside. All the big names are plastered on the outside, but if you're looking to spend half of what it costs to buy lables like Dooney & Bourke, skip the lettering.

~If you're the trendy sort, purchase just one or two knock-off versions to keep yourself from feeling ripped off when they go out of style two months later.

Do you have any other frugal clothing shopping tips? I'd love to hear your savvy ideas!

Jacinda is a sinner, saved by grace, the cherished wife to her best friend Brad, the mother of two precious children so far - Charity Sofia (2) and Judah Paul (6 months), and a passionate homemaker who enjoys blogging about it all at Growing Home!

Steve Jobs, life's work and eternity~Guest Post

My high school friend and sister in Christ, Amy wrote this. A wonderful perspective on what really matters.

I had trouble sleeping last night and for some reason I couldn't get Steve Jobs out of my mind. I sit here typing this on one of three mac's in my house. There are multiple ipods of various generations and we have forever drooled over the iPhone and the iPad. There is no denying that Steve Jobs has had a major impact on our daily life. His work altered how things are done, and the quality of the completed project.

But now that he is no longer here, I wonder...

Did he know? Yes, "death is a certainty we all share" but did he know that it's not the end? I find it sad that one can affect hundreds of millions of lives and yet, it can mean nothing in the end. It brings it home to me...that in the end no good thing done on earth has the power to save the soul.

In the courtroom..as he stands before judgement, what will he say? "I improved the quality of life for millions" '

How will he respond the the Accuser who stands and reminds him of every nasty word or deed ever done in his entire life?

Will he cry out for Jesus?

Will Jesus have known him?

Will anything done while he was here matter at that point?

The first three questions, I cannot answer, only Steve Jobs can.

For the latter...

I think not.

There is a lesson here for me, I think.

Steve Jobs work will continue to affect our lives, there is no doubt about that. But it's not about us that I wonder...It's about him.

I am reminded that in the end, only one thing matters...

JESUS.

Now, I am not silly enough to think that this means that we all sit around and do nothing, that is not what I am implying at all. But what I do mean, and am trying to express, is that what does all our hard work get us in the end if we have the wrong motives, or maybe even the right motives, but no Jesus?

I want my life to mean something to future generations, that's true. But more than that, I want to spend my eternity with my LORD. So, my work here may not be as glamorous or as far reaching (at the moment anyway) or earn me some huge income, or any at all for that matter. But I know, that even though I have missed the mark (by a lot) more times in my life than I care to count, that when my time here is spent,  I have not done my work in vain.

Like I said earlier, I don't know what it was that Steve Jobs believed. But his death has me thinking of the bigger picture...and I suppose that's good!

I. Love. Skirts. ~ Guest Post by Jennifer Ross

Skirts!

I love skirts!

Long and flowing, feminine and pretty.

I. Love. Skirts!

Skirts are an extension of womanhood.

They say: * I am distinctly female * I am a woman * I am content, excited even, to be a woman!

Skirts set you apart. And isn't that what we are supposed to do as children of God? Be separate... set apart?

"Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord" ~2 Corinthians 6:17

There are many ways to be holy for our Lord, or set apart. Wearing skirts is one of the many. It is just another tool in the arsenal of the virtuous woman.

Skirts identify you to the world; A mother out with her children, all the girls are in dresses or skirts, says; "we are in this world, but not of this world." Skirts say, "I don't need to follow what the feminists said I should." I am proclaiming that I am different than men and pleased to be so.

Heart Check~ Yes, you know what comes next, the part where I say "Some of the Godliest women I know wear pants."

I have to be honest with you...I don't believe that pants are evil. Or even ungodly. And yes, some of my favorite fellow homemakers wear pants!

So what to do with all of this?

Try a skirt once a week, if you usually wear pants. Have fun twirling with your little girls! Delight in dancing with your husband or sons! Enjoy a barefoot walk across a freshly mowed lawn, feeling the summer breeze blow through a long, flowing skirt.

In essence, embrace womanhood and all it has to offer!

"Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord" in all you say and do!

Jennifer is the cherished wife of a very visionary man, and a home schooling mother to almost a dozen children.  Her deepest desire is to consistently love her husband and children, and to be a diligent and joyful keeper at home.   Her favorite pastime is to encourage fellow housewives in their highest calling of wife and mother.  When she's not creating Homemaking DVDs or hosting webinars, she can be found blogging at Renewing Housewives.

I Could Have~Guest Post by Julie Fink

A few weeks ago my friend Rose came by on a Friday morning to pick me up to go to a Girls Getaway that I had planned for our church ladies in Shipshewana, Indiana. She arrived a few minutes early, and since I wasn’t quite ready, I let her in and asked her to make herself comfortable while I finished up.

When I walked out of my room about fifteen minutes later, she was standing by our fireplace mantle looking at a photo album of a trip I took to a variety of places in Michigan with my husband last summer. The album was a gift designed by our daughter Sabrina and made through a company called Shutterfly.

On the cover of the album is a picture of my husband and me sitting on a bicycle built for two that we rode around the perimeter of Mackinaw Island on the day that we spent there.

“I don’t get it,” my friend Rose said, “Why couldn't you have worn pants or Capri’s to do this?”

“I could have,” I told her, “I could have worn whatever I wanted to wear. I just chose to wear my khaki skirt.”

“Oh,” she replied, “I just thought you wore it because you had to.”

I don’t do anything because I have to. Everything that I do is by choice. And for the past many years, I have chosen to wear skirts and dresses in just about everything I do.

What caused me to make this kind of decision? I made this decision after reading a little book entitled, “Your Clothes Say it for You” by Elisabeth Rice Handford. It’s a little book that I picked up at a tiny Baptist Book Store in Orlando, Florida. I didn't go to the store searching for a book like this, but the title caught my eye and so I decided to give it a read.

This little book reminded me of two very important things:

1. People notice what we wear.
2. People are affected by what we wear.

People notice what we wear. I have noticed that when I dress modestly and in a feminine way people are often encouraged or intrigued. Men are usually encouraged, women are often intrigued.

My wearing dresses and skirts has often given me special opportunities to share Christ with others in ways that I would not usually get to share. Just like my friend Rose was curious about why I wore a skirt to ride a bike, many other people are curious about why I wear skirts and dresses whenever they see me too. Their questions always give me an opportunity to share how I got saved, how much I love the Lord, and how important it is for those of us that are saved and love the Lord to live in a way that communicate who He is to the lost world around us.

When I wear my skirts and dresses I am sharing one of the most important truths in the Bible ~ and that is that God made them male and female. If you have ever spent any time reading through the Bible, you know how important this truth is to God and how vital it is to carrying out the good works (marriage, parenting, respect, leadership, provision) that God has called His creation to carry out.

But truth is not the only thing that is communicated by the skirts and dresses that I have chosen to wear ~ respect for myself and others is communicated too.

When I choose to dress modestly and in a feminine way I am sharing a message loud and clear that says, “I care about those that are around me. I care about the men that are looking my way. I care about their purity and I care about their devotion to the Lord and I care about the security of their wives.”

My choice of dress also communicates the respect that I have for myself. Every time I dress in a way that modestly covers my “sensual zones” I am reminded of my own value. I’m not just some cheap piece of something found and fondled on a clearance rack in some discount store. And I’m not something that is supposed to be sampled by people that are just walking by wondering whether they would want to buy me or not. I am a precious creation of God and my body is a special gift that He has given to me to share with someone very, very special ~ and that is my husband. Because of the respect that I have for myself and others, I have chosen to dress in a modest and feminine way.

I could have worn a pair of pants or Capri’s or shorts or anything else that I wanted to wear when I took that bike ride last summer. As a born again Christian woman, I have the freedom to wear whatever I want ,wherever I want, and how ever I want. That is what Christian liberty is all about. God doesn't judge me for what I wear daily because He doesn't even notice what I wear daily ~ when the Lord looks at me, all He sees is Jesus.

The reason that I dress modestly and femininely is because I know that people notice and people are affected by what I wear. And when the world looks at me, I don’t want them to see a woman that is wrapped up in being culturally comfortable or convenient, I want them to see that I am a woman that loves them and desires to communicate the truths that I have learned from my wonderful Saviour Jesus."

Mrs. Julie Fink is a kindred spirit of mine!

She is a  a wife to a good man who happens to be a busy and successful Pastor. The mother of two delightful grown-up daughters, mother in law to their husbands and grandma to Jeremy and Sabrina’s two precious little boys. She is a woman that loves her home and spending time with her family.

Julie is also a Pastor’s Wife to their church folks, a friendly face to herneighbors, a daughter to her father, a sister to my sisters, and a friend to many of you.

But best of all, she is a child of the King who is loved by our Lord.  She has been saved since the spring of 1984 and she has enjoyed every minute of growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

For more encouragement from Julie, please visit her at Journal for Women! She aso has some wonderful audio messages and Bible studies for women!