Get Persian with me!

We interrupt the regularly scheduled programming for an update...  a cartoon?  a comedy?  Something like that.
I promise you folks that I truly do watch my children.  I don't actually know how to watch them any closer, like maybe don't do any work and follow them around, but hey, that's not happening.  There have been so many instances (solved and unsolved) lately that when investigated, come right down to Blossom4.  White-out all through three rooms of our house.  Marker on the window and sill (Mr. Crayola is a genius for making those washable things).  Gum in Rory's fur.  Yep, more Blossom4. 

I'm putting supper together as we speak.  I went to settle a dispute between Rory and Blossom4.  I started to walk away, thinking it was resolved, only to discover the contents of a tea bag evenly dispersed across the couch.  I was in the same room as her, people.  If Blossom4 was a cartoon character, she'd be a dainty, Pixie-type innocent version of Speedy Gonzales or Road-Runner. 

"Beep-beep!"  Vrooooooom.  Flash. 

And all I can say is now, what did she do?

I mean, the dust buster has cleaned up so many Blossom4 related messes lately that he rebelled and started spitting the messes back out.  Seriously?  I need you on my side, man!  Rather than bemoan the fate of the couch or the fact that the static is keeping most of the fragrant little pieces from being removed from that lovely micro-fiber "kid-friendly" couch, I decided that we're going all Persian here. 

C'mon on over, friends.  We'll treat you like the Queen of Persia and let you sit on a herb-and-spice perfumed couch. 

That's the reality here.  Off she goes again.  I wonder if I burnt supper...  :)

What does it make you think about?

Thanks for joining me on a journey to evaluate our social media usage.  Does the Bible really have anything to say about this internet age and how it relates to me?  Read on to find out!

What does it make you think about?

This is the first verse that comes to mind for me. 

Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."

The next time you whip your iPhone out of your pocket, stop and think.  Is what I'm reading going to fall into these categories?  

Sometimes we like to use old-world type vocabulary as an excuse not to apply the verses to our daily life.  That's why I compiled a list of a few synonyms.  SO MUCH is weeded out when I take my media consumption to this list. 

Grave, decent, chaste, holy, noble, honorable, dignified, elevated, lovely, beautiful, admirable, speaking well of, praiseworthy, whatever calls down approval of God, virtuous

It weeds out the so-so.  It makes me unfollow the less than lovely Pinterest pinners.  It gives me a real reason to delete less than admirable blogs from my Feedly app. 

Let's avoid being all self-righteous here.  If you're on Facebook, but not on Twitter, don't tune me out.  If you're on Instagram and avoid Facebook like the plague, that doesn't mean you can skip out on this series.  Let's let the Holy Spirit shine His light on our habits.  Then, we'll see how very little can be described by the adjectives above. 


Take a look at the rest of the series here:

- What does it make you think about?
- Are there too many words?
 - Are you reading gossip or gossiping?
- Is it slander?
- Is it unwholesome?
- Is it unfit for use God’s use?
- Is it foul, filthy or coarse?
- Does it grieve the Holy Spirit?
- Is it silly talk?
- Is it a word fitly spoken?
- Are you busy-bodying?
- Do you blab your good works?
- Are you wasting time or being idle?
- Is it first world drama?
 - Is it bad company?
- Is it the appropriate medium of communication?
- Is it promoting “WITH” for the best interests of my family?

If your right hand...

Sometimes what's around us becomes so prevalent, that we don't even think about it anymore. 

Matthew 5:30 says, “If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.

I'm not promoting self-mutilation here.  Jesus is using exaggeration to help us get the point.  According to the commentary, it goes something like this,

"The avoidance of temptation may involve drastic sacrifices like severing relationships OR the renunciation of favorite activities."

When is the last time you to make a drastic sacrifice to avoid temptation?  So many people encounter temptation when they log on to social media, and yet they are not willing to renounce their favorite activities to avoid sin.  I'm challenging you right now!  Think about a drastic sacrifice you could make to avoid temptations you encounter via social media.  Take the step.  Do it.  In the next few days, I'm going to be sharing some of the Scriptural points that God has helped me to apply to my use of social type media.  Please don't tune me out.  I know how much we all like our down time, our "me" time... our "connectedness," but is it worth sin???

Take a look at the rest of the series here:

- What does it make you think about?
- Are there too many words?
 - Are you reading gossip or gossiping?
- Is it slander?
- Is it unwholesome?
- Is it unfit for use God’s use?
- Is it foul, filthy or coarse?
- Does it grieve the Holy Spirit?
- Is it silly talk?
- Is it a word fitly spoken?
- Are you busy-bodying?
- Do you blab your good works?
- Are you wasting time or being idle?
- Is it first world drama?
 - Is it bad company?
- Is it the appropriate medium of communication?
- Is it promoting “WITH” for the best interests of my family?

What will you do now?

The Wonder of the Zippered Pouches

Hello friends! 

Coming soon, more on the things I got to share Sunday morning to our church body.  Blossom4 has needed a whole lotta extra attention lately (massive understatement of the century) and Blossom3 came down with a cold.  "Mama, just sit by me on the couch, ok?"  Yep, this mama has been doing lots of mama-ing.  Today was supposed to be a ketchup day.  My brain is still saying that I "mustard" on all my backlog!  lol  Sorry.  It's in the genes.  When you're tired, giddy or a little of each, the puns kick in.  In any case, my post will have to wait a day or two. 

However, I did want to mention that you all should head over to Angelique's blog, Where the Piggy Toes Go.  I shared before that I loved her sock bun tutorial.  This time, she spills the beans about what's in her purse.  What's so amazing is her little zippered pouches organizing system!  I was already reorganizing our travel cosmetics bag with this system.  I snagged a handful of zippered pouches from the Dollar Tree, thinking I'd have extras.  When I realized the brilliance of her system, I put it into practice in my purse.  Hurray for a mama being able to find stuff in her purse, right?!  Now, I just need to head to the Dollar Tree again!  :)

Be blessed, my friends.  Can't wait to share more thoughts with you soon.  For now, I think I'll plunge into bed...

The effective fervent prayer...

I had the privilege of preaching in our church today.  Preaching was something I did quite often when I did youth ministry ages and ages ago.  Believe me, there's no experience like preaching at one (or more) meetings a week, week in and week out, to teenagers no less!  I learned so much about going with God's flow, saying what God wanted me to say no matter what and always being full-full-full of God.  I am in a different season of life right now, a season that highlights different gifts.  Though I've already shared that I count it a privilege (and important responsibility) to preach to our Blossoms, I don't often get to share to the church body as a whole, which is a unique and humbling experience (as true God-inspired preaching ought to be).  Actually, I'm pretty sure that the last preaching opportunity I had was to preach about diving healing five plus years ago.  I was pregnant with Blossom3 at the time and had been diagnosed with Lyme disease.  I look back on that opportunity to preach and consider it golden.  It stands out in my memory as a time when I needed to sort through all the things I'd been taught, all that I'd studied and all that became more and more real to me each day as I believed God to heal me of Lyme disease.  More important than my own healing, I was believing God to care for Blossom3 inside of my womb, so that she would be born whole, with no problems or effects from Lyme disease.  Several months later, I stood in the makeshift sanctuary of our church building at the time with tears streaming down my face.  I said, "Do you remember what we prayed for, because here she is?!"  Blossom3 was a little bundle in my arms and our entire church body rejoiced together.  It was the real life version of

"The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much..."

James 5:16

There's no way I am bragging on myself.  I know the journey of faith, its ups and downs, its pitfalls and mountaintop peaks.  But no one can ever take that experience away from me.  No one.  Engrained in my memory is how I shared His Word and the Lord brought it to fruition in our lives.  Praise the Lord for that!!! 

More in the next few days on what I shared with our church body today, so stay tuned!