Showing posts with label Faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Faith. Show all posts

Thursday, February 18, 2010

A Virtuous Woman

I have been meditating on Proverbs 31 for the past week. Right now I am balancing being a wife, mother, and homemaker with homeschooling, being a business owner, serving at church, and on and on. Throw in a newborn, gardening, weekly errands, and coffee with a friend (if I'm lucky) and I find that I have little to no time for me.

But reading Prov 31 reminds me of the kind of woman I want to be.

That instead of getting overwhelmed I need to be thankful. When I feel like I don't have enough hours in the day I need to realize that instead of staying in bed until 7:30am (even though my older 2 kids are up by 7am) I could always get up at 5:30am with my husband and gain an extra 2 hours of quiet time to spend however I choose (but I am sooo tired these days!).

So she is my goal, this virtuous woman. Its always good to have goals, right? :) The passage is below. Enjoy!

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Who can find a vurtuous and capable wife?
She is more precious than rubies.
Her husband can trust her,
and she will greatly enrich his life.
She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.

She finds wool and flax
and busily spins it.
She is like a merchant's ship,
bringing her food from afar.
She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast
for her household
and plan the day's work for her servant girls.

She goes to inspect a field and buys it;
with her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She is energetic and strong,
a hard worker.
She makes sure her dealings are profitable;
her lamp burns late into the night.

Her hands are busy spinning thread,
her fingers twisting fiber.
She extends a helping hand to the poor
and opens her arms to the needy.
She has no fear of winter for her household,
for everyone has warm clothes.

She makes her own bedspreads.
She dresses in fine linen and purple gowns.
Her husband is well known at the city gates,
where he sits with the other civic leaders.
She makes belted linen garments
and sashes to sell to the merchants.

She is clothed with strength and dignity,
and she laughs without fear of the future.
When she speaks, her words are wise,
and she gives instructions with kindness.
She carefully watches everything in her household
and suffers nothing from laziness.

Her children stand and bless her.
Her husband praises her;
There are many virtuous and capable women in the world,
but you surpass them all!

Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last;
but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised.
Reward her for all she has done.
Let her deeds publicly declare her praise
.


Proverbs 31 NLT

Monday, November 2, 2009

It has been a looong time.....

....since I opened my prayer journal.

If I'm honest, probably over a year. And so many prayers have been answered (whether I liked the answer or not). Dang it! Wish I would have wrote them down in the midst of it all.

I have some things on my heart and I really want to see what God will do, how He will answer...

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Everything

This is who I am. This is what I believe. I am unashamed.


I have never been more sure of this than now.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

House Details

It is amazing how God works.  I know that God's hand has always been upon our life, but many times it felt that He was working behind the scenes and we had to really pay attention to see what He was doing.

This is not one of those times.

He has been so present and so blatant in this situation that we cannot help but see Him all over it.
_____________________________________
We began looking for a house in mid-April.  We had a big list of everything that we "needed": detached home, at least 1700 sq.ft., 4-5 bedrooms, 2-3 bathrooms, office, family room, living room, formal dining room, eat-in kitchen, large master bedroom with large jacuzzi garden tub and separate shower, large backyard, attached garage, AC, in a newer part of town, etc.  

After about 2 months of looking and going through 20-30 homes we were humbled.  We realized that we were not going to get everything we wanted.  Actually, we realized that we weren't even going to get half of what we wanted.

We (I) got frustrated and decided to put our house-search on hold.  Mark was especially uncomfortable looking for a house when we weren't certain of his job security/pay (for those of you who don't know, Mark is in the military and on shore duty but will be done in November at which time he will take a job in finance, where he currently works).  We emailed our realtors and told them we'd continue our search in the fall once we knew what Mark would be making.

In the beginning of August I sent our realtors an email just to let them know that we still planned to resume our search in the fall.  They emailed back and asked for our new search criteria.  We thought hard about this and drastically reviewed our true needs: at least 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, family room, office, nice backyard for the kids, attached garage, no bars on the windows. ;o)  However, I forgot to email them back for a few weeks.

I got back to them 2 weeks ago.  One of the first listings they sent us was for this sweet little white and yellow home in an older part of town.  We decided to see it because it was so cute and from the pictures the backyard looked fantastic.  We went to see it last Thursday (8/20) and as soon as we walked in I whispered to Mark, "I think this is the one".

The house was cheerful and quaint.  A cozy 1352 sq. ft., 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, an office, nice sized family room, garage with workbench (Mark loved that), and a fantastic beautifully manicured large backyard.  We LOVED it.  It absolutely met all our new criteria.

We met the owner, Pat, in the backyard and his "girls", two little Shih Tzu's.  We told him that we also had a Shih Tzu and there started a great conversation about the home, our kids, our pastimes.  After 10 minutes we left.  We put an offer in that night.  

We were told the home was a short sale (if you know anything about short sale's you know that the are NOT short) and as our realtor was on his way to our house Thursday evening to pick up our offer I prayed to God and told Him that I couldn't handle a short sale process.  I am too impatient.  "Please God, if there is anyway this situation can change, I will be so thankful". Mark came back in from running the papers out to our realtor and said, "You'll never believe this!  The home is for sale by owner.  Its not a short sale after all".  

Wow.  Quick answer to prayer.  Thank you God.

Monday we received a form from our lender that provided us with our estimated mortgage - and it was nearly $300 higher than we anticipated.  We were so discouraged and I spent most of that day in tears, knowing that we couldn't afford that.  

Mark and I prayed that night that if this home were God's will for our family that somehow that number would be lowered.

The next morning we got a call from our lender.  He made a mistake on the mortgage estimation and it was $100 less.  

Another answered prayer.  Thank you God.

We prayed again that night that our mortgage would somehow be lowered even more.

The next day we looked over an insurance form and noticed an error of $40.  

Another answered prayer.  Thank you God.

During this time the owners countered the offers; ours was the strongest so they didn't ask for more money, just terms of escrow, which we agreed to.  We were told we'd have an answer by Thursday evening or Friday morning.

We prayed to God that if this was the home for us that our offer would be accepted.  We prayed that Mark would know about his job soon (we were still uncomfortable planning a future mortgage around an uncertain salary).

Friday morning Mark called me soon after he got to work and told me that we were going to get the house.  I asked why and he said, "My boss just called me in to her office and told me I'd be getting the position with the pay we need".

Another answered prayer!!  Thank you God!

Two hours later our realtors called and asked if we were ready to buy our first home!!!  

THANK YOU GOD!!

This entire process has been amazing to us.  The market down here is crazy and we honestly doubted that we'd ever find a home...and certainly NOT in two weeks.

To make the whole situation sweeter we went over to the house last night to meet with the current owners, Pat and Cheryl.  We learned that they are also Christian's who had been praying for God's guidance regarding the selling of their home 30 days prior to putting it on the market.  Cheryl told me that we really made an impression on Pat when we met in their backyard during our first viewing of the home.  They told us that they wanted the family with the Shih Tzu! :)  We hit it off with them and feel so blessed to have met such a wonderful, Godly couple!

So thats the story thus far!

Prayer requests:

1. We open escrow Monday and pray that we close by September 30th.

2. We pray that we are able to lock in a 5.25% interest rate (or lower).  That would bring our mortgage down another $100.

Thank you friends and family for you Facebook love after our announcement, texts, calls, etc. We are so stinkin' excited!!!  God is so good!!!

-Alison

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Because I have neglected you...

Our family and friends who live far away use this blog as a way to keep up with us and the kids.

And lets face it...I have been really slacking lately, and for that I am sorry.

So in an attempt to get back into it I will try to post at least twice per week (as if I didn't have enough on my plate...why do I do this to myself?!). :)

And in turn, I am requesting that each of you (Lindsay, Kari, listen up) start your own blog so that I can keep up with you too!
___________________________

I am knee deep in Beth Moore's new study "Esther: Its Tough Being a Woman". I am leading this study through our church and so far our group is really enjoying it.

I have read the book of Esther, but true to form (or so I had heard) Beth Moore has really gone so deeply with this that its as if I am reading Esther for the first time. Luckily, one of my mentors, Judy, lead the same study a few months back and gave me some great advice before I began our study.

Its not as intense as I thought it would be, but I still have to get up 2 or 3 times a week at 6:15am to devote an hour and a half to it to stay on track.

And ya know what? I don't even mind.

I like that quiet alone time with God, Esther, Beth and my cup of decaf. Its a great way to start the day. To remember that we have a Sovereign God who moves behind the scenes and uses imperfect people to carry out His perfect will.
___________________________

A few of my faves from the summer:





Friday, June 12, 2009

Our Goodbye

Faith just left about 20 minutes ago.  

It was so hard to buckle her into her carseat one last time.  She just looked at me and smiled. What's really difficult for me is that as far as she knows, I am mommy.  I don't want her to feel abandoned.  I hope she does okay in her new home.  I hope she is cuddled and loved on.  I hope her new foster mom has dark eyes and hair like me so that Faith finds her familiar.  

I miss that sweet baby.  

I had convinced myself that I'd be okay.  After all, I get to sleep through the night again, no more bottles to heat, no more mom-visits, many less diapers to change (Brody is still in diapers so I'm not completely off the hook), so much more time to myself....

But I was wrong.  All that is worth it when you see her sweet little smile.  I cried when she left. And yes, I'm crying now.  I know that its for the best that she is with her big sis. 

I have two sisters and that bond is so special that I cannot imagine my life without them.  And those two girls need to bond.  They are just so sweet.

Luckily, I befriended her mom and we have plans to do a playdate soon.  She gets unsupervised visits now and I know the girls will return to her within the next few months.  Whether they'll stay, I don't know.  But I wanted to be someone she could rely on and turn to if/when things get tough.  

I will continue to pray for this family and I just know that God has big plans for sweet Faith. Thank you for all your prayers, words of encouragement and support.  We so appreciate it.  

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Wordless Wednesday

Monday, March 30, 2009

Laminin

Will you take 9 minutes to watch this - its really quite amazing.


Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Words Are Needed

I know that typically my Wednesday's are "wordless", but today I just feel an inner stirring of discontentment and words are needed for me to sort through it.  

As some of you (family and friends) may know we have decided to stay in Southern CA.  This was a big decision and an enormous leap of faith on my part. 

If you know me personally, you know that I can be controlling and have always envisioned my life going my way (which rarely happens, hence this blog...my record of letting go of control and letting God direct my paths). This is an ongoing struggle for me.  I am independent, strong, willful and stubborn, which I had always viewed as definite strengths - and at times they are - but these characteristics have also been the cause of stumbling and hard lessons learned.

For the past two years, maybe more, I have been learning to be led.  

This was a new concept for me (and believe me, still so difficult).  About a year into learning to be led I was encouraged by a book, which I had ignored to read a few years prior to moving to SD at a pivotal point in my marriage.  A time when we were both losing and in danger of massive failure.  By God's mercy, we ended up in SD, immediately began attending a healthy church, made some great friends and started anew.  I finally got around to reading this book last year, and it completely changed my view of why I was created and for whom I was to serve. It took my liberal, contemporary views of wifehood and scrambled them into an almost unrecognizable version of who Alison was created to be. 

I was far from it.

And I longed for it.

I began on a journey of servitude towards my husband and God that I never dared embark on before (vulnerability is not my forte).  And yes, I have failed more times that I can mention. But I continued on and purposed to be the Godly wife I was created to be.  Much of that meant surrendering my will and learning to trust and follow my husband.  

Over the past few years I have been tested in this area like never before.

{Back to staying in Southern CA.}

I have been wanting to move back home (Central CA) since we've been in Southern CA.  I talked about it daily. I got in touch with a realtor there so that I was in on the real estate happenings when it came time to buy a home. I inadvertently brainwashed Emma into saying things like, "I can't wait to move back to..." and, "its so much more fun in...".  

So you understand that it was no secret what my plans were.

Mark, however, was under tremendous pressure to find a good job back home in this terrible economy when he had a perfectly good job offered to him here in SD that he was excited about.
  
I continued to press on with what I wanted.  I continued to discourage him.

I'm not sure how or when it happened but the Lord spoke to my heart and made me realize (I actually think it was at Bible study a couple of weeks ago) that I serve and honor Him when I serve and honor my husband.  Even if that means that I don't get what I want (or what I think I want).

I prayed about it...  and I mean on-my-knees-prayed about it (you know its REALLY serious when that happens) and finally came to Mark with what was on my heart.  I basically gave it over to him.  I told him that he was placed as the head of our family for a reason and I trust him to make the best decision for our family.  

He was (visibly) relieved.  And he decided.  And I literally watched the stress fall from his shoulder's as he told me that he really felt it was best for us to stay.  (He was going to forego it all to move us back home because he wants me to be happy more than anything.)

And I was humbled.  Thank you Lord for your provision over my life by giving me this man.

Oddly enough, I felt relieved too.  Not because a decision had been made, but because I had allowed him to do what he was called to do: Lead.  

So now a whole new slew of stress has entered our lives as we prepare to really establish ourselves here and I'm trying to process it all.  Our largest source of stress: buying a house. Although it is a great time to buy, houses down here are still expensive (especially on one income, I will probably have to return to wedding planning...thats a whole separate post); there is a lot of competition by other prospective buyers and multiple bids on one property.  

*sigh*

I am feeling overwhelmed by that and the other things happening this year: foster care, Mark transitioning from one job to another, me (probably) starting to work part-time again, homeschooling Emma, leading the Orphans Care Team we started last year at our church, in addition to many other things we are involved in.   

If you think of it, please lift us up in prayer during this hectic time.  

I know that my worries and my stress are small compared to others who are struggling with sickness, the death of a loved one, losing homes or jobs and I almost feel guilty bringing my worries before God.  But I know that He cares about the details and for this I am so thankful.

-Alison

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Our Ministry

A couple years ago Mark and I began to discuss what our ministry as a couple would be.  We had never really thought in those terms before and were challenged by friends that we met at church.  

We thought about it and prayed about it and let the Lord know that we were open and willing for His use.  

Enter summer 2008 when we started exploring adoption and foster care options (something we'd never thought we'd do).  God put this on our hearts - strongly.  Since the timing wasn't right for adoption and since we still wanted to serve we started our foster care licensing classes.  

We learned SO much.  We were so ignorant of the magnitude of this need; our eyes were opened and our hearts were touched.

We attend a mega-church in Southern CA (weekly attendance is around 6,000) and we just thought...what if we brought this to the church?  What if there are other people like us who have adoption/foster care/orphan care on their hearts but who don't have the information front and center?  And what about all the families within our large church who have adopted, are providing foster care and do have hearts for this?

So I decided to start an Orphans Ministry (and dragged Mark into it...he loves me).

We got a group together and got the ball rolling and this weekend we brought this to our church, front and center, and had such good interest.

My friend Ana and me, manning the table.

We had over 30 families show interest in this ministry who signed up for more information. (30 interested families may not seem like a lot to you, but I had been praying for 20, so God more than met my expectation!)  In March we are hoping to have an informational mixer for those families who are interested in learning more about adoption and foster care.  

We are so excited and I wanted to share!!!

And yes, we are STILL waiting for a placement.  Its been almost a month now since we were licensed and I am just trying to hang on to patience and trust.  But seriously, this kind of stuff kills me.   Please continue to pray for us if you think of it.  

One last thing...yesterday was my 50th post!  wow.  Who knew this blogging thing would become such a fun hobby?!  

Okay...off to finish watching the Oscars (not that I've watch half the movies nominated, but whatever).  :)

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

FIREPROOF

Tonight we watched the movie Fireproof and I just had to post my thoughts about it here:

We loved it.  

We are so proud that a nationally shown movie (rated #4 at the box office) captured a typical American marriage complete with common marital issues with such honesty, integrity and transparency.  Fireproof shone a light on the many struggles that a marriage can encounter (financial, emotional, sexual) with honesty that most movies don't show (and movie-goers don't expect), as well as providing the answer that can provide renewal, reconciliation, and healing: Jesus.  

How bold to put it all out there and proclaim the truth that is found in Him.  So many marriages are falling apart and honestly, although Mark and I have been Christians for the majority of our lives, our own marriage was once at risk.  Through the grace of Christ we made the decision to start over and place our marriage in His perfect hands and since then our marriage and love for one another hasn't been the same.  

February, 2007 - We decided to get baptized as a couple.


A renewed marriage in Christ.

If you are in a marriage that is just okay or if things are nearing divorce, I urge you to commit your life to Christ, pray for forgiveness and for God to restore your marriage.  You can start by watching Fireproof.