No fear of competition

I found this account about Jesus in Mark chapter 9 to be interesting.....

 "John said to Him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us." But Jesus said, "Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward." Mark 9:38-41

  It seems to me that in this story we see a little bit of pride and perhaps jealousy on the part of John and perhaps some of the other disciples. They were doing good things in Jesus' name and meanwhile they run across somebody else who is doing that too but they have never before heard of the guy. If they don't know him then what right does he have to do those things in Jesus' name?!?

  Jesus didn't have that same fear of competition however. He realized it wasn't competition, that the man was working with them not against them.

  How often do we find competition when it really isn't there. How often in our homes, our churches, wherever do we find ourselves wanting to be better, do better than someone else when we should be focusing on the fact that we are on the same team and doing our best to work together. We can get more accomplished if we have more workers - why in the world do we try to compete?

 I don't have the answer as to why we are like that but I do know that I have been guilty of it. I find competition at times in places where I should be finding a teammate. I don't want to be like that. I hope that you don't either.

Starting with our mind

  I think getting organized really starts in our mind. Oftentimes it is how we perceive ourselves that can be either very helpful or very detrimental to being able to do what we need to do.

 I am actually going to share 2 tips today that I have for leading a more organized life.

1. Ask God for help!! Philippians 4:13 says: " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." In the first chapter of James we are told that if we lack wisdom we should ask of God who gives generously to all. We also find in the Bible that one of the fruits of the Spirit is Self -Control (a very necessary part of getting organized I think).
   
   I feel very strongly that you don't want to attempt getting organized on your own - you want God's help. But then, I feel very strongly that you shouldn't attempt to go through any of life on your own - you need God's help! God through His word and the Holy Spirit that He sends to live in Christians can help us so much in all of life's challenges!
2. Visualize yourself as organized. I know this sounds kind of silly but it did really help me a lot. I read this idea in a book this summer (one from the library that I can't remember the name of) and I put it into practice and I found it to be very helpful.
   
    The things is we often have perceptions about our self. Some of mine were that I am a procrastinator and that I just can't keep an organized desk. Silly I know but those were traits that I had had for quite some time and I had a hard time seeing that changing. The book suggested imagining life being the way I would like it to be (with a clean desk, and not being a procrastinator for example) and how that would work out and then work towards that goal truly believing that it could happen.
   
    I truly have found this idea to be a blessing. These last few months have been one of changes for me in how I get things done. Life was pretty good before but I am loving life with having a cleaner house, getting things done on a better schedule and not feeling as stressed. Ken (who is very organized and bothered by clutter) has been noticing and enjoying the change as well. It isn't like everything changed all at once but things have been gradually getting better and being able to change my perception of myself was a blessing.

   I hope these tips might help you as well. I would love to hear your thoughts on these ideas as well as any other tips you might have.

Encouraging your husband in his talents

 Well I didn't get this post up yesterday as planned. The day ended up being much busier than I anticipated. Today was busy as well so I now just getting to writing.

  One of the ways that I was thinking about this week concerning strengthening my marriage is the need and benefit of encouraging your husband in whatever talents that he has.

  God created each and every one of us with our own special set of talents and gifts, my husband and your husband included. Everybody can use encouragement and especially encouragement in replacement of discouragement. I think pretty much everybody faces some sort of insecurity (though perhaps we never noticed it) about something in their life (Even our husbands!) and encouragement can help them greatly.

   I was thinking on this topic because I was thinking about all the ways that my husband is involved with community leadership. He is very good at what he does and mostly I do simply encourage him but once and while when he is gone (for instance yesterday he was gone all day -6 am to after 11 pm- for a special community day at the Capital) and I am missing him and I think -" oh sometimes I wish he wasn't so busy, etc." Also sometimes he works on things at home that go along with the things he is talented in and he doesn't have time to do other things with us and again I will kind of wish that he wasn't so busy.

  I am sure this quite likely happens in most homes. Sometimes we may wish that our spouse didn't have so many talents and we could just have them all to ourselves. And while some spouses might go overboard concerning working on their talents and maybe you should respectfully ask that they spend more time with the family - most - my husband included do a pretty good job of balancing their lives and what we need to do is encourage (and possibly help them with) their talents. Whether their talents are community leadership (my husband), helping people fix plumbing problems and other fix-it projects (my brother-in-law), playing in a band, or writing books, etc.. They do need our encouragement (and possibly our help) and I think it will strengthen our marriages when we encourage them.

  I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject! Also any tips you have for encouraging godly marriages would be very appreciated!

Canning Beef Broth - and learning to enjoy it!

 The other day I canned beef broth for the first time. It isn't that I haven't made broth (beef, chicken, ham, etc.) before but in the past I have always froze the extra. In fact I never have purchased broth I have always made my own - that is just the way I was raised.

    I decided to try out canning for a couple of reasons: 1. It won't need to thaw and so it will be easily available for a quick meal. 2. Once I have it canned then it doesn't need any more energy to keep it good.

 

I have to admit that pulling meat off the bone and dealing with broth is quite a long way from my favorite activity and I actually was struggling with a bad attitude as I worked on this project as there were so many other things that I would have preferred to be doing -almost any other work that I could think of in fact. But as I was thinking some negative thoughts about stinky broth, hot bones that nearly burn my fingers and such like I also started thinking about the "Pollyanna" book that we were reading and how she always tried to find something to be glad about in whatever situation she was in.

 

  I decided I had better put that glad and thankful attitude into action!

 

Here are some things that I came up with:

• I could be thankful that we had this good for you grass fed beef to make broth from.
• I am glad that we have plenty of wholesome food like this.
• I am thankful that this would make a bunch of very inexpensive meals.
• I can be glad that I have a healthy body to be able to work on jobs like this.
• I can be thankful for an electric stove to be able to cook on.
• I can be glad that I have spices to season it with and make it smell better.
• I can be thankful that I have a nose that works even if I don't always like what I smell.
• I can be glad that I am getting the job done so I won't have to do it again for a while.

and on and on....

 

  I honestly don't find to many jobs that I dislike doing, but when I/we do maybe we just need to play Pollyanna's glad game and find the ways that we can be thankful and glad for what we do have!



 

I am linking this to the Prairie Homestead

Aware and Practical and Dependant on God

Today I want to share a passage in Mark:

  "In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples and said to them, "I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a great distance." Mark 8:1-3

 What I really noticed in this passage was how Jesus was aware of those around Him. We know this already but I just wanted to point it out again - He wasn't absorbed in his own needs and desires - He thought about how others were feeling and needing.

   He was also practical realizing that if the people went away that they might faint on the way - but then He was also aware of how God can work - He didn't limit His power.

  Can we be like Him in these ways?

Can we be more aware of the needs of those around us?

Can we practically try to help them?

And when we physically can't take care of the problem can we have complete faith that God is able to take care of it in His own way and time?

I hope so.  I pray that I may grow more like Jesus in these areas.

Organizing

 This past Summer you might recall that a friend and I started up a Homemakers group that met every week during the Summer to talk about Homemaking topics and encourage each other in that fine endeavor. As Emily and I plan the topics we thought of large variety of subjects that have to do with homemaking and organizing was certainly one of the ones we discussed. However when we started figuring out which topics we were actually going to address we didn't add organizing to that list because though neither of us would be classed as Unorganized (I don't think!) neither would the word organized be the first term generally used to describe us either - Creative quite possibly but probably not organized. Though we planned our get-togethers so that they would be interactive with everybody sharing their thoughts and we didn't claim to be experts in any topic we did want to at least feel fairly confidant about leading a discussion on the topic.

   So we planned to skip that topic, however.... The first week when we got together we had everybody share an area in homemaking that they really enjoyed and one that they found challenging. I don't remember what the statistics were exactly but a large number of women expressed that they felt challenged in the organizing category. Well we had left a week or two unplanned for the end of the summer specifically for the idea of addressing topics that were of interest to everybody and so we decided maybe we had better go ahead and tackle organizing.

   Since we decided that fairly early on in the summer we both started reading books on the topic and I decided (I got elected to lead the discussion - Emily had a very good devotional on the topic) that I had better try implementing more organization into our home as well.

   I have to say, the months since then as I have been growing more in this area, with God's help, have been a very big blessing to me. I am so thankful that we felt pushed to make an effort in this area so that we could try to help others. Since that time I have been thinking over and over about blogging on this topic but have had trouble knowing how to organize me thoughts (smile!), so I haven't. But I have decided to give it a go and share with you the things that I have been learning or the areas that I already did have organized and were working well in a series of posts throughout the months to come. I plan on taking it with just a very little at a time, sharing about a single method or tool each week. What I am doing (and what you could do if you desire) has not required me to buy anything but rather to use what I already have to grow more organized.

  Why did I want to become more organized and why might you?

• Being more organized can free up my time and my home to be more useful to God's service. Often disorganization can stop us from ministering to others in some way - that was convicting to me. I don't want my disorganization to ever stop me from inviting others into my home or make it so I don't have time to reach out to others (through letters, in person, giving or helping others).
• Organization will often help to relieve stress in your life in home. Stress is not good for your health or for your relationships and so if I can get rid of some stress that makes me very happy.
• Organizing can help to save your money. There are many ways I can better use my money other than to buy something that I already have but can't find or to go out to eat because I haven't planned ahead.

I will be trying to post about organizing every Thursday for as long as I have ideas to share. I hope you will join me! I would love to hear your tips and even your questions/problems (though I am not promising that I can help - but maybe somebody else can!). Some of the methods I have used and loved for years, others have been ones that I have found in the last year. I am still a work in progress and am very thankful to God for helping me to grow in this area and I still know that I have a lot to learn!