Friday Finds

Internet issues at the ManyMeadows. We've been without for TWO WHOLE DAYS! ; )--the storm knocked out our Wi-Fi.

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Check out my friend Elizabeth's new book find...or maybe you've already read it. Either way, she's got a good idea about brushing your daughters' hair.

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Miss Creative, Kim is back with some cute lunch ideas. Make some for your kids....or just for yourself! ; )

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This stop needs to be part of your daily Bible study. Get your coffee---it'll take you a bit. But, I guarantee you, you won't be disappointed!!

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Lettuce update:

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Weekend plans? We'll have the whole family here on Sunday afternoon. Still working on the deck around the pool too. It's going to be great to have this year!

What about you? Doing anything fun and eventful?

What Do You Think?

One of the comments from yesterday's post was from my friend Deleise. She asked:

"Where is the line between control and self-control?

How much does He want us to rely on Him and how much does He want us to muster up from inside ourselves?"

Come on....help her out. What do you think?

Control-Part 3

Back to that control issue.

If you think about it, anytime we try to take control of any situation, we open the door for sin. We eat that fruit all over again. So much for doing better than Eve.

Check out this scripture. I Samuel 15:23: For rebellion (taking control) is like the sin of divination (witchcraft).

Man! God doesn’t take this lightly, does He?

We start taking the reigns, we think we’re in charge, but guess who we’ve invited on the scene? Yep. The one behind the spirit of witchcraft and sorcery. We’ve put out the welcome mat. Wow! That’s a hard thing to think about. We would never intentionally invite satan into our homes, into the lives of our friends or family members, or into our own hearts. But, when we step in the way of Jesus, that’s exactly what we’re doing.

Jesus is a gentleman. He’ll never push His way beyond our choices. So when we usher Him out of the way, there’s someone ever-ready to take over. And we’ve allowed it by giving in to our nature. By thinking that we know what is best.

And if we don’t recognize it and stop it, we’ll be headed for a fall.

Overcoming it? It’s really no different than any other sin in our lives. The solution is the daily choosing to give complete control of our hearts and minds over to the power of the Holy Spirit. Asking Him to show us in his gentle way when we have moved into His rightful place. Having a willing spirit and a desire to overcome our natural tendencies.

God will always meet a willing spirit.

Ready to trade in that controlling nature for a willing heart? I am!

E-mail me if you would like me to pray for you specifically in this area. Manymeadows @ yahoo.com (no spaces)

Do you see control as a sin? Or is it only a personality trait?

Control-Part 2

Our nature is to control. Married, unmarried. It’s mostly a woman thing.

I would suggest that our motivation to control is divine; even holy. After all, we’ve been made in God’s image. And we want people to do well. We want our families to be safe. We’re fearful of what might happen, or what has happened in the past. We want our husbands to succeed. We want….. We want….

However, I think it’s our method where the problems arise.

-We use things like emotions, manipulation, and many, many words to control.

-We justify.

-We get in the big middle of things.

-We’re afraid what might happen if we do this, or don’t do that.

-We misuse our power of influence, and rather than taking everything to Christ, we want to help make it “better”, fix it; stop the problems before they arise.

You see? Those problems will likely be our problems and we don’t like problems, so we’ll just make sure they don’t ever happen…and…and... And we end up making a mess and alienating our husbands, our families, our friends, our God. We wonder why our husbands shut down and won’t talk anymore. We wonder why God seems so far away. We’re actually setting ourselves up for a fall.

Hard words, I know.

But, I challenge us all to be aware of our nature. To allow this knowledge to cause us to stop and think before we use our God-given giftings and abilities to do anything more than taking our thoughts to Jesus in prayer and supplication. Does the Creator of the Universe really need our help?

I’m thinking He can do a much better job than me! Maybe I just need to get out of the way.

Do you have some control issues?

What areas in your life and heart do you need to relinquish?

Think about it….pray about it. Ask Him. He’ll tell you.

Control-Part 1

You know the scripture. You’ve probably heard it taught a million times. Genesis 3:16. “To the woman He said, …yet your desire shall be for your husband”.

That word “desire” is from a Hebrew word, pronounced tesh-oo-kwah, meaning longing, craving, like a beast wanting to devour. (whew!) It comes from a root word meaning overflowing, like non-stop liquid continually being poured into a glass. It seems to be a much different definition than the meaning we usually apply to the word “desire”.

Yes. Our desire is for him…to control him. It’s a curse from our mother, Eve. (Thanks, Eve—do you ever find yourself thinkin’, man, wish that’d been me there with Adam. I never would have eaten that fruit! Just put me in that garden. I know how to handle it! See? We are controllers! )

And it’s not just to control our husbands, but everything, and everyone, whether we’re married or not. It’s our nature. And, well… we have good ideas about how things should go, right? And if things go our way, then life is not so scary.

Do you agree or disagree with the interpretation of this word “desire”?

What teachings have you heard on Genesis 3:16?

Is controlling part of our natural nature?

Friday Finds

Yeah, Robin is bragging on one of her kids again…
So, go check out Anna’s marathon pictures from last Sunday. She came in 39th of 500 something runners! And had only trained for a couple of weeks.
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Cute blog of a friend of mine- moms will understand
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Just released last week. Marcy Priest’s new CD! Marcy is an annointed worship leader and just a fun girl! (come see her at the Lifechurch.tv Edmond campus). Order her CD today….you won’t be disappointed. Her songs are original, fresh, and compelling, expressing her passionate heart and love for Jesus.


Coming next week. A series on CONTROL….ooooo…I know it gives you the chills just thinking about it! ; )

Dad's home...ahh...contentment.

Uneven

Dirk and I each grew up with one sibling. In our homes, things were usually evenly divided between each child. If one of us got new clothes, then you could be sure that the other one would have something new as well. We alternated turns sitting in the front seat. If there was one piece of pie left, it was easily divided into halves.

With the addition of each child in our family, evenly dividing things became more difficult. It gave us the opportunity to teach them important lessons on sharing, preferring, and realizing that we all have differing needs.

I’m sure my children have been stretched in this area. My younger boys have many more opportunities than their older siblings. My older kids did without a lot of things, like vacations, and music lessons, and new clothes.

It’s been a lesson for Dirk and I, knowing that we couldn’t provide for them all the same way. And we’ve had to trust that God knew that when He allowed us to care for them. It’s also reminded me that our Father isn’t fair either. (Thankfully!) He is a just God. He gives us each what we need and a lot of times even what we want. I’m really good with that.

How about you? Did you grow up in a family where everything had to be equal? Do you have a hard time when things aren’t fair or equal?