THE FIFTEEN YEAR MIRACLE

By:  Anna Pritchard

I was five years old that day. I saw the sign in our yard, not knowing what it meant or comprehending the significance. A car slowed beside our country driveway. It was a strange car. Not anyone I knew.

"He Is My Strength When I am Weak; He is my All in All"

As I was finishing up the last bit of housecleaning, I stopped to  bask in the contentment that comes from restoring order and cleanliness to my home.  Such a sense of peace and well-being.  And then it hit me.  It was noon and I had just cleaned my whole house!  Joel had taken the children to various appointments earlier that morning and wouldn't return until evening. After seeing them off, I had turned on a message and started my weekly cleaning.

By nature, I love to be busy and enjoy the various duties that come with being a helpmeet and mother. I love a challenge and am not afraid of hard-work.  But, once I turned 40, something happened and I started to slow down.  I began drinking coffee, though I had never liked it before, just to have the energy to get through the day.

It got to the place that I had to start my work on Wednesday, just to have it finished by Sunday.  We have always worked together as a family, but with one child being married and two having jobs and their own schedules, I needed to make some major adjustments.  And to be honest, it was difficult. Joel and Becca both did more than their fair share, but I was really struggling.

Joel decided he had to do something to lighten the load.  He determined that he WOULD find a building or we would build a building to hold services in.  We have looked at every available building in the surrounding area for the last fifteen years.  One building (that would have been a LOT of work) had just sold.  Another building wanted $1,000.00 per month for rent and really would not meet our needs even in the short term.  The list went on.  So he began to search for land and found several promising sites.  One piece of land was 1.5 acres and they wanted $150,000 for it, another was 3 acres for $200,000.  By the time we were finished we would have well over $300,000 in a modest building.   Not exactly in our price range!

God had given Joel a dream and confirmed the dream, by letting our house in Ohio sell miraculously, when He first called us to Wisconsin.  We came knowing we were following God's leading.  In the dream, God showed Joel the building He had for us.  But due to circumstances beyond our control, that building has not been an option.  We have looked time and again, but each time we thought we found a building, something has caused it not to work out.  God reminded Joel that He gave him the promise 16 years ago, and He would bring it to pass...in HIS time.

But, I was tired, really tired.  Often times, we are capable of doing more that we think we can do. The issue is really one of not wanting to do what we must, more than that of not being able to do it.  I know from personal experience!  This was different though.  I really couldn't do it.  I wanted God's will, but I really wanted His will to be a building right away.  I struggled.  Would I accept God's answer by faith and continue to walk in His will or would I allow reasoning, questions, and my rights to prevail.  If I accepted God's way, there had to be a death to my wants and desires.  But I physically couldn't keep doing this!  Would God ask me to do something I couldn't do?

He reminded me of the time He gave me strength when I was expecting Becca and had placenta previa.  He reminded me that His grace was sufficient.  If I would give it to Him, He would carry my burden, He would shoulder the load.  But it seemed like such a big load.

I decided to trust Him with it.  I gave it to Him.  Nothing miraculous happened.  I didn't feel any different.  Life just went on.  But then I realized that I had just cleaned my whole house and it was only noon!  I know God will do what He promised to do, in providing the building, when the time is right; but more importantly He proved once again, that He is my strength when I am weak. He is my all in all!

"Line of Duty"

 

Since last September, I have been struggling with symptoms of planters fasciitis. I had claimed my healing and was believing that no matter what happened God was my healer. For the last two weeks, I have been re-organizing/cleaning the basement (So thankful that job is finished!) As Friday is my "normal" house cleaning day, I planned to clean, but my feet were hurting so badly that I couldn't. When I went to tuck Becca into bed last night, I literally could not walk.

This morning I was up at 3:00 a.m. with my feet feeling as if they were on fire and my legs aching. Joel and I had been discussing how that Paul of Tarsus, had asked God three times to heal his eyes, but God replied, "My grace is sufficient for thee."  Joel stated that we need to find out what God’s will is in each situation and if it is His will to heal us, we can have faith knowing that God cannot lie, but if God says, “No”, we need to be content knowing He knows what is best for us.

I just believed God would heal me.  I had never asked Him what His will was in the matter.  What if He had a bigger plan?  What if He was trying to teach me a lesson?  Could I be content if His answer was “No”?  There is only one way to find out what God’s will is and that’s to ask Him.  I began to sincerely ask God what His will was in this situation.

 

When I had finished praying, I read these words:

“They were on their road marching then, come out, there was a Pillar of Fire before them, and they marched on to the Red Sea. And when they got there, right in the line of duty laid an obstacle. And first thing you know, fear struck them, and they didn't know what to do. 
That's the way people does today. When fear strikes them when they're right in the path of duty… Listen, brother, let me say this: If you're walking in the light, having fellowship with God, with His people, and the Holy Spirit is upon you, and you meet an obstacle right in the path of duty, don't stop, just keep pressing on. God will make a way through it. That's one of the greatest experiences of my life, is to see God. When I can't get over it, get under it, get around it, or anyway, God opens up a way and I go through it. Somehow or another His grace is sufficient to carry us through it.”

 

As a helpmeet to my husband, my “line of duty” includes preparing the house for services every Sunday and Wednesday.  As a mother, my “line of duty” includes tucking my children into bed every night. 

I began listening to this message and God let me know, beyond a shadow of doubt that His will was for me to be healed.

 

 About half way through the message I felt impressed to begin cleaning out my refrigerator.  Once that was clean, I cleaned the kitchen, then the dining room, the bathroom and finally, our bedroom.  The pain in my feet left completely.  To God be the glory!

 

When Your Hands Are Too Far Away

The phone rang and with eagerness I began to chat with my married daughter who lives a thousand miles away.  She was expecting her first baby and they had just purchased their first home.  It needed a lot of work.  I could hear the exhaustion in her voice.  She was busy scrubbing greasy, kitchen cabinets so that she could paint them. 

Preparing Our Daughters to be Ladies and Wives

The other day, I was asked how I trained my daughters to be ladies and how I went about preparing them with the skills needed to be a wife.

 ^"For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:"  ~Isaiah 28:10

Leaving and Cleaving

Shortly after Joel asked me to marry him, we discussed where we would live.  Since he lived in Wisconsin and I lived in Ohio, one of us was going to have to move away from family, friends and "home".

The Joy of Serving Others

Author:  Lisa Jacobson

In the beginning, I did everything myself.

Mama was faster. Better. And more efficient.
 

Growing Little Men

This morning, I dropped Isaac off to finish a job he started yesterday.  It all began when I saw an ad in the classifieds looking for a teen-age boy to rake a lady's lawn for $20.00.  Isaac had planned all winter how he was going to start a lawn-mowing business, saving up his money to purchase a riding lawn mower.  Ideally, he would like to purchase a zero turn riding lawn mower.  He plans to save up and purchase a trailer to haul his mower the following summer and then he wants save up and purchase a truck to haul it all with the following summer. 

Kitchen Cabinet Remake

When Joel bought me a portable dishwasher, we were left with a 40" opening that was just begging to be filled with a cabinet.  Since I didn't have a cabinet,  I prayed about it, and filled that space with our hutch.  The hutch looked a little out of place, but it was a practical place to store dishes and all the pots and pans.  It remained in the kitchen for nearly two years until I saw this cabinet listed on our local Craig's list for $20.00.

 

2014 House Exterior Painting Project

 

 

"It won't take long, not if we all work together." 

 

 
 
The exterior of our house needed new siding and lots of repairs, but that expense was not in the budget.  Paint was a lot cheaper and if we did it ourselves...we could swing it.  Isaac was our main handy-man.  He removed lots of rotten boards, measured, sawed, and nailed up new pieces of wood.  He removed and replaced numerous windows.  And we all painted for a long, long time.  But it turned out pretty nice.

Patience, Persistence and Plain-Ol' Hard Work

This summer Isaac was asked by an elderly lady if he would tend her lawn.  He  was overjoyed at the prospect of being able to earn money and undertook this venture with gusto.

Building a Child Up

By:  Anna McCarthy

I sat across the table looking into the eyes of an exhausted mom. Trying her best, she struggled with the guilt and labels that come from parenting an “imperfect” child (otherwise known as “difficult”, “stubborn”, “strong-willed”, etc).

As I looked at this precious mom with tears welling in her eyes as she shared her struggles and feelings of failure, my heart swelled with compassion.
“I get it”, I said in response.
Recalling the days spent fighting my own stubborn child, I more than empathized.
Many days I felt like I was failing because my child wasn’t “text book”. Methods that worked for other children didn’t work for mine. I was doing everything I thought I was supposed to, but was still facing a battle (or war at times) nearly every day.
“There is hope” I finally said, “I know it doesn’t look like it now, but there is hope”
I recalled when the tide started to turn in my home…
when I learned that parenting my children had less to do with an overwhelming to-do list, and more to do with my heart’s perspective.
One evening, I had faced another grueling battle and was spent. I remember grabbing my journal and pouring out my frustrations and perceived failures all over the page. I cried out to God, begging for direction.
What God spoke to me was a game changer.
“What do you dream for her to become as an adult?” He asked me
Tears poured from my eyes – afraid that my hopes for my child would not come true…that somehow I would fail.
I spilled out every hope I had for her. Not in vocation or achievements, but for her as a person. The type of character she would have, the tenderness of her heart, the passionate love she would have for Jesus and the impact she would have on the world around her.
I was then reminded of a verse, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart…”
I was forced to identify where the desires for my daughter had originated from: no question, they were placed in my heart by God.
Through every battle, God had been stirring in my heart a vision for who He had created her to be: a vision that offered hope and served as a guide from which to steer her.
“Parent that picture of her”, I heard Him say
“But how Lord?!” I asked
“Look at her as if she already is that person”
And that is when it changed.
I knew deep down inside that she truly was that person. And for the first time I was ready to fight for her instead of against her. Instead of parenting her “behavior”, I chose to speak to the God-designed person I knew she was created to be.
When I would catch her in a lie, instead of responding with something like, “Why are you ALWAYS lying?! It’s so hard to trust you!”
I would instead respond like this: “Why are you lying? You are not a liar! God created you to be honest. Someone who people can trust. THAT is who you are”
Through many nights in prayer declaring who she WAS and in speaking this truth to her every chance I had, she began to change. I saw her rise to the person I was calling her up to be.
If you are struggling with your child, all hope is not lost! Ask God to show you who they really are…
 Life and death are in the power of the tongue… (Prov18:21)

Hints for Teaching Children to Behave

By:  Sherry Hayes

The weather is warm, the schoolwork is light; time for a summer project–getting children to behave!

There is something extremely interesting I have discovered over the past several years; when you have a large number of children, you are in actuality rearing a number of families, one after the other. Our first family, so-to-speak, is already out of the house. We are on our second family now. This present situation is very different from the first in many ways; for one thing, our living circumstances have changed, and we were not as mature (or as old) as we are today.

Even the children are different. The individual personalities that make up our whole have a distinct flavor, and for that reason we have adjusted accordingly. I also find myself having to relive many parental moments of instruction; things I thought I had already covered, I’m having to go over once more. After 30 years, we are still dealing with childishness, and we are having to back up and re-examine the fundamentals.

The Wheel of Motherhood

Being a mother is an experience that has caused me to become very dependent on the God whom I serve. It is indeed a great honor and privilege that carries grave consequences and unbounded blessings
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The Older Women's Duty

Written by: Marci@ http://thankful-homemaker.blogspot.com/2012/07/teaching-younger-women.html

Many years ago when I was just a young girl in school, I remember taking a class called Home Economics.  It went over basic home keeping skills, sewing and cooking. I grew up with a stay-at-home mom, and most of my female family members were stay-at-home moms.  I do not come from a Christian family, but the example was set before me of being a homemaker.

Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God

We had received very little tithes for the first half of the year and I had been juggling our money from one bank account to another to pay the bills.  Finally, in desperation, I placed a prayer cloth that Brother Branham had prayed over in my Bible at Matthew 6:25-34.  Every time a bill came due, I refused to worry about where the money was going to come from, but just started thanking God that He was our provider.  And He was.  Every single bill was miraculously paid.  Sometimes, I had to take it out of savings.  Sometimes out of our account that was for our yearly taxes and insurance, but it was paid! 

Teaching Children to Sit Still In Church

I used a lot of these same strategies to teach my children to sit still in church.  Admittedly, it took a lot longer to teach my son than it did my daughters.  I was attempting to play piano for church when he was a baby, so it was impossible for me to "follow-through" at church.  But I found it worked to teach my little ones to sit still at home.  They then would sit still when we went to church.  I normally turned on a tape of a preaching message and had the little one sit in my lap.  When/if he squirmed, I would whisper quietly in his ear to "Be still". 

A Refresher Course in Manners

I've trained my children to be mannerly at the table!  I promise, I really have.  I'm not sure what happened, but I don't even seem to notice their lack of manners until we have guests over and then, I am reminded that I need to do some more training.

Laundry Organization Tips

The builder who constructed our home did one thing right.  He put in a laundry chute!  It can be accessed from a little door in the upstairs landing AND a little door in the bathroom on the main floor.  There is a nifty hand-made catch in the basement, near the washer and dryer.  I don't know how I would ever manage without this laundry chute.

What Do you DO All Day? - By Matt Walsh

I know most people have already seen this post, but it really speaks to the heart of the issue on the importance of being a keeper at home. Enjoy!