Spiritual
When we say YES!
What happens when we say YES to opportunities in our life? You will never know unless you step out a take a risk. I am so thankful each time I meet a new friend and say YES! Yes to possibilities…YES to trusting…YES to serving together…YES to believing in the potential I see in the heart of others……..
I am so thankful for all my friends, new and old, that God has blessed me with in my lifetime. I am thankful for stepping out and opening my heart and my home to encourage others in their quest for life and fulfilling their passions. When you link arms with friends and work together toward a goal, you never know how much you will be blessed. Today we had our second Gogo Grandmothers Holiday Boutique. A few dear friends and I joined together to share our resources to raise money for a great cause and I came away so full of joy and a vision. Gogo Grandmothers ministry will be so grateful for the proceeds that will go to help purchase maize and fertilizer for the gogos (grandparents in Malawi) as they plant their gardens to provide food for their grandchildren. Check out the new website www.gogograndmothers.com. You too can join in our passion by learning about the ways you can put your love in action during this holiday season. Here are some pictures of our event and the fun we had serving together.
So BLESSED by the YES!!!
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What if every day, all year long…….I remembered to be THANKFUL?????
What if tomorrow’s blessings and joy depended on today’s thankfulness…how much joy would I have tomorrow? This is just a hypothetical question because blessings are not necessarily a direct result of our thankfulness, but it is a great question to ponder. How often do I stop and give thanks for the beauty that surrounds me, the air I breathe, the home we have to give us shelter and security-a place to gather with family and friends. How often am I thankful for those I love the most? It is important to speak encouragement and blessings into the lives of the people we know and doubly important to show our thankfulness by communicating thoughts of life and love into the hearts of those we love the most. It brings me great joy to think of all the things I am thankful for, but I do not want to just remember to do this in November. I want to be a person that acknowledges my gratefulness by speaking words of encouragement and sharing my attitude of gratitude every day, all year long. Just think what my tomorrow would bring!!!!!
What if tomorrow’s blessings and joy depended on today’s thankfulness?
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Grateful for Gathering
Women love to GATHER!!! We gather for play groups for our children. We gather for coffee to catch up with friends. We gather to hike or exercise together. We gather for counsel, encouragement, advice and support from women who have walked the road before us-in dating, courtship, marriage child-rearing, caring for aging parents….the list is endless. We find every and any excuse to gather because together we are stronger.
I am so grateful for my women friends. Those who lead me and challenge me to be the best version of myself. I am grateful for those who trust me enough to follow when I invite them into my life and share my passions. As I grow in my relationships with other women I have confidence to do brave things. I have strength to go out of my comfort zone. I have courage to love those difficult people in my life that cause me stress and anxiety. When my girl friends are cheering for me in my balcony and praying for me, I can do the hard but RIGHT things, I can love without limits, I can accept the hard stuff in my life.
So this week I am grateful for GATHERING!!!
Tonight we had a gathering of women from our church. We have a new campus and have a desire for building community. We shared a meal together and we were encouraged to answer a few questions that helped us get to know one another better. We will continue this tradition throughout this next year, once a month, to help get our women connected, have a place to belong and learn how we can serve one another in our church, serve our family and make an impact in our community.
I offered to bring a crock pot of soup to …
Read MoreMy Grateful Heart
This is my greatest hope-that my faith will never falter and that my life can be a living testimony to “how GREAT is MY God”!!! Gratitude changes the way I start my day! Gratitude guards against an attitude of self centeredness and entitlement.
Colossians 4:2 tells us to be watchful with thanksgiving!!!
Psalms 9:1-2 encourages me to give thanks to God with my whole heart.
So grateful for 10 grandkids including our newest grandson, Hezekiah “Hezi” Ari Banihashemi. I have had the privilege of helping out this first week of his new life. His big sister, Sophie, is adjusting to his arrival with lots of love and enthusiasm. He is a blessing to us and his story will always be a testimony of God’s gracious compassion.
How are you being “watchful” this month so that you do not miss the things you should be thankful for?
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Bringing Jesus Into Your Home — A Fun Devotional Activity to Do with Your Kids
I’m always trying to through how I will bring Jesus into our home for our family and children now and in the future – Fun activities, memorizing Scriptures as a family, devotionals. I want to start at a young age, but I know many of the more fun activities that we will all be able to do together with more of an understanding will come later when the kids are older. Today, I found what sounds like will be a really fun way to spend quality time with my kids while teaching and talking about Jesus!
“Kids crave constant activities and attention. Adults crave quiet moments of refreshment. How can we achieve both? Big and Little Coloring Devotional engages adults’ minds with appealing biblical devotionals while providing a creative outlet through coloring to diffuse stress.
Let’s have fun with our children through coloring and facilitate their spiritual growth with Scripture. Big and Little Coloring Devotional will incorporate physical, spiritual, and emotional refreshment by providing authentic faith-filled devotionals combined with therapeutic doodling for both the adult and child.”
Read more about the story of the project and preorder it from the link below
Big and Little Coloring Devotional
You can also find it at Amazon,
Lifeway Christian Bookstore, and Barnes & Noble for Pre-order.
What are your favorite ways to bring Jesus into your home with young children?
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Change…….
Change is in the air…
The weather has been changing…Indian Summer, hurricanes, heat waves 
Schedules are changing…..School has begun
Our home has been changing….the remodel is almost completely done and I am ready to get my life back. One last refinishing job in the kitchen-floors will look like new.
Over the past many months, I have had time to reflect on my life and what I want it to look like moving forward. I want to be a person who is flexible and always willing to change, to grow and to become a healthier person-emotionally, physically and spiritually. A few weeks ago, my mind was captivated by a teaching we heard at church about “hurried sickness”. How many times am I in too much of a hurry to take a bit more time to really listen to that friend? Do I ask questions that help open up that lonely heart, to connect deeper, to offer kindness and compassion. I do not ever want to miss an opportunity to help a person in need. Part of the change that I want to see happen in my own life is to SLOW DOWN and take more time to really appreciate all the blessings I have in my life. I want to finish strong, leave a lasting impression and really make an impact on others. So for me that change is going to require me to discipline my time and leave more room for margin….room for the unexpected. I actually want to plan for the unexpected so that I can be fully available for the cool opportunities God opens up for me in my life. One of the blessings of hanging out with my grandkids is watching them enjoy every second of life with awe and wonder.
Starting today, I have an opportunity …
Connecting Hearts
Our family had the privilege of hosting a dear new friend, Mary Phiri, visiting from Malawi, Africa. She is on staff with Gogo Grandmothers-a ministry that supports vulnerable children and their gogos (grandparents). We had so much fun introducing her to family and friends in our community. We took her to the Farmers Market, drove to Tilden Park to see the view of San Francisco (fog prevented the perfect view) and had an event where she was able to share her heart and passion for her ministry in Africa. Bethany and Garrett were able to be with us this weekend as well and that added to the excitement since Garrett is at such a fun age-curiosity and JOY fills every waking moment. 
I have a forever friend who has captured my heart. Her life story is amazing. Her joy for the Lord is her strength and she is a person who definitely has dedicated her life to put her love in action. She supervises all the community based childcare centers that the Gogo Grandmothers ministry supports. I can’t wait to go see first hand how she monitors and teaches all her volunteers.
Garrett loved showing Mary all his favorite things…He loves the outdoors so we went to the Farmer’s Market and we enjoyed tasting all the fresh fruits.
My mom, Gramie Rozie, joined us for the day and she was enchanted by Mary as well. Rick took them to Chick-fil-A for Saturday lunch and they had a blast.
Mary was captivated by Garrett. I think Garrett has a #1 fan!!!! She is one classy lady.
Each month the US director, Leslie Lewis writes updates about the great work going on in Malawi. Here is an except from the April update……”After 2 years of drought and hunger in Malawi, the …
Read MoreAround the Table-Communicating with our Children
This week we will be sharing about the importance of developing good communication with the members of your family. Summer time schedules are more relaxed and there is less urgency in the daily routine. This is a perfect time to start some new fun traditions around the table. It can be at breakfast when the children are beginning their day or at dinnertime when dad is home and everyone is settling in after a fun summer day full of activities. Some families have a table full of talkative children while others struggle to get their kids to answer questions with more than one word answers.
We raised girls, so talking around the table was not a difficult thing to accomplish. They all seemed eager to share their thoughts and discuss the newest activities they were involved in each night. We occasionally had to referee who needed to take a break and let another sister have a turn, but for the most part we had a lively dinner conversation each night. When our daughters had friends over we usually had to warn the visitors about the topics that might come up at dinner since my husband is a Pediatrician. He would never share anything confidential but he would tell some of the funny things he talks about with the kids.
But for some of my friends, it was a different story. Some moms would complain that they never knew what was going on because their kids just didn’t talk much. So whether you have talkers or non-talkers, it is important to create a safe and healthy environment with your children regarding communication. Children should feel understood and be allowed to ask questions and talk freely with you about any subject. They should feel very secure knowing that if they ask you …
Creative Ways to Memorize Scripture
It’s summer! Kids are out of school! That means 3 months of no learning, right?? Hate to break it to you kids, but not exactly! Summer is a great time to focus on some of the things that may get put on the back burner during the craziness of the school year, like memorizing Bible verses! Even if there is an emphasis in your house to do this all year round, use the summer months to try some more creative ways to get those verses ingrained in your kids! It is so important to communicate to your children the importance of memorizing Scripture, hiding it in your heart and filling your mind with God’s Word! Make it fun, and make it a family activity! Set goals of when to learn each verse and spend time at meals or when you are getting ready for bed to practice each part of the verse you have learned that week!
1. MUSIC
- Seeds of Character by Seeds Family Worship – Word-for-Word Scripture songs
- Hidden in My Heart: A Lullaby Journey Through Scripture – soothing, sleepy music based on Scripture
- Meet the Rizers – upbeat and very current, your kids will love them!
- Bear Hug Band – focuses more on character development, but has some Scripture in their songs
- Scripture Songs by Grace Evangelical Church
- Fighter Verses Songs – Word-for-Word Bible verses set to music specifically chosen to help believers to fight the fight of faith
- Steve Green: Hide ‘Em In Your Heart Vol 1 & 2 – throwing it back with Steve Green (We listened to him when we were young) but still a classic with straight Scripture put to song; Great for kids!
- GT and the Halo Express – Another that we listened to as kids – learn 100s of straight Scripture
Remodeling My Heart
Remodeling my heart….
Many of you know that we have been in a renovation/remodeling process for over 6 months. What started as an innocent pool of water in front of our refrigerator in November, has been a time of waiting, wondering, planning, decision making, waiting some more and waiting some more. Now that we are into the renovation process, full swing, a friend asked me how I have been remodeling my heart and my life? So I started to ponder……and one of the things I realized was that I am uncomfortable with uncertainty. Give me a task to do and I am on it! Give me a challenge and I am not afraid to take risks to conquer the hard stuff. Give me a problem to solve and I not only like the end result of solving the problem…I love the process…(probably why I am someone who loves math)….but fill my life with the unknown, time frames that are indefinite and general day to day uncertainty and I go a little nuts! I like to make leadership decisions and I love responsibility but I do not like it when I do not have enough information to make good decisions. I also do not like having too many options to choose from. I usually know what I do not like but sometimes narrowing down the things I DO like to make one final decision is difficult. Part of the problem is that things and stuff do not matter that much to me. I am passionate about people NOT possessions. I love having a home to open up to share with people but the actual stuff in my house is not that important to me. So all of these discoveries have come upon me because of all the uncertainty in a renovation/remodeling …