Imperishable Beauty

Today I am thankful for health! Though today, I actually don’t feel very well. But I am thankful that while my family has suffered repeatedly over the last two months, I have been spared to take care of them. And I’m thankful that even though I am ill now I am still not so sick that I can’t take care of them at the same time. Mostly, I am thankful that even we get sick, God is there to carry us through! I know that even though I’m not well today, He’s going to sustain me throughout my day. And I’m going to be thankful for health in spite of present sickness, because I know that good health will return.

I’m also thankful for:

• my husband and three beautiful children, I love them very much
• my friends who “sharpen” me and keep me accountable
• the Easter holiday, which serves to remind me of my sin, my need for a savior, and Jesus who bought me with his blood!

GOD. IS. SO. GOOD!
Thankful Thursday hosted by Sting My Heart.

Wow, it’s a lot of work building a blog! When I started my personal blog there was no goal, no focus. I just started picking out themes and started writing about whatever. Heck, it was easy!

This blog, having a focus, and a goal, takes a lot more work. My original intentions with this blog have shifted in focus and I haven’t specifically laid it out here, so I’m copying this from a recent post on my other blog to help clear things up. A bit. I hope.

You may have already read this at Bringing Good Home, but if you haven’t, well, here it is:

If you’ve been reading for any length of time, you’ve heard me mention my other website, Imperishable Beauty - and you may or may not have noticed a subtle shift from the time I first started mentioning it (many months ago) and to what I have been saying about it the last couple of weeks. In actuality, what I originally started out with (an online store where you could browse and purchase products) is completely different than what I am doing now. Is it a blog? Is it a website? How about an online publication of some sort?

In truth it’s a blog, but when I get it all going the way I see it in my head, it’ll be so much more. It will be a hub- a “water cooler” to gather around and connect. I’m envisioning:

• Thought-provoking articles on all manner of topics relating to biblical womanhood and motherhood.
• Interviews with inspiring women from bloggy-land.
• Links to other sources of good information, product reviews and recommended resources.
• Guest authors, writing about things God has laid on their hearts, wisdom they have gleaned or lessons they have learned.
• Semi-regular giveaways.
• Mini-devotions.
• Semi-regular carnival type activities.
• A good dose of fun.

What do you think? I already have those planned out for specific days of the week, and I’m still brainstorming something for Saturdays. Maybe something with a family angle. Hmm. Of course, everything is still very early infancy so it’ll take some time (and a lot of work!- don’t think I haven’t thought of that!) to get this to that point. I still have graphics to create, layout things to tweak, traffic to create, and guinea pigs authors and interviewees to find.

So that’s where we’re headed. You’ll notice the pieces slowly falling into place over the next few weeks.

And by the way, thanks for traveling along with me!

Free Christian e-Books:

http://www.prayerforallpeople.com/free.shtml

Recipes:

http://www.glendasattic.com/RecipeBook/index.htm

Marriage:

The Beautiful Faith of Fearless Submission

Children:

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

I wonder if my high school English teacher ever considered the possibility that my vocabulary level could determine my ability to help feed a hungry person. Hm. Probably Not.

Free Rice is a non-profit organization with two goals:

1. Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

Free Rice displays a vocabulary word with 4 possible answers. Each correct word accrues a donation of 20 grains of rice. For every three words you get right the vocabulary level increases in difficulty. For every word you get wrong the level goes down a step. They claim that there are “55 levels in all, but it is rare for people to get much above level 48.”

Is that a challenge?

By the way, I found this through a sidebar button at Pensieve. (Thanks!) Check them out, it’s pretty neat.

Hopefully next Monday I’ll be able to post the first of many interviews where we’ll be getting to meet and know some women out there in bloggy land who desire biblical womanhood and mothering. I’ve got a few people in mind to start with (I’ll be contacting you soon!) but if you have someone you would like to nominate, you can do so by emailing t0: imperishablebeautyATgmailDOTcom.

This segment will feature Moms-to-be, Moms-of-many, Newly Married, Empty Nesters.. anybody that has a blog, is married, is a fellow believer, and is seeking to be the best wife and mom they can be is qualified. So start nominating!

Matthew 6:24-34:

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Father, God, how hard to hand every worry over to You. How tempting it is to try to control the circumstances and work things out myself. But I know that you are Sovereign and that You will provide for every need. Help my heart to rest in You, without worry, or doubt, or fear. Enable me to trust You completely, and not place any thing in my life above You by giving it more credit and attention that it is worth. Regardless of my circumstances or their outcomes, may I ever praise You. You are Jehovah-Jireh, our Provider. Amen.

A little bit of Saturday linkage for you.. Enjoy!

And these are really good, too:

• Little girl recites Psalm 23 - This little girl is the cutest!
  
• Wedding Vows Like You’ve Never Heard - Keep your Kleenex handy.

Last year for Easter, we gave our eldest daughter the cutest little bible as an Easter gift. It was the glittery pink, rhinestone-embellished, Princess Bible. My almost-seven-Princess loved it immediately.

The Princess Bible by Tommy Nelson, is a smallish-sized (7.3 x 5.5 x 1.9 inches) bible fit for little hands. This full-text International Children’s Bible helps your daughter feel as if she has graduated from “training wheels” to the “real thing.”

The outside cover, with rhinestone-embellished magnetic clasp, is durable and a good choice for young girls. Inside you’ll find a beautiful presentation page, ribbon marker, and two Princess sections to record favorite verses and songs, etc. The back section includes a dictionary, a topical index, scriptures for various topics, and memory verses.

Our Princess still loves this bible and carries it with her to church regularly. It really is a bible that any Princess (Princess of God, that is!) will treasure and enjoy.

• Find The Princess Bible at Amazon.
• Find more books by Tommy Nelson.

One of the things God has been proving lately is how faithful He is. Always! He always carries us through, He always provides, He always sustains. When the way seems impossible, when the world gives us nothing, when we can’t see the way out, when we have nowhere left to go - we always have God.

Lamentations 3:21-26 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

I am so thankful that God is faithful and true. I am so thankful that He always keeps his promises and takes care of His own. God is so good.

Thankful Thursday hosted by Sting My Heart.

Easter is a holiday surrounded in controversy and emotion. Even amongst Christians, there are many different opinions over which are acceptable traditions. However, how you celebrate Easter does not matter as much as what you celebrate about Easter. Do you celebrate a big, fuzzy bunny? Do you celebrate new life and re-birth and mother earth? Do you celebrate a risen King, one who was sacrificed for sin and then resurrected by a Sovereign God? These are the lines that divide the most. The many different paths that take you there are open for interpretation.

For me, my dissatisfaction with our Easter celebrations began three years ago. My eldest daughter was five. For several Easter’s prior, we had attempted to happily integrate some common childhood celebrations into our Easter tradition. We own a set of Resurrection Eggs, and we held an Easter egg hunt at our house. Afterward, we tried to read through the Easter story together the way the set instructs. However, I found that no matter what I tried I couldn’t keep my daughter’s attention. She was more interested in her bounty from the hunt. What did all the other little plastic eggs contain? What treasures lay inside to be discovered?

One Easter I attempted to read through the story first, but that didn’t work much better. My daughters wanted to know when the egg hunt was going to begin. When sweets and treats are in the picture, it seems, little else can compete for the child’s attention. When my daughters were 6 and 3, I began to get very anxious as Easter approached. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I did know what I did not want to do. I did not want to lose focus of the real holiday. But how? I lucked out of doing anything that year. By the time the next easter rolled around I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Read the rest of this entry »