20 Pie Crusts!

Hey guys,

  I found this recipe for how to make 20 pie crusts for your freezer, I made them about 2-3 months ago and they have been a huge time/ money saver! I thought with Thanksgiving around the corner and all of those yummy pies, this would be a good time to send it out.

The Recipe:

3 lb can Crisco vegetable shortening (I use Butter-Flavored Crisco)

5 lb all-purpose flour 

3 cups ice water

2 Tbsp. salt

Mix in a very large bowl or pan (I use my Bosch with the dough hook).

Blend flour, salt, and Crisco together (by hand if necessary).

Add ice water and mix all together just until blended.

Form into patties weighing approx. 7.6 oz. each (if you have a scale and want to get 20 out of the recipe). 

Makes about 18 to 20.

Here is the link for step by step instructions,

http://www.nuttnhoney.net/KimsKitchen/20FreezerPieCrusts.html

Also just a tip but if you are going to use the Crisco, SAMs club is the place to buy it as it costs about 3$ making each pie crust cost about .20 cents. If you are not a fan of shortening I feel pretty certain you can just sub out room temperature butter. Although this will make it considerably more expensive. Hope you enjoy!

Joani

We Remain Weak: Women's Retreat Reflections

It’s been awhile, I know.  Sometimes living life takes precedence over writing about it, I guess that’s the best way I can think of to explain it.  But I'm planning on updating this blog with notes from each meeting over the next few months, so stay tuned!  It's been a  season of quiet for me, but that doesn’t mean my thoughts haven’t been brewing or that God hasn’t been working.  In fact, I think it has been in times of quiet that He speaks the most to my heart. I was able to get away for our church’s annual women’s retreat last weekend and wow did God meet me!  There is something so special about times to slow down and draw near to God and other women, a chance to rest our souls at His feet and fellowship with focus over several days as opposed to the snippets we get in “real life”.  And if there had been no profound message to hear from a speaker, God would have used the mountains and the time away alone to refresh my spirit and speak volumes to my heart… but the message WAS profound, thank you Sara, for being a vessel for His words, and I just have to share what God spoke to my heart.

Our pastor’s wife, Sara McConahy, shared on a passage from 2 Corinthians, 4:5 – 5:21 to be exact.  I’m going to go ahead and quote the whole passage here to make it easy for you.  I encourage you to take a minute and pray right now before you read this, asking God to soften your heart to HIS message to you through the Word…

2 Corinthians 4:5–5:21 (NLT) – “You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.  So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.
But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.  For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

New Bodies
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.  God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.  So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.

We Are God’s Ambassadors
Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.  Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.  He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!  This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”  For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”

This passage has SO much in it.  I won’t regurgitate my whole weekend of notes for you, but I will share the main points God challenged my heart with.  I think many of us have read this passage, or portions of it, multiple times before.  But I love how God reveals new wisdom to us through the same scriptures, time and time again.  His Word never gets old or ineffective, amen?!  It is living and active!  Sara titled the weekend, “True Treasure in Common Clay”.  One of my favorite scriptures from this passage is 4:7 (NIV)- “ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”  I have rejoiced in this truth so many times in my life, that I am weak to reveal His strength, that God put His light and power in this weak, cracked pot on purpose so that it would be obvious that it’s HIM who’s doing a mighty work in me, not me being great by putting in enough effort.  But God pulled back a new layer for me last weekend.  Sara said something that the Holy Spirit burned into my heart and I haven’t forgotten it since.  She said, “we REMAIN weak, HE is forever strong”.  At first hearing, I think that statement can make us uncomfortable.  “Wait a minute,” we think, “isn’t He making me stronger, better in this whole sanctification (growing more into His likeness as we move towards heaven) process?”  She gave us these two equations to explain the point:

1. God’s power + my weakness= my power
2. God’s power + my weakness= God’s power

Sara pointed out that many of us see Jesus as an energy drink, which would be the first equation.  “just gotta drink a little more Jesus and I’ll be stronger for my tasks, better, less weak”.  But do you hear the self focus in that statement?  We have this agenda, these areas that we want to be stronger in, and so we’re asking God to fill us up for OUR purposes.  Scripture tells us something different, it’s not about us!  These cracked pots (that’s us who have been redeemed and reconciled to a Holy God ONLY by his grace, which comes through Jesus alone) will stay cracked, will remain weak, so that HIS strength, HIS power can be revealed.  We will not ever arrive in this life, and any growth and increased strength we have will not ever be because we’ve become less weak, it will only be because we’ve drawn nearer to the God who fills us, fixing our eyes on Him, abiding in Him, allowing His light to shine ever brighter through those cracks.

Friends, this was big for me.  Sometimes I find myself so frustrated and confused about why I’m still struggling with certain things, why I’m not seeing the growth I long to see, why I’m still so weak.  Can any of you relate?  But when we ask ourselves why we want to be stronger, I think we have to get really honest about why.  Could it be our reputation with others?  Our desire to do better for those we love in our own effort?  Maybe it’s a desire for proof that we really are new creations?  But here’s the promise, we ARE new creations, “the old has gone, the new has come!”  We have been forgiven, reconciled to God, adopted into His Kingdom, it is finished if we have put our faith in Christ!  And this, not because of anything righteous in us.  God’s power, HIS strength, has been put inside of us for HIS glory and our blessing.  We remain weak because He wants us to depend on Him, He wants the world to see the power of the Gospel , man’s need for Him, in our lives and know the changes they see, the joy in all circumstances, it’s not because we’re extra cool and strong and great, but because HE is.  And when we stumble and struggle and suffer, we cling to Him, fixing our gaze on the only one who can carry us through this life, so that others will see their need too.

What does this mean for us?  Does it mean we stop moving forward, stop putting forth effort? No, because if we did, we’d be ignoring the call to “live” for Him, to “walk” by faith, to “abide” in Him. These are action words. But it’s WHAT we’re living for and WHERE we’re walking (or running) to, WHOSE strength it is that we need to look at.

John 15:4-5 says, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.””
 
This  passage makes it clear that fruit doesn’t come from our effort, but from abiding in Him.  And it’s always evident that, apart from the Vine, a branch can’t produce any fruit. The questions I think we have to ask ourselves are,

1. Where does strength come from?  My efforts to do better or more dependence on Him in my weakness?
2. Whose strength is it?  Does more growth equal less weakness, or do we remain weak by design so His strength can be revealed?
3. For what purpose do I want to be strong, my own agenda or His purposes?
4. Can I really be content, “rejoice” in my weakness, because “His power is made perfect” in my weakness?

Father, thank you, with flat-on-my-face gratitude, for saving me by your amazing love and grace!  There is nothing in me that is worthy of your love, but You gave it anyway, at a price I can’t fathom.  Thank you for putting your glorious light in this cracked pot, this weak clay vessel.  As I remain weak, I cling, ever tighter, to your strength!  I offer my life to you Father, be glorified as you display Your strength in my weakness.  Make me more like you Father, not for me, but for You!  Amen

Abiding in Christ- Amy Hendrickson

What does "Abide" mean?
     -sit, dwell, establish, lodge, remain, stay with, last, be one with.

From the Word:

John 15:4- "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."

John 15:7- "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

John 15:6- "If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned."

John 15:10- "If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love."

John 15:9- "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love."

1 John 2:24- "As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father."

1 John 3:17- "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?"

2 John 1:9- "Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son."

Practical:

Abiding in Christ is how we stay with Him, remain with Him, live with Him, stay as one with Him.  It is intimacy with our Maker and Savior that produces the fruits of the Spirit in our lives.  These are a few practical ideas on how to abide in Him.

-music, chatachisms to music, open Bible on the counter with the habit of regularly chewing on scripture, sandwiching our day with prayer (first thing, maybe every time you do dishes or fold laundry, little reminder triggers, and before you go to bed.

*Bring your kids into it!  They will know what it is to abide when they see you do it and when they get to practice it.

Devotionals:

"When Motherhood Feels Too Hard"- Kelly Crawford
"Morning and Evening"- Charles Spurgeon
"My Utmost For His Highest"- Oswald Chambers

Hospitality- Traci Major and Kathy Lopez

Describe Hospitality:
 
     1.  Background: Philo-Zenia= to love strangers
     2.  What God says about Hospitality: Matthew 10:40- "Anyone who welcomes you welcomes Me."\
     3.  Excuses: Keep us from God's best.  Remember that you may never have that opportunity again.

Truth Treatments:

-John 8:32
-Philippians 4:13
-II Corinthians 12:9
-Mark 9:23
-Philippians 4:19
-Mark  6:8
-Hebrews 4:16

*Hospitality is an ACT of worship.  An action is purposeful and intentional.

Tips on Being Purposeful:

1. Be in the Word. (He fills us up, then we can overflow)
2. Be available. (Listen to and value people and their needs)
3. Think of it as an opportunity, a divine appointment, instead of an interruption.
4. Don't forget Who we're pointing people to. (This fights pride or a desire to impress)
5. Do what you can to help. (Do one thing, pray about what God would have you do)
6. Practice Hospitality with intentionality. (Hospitality is a heart attitude that acts accordingly)

*It's not about us!  Listen to God's promptings.
*The disciples were acting out of love, not obligation

Practically Practicing Hospitality:

1.  Never clean before company, clean on a schedule, maybe one bathroom and one main room a day, so it's never a mad dash. (Be real, let people see your messes, it probably blesses them.)
2.  Keep your emphasis on welcome, a welcoming heart matters more than a perfectly clean house. (don't apologize for messes, it's self focused even though it may sound others focused)
3.  Include little touches like candles or flowers.
4.  Do as much ahead of time as possible.  (make up cookie dough, freeze it in balls.  Fresh cookies are a nice touch, and then you're not stressing out right before company)
5.  Keep records
6.  Pray that God will open your eyes to opportunities. (Our giftedness and His grace)

*Five-Minute Drill:  Get's your kids involved!  Once or twice a day, assign each person an area and clean/organize for five minutes.  Make it fun by challenging your kids to race the timer, "let's see how much we can clean in five minutes!"
*Have your kids rotate as the designated greeter.  Teach them how to use good manners to welcome others, and how to have a serving attitude and heart towards guests.

Recipes and Planning Websites:

1. www.melskitchencafe.com (Tab for make-ahead meals)
2. www.thepioneerwoman.com (Thanksgiving deconstructed, SO helpful for planning a big holiday meal)
3. www.yourhomebasedmom.com
4. www.thriftydecorchick.com

*Time and stress savers: prep/chop for your evening meal in the morning, double recipes when you can and freeze.

More Practical Ideas:
*Pick one weekend a month to invite another family over for lunch or dinner.
*Cleaning tip: have a basket to serve as a quick clutter mover.
*Invite international students over for holidays.
*Base hospitality around food, Jesus did this, many Biblical examples, devotions at meals.
*Sunday dinners, invite someone over.  Once big meal a week.
*Let people bring things (side dishes) to help lessen the load.
*Popcorn is an easy snack that goes a long way.

Overflowing Lives- Sara McConahy

The concept of overflowing lives is an important biblical concept for us, especially as moms.  Since it's the theme for our year, we wanted to dig into it together as we start the year.

Thirst:
I submit to you that every single person is born thirsty, not meaning for milk but for fulfillment, purpose and happiness. What I am going to call “soul thirst”. First century theologian Augustine made the observation, “our hearts are restless”, French Christian Philosopher, Pascal explained it this way , “ all men seek happiness, this is the motive of every action of every man. He says, “We are born with an infinite abyss in us.”
If we take anytime to think about it, we see that each of us longs to be filled to overflowing, we
long for what really satisfies and brings happiness, we hunt for something, someone to fill the
void, the abyss, our soul thirst.

Brainstorm of things we look to for fulfillment:

Things: Travel, places, money, appearance, stuff
People: Husband, kids, friends, authority
Roles: Mother, wife, career/job title, homemaker
Abstract: Feelings, being liked, being understood, respect from other Christians, living up to the label of Christian, cultural Christianity, approval, organization

Let me clear, I am not saying that these things can’t provide happiness (God says children are a
blessing and gift and his creation a reflection of His Glory). What I am saying is that the happiness
these things provide will not last, they will disappoint, and will never be enough. They were never
meant to fill the infinite abyss. Jeremiah 2:13, words it perfectly, “For my people have committed two
evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.” If these are broken cisterns – what is the living water?

We are going to look at a narrative in the Gospel of John that gives us a great picture of a thirsty
woman (for both h2o and something to quench her soul thirst) At your tables we are going to turn
to John 4:1-26. Questions to consider:

Who are the people in the text?
Where are they?
When was this?

How did Jesus get to the issue of thirst?
What had the Samaritan woman gone to for fulfillment?
What was Jesus’ answer to her thirst?

Let's zero in on 13-14. As the woman is still hung up on physical thirst Jesus is addressing her soul
thirst. Jesus’ words are for you and I = I know you are thirsty, I have an answer to
your thirst so that you will never soul thirst again! And not only will you be satisfied but your life
will overflow! Every single one of us either is or was this woman apart from Jesus intersecting our lives. Just fill in the blank – she was filling her thirst with husbands. For me it was – alcohol, boyfriends, popularity, self
achievement…

Let me take you through some other verses where Jesus tells us HE is the answer to our thirst. 

John 7:37 – "On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to ME and drink."

Jesus is in Jerusalem during the Festival of booths. A time when the Jewish people would ascend to the city and camp basically to remember God leading them out of Egypt. These words would have been familiar to the Jews listening – from Is 55. Read 

John 6: 35 - "Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.""
Scripture never wavers in the source for quenching our soul thirst – the source is Jesus Christ. He alone fulfills, satisfies, and gives purpose to life. And when I say Jesus Christ I am meaning both Jesus the God/man and gospel of Jesus. The good news of what He accomplished for us: His perfect sinless life, His sacrificial atoning death, and His victorious rising from the dead.

Listen to this quote from "A Shelter in the Time of Storm" by Paul Tripp: "        "

So, lets bring it back to you and me, moms in Fort Collins, CO Sept 18, 2012. The first question is
do you believe in this Rock the living water? This Jesus? Do you believe what Jesus is saying to
you? He is saying – Sara, you were made for me. Becky, you were made for me… Are you willing, in
humble faith, to declare like the people who were from the town of the Samaritan woman, “We no
longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we KNOW that
this man really is the Savior of the world.” That is my hope and prayer for every one of you.

My guess is that most of you in this room say amen – yes, by faith, I believe! He is my Rock, my
solid ground. Praise the Lord!! Then hear this! This is what is true of you believer in Jesus Christ: You have everything you need to experience complete fulfillment and purpose right now in Christ. You have
everything you need to live an overflowing life right now in Christ. PERIOD! How do I know? Because the verses we just read tell us! And God doesn’t lie.

That means when you are in the grocery store and your preschooler is running the aisles,
your toddler is pitching a fit in the cart and your baby has had a poopie blow-out. You can
experience the overflowing life.

When you aren’t sure how your husband’s paycheck is going to see you through the basic
needs of the month and you are already in debt. You can experience the overflowing life.

When you feel guilty about not wanting to be around your children because all you ever
wanted was to be a mom, but today, you are just struggling to even like your kids. – you can
experience the overflowing life.

When you are bitter at your husband because you feel overworked, underappreciated, and
alone. You can experience the abundant life.

When depression meets you at your waking breath in the morning and the thought of
getting out of bed seems overwhelming enough, much less the thought of taking care of a
baby. You can experience the overflowing life.

Here is the reason why: the abundant life, is not dependent on our life circumstances, it
is dependent on where we have placed our life faith. If you have placed your faith in Jesus,
taken Him at his word that he really is living water that quenches your soul thirst - You
have everything you need to satisfy. This is faith that is both present and future oriented. We are believing that Jesus quenches our soul thirst in the here an now and ultimately in heaven we will thirst no more:

Revelation 7:16- “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd., and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

These are precious and beautiful promises!

Well, If you are anything like me, right now I bet you are thinking two things. 1) I don’t always
experience this OR worded better: I don’t always feel like I am living a fulfilled, overflowing life.
And 2) I want what you are talking about – practically, how to I get there!

Let’s try to address these two things. I believe that we don’t always feel like we are living the
fulfilled life because we are choosing emotion over truth. Really it boils down to simple unbelief.
We simply are not choosing by faith to believe in what is already true and accomplished through
Jesus. Our senses bombard us with the here and now, the emotion of it all – feeling depressed,
over-whelmed, tired, hopeless, unmotivated… But the beautiful truth is that the verses we have
read are TRUE! 2 peter 1:3 is true: His divine power has given us everything we need for life and
godliness.

Next, I think that we are practically not experiencing abundant life because I we try to add broken
cisterns to Jesus hoping they will hold living water. We subtly add things from our white board
list/our broken cisterns, to Jesus. Like: Jesus and a great marriage. Jesus and a house that fits our
growing family. Jesus and the approval I long for, Jesus and a thankfulness journal, Jesus and…
you get it.

In the book Jesus + nothing = everything by Tullian Tchividjian he says, “Typically, it’s not that
Christians seek to blatantly replace the gospel. What we try to do is simply add to it.” I am so guilty
of this! This is how you would discern what you are trying to add to Jesus to bring happiness-
simply think about whatever is in your life that, if you lost it, would make you want to quit living?
Seriously ask yourself this question in the weeks to come. This will help you see what you are
adding to Jesus for fulfillment. PS – read this book.

Most of the time these things that we wouldn’t want to live without are God given blessings – your
husband, children, health, etc. but Jesus plus something will rob us of true fulfillment because
those additives were never meant to satisfy and they are not meant to last.

Our third mistake is that we often ignore, underutilize or substitute the Means of Grace that we
have been given to experience an overflowing life. Let me try to explain this using an analogy:
All of us can appreciate the beauty of a diamond. But there are means of greater understanding
and appreciating a diamonds true beauty : 4C’s - carat, clarity, color, and cut.

Jesus is like that diamond. As believers we can all appreciate His beauty. We also have means to
a greater understanding and appreciation of and experience of Jesus’ true beauty. We can call them means
of grace. Instead of cut and clarity they would be prayer and study of the Bible to name a couple.
Things that God has given us to know and experience Him.

In groups talk about some means of grace that we have been given to revel in God’s glory. We will
list them on the board.

So I said that our mistake can be that we often ignore and underutilize these means of grace. You
have a bible but it sits by your bed. You have sisters in Jesus who love you but you aren’t honest
with them about your life. We can also substitute these means of grace for the real Grace Giver.
All these things we have listed are ways of experiencing fulfillment in Christ, not activities that
will bring fulfillment in and of themselves. We think real fulfillment can be ours if we just pray
enough, or if we were just thankful enough, study our bible everyday, memorize enough scripture,
make ourselves accountable to other Christians. But Jesus is clear – the answer is Him. He always
brought people to have to put their faith in Him. His strongest rebukes were to the Pharisees who
diligently followed the religious rules (ie: trusted in themselves) but refused to trust in Jesus as
the living water. Let’s embrace and enjoy these means of grace as lead ropes – leading us to drink
of Jesus.

Maybe part of the answer to helping you experience the overflowing life is adjusting your idea of
what that “looks” like. The fulfilled life is not the happy, clappy life – song. It is a life of faith like that is expressed by the psalmist in

Psalm 42 – "Why are you downcast o my soul and why so disturbed within me?"

The fulfilled life is not the put together/no weakness/ super woman life; life of faith like that
expressed by paul in 2 Corinthians 12 – "therefore I will boast in my weaknesses…"
The fulfilled life is not absent of pain and suffering but is a life of faith like that expressed by peter
– now for a little while…

As we think back to our diamond analogy: The amazing truth is, just as the diamond possesses
beauty to behold for those willing to look, Jesus is infinitely more beautiful and He calls us to
come, to come to Him and be filled. The reason He alone can fill the infinite abyss is because He is
the only infinite one. Infinitely good, wise, loving, knowing, faithful, gracious, merciful, kind, …

Let me encourage you to live faith – Faith that takes God at His word, and lives as though it is
true. Not adding broken cisterns to what is the only ever lasting spring of living water and taking
advantage of the means of grace that we have been given to behold His glory.

Isaiah 58:11- "The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."

The Main Things- Pastor Pep Talk (Cyrus)

Motherhood and wifehood pull us in many directions, so we have to ask ourselves, "What are the main things?"  We first have to remember that we can do nothing in our own strength, we need Jesus to be our fuel every morning, every moment!  Parenting, as well as every other relationship/role flows from our hearts.

Deuteronomy 4:9- "Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them."

*At any moment, where's your heart and where's your mind?  Asking these questions gets you to the source of struggle or joy.

*Enjoy your kids, the tasks can wait, they are your eternal investment!

*What will your kids remember?  The perfectly clean house, or the time spent with them, enjoying them, investing in them, relating to them?

*Focus on your marriage.  When your husband gets home, love him, be interested in him and his day, his struggles, his heart.  Don't be self focused and barrage him.  (a loving, serving marriage is one of the best gifts you can give your children.)

*Find rest: emotional, spiritual rest.  Returning to Jesus at the end of your day helps you keep your focus and perspective right.  Sandwich your day with Jesus!

Psalm 21:5- "Through the victories you gave, his glory is great;  you have bestowed on him splendor and majesty." (The Lord is your shade, HE is in control, not you.)

James 4:8- "Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." (Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.)

Welcome!

Welcome to a new year at REAL Moms!  We are so excited to be launching this blog just in time for the 2012/2013 year and even more excited to encounter Jesus together in our journey through motherhood!  It is our hope and prayer that this blog will be one more way to connect to the moms in our body at Mountain View Community Church, a place to share our insights, both practical and deep, with one another.  We also hope it will be an outreach tool, a way for us to introduce and encourage mothers who don't know Jesus to our ministry and church body.  So leave a comment, let us know you've stopped by.  Here's to a year of God doing more than we can ask or imagine in the lives of mothers!

All For Him,
Sarah Longoria