I asked my friend Amy Carroll if I could repost her blog about her family's first week into Our Salvation and Song. I am so blessed to have other families reading along with us. Although we are all on our own schedule and pace, it is such an encouragement to me (and some good accountability) to know other moms are out there each morning trying to get everyone to the table in time to read together.
Amy Carroll is a speaker and writer with Proverbs 31 Ministries and is a speaking coach through Next Step Speaker Services. I met Amy recently at a women's ministry luncheon. Her eldest was leaving for college the next week, this immediately made me want to weep and wear sack cloth with her. Oh I can't imagine, but I know the day will come!! But she seems to have survived this event and is doing Our Salvation and Song with her husband and teenage son. I am so inspired by this because I have a bit of parenting tunnel vision. I think of spiritual development in children as an elementary school thing - I have a hard time thinking ahead to the high school years. But those years are on the way - so I better get ready!
I hope Amy's message with encourage you to pick up or keep at the practice of daily bible reading as a family, whether your kids are 6 or 16 .... God has bountiful blessings waiting to pour onto your family.
By-Product Blessings (originally posted @ www.amycarroll.org)
Day 3. Check!
On Monday I wrote about our family's attempt at pre-school morning devotions. I thought that it was so interesting that my friend Lynn Cowell wrote about the same thing for Encouragement for Today this morning.
Lest you start to think that our family is super-spiritual, let me just get the truth out there. Morning 3 of the alarm clock was way harder than morning 1. Also, I don't have a great track record for finishing what I've started. If you've ever wondered why I start series on things like wunning or memorizing James and then you don't hear anymore...is that enough of a confession?
But there is already a byproduct of our morning devotions that is unexpected and wonderful enough to keep me going--hearing Nolan pray. I'm gaining encouragement, spiritual insight and a glimpse at my boy's heart that is both surprising and delightful.
As the boys have gotten older and have started having their own prayer and Bible reading time, our family prayer time has fallen off, but the last three mornings have reminded me of why it's so important. I thought I'd be modeling prayer, but it turns out that I'm the learner!
I'd love to hear your family devotions stories. How do you follow through and keep going even with busy schedules?
By-Product Blessings - a guest post by Amy Carroll
Sarah's Hand-Me-Down Store
Being the little sister myself, I have a soft spot for the fact that Sarah (9) shops at the mall, and Emily (6) shops in the basement. A few years ago, in order to soothe my guilt, I started having Sarah set up Sarah's Hand-Me-Down Store. Sarah does a great job and takes a lot of pride in organizing "this season's fashions," as she calls her old clothes. She organizes everything by type of clothes, gives Emily a purse full of change and coupons, and acts as Emily's personal shopper.
Sarah's Hand-Me-Down shop does three things for me.
1. It makes hand-me-downs exciting to Emily.
2. It gives Emily a say in her clothes. If she won't "buy" something, I just donate it because I know she is never going to put it on.
3. It makes Sarah a more grateful child when she does get to go to the mall shopping.
A few weeks ago my niece Barrett was here visiting. She and Emily are both entering first grade. Barrett is the big sister at her house, so it was a great novelty for her to get to go shopping with Emily at Sarah's store. Sarah gave them both a purse full of change and they went wild!
My mom and I had a great time watching Emily and Barrett try on one thing after the next.
The girls found church dresses,
and matching dresses,
and a whole bunch of other stuff.
When they were done shopping it was time to pay up. I think each of their totals, after discounts and coupons (oh it's so embarrassing what I teach them!!) was about $.63.
How does your family handle the hand-me downs? I have taken off the blog comment setting that I think were causing all the issues of late. So give commenting a try again and let me know!
When friends go crazy for Jesus
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| Brent, Courtney, Brooklyn and Sam |
So what exactly are they doing in Freetown? They are going to work with a newly opened aftercare center for women and children survivors of human trafficking. They're hard core. This is not easy, or pretty, or light. They are going to love and restore and redeem those that the world has injured and abused in the most grievous of ways.
Their website elaborates on their plans:
They are following the example of the Good Shepard. They are going to find those lost sheep and save them from the wolves, to restore them to the flock, and show them their great and beautiful worth in the eyes of their Heavenly Father.
While that all sounds awesome, and inspiring, and worthy of an emotional symphony soundtrack, the truth is they are also leaving a whole lot behind and planning on getting their hands dirty to get this done.
They are leaving running clean water, a nice suburban neighborhood, grandparents, air conditioning, schools, Target, safety, friends, their church.... their life. There's a whole lot of it that must be flat out hard and terrifying when you are 8 and 7 or thirty-something.
So friends, I am sharing the Orrange family with you all in hopes that you will share in Momma Anderson's zeal and Grandpa Anderson's faithfulness, and join my family in praying for them. They are taking on a mighty work - please take some time to read about human trafficking on their website. The numbers are hard to imagine. The need is astronomical.
In talking about ministry work the other day my friend Tara said, "there are kings in the land." God has blessed some of us as kings and queens on this earth so that we can bless others. (Not feeling like a king or queen these days? The average American family earns $46,326 a year, which puts them in the top 3% of earners in the world. I'll let you do the math and figure out if you think you are a king or queen on this earth.)
In addition to prayer coverage, please prayerfully consider supporting the Orrange family's ministry. When Pete and I first read their support materials we saw that they were asking contributors to commit to $30 a month. Pete said it perfectly when he said, "That's nothing. That is one lunch at Panera." Even looking at the annual amount of $360 - it's just a big trip to Costco.
It's our crumbs, but through the grace of God the Orranges are going to accomplish great things with them.
