Reframing Your Perspective

Reframing Your Perspective

The theme for my family these days seems to be “adjusting to the transition of mommy going back to work".  I was reading The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace for my monthly book club.  I was having a very difficult time swallowing all the areas I was failing since I went back to work, or so it felt.  I kept saying to myself, “I am not his helpmate, he is mine right now”.  In many ways, my whole family has had to step up to the plate now that mom is not there to do it for them.  My children have matured in their responsibilities tremendously.  My husband has had to up his responsibilities, as well, when it comes to the children.  Since he works from home he is now in charge of getting them breakfast while I get ready in the morning along with many other chores.  I admit that the guilt was starting to weigh heavy on my heart for not being able to do more. 

While at my book club discussing The Excellent Wife, I revealed to the group my lack of enthusiasm with the month’s choice of books because of the way it was making me feel.  A close friend of mine cheerfully reminded me that I was being a helpmate, just in a different way now.  I was financially contributing to the family, which does help relieve some pressure for my husband to solely provide.  After all, it is a desire of his heart for me to help in this area for now.  The burden on my heart was immediately lifted.  I was grateful for how she spurred me on. 

I can choose to focus on all that I am not doing or focus on what I am doing to help.  Not to mention all of the wonderful ways my family has grown individually and as a team of helpers.  My job is to trust Him, ask Him to reveal His Truth, and have a cheerful heart along the way knowing He has me right where He wants me today. 

Warmly, Jill

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving. We wish you great JOY and THANKSGIVING in who He is this holiday!

With Love,
Jill and Leeanne
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Life is tough, but God is so faithful

Do you ever have days where you feel like nothing is going right?  Some days or weeks just seem unbearable.  Without Christ as your source of strength it is.   Recently I went back to work full-time as a school teacher.  This was after eight years off with my children and we are currently still adjusting.  A while back my husband went away on a week-long business trip.   The first couple days I was making it fine.  By the third and fourth day it was tough.  And by the end of the week, it seemed unbearable.  Although, I was excited for my husband to come home, it was hard to show any excitement when he walked in the door.  I was burnt out from teaching, extra-curricular activities, preparing meals and lunches for the next day, walking the dogs, getting the kids ready in the morning and putting kids to bed at night.  You could have stuck a fork in me. 
 

Several things came from this “tough” week for me.  Each day I spent less time with the Lord.  By the end of the week He got totally squeezed out.  Instead of girding myself up more with Him and His Word so I could handle the extra load, I pretended that everything else was more important at the time by choosing other things over Him.  Prioritizing and planning for a quality quiet time is so important.  Secondly, because my spiritual guard was down and I began to let Satan whisper lies that I was not a good mom, a good housekeeper and the list went on.  Yes, the week was hard.  But God is faithful to see us through even the tough times.  He is our source of strength, but only if we choose to access His strength.  I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength! (Phil. 4:13)

Next time, I will plan to sure-up so that He is my strength within and can sustain me through even difficult circumstances. 

Warmly, Jill

Passionate Pursuit

“Whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

  Philippians 1:27a

What are you passionate about?  A few months ago, I heard a song by Matthew West titled, “The Motions”. The message in the song really challenged me. In it, West talks about going through the motions of life. He goes on to sing, “I don’t wanna go through the motions, I don’t wanna go one more day without Your all consuming passion inside of me.”  Are you living that way for Christ? How will our children view what we are pursuing? My daily prayer is that I would exemplify Christ’s love and character throughout the day.  Some days are better than others, but my goal is that through my example my family and others would see the Living Christ.  Paul also said it another way in the first part of 2 Corinthians 5:20. He stated, “We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.”

Are you passionate about the pursuit of Christ in your life?

Lord, forgive me when I make much of my small circumstances and neglect to remember Christ and the sacrifice He made for my salvation. Let me be a parent who models Christ's love and I pray my child will grow up with one consuming passion: worshipping You and spreading Your fame to those who are lost.  Amen.

Leeanne

Best Bread Recipe Ever!

Sometimes you just need a recipe!  Happy weekend!  May Christ richly bless you today!

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I hate yeast and kneading but I love bread. This is a gem of a recipe! I promise you will eat half of it before it cools off!

Rosemary Bread Recipe

1 packet dry yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp)
2 c. warm water
1 T. sugar
2 tsp salt
4 c. flour
1-2 tsp. fresh Rosemary plus more for topping ( I typically add more rosemary)
Olive Oil, Corn meal, Melted butter and salt

Dissolve yeast in the warm water and sugar. Add flour, salt, and 1-2 tsp Rosemary and stir until blended, do not Knead!! Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until double in size.

Remove dough. It will be sticky. I like to put shortening or oil on my hands for taking out the dough and shaping it. I think it works better than flour hands. Place it in 2 rounds on a cookie sheet lightly coated in oil and sprinkled with corn meal. OR you can place it on your silicone baking mat with no oil. Cover with a towel or greased plastic wrap. Then let it rise another hour.



Brush each round with melted olive oil and lightly sprinkle with more Rosemary and salt. Bake @ 425 for 10 minutes, then reduce temp to 375 for 15 minutes more.



Cool slightly, then cut into nice size bits or rip it apart and dip in a bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. This bread can’t be beat! It is soooo delicious and a really easy bread recipe. If you’ve never made bread before, Rosemary Bread is a great one to start with.

Recipe adapted from http://www.makeandtakes.com/rosemary-peasant-bread

Christ the Lord

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.”  Colossians 1:15-16

The divine nature of Christ is strongly represented in these verses. Jesus is not only equal to God, He is God. Christ is the:

•   Ruler of the universe
•   Firstborn of creation
•   Bodily expression of God
•   One who possesses all authority in heaven and on earth

We also learn in these verses that His power over all produces a faith that is concerned with human rights, feeding the hungry, helping the poor and working with the community. He is Lord of the government, cities, systems and economic structures. He is Christ the Lord.

Do you pray for community and government leaders?

Christ the Lord, You came from heaven as completely holy.  You have authority to judge the world. You are God alone and the sustainer of life. In You, everything is held together and protected. Show me how I may best serve You.

Jill

Compassion

“When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.” Mark 6:34

Have you ever experienced someone being compassionate towards you?  I remember a sweet person extending me kindness a few years ago when I was going through a personal trial. Compassion breathes life into your spirit. Jesus was the ultimate teacher and example of being compassionate. Even before death, he extended his hand to the thief on the cross and said, “Surely today you will be with me in Paradise.” Jesus is dying an excruciating death as a substitute for our sins and in the midst of that suffering He is compassionate towards a man hanging beside him. Only a Savior could do this. In Mark, we have another example of how Jesus knew the people’s hearts and how they craved the true Bread of Life. Jesus went on to feed the five thousand but the significance wasn’t just the miracle. It was that they craved Jesus and his teaching. Jesus was compassionate towards their spiritual need and used it as an opportunity to teach them.

Do you know someone who needs a compassionate hand? 

Thank you Jesus for being our compassionate example. Father, we praise you for your words in John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world “. Amen.

Walk in JOY,

Leeanne

Joyful Christmas Blog 2012

Dear Friends,

Many years ago a sweet friend, Norma Weekman, launched a special Christmas Blog where friends could gather and soak in the joy and celebration of this blessed season. It was created to give focus and an avenue for women to share their experiences of Christmas and give praise to the One we come to worship. With her blessing and advice, Jill and I would love to start this blog back up this year during the Holidays.

This blog needs you!  Would you consider making a written or photographic contribution to encourage other ladies during the holiday season?  It could be a short devotional (under 300 words), a memory of Christmas past, a family tradition that you treasure, a funny story, a recipe, a house cleaning tip, a plan for organization, a graphic design of a Bible verse, directions for making a simple gift, tips for traveling with kids, deadlines for shipping parcels and cards, pictures of your house decorated for Christmas, a list of general prayer points for Advent or the 12 days between Christmas and Epiphany, descriptions of gatherings you have with family and friends, a list of Christmas devotional books or how-to books, a list of great gifts based on age and/or gender, anything and everything that you can think of to encourage women to keep the focus on Jesus during the holiday season so that they can truly make it a season of celebration and not a season of over-commitment, over-spending, under-planning and under-praying.

I will upload the posts to the blog and in the title of the post, give credit to the lady who contributed that post.  (Ex. Christmas Traditions... by Jill Savoye.)  If more than one lady contributes a similar post, I may combine the posts, giving it one title and crediting all contributors by name at the end of the post.  You are welcome to send as many posts as you would like.

If you are a photographer and want to write as well, send both pictures and text.  And if you have any beautiful photographs you would be willing to let us post along with someone else's text, please send those too, indicating your willingness for us to use them with another lady's writing.  We will credit photographers with a byline as well.

If you know of anyone who might like to contribute writings or photographs to the blog, please forward this information to them. 

Please don't hesitate to email me with questions.  I need all content no later than November 25th, emailed to this address -  leeanne.burda@yahoo.com - . Please put in your subject line:  Christmas Blog.  The blog will go live the week after Thanksgiving. We are so excited to embark on this journey with you!

Thanks!

With Joy,

Jill and Leeanne