WALSH: You Can’t Give A Lethal Injection To Criminals In New York But You Can Give It To Infants – “Speaking of lethal injection, in case you haven’t yet grasped how twisted this law is, consider that capital punishment has been ruled unconstitutional in New York. You are not allowed to give a lethal injection to convicted serial killers, pedophiles, rapists, school shooters, or any other species of monster. But you can give a lethal injection to an infant. Indeed, you can only give lethal injections to infants in New York. The crime of child rape will not earn you the needle. The crime of being conceived in the wrong womb might. It is a capital offense, and you may well be made to suffer dearly for it.”

Your Obedience in Christ Means War – “Jesus loves you, which is why he would kill that part of you that loves sin. If we want to live well, we must learn to die in him. Your identity in Christ is what gives you the courage, the ability, and the desire to do this. In Christ, your sin cannot rule over you. In Christ, you do not want it to. In Christ, we have the strength to fight it. And in Christ, we will ultimately have the victory.”

Cultivating Self-Control – “Yet the Apostle Peter exhorts us to godly effort even as the Spirit is working. “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness” (2 Peter 1:5–6). Lack of self-control leads to ineffectiveness and lack of fruitfulness, Peter says. Even worse, it may lead to our destruction. Remember Achan’s craving for the devoted things in Joshua 7? In stark disobedience to the Lord’s command, he coveted the beautiful cloak, two hundred shekels of silver, and a gold bar of fifty shekels, and he seized them against the Lord’s clear command. His lack of self-control proved devastating to himself and his entire family.”

Important books to read to your kids-

Good Pictures Bad Pictures Jr.: A Simple Plan to Protect Young Minds – In our morally depraved culture, children are seeing pornography at younger ages than ever, and sometimes, quite by accident. If you have a phone, tv, computer, ipad, etc., they have access. Please steward their eyes, minds, and hearts well with this fantastic resource. This book is for ages 3-6.

Good Pictures, Bad Pictures: Porn Proofing Today’s Young Kids – This is an excellent book for the older kids. It explains what porn is, happens when they see it, and a plan of action for when they are exposed to it. At some point your children WILL be exposed–please inform and equip them beforehand.

The post Resource Roundup – 1/25/19 appeared first on My Blog.

Six Reasons Why Some Members Resist Church Growth – “Growth brings new members to ministries, groups, and church social functions. Leadership may shift with the incoming new members. Many members are simply not comfortable with new attendees changing long-term relationship patterns.”

Sermons Aren’t Popcorn: Tips for Being a Good Listener to God’s Word – “Come prepared to hear the sermon as a member of the church, not just a consumer of its services.”

“Pride, stubbornness, and a lack of teachability are enemies of listening and responding to a sermon. That’s why Hebrews 3:15 says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” We can nitpick a sermons’ delivery, critique the personality of the preacher, pridefully boast that we already have heard this text before, or use the time to think through all the ways we would teach Scripture differently. These are all walls in front of our hearts that will block the Word of God.”

Practice Defeating Your Distractions – “Expecting to fight it daily is a necessary mindset if the fight is to be won. Distraction is not a simple foe; it must be fought on numerous fronts. Victory is achieved not by one glorious coup d’état of resolve, but by the slow insurgency of developing distraction-reducing habits. ”

“Healthy habits are strategies. If resolves are our objectives (desired outcomes), habits are our strategies. Or to use a different metaphor, the engine of our resolve must run on the tracks of our habits. Resolve can only travel as far as the tracks of habits have been laid.”

The Disease of Ambition –

“I suspect we do a poor job distinguishing between the two types of ambition or recognizing the perversity of eritheia. Selfish ambition, at least to a certain degree, is not only an acceptable sin in our culture but a seemingly necessary one to succeed in the world. It may also be incentivized in a church culture caving into the temptation to elevate the public image of success above qualities like quiet and steady faithfulness in relative obscurity, a work-ethic rooted in giving and helping rather than getting and keeping, and a willingness to go without and sacrifice for the good of others.

We cannot esteem worldly success without neglecting godliness and overlooking spiritual maturity. Worldly success is not a bad thing, but it is not to be confused with being above reproach or enjoying a good reputation and it may indicate little more than selfish ambition–the disease of greatness. In ministers and congregations it may even dress itself in claims of kingdom growth, public witness, administrative acumen, evangelistic fruitfulness, entrepreneurial spirit, and so on. These are all highly desirable objects, but sin can twist each one into a pious-sounding cover for eritheia.”

The post Resource Roundup – 1/18/19 appeared first on My Blog.

I’m a bit of a resource geek. I want to be a lifelong learner, one who sets her face toward wisdom (Pr. 17:24), listens to wisdom (Pr. 13:14), increases in wisdom (Pr. 9:9), and much more! And, as each of these Proverbs suggest, a primary source for growing is through listening to wise people, both near and far. The internet has made a way to learn from believers all across the world.  And while I don’t believe they should take the place of the local church and real life relationships, I’m so grateful for the wealth of solid, Biblical people just a few clicks away.

I shared what I’m reading book-wise recently, but I thought it might be helpful to pass on what I read online, too. I’m not a huge social media fan, but, I do like Twitter. This is the primary place where I find articles to read online. You can follow me by going straight above and clicking on the “t.”

That said, I love to pass on resources that I’ve found helpful to my heart. And, funny story. I can be a little over zealous in podcast sharing, so I’ve been told. I learned that someone in my life wants me to only send *super good* podcasts, not every single one I listen to.  For the record, I wasn’t sending every single one, but there was a streak where many were causing many light bulbs to go on inside, and I wanted to share them! Can you blame a woman?!

So, at the risk of overloading you, I want to limit myself to 5 or less each week. There’s a lot out of good out there, but I want to help and not hinder your personal endeavors to steward your time well. And there’s a difference between constant input that leads to over-stimulation and slow input that allows room for meditation. I believe the latter is more beneficial.

Podcasts (you can check out my favorites, and when I listen to them):

Climb the Ladder of Integrity – The Emotionally Healthy Leader podcast. I would highly recommend listening to two episodes prior about integrity. All of this can be also be found and worked through in his book (highly recommended!). And, you can also download a helpful PDF.

Articles:

The Smallest Stage – “Jesus teaches us that there is a gloriously weighty presence and promise of the Father that we can access only in the smallest, secret place.”

Should I Stay or Should I Go – “When should an evangelical Christian separate from a church? That question is asked often these days, and it betrays more than one problem in contemporary Christianity. Far too many church members have become church shoppers. The biblical concept of ecclesiology has given way to a form of consumerism in which individuals shop around for the church that seems most to their liking at that moment.”

Give People Dignity the World Has Taken Away – “How many times had he stood authoritatively before a congregation to lead them in worship? Now he lay helpless in a hospital bed of his own making. How many people had looked up to him with respect and admiration? Now he was looked down upon with pity or contempt. How many divine truths had he boldly preached from the pulpit? Now his mouth was wired shut with only confessions leaking out in muddled whispers.”

Tending Your Garden – “If we overlay what we read in Genesis onto the dictionary definition, then one way to think about ministry is a person or agency through which image-bearing and disciple-making are accomplished within particular spaces.

“If I could go back and give myself a pep talk while in the midst of raising babies, I would clap my hands and say with great enthusiasm, “You are doing real ministry right now! Real ministry is not only ahead of you when you do a podcast or complete an in-depth line-by-line Bible study on the Minor Prophets. I know it feels like a lot of wiping, but you are bearing God’s image and raising children to bear his image. You are promoting life and doing good work in the space God ordained for you. And it matters.”

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Top Ten Testimony Tips – We have a testimony time at our church, and this is helpful!

Disciple-Making is Ordinary Christianity –  “Like learning to count and say your alphabet in the natural realm, there is scarcely any part of the Christian life where discipleship does not touch. In so far as Christianity is a community faith, it is a disciple-making faith.”

The post Weekend Reading 7/26/13 appeared first on My Blog.

When Can Mother Relax – This is perhaps my favorite read from this week.  I’m in the season of small children, which is exhausting on many levels.  This gave me further insight into this marathon of motherhood.

The Radical Nature of a Quiet Life–  This is a timely article discussing something I have become increasingly concerned with as well.

When Mom Has a Young Man in the Making – Helpful for this mama!

Discipleship as Network – “Let me very clear, I think one-on-one discipleship is a legitimate, beneficial avenue of discipleship. I’ve done it and will do it in some fashion in the future. However, I would argue that more than merely one-on-one ratios, most discipleship is found in a network of relationships.”

The post Weekend Reading 5/10/13 appeared first on My Blog.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the plethora of things to read online. I want to be efficient. I appreciate other blogs that daily post interesting links to read.  I usually scan them to see if it piques my interest, and then click.  My husband also sends me interesting articles to read throughout the week.  This makes it easy!

I hope you’ll find it helpful!

Your “Rights” Aren’t Applicable Here – The state of our country at present is one of compromised liberties. This article is just one example of how our freedoms are at great risk and are diminishing.

Creating Space to Breathe – This isn’t a recent article, but one that helped me so much!

The Socially Acceptable Sin – This is a much needed, well written article. “In practice, there are some sins that are socially acceptable, even in the Church. There’s one sin in particular that has pervaded our society and churches so silently we hardly give it a second thought…”

Making Soul Deposits – “Practicing saying words of love and life start with the mom who is training her children. It requires a plan. But teaching and training our children (and husbands!) to be comfortable with expressing these important words starts with habits and traditions of giving words of blessing often.”

May We Use Commentaries Written by Women  – There have been a flurry of blog posts this week regarding a recent podcast in which John Piper answered this question.  I found this article most helpful.

Palm Beach County’s New “Violence Prevention Unit” – Another interesting look into the erosion of liberties.

The post Weekend Reading – 5/3 appeared first on My Blog.

I hope you’ll find it helpful!

Please note that I don’t necessarily agree with everything written on a particular site.

Education is a Mandate, Not a Choice – This is a must read, mamas!  If you don’t read any other post on this page, please read this one.  “God has created human beings to have a great capacity to use their brains to understand, learn, study, comprehend, create, invent, debate. And so one of the stewardships we have as moms is to take responsibility for our children’s minds. God will hold all of us accountable for how we were faithful to shape and train their minds for his glory. It is one of the equal ways we are commanded to worship God. It is a glory to God when we seek to fill and expand our brains to be superior in thinking skills.”

Of My Own – “Our language about physical adoption reveals the gaps in our understanding about how He has adopted us.”

10 Things To Do Before You Click – “Sometimes you want to read a book when you should be making dinner, check Pinterest instead of pin another load of laundry on the line, clean the bedrooms when you could be connecting with the kids.

Breaking Time – “We must have the courage to live aware that the kingdom of God is close at hand.”

I’m Just Not Wired That Way – An interesting post on being introverted. “But I need to remember why I’m wired that way. It’s good that I enjoy being an introvert, but my enjoyment is not the highest goal of my existence. God’s glory is. And that often means doing things that are uncomfortable, unexpected, and undesired, working against my wiring when necessary as a (hopefully) faithful bearer of God’s image in the world.”

Infanticide: The Coming Battle – “I think infanticide is a logically consistent corollary of abortion. If you are going to terminate a child in-utero, then let’s be honest, going six inches down the birth canal can hardly change the infant’s legal rights or ontological status. So infanticide is just a logical outworking of abortion.”

A Thousand Years – This is actually a beautiful piece by the Piano Guys.  If you’ve not heard their music, check them out!

The post Weekend Reading appeared first on My Blog.

I hope you’ll find it helpful!

Please note that I don’t necessarily agree with everything written on a particular site. 

Babies and Bathtubs (1) and (2)– a humorous two posts by a 45 year old Scottish woman who is having her 5th baby in America.  It’s interesting and funny to see cultural differences!

Can You Beat Facebook-NSA? – Don’t skip this one.

Dispatches from the Front – watch the trailer for the newest addition to this wonderful series!  If you haven’t seen them, I highly recommend them!

Soy Infant Formula: A Formula for Disaster – If you’ve not read about the dangers of soy, this a great place to start.

4 Things You Really Need to Know About Your Gifts – I really appreciated this post.

Can You Beat Facebook-NSA? –

What I Would Say to Her – If you didn’t click through to this link on my blog earlier this week, please do!  It’s a beautiful announcement of the miracle of conception after a long (nearly a decade) wait.  Grab a box of tissues!

The post Weekend Reading appeared first on My Blog.

The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome.

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Answer the questions the taggers have set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you’ve tagged to answer.
3. Choose up to 11 people and link them in your post.
4. Go to their page and tell them.

Eleven Things About Me:

1.  I genuinely enjoy running. I trained for and ran a half marathon after I had Brant (he was 9 mos old), and I plan to start training this December to run another one in the spring.

2. I live on 40 acres.

3.  My birthday is one day before (and two years later) than Blane’s.  It’s fun to celebrate together!

4.  I really love chocolate, but not milk chocolate. Dark chocolate, all the way.

5.  I love trying new recipes. This week, every dinner was new to our family’s palate.

6.  My house is by no means immaculate, but I really like order.  I am not a collector of knick-knacks and I like a “clean” look.

7.  I am almost always funny when I don’t mean to be.  Which means people are usually laughing at me rather than with me.

8.  I have had three babies over 9lbs at home (two just shy of 10lbs).  I am still amazed that something so big can, well, come out of a very small place.

9.  I met my closest friend in real life at her house (nearly 800 miles from mine) for the first time after having only emailed one another for roughly a year. Nope, we had never talked on the phone.  Neither of us had any fear of meeting an axe murderer due to the content of our emails.

10.   I make my own chapstick.

11.  I LOVE to read.

Questions from Ashley at Pencilled Daydream:

1. Why did you start blogging? I originally began blogging at Domestic by Design with aspirations of generating extra income a few years ago, but stopped and began this blog out of a desire to share testimonies of who the Lord is and what He’s done in my life/heart.
   
2. If you had $1,000 to spend on you (no one else) what would you do with it? Hmm…Scripture for my walls (I love Fruitful Vine Creationsand Emily Burger Designs), books, running gear, a new watch, a plane ticket. I may swing by Starbucks, too.
   
3. What is your favorite flower? I don’t know!
   
4. Which is your favorite, shoes or jewelry? has been shoes…I’m learning to wear jewelry
   
5. What is your funniest memory? It’s between me and Blane and it’s also my most embarrassing one. 
   
6. Are you a night owl or early riser? early riser! (when I don’t have an infant!!)
   
7. What is your favorite character or book? Hands down, the Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicles series by Brock & Bodie Thoene.
   
8. Sunny, sandy beach or snow-covered mountain vacation? I’m not much of a water-bug, but perhaps a mix of sunny and mountain.
   
9. What is your least favorite food? Probably mushrooms. It’s a texture thing, mostly.And any other slippery, slimy thing.
   
10. What is your favorite post from my blog? This is hard, there are several.  But, I was most recently cracking up reading “A Swift Breakdown.”
    
11. What is your favorite comfort food? Not really “food,” but I’d go for Teecino mixed with hot chocolate…or a Starbucks Mocha. I love oatmeal.

My nominees :
(please don’t be offended by my thinking you may have less than 200 readers! I have no idea!)

The Accidental Okie – Sarah and I spent a semester together in Colorado ten (wow!) years ago.

Grace Looking Back – I don’t know Mrs. Challies personally, but I have enjoyed reading her new blog.  It’s refreshing to hear from wise, older women online!

Intentional By Grace – I met Leigh Ann through a mutual friend and I appreciate her heart’s desire to be transparent and to earnestly seek the Lord. (And I’m pretty sure you have more than 200 readers!)

Migonis Home – Jen was one of my roomies when I was in Colorado ten years ago and she is so fun!  I am inspired by her blog, but will probably never attempt half of what she does…it overwhelms me to think of the size of some of the projects she and her husband do. (And I’m pretty sure you have more than 200 readers, also!)

My questions for you:

1. What has your favorite book been this year?

2.  What has been the most challenging part of parenting?

3.  What kind of car do you drive?

4.  What is your favorite season?

5. What is your favorite thing about your favorite season?

6.  Do you have a go-to dinner recipe? If so, what is it?

7.  Is there a hobby that you’ve desired to pursue, but haven’t? What is it?

8.  If ever given the opportunity, would you participate in a flash mob (dancing)?

9.  What is one place in the US that you’d like to visit (that you’ve never visited)?

10.  What’s your favorite (or one of your favorite) blogs to read?

11.  What inspired you to begin blogging?

Ashley, this was really fun!  Thank you for thinking of me.  Ladies, if you’ve not stopped by her blog, I’d encourage you to check it out!

The post Liebster Award appeared first on My Blog.

1.  Company in our home.  Blane has been driving 3 hours a day since we moved mid-April and it’s been extremely hard to have any sort of life, period.  So, as we close this chapter (soon) of the gas-sucking, budget-draining driving, it’s been fun to have people in our home already three times this week!  I’m uber-excited about Sara’s family’s visit this weekend! (And next! I’m eating icing two weekends in a row off of this cake of visitors!)

2. Daddy with his kids. Blane finished draining and cleaning our pool and it’s in the process of filling.  The kids had a blast last night “swimming” with daddy (well, sort of. Neither want to go under water, but Daddy is determined).  I personally can’t wait to get my big belly into the water. I’ve never been in while pregnant and I’ve been told multiple times that Blane will have to  drag me out of it. 

3.  Tara’s art. The girl has a God-given gift and it’s exciting to participate with the Lord by encouraging her and cultivating something she loves.  Right now, this means having reams and reams of white printer paper available and replacing markers every few months.    I am handed a stack daily after rest time and look at them with her while she gives an explanation.  The nightstand next to my bed is practically bursting at the seams with Tara art, drawn just for Mommy.

4.  Another week closer to meeting Tarr baby 3, and a healthy check-up. Tomorrow, I’ll be 31 weeks and am starting to get antsy to meet the baby.  I have officially taken over the bed by recently adding a tri-folded king comforter to sleep on top of, in addition to a pillow on either side of me.  A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.  I’m also so thankful that baby and me are healthy at this point.  I’m praying things will continue this way and that she’ll be full-term.  I’ll even be thrilled if by her “due date” she decides to arrive.   That’ll be the day! I won’t know what to do with myself (Tara and Brant were well past their dates).

5.  Conversations with Tara about the future. The thought of getting married and moving away from mommy is upsetting to Tara (it’s come up several times).  So, we made a deal over dinner this week.  If she and her husband live down the hill (in a tent, as suggested by daddy), they can come for dinner IF they do the dishes (they’d need to come for dinner because she concluded quickly that if they live in a tent, she wouldn’t have a way to fix dinner).  She said it was a deal.  Blane said we need to start getting all the outrageous promises recorded now. 

6.  Fudgsicles. I found a great recipe on Pinterest and we were pleased (click on the picture to see the recipe)!

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