What Time Is It?

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SUMMER TIME!

Ok, ok. Please excuse the cheesy High School Musical reference. I just can’t help myself sometimes…

But seriously! It’s summertime people! Time for running through sprinklers, catching fireflies, eating strawberries, drive-in movies, and so many other fun things.

To celebrate, I thought it’d be fun to look at 5 fun DIYs that are totally summer appropriate!

1. Herb Pots

 

You can find a clay pot, paint, brushes, and seeds at WalMart. All for under $5! This is such an easy way to add a little life to the windowsill in your kitchen or living room. You can paint them any way you want to match your home and then plant away. It’d be a great activity to involve your kiddos in, too!

 

2. Easy-to-sew Sundress

This dress takes a simple ribbed tank top, three yards of fabric, two straight lines of stitching, and turns them into a fun summer dress! This dress is perfect for those just starting out on sewing machines! It’s super easy and doesn’t take much time. Check out the tutorial here.

 

3. Fudgsicles

Nothing says summer time quite like fudgsicles. This recipe promises all their chocolate-y goodness with the added benefit of them being “simple, flavorful, and low in fat and calories.” Sounds like a winner to me! You can find the recipe here.

 

4. Sandal Up-Grade

Can you believe these sandals are just the cheap 2 for $5 flip flops from Old Navy? With just a little twine, fabric, and creativity they turn into something completely new and a lot more unique! You can make this with supplies you’ve already got at home by using ribbon, old sheets, or t-shirts. Kelly Hicks shows you how to do it here.

 

5. Sidewalk Chalk

Sidewalk chalk is a great summer staple. Kids will play with it for hours and the stuff you can do with it is only limited by your imagination. This blog has a great tutorial for making it at home. The bigger size is great for smaller hands to grasp and the colors are totally customizable! The tutorial can be found here.

 

There you have it–five fun things to do this summer! Make sure to let us know when you do them and how they turn out!

Stephanie

From Folly to Faith-Building

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“For I know the plans I have for you,”declares the LORD,” plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ~Jeremiah 29:11

Marriages are restored through the Word of God alone.

When God, in His great faithfulness, gave me these verses, I didn’t know all the ways He was going to use them in my life! He used them in ways that only He can do so that I can boast only in Him as I look at the wondrous things He has done. I had given my life to Christ, made Him Lord over all, and  He had removed my addiction to alcohol. The next step in His ongoing preparation of my life was to clean up the terrible mess my marriage was in. My relationship with Christ began to grow stronger as I learned to renew my mind with His Word (Romans 12:2) He began to speak to me about my marriage.  As I read Scripture, God opened my eyes to see that marriage is a picture of what Jesus has done for the church. I saw the ugly picture my husband and I were painting for our girls, family and friends with our marriage.  My heart broke as I looked at Maxie, my husband, and thought “if only he would do what God has called him to do we would have a good marriage.”  This is the blame game and a trick of Satan where he tries to keep our eyes off of our own sin. I was prideful in thinking that I could change people. God taught me that He alone can change lives. He gave me Proverbs 26:4-5 to cling to.

“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will become like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.”

I began to realize that I was the biggest fool. Continue reading →

Mother’s Day Pictures!

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Mother’s Day pictures are up! Click on the link below of where you had your picture taken and go find your picture!

Once you find your photo, in the top left corner, click “choose all sizes.” You’ll see all of the different size options with links to download the originals at the top.

Hendersonville Campus:

Living Room
Chapel
Upstairs Children’s Entrance
Preschool Courtyard Entrance

Gallatin Campus

Springfield Campus

White House Campus

Matthew Henry said: “Her heart is full of another world, even when her hands are most busy about this world.” We pray that your heart is full and overflowing with joy in Jesus today!

Long Hollow Women’s Ministry

 We’d love to visit you in your inbox Monday through Friday. Click the follow button in the lower right hand corner and we’ll show up!

Homemade Hero

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Do we all have the same dream? The one where our child will stand in a place of honor or accomplishment and be escorted before a large microphone with an enormous crowd and they will say those words that have motivated us to clean every dirty diaper, clean up every puddle from a case of the flu, sit through every poorly made kids movie, painstakingly tackle every school project, embrace the years of becoming a full time driver and cook, yes those words. It is almost like I can see them in slow motion as my child forms each syllable…..I …W..A..N..T…. T..O…. T…H..A…N…K…   M..Y…  M..O..M.mmmmm!

Why do I always do all the work? I know at first glance those sound like fighting words coming from my husband to me one afternoon. All the work? Really? He went on to explain. He was the one who went through a special thirty day devotional preceding my daughters 13th birthday. He was the one tasked with taking a gift by the kids to school or taking them on a special camp out. Honestly it has been so long since we had this conversation I can’t even remember all what it included, but I distinctly remember my answer. Because I want YOU to be the Hero. His countenance changed. He got it. In one moment he went from helper to hero and embraced the title. Continue reading →

Directionally Challenged

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 “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you shall go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you”

Psalm 32:8 (NIV)

We were off the beaten path for about an hour when we realized we were lost. I pulled the car into a small motel to ask for directions. There were two elderly men sitting behind the counter with their feet up while watching a small television set. I had to clear my throat to get their attention.

“Excuse me. Can either of you direct me back to the interstate?” They were no help. They just looked at me with a blank stare. When I returned to the car, I gave my friend the bad news. “Well, we’re lost and we’re going to die.”

“No, we’re not.” She said in a comforting way. “Look! There’s a gas station stop across the street. Maybe someone in there will be able to help us,” she added with hope in her voice.

To me, the shady, rundown building across the street looked like a hang-out for serial killers. The paint was peeling and the shrubbery was overgrown. Nothing about the store said, “Welcome.” There was no way I was going to walk into a nest of potential killers willingly. However, my friend persuaded me otherwise. “We won’t talk to anyone,” she promised. “We’ll just go in and buy a map.”

Once we were inside the creepy, timeworn building, I scanned the place for our killer. When it appeared to be safe, we got our directions and got out of the store.

Eventually, we made it home, but not without learning a great lesson. Continue reading →

Adventuring The World

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If you can get a bug for traveling, I’ve got it. There’s nothing more incredible than packing my bags, boarding an airplane, and flying to a new place. The wonders of God’s creation ease my spirit, ignite my soul, and enrich my view of life!

Traveling is one of the most humbling experiences. The more places I go, the more I realize-there’s much more to life than my immediate surroundings. There are billions of people that live underneath the same sun and stars I work and sleep under. They breathe the same air I do. The laugh like I do, desire to be loved like I do, and most importantly, they need a Savior like I do.

Someday, I’d like to travel the world, meet the people God has created, and learn more about the Lord as I see His ingenious and incomprehensibly wonderful world! In these twenty-two years of my life, the Lord has blessed me to be able to travel many places already! Here are my top five so far:

1. The Holy Land. Israel is without a doubt, my favorite place in the world! The moment our plane landed in Tel-Aviv, I felt like I was home. Walking the same places where Jesus walked, reading His beautiful Words in the places He taught, and leading vacation Bible school in the city where He was born were life-changing experiences. I left part of my heart there and look forward to the day I go back…and even more so to the day Jesus comes back for us! Continue reading →

Lost Donkeys And A King

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“Set aside for you for this occasion…” (I Samuel 9:24)

God often uses some of the most insignificant events in our lives, as His children, to reveal His greater plan for us. He is definitely in the“Event Planning Business.” Many times, an ordinary day… a nominal job…a commonplace skill…or a normal routine can be forged by God’s hand into an extraordinary instrument for His special event (occasion.) Sometimes it appears to be a negative situation requiring some type of action. In I Samuel chapter nine, God used the occasion of lost donkeys to initiate Saul’s journey to Ramah. He also used the occasion of a sacrificial offering to expedite Samuel’s return to his hometown of Ramah. The two men collided by God’s plan, and Saul who came in search of lost donkeys, walked away as the anointed king of Israel.

Other times God uses tragic, even devastating events in our lives, as His children, to reveal His greater plan for us. How often do we find ourselves in the midst of something negative—wondering, confused, perplexed, distraught, when it seems so wrong for us. Only to find that God was using this occasion to get us to seek Him for direction…and that particular occasion then led to a totally different occasion…One where His plan and purpose was carried out.

When our oldest son, Daniel, died in an auto accident several years ago, we were hurled into a tsunami of emotions, perplexing questions, and gut-wrenching decisions. Continue reading →

Creative Teacher Gifts

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School is almost out, looking for some ways to say “thanks for a great year” to your child’s wonderful teacher?  Some require a little planning ahead, and some you can run out and pick right up!  Here they are:

  • Gift cards (Favorite restaurant, hobby store, home improvement store, etc.)
  • A summer tote bag filled with sunscreen, visor, magazine or novel and sweet & salty snacks,etc.
  • Flowers: hanging pots or potted annuals for them to enjoy all summer
  • Money or Money Tree
  • Devotional or journal
  • Baked goods: cookies, brownies, etc. (your favorite recipe or bakery)
  • Note cards or stationery
  • Canvas apron or captain’s chair with all the children’s hand prints stamped on it
  • Candles
  • A scrapbook or memory jar: Have parents send in a picture of their child along with a favorite thing they learned or memory about “Ms./Mr. Teacher’s” class this year.

Always enclose a note from your child to the teacher thanking them for a great year, in their handwriting if possible.

Have a safe and happy summer!

Sandra

The Seemingly Unlovable Somebody

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People can be hard work. There’s a reason loving them ranks in God’s top two. The challenge comes when you encounter people who repeatedly push you beyond what you believe is lovingly possible.

What are you to do?

Rejoice.

Oh how blessed and fortunate when God shows up and confronts the limits of our love with the endlessness of His. What a day of liberation when He miraculously resets our capacity so we can love a seemingly unlovable somebody. Praise God that because of Jesus Christ, God loves beyond all that is unlovable in us. It’s extraordinary to consider we can reflect love with the length, depth, width, and height of His.

Open your heart.

You can do this – open your heart to the Truth. By the power of the Holy Spirit you have all you need to accomplish what God commands. What’s causing you to shut down when you’re around certain people? Be as specific as you can. Discover exactly what the enemy is using to trip you up and take a stand against it!

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. ~ Matthew 5:46-48

Let grace flow – freely. Continue reading →