Monthly Archives: July 2012

Thoughts From Julie

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Are you as into the Olympics as much as I am? I cannot wait for 7:00 pm to get here each evening so that I can watch it. As much as I enjoy watching the Olympics on TV, following along on Twitter may be even more fun! Here are some tweets from people I follow commenting on the events last night:

  • “Who cares about his pommel horse score? His hair alone could take gold.” #respect #LouisSmith #GreatBritain
  • “I might’ve just pulled a hamstring working out on the elliptical while watching the Olympics. Fluffy middle-aged wannabe!”
  • “The ‘Olympic proposal between athletes’ exists to make the rest of us hate our own stories.” #Olympics
  • “Okay, if you don’t feel happy for that 15-year old Lithuanian, check your pulse.” #Olympics

And on and on it goes throughout the evening! I laughed my head off at the tweets that came every second during the competition and the reporter’s questions afterwards!! Everyone was freely sharing his or her opinions.

What I hate most is when I get breaking news on my phone from USA Today that gives away the medal winners in the middle of the day! Oh well, such is the world of technology!

Enough Olympics talk! Things are ramping up at Long Hollow for an exciting Fall! There are a lot of opportunities for women to plug in and grow. I hope that you take advantage of the things that are offered. You can find out more information under the “Women in the Word” tab at the top of this blog post!

Midnight Train is this Friday night. If you volunteer or want to volunteer at Long Hollow in any area, this evening is for you. Find out details and register here.

PLEASE HELP US GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT ALL THE EXCITING OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN AT EVERY AGE AND STAGE IN LIFE.

Here’s how:

  • Post your favorite blog posts to your Facebook wall! Tweet about new Bible studies and what God is teaching you! And retweet our upcoming events! All of these are HUGE ways we can spread the word! Use #lhwomen when tweeting about us and make sure you follow us. Click here if you don’t yet!
  • Make a phone call and invite a friend to come with you. There’s nothing better than a personal touch to someone. Be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus to someone in your life today.

What would happen if 1,000 women joined together for fellowship and to study God’s word together this Fall? It can happen with your help!

Julie

{Vinegar Magic}

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Many of you know, I am cleaner by day and DIY’er by night! Therefore, I know much about vinegar! I LOVE it… yes, cleaning… and vinegar!

While I HATE the smell, I love the outcome! I dare you to try it out and let me know what you think! Every time I DON’T use vinegar… the result is just not the same.

Let me share some tips…

*White Distilled Vinegar and water (half and half) will clean and shine your wood floors like you have never seen*

* To remove stickers that have been used to “decorate” furniture and other surfaces, moisten with vinegar. Let sit for at least ten minutes, then remove.*

* For persistent room odors, place a bowl of vinegar in the room overnight.*

* To clean windows, spray with half vinegar, half water. Wipe clean with either newspapers or cloth.*

*Spray shower walls and shower curtain with vinegar to help prevent mildew.

* Give your dog a gleaming coat by spraying or rubbing with a solution of 1 cup white distilled vinegar to 1 quart water. As a bonus, you save the cost of an expensive shine product used on show animals. (Works even on a horse!)

*Keep car windows frost-free overnight in winter by coating them with a solution of 3 parts white distilled vinegar to 1 part water.

*Polish car chrome with full-strength white distilled vinegar on a soft cloth.

*Remove unwanted decals and bumper stickers by covering them with a cloth soaked in white distilled vinegar, or by repeatedly spraying them with full-strength white distilled vinegar. They should peel off in a couple of hours.

* Kill weeds and grass growing in unwanted places by pouring full-strength white distilled vinegar on them. This works especially well in crevices and cracks of walkways and driveways.

That’s a start… try them and you will never go back! Give some of these tips a try and let us know what you think!

And on a encouraging note: Dwell on this today, it sure has been an encouragement to me these past few weeks

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

Romans 8:18

{I reminisce on the time Christ hung on the cross for ME and in the midst of His deepest agony and suffering, the men he was dying for dipped a sponge in vinegar and put it to our Saviors mouth… But, in His present suffering there was so much glory to be revealed in that.} Remember today, His plan is much more glorifying than ours will ever be!

 Jessica

Precious, Beautiful Feet

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“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”  Isaiah 52:7

Beautiful feet!  One of my favorite pictures of our grandchildren is that of just their feet. Whether there feet are wet, dry, dirty, clean or wiggly…they are precious to me!  This verse has taken on a new meaning and challenge for me.  My continual prayer is that the LORD GOD who created them and has blessed us with them, will raise up four bearers of good news—declaring His plan of salvation.  And that their hearts will each be soft, pliable and quick to respond to His calling on their lives.  Although each of them has already been given gifts, talents and specific abilities, the greatest accomplishment they can ever achieve is to have a heart open and pliable to hear and respond to their heavenly Father’s voice within.  Our job as nurturers is to cultivate these gifts which are yet to be more clearly defined.

I have no greater desire for any of them—Joshua, Nathan, Elizabeth and Jaden—than that they ‘grow in the nurture and admonition of the LORD.’  To accomplish anything else is only secondary in their lives.  The gifts and abilities will provide the opportunities for them to share what they learn to experience first-hand about God and His love for and through them.

What stands out the most significant to me of my three children’s lives, has not been their secular accomplishments, as great as they have been, but rather the moments that they have shared spiritual insights of their awareness of God speaking to their hearts and being real to them.  When this life on earth is over, it will not be what we have accomplished, but rather WHO we have listened to that will mark our lives with completion on God’s terms.

Whose precious feet are you praying for today?  Your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, small group of children at church, your class at school?  They are all precious and beautiful.  How has God been leading you to nurture them?  Please share with us what this looks like in your life.

Nancy  (Nana to my precious grandchildren)

Redeeming Your Commute

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I spend a lot of time in my car.  Working downtown, it takes me 55 minutes to get from my garage to my desk.  Sometimes it takes longer.  When the kids are in school, it includes 30 minutes with them and 30-40 minutes alone.  That’s a lot of time each way!

So, about two years ago, I started a quest to redeem that time for the glory of God!  Especially the morning commute, which can really determine the trajectory of the day overall!  As the saying goes, “The morning hours have gold in them!”  But, you really have to try to find the gold if you’re like me!  (I am a bit of a night owl and need to be left alone until about 10 am!)

Here are a few things that have helped us make use of the time when the kids are commuting:

  • My children are ages four and eight, so we use that time to review spelling words and talk about what we will do after school.
  • We pray together aloud.  Continue reading →

God’s Watchful Eye

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As I was traveling in my car yesterday morning, I happened to look up to the sky and there I beheld an incredible reminder of God’s watchful eye and care over us.  In the sky was a cloud formation…very specific and detailed and isolated from other clouds.  It was the image of a giant RIGHT hand with palm facing up.  This image became etched on my heart’s bulletin board to remind me of God’s care and provision for us every day of our lives.  It was a reminder of Psalm 139:9 “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”  This is a verse I often quote in prayer over others traveling on mission trips, etc., and the LORD reminded me that it is mine to claim every day for my life as well.

How about you?  Is God trying to communicate to you in some way… trying to remind you of His attention to the details of your life?  Look up!  You just may see God’s Hand reaching out to you!

Nancy

Change Comes in Order to Change Us

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Our first house… it was haven of glorious, mature, Maple trees. We were just outside of Nashville, but when you drove down our street, you felt as though you had entered the Smokey Mountains of East Tennessee. In the middle of the day, all you could hear out on the front porch was the rustling of leaves and… the occasional barking of one of the neighborhood dogs. There were several, but two little hound dogs, named Lady and Champ, stole my heart the day we moved in.

Read more of this story here…and be encouraged, because God is always in control!

Kelly Breece

Blogger: The Simplified Family

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Growing in Favor with God and Man

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One of the great burdens of my heart has been how we raise a Godly next generation.  There is so much competing for their minds, energy, and time.  That’s why it’s as important as ever that we recognize our roles and participate in bringing up the next generation as a remnant—passing the baton of faith boldly.

In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you….”  We often hear the emphasis on the concept of going to the nations to preach the Gospel.  I’m certainly for that!

We just shouldn’t forget the “make disciples” part.  The part that says our role includes “teaching them to observe” what Jesus commanded.

While we should never express that works are what save us, the Bible teaches that it is possible to grow in the sight of God and man:

“Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,

Write them on the tablet of your heart,

So you will find favor and good repute

In the sight of God and man.”

–Proverbs 3:3-4 (NASB)

The NIV translates the first phrase as, “Let love and faithfulness never leave you.”  Either way, you can see that adhering to truth is the key to unlock Godly wisdom and grow in the sight of God and others.  As Proverbs 8:35 says, “For he who finds me (wisdom) finds life and obtains favor from the Lord.”

There are two examples in Scripture for “growing in favor” with God and man.  The first is Jesus.  Continue reading →

Changing the Filter

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There is something that I have a hard time remembering to do: changing the filter on our AC/Heating unit. When was the last time you checked yours? :) If left too long, it can be really nasty when I finally get around to replacing it with a new one.

I teach a small group on Sunday mornings for young single professional women. Right now we are doing a study called Divine Design, a study on Biblical Womanhood. We are learning about God’s design for male and female and how differently those roles look according to God’s design versus the world’s definition. Yesterday we had a discussion about how we as women can undermine men with our words. Quite interesting!

One of the things that we discussed was the importance of putting a filter on what comes out of our mouths! For those of you who may be like me, I sometimes speak before I think and as soon as the word is off my tongue, I want to take it back but guess what…it’s too late!

Proverbs 25:11 says, “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances.” Have you ever made the mistake of saying the right word in the wrong circumstance? Me too. That is why a filter is important! God has uniquely gifted us as women with the ability to speak many words! Not only that but our words have great influence when they are spoken, whether in the right or wrong circumstance. Oftentimes in conversations with men, we can tear them down with our words and we don’t even know. Sometimes it’s by what we say, how we say it, or just  saying too much! Can anyone relate?

Do you use a filter in your conversations? When was the last time you checked? Like my AC/Heating filter, if not checked frequently, our conversations can get out of control really quickly and then it gets nasty. Continue reading →

The Morning Watch

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“Blessed is the day whose morning is sanctified. Successful is the day whose first victory is won in prayer. Holy is the day whose dawn finds thee on the top of the mount!” ~Joseph Parker

 

There’s no doubt about it. The early morning hours are vital to the rest of our day.  On the very first day of history, God, in His unsurpassed and perfect creative mind, created the night and the day, evening and morning. He created the hours to our day, and He set them as different and saw them as good.

From the beginning, the morning has had a special place in our day. Like clockwork, morning comes around at the same time everyday, with an anointing over it. Just as Sunday is our day of rest that we wholly devote to the Lord, so is the first part of our days. As Priscilla Shirer calls these times, in “The Resolution for Women“, Sabbath Spaces (or 14 minutes of our day alone with Jesus). We often fail to realize the necessity of this time, because our days are so full until the very end as we try to squeeze out every bit of life in the twenty-four hours we have been given, that we can’t seem to wake up in the morning hours. We live from moment-to-moment, exhausted, drained, and without a boundary to rest and be refreshed.

Here are five (of countless) reasons why the morning is a universal time to be treasured & sanctified: (whether you are a night person or a morning person:)

1. There is nothing more humbling that awakening to the dawn & sunrise, and first thing telling the Lord “Good Morning!” Continue reading →

Unexpected Happenings

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Have you ever experienced something difficult? Ever wondered why? We all do at some time or another. I was thinking about some of these thoughts yesterday as I reflected on one of the toughest times in my life personally. Here is the link to the blog about it. See what you think…

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