What do you think is the best way to get to know someone? Hopefully you answered…by spending time with them. Do you know that the best way to have a good relationship with God is by spending time with Him each day? Sounds simple enough right? How would you feel if you knew that your friends deliberately ignored your texts or messages? Would you be able to turn to them in times of need and encouragement? Would you feel betrayed or used if the only times they talked was when they needed something? If the Lord is supposed to be number 1 in our life, we should be placing a big priority on the amount of time that we spend with Him. We shouldn’t ignore his “texts and messages”. How true is that so many of us get to wrapped up in our own busyness of life and forget to take the time each day to spend with the One who will help guide our steps each day.
You should work on making it a priority NOW in your  life to establish a quiet time with the Lord each day. The better you are to begin working oninstilling habits, you will be more likely to carry them out for the rest of your life.  You will be far better off than the person who never tried at all. Make it a point to spend some time reading scripture, praying, and then journaling about what God speaks to you.
I know that there are times in your life, when it gets busy or this looks more like a “chore” than an opportunity to get to know Him. Every time you open your bible you should expect and anticipate getting to know more about God.
Opportunities will come to those that desire them.
Those that don’t look for them, usually miss them. Expect that God will speak to you during your quiet time. Look for a time and establish that time NOW. Don’t think that “one day” you will take the time for God, why wait? God wants to use you now, today.   He has so many great things planned for your life, if you just think that He can’t use you until you are in a better season in life, you will be missing out on some great things.
Make Jesus a priority in your life. Don’t just turn to Him when you think about it, or when things go bad. Make prayer and reading His word a daily habit. These should become things that are naturally a part of your life and that you enjoy doing. Remember that you don’t have to pray with big words and fancy language. God wants to hear you in plain everyday language. Just as you would talk with your father or friend, God is the same way. Talk to Him and turn to Him with all of your concerns and problems. Be reminded to thank Him for the things He has blessed you with as well.

Our old pastor encouraged us to speak out 5 things we were thankful for each day. It is a good reminder that everyday things are really a blessing from the Lord and we should not take them for granted.
Practical application:
I encourage you to start a prayer journal. After reading a certain scripture, start writing out what it means to you. Write out a letter of praise, thanksgiving, and any doubts, fears, or problems that you want to hand over to the Lord. You can even write down the 5 things you are thankful for each day. Keep this going each and every day. As you grow and mature in the Lord, these will serve as beautiful reminder of your quiet times with the Lord.
Another great way to be reminded to read the scriptures is to find an accountability friend. Choose a friend or a few friends and start a simple bible study group. It doesn’t have to be big and fancy. Commit yourselves to just selecting a chapter and begin reading. Get together or talk on the phone and share what you read and how God spoke to you during those scriptures. Make it a time that is committed to keeping each other accountable.
A simple suggestion is to find a bible plan that reads the bible in one year’s time. Simple, and easy. Keep yourself accountable.

This is taken from Home Economics series Homemaking Skills, my second book due to come out in a couple of months.  You can buy my first one on Amazon by clicking here.  Or you can buying it as a direct PDF download here.  Thanks for the support, and be blessed this weekend.

 

Okay, some of you might think this is too heathenistic and that is okay.  I am sometimes the not so plain out of the plain (smile).  My daughter has been wanting her hair dip dyed for a long time now and I finally said, “okay.”

I remember talking to another mother whom I would have never thought would have allowed her daughter to do the same thing and she said, “Amy, you have to pick your battles, there are so many things that are worse off than dip dyed hair.”  I had to agree.  So off we went, we headed to the store and got some Splat hair color.  I had her stand on an old towel, in case I dropped any of the color or bleach on the floor.  She put a towel around her upper body to help not get anything stained. 

We started out with a clean washed hair and it was dry.  We then mixed up the bleach mixture and applied it to the lower parts of the hair.  Some recommended putting the hair in small sections of pony tails, that probably would have made it easier.  I just pinched the sections of the hair as I applied the bleach.  She originally just wanted the very tips, but we went up a couple of inches more, glad we did. 

Her hair is very dark and so we had to do the full amount of time that the box recommended for bleaching the hair.  I kept applying more amount of bleach after checking it for the recommended time.  I almost used the entire bottle. 

We then washed off the bleach and had her dry her head completely.  It worked!

Now it was time for the color, we applied the color to the bleached part and then up a little bit on the brown parts of her hair.  This made for a nice contrast in color for the dip dye.  I probably could have saved about half the mixture of the dye for reapplying a few weeks later when this rinsed out.

Here is the finished product, she was very happy with it.

It has been a few weeks and the color has changed from magenta to more of a pink color.  But it worked for the $8 we paid for the dye.

Worse case scenario we figured we would just trim her hair if it seriously damaged it.  I know bleaching isn’t the greatest for hair but we can always trim it out later on.

She is doing a pantomime dance for a talent competition in our church in the next coming weeks.  She wanted to match her hair to her dance skirt.  Fun for teens.  She is on fire, loving Jesus, knows where she stand with the Lord, holds herself accountable to God, and has vowed to wait till she is married to give her husband her first kiss, her heart, and everything else she has saved.  Dip dye to me is NOT that big of a deal.  (smile)

Here are a few pics of some friends that came to visit us a few weeks ago.  It is good to have friends to hang out with, ones that uplift you and not try and bring you down.  I am thankful for the friendships that my children have grown.

Here we are all of us piled into the 15, I mean 16 passenger van (smile).

We enjoyed a picnic at Fletcher Park the first night they were here.  They are from Michigan and left when it was snowing. I was thankful that we had such beautiful warm weather when they were here.

We got to enjoy a BBQ via Collin.  It was delicious.  Chicken and hot dogs. 

We then went for a walk around the park and discovered part of the river?!? or creek?! I don’t know the correct term yet, but I know the children were loving it. 

They loved it so much that they decided to get in and get wet.  The locals were like looking at us thinking we were crazy! It isn’t warm yet! Oh but it is WARM for a bunch of Michiganders (smile).

The next day we went to Caesers Head and Table Rock.  It was almost 80 in South Carolina that day, beautiful.  Here are Collin and Austin.

Here is almost all of us, minus a couple of teenagers.  Not sure where they were during the picture taking time. 

We enjoyed a nice hike, I took a slide in some mud.  Oh yes such fun, the experienced “hiker” that I am lol. 

We kept our meals simple, I prepared foods the week before to make our week more about fellowship instead of making food.  Here the children got to eat outside most everyday.

Then it was time to say good bye.  We will miss our friends, but will hold onto the memories for next time.

Here is Austin, Collin, Lauren, Hannah, and Molly.  A group of teens that love the Lord, nothing better than that.  I know I was a heathen and it excites me to see them desire so much more out of life than I did.  God is good! No, God is great!

Don’t sweat the small stuff, look for the greater goal and focus on that.  Be blessed.